The Flagstaff Unified School District Governing Board heard the results of spring benchmark assessments and ACT testing at its most recent meeting.
This is the first of the standardized testing results for the 2024-2025 school year -- which were presented by聽Michael Vogler,聽assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at FUSD. AASA scores are expected to be brought to the board in its next meeting scheduled for June 24.
The district administers benchmark assessments to students in kindergarten through eighth grade in the fall, winter and spring to measure their progress throughout the school year. Ninth graders take the ACT Aspire to both assess their readiness for the full ACT (taken in 11th grade) and identify areas of academic focus for FUSD high schools.
The presentation included comparisons to state results as well as those from over time, beginning in the 22-23 school year. The majority are measured by the percentage of students scoring in categories related to their proficiency levels (students scoring in the 75th to 89th percentile on the AIMSWeb+ benchmark are considered above average proficiency, for example).
Benchmark assessments
FUSD uses AIMSWeb+ for its benchmark assessments, which it administers three times a year. Scores are reported based on their comparison to others who have taken the test, with five percentile categories labeled from well below to well above average.
Students in kindergarten and first grade are tested on early literacy and numeracy, while those in grades two through eight are tested in reading and math.
Both kindergarten and first graders showed improvement over time between each of the benchmark assessments in the 24-25 school year, with the percentage of students scoring well below average decreasing and the percentage of the scoring average increasing.
Kindergartners also showed improvement over time on the early numeracy test, though first grade saw an increase of both students scoring above average, well above average and well below average on the spring test.聽
The largest percentage of middle schoolers scored in the average category for math, with the total scoring in below categories falling and those in the above categories growing between the winter and spring benchmarks for each grade.
Scores on the reading test followed a similar pattern.
The number of students scoring below or well below average was similar between the winter and spring benchmarks for sixth and seventh grades after rising between fall and winter. The percentage of eighth grade students scoring well below average also rose between fall and winter, though fell during the spring benchmarks.
A decreasing number of students scored average or above in the subtests for reading comprehension, vocabulary and silent reading fluency.
ACT and ACT Aspire
Students in the district take ACT-related tests twice in high school. The ACT Aspire is given to ninth graders as preparation for the full ACT test. Both test students in five subcategories, which can be divided into English Language Arts (ELA) and STEM.
鈥淎t the high schools, what we鈥檒l be doing is looking at the data a little bit, asking them what are their goals for improvement and how are they going to arrive at those goals,鈥� Vogler said, 鈥渁nd then how can we use resources from project momentum and other areas to help them collaborate with their staff and develop their instructional programs.鈥�
Vogler noted that ACT scores are a large factor in determining high school letter grades, which are published by the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). ADE uses proficiency categories similar to the benchmarks for this, instead of the numerical scores in ACT results.
Both were summarized in the board presentation.
Arizona and FUSD both reported composite scores between 17 and 18 points for each year. Arizona was slightly higher (by 0.1 to 0.2 points) in the spring of the 21-22 and 24-25 school year, while FUSD was slightly higher in both of the middle years.
ACT STEM scores reported from 2023 to 2025 had average scores falling between 16.5 and 18.5 points.
Arizona had a higher math score than the district all three years, while FUSD鈥檚 science score was higher each year.聽 FUSD鈥檚 average reading score was higher than Arizona for all three years, increasing each year.聽
ELA scores for 2023 through 2025 were in range between 16.5 to 19 for both the district and state. The largest difference between the state and district numbers for average ELA and English scores was 0.2 points.
Writing scores have fewer possible points than other sections of the ACT test, so the reported scores are lower than in other subtests.
FUSD and Arizona were within 0.1 point of each other all three years.
The percentage of students testing partially and minimally proficient in ELA on the ACT decreased in both categories each year from 22-23 to 24-25, while the percentage testing proficient increased. The percent testing highly proficient was similar over the three years for ELA.
Math subtest categories of proficient or higher were similar to each other across the three years.聽
ACT Aspire results list proficiency levels in four categories: in need of support, close, ready and exceeding.
Aspire scores in the presentation did not include writing, as Vogler said they are included in the English results and can be difficult to separate.
The English subtest had similar percentages of students in each category from 2024 to 2025, after an increase in the exceeding category and a decrease in those in need of support between 2023 and 2024.
Math and reading showed increasing percentages of students in the highest three categories each year between 2023 and 2025, while the total in need of support decreased. Science showed a 1.9% increase in students needing support between 2023 and 2024, followed by an 8.9% decrease the following year. The other three proficiency categories for science all expanded in that time.
Arizona as a whole tended to have higher proficiency rate for English and math than FUSD, though FUSD鈥檚 percentage of students scoring at least proficient on the Aspire math subtest increased each year to the same level (23%) as ADE in 24-25. Similarly, FUSD鈥檚 reading scores increased each year, to 1% point lower than Arizona as a whole (the state was at 31% both of the last two years).
English was the only subtest in which FUSD鈥檚 proficiency rates were lower than the state鈥檚 overall each year, though both had higher proficiency rates in English than any other subtest. FUSD had lower science scores the first two years before increasing to 1% above ADE鈥檚 in 24-25.
A recording of this item can be found at , beginning around 20 minutes into the June 10 meeting.