Data gathered from the fall and winter assessments is showing growth for Fort Dodge Community School District students.

Stephanie Anderson, FDCSD director of elementary education, and Kirsten Doebel, director of secondary education, presented the mid-year data on assessments to the Board of Education on Monday evening.

“We’re seeing some really good growth in preschool right now,” Anderson said.

Data gathered from assessments in the fall and winter of this school year show significant growth in oral language skills, alphabet knowledge, comprehension and rhyming. Growth is also being made in social-emotional learning, language skills, cognitive skills, literacy and math.

In TK-1, 81 percent of students are making modest, typical or aggressive growth in their literacy assessments. In the math assessments, that number is 87 percent.

“I do want to point out that we’ve got some great things happening at the (Early Childhood Center),” Anderson said.

Doebel presented the assessment data from students in grades six through 12. She noted that at face value, the data shows negative growth in both literacy and math for those students. However, using a snapshot of current classroom grades, much higher numbers of students are excelling or on track in their classes.

“At the secondary level, our kids are not unintelligent,” Doebel said. “But if this test doesn’t mean anything to them, or they’re not invested in the assessment, we have some data that shows we know some kids should be doing better than they are on the assessment.”

The board also approved a $53,530 contract with MidAmerican Energy Co. for construction of an underground electric distribution extension for the Cooper Elementary School renovation project.

“With the HVAC system that’s getting put into Cooper Elementary, MidAmerican is requiring us to install a three-phase power line into the building,” explained Ryan Utley, district director of buildings and grounds. This will help keep up with the energy use from the air conditioning that is being added to the building, he said.

Utley added that there is the possibility that over the next six years that the district can earn some of that cost back through rebates.

Utley also presented to the board a proposal from SystemWorks LLC, of West Des Moines, to come in and test the mechanical equipment of everything being added or replaced at Cooper, in order to ensure that everything is installed correctly and working as it should. The contract with SystemWorks was approved by the board for $32,650.