Two Rivers School District

I've spent some time digging through our 2026 ATLAS test scores. And by "some time," I mean enough time staring at percentages and spreadsheets that I'm starting to see performance levels in my sleep.

But the good news is—there is a lot to be proud of.

Across the district, 24 of our 31 tested grade-level subject areas improved over last year. That's about 77% of everything we tested.

But here's the part I really like. It's one thing to compare this year's 4th graders to last year's 4th graders. Those are two different groups of kids. What really tells a story is looking at how the same group of students grew from one year to the next.

Take our current 4th graders. Here's where they were as 3rd graders last year compared to where they are now:

📚 ELA: 13.6% ➡️ 35.9%

That's more than a 20-percentage-point gain in every subject.

And they aren't alone. We saw encouraging growth throughout the district. ELA improved in 7 of 8 grades tested, Reading improved in 6 of 8, and Science improved in 6 of 7. We also saw some really impressive individual gains in Math, including our 10th-grade Geometry students jumping from 2.1% to 16.1% at Levels 3 and 4.

And growth isn't only about how many students reach Levels 3 and 4. Sometimes, one of the most important signs of progress is how many students move out of Level 1—the lowest performance level.

We saw some really encouraging movement there as well. Our 4th-grade Reading Level 1 percentage dropped from 38.8% to 17.9%. Fifth-grade Science dropped from 44.4% to 26.7%. Ninth-grade Reading fell from 48.7% to 25.0%, and 10th-grade ELA dropped from 35.2% to 21.1%.

Those aren't small changes. Those numbers represent students who moved forward academically—and sometimes the biggest victories aren't about getting to the top overnight. They're about getting off the bottom and taking the next step.

Are we where we want to be everywhere? Nope. If we were, I'd have a lot less to talk about at administrative meetings. We still have areas that need work, and we aren't going to ignore those.

But we also aren't going to ignore good news when we've earned the right to celebrate it. Across the entire district, Two Rivers Achievement increase was better than the state in 11 of 15 categories.

These numbers represent kids who learned more, teachers who worked hard, families who supported them, and staff members who kept showing up and doing the work.

I'm proud of our students. I'm proud of our staff. And I'm excited about the direction we're headed.

Good things are happening at Two Rivers.

And we're not finished yet. 🐊💙🧡