Principals Present Mid-Year Data Showing Gains in Writing and Math Proficiency

Mokena School District 159 Meeting | February 18, 2026

Article Summary: Mokena School District 159 principals presented mid-year updates on their School Improvement Plans, highlighting data-driven gains in writing proficiency and new collaborative strategies for staff.
School Improvement Plan Key Points:

• MES Writing: First graders showed mastery in “Knowledge and Understanding,” while the school is now focusing on “Organization and Purpose” in writing.

• MIS Math: Fourth grade students showed growth in “Claim” and “Evidence” scores using the Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) writing framework.

• Collaboration: 5Essentials survey data shows a dramatic increase in teacher-to-teacher observation and feedback compared to the previous year.

• MJHS Annotation: The junior high is implementing the “HUNT” acronym to standardize how students annotate text across all subjects.

The Mokena School District 159 Board of Education on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, received comprehensive mid-year updates on School Improvement Plans (SIP) from the district’s building administrators. The presentations focused heavily on increasing student writing proficiency and enhancing staff collaboration.

At Mokena Elementary School (MES), the focus remains on year three of increasing writing proficiency. Administrators reported that grade-level teams have created success criteria for module rubrics to ensure grading consistency.

Data presented from the “Module 1” and “Module 2” assessments showed strong performance in “Knowledge and Understanding,” which reflects reading comprehension. The data indicated that while “Evidence and Elaboration” scores have improved over the last few years, the current focus is shifting to “Organization and Purpose.”

“When students are writing, they are writing clearly in a way that the reader can understand what the intent of their writing piece is,” an administrator explained to the Board.

MES also highlighted a significant shift in staff collaboration. Comparing 5Essentials survey data from the previous year to current internal survey data, the frequency of teachers observing colleagues’ classrooms has flipped from “never” to “10 or more times” for many staff members. This was achieved through initiatives like “Ghost Walks,” where teachers visited empty classrooms to study environments, and vertical articulation sessions.

At Mokena Intermediate School (MIS), the improvement goals centered on writing in both Math and English Language Arts (ELA). In math, the school is in year three of using the CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) format.

Data for 4th grade showed an increase in scores from fall to winter, particularly in the “Claim” and “Evidence” categories. The “Reasoning” category remains a focal point for growth. In 5th grade, students are now required to provide answers in full sentences with correct grammar, increasing the rigor from the previous grade level.

“We want to teach them how to use that feedback,” an MIS administrator said regarding the peer critique process. “Just because you tell me how to improve it doesn’t mean I know how to get that done. So, we’re really focusing on taking that critique and putting it into practice.”

Mokena Junior High School (MJHS) presented goals regarding building school community and metacognition through annotation. The school has adopted the acronym “HUNT” (Highlight, Underline, Note, and Think) to standardize annotation across Science, History, and ELA.

“It looks differently in each subject because each subject is pretty unique,” the MJHS presenter noted. “This year it’s more of a teacher-based where the teachers are really learning… It’s a modeling phase.”

Board Member Kelli MacMillan commended the administrative teams for the depth of the presentation.

“These, in my opinion, just since I’ve been sitting at this table the past few years, have really leveled up… compared to when I first saw them,” MacMillan said. She encouraged the principals to continue refining the data to show year-over-year progress across the lifespan of the goals.