Week 32: From Spring Effort to Summer Growth
From Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast by Dr. Lee Smith
April 17, 2026 · 8 min
About this episode
The episode discusses strategies for supporting students in the final weeks of school and planning for next year's professional learning.
Happy Friday! As we move deeper into the spring stretch, I remain grateful for the steady, professional way you support students and one another. Our performance targets in attendance, discipline, and academic growth remain in clear view, and the habits you bring to classrooms, hallways, buses, and cafeterias each day are what keep us moving toward those goals. This week’s Wrap-up focuses on how we use the last weeks of school to keep students moving forward and how we are planning next year’s professional learning so it truly fits the people doing the work. I also want to thank you specifically for your conscientious approach to our ATLAS summative assessments as we move through the testing window. We are already receiving some scores back right away, which is a great benefit of the current system and gives us an early look at how students are performing. For the writing portion of the assessments, about 15% of student responses are hand-scored by human scorers to validate the AI scoring. Those results take a little longer to finalize, but this extra step helps ensure that the scores we receive are accurate, fair, and trustworthy reflections of the work you and your students…
People in this episode
Host: Dr. Lee Smith
Topics covered
- student support
- academic growth
- professional learning
- assessment
- end of school year
Keywords
- spring stretch
- attendance
- discipline
- academic growth
- summative assessments
- AI scoring
- student performance
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: ATLAS
More episodes of Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast
- Week 37: Celebrating a Strong Finish to the School Year · May 22, 2026 · 2 min
- Week 36: Turning the Tassels · May 15, 2026 · 8 min
- Week 35: Appreciating Our Teachers and Elevating Student Futures · May 7, 2026 · 8 min
- Week 34: Progress, Opportunity, and the Work That Matters · May 1, 2026 · 10 min
- Week 33: Opportunity in the Weeks Ahead · April 23, 2026 · 9 min
- Week 31: Verifying What Matters · April 10, 2026 · 13 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast podcast page.