It’s only the third week of classes for public schools, but report cards are already out.
Locally, every district but two met the standards determined by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The Menominee Indian and Bowler school districts fell into Meets Few Expectations, the category below Meets Expectations, which is considered passing.
This is the first year that school districts are getting grades. Last year, only individual schools were graded.
All three Menominee Indian schools were ranked with Meets Few Expectations. It is an improvement over the 2012 report cards, which listed Menominee Indian High School as a failing school with a score of 47.8; this year’s score jumped to 59.1.
Wendell Waukau, superintendent for Menominee Indian School District, attributes the jump in the high school’s score to multiple interventions officials have put into place to assist students at risk. He credited the staff and administration.
One program put into place at every grade level at the high school looks at study skills, career and college readiness, and more. There is also a freshman academy, going into its sixth year, that helps freshmen to adjust to high school, Waukau said.
“A graduation problem isn’t a high school problem; it’s a district problem and even a community problem,” Waukau said. “Our interventions aren’t just based in the schools. They include the community.”
Although the district fell short of Meets Expectations, Bowler High School received a score of 63, the minimum required for the category.
Tigerton School District was the valedictorian of the local class, with a composite score of 72.9 percent. A score of 73 percent would have put the district into the Exceeds Expectations category.
Tigerton Elementary School was the only local school that received an individual Exceeds Expectations, with a score of 75.1. The school’s principal, David Battenberg, was pleased with the results but surprised to learn the district had the highest scores in the area.
“Only one-tenth of a point, and our district is in Exceeds Expectations,” Battenberg said. “The elementary school, it doesn’t really surprise me that they got that high of a score. We look at this and say, ‘This is good, but we continue to look to see if there are things we can do to get better and improve.”
The Shawano, Bonduel and Gresham school districts all received passing grades, and all of the schools in those districts were in the Meets Expectations category.
Despite having a stamp of approval, some school districts feel they can do much better than the scores show. Peter Behnke, Bonduel superintendent, said he was particularly disappointed with his district’s results.
The elementary and high school scores improved for Bonduel, while the middle school scores declined, Behnke said. The scores put Bonduel right in the middle of the CESA 8 schools, 14th out of 27.
“I sent out an email to the staff and said I was not at all satisfied with those results. I really don’t see us as a middle ground school district,” Behnke said. “We do much better than that, and we need to make sure these scores meet the expectations that we have.”
The report cards should not be seen as a direct comparison for schools from one year to the next, according to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers. The state received input from schools and used it to alter the criteria for the scores.
“As we add new measures for student achievement in the coming years, Wisconsin will continue to improve its school report cards,” Evers said. “And yet, these report cards cannot provide a full picture of the successes and challenges in each school and school district.”
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