By Kim McDarison
School District of Fort Atkinson Superintendent Rob Abbott Thursday gave a presentation regarding the recent release of the Department of Public Instruction’s school report cards.
The state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) released Tuesday public school district- and school-specific data from the 2021-22 school year.
A link to an earlier story about the data as compared regionally with other districts is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/dpi-releases-2021-22-district-school-report-cards/.
Aided by slides, Abbott, sharing information during the district’s Board of Education meeting, said the report cards “fit very nicely with our primary academic goal.”
Appearing on a slide, the goal stated: “All schools as well as the district will achieve a state of Wisconsin accountability rating of ‘significantly exceeds expectations’ no later than the 2025-26 report card with evidence of annual growth.”
School report cards are scored using a five-point system, with 5, the top score, also described as “significantly exceeds expectations.” Other scores include: “exceeds exceptions,” scored with a 4; “meets expectations,” scored with a 3; “meets few expectation,” scored with a 2, and “fails to meet expectations,” scored with a 1.
Annually, DPI releases a report card on each individual public school as well as individual public school districts. The report card measures both growth as well as achievement across multiple years, Abbott said.
Within his presentation, Abbott shared a slide which compared accountability scores from each of the district’s schools across several years, including 2020, which, the chart noted, was a year in which no report cards were produced by DPI due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021, which he identified as a “baseline,” and 2022, which he identified as “year 1” toward achievement of the district’s primary academic five-year goal.
The side above, as shared Thursday by School District of Fort Atkinson Superintendent Rob Abbott, shows a comparison over three years of each school within the district by accountability score. The state Department of Public Instruction Tuesday released its school report cards for all public school districts and schools across the state, including accountability scores, for the 2021-22 school year.
The side above, as shared Thursday by School District of Fort Atkinson Superintendent Rob Abbott, offers several points for which, Abbott noted, the district has reason for “celebration.”
Analyzing the data
“Several of our schools saw some nice gains this year,” Abbott said.
He added that there were “a number of different items to celebrate in this year’s school report card.”
Among them, he listed:
• The Fort Atkinson middle and high schools both scored above the state average in overall percent — advanced and proficient — for ELA (English language arts) and math.
• Districtwide, more students reached advanced level proficiency.
• Growth in district learners exceeded state averages, especially in ELA at Luther and Purdy elementary schools and math at Barrie Elementary School.
• Two schools grew in overall proficiency levels, including Barrie Elementary School to “significantly exceeds expectations” and Purdy Elementary School to “exceeds expectations.”
• The district produced the strongest ACT average score in the Fort Atkinson region.
An earlier story comparing ACT scores regionally is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/wisconsin-dpi-releases-2021-22-act-act-aspire-forward-exam-scores/.
• Attendance percentages are stronger than the state average.
Said Abbott: “Contrary to some people’s perception, the report cards are not just about a simple or single test score. The state report cards include all sorts of other information that we need to consider in our efforts to improve student learning; things like attendance, engagement, graduation, growth, and more.
“There’s no negating or debating the data. It’s actual and it’s factual, and there are no ‘yeah-buts.’ We own our performance.”
He said the district has been aware of “where we could land” in some cases “for more than a year.
“There are no surprises here,” he said.
He described the data as “not new,” noting that it is the same data the district used to frame its strategic plan, the district’s improvement plan, and each school’s improvement plan. School improvement plans were framed in July, and enacted in August, with work starting at the beginning of the school year.
Abbott said work predicated on the data had been ongoing for some time, adding: “There is no need for us to change course. The new report cards are an affirmation that, with our goals and improvement plans in place, we are, in fact, on the right course.”
Still, he said, “The report cards point to a need to see some improvement.”
He described a “definite call to action, especially in some parts of our learning community,” adding: “We are where we are, and that’s ok, as long as we don’t stay there. We need to focus on growth — getting all, each and every one of our students — to see at least a year’s worth of growth for a year of their time. In some places, we didn’t make that happen, and in other cases, we did.”
The work is underway and the work will continue, he said, adding that the district has the right staff to achieve the outlined goals.
Questions from board members
After the presentation, several board members asked questions.
Board member Chris Rogers asked: Why do you think Barrie did so much better than the other elementary schools?
Said Abbott: “I think all of our elementary schools saw some nice gains throughout their work this year. You just have to remember that they are all in different points over time. The other thing that’s interesting with the elementary school report cards, without getting into the weeds with this, is that the way that school report cards are calculated, certain aspects have different weights in different schools than others. So whether it’s based on student demographics, whether it’s based on growth or achievement, some of those calculations, as you can imagine, because they’re produced by DPI, can be pretty complicated. So there’s no doubt that Barrie saw some very, very great successes this year. Our elementaries saw some nice gains as well. We have had schools pop in and out of categories before, so it’s not the first time that we’ve seen a school there, but we are very excited that they landed there this year.”
School Board President Kory Knickrehm asked: You mentioned that we had the strongest ACT average test score in the area. Can you discuss a little more why you think that ended up?
Said Abbott: “I think we paid more attention to ACT preparation last year as well as administration. While not everybody was perhaps a great fan of that work, it’s not something that we had done universally. There needed to be greater attention to it to where we are getting kids ready, where we are getting kids in the right mindset, where we are investing some time that maybe they weren’t anxious to give us, but we knew they needed to.
“The other part of the high school school report card is it’s about ACTs, but it’s about another test that ninth- and 10th-graders take as well. So all of the attention related to — this is part of what we need to spend more care with — really came to the forefront last year. So with that sort of foundational work done last year, we are able to do some things different, as well as some things the same, heading into ACT season this year at the high school, as well as that additional course that was offered for students, who would potentially be sophomores next year, as they continue to get themselves ready for that exam as well.”
An earlier story about proposed high school classes for the 2023-24 school year, which were presented Thursday, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/fort-school-board-moves-seven-high-school-courses-six-course-revisions-toward-approval/.
Board member Robynn Selle asked: What’s the threshold score that you need to get to to get into the ‘significantly exceeds expectations’ ?
Said Abbott: “Generally, they move in elements of 10. Last year there was some adjustment to the ‘meets few’ and ‘meets expectations,’ I think perhaps related to COVID. Perhaps also the number of schools that were falling in certain categories.”
Selle asked Abbott if he thought the report card was a fair representation of the many complexities that are part of a school’s achievement.
Said Abbott: “I think it’s far better than it has been in the past. For those of us that have been around long enough to remember the inception of school report cards, they looked markedly different than they are now, and I believe they’ve changed every single year since their inception. Some of the categories are different, some of the things are calculated differently, and the list goes on and on.
“One of the things that I’m perhaps most excited about is the focus on individual student growth. So that category used to be about a school or a cohort’s growth, and now it’s calculated by student. So I think the focus continues to drill down to where it belongs, which is how are kids doing versus how are grades or perhaps a school doing. I appreciate that there’s focus on growth as well as achievement, as well as this sort of bottom strata that may have some struggles. There’s an increased focus on attendance, both in daily school attendance as well as chronic absenteeism. I think there’s a greater balance in some of the demographic categories and how they are, so I think they continue to improve the recipe, and I bristle when people — generally, it’s when people don’t like what they see that they get defensive of the test, and, yes, the standardizing is part of it, but I think in what you just saw Ms. Oakley roll out in robust coursework at the high school, very little of that points to getting kids ready to take a simple test. That’s about having a comprehensive school system that is getting at the needs and strengths and the desires of so many different kids.”
Abbott continued: “That said, we can’t ignore this. This is how we communicate how our district is doing (compared) to other schools and other districts. And it’s ok for us to expect a lot of our students and a lot of our staff, and administrators, in making sure that we’re continuing to chip away at the places that we know that we can do better.”
Rogers asked: How did the COVID pandemic affect our grades?
Abbott said he thought there was a lot of national and worldwide discussion about the impacts of COVID.
He added: “And I’m not sure that we will ever necessarily know. We can look at specific programs perhaps, we could look at individual kids.”
He expressed pride in the district’s leaders and decisions made to increase supports for students, such as additions of school social workers, counseling services and behavioral interventions.
“Some of those are supports that, unless you have kids that are in a place to learn, they are not going to learn. So, I feel like how we’ve spent our ESSER funds, how we’ve spent our staffing allocations, and things, have been in the right place that way. I think there are some kids that have really stumbled. I think there are some kids that have rebounded very, very quickly, and I think there are some kids that continue to struggle.
“I don’t know that we should look at it (COVID) infinitely impacting us in the future either. At some point, we are where we are, and we need to move on. Let’s understand the present, but let’s look toward the future. The kids that we have are the kids that we have. It’s not he kids that we used to have, you know? And at some point we’re getting far enough out where — as you know, I’m not diminishing any of that — but, you know — move on.”
For full report cards by school, visit the following links:
Barrie Elementary School: http://fortatkinsononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SRCDetail_Public_Barrie_Elementary_2021-22_006510-006499.pdf.
Luther Elementary School: http://fortatkinsononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SRCDetail_Public_Luther_Elementary_2021-22_006510-071190.pdf.
Purdy Elementary School: http://fortatkinsononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SRCDetail_Public_Purdy_Elementary_2021-22_006510-006502.pdf.
Rockwell Elementary School: http://fortatkinsononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SRCDetail_Public_Rockwell_Elementary_2021-22_006510-006503.pdf.
Fort Atkinson Middle School: http://fortatkinsononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SRCDetail_Public_Fort_Atkinson_Middle_2021-22_006510-006501.pdf.
Fort Atkinson High School: http://fortatkinsononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SRCDetail_Public_Fort_Atkinson_High_2021-22_006510-006500.pdf.
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