February 10, 2017 at 3:44 p.m.
State DPI scores 'do not represent a full picture' of school success
State DPI scores 'do not represent a full picture' of school success
Over the past several months, individual schools and districts throughout the state have received and reviewed their 2015-16 report cards from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
The report cards, using a new method of accountability developed over the past year, grade on multiple points of student performance. Student testing data from the past three years is taken into account as well as student population details.
Student academic growth from one year to the next is reviewed, the academic gap between students with disabilities or disadvantages is considered and the level of the students' preparation for life after school is also included.
Schools received a numerical rating and were placed in a category ranging from "significantly exceeds expectations" to "fails to meet expectations." Each category provides the schools with a star-rating, adding one star for every elevated category.
Locally, two Lakeland area schools significantly exceeded expectations and received five stars. Two schools met expectations, earning three stars, and one school met few expectations and received two stars.
North Lakeland School (NLS) and Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk Elementary School (MHLT) ranked the highest with 86.9 and 83.3 respectively.
Lac du Flambeau Elementary School (LdF) and Arbor Vitae-Woodruff School (AV-W) ranked in the middle of the scale with 69.5 and 66.8 respectively.
Lakeland Union High School (LUHS) ranked the lowest with 62.9.
As these scores are reviewed by schools, parents and the general public, a deeper look into the ratings system should be considered. In a November press release from the state DPI, the report card grading system is described as a "snapshot" of school and district performance.
The same press release goes on to say the report cards "do not represent a full picture of the important work taking place in schools throughout the state."
Skepticism among educators
When discussing the DPI reports cards with local district administrators, a common point of fact brought up among the educators focuses on the consistency of the state's testing platform over the past several years.
"I think this is the third test in probably four years they've changed the system to," LdF superintendent Larry Ouimette said. "It's hard to get any trend data that's completely accurate."
The state recently signed a longterm contract with the standardized testing service Forward Exam, however schools shuffled between multiple testing services in the past several years, making it difficult to garner consistent data.
"When you're moving from one assessment to another, you're really dealing with a moving target," LUHS district administrator and principal Jim Bouché said. "You're not quite sure what's going to be evaluated."
With the long-term contract with Forward Exam, student testing data is expected to offer a higher level of accuracy in the coming years.
The state DPI has also created a method of extracting data from the past tests to ensure long-term accuracy.
"They've been changing systems quite a bit," MHLT principal Brent Johnson said, "but they've made correlations between the assessments so the long-term data is consistent among those three testing programs. Hopefully we have a stable platform for our data analysis moving forward."
LUHS's five-point deduction
After reviewing the school's report card, the LUHS administration found they received a five-point deduction from their overall score for failing to meet a goal on ACT testing.
The deduction, which knocked the school from a solid "meets expectations" score, came after 20 students with disabilities took the ACT test and 21 were needed to meet the state's goal.
The state requires a 95 percent participation rate regarding ACT testing and even though LUHS received a 95.3 overall participation rate, the state requires all student groups reach a 95 percent as well.
Theses student groups include minorities and those with disabilities.
"I have a problem with holding our IEP (individualized educational plan) students to that standard where they have to take the test," Bouché said. "I think sometimes it's asking more than we should be asking students with IEP's to take a test that is meant for college students. It puts them into a very bad situation."
Bouché also pointed out parents can opt their students out of taking the ACT. This often happens when the student has previously taken the test, received a good score and does not feel the need to take test again.
The ACT test also requires certain courses, such as advanced algebra, to be taken prior to the test date and not all students have taken such courses. Students with disabilities are especially affected by this.
"When you require all of our IEP students take this test, it's an unfair test for them," Bouché said. "If you don't have the right courses taken at that point in time, you really are set up for failure."
Value in the results
Regardless of the overall ratings of the schools, several category scores still offer valuable information.
"We looked at the achievement part," AV-W district administrator Jocelyn Smith said. "Reading for the last several years has been above the state average but we are concerned about our math scores."
Beginning this past fall, before the report cards were released, the school intended to focus on math.
"We started a math task force to try to dig into what's going on with our math scores," Smith said. "We know we have to work on fact fluency and we also need to work on having kids be more active in taking online assessments."
Likewise, LdF has implemented a plan to assist their students in key areas. By bolstering universal instruction across grade levels, the school is focusing on creating a stronger support system for students.
"One of the things we're really doing is focusing on our grade level teams," Ouimette said. "We're making sure we have a multi-level system of support in place so students are caught early.
Parents are also brought into the learning process with more parent-teacher conferences and a different approach to analyzing a student's status.
The approach helps parents gain a broader understanding of the goals for each grade level and how each student fits into the goal.
"Our teachers will meet with the parents and talk about what the goals are for students across the grade level," Ouimette said. "And then they provide the parents with individual information about their student as far as where their student is compared to the rest of the class."
Ouimette added LdF's report card may not showcase all aspects of the school's success but it does highlight certain key factors.
One of the main categories rated in the report card focuses on how well the school closes academic gaps between student groups.
LdF currently has an 86.1 percent population of American Indians and a 94.9 percent population listed as "economically disadvantaged" which are each considered student groups.
"I am glad they are starting to look at things like closing the achievement gap and student growth," Ouimette said. "It's good to see they're looking at situations where the student might be catching up. That's something I think we do really well."
Postsecondary readiness
The last major category the report card focuses on is "postsecondary readiness." This category grades schools on how well students are prepared to move forward after graduation.
Even though three Lakeland area schools received overall scores in the 60s, all five schools exceeded state expectations in preparing students for graduation and beyond.
"You go to different schools and students are doing wonderful things," Ouimette said. "A lot of what we're trying to do is to make sure our students are college and life ready."
What the future may hold
With the promise of a consistent state standardized testing system, Lakeland area district administrators are anxious to see where they stand on their next report card.
The accuracy of the new report card method will be analyzed, as well as possible trends and growth.
For NLS and MHLT, the possibility of growth is not impossible but their high "student growth" scores make future scores a challenge to maintain.
"Even though we scored extremely well this year, that's our benchmark," MHLT district administrator Jim Ellis said. "So moving to the future, we may not have as much room for growth."
Because the schools are scored out of 100 points in the category of "student growth," they face the challenge of continually showing large strides in academic achievement every year.
"Again, I'm very happy with the way the kids scored," Ellis said. "That's a credit to our teachers and paraprofessionals who work directly with them. But the bar has been set high and we want to continue at that level, if not go higher. But the realization is we might dip down a little bit, too."
State results
Overall, 14 percent of the state's schools significantly exceeded DPI expectations, 26.6 percent exceeded expectations and 27 percent met expectations.
Additionally, 10 percent met few expectations and less than one percent failed to meet expectations.
This means the majority of the Lakeland area schools are at or above the state average in terms of DPI scoring.
Jessica Leighty may be reached via email at [email protected].
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