Most area schools satisfied with grades

First-year Bonduel School District Superintendent Patrick Rau said Wednesday that he was pleased with how his schools did on their state report cards released this week, especially the elementary school, which was ranked in the exceeding expectations category.

“We’re definitely excited about our elementary school,” Rau said. “We’ve made a number of curriculum changes and implemented some response to intervention strategies that we’ve been doing the last couple of years.

“It’s great to see the impact, that those students are achieving more.”

The annual data from the Department of Public Instruction shows how well students, schools and districts are performing in four main areas; student achievement in reading and math on statewide assessments, student growth in those assessments, closing achievement and graduation gaps, and readiness for college or careers.

Schools and districts receive scores of 0-100 in each category. No area district received the highest rating, significantly exceeded expectations, and none failed to meet expectations. Bowler and Menominee Indian, however, fell into the “meets few expectations” category.

Most Shawano County schools met or exceeded standards. However, Pulaski, with a score of 73, was the only district overall to exceed expectations.

Four Pulaski schools — Lannoye Elementary, Pulaski High, Pulaski Middle and Pulaski Elementary — exceeded expectations, as did Wittenberg-Birnamwood High, Bonduel Elementary, Gresham Elementary and Marion Elementary.

Shawano School District Superintendent Gary Cumberland was pleased district schools met expectations, but he said the district can still find room for improvement. Each of the schools is putting together plans to address some of the weaker links found in the state report card.

“Out of 424 school districts in Wisconsin, and Shawano is one of them, 98 percent meets or exceeds expectations,” Cumberland said. “We feel good about being part of that group, but we know we have work to do.”

Faith Gagnon, Bowler School District superintendent, said that while she and other school officials are disappointed in the results, she noted they are reflective of what was learned in the 2012-13 school year, with testing done in fall 2013.

“I believe in transparency, and I believe in accountability,” Gagnon said. “Instead of being defensive about it, we’re being more proactive and saying, ‘OK, this is what it is, and OK, this is what we need to do to turn this around.’”

Since the last test, the Bowler schools have adopted a new reading curriculum that Gagnon hopes will boost test scores. The district also is looking for a different math curriculum.

“The first thing we wanted to really make sure we did well was the reading, because the reading is going to be a heavy component in the new math assessments coming out,” Gagnon said.

More changes are on the way as part of the Common Core curriculum being implemented statewide. Next year students in grades 3 through 8 will take new reading and math tests called Smarter Balanced, while high school students will take the ACT and affiliated tests.

Rau said the ACT scores, which high school students could opt not to take before this year, have always been a factor in determining whether high schools meet state standards. It is the Smarter Balanced tests that are a mystery for schools, he said.

“It’s going to be interesting to see,” Rau said. “I don’t know what to expect.”

“I believe it’s going to be hard to compare what you see now (in the 2014 report cards) and these new tests. It’s going to be two different worlds,” Cumberland said.