MONROE - Five of the six schools in the Monroe School District met or exceeded expectations on the state's school report cards.
Dan Keyser, the Monroe School District's director of curriculum and instruction, updated the school board on the district's report card in a meeting Monday, Sept. 23 at the high school.
The district received an accountability score of 71.9, which meets expectations. The district and school report cards were released last week by the state Department of Public Instruction.
"The district report card is a good measure to see how we are doing compared to other districts in the state," Keyser said. "We were just about one point away from exceeds expectations."
Each school and district across the state is given a score between 0-100 based on how well they do in four areas: student achievement in reading and math on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination; student growth in reading and math; postsecondary readiness including graduation rates; and closing of the achievement gap among various groups of students like minority, economically-disadvantaged students and special education students.
Northside Elementary School received the highest score of schools in the district at 83.1, which puts the school in the significantly exceeds expectations category. Abraham Lincoln Accelerated Learning Academy with a score of 72.6, Parkside Elementary School with a score of 72.2, Monroe Middle School with a score of 69.6 and Monroe High School with a score of 72.8 each were in the meets expectations category. The scores are based on last year's WKCE tests.
Keyser said the new Lucy Calkins writing workshop that elementary schools across the district are using this year will help increase students' stamina and enhance their word usage, communication and reading.
The Monroe Alternative Charter School had a score of 58.6 and was one of 169 schools statewide in the meets few expectations category.
Keyser said the charter school's score was affected by the school's four-year graduation rate (80 percent) and six-year cohort graduation rate (60.8 percent) and the fact that 20 percent (12 students) took the ACT.
This is the first year the charter school was rated on the school report card. Keyser said with the charter school housed in the high school, there are more resources available now for students and the focus is to improve math scores and the graduation rate.
Board member Les Bieneman questioned why the growth score for high school sophomores went from 77.5 to 72.8 this year.
"It's an area where we have put in a lot of new policies and some of them are controversial policies," Bieneman said of the high school. "We didn't see the growth that we wanted to see last year."
District leaders are targeting improvement on growth scores on state tests. However, the growth score on the school report card is based on students taking the WKCE. The WKCE is a state test given to third- through eighth-grade students as well as sophomores.
Monroe High School Assistant Principal Jeriamy Jackson objected to the notion that high school students are not showing growth in reading and math. Jackson said with 180 students who took the ACT test as part of the Educational Planning and Assessment System, the district has gone from 0.5 points in growth to 2.1 points of growth.
"To say we are not getting growth is false," Jackson said. "Our data from year to year is showing that we are making more growth than we ever have."
The closing the achievement gap score at the high school dropped to 65 after a 78.4 last year.
Keyser said the decrease in closing the achievement gap score was based on a new formula the state used for comparing the 53 economically disadvantaged students to the rest of the high schools across the state. He said this drop is the main reason the high school's score went down.
In the 2014-15 school year, the state will switch from the WKCE to the Smarter Balanced Assessment test, which is a new series of computerized tests similar to the ACT.
Keyser said the middle school is using disciplinary literacy and is using technology with the use of iPads for content creation. The high school is in the final year of updating the English and social studies curriculum. Science is developing its second year of curriculum and math is working on developing the first year.
Monroe School Board President Bob Erb viewed the goal of every teacher as the same at the start of the year.
"No matter where you are, your job is growth, trajectory and the movement to the next level," Erb said.
Dan Keyser, the Monroe School District's director of curriculum and instruction, updated the school board on the district's report card in a meeting Monday, Sept. 23 at the high school.
The district received an accountability score of 71.9, which meets expectations. The district and school report cards were released last week by the state Department of Public Instruction.
"The district report card is a good measure to see how we are doing compared to other districts in the state," Keyser said. "We were just about one point away from exceeds expectations."
Each school and district across the state is given a score between 0-100 based on how well they do in four areas: student achievement in reading and math on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination; student growth in reading and math; postsecondary readiness including graduation rates; and closing of the achievement gap among various groups of students like minority, economically-disadvantaged students and special education students.
Northside Elementary School received the highest score of schools in the district at 83.1, which puts the school in the significantly exceeds expectations category. Abraham Lincoln Accelerated Learning Academy with a score of 72.6, Parkside Elementary School with a score of 72.2, Monroe Middle School with a score of 69.6 and Monroe High School with a score of 72.8 each were in the meets expectations category. The scores are based on last year's WKCE tests.
Keyser said the new Lucy Calkins writing workshop that elementary schools across the district are using this year will help increase students' stamina and enhance their word usage, communication and reading.
The Monroe Alternative Charter School had a score of 58.6 and was one of 169 schools statewide in the meets few expectations category.
Keyser said the charter school's score was affected by the school's four-year graduation rate (80 percent) and six-year cohort graduation rate (60.8 percent) and the fact that 20 percent (12 students) took the ACT.
This is the first year the charter school was rated on the school report card. Keyser said with the charter school housed in the high school, there are more resources available now for students and the focus is to improve math scores and the graduation rate.
Board member Les Bieneman questioned why the growth score for high school sophomores went from 77.5 to 72.8 this year.
"It's an area where we have put in a lot of new policies and some of them are controversial policies," Bieneman said of the high school. "We didn't see the growth that we wanted to see last year."
District leaders are targeting improvement on growth scores on state tests. However, the growth score on the school report card is based on students taking the WKCE. The WKCE is a state test given to third- through eighth-grade students as well as sophomores.
Monroe High School Assistant Principal Jeriamy Jackson objected to the notion that high school students are not showing growth in reading and math. Jackson said with 180 students who took the ACT test as part of the Educational Planning and Assessment System, the district has gone from 0.5 points in growth to 2.1 points of growth.
"To say we are not getting growth is false," Jackson said. "Our data from year to year is showing that we are making more growth than we ever have."
The closing the achievement gap score at the high school dropped to 65 after a 78.4 last year.
Keyser said the decrease in closing the achievement gap score was based on a new formula the state used for comparing the 53 economically disadvantaged students to the rest of the high schools across the state. He said this drop is the main reason the high school's score went down.
In the 2014-15 school year, the state will switch from the WKCE to the Smarter Balanced Assessment test, which is a new series of computerized tests similar to the ACT.
Keyser said the middle school is using disciplinary literacy and is using technology with the use of iPads for content creation. The high school is in the final year of updating the English and social studies curriculum. Science is developing its second year of curriculum and math is working on developing the first year.
Monroe School Board President Bob Erb viewed the goal of every teacher as the same at the start of the year.
"No matter where you are, your job is growth, trajectory and the movement to the next level," Erb said.