By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
There were few surprises in the area when the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released its third annual school report cards Tuesday.
As expected, Waterford – both its elementary schools and the high school – was at the top, with every school exceeding expectations and Waterford Union High School “significantly” exceeding expectations.
Union Grove and Burlington both either met or exceeded expectations as well on the DPI’s grading format, which took into account not only student achievement on standardized testing, but student growth, closing gaps between high-achieving and low-achieving students for reading and mathematics and on-track and post-secondary markers such as graduation rate, reading achievement and ACT participation.
Scores between zero and 52.9 failed to meet expectations, while 53 to 62.9 met few expectations. Scores between 63 and 72.9 met expectations, while 73 to 82.9 exceeded expectations. Scores of 83 or above significantly exceeded expectations.
The highest individual score for an area school came from Burlington’s Winkler Elementary School with an 85.9 score – 2.9 points above the minimum for significantly exceeds expectations.
The next highest was Waterford Union High School, which posted a score of 83.3. While the report cards did urge against comparing different types of schools and districts, all of the schools in Waterford and also at Washington-Caldwell were at 76.1 or higher.
Because it is a single K-12 district, rather than a union district, Burlington was one of the few districts in the area to have an overall district report card, which came in at 72.1 and meeting expectations.
The individual breakdowns by area:
Burlington Area School District
Burlington’s scores ranged from 71.0 at Waller Elementary to the 85.9 score at Winkler.
However, the demographics on the two schools are wildly different. Two weeks ago, Waller was named one of the state’s “Beating the Odds” schools because of its high performance with a significant portion of students who are economically disadvantaged – which is determined by the number of students who qualify for free and reduced-cost lunch.
Lyons Center School, which earned recognition as a “High-Progress School,” scored 82.0 on its report card. In terms of economically disadvantaged students, Lyons was at 46.6 percent of its school population, while Waller was at 58.8. Waller also had close to 20 percent of its students (19.9) listed as limited English proficiency, and more than a quarter of its students (25.4) listed with disabilities.
By way of comparison, Winkler had just 31.6 percent of its students in the economically disadvantaged category, and less than 1 percent with limited English proficiency.
Winkler also ranked high on its closing the gap scores, with an 84.4 out of 100. Waller was at 65.3 and Lyons at 82.2.
Burlington’s other elementary school, Cooper, scored 73.0, with 38.5 percent of its students economically disadvantaged and scoring 56.7 on the closing the gaps portion of the report card.
Dyer Intermediate School, which covers primarily grades 5 and 6, scored 75.6 and Karcher Middle School (grades 7-8) scored 72.7.
Burlington High School, meanwhile, scored 73.3. While student achievement scores were just 67.2 out of 100, the closing gaps score was at 71.9 and on-track/post-secondary scoring rated 84.4. BHS has 31 percent of its students rated economically disadvantaged.
Waterford schools
Waterford continued its tend of rating high on the report cards, but features a much different student dynamic than BASD.
Evergreen Elementary rated 82.4 overall, while Trailside Elementary rated 76.1 and Woodfield Elementary 82.9.
Those schools include grades 5-6, but had in general significantly fewer economically disadvantaged students. Evergreen was at just 10 percent, while Woodfield was at 23.3. Trailside had 36.6 percent of its students listed as economically disadvantaged. All three schools rated well on student achievement (between 80.7 and 87.3) and student growth (between 73.3 and 82).
Washington-Caldwell school, meanwhile, scored 77.9, getting high marks on student achievement (80.6) and student growth (83.2) but low on closing gaps (55.4). The school covers kindergarten through eighth grade.
Fox River Middle School hit a score of 78.3, with a student achievement score of 82.7, student growth of 61.5, and closing gaps of 75.1.
Waterford Union High School was the top-rated high school in the Southern Lakes Conference at 83.3 percent. Student achievement was rated at 78.8, and closing gaps at 82.8. The school’s on-track/post-secondary score was 90.8, and the school had 12.5 percent of its students listed as economically disadvantaged.
Union Grove schools
The schools feeding into Union Grove Union High School varied tremendously, with Kansasville Elementary scoring 68.3, Union Grove Elementary 74.0. Raymond Elementary 72.1 and Yorkville 73.8. All four schools are K-8 schools, but the economically disadvantaged percentage varied wildly as well.
Raymond had just 12 percent of its students on free or reduced lunch, while Kansasville had 37.9 percent. Union Grove Elementary was at 29 percent and Yorkville had 15.5.
Kansasville had the lowest student achievement score at 60.8, followed by Raymond (67.0), Union Grove (70.2) and Yorkville (73.4). Student growth ranged roughly between 62 and 69 out of 100 for the four schools, and the closing gaps scores were between 63.2 and 71.3. Closing gaps information was not available for Kansasville.
Union Grove High School, meanwhile, scored 76.4 in spite of scoring relatively low on student achievement (67.6). The school did not have a student growth score, but had a closing gaps score of 78.1 and an on-track/post-secondary readiness score of 86.9.
Within the SLC
The Southern Lakes Conference high schools had a wide variety of scores.
While Burlington scored 73.3 and Waterford 83.3 – with Union Grove in the middle at 76.4 – three other SLC scores exceeded expectations and two met expectations.
Elkhorn Area High School had the second-highest high school report card in the SLC with 82.4, while Westosha Central (75.7) and Badger High School (75.4) both exceeded expectations.
Wilmot Union High School scored 69.9 and Delavan-Darien 64.4 to meet expectations.
Taking a glance at the student demographics, Union Grove and Waterford had the lowest percentage of students in the economically disadvantaged category, while Delavan-Darien (55.1 percent) and Badger (43.9) had the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students.
The state
As a whole, the majority of Wisconsin either met expectations or exceeded them.
The highest single score came from Swallow Elementary School in Hartland – a K-8 school with more than 600 students.
On the opposite end of the scale, while Milwaukee Public Schools again were the only schools to fail to meet expectations (51.1 score), the lowest score outside of that came from Bayfield, which scored 55.9.
Bayfield, located on Lake Superior, had 72.9 percent of its students listed as economically disadvantaged. Milwaukee Public Schools had 82.7 percent of its students listed as such.
To see the report cards and full details on specific schools, visit apps2.dpi.wi.gov/reportcards/
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