By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
As scores from state’s Forward and ACT exams became available in the last week, proficiency averages in English and math are down throughout the state.
However, area schools performed above the average for the most part and, in some cases, produced some of the highest scores in the area.
Looking at the scores across the Southern Lakes Newspapers coverage area, Mukwonago, Muskego, Williams Bay and Waterford finished with some of the highest proficiency percentages for English and math on the ACT exam.
With the new Forward exam – the third different assessment used by the state in the last three years – the top area school was Brighton, though Washington-Caldwell also performed well.
Graphs showing the scores for all area schools accompany this story.
The new exam
The Forward exam – an online assessment – replaced last year’s Badger exam and the Wisconsin Knowledge Concepts Exam before that.
The state average for grades 3 through 8 was 42.5 percent of students proficient in English and 42.3 percent in math.
However, most area schools are at or above the state average. Aside from Brighton, Washington-Caldwell had the highest English proficiency at 66.4 percent.
“We’re very pleased with how well our kids are doing,” said Washington-Caldwell Principal Jill Saltzmann, who will be taking over as superintendent next year. “I think our staff is working very hard on interventions with the kids … to meet the needs of kids on the high end and the low end.”
Saltzmann said the district also uses the Measures of Academic Progress or MAP testing three times a year to track student progress and make adjustments – not just the Forward exam.
“It helps to take the MAP testing,” she said. “They’re used to the online testing.”
The Burlington Area School District’s emphasis on English and language arts paid off, meanwhile, with a 57.2 percent proficiency rating.
BASD Assistant Superintendent and Curriculum Director Connie Zinnen said those scores were a highlight. The seventh graders, she said, were 18 percent above the state average for their grade level at 60 percent.
She also echoed the sentiments of other educators in that this exam is in its first year, and she wants to be able to stick with an assessment to see trends.
“Hopefully, if the state stays with the Forward exam for more than one year … I’m hopeful we’ll have some longitudinal data eventually,” Zinnen said.
Thomas Johnson, Union Grove Elementary School principal, said the same.
“I think the only concern we have is because it’s only one snapshot, it’s only one point,” said Johnson, whose students came in at just below 50 percent proficient in English and at 55.6 percent in math.
He said the Forward went better than the Badger exam, but a lot of that, he said, had to do with administration and prep. He said district technology personnel worked hard to make sure labs were set up and things went smoothly.
North Cape was not included in the graph, but produced solid scores in the Forward exam. English proficiency was at 56.7 percent, while exactly half the students tested proficient in math.
Waterford Graded School District Administrator Ed Brzinski said the first year of a new exam – and three years of three different exams – made it difficult to truly assess how students did, and that the new element of more heavily rating “closing the gap” had an uncertain effect on the scores.
“Since it’s a new test, we’ll have to see if there’s some data in there that we can use to adjust our instruction,” Brzinski said.
ACT exam
While ACT scores have been out since this summer, the percentage scores for 11th graders were recently compiled.
Williams Bay topped the area English percentages, while Mukwonago topped math. Muskego finished in the top three in both categories, as did Waterford.
Four schools topped 50 percent proficiency – Williams Bay, Muskego, Waterford and Mukwonago in English, and Mukwonago, Williams Bay, Muskego and Waterford in math.
Burlington ranked fifth in English at 48.1 percent, while Union Grove was sixth among area schools at 42.6 percent proficiency in math.
Zinnen said ACT scores tend to remain flat over time, and there are other measures that can be used to gauge student performance. One of those, advanced-placement classes and scores, prove to be strong points for both Burlington and Waterford.
“There are other indicators of success that we feel good about,” she said, adding that test scores don’t always show all the work done and progress made.
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