Middle school falls short in comparison to district schools
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
Area schools faired well for the most part when the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released its third annual school report cards last month.
Williams Bay High School took top honors in the area, being the only school in area districts to “significantly” exceed expectations.
Schools within Walworth County all either met or exceeded expectations 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. Whitewater’s Lincoln Inquiry Charter School was the only school “meeting few expectations,” in the county.
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 Williams Bay High School with an 84.1 score – more than 3 points above the minimum for significantly exceeds expectations.
The next highest was Elkhorn Area High School, which posted a score of 82.4.
Scores within the Elkhorn Area School District ranged from a high of 82.4 at the high school to a low of 69.5 at the middle school.
West Side Elementary scored second in the district with a score of 79.4. Jackson Elementary scored a 75.5 and Tibbets Elementary scored a 73.2.
Throughout the school district, percentages of students listed as limited English proficiency were low (between 3.20 and 8.6 percent) with the exception of Jackson Elementary School (16.04). Additionally, the percentage of students with disabilities throughout the school district ranged from about 7 to 9 percent, with the exception of Jackson and West Side Elementary schools, with 14.5 and 11.6 percent, respectively.
Student achievement scores ranged throughout the district from a low of 71.3 at the middle school to a high of 77 at the high school. The middle school also fell short of other district schools with a closing the gap score of 52.5, falling more than 10 points behind Tibbets Elementary with a 63.2 and about 35 points behind West Side Elementary.
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/
Staff writer Jennifer Eisenbart contributed to this article.
