By Tom Ganser
On Aug. 21, 37 Whitewater Unified School District teacher, school administration and district administration leaders gathered together in the Library Media Center at Whitewater Middle School for the district’s annual “data retreat.”
The one-day meeting began with a review of last year’s strategic planning goals and the most recent data related to student learning, and ended with the leadership teams from each school formulating goals for the upcoming school year.
In his welcoming remarks, District Administrator Eric Runez said, “Today with the accountability that we have been seeing over the last few years in public education, this time together and what you produce really is more important than it was five years ago… What we create, the conversations that happen here, the analysis you do and then ultimately what you decide should be the direction for your building based on what we want to do strategically for the district is really important and it will have an impact on our kids.”
Runez also reviewed the progress made in achieving Strategic Planning Goals for the district.
Kelly Seichter, WUSD Director of Instruction, moved the focus of the retreat to examining the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction School Report Cards for each school to be released to the public next month, the most recent data reporting the performance of students on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE) and district level Measurement of Academic Performance (MAP) data.
Lanora Heim, WUSD Special Education/Pupil Services Coordinator, gave an overview of the performance of English Language Learners on ACCESS (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners).
Heim also presented information on three “Annual Measureable Objectives” for the English Language Learners program.
Whitewater High School Principal Doug Parker brought the review of data to a conclusion with information about the performance of WHS students on the ACT test often required for admission to colleges and universities, and on the examinations tied to Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
“We all are experiencing challenges, even with a great ACT score we can still find plenty of room for improvement. It’s really important that we internally collaborate to be sure that we’re sharing great ideas within your building, across buildings, across grade levels, because that’s the only way the district’s going to continue to keep rising up,” Runez said.
“We can all identify the challenges that we face, and I really encourage each and every one of us to acknowledge those challenges, but we can’t wallow in them,” he added.
Each of the five school principals then presented the progress that has been made in moving toward meeting building goals set last year.
Using the report of most current available data as a foundation, the leadership team of each school turned their attention to generating two to three “SMART” goals (Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic and Relevant and Time-Based) for this academic year that align with the vision, mission and district strategic action plans.
