Burhop explains N-O-W’s DPI report cards

By SARAH PARKER |  County Line Editor

The Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton School District “meets expectations,” according to the recently released Department of Public Instruction Accountability Report Card, but the school’s standing is more complex than it appears, as the DPI has changed its assessment methods, Superintendent Kelly Burhop told the board of education Nov. 13.

Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton Elementary School and Brookwood Junior/Senior High School each received an individual Accountability Report Card: the former “meets expectations,” and the latter “meets few expectations.”

The report cards are based on four priority areas:

• Student achievement measures the level of knowledge and skills among students in the school, compared with state and national standards. It includes a composite of reading and mathematics performance by the “all students” group in the Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS) for all tested grades in the school.

• Growth describes how much student knowledge of reading and mathematics in the school changes from year to year. It uses a point system that gives positive credit for students progressing toward higher performance levels, and negative credit for students declining below proficiency. This area focuses not on attainment, but the pace of improvement in student performance, no matter where students begin. All improvement is treated as a positive. Schools with high performance and little room to grow are not penalized.

• Closing gaps shows how the performance of student groups experiencing statewide gaps in achievement and graduation is improving in the school. It recognizes the importance of having all students improve, while focusing on the need to close gaps by lifting lower-performing groups. Specific race/ethnicity groups, students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, and English language learners are compared against their complementary groups.

• On-track and post-secondary success indicates the success of students in the school in achieving educational milestones that predict postsecondary success. It includes the graduation rate for schools that graduate students, or the attendance rate for other schools. It also includes measures of third-grade reading and eighth-grade mathematics achievement, and ACT participation and performance, as applicable to the school.

At N-O-W Elementary, 62.8 percent of students are characterized as economically disadvantaged, according to the report card.

Burhop said, “The more economically disadvantaged your students are … the higher they weigh school growth. That’s a fact; that’s how they do it. Let’s say in a richer, eastern, affluent district that has a low free- and reduced-lunch count, their school growth will probably be 10 percent, and they will weigh it differently than what they weigh us. That’s the first thing you need to know. School growth is the heaviest weighed of the four categories for both our elementary and our high school.”

In student achievement, N-O-W Elementary scored 67.9 out of 100, which reflects a three-year synopsis of how students are performing at the advanced, proficient, basic and below-basic levels.

In English language arts, N-O-W had a 32.3 out of 50 in 2018–19; seven students were advanced, 59 were proficient, 76 were basic and 34 were below basic. In math, the elementary scored 35.6 out of 50, and 12 students were advanced, 77 were proficient, 67 were basic, and 20 were below basic. Combined, the elementary received a 67.9 out of 100 in student achievement, or above state average.

“So our kids academically in the elementary overall are performing above the state average, but that is only 6.5 percent of our (report card) score when you look at priority area weights,” Burhop said.

Half of the report is weighted on growth, for which the DPI considers various groups, such as English-language learners, students with disabilities, etc., and calculates a state average for each group. The DPI issues a “value-added score” for each group at each school district. The state average is represented by a “3,” and a district is graded based on how well those groups perform compared with the state average. If a district’s value-added score is below 3, the district is considered below average.

N-O-W scored many “2s” at the elementary level, which resulted in a growth score of 56.6, compared with the state average of 66.

To fix the problem, the district is looking more into differentiated instruction, Burhop said, “so you’re meeting the needs of all the kids, rather than one size fits all.”

In the closing-gaps category, which measures how subgroups are catching up with “advantaged” students, the Hispanic/Latino group’s rate of change is -0.026, compared with the state average of -0.019. Likewise, students with disabilities was at -0.022, compared with the state figure of -0.044.

Overall, the elementary school scored 63.9, compared with the state average of 73.9 in closing gaps.

In sum, “Although our academic achievement is above state average, our growth has to improve,” Burhop said.

The junior/senior high score of “meets few expectations” reflects further complicating factors. Burhop explained the situation in blunt terms: “We got robbed this year. We’re not the only the school district that got shorted.”

The school’s student-achievement score was 49.8, well below the state average of 60.5, and “everyone knows that needs to come up,” Burhop said.

The school’s economically disadvantaged percentage is 61.1, which causes the growth category to have greater weight. Brookwood’s growth score improved by 6.6 points since last year.

But for N-O-W, the DPI threw out the closing-gaps category altogether. “That really damaged our score,” Burhop said.

Last year’s closing-gap score for Brookwood was 62, compared with 85.1 this year. A DPI notation indicates, “The Closing Gaps score for this school changed by at least 20 points since 2017–18. This amount of change is an outlier and mostly impacted by things outside a school’s control. As such, the score shown here is not included in the overall score.”

Burhop explained the differential: “This is the first year they had three years of data to give us a score on closing our graduation gap for our special education students, our ELLs and our economically disadvantaged students. Because this is the first year they had data and we had an excellent score in that area, it jumped our overall closing-gap score 23 points. The DPI decided anything 20 or higher is a statistically inconsistency and would be thrown out.”

“Even if you did it?” exclaimed President Kurt Radke.

“Even if you did it,” Burhop replied. “There’s nothing to compare to last year. Because we were so high this year, the score is not consistent with the true performance of the school.”

Board member Kevin Bauman said, “That gives you a lot to go by.”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” Radke added.

A few dropouts also affected Brookwood’s overall score.

“Remember one thing when I say ‘dropouts,’” Burhop said. “We’re not talking specifically about kids who have actually dropped out of school. I can’t get into specific student names, but it is ridiculous which kids that we have to count as not graduated.”

Prior to the meeting, Burhop recalculated the school’s scores based on last year’s DPI criteria, showing Brookwood would have received a 65 this year, or “meets expectations.”

To view the DPI report cards for N-O-W and all other school districts in the state, go to dpi.wi.gov/accountability/report-cards.

Audit complete

Joe Haas, an auditor with Hawkins Ash CPAs, gave a favorable report on the district’s financial state, noting that N-O-W was financially strong and that the firm found no instances of noncompliance of state rules.

The district’s fiscal-year fund balance, a figure that represents assets minus liabilities, is $2,757,870, Haas said.

Moreover, Haas praised district bookkeeper Mary Prielipp for her “outstanding organization and accounting.”

Outdoors club

N-O-W elementary instructional coach Travis Anderson and other staff members are exploring the possibility of forming a new club, Falcon Outdoors, which, among other activities, may set up a trap team, attend fishing tournaments, and maintain the school nature trail. The group’s aim is to offer students opportunities to learn about careers in conservation and the environment, build teamwork skills, build leadership skills and provide more extracurricular activities.

Other business

• The December board meeting was changed from Monday, Dec. 16, to Wednesday, Dec. 18, to avoid a conflict with the junior/senior high winter concert.

• The district has received $3,000 from the Elaine Paul Art Grant, which will allow for guest artists to work with students, pay for a high school art trip to the Pump House in La Crosse, pay for a trip for elementary students to display their art at the state capitol, and pay for art display boards and other supplies for students’ art.

Elaine Paul was an art teacher at Wilton Elementary School.

• Also, the district has received a $30,000 state Technology for Education Achievement (TEACH) grant for network infrastructure upgrades.

• Lisa Sullivan has resigned as a special education paraprofessional, and Manda Yszenga will take her place.

• President Kurt Radke’s seat will be up for election April 7, 2020. Radke has opted not to run for another term.

• Thirty-seven percent of families (76 out of 207) attended parent-teacher conferences in early November.

• The Diversity Club participated in Augsburg University’s Human Rights Forum in late October, hearing a panel discussion entitled “The Power of Story: Old Injustices, New Narratives,” among other activities.

• The district has $249,070.68 in the Bank of Ontario, $208,185.99 in Farmers & Merchants Bank of Kendall–Wilton, $205,102.37 in the Bank of Cashton, and $501.28 in American Deposit Management.

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