Last
year, every school and district in Wisconsin was rated for the first time using
report cards issued by the Department of Public Instruction. These report cards focus on three main areas:
achievement level, growth in achievement from year to year, and closing gaps in
achievement. In this blog post, I want to share some the exciting news about
student growth.
Growth
sounds like a simple topic. “Are more students proficient this year as compared
to last year?” That’s the basic question that the report cards ask. Our
challenge in schools is to make sure every student is growing every day, and
that we are ready to help students if they begin to fall behind. We follow the state’s recommendation to use data from short, standardized tests, three times
every year to help answer these questions. Each of our buildings or grade-level
teams has set growth goals for all of our students, and the data we use come from
two computer-based achievement tests: MAP
(elementary), and STAR
(middle and high school). Let’s talk a little more about growth and how we
measure it, and then I will share the great news about Dodgeville student
growth this fall.
To
measure growth, we compare scores from fall, winter, and spring tests, looking
for increased scores. We compare the amount of growth each of our students made
to the amount of growth made by other students from around the country whose
starting score was about the same. We’re looking for more than the average
amount of growth. It may sound a little like the mythical “Lake Wobegone, where
all the children are above average!” In fact, our teachers set goals using one key
question: “What percent of our students
will grow more than average?” Growing more than average is a big job, and
even students who don’t grow more than the average are still growing, albeit
not as fast as we would like. We’re proud to report some of the amazing gains
our students have registered so far this year.
As
you read, keep in mind that 50% of students growing the average amount would be
what we expect. That would mean that half of our kids would have grown as much
as other students from around the country. We’ve been working hard to analyze
all of the data, but it looks like well over 60% of our students have grown
more in reading and math than students from the rest of the country who started
with a similar fall score. The high points include:
- Over 60% of elementary students grew more than the average in reading.
- 64% of DMS students grew more than the average in math.
- 61% of DHS students grew more than the average in reading.
Obviously,
there are variations across grade levels, and this is one reason our teams are
working hard to make classroom instruction more effective for all students and
to provide additional supports for those students who need it. We’re also providing
additional challenges for students who have made the most progress and who can
go even farther.
It’s
a great day to be a Dodger! Be sure to congratulate our students and thank our
hard-working teachers and staff for all of their efforts in helping every
Dodgeville student grow and learn!
