In a post this past winter, I shared some great news about
student growth in Dodgeville Schools: more than 60% of our students were growing
faster than the national average in reading! As of this spring, over 64% of our
students are growing faster than the national average in reading for grades K-8,
and the growth rates are higher for grades 9-12! In math, our students in grades
K-8 are growing even faster, with 69% growing more than the national average. High
school students are also growing fast in math. Other blog posts have described
our systems for raising achievement for all students, and we’re proud to report
that the data suggest our systems are working. But the
real news for today’s post is about closing achievement gaps and how our
systems appear to be working for this purpose as well.
What is an achievement gap? It’s a difference in the percent
of groups of students who are proficient in reading or math. For instance, in Wisconsin,
only 20% of students who come from low-income households were proficient in reading
this year, while about 48% of other students were proficient. This raises
questions and concerns for our state—how can we better support all of our
students and why would these gaps exist? Achievement gaps are calculated for
economic status, race and ethnicity, and disability, and reported as a single score by DPI in our district and building report cards. Achievement gaps in Wisconsin are a
major problem. In fact, Wisconsin has the largest gaps in the nation, and has for some time! Closing gaps was
a centerpiece of the Burmaster administration at DPI as far back as 2001, and current
State Superintendent Tony Evers has continued that focus. I’m happy to report
that the Dodgeville School District is well on our way to making the kinds of improvements Wisconsin has been seeking.
Here’s how we did it.
Along with our growth targets, many of
our grade-level teams have set goals focused on closing achievement gaps for students with disabilities within
three years. This has been part of a 5-year grant we received that is focused on achievement gaps for students with disabilities. Taking 3 years to close gaps might seem like a long time, but remember that closing gaps
has been a focus area for Wisconsin for about 15 years! The data we use to
monitor our progress come from two computer-based achievement tests: MAP
(elementary and middle), and STAR (high school). We calculate a gap score for
each student, identify how much gap they have to close, and then divide that
by 3 to find the target score for the end of the year. Teachers then form small
groups and provide additional supports for those students. Here’s what we’ve
been able to accomplish.
In reading, 44% of
our students with disabilities closed their achievement gaps by at least
one-third. (Of 114 students with disabilities in grades K-10, 82 had gaps
this fall. Of those 82, 36 students or 44% closed their gaps by at least one-third.)
In math, we focused
on gaps in grades 6-11, and saw 52% of our students with disabilities close
their achievement gaps by one-third. (Of 77 students with disabilities in
grades 6-11, 52 had gaps this fall. Of those 52, 27 students or 52% closed
their gaps by at least one-third.)
The highest gap closure rates came in grade levels where we
provided the most significant amounts of additional instructional time,
especially at the high school level where students with gaps (regardless of
disability status), have access to double the instructional minutes.
This week, three teams from Dodgeville Schools attended a
training event to learn more about closing achievement gaps. Not surprisingly,
we were among the leaders at the conference, and we're excited to share all of
this good news with our community! If you see a Dodgeville School District
employee this long Memorial Day weekend, please take a moment to thank them.
These results are the result of many hours of work by all of our team members.
