DPI releases school report cards
By Robert Cloud
The Waupaca School Board reviewed the school report cards when it met on Dec. 12.
Every school and every school district in Wisconsin receives an annual report card from the state Department of Public Instruction.
“Overall, we’re trending in the right direction,” Director of Teaching and Learning Mark Flaten told the board. “We’re doing better than some (districts) and not as good as we’d like compared to others.”
Based on data from the previous year, DPI report cards measure Achievement in English Language Arts and mathematics for students in grades 3-11 and year-to-year Student Growth in ELA and math for grades 4-11.
Targeted Group Outcomes is a measure of how students in the bottom 25% compare to the rest of their peers.
On-Track to Graduation measures how successfully students are progressing toward completing their K-12 education.
A score of 83-100 indicates a school or district “significantly exceeds expectations,” 70-82.9 means “exceeds expectations,” 58-69.9 indicates “meets expectation,” 48-57.9 means “meets few expectations” and 0-47.9 means “fails to meet expectations.”
In 2022-23, the Waupaca School District had an overall score of 69.2, up from 64.9 in 2021-22.
Both scores indicate the district “meets expectations,” according to the DPI.
The district as a whole saw its ELA Achievement score rise from 66 in 2021-22 to 66.7 in 2022-23, while its Growth score remained the same at 65.6.
In the category of Target Group Outcomes, the district saw improvements in achievement, growth and graduation, while the score for chronic absenteeism went down.
The On-Track to Graduation scores dropped from 85.8 in 2021-22 to 84.6 in 2022-23.
CEC
The district’s charter school, Chain Exploration Center, received the highest overall score among Waupaca schools at 85.2, indicating the school “significantly exceeds expectations.”
“We’ve got some areas that we’re extremely proud of and some areas that we know we have some work to do,” said Carrie Naparalla, CEC’s CEO and administrator. “Our English Language Arts score actually decreased even though it looks really great.”
In the category of Achievement, CEC’s ELA score dropped from 80.5 to 78.8 from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
The school’s Achievement math score rose from 80.1 to 80.9.
In the category of Growth, CEC’s ELA score remained the same at 79.3, while its math score rose from 83.1 to 86.9.
Naparalla said economically disadvantaged students are struggling the most.
CEC is a project-based learning environment where students learn the core disciplines through problem solving and student-driven projects.
One of the challenges CEC teachers face is trying “to infuse their ELA learning targets into their projects so that it’s not two separate components,” she said.
“We’re proud of our increase in achievement and growth,” Naparella said. “Our target and focus this year is how do we adjust our instruction and intervention to best meet the needs of all of our students, but really, specifically those students that are struggling.”
Teachers and interventionists work in teams that meet to assess and adjust curriculum and methods.
“Our teams have some really honest, collaborative conversations with one another about best practices to help strengthen their teaching,” Naparella said.
WLC
Waupaca Learning had an overall score of 77.5, indicating that the school exceeds expectations.
WLC’s ELA Achievement score rose from 62.6 in 2021-22 to 63.3 in 2022-23.
Its math Achievement score went from 69.7 to 72.3.
WLC saw its ELA Growth score rise from 69.8 to 77.4, while its math Growth score went from 75.5 to 79.3.
WLC plans to focus on Achievement and Growth scores for target groups, specifically on students with disabilities and who are economically disadvantaged.
WMS
Waupaca Middle School had an overall score of 72.7, which means it exceeds expectations.
WMC’s ELA Achievement score decreased from 66.8 in 2021-22 to 66.3 in 2022-23.
Its math Achievement score also dropped, from 67.6 to 65.3.
WLC’s ELA Growth score remained the same at 69.8, while its math Growth score dropped from 77.4 to 73.6,
WHS
Waupaca High School earned the lowest overall score at 60.7, indicating it meets expectations.
WHS’s ELA Achievement score rose from 64.4 to 66.8, while its math Achievement score rose from 58.4 to 59.3.
Its ELA Growth score dropped from 62.2 in 2021-22 to 56.5 in 2022-23.
The high school’s math Growth score dipped from 48.9 to 47.