Brown County student test scores rebound after pandemic, but fewer than half are proficient
Brown County public school students have bounced back almost to pre-pandemic scores on state tests, a year after reading and math levels in some grades dropped by over half.
Statewide test scores released Thursday show that academic disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to hurt student academics across Wisconsin, but students are making progress.
Statewide test participation is nearing 2019 levels — the last uninterrupted school year prior to the pandemic — but it's still lagging.
Achievement gaps persist for students of color and from low-income households statewide and in Brown County school districts.
The Green Bay School District continues to fall short of statewide proficiency levels, making it the only district in the county to lag behind Wisconsin averages across all three tests.
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"The assessment results show we are in recovery mode as we move through the pandemic," Abigail Swetz, communications director for the state Department of Public Instruction, told reporters Thursday. "Recovery from something is a journey, and we have not yet reached a destination we are satisfied with."
Every spring, three statewide tests are administered to give a snapshot picture of whether students are learning and meeting academic expectations for their grade level.
The Forward Exam tests students in grades three through eight on their math and reading abilities, the ACT Aspire tests ninth- and 10th-graders on their preparation for the ACT and the ACT is a college entrance exam given to 11th-graders.
The Forward Exam wasn't administered in the 2020 school year because of remote learning and school closures. While students did take the exam in the spring of 2021, participation was low because of continued virtual learning for many students across the state.
The Department of Public Instruction, which oversees the exam results, cautions about comparisons between 2021 scores and the most recent scores because the state counts students who don't take the exam as not proficient, pushing down proficiency levels.
All Brown County school districts exceed statewide proficiency levels, except Green Bay
The Green Bay School District, the county's largest, saw increases in every subject area for each of the exams from 2021 to 2022. However, proficiency at every level continues to fall short of pre-pandemic scores and sits well below the state average.
All other districts in Brown County — Ashwaubenon, Denmark, De Pere, Howard-Suamico, Pulask, West De Pere and Wrightstown — have proficiency levels that exceed the statewide averages for all three exams.
The only exceptions are proficiency levels in the English language arts sections in Ashwaubenon for the ACT and in Denmark for the ACT Aspire, both of which are below the state average.
De Pere and Wrightstown are the only districts in Brown County that have over half of students meeting proficiency levels for both the reading and math sections of the Forward Exam.
In Denmark and Howard-Suamico, math proficiency for the Forward Exam is over 50% but not for reading.
Howard-Suamico was the only district in the county to increase its Forward Exam reading and math proficiency above pre-pandemic levels.
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For Green Bay schools, 22.8% of third- through eighth-graders are proficient in reading and 26.5% of students are proficient in math — which represent gains of about 7.6% and 12.9% over last year, respectively.
"We're getting ourselves out of the slump that we got in because of COVID," said Nancy Chartier, the district's executive director of teaching and learning.
"I do believe that the learning loss, although there was a significant impact on student outcomes and achievement and learning loss, what we're currently doing in the district, students are accelerating and regaining that learning loss," she said.
But compared with statewide proficiency benchmarks, the district's scores fall behind by over 10%.
"Are we where we want to be? Absolutely, no we're not," Chartier said. "(Was) proficiency, even before COVID, where it needed to be? Absolutely not."
The district has a continued commitment to focusing on what students' next steps are for learning, Chartier said.
Participation across the county is largely back to pre-pandemic levels for all three tests, only down by a few percent from 2018-19.
Every district in Brown County has participation across all tests above 90%. The exception is among Green Bay high schools, where 81% to 88% of students took the ACT and ACT Aspire.
Elementary and middle school students still short of pre-pandemic scores
For most school districts in Brown County, elementary and middle school test-takers continue to score below pre-pandemic proficiency levels in both reading and math.
The following list compares scores from the 2018-2019 school year to last year's, for third- through eighth-graders who took the math and English language arts sections of the Forward Exam:
Green Bay School District — Math proficiency dropped from 33% in 2019 to 26.5% and reading proficiency dropped from 29% to 22% of students.
Ashwaubenon — Math proficiency dropped from 48% to 38% and reading dropped from about 49% to 43%.
Denmark — Math proficiency dropped from 57.5% to 52% and reading dropped from 44.5% to 40.9%.
De Pere — Math proficiency dropped from 64% to 58.5% and reading dropped from 65.5% to about 60%.
Howard-Suamico — Math proficiency increased from about 51% to 54.3% and reading increased from 47% to 47.7%.
Pulaski — Math proficiency dropped from 50.7% to 49.4% and reading dropped from 44.7% to 40.8%.
West De Pere — Math proficiency increased from 44.7% to 45.7% and reading proficiency stayed about the same with one-half percent decrease.
Wrightstown — Math proficiency dropped from 20.9% to 50.7% and reading dropped from 70.8% to 65.9%
Statewide — Math proficiency dropped from 43.4% to 39.2% and reading dropped from 40.9% to 37%
ACT scores rebound across Brown County
Every district in Brown County had increased ACT composite scores — an average of the scores for the math, reading and science sections of the exam — bringing them almost to pre-pandemic levels or slightly above.
Statewide ACT scores and participation are still lower than prior to the pandemic. But participation is up to over 90% of students statewide and in all districts in Brown County except the Green Bay School District where about 88% of students took the exam.
Ashwaubenon and Green Bay are the two districts in which composite scores fall behind the statewide average by 0.1 and 2 points, respectively.
The ACT is scored on a scale of one to 36, with 36 being a perfect score.
From the 2018-2019 school year to last year's composite scores:
Green Bay — Decreased from 17.7 to 17.2.
Ashwaubenon — Decreased from 20.4 to 19.1.
Denmark — Increased from 19.2 to 19.8.
De Pere — Increased from 21.9 to 22.
Howard-Suamico — Decreased from 21.1 to 20.1.
Pulaski — Increased from 20 to 20.1.
West De Pere — Decreased from 22.4 to 21.7.
Wrightstown — Remained 21.9
Statewide — Decreased from 19.6 to 19.2.
Racial and economic achievement gaps persist in Green Bay schools
The Green Bay School District is one of the most diverse districts in the state with students of color making up almost two-thirds of enrollment.
Proficiency levels across all ethnic and racial backgrounds put the district's Forward Exam results below pre-pandemic levels, but a larger proportion of white elementary and middle school students are proficient in reading and writing than students of color.
About 42% of white students who took the Forward Exam are proficient in math and 35% are proficient in reading.
Among Black students, Green Bay proficiency levels were above state average while below those of other ethnic groups in the district. About 10% of Black students were proficient in reading and writing.
About 13% and 14% of Hispanic students are proficient in reading and math, respectively, and over one-fifth of Asian students in third through eighth grade are proficient in reading and about 28% meet proficiency levels in math.
Among Indigenous students, 16% are proficient in math and 12% are proficient in reading.
Danielle DuClos is a Report for America corps member who covers K-12 education for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at dduclos@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @danielle_duclos. You can directly support her work with a tax-deductible donation at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Green Bay Press Gazette Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Dr, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Brown County test scores improve, but fewer than half are proficient
