Here's how Sheboygan County schools performed in the latest state DPI report cards
SHEBOYGAN — All Sheboygan County public school districts met or surpassed expectations in a state accountability report for the 2022-2023 school year.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s annual report, released Nov. 14, shows the performance levels of public schools and districts in the state, as well as charter schools and private voucher schools.
All schools and districts are measured on four priority areas: student achievement, year-to-year student knowledge growth, target group — students with the lowest test scores — outcomes and on-track to graduation numbers.
The achievement and growth priority areas are split into two sections each: English language arts and mathematics. The state average for the achievement scores were 60.1 for English language arts and 57.2 for math. The average scores for both growth categories were 66.
Based on the weighted average of those results, the school or district is given an overall score from 0-100. That score is then converted to a five-star scale. The starred rating system is used to label the school or district as “fails to meet expectations,” “meets few expectations,” “meets expectations,” “exceeds expectations” or “significantly exceeds expectations.”
The ratings determine the level of support a school receives, from recognition for high scores to state intervention for the lowest scores, according to the DPI website.
The Sheboygan Area School District met expectations for the 2023 report. However, the district fell below the state average for all the achievement and growth scores with a top score of 64.1 in mathematic growth.
Seth Harvatine, SASD superintendent, said in an email that among districts with similar demographics in enrollment — 4,000-20,000 students — and economically disadvantaged students — 45%-65% — SASD scored better than all other districts with a higher free and reduced lunch rate.
“When considering the academic achievement throughout students’ educational careers from 3rd through 11th grade, the SASD had greater growth than any of our comparable districts and greater growth than all but one of our county districts,” he said. “While we have challenges and are always looking for areas to improve, we are extremely appreciative of the hard work of our staff and students.”
Because the scores use data from multiple years, the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected some of the results. DPI urged caution when interpreting the scores and comparing them to previous years.
Two Sheboygan County school districts significantly exceed expectations
Of the nine public school districts in the county, Cedar Grove-Belgium Area is the only district to increase their five-star rating since 2020. In the new report, the district significantly exceeded expectations, with a mathematics growth score of a perfect 100.
Kohler School District also significantly exceeded expectations, a rank maintained for at least three years. The Kohler district scored an overall 89.
The districts of Howards Grove, Oostburg and Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah all exceeded expectations.
In the 2021 and 2022 reports, Oostburg had significantly exceeded expectations.
Sheboygan Falls, Random Lake, Plymouth Joint and Sheboygan Area school districts all met expectations in the report.
In the 2020-2021 report, Sheboygan Falls, Random Lake and Plymouth Joint all exceeded expectations.
Eight of the nine public districts had at least one achievement or growth score above state average
The achievement priority score in the report requires two years of data and shows students’ skills and knowledge in both English language arts and mathematics. The growth priority score also comprises two years of data to show how rapidly students are increasing those skills and knowledge from year to year.
The state average for the achievement scores was 60.1 for English language arts and 57.2 for math. The average scores for both growth categories were 66.
Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah, Cedar Grove-Belgium Area, Oostburg and Kohler school districts scored higher than the state average in all four of the achievement and growth categories.
Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah scored ELA and math achievement scores of 81 and 80.9, respectively, and growth scores of 73.6 and 79.3.
Cedar Grove-Belgium Area scored 77.1 and 83.1 in ELA achievement and math achievement, respectfully. In the growth category, the district scored 77.4 in ELA growth and 100 in mathematics growth.
Oostburg scored 83.9 in achievement, ELA and 81.1 in achievement, mathematics. The district also scored 75.5 and 73.6 in ELA and math growth, respectfully.
Kohler School District scored 89 and 89.5 in the achievement categories and 75.5 and 81.2 in the growth categories.
The Sheboygan Area School District was the only public district falling below the state average for all four categories. The district scored a 53.6 for ELA achievement and 51.1 for math achievement. For growth, the district scored a 58.4 ELA and 64.1 in math.
2018 report: How do Sheboygan schools stack up? Not bad, according to Department of Public Instruction
Have a story tip or public interest concern? Contact Sam Bailey at sgbailey@gannett.com or 573-256-9937. To stay up to date on her stories and other news, follow her on X (Twitter) @SamarahBailey.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan County schools: How they performed in state DPI report cards
