Last year, no Appleton public school failed to meet educational expectations. This year, two did.

Danielle DuClos, Green Bay Press-Gazette
·4 min read

APPLETON — Like students, the schools get report cards. Every year, the state Department of Public Instruction releases the report cards, scoring schools from one to five stars.

The report cards are like a performance review for schools, showing how they're doing in key areas like student performance on state standardized tests, growth of those scores, outcomes for the lowest-performing students and whether students are on track to graduate.

The report cards were released Tuesday. Here are some takeaways for the Appleton Area School District:

Why DPI school report cards matter

The state Department of Public Instruction, or DPI, gives every school and school district an "accountability score" from 0 to 100. That score then translates to a star rating: One star means a school is failing to meet educational expectations. Five stars means the school or district significantly exceeds them.

A score of three stars and above is considered meeting or exceeding educational expectations.

The report cards include data from multiple school years, which gives a fuller picture than just one year's test scores. A district's performance includes many data points, including graduation rates, chronic absenteeism, student statewide test scores and growth in student achievement.

Unlike when a student fails a class and has to retake it, there are no repercussions to schools that score poorly. Overall, the report cards are a way to gauge how well a school or school district is doing at educating its students.

The report cards are for the previous year, meaning that the ones released Tuesday are for the 2022-23 school year.

Last year, no schools got 1 star. Now the district has two.

The Appleton Area School District overall got three stars, meaning that, overall, it's meeting educational expectations. But more schools are failing to meet expectations this year than last:

  • four schools got five stars,

  • 12 schools got four stars,

  • 12 schools got three stars,

  • three schools got two stars,

  • two schools got one star.

On the 2021-22 report cards, none of Appleton's schools got one star. This year, Columbus Elementary and Madison Middle schools both did.

The Appleton Classical Charter School bumped down from five stars to four, bringing the number of schools that got top marks in the district from five to four.

The district has seen improvement in the total number of schools that are meeting or exceeding expectations, or getting three stars or higher. Last year, 26 of the 33 schools that received report cards got three or more stars. This year, that's jumped to 28.

What are the highest- and lowest-performing schools?

The top five highest-performing schools in the district on that 0 to 100 accountability scale were:

  • Odyssey/Magellan Magnet School (charter school): 96

  • Tesla Engineering Charter School: 92

  • Fox River Academy (charter school): 90

  • Houdini Elementary: 84

  • Huntley Elementary: 82

The five lowest-performing schools in the district were:

  • Columbus Elementary: 39

  • Madison Middle: 45

  • Wilson Middle: 53

  • Kaleidoscope Academy (charter school): 54

  • Appleton Technical Academy (charter school): 58

Student growth in reading is slightly above average for some groups

One of the areas that the report cards measure is how student achievement on state standardized tests is growing. The state looks at performance on the reading and math sections of the state Forward Exams, which are administered annually.

More: Appleton elementary school among eight in Wisconsin to win National Blue Ribbon Award

In Appleton, many student groups are seeing above average growth in reading. Specifically, students who are Black, white, two or more races and those with disabilities are improving slightly above the state average.

The district scored the same or higher than 60% of other districts on student growth.

Over a quarter of students are chronically absent

About 27% of Appleton's students are considered chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year, according the 2021-22 data from the DPI, the most recent available and used in the report cards. That's the highest since 2019.

Almost half of high schoolers in the Appleton Area School District were chronically absent, which translates to missing about 18 days. That number improved significantly last year, but the district has said attendance is still a priority.

More on attendance: Tips for Wisconsin students to establish regular attendance in the new school year

Why does it matter? One of the indicators of whether students are on track to graduate is if they are considered chronically absent. Appleton's absenteeism rate is higher than the state's, which sits at 23%.

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 Drive, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Last year, no Appleton schools got a 1-star rating. This year two did.