Oconto County school districts get their report cards from the state. Here's how they scored.

Kevin Dittman, Green Bay Press-Gazette
·6 min read

Oconto County schools got a report card Tuesday from the state Department of Public Instruction.

The agency that oversees public education, produces annual report cards to judge the performance of Wisconsin's public school districts and some private schools that receive state voucher funding.

The county schools all fell in the "meets expectations" category for the 2022-23 school year, while two nearby districts in Marinette County – Coleman and Crivitz – were in the "exceeds expectations" ranking.

Last year, Suring's score fell into "exceeds expectations" level while Oconto County’s four other school districts each received a “meets expectations” grade. Coleman and Crivitz both repeated their "exceeded expectations" ranking from last year.

Report cards are intended to help schools and districts use performance data to target improvement efforts to ensure students are ready for their next educational step, including the next grade level, graduation, and college or careers.

The report cards measure:

  • Student achievement proficiency in reading and math on state assessments.

  • Student growth measured by year-to-year improvements in achievement.

  • Target group outcomes using information for students with the lowest test scores during the previous testing year (the target group) to compare their current year performance versus the non-target grouppopulation.

  • On-track to graduation, which shows how successfully students are achieving educational milestones that predict later success (attendance rates, graduation rates, etc.)

Each area is weighted differently for each school. For schools with more students from low-income families, the report cards place a heavier emphasis on growth, as opposed to the most recent test scores and attendance.

Schools with a score between 83 and 100 "Significantly Exceed Expectations;" scores between 70 and 82.9 are considered to "Exceed Expectations;" those from 58 to 69.9 are rated as "Meets Expectations;" scores from 48 to 57.9 are considered to "Meet Few Expectations;" and scores of 47.9 and lower "Fail to Meet Expectations."

The DPI says multiple years of data impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic are used throughout the report card in most of the priority area scores, so it continues to caution the interpretation of scores and ratings.

Here's a closer look at each district.

Oconto Unified - meets expectations (61.6)

Oconto Elementary ranks as exceeding expectations (71.9) while Oconto Middle (68.8) falls into the meets expectations category and Oconto High (52.6) as meets few expectations.

The high school actually achieved higher achievement scores than the state average in English Language Arts (62.9 vs. 61.3) and mathematics (54.7 vs. 53.0), but was hurt by the growth ranking in mathematics. The growth priority area measures year-to-year student progress on statewide tests. While the state growth average was 66.0 in math, it was just 7.1 at the high school.

Overall as a district, students were lower than the state achievement average in English Language Arts (58.9 vs. 60.1) but higher than the state average in mathematics (59.6 vs. 57.2).

Oconto Falls - meets expectations (68.4)

Abrams Elementary (80.0) and Oconto Falls Elementary (70.8) both fell into the exceeds expectations ratings, while Washington Middle (67.7) and Oconto Falls High (63.1) met expectations.

As a district, the students' achievement scores beat the state average in English Language Arts (60.6 vs. 60.1) and mathematics (65.3 vs. 57.2).

Coleman - exceeds expectations (73.0)

Coleman Elementary (71.6) and Coleman Middle (81.6) both scored as exceeds expectations while Coleman High (63.8) ranked as meets expectations.

The district's achievement scores top the state average in both English Language Arts (65.6 vs. 60.1) and mathematics (60.1 vs. 57.2).

Crivitz - exceeds expectations (71.5)

Crivitz Elementary (70.5) and Crivitz High (76.8) both fell into the exceed expectations category while Crivitz Middle (67.9) was in the meets expectations category.

As a district, the achievement scores tops the state average in mathematics (63.7 vs 57.2) but is lower than the state average in English Language Arts (59.6 vs. 60.1).

Gillett - meets expectations (66.0)

Gillett Elementary (72.1) and Gillett Middle (80.8) both exceeded expectations while Gillett High (48.7) fell in the meets few expectations category.

The high school students finished lower than the state achievement average for grades 9-12 in both English Language Arts (59.6 vs. 61.3) and mathematics (52.2 vs. 53.0). It also had a worse chronic absenteeism rate of students who missed more than 10% of school days than the state average.

As a district, the students topped the state achievement average in both English Language Arts (67.3 vs. 60.1) and mathematics (60.7 vs. 57.2).

Lena - meets expectations (62.1)

Lena Elementary (74.9) exceeded expectations on its latest report card while Lena Middle (57.0) and Lena High (57.2) both fell into the meets few expectations category.

In the achievement scores, high school students fell below the state high school average in English Language Arts (51.5 vs. 61.3) and mathematics (43.3 vs. 53.0) while the middle school students were below the state middle school average in English Language Arts (53.8 vs. 59.7) but above the state average in mathematics (54.2 vs. 52.8).

As a district, the students had lower scores than the state average in English Language Arts (55.5 vs. 60.1) and mathematics (55.1 vs. 57.2).

Peshtigo - meets expectations (59.6)

Peshtigo Elementary (68.5) met expectations in the rankings while Peshtigo Middle (51.1) and Peshtigo High (57.5) fell in the meets few expectations category.

The mathematics scores were dramatically lower than the state average for the middle and high school students. Peshtigo Middle scored a 38.5 vs. the state average of 52.8 while Peshtigo High was 42.0 vs. the state average of 53.0.

As a district, the achievement scores are below the state average in English Language Arts (55.9 vs. 60.1) and mathematics (51.6 vs. 57.2).

Suring Public - meets expectations (68.5)

Suring Elementary (61.2) fell into the meets expectations category while Suring High (78.7) exceeds expectations.

The high school students' achievement scores were actually below average in English Language Arts (56.0 vs. 61.3) and mathematics (43.2 vs. 53.0), but boosted its score on growth where average students in the school are progressing more quickly than other, similar students.

Wabeno Area - meets expectations (64.1)

Wabeno Elementary (65.3) and Wabeno High (64.0) both fell in the meets expectations category individually.

As a district, the achievement scores in English Language Arts (45.7 vs. 60.1) and mathematics (45.7 vs. 57.2) were lower than the state average.

Contact Kevin Dittman at 920-431-8416 or kdittman@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin issues report cards for Oconto County schools