DPI Report Card shows growth in Spooner schools – newsbreak.com

SPOONER – The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Report Cards are in, and the Spooner School Board noted that there has been growth in achievement in all three public schools in the district.

At the Committee of the Whole meeting Monday, Dec. 2, Supt. Dr. David Aslyn said, “We’re particularly glad to see a marked improvement in achievement.”

The Report Card presented Monday night was from the 2023-24 academic year, as it was the most recent, and Aslyn said the Report Cards give school districts an overall accountability rating from failing to meeting expectations up to significantly exceeding expectations in student achievement.

However, Aslyn added, the DPI changes the its standards each year, so many Wisconsin school districts have shown a downward trend in certain areas, and next year there will be even more changes.

Each principal gave an update on how their schools fared in the Report Card.

High School Principal Pete Schroeder said his school had a slightly lower score last year, partially due to changes in the economically disadvantaged percentage. For the first time in a long time, though, Schroeder said the high school exceeded the state average in ACT scores, so achievement is up even though growth is down. The graduation rate also continues to rise.

Action plans for the high school include, but are not limited to:

Math foundations/pre-testing for incoming eight-grade students.ACT prep for all juniors during Rails Time after winter break.Supporting the freshman transition program (Link Crew).Finding an intervention and benchmarking resource for high school students.Supporting staff professional development around students in poverty.

When asked, Schroeder said the school is “not out of the woods yet” on catching up from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Middle School Principal Josh Fizel said his school also had a downward trend in economically disadvantaged students, but his staff is putting in hard work and the school is up on math and ELA Forward exams. The school was third out of 15 in the Heart O’North Conference in scores.

Fizel said the math lag is due to the fact that it’s a difficult subject, but the number of students meeting the advanced rating category in both subjects had doubled from last year.

Action plans for the middle school include, but are not limited to:

Promoting actionable steps to address student achievement, growth, curriculum/assessment and behavior.Focusing on the Reading Plus program that helps with reading comprehension growth.More small group instruction, more timely feedback and mini lessons to address specific skills needed in math instructional delivery.Professional development.

Elementary School Principal Chris Berghammer said his school is sitting in a better place with achievement growth. Though math is down slightly and the students are good in ELA, he said the school is up at the meeting expectations rating.

Action plans include, but are not limited to:

Retaining the great staff.Continued test environment and preparation evaluation.Focusing on the importance of building positive relationships with students and families.

Other action Monday night included:

Recognition of Rob Adler for being an instrumental part of the before-school weight lifting/fitness club and helping participants increase their bench press by an average of 6.7%; Kathy Kafura for supporting the special education department and staff with her skills and knowledge; and Hugh Miller for showing leadership in the technology department with new implementation of services and classroom technology changes.Shout-outs to the Spooner Middle School Student Leadership team for its attendance at the Youth Wellness Leadership Summit and the following Spooner Elementary School third- and fourth-grade students who were voted by their teachers to represent the Student Leadership Team: Tessa Frisbee, Eli Kabdi, Ariel Ortmann, Noah Zimney, Jase Johnson, Millie Oja, Carl Rudd, Magnus Salquist, Mya Davidson and Evelyn Buchmann.Discussion on gym facility usage between different teams (see other article).Hearing the District Safety Plan update on drills from Berghammer.Hearing the updates to the Safe at School Plan, which included changes to verbiage to remove COVID-19 guidelines and adjust policies on communicable diseases.Moving a request from Rails on Trails to have the ski team be recognized as an official school athletic team to the regular board meeting later this month, along with using the same request for proposals for school photography services as the previous year, and to keep the existing WIAA high school wrestling cooperative with Webster.