Amery Board of Ed Special Meeting / District & School Report Cards 1/7/2026

001history. [clears throat] >> Good evening. >> I'd like to welcome everybody here uh to our special meeting of the Amry Board of Education uh to talk about our school report card presentation tonight. And I would like to start off with the pledge of allegiance. So all of you that are um able, please rise and join me. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. And with that, I'd like to turn it over for the presentation of the school district report card uh to our administrative team. Dr. Dler, would you like to open? >> I'll start off. Well, a little backstory context. They've been doing state of Wisconsin that is

002has been doing district and school report cards since uh started off with just schools uh and then districts uh the second year forward. There have been a few years that haven't been a scorecard for anybody uh the co year and I think 2014 15 and there was one other year as well but there wasn't a scorecard for any district any school at all. Um there are four different scorec card presentations within the presentation. The district [snorts] report card, then the high school, then the middle school, then the intermediate school, and the elementary school is wrapped into the intermediate school. So you're not going to hear much from Megan because there just not much to say. So that's the context. >> That's the context of what you're about to see. So I'm going to do the

003presentation on the district report card. The big areas are highlighted in bold right there in the middle of the screen. Student achievement which is just what you see typically is for English language arts and mathematics is what the student achievement is assessed on. Growth moving kids from point A to point B. Target groups. Target groups are this is a group of students who uh need growth and they target the growth of that particular group and typically it's the students in the bottom quartile. And then lastly, on track and post-secary readiness, or the easier way to say that is graduation rates and absentesis. The district report card you'll see there is a 74.8. I know that means nothing just as a data point sitting on the screen. Basically, scorecards run from 40 to 100 and 74.8

004is sort of in the meaty part of the exceeds expectations curve. There are five levels. significantly exceeds expectations, exceeds expectations, meets expectations, meets few, and meets none. Those are the five. And as you'll see, there's been 11 years where there's been a DPI scorecard. The history of it on the next slide. The far right's red. The far right is present. 2425. Our high mark was back in 1516 at 82.6. But I would like to give a word of caution here. The scorecard has not been apples to apples since 2012 through 2025. It's had probably a total of six, seven, maybe eight iterations of different scorecards, different calculations for not just districts, but for schools as well. So, it's sort of hard to do longitudinal data. But just for the sake of understanding where have we

005been, all of those numbers are exceeds expectations. The 82.6 six back in the day was a couple of decimal points away from significantly exceeding. So that's where we've been in CISA. You'll see over the course of the years, if you will, CISA is made up. CISA 11 is where we are. There's 39 schools that make up Northwest Wisconsin. We have placed as you see there on the screen a place rank as high as second as low as 23rd and in the present year 10. This is the second highest performing CISA if you use report cards and if you use ACT scores in the state of Wisconsin. The highest CISA from academic performance is the affluent schools around the city of Milwaukee. And that's just not who we are and what we look like. We're a

006whole different population of school and different population of kid and family than who those people are. The first priority area is achievement. Uh for ease of understanding, I believe Becky's done an awesome job of creating a graphic where words are generally read and when you see red, you see us. So you see two years 24 25 23 24 the red marks and then the gray marks are the state of Wisconsin. So you're comparing all districts in the state of Wisconsin in the area of achievement on the same marks. So you get apples to apples comparison. The last two years are fairly similar apples to apples but when you get further back than that then you start seeing different iterations of report cards that were generated by different types of calculations. So we exceed or not

007exceed we are we pass the state in the area of English language arts in both of those years as we do in the area of mathematics and that's a district-wide performance generating basically 3 through 11 forward exam 3 through 8 + 10 ACT in the high school 9 10 11 and there's a little bit of forward exam in the high school as well so three grades 3 through 11 by from a growth standpoint we did not surpass pass the state in English language arts in the last two years. We were near where the state average was. Again, growth is you're taking a group of kids and moving them from point A to point B in the area of English language arts or in the in the area of math. In math, we were pretty much

008right where the state was in the area of growth for a district. This next slide is a little hokey the way that it's done. They just pick on the basically the first or second page of the report card four big areas of the report card and they're not insignificant areas but there are many there are dozens they take they take these four so in eighth grade math we the red compared to the gray of the state blue on the screen minus gray um English language arts in third grade and then a graduation rate then an absentee rate and absenteeism in essence means kids come to school and in each of those years we are ahead of the state on those markers. So I'll take any questions that you may have in regards to the district

009report card. I know it's not always easy and straightforward. >> Is growth moving ahead of where you were or is growth meaning a certain [clears throat] already identified set of expectations? >> It's an already set set. It's an already set set of expectations. They the state believes just say for instance middle school from sixth grade to eighth grade they should be on this trend line and what you'll see when you get to the middle school results for instance they're ahead of that trend line and when you're ahead of that trend line you get greater bang for your buck so to speak. You get a higher score. If you're below that trend line you get a lower score. That's really in essence what it means. Excellent question. And they emphasize growth versus achievement based on the

010dynamic of your district. And what you'll see here tonight is they emphasize growth at a high rate in the school district. We're going to be based on our population. As achievement, you'll see it it's sort of in anacronism a little way because achievement you may be better than most and then on growth you're lower than most. So your score gets lower because growth is weighted more. So it it it's really a calculation game in a lot of ways. Other questions you might have for me. Um um statewide we hear a lot of um how the standards have been lowered in the last couple of years and so how that this state report card has been um viewed by the department of public instruction and how um those calculations have come to be um and I

011think that's what you kind of you were referring to for the last two years that you're not really comparing those apples to apples >> but the politics of this last round is there were some changes in regards to how the grades how the um numbers are computed. That was a summer of 2025 item. That's not reflected in this report card. That's going to be reflected on the 2526 report card. So there'll be another So that's a another calculation. I mean just a foreshadowing of next year's report card. This is computed with a three-year rolling average. The highest weight is on present year. 2425 is the most present year. The second highest on the year prior, the third highest on two years prior. This next report card in 2526 is going to be a two-year rolling

012average. That's a different calculation which will give you a number because you could take these exact same numbers and put a 2-year rolling average and although the final numbers will change. So be cautious when you look at longitudinal. But yes, you're you're foreshadowing politics as part of this. politics is part of the scorecard by all means. >> I just Yeah, I just wanted to for you know people that may have questions or how that's looked at and um is that is that what we're talking about here? I think you've obviously been more involved in that that discussion which I why I've kind of turned to you there for a little bit, Jess. um is that that we're talking about rolling standards back and yet so we're talking that we have exceeded some expectations here and

013so for the general public is are we talking that we're still meeting exceeding those expectations without rolling those backs? >> Absolutely. On this report card I can say with certainty we are in pre previous report cards as well and the reason I can say that is because our growth and our achievement is well ahead. you could you'd have to change the the calculations dramatically in order to not be ahead in the course of the the dis report. So that hasn't even had an impact. >> Okay. >> But that's an excellent question because it's a very hot topic. >> Yes. Thanks for clearing that up as we move forward. Something to keep in mind. >> Fair enough. I'll turn it over to Josh for the next portion. This is high school stuff. >> Okay. Um you

014can see our overall score report card last year um up for comparison purposes to the previous year over five points and to quote the great Thomas Benson uh Josh you guys moved a glacier last year and that's not easy to do moving up that many points. [clears throat] Just some points of clarification here too. Pretty significant differences going from the forward test to the ect test. I think it's important for people to understand. Um, number one, the forward test is based off of gradebased standards at each grade level. Third grade standards, fourth grade standards, fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade. When you get to high school, for instance, the ACT that is now based on national standards. And the ninth graders aren't just tested on 9th grade standards. There's also some 10th and

01511th grade standards mixed in there as well as well as lower grade level. It's very challenging. Um I would I would compare it as for simplicity purposes uh driving an automatic car through eighth grade and then in nth grade we want you to start driving a manual shift transmission. Um more choices. For instance, on math you have five choices rather than just four. and you have a time test component to it that you don't have on the forward test. Um, imagine learning how to drive a manual shift transmission at the intersection of 46 and F on a busy day. And that's that feeling of having that time test for some of these kids. We did a practice test with our kids here, two of them now so far this year. And I'll take our ninth

016graders as an example. We saw some pretty significant growth from September to December when we took our second test. And I didn't bring this up, but another member of our advisory group did said they said, you know, I think this is a direct result of the first time through it was their first time having a timed test and not having they were more prepared, ready for that. So just some differences there between the two tests that I think are very important. Um, in terms of the priority priority areas for achievement, um, you'll see the Amry scores in red, uh, the state in gray, uh, the last two years, um, or I'm sorry, this is Amery versus the state last two years. Um you'll notice English language arts took a small little dip last year about

017one point but you'll notice the math went up over 13 points last year from the previous year on the area of achievement. Uh something that we put a whole lot of focus on >> and that's achievement of 9 10 11 correct 9101 achievement. Uh the growth area, this is the area that's always been our kill. Um took a dip in English language arts last year. Um math went up almost 10 points on our growth score from 2425 from the previous year. What this chart shows is the number of kids that you have in each of the four quadrants. Developing, approaching, meeting, advanced. You'll see this in other people's slides as well. on this chart. It's very important that you have as many people in the purple category as possible. >> Go ahead, Becky. >> Oh,

018speak. >> You got an English. >> Okay. Yeah. So, we've got the math level. Same thing. You want to have more people in the purple. Go ahead and advance to the next one. This is the one that shows kind of a visualization going from 2324 to 2425. The bottom category, the light blue, that's where you want to have the largest number. You'll see the advanced went from 6.4 to 13.8% in English language arts. So that was a nice jump in the advanced. But up at the top to developing, that number stayed close to the same. If you slide over to math, you'll see an increase of almost four and a half 5% in the advanced category. But up in the developing, you'll see a decrease of almost 5%. Meaning those we took five kids out

019of that developing area and moved them up the ladder, which is ultimately one what you want to do. >> So in the calculation, each of the colors based on the brand of achievement it is gets a different grade. And not surprisingly, the closer sort of inverse, the closer to the bottom you get, more bang you get in regards to calculation points. So to have more people in the purple and the blue is better than having people in the what? Yellow and orange. Becky, um this is strictly based off of the juniors, this year's seniors. Now, uh, composite score, uh, unfortunately, and I'll share a little bit more of this later, based on the practice test data we had on the juniors, um, we thought that there was a high likelihood they were going to have

020the highest ACT score that we've had at AHS the last six years. Um, we had a really nice pep talk speech the morning of, showed them their practice test data, tried to build them up. Um, and we really did think that they were going to have our highest score over the last six years. And it turned out unfortunately that they ended up having the lowest score that we've had the last six years which that was that was tough when that came through. But I'll hit the next two. You can see the ELA score here 15.1 compared to the conference and then the math score at 17.8 compared to the rest. Now this is just our current seniors, last year's juniors. Next slide. This is last year's ninth grade, current year's 10th graders. This is the

021overall comp score. You'll see first place overall in the middle border conference last year, 19.3 for a composite score. You want to move ahead 10th grade. This year is 11th grade. Um you've got a comp score second in the conference, 18.6 overall. Um a couple of very academic classes. um our working kids. 9th grade ELA score 19.0 um considerably higher than the majority of the conference there. Their math score about 10th grade ELA um looks like third overall 18.2 just behind the likes of Baldwin and Somerset. Um, our ninth graders in math, 19.7 was their score as compared to the other Middle Border Conference schools last year. I think you can see where they fit in. Uh, 10th grade math 19.3 also highest in the conference last year. Um, as I mentioned before, the 11th

022grade practice test data indicated um that they were going to have a composite score of over 20. uh the actual tests were lower. English pretest was around 21. The actual score came in near 16. Math pre-EST was around 20. Came in at about 18 when you counted for all the kids. So that was a disappointing result. I've already talked about the ninth graders finishing first, 10th graders finishing second overall in the middle border. Um I just would like to point out that the DPI continues to send multiple schools to Amory to learn about how we are excelling in our academic and career planning programs and our CTE endeavors. something that we put a huge priority on at the high school and have for a number of years. We had 85% pass rate on our advanced

023placement courses, AP courses. Now, I will point out the number of kids taking AP courses has the test has dipped a little bit because we've had such a movement forward with our dual academic college courses through the University of Wisconsin River Falls. We had 112 students earn university credits last year via DACP. And just a reminder on the big difference with DACP, [clears throat] they're paying for the credits, but it's at a pretty good rate. But if you pass the class and meet the standard that's been established within the whole length of the class, you get college credit, not just based on how they do on the actual AP test. And our kids have really reaped the benefits in that. Um and then 262 students earned dual enrollment credits um courses they're taking here at

024AI and then Northwood Tech, Chipo Valley Tech in various different fields, business ed, egg, CTE, all over the board. So really important things there. you know, our strategies plans last year after we got our results in. Um, we purchased an ACT test program called CERT that we think was very helpful to us last spring. Um, especially for those kids that are really driven and want to do some independence studies, that's an option for them. Um, we are the only school that I know of in the middle board that is doing three practice tests a year. Now, last year we could only do two because we didn't buy the program until the fall window was closed. We've taken two tests already at this time. We'll do a third practice test in late February. Um, we have

025students that are doing weekly practice quizzes in our what we call our win warrior time. And then we've been working very hard at putting uh ACT practice questions built into our English and math curriculums as daily bell ringer activities. I've been working hard to work on that bottom 20% with targeted intervention groups. Um an aggressive plan um with both English and math, multiple days a week in the morning where we have a handful of kids that have been getting a lot of extra preparation, a lot of extra help. We're working hard on culture building activities in the school to continue to grow on the improvements that we made from last year. Uh we're working on schedule changes for next year. um skinnies meaning year round 45minute classes for uh English 9, English 10, algebra and

026geometry as those are kind of the measuring sticks of what this test is. Now that still won't rival the 75 minutes a year that the middle school has in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade for both math and English. But if we were to adopt a model like that, something else has to be, you know, shortened or removed. Whether it's teched classes, agriculture classes, um medical classes, you know, something else is going to have to give if we were to try to adopt a similar model to that. U we are adding in a dedicated English 11 specific course. A number of years ago, many of our courses, junior and senior year, are interchangeable. you can take it either your junior or senior year. And we did that to offer flexibility for kids. You know, maybe you

027couldn't take your favorite welding class or AP class this year, but you're able to take it still as a senior. And so, by trying to create that flexible scheduling flexibility, it created a situation where some kids necessarily maybe weren't taking all of their English classes as 11th graders. and taking them 12th grade after the ACT was over. Um, some of our courses, for instance, um, if a kid is taking uh, the construction trades class with Mr. Ganji, the math class has to be taken simultaneously with when the house building is going on. Well, the house building is an every other year endeavor. So, they're many of those kids take the what's the name of that course, Josh? >> The technical math course. Correct. You know, like the kids that are in it this year that

028are seniors couldn't take that class last year because has to be taken at the same exact time. So, a number of them probably didn't take a math class last year waiting for that class. We have a handful of kids this year that are [clears throat] seniors that we know didn't take English 11 last year because they were trying to fit in other classes into their schedule. So, >> why does that math class have to be taken at the same time and not a prerequisite? They they want it taken at the exact same time. That's a Northwood they >> Northwood Tech. >> So they they cannot take it before they >> they can but then they won't get the credit. >> They won't get the college credit. they won't get the certification for that goes with

029the the three classes Josh that they have to take the blue >> print reading and uh technical math and then the actual building project >> and we can't make that line we can't make that line up or we are we are making it line up but then what's >> we're at we're at we're only building the house every other year so that's the year we run technical college math >> and so if you're a junior And that was going to you wanted that to be your math credit, but we're not running that class this year. They're not taking that class until after they've taken the ACT. >> And so then they're getting no math or what what >> their junior year, their junior year, they might not have a math class then. >> Talk about

030the year-long English and math. I think that would shed some light on part of the plan of action. What's the benefit of that? Well, you're you're in English and math year round then in ninth and tth grade, >> which is when you're taking the tests and you're not because you could theoretically not you [snorts] could theoretically and I don't want to steal your thunder, Josh, you could take math at the tail end or the beginning of your um sophomore year and not have it until your junior year when you're [snorts] taking your ACT or your a preac in spring, March, you will not have had math for the sort of part of three three four months at that point. So year long, you're assured that all freshman and all sophomores are getting hit with math

031and English that entire time. >> So what would year long math and English look like and how does that fit into the schedule? >> Um, [sighs and gasps] you know, we're looking at a a modified block that would have English and math. Well, Skinny's first block, 1 A and 1B. And then we would also utilize third block where we have a lunch break in the middle as kind of a natural transition. Um building the schedule. We're trying to preserve as many of those historical, you know, block schedule classes as we've had, but we will have to pair up a number of classes as skinnies just to make sure we can balance out the schedule with the offerings. what um and don't get me wrong, I I when you're a technical education teacher, I know the

032the big value of having block scheduling. Um but what if you went with you just scrapped that whole schedule of block scheduling and you again you talked about mimicking the middle school uh version of the 75minute classes. Is that possible? but you just scrap the whole schedule, start over and don't have necessary blocks or modified blocks. >> If you went to a 75 minute model like that, you're you're going to have to limit some of your other classes that you're probably taking with that. And so then it becomes the balance, you know, at the high school, you know, at at the middle school and lower levels. I think trying to have, you know, the school report card is is really important and having a grade score is great there. I think a huge focus for

033the high school. Yes, we want to do well with that, but we're also looking at careers life after high school, trying to prepare kids for what those futures are going to entail out of high school. So, that's the balance right there. >> Um, and and so was kind of that kind of leads me to another question of how much emphasis are we putting on ACT prep versus the student experience and classroom grades? And do those um two correlate? Are we if are we doing enough work in the classroom to adequately prepare kids to take the ACT versus doing the drill and practice? Um because it looks like we spend a lot of time on drill and practice right now. That's kind of the plan moving forward that we're putting in mock tests that we're doing

034that in win time. Um what does that look like? >> Well, I we're certainly working on the everyday. The best bang for your buck is always going to be in the actual classroom learning environment whether it's algebra, geometry, advanced algebra, pre-calculus, English 9, English 10. The whole peers with creating this English 11 class going back to so all kids will take an English 11 course before they take the ACT. I think that's going to have a lot of benefit. I think that's really really important. Um, in terms of the extra prep, um, I I guess I I don't understand your question. I >> I'm just I I guess what I was asking is should there be more emphasis of the the actual preparation in in the classrooms in the actual teaching versus um are we

035putting [clears throat] more emphasis just on the the drill and practice in the testing in the actual practice test versus what translating that to the actual drill? >> I think we're putting on all of it. >> I'm just asking. >> No, and I'm saying I think we're we're putting it all over in the classroom in our in our study halls. I think we're putting it in both areas. [clears throat] Is the preac similar enough to the ACT that you can compare them? I mean it honestly Steve I that's a tough question to answer. Um you know for instance the ninth and the tth graders take the same test. So but that changes from year to year. Um, I guess I guess where I'm going with that question is if this is if this is last

036year's juniors that we're seeing, this year's seniors, is that correct for the ACT score? >> Mhm. >> Um, and it's a lower score compared to the two previous classes, the two upcoming classes. When this class was in the preac, were they also low? They were. So is it is it something that is inherent in that class because I have a lot of faith I mean we're seeing it in the results of the the upcoming classes and it's the same teachers. So, is there something that is with that class, that group of kids, um something that's happened, you know, like we talk about COVID and the effects of CO um is there I mean, we can dig into this and I obviously nobody likes that number that we see and I don't want to just sweep

037it under the rug and I know that you guys aren't, but I don't understand how that class is different than the others. Yeah. Um, you know what? One thing that I've noticed with this class, less involvement in extracurriculars. As one example, when I look at the number of senior banners that we have in the gym right now, alltime low probably for us. Um, >> is there more that can be done or are we already to the point where it's only should have been done? >> Like I said, Steve, when they when they took their their practice test data last year, we we were feeling pretty good, like really really encouraged. And all I can say is that we think we're working really hard students, staff up at the high school right now. And I'm very

038hopeful that our test results from this spring will be good. And I'm hoping that the steps that we're looking at doing into next year will also continue to move us in the right direction. Do we do um what do we do for looking at kids that struggle with just taking a test? What are we doing to identify those kids? because I know I mean I'll give you an example stuff that I talk to my kids about all the time when I was in college [clears throat] principles of investments. I get A's on the math. I'd get C's and D's on the multiple choice. And the teacher would say, well, it's obvious you know how to do it. You can do the math. And so if we have kids that are struggling to t to test,

039what can we do to identify those kids? and you guys already know. I don't I'm not in this sandbox. So, >> I think the better point of increase is not just helping kids be able to take tests, but that response to intervention model you're seeking to establish at the high school. Maybe you guys could talk about what that means. And Jessica and Josh have worked a lot on this. >> Yeah, I mean, we're it's it's data driven. That's based on kids that are falling into that bottom 25% and trying to get them through the skills and stuff that they're struggling in that we see most. You know, that's another thing that's hard is we're going off of the skills on the FastBridge screener that we take. You know, the forward test does a really good

040job of giving schools data that shows the areas that you're doing well in and areas that you're struggling in. The ACT suite doesn't do that. It's because it's a national test, their data is a little bit more in lockdown. So, we're using our practice test data that we get to try to identify, you know, areas that we're doing well in or not, but we don't get the same exact data that the forward test provides, unfortunately. >> Sure. >> Just a little tour to the fall was um high school teachers. I met with them in the summer and Josh and I walked through Fastbridge. [clears throat] I lived in Breathe FastBridge since I was a first grade teacher and so we took time this summer um and taught high school teachers how to assess students in

041FastBridge. So, FastBridge is a universal screener that's used um in all four buildings now three times a year. It's really skill-based. So, um when the high school screen their students this fall, Josh and I then sat down with English and the math and we were able to to sort kids. So, when Josh talks about that bottom 20%, we were looking at the bottom 25% and so we could um we could um categorize them based on what was the skill deficiency. And what's been great about FastBridge and and Josh has really pioneered this is we could see that for example there are 12 kids that really struggled with numbers and operations in math. And so that really was the starting point of the win groups. We have 12 kids that struggle with with mathematical operations. How

042are we going to reinforce that? And the high school has some good tools um that were already there that that his teachers are familiar with. So it was a matter of fi identifying the kids, screening the kids, identifying the kids, and then finding a a space for them to learn. And a lot of that was taking away any narrative that win time was u a punishment, right? Or wind time was something that they didn't want to be a part of. Um K8 wind time happens every day, you know, and in both of our buildings, I'll speak to mine and Megan's it's 30 minutes every day. Kids go everywhere. So really we needed to to make sure that students understood that narrative that um everyone went to win because everyone needs something a little bit different.

043But really with that fastbridge data honing in on those exact kids and what were those skills missing. Um it's easier at the elementary and the intermediate school. There's so many intervention tools that are out there. At the high school, the high school teachers have done a really great job of identifying programs they have to be able to go back and back fill those gaps. And I I mean we met with math today and and they're really really great about reaching out and asking questions and another element of that was putting in assessments, right? So FastBridge says numbers and operations is the deficit, but what what evidence do we have of that? Do we have formative and summitative assessments that are showing growth? Um so that's something that we've worked on too is that there's in-house

044assessments that are showing growth and if not those teachers are circling back and reteing this skill, the skill that was missed. that's never been done um at the high school. So much so that I've had several other director curriculum instruction directors reach out to me and say it's happened in Amry because I'm hearing you guys are doing targeted interventions at the high school. Um and I've said a couple times we're we're flying this plane as we're building it because we're recognizing that students need those skills backfilled. We cannot push them forward if they don't have what they need >> in the development of kids. So if I look back to [clears throat] co five years ago. So that would mean our seniors were >> seventh, sixth grade, eighth grade. What were they? Eighth grade. >>

045They were sixth grade. >> Yeah. >> So can you tell me on the developmental side and um the learning side? Obviously we've all talked about the impact of seeing all that stuff today. Is that a reflection of these numbers, do you think? at the middle school. They're not we're we're at precoid numbers at the middle school and at the interviews. >> No, but this is that this if we're talking about this class specifically. Oh, okay. I see what you're saying. >> There's a lot of that I couldn't speak to, >> but I you know, and I get where you're going with that, but there's also I mean we're looking at across the CISAs and they all went through it too. It's all the same class. They all went through it too. So that we, you

046know, I think we have to at some point start taking CO out of the equation that we could maybe think about if we didn't have some uh interventions in place after we came out of CO, but we did and I think the middle school um has always done well not always, but the last seven years has done a really bump job of backfilling and doing the response to interventions um and drilling down into those um gaps. So they're coming from the middle school to the high school. So, I I can't say that we can't look back and think that there's something to blame five years ago here when they they were coming out. >> I'm just I'm talking out loud just trying to see if there's >> Yeah, I I I get it. But I

047Yeah, I mean, we're looking at data comparatively and and now we have to think of what what are we lacking here? Um and I think that the response to intervention and the back filling in the high school h had to have been done that that it's something that's great that's being done. Um >> Josh, the overall score is troubling. You have an improvement plan in place. Uh fast forward a year. Where where would you like to see that score a year from now? >> Oh, absolutely. It meets expectations. That's that's our goal to, you know, if if that number said 60 next year, I would would be ecstatic. It's it's it's not a number that moves You're not going to have a 10point swing on this. It it it doesn't happen. >> Um >> that's

048because it's >> But you do expect to see some movement in the right direction. >> Well, six points last year. >> Well, and the other thing going back to Sher's earlier point about the the metrics, we don't know based on how the cut scores shake out. That's and the other big moving factor and Sean alluded to it earlier is our percentages get changed every year based on our free and reduced population. It impacts the amount of growth and achievement weight every single year. >> Historically about 75% of elementaryaries/intermediates score at exceeds expectations. 75% of the state elementary intermediates. About 50% of the middle schools score at exceeds expectations. and about 25% of the high schools score at exceeds expectations and then you can move that number down with meets expectations. It's it's generally the same

049breakdown. Um the score card is [snorts] not really built for an overdrive of high school success. It's really not. I am more concerned with ACT score as Josh is I think than the scorecard score. The scorecard score is a little lowkey. The ACT there's a lot more validity because they've been doing the ACT for like 50 years and that's been more strongly betted. Though I will agree with Josh, it it's not even close when you compare the ACT for example. Those are whole different animals altogether uh created by whole different entities. So, it's a little strange how they've done that, but that's what they've done. It's the way tool we have for [snorts] >> it's the only tool we have that assesses schools in this way. I think that Steve's like original question though was

050not so much the response to intervention and the backfilling of but it's how have we identified the kids that not lack this the skills because clearly we're doing that but lack the ability to take the test to take those skills that they that they do know and then translate them to actually taking the test. So what are we doing there? >> Well, can I say something for a little bit on that? I think there's a there's a few avenues that we're doing that. You know, I think I want to go back to your test anxiety question particularly. There's a pretty good system in place to identify students who may be experiencing that. And with the, you know, ACT and forward, you can um apply for accommodations based on a 504 plan or an IEP plan.

051And so that that gives them the opportunity to maybe test in a smaller group, test, you know, have some extended time. So we we're able to um kind of support their their needs that way. Um I think the practice that they're doing now and when we're able to see students who aren't being as successful under the time limit and stuff because we've never asked them to do that very much except for these state time tests, right? So I think the practice and more involvement in those time tests is going to help us identify more students who might need some more support with that. Um, and just to piggyback that, um, you know, students supported by IEP are not part of that typically part of that lower 25% unless they don't have that in their IEP.

052So, I do want to acknowledge that Josh and I worked really hard with our special ed teachers this year. Um, last year going into this year, we needed to kind of up our game on the intervention tools that we were using with our students during our special ed services because they weren't getting um, targeted really really targeted like I wanted it to be happening. So, we changed some tools around this year and I feel pretty confident. We saw we just did a fast bridge screener and we already looked at those datas and I'm I'm like, "All right, now we're on the right path because, you know, there's a lot of weight that goes into unfortunately students supported by AP often fall below in our target group." Um, and there's a lot of weight in growing

053that target group faster than their non-disabled peers, right? So, we've also put into place some things with our intervention time that we're going to hopefully see some growth with that as well. I I think one thing that Josh started out his presentation with that I I think we need to revisit with Steve's question is the fact that they have never tested this way ever >> until they take that test. So the idea that now he's involved practice tests two last year going to be three this year. So they understand when you lower anxiety with people it's because they know what to expect. They know what's coming. They understand what's going to be asked of them. So the fact that he has found a resource and put that in place for kids to now practice it,

054identify it and then he can see the metrics, work individually with those kids, pull in different strategies for how how to take what is actually college entry exam. There's there's a lot of question validity on should the ACT even really be a metric of high school success or not especially for the kids that want to go a non-traditional pathway besides a four-year degree. I mean, we're talking about measuring them at our highest highest achievers, which we want to do in AMY, of course, but also making sure that we're recognizing that this is still the ACT exam as well. So, the fact that he has shown them here's how you take it and let's start instituting strategies, I fully feel that they're going to continue to grow based on now you'll have a kid instead of

055it being their maybe second or third time seeing it, it'll be their fifth or sixth time seeing it. That should lower anxiety and increase confidence in kids. >> You still have to care though. >> Oh, 100%. >> You know, because if you have no plans on going to college, >> why would you care? Yeah. >> I'm not I don't need this. >> And that's where the culture part comes in that we've been working hard. >> Sure. But but it's more than culture. It's it's societal because there's a lot of value in two-year degrees >> and people entering the workforce. >> And college isn't what it was when we were in school, right? I mean there's the the emphasis on a four-year degree isn't what it was when we were >> Dr. Derler and I have

056had this conversation 10 times in the last 3 months. >> Well, and I think the board has always at least since I've been on the board has recognized that, supported that um which is why we put so much emphasis like you said into technical education programs and have supported those programs wholeheartedly and and know that um there's great value in those programs. Um, and I that was kind of what my question was about the ACT prep and and versus the student experience. Um, and what we're looking at as far as grades and what those other indicators could be. >> Um, you're right, it's a college preparatory exam, a college entrance exam >> and and probably given at the wrong time of the year um for even even our highest achieving learners. and that we have

057to recognize that um not everybody is collegebound. Um and we realize that there's those other components to it which figures into the report card itself. >> To go back to Larry's question a few minutes ago, I I really do think our scores are going to be higher next year. Like it's a feeling I have from what I'm seeing from the kids. They're working hard. you know, staff is working incredibly hard and um I I feel like, you know, will that growth score be exactly where we want it to be? No. But I think it's going to move in the right direction and I feel comfortable that our achievement score is going to continue to be, you know, at or near the top of the conference. >> I [clears throat] just have a question. Um, we

058keep talking about being concerned about our lowest 20% or 17.5%. But yet, we said that growth is measured by our advanced number and that's where we're going to make the fastest growth. Um, >> I'm just I I just want to know >> can we focus or are we focusing in win time on our meeting and approaching students that's 67 68 >> 7% of our population and when we just focus on 17% >> what are we doing there that's one question and then the other question was it seems Seems like in math we do amazing things. So is the English language arts test that much different that we can't take the principles that we do in math and apply it in our English classes? And then the third question is this meant to be 25 26

059that we're going to start doing skinnies with math and English. We're not doing it this year. >> No. >> So next year. Okay. So those are three questions. But I wanted to get them in fast. [laughter] >> Let's take them one at a time. >> Perfect. >> What was the first question? >> So the first question is, what are we doing to take that middle 60% and bump them up each level? >> So all of our win time teachers [clears throat] when they're not in intervention are doing a number of things. Either kids are taking some practice quiz, we have some practice quizzes that we're doing individually or a number of teachers are doing practice questions as large groups. So you've got the entire class of kids working together. You know, whether it's a a

060phrase on an English expression or a geometry problem in math up on the board, working on it together. Those are kind of two two primary thoughts of things that we're doing. And of course within the classroom itself, once again going back to you get your best banker buck in the classroom, you know, everyday classroom stuff. Question number two was >> question number two is we always we seem to have good growth in math but we seem to stagnate at the English language arts. So my question is >> is it so diverse in English language arts and not as concrete as mathematics or why do we not see the growth that >> so our math scores actually last the previous year were not as nearly as good as what they are this year. So, we made

061a huge jump in math this past year. >> Um, you know, we've I I think that lack of the English 11 class has has hurt and our intentions while making it more flexible scheduling for kids, our intentions were pure and good, it came back to backfire. And um, you know, that's that's a bummer. And I wasn't just referring to high school. >> I I'm referring [clears throat] across the board. If you look at the >> But I think I think I think that score is probably skewed pretty heavily because of the high school score. So that would be my guesstimate there. The why the English girl scores skewed because of the high school score. >> Question three. >> It was just the date thing. I just want I because I didn't think we were doing

062the skinnies yet. So, we wouldn't see advantage of that. But I do have a question with that because some eighth graders, if I remember this correctly, unless it's changed. I I haven't had a kid in the school in a while. >> Um, some some of your eighth graders can come up and start in geometry and then go to algebra 2 so that they can get into the advanced math classes. Are you still going to offer that or are all freshmen going to be required >> to do algebra? >> So, there's currently algebra being taught in the eighth grade. Where we made a lot of strides last year is we selectively scheduled kids so that they would take we took a handful of kids who did pre-alggebra in the fall and algebra in the spring or

063algebra in the fall and geometry in the spring. So they did have year- round mathematics, you know, and a number of these kids got, you know, we've had some juniors in the last couple of years that have got to calculus, you know, because they they went through. >> The plan moving forward starting next year would be only algebraas. Let's say you're uh not in the excelled math group, but you're coming in in algebra. you would have to take a whole year of algebra 1 and then your sophomore year you could take um geometry as a skinny at the same time you would be taking algebra 2. We would allow them to take geometry and algebra 2 at the same time so that they can still get to where they want to in the advanced math

064track. >> Okay. Now this is probably my fifth question because I'm a huge proponent obviously of of CTE but I'm also a huge proponent of of our music program. how this is because you mentioned first block and third block and I don't know where band and quar >> band is first block and talking to both Meredith and Carrie um they the plan is to offer far more skinnies than we have in the past and they think that will hopefully help um keep kids out for band or choir because now they have if they're not in both if they're in band or choir now they might have some more options. >> So whereas I I don't want to stay out in band because my only choice now is taking drawing or and that's a bad example,

065but >> I know >> now they'll have some other opportunities and options to take opposite band or choir if they're not in both. I want to circle back around to something that you'd mentioned [laughter] um when Steve was asking about the achievements of this particular class and um if you're looking at like basically the makeup of this particular class and something that you'd said was that this class um is a lower participating class than um what you've seen before as far as extracurriculars and you just mentioned banners in the gym which obviously is athletics. Um, but does this class have any involvement in any other extracurriculars or the our FFA program, our CTE programs, our um our STARS program with SECLA uh FA uh venues, all of those things. Is there more? >> It's the

066biggest group of work experience kids, youth apprentice kids that I've seen. Um, these kids are in the workforce. A lot of them have jobs. It is it is the biggest crew. Um Mr. Ganji has a number of YES. Um David kind of spearheads it, but this is this is by far the I mean, >> do we know why? Do we know if are they that way? Because they're feeling disconnected. I'm trying so hard not to speak negatively about this group of kids cuz I love them and >> they're great kids. [laughter] >> But it >> I don't think that there's anything negative to say there. I I have not as a group they're academics are have been a very big challenge for them. >> I think you know my daughter's class went through the same

067thing and it was very much what Abby was talking about with test anxiety because of trauma that they had experienced back in in intermediate school. Um, and that seemed to they were flagged for not when you were here. [laughter] It was and they were flagged for a while as bad test takers, although there were very very bright students in that class and their ACT performance was knocked it out of the park in in a lot of those cases. And so, um, you know, testing isn't and test scores aren't necessarily indicative, but there is trauma that comes from sometimes previous experiences. And I'm just wondering, has the work been put in or have we asked this group of kids of what is the disconnect that you're feeling? Cuz obviously you felt like they were going to

068knock it out of the park on the ACT given their PSAT scores, but then said there really isn't a lot of correlation. We can't really draw from >> No, I'm talking based I got to clarify this. I'm talking about the the the C practice test program that we used. not their ninth grade test, not their tenth grade test, but their actual practice ACT test that they took when they were juniors twice last year. That was that was the data that had us very excited, like well above what we had seen from their previous two years. So, just so we're clear on that. So, have we have have we have we asked have we talked we drilled down to these kids of anything more of why maybe they they're feeling a disconnect or we just thinking

069that it's academics period and they just hadn't caught up. We haven't backfilled in time. We didn't >> um you know most of what we've been doing with the seniors is we've been forward thinking with them. You know, having our senior adulting day stuff. We've been really focusing on their future. we haven't really spent a whole lot of time talking about last year in the ACT. >> I just, you know, kind of looked for patterns of things that we going forward [clears throat] of how do we learn from this class if we started to see it in another class. Um, I guess I'm not talking about like what are we doing now with this class because clearly we're here. But >> yeah, and you know there's there's strength in numbers. you know, we, you know, there

070wasn't a lot of high scores either with with last year's bunch in that junior class, now seniors. But whereas our, you know, our current 10th and 11th graders, it's almost like there's competition amongst them, which is great. You know, they all want to have the highest scores and and that's going well. And, you know, trying hard to reach and bring those bottoms up. And actually, Jess has had the conversation with me multiple times. You know, the the sweet spot bang for your buck that Jess has always talked to me about is is that 15 to 35th percentile is where your bang for your buck is in terms of the the growth score. >> And count twice. >> That's That's why they bring the intervention groups, too. So, they count twice. Yep. >> Do we have

071a lot of kids retake the ACT test? >> We have some. >> Yeah. But um a bunch of colleges don't even ask for your ACT score anymore. Is that correct? >> Very few. >> And the kids know it. >> Yeah. Exactly. So that's what I think makes [clears throat] a difference, too, is that these kids know that um they're not even going to be asked for their ATC score when they apply to college. And so I think that they partially have that in their mindset when they prepare for this test. I'm not saying that that's the total reason, but I think it can play a part for some of the kids. >> And and that's what we're really working on, you know, with building the culture and having these conversations primarily now with the current

0729th, 10th, and 11th graders. >> Yeah. I think that just because they don't plan on going to college or that they think that this isn't as weighted as heavily if they were to go to college, um I think that it is incumbent upon us to instill in them that um this is, you know, school's a job um and that this is this is your job is to see your assessments and and we're trying to do the best that we can to help you fulfill anything that you want to do. And so even though the ACT might not matter to get into college, um we still want to move you forward and give you the best chance at at succeeding even in the work world that we can. Um and I we've seen kids that didn't

073finish. They tripped at the finish line and they didn't finish because the high school diploma, they didn't want to put in the work um because they would rather work. But when it comes push comes to shove, employers want to see can you finish? The high school diploma is can you finish? How did you what skills do you have that you can bring to the table? And if we can instill that, that's our job to do that and instill that inherently we would hope that that would translate into wanting to do the best that they can in those assessments. >> Intrinsic motivation. You know, I've had people talk to me all the time about exttrinsic stuff and and to me it's like, geez, why why can't you just work hard or do hard because it's the

074right thing to do is what goes through my head. you know, graduation rates were phenomenal at the high school, highest in the conference. Um, and have been attendance has been been very good. Um, I I would, you know, anytime you guys want to bop surprise us at the high school, stop in and I'll just take you around on a tour and let you be Bob in the classrooms because people are working hard, student, staff, non-stop all the time. And I'm super proud of them. >> Yeah. I I I don't think we can say enough of the work, you know, really that's being done on the ground every day. Um I I think that again is something that I' I've said in this chair many times, something that we've talked about. When kids feel more connected

075to their environment, they feel more connected to their school, they feel a part of what they're building, the culture that they're building intrinsically, they do want to do better. Um not only for themselves, but for their schools, their communities. And and I know that we we have those kids. We see them. We see them wanting to go out in the community and work. They're taking pride in what they're building. They're I mean they're doing amazing things and so we just need to make that translate um in a bigger way. Can >> I ask a question to the girls on the end with going back to the test anxiety piece? Is it um waiting through the weeds to find them or is it uh do you think you have test anxiety straight up front right in

076your face? Um, well, I think that'd be a good question for Josh. In the warrior time, I think I think they're really connected to their warrior teacher. Um, and I think the warrior teachers know the students that are in their warrior time very well. So, I would imagine those kind of conversations actually happen between the teacher in the their warrior teacher, warrior time teacher who are doing these things to help them kind of have those conversations >> because the kids know. I mean, you know, talking to my my kids, right? They'll tell you we just don't take tests. Well, that you know I struggle with those, you know, multiple choice types of tests. I struggle with them. They know. >> And I think in the world of 504 once they get to the high school,

077they're more they do have a better understanding of that about themselves and they're more vocal about it and they're the ones who advocate for themselves. So that they are pretty I think they do a good job identifying those students that have that and trying to >> based on the number of students that we support for that. Um, I want to say obviously we've talked about that that number at the school at the high school is a disappointing number, but I don't think it's a reflection of the process or the people. Um, I think there are a lot of factors that get you to that number and we see um good things on the horizon. And so I I want to just let you know that keep moving forward and I think we need to work

078a lot on those those intervention pieces because I I have a feeling that test anxiety is probably a bigger thing today than it was >> Oh yeah. >> a long time ago. That's my guess. I have nothing to base it on. >> There's probably some >> Sometimes your guts way better than any data, Stephen. >> Yeah. I don't know. I don't know about that. Are we ready for middle school action? >> Yeah, we have Tom. [laughter] >> I will do my best to impersonate the one and only Tom Bess, but it will not occur. So, you'll get me. So you see a middle school scored of 90.9 on the 2425 report card. This is the longitudinal performance. Again, same is true of the district as is the high school as is the middle school as

079is the intermediate school. These are apples to oranges in many ways. But we have done very well at the middle school particularly over the course of the last 5 years. And if you look at the next slide, you can see a place rank performance of how we have done in cis 11 out of 39 schools. We have by and large been in the top 10 and in recent years in the top five. It is a byproduct of two things. One, [snorts] your achievement score is strong, but the growth score is even stronger. When your growth score is strong, your score is going to significantly exceed expectations. You will be a blue ribbon school potentially. That is reality. So towards that end if you look at the big markers here for the middle school you have

080the forward exam which is given to all sixth seventh and eighth graders in the area of English language arts, math, science and social studies. Blue is am or red is amory and blue or gray is the state and we are um knock it out of the park in comparison to the state on all of those markers on achievement. But you're also knocking it out of the park part. So if you look at the next slide, you'll see our achievement over the course of the last two school years. In red is uh uh bypasses the state in the areas of English language arts and in math. But not to belabor the point, but the next slide hammers that home. We are at growth which significantly exceeds the expected rate of growth in comparison to the state.

081So it's other middle school performances across the state. And when you do that, that's how you get a 90 something on your scorecard. So it is really kid by kid, skill by skill with intervention systems that match, which is what the high school is seeking to implement, intervention systems that can target kid by kid skill by skill. You take a kid who is deficient in a particular skill, remediate them, send them back out to work, and see if they can improve the performance. That's the research test uh proven way uh K12 nationwide worldwide that is the way to move that marker and the middle school has done that. So when you see on the next slide it's the same type of stuff that you saw for a graph at the high school. It breaks down

082by color developing approaching meeting and advanced. uh you want as many kids towards the right side of the picture and the left side of the picture you want the meeting or or advance the old language the WKCE the Wisconsin knowledge and concepts examination that's really back in the way back machine for folks you got to be old enough like Abby to understand >> you made comments >> you did [laughter] you want to move kids uh up the rank so to speak so you want to move your basic kids to proficient you want to move your proficient kids to advance. That's sort of the same logic as here. You want to make the greens red, you want to make the yellows green. >> In the area of mathematics, they've also done that. But if you look

083at this this uh graph is is very telling because what you have between your green and your red, you have almost 3/4 of your students at meeting your advance. And the only way you do that is to grow your kids because they're not just inherently going to get there. You got to grow some of them and they're growing enough of them to put 3/4 of the kids in those two categories. Highlights. On the next slide, you have an overall rating of 90.9 which significantly exceeds expectations. Puts us in the top 20 of middle schools in the state of Wisconsin, 18th out of 377. That's five top 5%. We've had the highest middle school score over the last three years. So those are definitely highlights. this next. Tom is a data guy and he went and

084grabbed this right off of the DPI and you'll see this school at the far right of the screen. What this depicts is this school was the same or higher than 87.3% of six through 8 schools as in middle schools. So what you're saying is almost 90 we're almost better than 90% of schools on the priority area growth score in achievement. So what you're you're wanting to be is the far right if you can and that's where we are in growth. We are the far right. Overall growth a score of 95.4 four is sixth out of 377 putting Amry Height Middle School in the top 1.5% of the state. Amry Middle School math growth is the highest in Wisconsin three years in a row in area math. Wow. >> That is a impressive number to say

085the least. This is a fancier way to say the line that you see going vertically down the middle of the screen on the left side down the middle down the screen on the right side. That's the growth line that you want to meet and pass. And what you'll see there is on each and every one of the markers, markers meaning every subcategory of kids. However, you can slice and dice them so to speak. It's to the right of that line, which means your growth score for each one of those groups is beyond where they are expected to be. And when your growth score is there, that's when you get a real strong number. So the action plan strategies for improvement continue to work and encourage students to learn and grow at high levels improve intervention

086efforts progress monitoring and support in reading and math to make classroom and intervention processes seamless. Uh work towards continuous improvement again student by student skill by skill develop additional units of instruction centered on the importance of growth mindset. So, those are the middle school slides on behalf of Tom Benson and the middle school. >> I've said it once and I'll say it again. No, I've said it more than once and I'll say it again that I was uh skeptical when I first sat in this chair of Tom and the standardsbased grading that he was proposing at the middle school. And I for one gave him a lot of push back um and asking a lot of questions. And I will say it again that I am happy to sit here and eat a lot of

087crow over that because this you can literally look at the chart the year that it was implemented and see the the difference that that has made in the growth and the of what he's accomplished at the middle school. And I think it speaks volumes to part of our strategic plan and part of what the board has talked about for a couple of years of instead of looking and having a building by building approach but more of a whole district approach of how we intervene with kids um and students and their achievement and that that's now being implemented at the high school. If we're doing these same things that Tom is implementing at the middle school, I think that we are set to see some great things that are going to happen at the middle school

088with with some collaboration with um Jessica and and Josh tackling this together. So um it's proven it's there and you're starting it at the high school and I look forward to the [clears throat] same results happening at the high school that that Tom is seeing there because it shows and we've seen it in our lower grades. Um the elementary and the intermediate schools have been doing the same thing for years. based just on different uh testing standards, but it's there. >> One thing that I would like to highlight, I don't want to steal anyone's thunder that wanted to speak uh to that to the presentation and Jessica can confirm this. The benefit of the forward exam, it allows you to do an item analysis. You can literally dive in and look at grade level and

089look at subject area and it tells you these are the skills that will be assessed and here is where your kids are short on those goals. and then you look at your curriculum and say [cough] we're short on this skill. Let's put this skill here and instruct it before we get to the forward exam. That does not exist for the ACT. There's no such item analysis. So that is a big disadvantage for high school work. Middle school, intermediate school have that advantage and they use it because why wouldn't you? It's really a key to the test and it's [cough and clears throat] used in that way. So, I'll turn it back over to you if you had anything else you wanted to ask or say about the middle school because if not, the intermediate school.

090Jessica, you're up. >> All right. Intermediate school for or report card. Um, we scored at 77.7 exceeding expectations. That's up 2.9. Um, and specific to the intermediate school when Sean talked about waiting. So it's a it's a pi graph. Um the bottom two cortiles are are always 25% and then the top two cortiles those fluctuate. Um when I was down in Madison the last two summers working with the DPI on report cards, there's a lot of conversation about why it's weighted. Um the purpose of it being weighted is so students that come from low socioeconomic status, their growth is valued because if we set a bar of achievement, every kid has different resources to get to that bar, right? Parents at home, school setting, enrollment. Um but when you wait the the growth, that's acknowledging

091how hard the students, the parents, and the teachers are all working together to to grow their students. So at the intermediate school, we are weighted more on growth. Um, our achievement is weighted at about 20% and then our growth is weighted at about 30%. So, um, a big focus in my time, this is year five for me in this role, has been growing our kids. So, Josh and I, he talked about that, that's really been my focus and and Sean says it all the time, kids, my kids, skill by skill. Um, is making sure that we're targeting exactly what their skill is in and growing them. Um, one of the last pictures that was on Tom's slideshow showed that that line of growth, which this the state would predict at a at a growth of

0923.0. So, all things equal, every kid with every asset that they have should be growing at a 3.0. Um, and so if you can get over that, you're growing your kids faster than what this the state would predict. So, that's really where we try to focus is is growing our kids as much as we can. Um having the same finish line we know isn't always equitable when kids aren't aren't showing up to the race with the same tools. [snorts] Um next slide you can see that we raised our score um as I shared that was just the longitudinal data. This one um just highlights within our CES 11 out of 39 schools. We we usually hover around 11th and 12th place. So that's that's a great place to be. Not that I don't aspire to

093be higher than that. When you look at the forward exam um um intermediate school versus the state, as I like to say it, we are in red and then the state is in gray. Um it's important to highlight that all students at the intermediate school, grades three through five, take the forward exam. Um Steve, speaking to a little bit about your question, we do a lot of forward test prep here. So, we take about three weeks to walk kids through the tests. So, we have practice tests. We sit down. Um Abby talked a lot about accommodations. So, if we have a student that's a title student and that's part of their regular services, every day they're pulled out 30 minutes to receive instruction with one of our two fabulous title teachers, they then have the

094right to test in that setting. So, we really found that when we do test prep and our students are in the most comfortable setting and and we're practicing the tests um and we're really using, you know, positive language, you know, that and honestly, our kids are tested to death, right? So at this point we we fast bridge three times a year. We aim webs three times a year and we forward once a year. So um you know I don't think kids ever really get used to it but I think our language as adults is is do the best you can but then also on the back side we're preparing them as much as we can by giving them the experience and the opportunities. Um so all students three through five take English language arts and

095math and then actually only our fourth graders take science and social studies. Um, last year we saw a dip in our science and that again was fourth grade. So, as Sean was saying about item analysis, our fourth grade teachers really looked at science and said, "Okay, what what did we not score well on and and do we need to move that content and and how do we focus on that a little bit better?" So, um, actually our fourth grade science and social studies is departmentalized. So, that means two of our teachers teach social studies and two of our teachers teach science. Um that way the teachers become really invested in that topic and then when our students rotate through one of those subject areas they have more time to to dig deeper. Um as students

096get older um the depth of knowledge so how deep you're going in your learning becomes more important especially I maybe it was you Larry that asked about or maybe it was Gwen that asked about um [clears throat] reading at the high school literacy or ELA. The challenge with with ELA and reading is that the depth of knowledge is so deep right? math is is usually more wrote and is more concrete um where English language arts is just a more challenging subject. Um so just highlighting science and social studies and that's just our fourth grade. Um when you look at our achievement so again our achievement at the intermediate school is weighted at approximately 20%. Um and then the next one is our growth. This one is really where we focus a lot of our resources

097at. Um I'm I'm proud to say that we made great growth. When you look at the 2425, we are meeting um the rate at which the state predicts our students should be growing in English language arts, which is great, right? That's that's the benchmark I want. Anything above that is fantastic. As you could see from 23 24, there were some subcategories of students that weren't growing at the predicted rate. Uh those students in particular were students that were socioeconomically disadvantaged or students with disabilities. Um if you look at our data now, all of our subcategories in ELA are making the predicted growth. So that's um really a highlight of our teachers. Math continues to be something very strong for us. Um we are growing our kids significantly faster than what the state predicts in math.

098Um we did last year as well. Um, I'm really proud to say, and this is kudos to Abby and her team, when you look at our 2425 report card and how we're growing our students in math, our students with disabilities are our fastest growing population in math. So, which is phenomenal. I mean, we're working so hard and >> I would agree. So, um, that's really that really highlights the work that our team is doing. Um, when you look at the bar graph, just as Sean and both Joshes shared, we want our students to be in the meeting [clears throat] or advanced. Um, we during our RTI, our win time, which I'll highlight in a moment, we really focus our developing and approaching students on filling those skills. Those are most likely our students that are

099going to title services. Um, we call them getting double dip. If we can service them in title and we can service them and win, we can grow them faster. they're getting twice as much um one-on-one and and teacher interaction and direct instruction. Um and then you can see our meeting in our advanced population. We um also continue to challenge those students which I'll talk about as well because Gwen had a question about just growing all of our kids. Um when we look at math um really strong scores in math um almost threequarters of our students are either meeting or are advanced in our math proficiency. Um when I look at our our highlights, I was excited to share everything. I would say um the biggest highlights for me is just the exceeding state academic expectations.

100So we've consistently exceeded state expectations and academic performance every year on the accountability report card that's been issued. Um we achieved an overall score of 77.7 which is higher than most K5 schools in the state. We have a strong ontrack to graduation rate. So um we scored 91.5. To me, this reflects excellent student engagement and achievement. Um, when kids want to be here, that's really important. I want the adults in my building to be here, and when they want to be here, I think our kids want to be here, too. >> Um, the exceptional attendance and chronic low absentee rate, I thought this was important to highlight. Um, our attendance rate is 96.1, which is higher than the state average of 93.7. And then our chronic absenteeism is extremely low compared to the state average.

101So, we are 1.8% 8% while the state average is 14.3. >> What's the definition of chronic absenteeism? >> 10% of the days over the school year. In our case, 18 is the magic number over the course of the year. >> It isn't just sheer attendance. It's number of kids going over a threshold. >> Yeah, >> it's a little bit goofy the way they do it, but districtwide we're in the high 90s. So, kids are coming to school. >> Yeah. >> Which is obviously not going to grow anyone if they're not coming here. >> Right. Can I ask a question? The Sure. The um >> the overall building number that is a three-year rolling average. >> Yes. >> And these any of these graphs that are horizontal lines, those are individual yearly snapshots. >> Yes. >>

102Um is this the second slide? >> Yes. >> Um I went there. >> Um another highlight is um high achievement mathematics. So we scored a 80.2 2, while the state average is 68.6. Um, high achievement in ELA, we scored a 73.3. Um, while the average is 64.7. Something else that really stood out to me, um, that's not specific to the report card is our third grade reading proficiency rate is 53.3. Um, which is higher than the state average of of 50.3 as well. Um, this just highlights the strong literacy skills that are happening at the elementary and then transitioning up here to the intermediate school. Um, something else is our growth score. So our growth priority score is 69.8. Um in math our growth score is 73.6 indicating that students are progressing faster than their

103peers are. Um action plan. So just making sure that we continue with data driven instruction. So as I shared we assess our kids a lot here at the intermediate school act 20 uh and then our local assessments as well. Um, so every time we assess our students, which is currently actually happening right now at the intermediate school, um, during our next inservice day, our title one teachers meet with grades 3, four, and five, and we spend an hour walking through every single kid, uh, in that grade level. So, we will walk through and we will look at how is their comprehension, how is their decoding, how is their encoding, uh, and we will find exactly what is the skill that they're missing. Then that leads to targeted interventions. So once we assess our kids, we

104find out exactly what their needs are um and identify the growth that was made from the fall, we'll continue with the win. So wind time stands for what I need now. It is um an RTI model. So every student participates in a win time. So all all 267 kids in this building for 30 minutes of their day will go somewhere to get what they need. Um they will either be in English language arts or it will be in math. Uh an example is is if you have a really uh high student in math, they will be pulled with another group of of high math students and they will continue to to progress in their math skills. So what we're not asking is students who are high achievers, we're not asking them to wait. We're saying,

105"Let's pair you up. Let's get you in front of a teacher and let's make sure you keep going." Um we don't want everyone [clears throat] to to slow, right? We want everyone to make their own growth. And that really shows when we're talking about our growth score is every kid that grows we get credit for. So that's really important is that every kid is getting challenged in ELA and math. Sometimes we have kids that are really high in English language arts and in math. And so for one trimester they're in a in a high ELA group and then the next trimester they're in a high math group just making sure that they're getting what they need to keep going. Um we then monitor progress. So our students are progress monitored. They're either progress monitored weekly

106or bi-weekly. Um, so if it's a student that's in title one class and they're below grade level in reading, um, once a week they will get progress monitored by either their teacher or their classroom teacher. And that shows us is what we're doing working. Uh, and if it's not working after six data collection points, we then will come back and have a meeting and say, "We need to adjust what we're doing for this kid. We're not just going to keep on doing it if if we're not seeing growth out of this this skill." So, um, those are some of our strategies with data. um professional learning communities. So we uh love our professional learning communities here. Our teachers um are trained on differentiated instruction. So something that's been really important to me over the last

107three years as we've focused on our wind time is that we kind of have experts in different categories. Michelle Yesi is an expert in morphine magic. Stephan is a expert in UFly which is early foundation literacy skills. So our teachers have taken on a huge task of identifying um a tool that they become the expert in. And so when a student is deficit in that skill, that teacher becomes that expert. And so when we have a student that has some, you know, literacy challenges or below grade level or math, we have experts in the room that have been trained in a certain uh component of that skill to be able to help them close that gap. Uh focusing on growth strategies. So prioritizing growth focused instructional strategies. um making sure that we're just the most

108up-to-date on evidence-based practices. Act 20 required us um to have a science of reading trained. The great part was is the school district of Amory was a year ahead of act 20. We already had our teachers um getting trained in the science of reading. We didn't need the state to tell us that we needed to do that. We we knew we needed to do that. Um collaborative planning. So our teachers um continue to get together. We use item analysis from the Ford exam during PLC time. Um we do vertical alignment. Um, and then also they meet each week during their PLC to talk about student academics and student behaviors. Um, and then that's the regular review process is just those PLC meetings that are happening all the time. And then the last action plan is

109just fostering a positive learning environment. It's really important to me that teachers love being here, but also that students love being here. So, an example of this is non-negotiables is every morning you should be able to walk into the intermediate school and a kid should hear their name at least three to four times from an adult saying their name and saying good morning to them. I think that's been a really big culture change for us. Um, so just making sure that we're, you know, promoting that they want to be here, they feel good about being here. We promote attendance. Um, when there are attendance concerns, you know, there's a lot of grace when I call a parent and say, "How can we help you? We want your kid here." Right? research shows, but how how

110can we help you overcome some barriers to get your students here? Um, engaging students. So, just making sure that we have high functioning teachers, but that we're building background knowledge. Not every kid comes to our school with the same background knowledge. They have different culture and experiences. So, how do we build upon that? Um, we have fantastic curriculum. So, we make sure that our teachers are trained in that. We um inspire and hopefully use intrinsic motivation. That was a word that Josh used uh before is we want kids to want to do well because that makes them feel good that they're intrinsically motivated. Um we also celebrate achievements and then also just celebrating successes is really important. An example of that is before we take the Ford exam, our students sit down with their classroom

111teacher and they make a Ford exam goal. So they talk about what their goal is. Um they know what their score is from last year and we make a goal of what that score would be. Is that up one point? Is it up three points? Um but really just important that they're a part of um setting that goal and then and then we actually celebrate that. So um our our building here does individual forward exam goals and then we do grade level goals. Of course the grade level goals are usually fun. Um but the the personal goals really are about building confidence and just intrinsic motivation for our students. So we we continue with that to celebrate our successes. >> That's it. >> Do those celebrations include you kissing a goat? No, that one was

112just in additional. That was >> That was [laughter] something else all together. I was there. That was fun. >> The red lipstick. WOW. I did not bring that home. I tossed that. [laughter] >> It was fun. >> Loved it. >> All kinds of opportunities. >> I wanted to take that goat home. Actually, Art said no. [laughter] >> You can come over to our place. >> Okay. We got plenty of spots for gold spread here. I think it'll be okay. Well, there's no big speech to be had on the last slide, which is a good slide. Sorry. >> It's an alternative rating and if the truth be told, AGR report is what the elementary school uses and they target their growth based on that. >> So, Helen is just creeped into what's and that is the

113end of the show. Um, I do want to say that I'm I'll joke aside from the goat, but um I have to say that um I'm I'm a I'm a huge proponent obviously in making kids feel connected to to the district, making them feel part of um where they belong, that they belong here. um saying their name from adults, being out, being visible, um making sure that they feel connected to this building, that they want to be here does start with our staff wanting to be here, that they're that they're happy when they're happy being here. Then, um you know, our kids are going to be happy being here. That starts with um our building principles at, you know, at the top that make our staff [clears throat] feel welcome, that they're in a a

114great place that they want to be here. um those are all really great things, you know, instead of um we don't want you here regardless of your learning ability or um where you come from or who you are or whatever. So, um I applaud I applaud all of you for setting that tone in this district to help kids feel connected um and helping our staff feel connected to the school. Um, and I applaud your um, how can I help? How can we help get overcome some barriers if if they're being absent? If they're not here, how can we help you get here so that we want your child here so that parents know that their children are valued here, too? Cuz um, sometimes that disconnect happens that the parents don't always feel that they're that

115they're welcome here or that their children are welcome here. So, I applaud those strategies. So, I like I I encourage everybody in the district to use the same the same strategies. Really good really good things. >> The last thing I'd like to mention, don't be uh confused on the presentation. I did not put all of this together. It was the help of these great people here, plus Tom providing the info, my good friends at the Department of Public Instruction, but just as importantly, thank you, Becky, for putting all of this together, because this is a monster. >> And it would not look like this if I had done. [snorts] I'll just say that. >> We all know that Becky's the magic that makes it all happen for us. >> I give you the info. You're

116going to have to beautify. >> Thanks, Becky. >> He's developing some pretty impressive Excel skills. [laughter] I don't think so. >> He doesn't use formulas. He still types in. >> It was my time at the elementary school. That's what >> he's making them pretty. >> Very nice. Do you I you know I' I've obviously said a lot of things here and and given some compliments and some criticisms and asked a lot of questions. Do you have ways in which the board can help you help the kids? I I think you live by the model that you asked us to do is keep saying positivity, positive things and be board members that want to be here and see the good in the school and help us continue to do that good and we'll be able to

117do our work moving forward is my gut reaction to that question. >> Does take a team. Mhm. >> I'm very grateful >> for the support, always the verbal support, but also just, you know, understanding the barriers that we face and the challenges that we face every day. I think you're very realistic about um public education. And so I I feel extremely supportive. I'm very grateful for all of you and for Sean as well. Hopefully, you all know that. >> Yes. I'll want to be the team leaders that that you all need and support you in all of those endeavors because that's important. I think that Megan hit it that we need to we need to do the same that we are asking you all to do every day. So, if you think of things that

118we can do to make your lives easier and and to help these scores continue to shine and our kids continue to shine, that needs to be a free exchange. So, >> thanks everybody. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> We got to close the meeting here. >> Yep. >> Yeah. I I I just wanted to ask if there was anything that anybody else had with this um presentation tonight that needed to be presented at this time. >> Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to [clears throat] uh enter into close session uh pursuant to Wisconsin state statute 19.85 85 subsection 1 subsection C considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data or any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility in order to take personnel action pursuant to those statutes. Is there a

119motion? >> Make that motion. >> Steve, is there a second? >> Second. >> It's been properly moved and seconded to adjourn into close session. All of those in favor of adjourning into close session, please signify by saying I. I. >> All of those opposed, please signify by saying no. Is unanimous vote. We are now in close session. Thank you all for coming.