×

Schools receive DoE grade reports

Marshalltown Schools’ grades generally down from last year

T-R GRAPHIC BY JEFF HUTTON

Students aren’t the only ones receiving grade reports this time of year, as school districts across the state have received their Iowa Department of Education 2016 School Report Card.

“From a school district system perspective, we value these measures that they are sharing with us in their report card,” said Marshalltown Schools Director of Instruction Lisa Stevenson. “We use those results to help drive the decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis.”

Overall, Marshalltown school buildings saw a drop in ratings compared to the DoE’s 2015 report. Buildings in the district were assigned a ranking on a spectrum from a high of “exceptional” to “high-performing,” “commendable,” “acceptable,” “needs improvement” and, finally, “priority.”

Of the district’s nine buildings, five received a needs improvement ranking, and they include Marshalltown High School, Miller Middle School, Lenihan Intermediate School, Anson Elementary School and Fisher Elementary School.

Two buildings, Rogers Elementary and Woodbury Elementary, were given the lowest ranking of priority.

The district’s two highest-ranking schools are Franklin Elementary and Hoglan Elementary, both listed as acceptable and falling in the middle of the DoE’s spectrum.

Of all of Marshalltown’s buildings, only Franklin and Hoglan improved over last year’s scores, while MHS stayed the same. All other buildings saw a drop in rating.

The DoE’s ratings are given on a basis of district students’ proficiency in reading and mathematics, college and career-ready growth, annual expected growth, closing the achievement gap, college and career readiness, graduation rate, attendance and staff retention.

Stevenson, one of last summer’s new wave of administrators at the district, said she will be working with staff from all the district’s buildings to see what improvements can be made.

“Schools, individually, look at their data, they collaborate to try and find solutions,” she said, adding there have been improvements made throughout the district in several areas. “They celebrate the areas of growth.”

Stevenson said it’s important to keep in mind what aspects of student growth and achievement the DoE’s grade report takes into consideration and which are not.

“It’s cautionary to note that it measures limited data,” she said of the grade report. “For example, it’s not a comprehensive picture, it doesn’t look at all content areas.”

Specifically, Stevenson said the ratings takes students’ reading and math proficiency and growth into consideration while areas like science and social-emotional development are not measured. She said it’s important that school curriculums focus on all aspects of a student’s development.

Additionally, she said changes in a school’s ranking year-to-year sometimes require a closer look, deeper than the basic rating.

“At Anson, for example, their overall score went from around 61 to 58,” she said, referring to the drop in score between 2015 and 2016. “They only changed three percentage points, and that was enough to move their grade down.”

Stevenson said Marshalltown Schools will take the ratings into consideration as they look to improve reading and math growth and performance.

“All of the schools have room for improvement,” she said, adding the district will continue to push for excellence in “the curriculum that we use, the instruction, the assessments that we’re giving students, the programs that we’re offering (and) the professional development we’re giving our staff.”

She said the district has a staff retention rate of about 90 percent, with overall student attendance at 95 percent. On the latter, Stevenson said it’s important to reduce the number of chronically absent students, even while the overall attendance figure is good.

The demographics within the district make for a unique challenge, she said, adding most districts in Iowa have “nowhere near” the level of demand among their respective populations. She said students who live in poverty or don’t speak English as a native language may have more trouble than others accessing the school’s resources.

“They’re starting with a different set of challenges,” she said of students with limited English. “All the actions and decisions that we’re making… have to be looked at through the lens of ‘How are all of our students doing?'”

Additionally, Stevenson said the Iowa Assessments are designed for native English speakers, and that can have an effect on the scores of students not proficient in the language.

“It usually takes 5-7 years to become proficient in English if it’s not a native language,” Stevenson added.

Reasons for the decrease in ratings from 2015 to 2016 at many district buildings may have to do with two areas in particular: ensuring every child makes a year’s growth and closing the achievement gap, she said.

“That means every child,” Stevenson said about seeing a year’s growth in proficiency. “(That means) if they’re already reading at grade level in fourth grade, let’s say, that when they take the test in fifth grade that they’ve made a year’s growth from wherever they ended fourth grade.”

She said this applies even to children already at or even above grade-level proficiency. In some cases, those students don’t make a year’s worth of improvement every year.

Stevenson said closing the gap means making sure English language learners (ELL students), students with disabilities and those on Free-and-Reduced lunch perform to the same state standards as students not in those groups.

“The bottom line in all this is that we want the community to take the time to get to know our schools,” Stevenson said, adding improvements will take the community’s help. “Don’t just look at the labels, help us change and realize our mission together.”

Marshalltown was not the only school district to receive a grade report from the DoE, and East Marshall, West Marshall, Beaman-Conrad-Liscomb-Union-Whitten, Green Mountain-Garwin, North Tama, South Tama, Gladbrook-Reinbeck all received grade reports of their own.

For more information on school grade reports, rankings and the DoE, go to www.educateiowa.gov/schoolreportcard

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today