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There is even more data to check out about Marshalltown Schools and other districts across Iowa after an update to the Iowa School Performance Profiles.

The overall scores for schools across the state haven’t changed since December, but there are some new, key features recently added to the Iowa School Performance Profiles.

The profiles have assigned an overall score out of 100 for each school building in the state based on performance in areas like student attendance, graduation rates and more. Now, parents and community members can delve into more sets of data, like suspension and expulsion numbers, and chronic absenteeism rates, among others.

“This was created very specifically to make it user-friendly for parents and stakeholders as well as educators,” said Iowa Department of Education spokesperson Jim Flansburg. “You’ve got to keep in mind every school district is different. In fact, every school is different.”

The school profiles system was put in place in December 2018, replacing the Iowa School Report Cards put out by the department since 2013. The changes to the current school profiles system took some ideas from the older report card, including the five-tier performance rating system for school buildings – exceptional, high-performing, commendable, acceptable, needs improvement and priority.

Flansburg said another new feature worth checking out is a comparison tool in the upper right-hand corner of a school building profile page.

“What that enables you to do is compare yourself to other like schools or compare yourself to the entire state,” he said. “It can show you the very best of the best and how you compare to the best of the best.”

The purpose of having such a reporting system is two-fold. In part, it is to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act by showing accountability scores and education data. It is also designed to report data required by state law, such as measures for student attendance and school ratings.

“School report cards make it easier for education stakeholders to understand how their schools are serving students,” department Director Ryan Wise said in a statement. “Our goal was to have one school performance reporting tool that fully meets both state and federal requirements.”

While the profiles can be used to compare school buildings and districts generally, Flansburg said the point of sharing the data is to give the community information with which to have a conversation about local education.

“The goal of this is not to punish in any way, shape or form, but rather to start a narrative and get conversations going with the community and the schools so that we’re doing right by all our children,” he said.

Along with chronic absenteeism and suspension and expulsion numbers, new data being shared in the profiles includes postsecondary readiness measures, state assessment participation, National Assessment of Educational Progress results and progress on state goals.

To look up the ratings and data of any public school building or district in the state, visit https://www.iaschoolperformance.gov/ECP/Home/Index

Marshalltown school profile data

While the overall scores for Iowa’s school districts and buildings have not changed since December, those interested can now see even more data about each school at the state Department of Education’s Iowa School Performance Profile site.

Here’s a recap of each of Marshalltown’s scores by building, as well as the performance designation for each, with scores in descending order:

• Marshalltown High School – 57.13 (Commendable)

• Hoglan Elementary School – 55.03 (Commendable)

• Woodbury Elementary School – 52.3 (Acceptable)

• Lenihan Intermediate School – 51.51 (Acceptable)

• Franklin Elementary School – 50.77 (Acceptable)

• Miller Middle School – 49.7 (Acceptable)

• Fisher Elementary School – 44.25 (Needs Improvement)

• Rogers Elementary School – 43.07 (Priority)

• Anson Elementary School – 39.26 (Priority)

Some of the new information added to the profiles regards chronic absenteeism rates, which shows the percentage of students at each building who missed at least 10 percent of total school days in 2017. Also new is data on suspension and expulsion rates in each building.

Chronic absenteeism rates:

• Marshalltown High School – 34.1 percent

• Miller Middle School – 19.8 percent

• Woodbury Elementary School – 13.8 percent

• Hoglan Elementary School – 13.4 percent

• Anson Elementary School – 12.6 percent

• Lenihan Intermediate School – 11.2 percent

• Fisher Elementary School – 11.1 percent

• Rogers Elementary School – 9.1 percent

• Franklin Elementary School – 8.2 percent

• State average -10.9 percent

Suspension/expulsion rates:

• Lenihan Intermediate School – 183 students, 25 percent of building population

• Hoglan Elementary School – 44 students, 13 percent of building population

• Franklin Elementary School – 36 students, 10.3 percent of building population

• Miller Middle School – 66 students, 8.7 percent of building population

• Marshalltown High School – 122 students, 8.2 percent of building population

• Fisher Elementary School – 17 students, 4.7 percent of building population

• Anson Elementary School – 11 students, 3.4 percent of building population

• Rogers Elementary School – No data shown

• Woodbury Elementary School – No data shown

• Statewide – 49,837 students, 10.3 percent of student population