CONRAD — BCLUW Superintendent Ben Petty is happy with and proud of the academic performance report results from the Iowa Department of Education (DOE).

“All three schools at BCLUW saw improvement over last year’s scores and were all ranked as ‘Commendable’ or higher, with two of the three also increasing in their overall rating category,” he said. “BCLUW Elementary received the state’s highest overall rating of ‘Exceptional.’ We saw that just over 1 percent of schools in Iowa received an Exceptional rating, so we are very excited and proud of these results.”

Petty said having a positive and collaborative staff always ready to step up their game is an important aspect of the district’s success. He added the school board is also very supportive of the staff, as well as new programs and initiatives.

The DOE report gave BCLUW Elementary 67 points out of 100, which is considered “Exceptional.” The average overall school rating in the state is 55. Academic categories the elementary school received high scores above the state averages were the participation scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and math – both 100 – and growth in mathematics and ELA. The score in growth in mathematics is 84, and the state average is 50. The growth in ELA score is 72, and the state average is also 50.

Throughout the district, proficiency in math and ELA is also higher than the state average. In BCLUW, 76 percent of the students are proficient in math, and only 70 percent of students throughout the state are proficient. For ELA, 77 percent of BCLUW students and 71 percent of Iowa students are proficient.

Petty said with higher proficiency comes the challenge of achieving high levels of growth, particularly in the BCLUW middle and high schools.

“That is a testament to the dedication and hard work of the teachers and administrators at the middle school and high school to continually improve those programs and offerings as well,” he said.

“A lot of our success comes down to having a great staff at BCLUW, and while there is always work to be done, I think that overall we’ve built a very positive and collaborative culture, and one that believes in continuous improvement,” Petty said.

He said the district accomplished good academic results by putting individual and small group interventions in place. They also reworked course offerings during the last several years and increased the number of books for various reading levels.

“We want to continue improving not only our overall instructional methods, but keep working on small group and individual interventions that will allow all students at BCLUW to grow over time, regardless of their current level of achievement,” Petty said.

Despite the higher scores, he said there is always work to be done. For example, this year elementary staff engaged in a new research-based literacy program – Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling.

“Our staff at the elementary are dedicating a great amount of their professional learning time to this program,” Petty said. “We believe this will help increase the literacy skills of our younger students and push those achievement levels higher.”

The plans of action will help the district improve academic performances which are not as high achieving, such as the percentage of students ready for education after high school and the ACT or SAT participation rate. Sixty percent of BCLUW students were prepared for college, compared to 76 percent statewide.

Petty said participation for life after high school is important at BCLUW, but not all students have the same plan. For example, BCLUW students ranked higher for career and technical education readiness – 87 percent – than the rest of the state – 67 percent.

“We know that there are many great career pathways now in Iowa that don’t require a four-year degree, and we certainly think it’s a positive that many of our students take those career and technical courses in high school and as dual credit college opportunities if that is where their interests and passions lie,” he said.

While he is excited about the performance results, Petty said there are aspects of a child’s education and development that are not easily measured by the DOE metrics.

“We’ll continue to use these results in order to both educate our accomplishments and seek out ways to continually improve in how we educate students at BCLUW,” he said.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.