Last year, Appleton schools had the third-highest score on state report cards in the Fox Valley. This year, it's second from last.
School districts across the Fox Valley continue to meet or exceed state expectations for student performance, according to report cards by the state's education department, but they were split on overall scores going up or down.
Among eight districts in the Fox Valley — Appleton, Hortonville, Kaukauna, Kimberly, Little Chute, Menasha, Neenah and Oshkosh — half had improved overall scores compared to last year.
Kimberly still received the highest score of any Fox Cities district, though it fell by two points between last year and this year, and is down more than nine points from 2017-18.
Neenah was the only one to improve enough to move ratings, jumping from “meets” to “exceeds” expectations.
For the other half of those districts, Appleton saw by far the biggest drop, bucking its five-year upward trend. Appleton’s overall score dropped by almost five points, taking it from “exceeds” to “meets” expectations.
Steve Harrison, Appleton assistant superintendent for assessment, curriculum and instruction, said Appleton is on par with the the rest of state's largest districts, but it needs to "intensify" efforts to serve students most in need of additional support.
"As a district, we have been aligning our resources within the areas of student interventions, instructional coaching and universal instruction for improving our outcomes in both student achievement and growth," he said in an email to The Post-Crescent.
According to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the Appleton Area School District's 2021-22 score of 66.6 is the lowest since at least 2012, although it comes close to the 2016-17 score of 66.9.
The report cards released Tuesday by the DPI were the second ones since they were canceled for the 2019-20 school year because of the pandemic.
Like last year, the DPI "urges caution" when interpreting this year's report cards because of the pandemic.
Results from the state assessments given to students each spring are factored into the report card scores. Those tests weren't taken in 2020 because the pandemic closed schools across the state; 2021 scores were down as fewer students took the exams. Scores from spring 2022 showed progress for many students, but were still below pre-pandemic levels.
The report cards given to public and private schools statewide are based on four factors: student achievement, school growth, college and career readiness, and the performance of the lowest-performing students. Achievement and growth factors are weighted by the district's percentage of low-income students.
Most Fox Cities districts are ‘exceeding’ expectations, but some still slipped from last year
This year, roughly 2,500 Wisconsin schools — 2,104 public schools and 391 choice schools — received report cards. Appleton was among the 84% of school districts that met, exceeded or significantly exceeded expectations.
Sixty percent of schools in the district were rated either "meets expectations" or "exceeds expectations." That's is a decrease from the nearly three-quarters of schools that fell into those ratings last year.
Seven schools — 20% of schools in the district — “met few expectations.” That includes three of the four middle schools, two elementary schools (Badger and Franklin) and two high schools (East and Appleton Technical Academy). No schools received a "fails to meet expectations" rating.
Harrison said many schools saw a decline in the category that measures how students who scored in the bottom 25% in reading or math on state assessments two years ago did compared to their peers. This is also the category that saw the largest drop for the district's overall score.
"Ultimately, this data indicates that students who were impacted the most by the COVID-19 pandemic are also our students most in need of support for improving both academic as well as attendance outcomes," he wrote in his email.
Five schools were rated as "significantly exceeds expectations" — down one compared to the six schools that received that rating for 2020-21.
All school districts across the Fox Cities either met or exceeded expectations.
More:Fox Cities, Oshkosh schools improve on test scores, but still trail pre-pandemic scores
None of the individual schools in those districts failed to meet expectations, but six received the second-lowest rating of "meets few expectations." That’s twice as many as last year. Five out of the six were in Oshkosh.
Here's a closer look at each district, from highest to lowest overall score:
Kimberly Area School District
Down from 80.9 in 2020-21 to 78.9 this year
District overall "exceeds" expectations
Five schools "significantly exceed" expectations, two "exceed" them and one “meets” them
Little Chute Area School District
Up from 71.2 in 2020-21 to 76.7 this year
District overall "exceeds expectations”
One school "significantly exceeds" expectations, four "exceed" them and one "meets" them
Hortonville Area School District
Down from 78.3 in 2020-21 to 76.4 this year
District overall "exceeds expectations"
One school "significantly exceeds" expectations, five "exceed" them and one "meets" them
Kaukauna Area School District
Up from 70.9 in 2020-21 to 72.7 this year
District overall "exceeds expectations"
One school "significantly exceeds" expectations, four "exceed" them and one "meets" them
Neenah Joint School District
Up from 69.5 in 2020-21 to 71.8 this year
District overall “exceeds expectations”
Three schools "significantly exceed" expectations, eight "exceed" them, one "meets" them and one “meets few”
Oshkosh Area School District
Down from 69.9 in 2020-21 to 68.7 this year
District overall "meets expectations"
Two schools "significantly exceed" expectations, 10 "exceed" them, four "meet" them and five "meet few"
Menasha Joint School District
Up from 63.4 in 2020-21 to 66 this year
District overall "meets expectations"
Four schools "exceed" expectations and three "meet" them
Reach AnnMarie Hilton at ahilton@gannett.com or 920-370-8045. Follow her on Twitter at @hilton_annmarie.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Kimberly has Fox Valley's best DPI school report cards; Appleton drops
