Sun Prairie secondary report: state ratings and assessment scores improve, gaps persist

Dr. Sarah Chiaclarity, director of secondary for teaching, learning and equity for the Sun Prairie Area School District, told the board on Jan. 27 that state report-card scores and internal assessment measures for the district’s middle and high schools have risen in 2023–24 but key demographic groups remain behind.

Chiaclarity said the district’s newly configured secondary schools posted higher ratings than in 2022–23 where ratings existed, with Sun Prairie East and Sun Prairie West both “exceeding expectations” on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction report card. Central Heights and other recently reconfigured sites moved to ratings that meet expectations. Prairie View Middle School was identified for targeted supports and interventions for specific student groups.

The presentation summarized multiple data sources the district uses, including AIMSwebPlus and the ACT suite, and compared local trends with state and peer-district benchmarks. At the middle-school level the district reported 72.5% of students meeting or exceeding benchmark on the fall AIMSwebPlus reading screener; for 8th grade specifically that figure was 72.2% in the fall. Chiaclarity noted steady gains across six assessment windows, including an increase for middle-school reading from 50.9% to 60.3% meeting or exceeding benchmarks across the two most recent school years.

High-school indicators also improved in several measures. The district reported 52.5% of 9th–11th graders meeting the college-readiness benchmark in reading on fall assessments for 2024 (up from about 45% the prior year) and stronger preACT secure results relative to the statewide average for 9th– and 10th‑grade spring testing. On the ACT (11th grade) the district’s reading scores were near the top of the district-comparable group and the three‑year averages placed the district among the higher performers of the 11 states that administer the ACT statewide.

Despite the overall improvements, disaggregated data showed persistent and sometimes widening gaps. Chiaclarity identified Black students, students with disabilities and multilingual learners as groups with the largest shortfalls in both literacy and numeracy measures. For example, some middle‑school subgroups scored as low as the low‑30s percent meeting benchmark while district averages were in the 60s or 70s on certain screeners. The district’s accountability reporting also shows Prairie View’s Black student group and students with disabilities were within the statewide bottom 10% group that triggers targeted supports.

Chiaclarity framed these findings as the basis for site-level problems of practice and district theories of action that focus on implementing the instructional framework with fidelity, strengthening coaching and data systems, and targeting interventions to close the gaps.

The presentation concluded with a schedule for follow-up updates; Chiaclarity said the district will revisit secondary results on April 28 and again on July 28. She closed by thanking district leaders and staff and noting the data reported were current through November 2024.