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Sun Prairie district meets expectations on 2023-24 Wisconsin state report card with 68.1 overall score
Summary
Dr. Stephanie Leonard, a presenter for the Sun Prairie Area School District, told the school board that the district’s 2023–24 Wisconsin state report card shows an overall score of 68.1, a classification of "meeting expectations" under the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) framework, and an increase of 2.4 points from the prior year.
Dr. Stephanie Leonard, a presenter for the Sun Prairie Area School District, told the school board that the district’s 2023–24 Wisconsin state report card shows an overall score of 68.1, a classification of "meeting expectations" under the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) framework, and an increase of 2.4 points from the prior year.
Dr. Kurt Mould, who co-presented the results, cautioned that changes to state academic standards and recalibrated cut scores make direct year-to-year comparisons difficult. "These report card scores are a public accountability tool that we must respect and take seriously, which we do. Also note that making sense of them from year to year continues to be a challenge for both our system and our community and our state at large," he said.
The DPI overall score reported by district staff is composed of four priority areas: achievement, growth, target-group outcomes and on-track-to-graduation performance. According to the presenters’ slides and comments, the district’s measured changes from the 2022–23 to 2023–24 report cards were: overall score +2.4 points; achievement unchanged; growth +4.8 points; target-group outcomes +4.7 points; and on-track-to-graduation +0.01 points.
No Sun Prairie school failed to meet expectations under the DPI classification, the presenters said. Central Heights Middle School and Sun Prairie West High School received report-card scores for the first time this year after previously having alternate ratings; Prairie Phoenix Academy retains an alternate rating and is reported as having made satisfactory progress.
District staff summarized how Sun Prairie’s results compare with state averages: the district exceeds the state average in overall English language arts, overall math, third-grade ELA and graduation rate, and in ELA growth. The district lags the state in math growth and chronic absenteeism, staff said. Sun Prairie also outperformed the state in measures such as advanced courses, students earning industry-recognized credentials and participation in work-based learning; it trails the state in dual enrollment by 8.8 percentage points, according to the presenters.
Leonard said the district treats the state report card as one piece of a broader data set. The district uses the Forward Exam (grades 3–8 and 10) and a universal screener (AIMSweb) administered three times a year to inform 100-day plans and curriculum and instruction decisions. Leonard noted timing differences: the district receives Forward Exam achievement data in late June or July and the state report cards are released the following November.
Board members were invited to review school-level data and to contact building principals or the presenters for site-specific questions. Kurt Mould highlighted comparison charts shown in the presentation that place Sun Prairie’s schools slightly above the mean of a set of peer districts in many grade-level subjects, and encouraged board members to "press pause" on the slide deck to review the charts in detail.
The presenters closed by reiterating that the report cards inform district planning but are one indicator among many, and they offered to discuss individual school findings with board liaisons and principals at future meetings.
