West Bend district meets expectations on 2024 state report cards; board hears areas for targeted growth

Tina Van Roo, the district data and assessment coordinator, told the West Bend Joint School District No. 1 Board of Education on Dec. 2 that the district earned a 3‑star overall rating on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) 2024 accountability report cards.

The report cards combine multiple years of assessment and attendance data across four priority areas—achievement, growth, target‑group outcomes and on‑track‑to‑graduation—to produce an overall score and star rating. Van Roo said West Bend’s overall achievement score is 69.7 and its growth score is 62.2; the district’s on‑track‑to‑graduation ranking was 67.9 percent compared with other districts.

Why it matters: DPI report cards are one publicly available measure of district and school performance that the board and district staff use to set priorities and target interventions. Van Roo and board members said historical data used in the calculation can delay visible changes on the published report card even when local assessments are showing improvement.

Van Roo explained how the report cards are calculated and where West Bend’s strengths and weaknesses lie. "The report cards are produced in an effort to show how districts and schools are doing on approximately a three‑year average," she said, noting the ratings use different weightings depending on school demographics.

The district performed above the state average in both ELA and math achievement measures and ranks in the top 25 percent of districts for achievement, Van Roo said. She also described a persistent performance gap captured in the target‑group outcomes measure and higher chronic absenteeism among the district’s lowest‑achieving students.

"There is approximately an 11‑point difference between kids in this [target] group that are attending versus not attending," Van Roo said, adding that attendance and achievement are linked.

Board members pressed for clarity about how the district can track near‑term improvement before three years of data are available on the state report card. Van Roo said local assessment systems (such as STAR) and other internal measures give earlier signals but that the public report card requires multiple years of data to change.

Superintendent Todd Wimmer and Van Roo described current district actions tied to those priorities: implementing a new elementary English curriculum (CKLA) aligned to Wisconsin’s Right to Read changes, a multi‑year secondary math review and coaching partnership with the Math Institute of Wisconsin, and targeted student learning objectives for classroom teachers aimed at moving students just below proficiency into proficiency.

Van Roo also presented school‑level outcomes: two elementary schools earned 5‑star ratings; several elementary schools and Silver Brook earned 4 stars; Badger Middle School received 2 stars ("meets few expectations"); and both high schools received 3 stars ("meets expectations"). She highlighted progress at specific schools, including four consecutive yearly growth improvements at Silver Brook and a multiyear rise in graduation rate scores for East and West high schools.

Board members asked about the impact of recent changes to the Wisconsin Forward Exam and DPI scaling, which Van Roo said required score‑scale adjustments and complicates year‑to‑year comparisons. "You just won't see it on a report card for a while because of how that historical data flows in," she said.

The board did not take formal action on the report. District staff said they will continue using internal assessments and targeted professional development to pursue the district goal of raising student achievement by 5 percent.

Van Roo concluded by reminding the board that DPI provides online resources about the accountability report cards and that the district will present additional school‑level plans and progress updates in future meetings.