Pewaukee schools keep high statewide standing as report-card growth dips; PLE rated 'satisfactory'

Candace Bentley, presenting the Wisconsin state report-card results to the Pewaukee Public Schools Board of Education, said the district’s combined score is 81.8, which places the district 14th in the state. "The 81.8 score for the Pewaukee School District as a whole does place it as number as fourteenth in the state," Bentley said.

Bentley walked the board through how the report card is calculated and why some schools received different labels: Horizon School was placed in the "significantly exceeds expectations" range; two other schools and the district were labeled "exceeds expectations"; Pewaukee Lake Elementary (PLE) received an "alternative" rating and is marked as "satisfactory progress." Bentley explained that alternative ratings are assigned to schools without comparable assessment data and that PLE’s metrics derive from its graduate-profile goals submitted to DPI.

Bentley summarized the four weighted priority areas used to compute the report-card score: achievement (roughly 40% for the district), growth (about 10%), target-group outcomes (about 25%), and on-track-to-graduation (about 25%). She noted that achievement and growth calculations use multi-year data and that value-added growth is expressed on a 0–6 scale that the state converts to a 0–100 report-card metric.

Board members and presenters focused discussion on target-group outcomes and chronic absenteeism. Bentley said the target-group metric isolates the lowest-performing 25% of students and creates a mini report card for that subgroup; that component is one reason some target-group scores were substantially lower than overall achievement scores. On chronic absenteeism she said the state counts a student as chronically absent when they miss more than 10% of the school year and must be enrolled at least 45 days to be included.

Board members agreed the district’s high attendance rates overall are a strength but noted that older-grade chronic absenteeism and its effect on learning remain concerns. The board noted the district’s work on universal design for learning (UDL), learning sprints and targeted interventions as the means to raise growth and target-group outcomes.

The presentation closed with an acknowledgement that the district’s performance remains high overall despite a small shift in category; board members said they will use the data to shape strategic initiatives and learning-session agendas focused on growth and equity.