The West Bend Joint School District No. 1 received a 4-star “exceeds expectations” rating on the redesigned 2025 state school report card, district staff told the school board at its Nov. 24 meeting. Tina Van Roo, the district’s data and assessment coordinator, said the district’s overall score was 72.4.

Van Roo said the DPI report card measures four priority areas — achievement, growth, target outcome groups and on-track-to-graduation — and that each area is scored on a 100-point scale before being weighted into an overall rating. She reported an achievement score of 75.1, a growth score of 63.2, a target outcome groups score of 60.2, and an on-track-to-graduation score of 72.6 for the district. "The report cards measure us on assessment and non-assessment measures such as attendance, chronic absenteeism, as well as graduation rates," Van Roo said.

District staff emphasized the report-card model changed substantially this year and stressed caution when comparing 2025 scores to prior years. Van Roo said DPI adjusted score ranges and moved some measures from achievement to growth, and that certain newly required items are included as informational compliance pieces. "Assessment data is only one piece of the puzzle," she said, noting the report card uses multiple years of data and that current-year results are weighted more heavily.

Van Roo highlighted school-level performance: several elementary schools ranked in the top 25% of the state for achievement or growth, and two schools increased their overall star rating this year despite tougher thresholds. Board members asked how the district will use the report card to guide instruction; Van Roo and Superintendent Wimmer said building-level teams and the curriculum and student‑services departments will translate the findings into targeted interventions and that the district will return with winter screening data in late winter to track progress.

The presentation included caveats from DPI about new compliance data (including first-year reporting of certain law-violation categories) and the district provided resources for board members to review the underlying calculations and school-specific results.