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Pewaukee board member presses district on reading data as staff stress different assessments and benchmarks
Summary
A board member questioned district presentations after a chart combining 'basic' and 'below basic' categories showed 34.1 percent; administrators said the figure reflects state-category cut scores, not a single measure of literacy, and pledged a crosswalk of STAR (local) and state Forward Exam data in fall presentations.
A board discussion about how to present reading achievement turned into one of the evening’s most contentious exchanges as a board member requested clearer cross-referencing between district 4K/STAR assessment results and the Department of Public Instruction state report card.
Board member Mary asked the administration to explain a chart that, when the 'basic' and 'below basic' columns are combined, totaled about 34.1 percent and expressed concern that the public could interpret that as students who "can't read." Administrators pushed back on that interpretation.
"That is not what the data says," an administrator replied, saying the state categories and the STAR assessment use different benchmarks and purposes. Administrators explained that STAR (an in-district tool) is administered more frequently and measures different skills than the Forward Exam and that state proficiency cut scores were substantially increased roughly a decade ago.
Administrators agreed to provide a clearer crosswalk in fall data presentations that will explain which assessments include 4K results, how proficiency is defined across instruments and how school-based STAR data compares to state report-card categories.
Why it matters: board members said clear public presentation is important because constituents use headline figures to evaluate schools. Mary urged the board to place a focused data-analysis item on a future agenda; district staff recommended a fall presentation to allow time to prepare side-by-side comparisons.
Quotes in context: at several points Danielle Bosonik and other administrators cautioned that comparing different assessments is not an apples-to-apples exercise and that multiple indicators are necessary to understand student progress.
