West Salem board hears report-card gains while high school growth lags

At its meeting, the West Salem School Board received a presentation from district staff showing improvements across the district’s 2024–25 school report cards: the elementary and middle schools moved up in their accountability categories while the high school’s achievement held steady as growth measures lagged.

Alyssa Harland, who led the report-card briefing, said the elementary school’s accountability score rose to 84.6 from 81.8 and moved from "exceeding expectations" to "significantly exceeding expectations," and the middle school rose to 86.8 from 80.2. At the district level, Harland said the aggregated score rose five points from 72.3 to 77.3. "So at a glance, we have a lot to celebrate," she said.

Nut graf: Why this matters — the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) report cards feed the district’s strategic goals and public comparisons. Harland told the board the report cards draw from the Forward Exam (grades 3–8), the preACT Secure (grades 9–10), the ACT (grade 11) and an alternate assessment (DLM) for a small subset of students; the district uses those measures, plus growth and target-group outcomes, to refine strategy and resource allocation.

Harland emphasized where the district is performing well and where it needs work. West Salem Elementary ranked third in its state cohort and second regionally; the middle school’s growth and target-group outcomes were strong. "We had a high level of growth, and our 25% lowest students grew at that same rate," Harland said, describing target-group outcomes as a notable success.

At the high school, Harland said achievement (the share of students meeting proficiency) was higher than roughly 64.9% of Wisconsin high schools, but the growth score was low. She explained that part of the issue is the shift in assessments from the Forward Exam to the preACT/ACT suite and that DPI cut-score changes make some year-to-year cohort comparisons difficult. "You can have fairly solid achievement and that growth is not there," she said.

Board members pressed for measurable progress indicators and more-frequent watch metrics. Harland said the district relies on preACT diagnostics, ACT results and program tools such as Mastery Prep to get more frequent data points. The board discussed whether embedded, classroom-based diagnostic practice — rather than one-off practice sessions — would be a better fit; Harland said the district is embedding ACT prep into content-area lessons and using Mastery Prep diagnostics to individualize practice.

On culture and motivation, trustees and staff discussed the "what’s in it for me" problem at the high school: students sometimes do not prioritize one-day timed assessments. Harland described pilot interventions Justin (district staff referenced during the presentation) has rolled out, including individual conferences where students set targets, student ambassadors trialing Mastery Prep and peer testimonials, and celebration-based incentives. "There's a team that's kind of working on that... most of the districts in our area are doing things like that, and we have not yet," Harland said.

Board members also discussed the district’s strategic goal of a 3.0 growth score as a stable metric across DPI changes; Harland and Ryan said the district intends to keep that target when reauthorizing the strategic plan. Harland said she expects to bring a related "future-ready scorecard" to the board at a subsequent meeting for added context on postsecondary readiness measures.

The presentation closed with the board congratulating staff on district gains and pressing for continued focus on high-school growth and measurable watch metrics. Harland said she saw early signs of improvement in multi-year averages and that the district is "on that path."