Thread by @MollyBeck

Wisconsin schools slide in first state report cards since pandemic. jsonline.com/story/news/edu… via ⁦@RoryLinnane⁩

@RoryLinnane About 72% of Wisconsin schools met or exceeded expectations in the 2020-'21 school year, according to the report cards released Tuesday. That's down from about 87% in the 2018-'19 school year. Report cards were not done in 2020 because of the pandemic.

@RoryLinnane The report cards, produced by the state Department of Public Instruction, are intended as a tool for families and the public to compare schools and track their progress.

@RoryLinnane DPI refers to them as the "foundation of Wisconsin’s state accountability system," but when asked what statewide conclusions could be drawn from the reports Tuesday, department officials offered none.

@RoryLinnane DPI officials did not want to produce report cards this year due to the pandemic's effects on standardized testing procedures and other variables, but lawmakers did not grant the suspension. Dept officials did not take questions on a press call and declined an interview request.

@RoryLinnane On the press call, they urged caution in making comparisons between years, as officials changed several metrics this year.

@RoryLinnane For Milwaukee Public Schools, the report card shows mixed messages. The district scored 58.1 out of 100, slightly down from 58.4 in 2019. But DPI deemed the district to "meet expectations" while its 2019 designation was worse: "meets few expectations."

@RoryLinnane As DPI changed the goalposts for ratings this year, many districts that had lower numeric scores on report cards were deemed to meet more expectations. Still, the number of schools meeting expectations declined statewide.

@RoryLinnane Two districts received the lowest ranking, "fails to meet expectations": Beloit and Lake Holcombe. That designation also was given to 73 individual schools, including 21 MPS schools, four Milwaukee private schools and two Milwaukee independent charter schools.

@RoryLinnane Topping the district rankings was Swallow, a single-school district in Hartland serving about 440 students through eighth grade. It scored 96.9.

@RoryLinnane Another small district in Hartland, Lake Country School District, had the fourth highest district score, 93.5, with the larger Hartland-Lakeside school district not far behind at 90.8.

@RoryLinnane Districts serving at least 1,000 students and scoring more than 85 points were led by Whitefish Bay, Cedarburg, Elmbrook, Oostburg, Mequon-Thiensville and Arrowhead.

In Milwaukee, private schools scored highest, including St. John's Evangelical Lutheran School, Our Fathers Lutheran School, Nativity Jesuit Academy, Saint Marcus Lutheran School and Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic School, all scoring above 90.

The highest scoring MPS school was Pratt Elementary, with a score of 89, followed by Bay View Montessori School, Maryland Montessori, Parkside and Reagan, all above 80.

Milwaukee charter schools Milwaukee Excellence and Carmen High School of Science and Technology South Campus also scored above 80.

The report card scores give extra weight to the improvement of certain groups of students, including those who had lower test scores in the past and those who face additional challenges based on race, ethnicity, income, disability and learning English.

This year, DPI put more emphasis on students who previously scored lower, and less emphasis on the demographic groups.