Stevens Point Area Senior High. (City-Times photo)

For the City-TImes

The Stevens Point Area Public Schools released its District and schools’ report cards today, noting that all of the District’s schools received classifications of “meets” or “exceeds” expectations, on the state-issued school report cards. 

The report cards, which were first issued by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) in 2012, are intended to create a more standardized methodology for parents and community members to determine the effectiveness of their local schools.

The report cards include outcomes in four priority areas:

1. student achievement (which measures the level of knowledge and skills of students in the school, compared to state and national standards);
2. student growth(which describes how much student knowledge of reading and mathematics in the school changes from year to year);
3. closing gaps (which shows how the performance of student groups experiencing statewide gaps in achievement and graduation is improving in the school and on-track to graduation); and
4. post-secondary readiness (which indicates the success of students in the school in achieving educational benchmarks that predict post-secondary success).

Based on a combined score in each of these four areas, McKinley, Plover-Whiting, Roosevelt, and Washington Elementary Schools; and Ben Franklin Junior High School achieved “meets expectations” ratings.  Bannach, Jefferson, Kennedy, Madison, and McDill Elementary Schools; P.J. Jacobs Junior High School and Stevens Point Area Senior High (SPASH) achieved scores of “exceeding expectations.” The District’s overall rating earned a “meets expectations” rating.

PJ Jacobs Junior High. (City-Times photo)

“We are pleased to see that all our schools did well on this year’s school report cards,” said Dr. Attila J. Weninger, Superintendent.  “Seeing hard work pay off for Bannach, Madison, and P.J. Jacobs, who increased their ratings from meeting to exceeding expectations over the last year, is especially exciting.  Further, ten of our twelve schools increased their overall scores from the previous year. We are proud of the commitment to our schools by parents, and we are particularly proud of our staff and students for their commitment to excellence. Every school in our District is capable of exceeding standards and more, and we have the teachers, students, staff, parents, and community to do it.  Of that I am confident.”

More information about the report cards, including individual report cards for each of the District’s schools, can be found on the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) website, http://reportcards.dpi.wi.gov.