Edgar talks report cards, math progress

School district administration disccusses safety plans, cybersecurity

While district report cards issued by the Department of Public Instruction may be an important indicator of educational success to some, others say they are only a piece of a larger puzzle. During the Edgar School Board meeting last Wednesday, district officials explained why scores can be deceiving.

According to District Administrator Cari Guden, the way scores are weighted differ from district to district, making it difficult to compare accurately. The priority area categories are the same — achievement, growth, target group outcomes, ontrack to graduation — but the achievement and growth sections are weighted a different percentage for each district.

Those weighted percentages are set by the state; Guden said it’s somewhat a mystery on how the calculations are made. For instance, the Edgar School District’s percentages are achievement 28.7, growth 21.3, target group outcomes 25 and on-track to graduation 25, while the Colby School District percentages are 13.1, 36.9, 25 and 25 respectively.

“We’re not comparing oranges to oranges or apples to apples,” Guden said.

According to the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) 2021-22 Report Card Guide, there is a state statue that “requires the Achievement and Growth priority areas to be adjusted relative to each other based on the percentage of economically disadvantaged (low-income) students in the district or school. The higher the percentage of economically disadvantaged (ECD) students in a district or school, the greater the weight given to Growth and the lesser to Achievement (up to a predefined threshold).”

Overall, the Edgar School District’s score came in at 69, which lands in the “meets expectations” zone. Edgar Elementary School received a 66.2, with higher growth and achievement scores in math when compared with English. Elementary Principal Lisa Witt said staff was excited to see the higher math scores, as that subject has been a focus of theirs recently, describing the data as “the fruits of that labor.” Their priority for this year and likely the next, too, is English. As for Edgar Middle School, with a DPI report card score of 78.9 in the “exceeds expectations” category, Principal Thomas McCarty talked about the pride surrounding the school’s math scores, especially the 94.5 in math growth, compared to the state average of 66.

Edgar High School, which received a 59.1 overall mark, has some challenges to overcome, according to McCarty. All of the school’s growth and achievement scores fell lower than the state averages.

“We know in our high school we have some work to do, but we are certainly getting after it,” McCarty said.

He told the board about one particular difficulty that could be affecting the state testing scores — getting students to take the ACT exam seriously. According to McCarty, it used to be that only college-bound students took the test as many colleges required it for potential acceptance. Now, all students must take the exam, regardless of their plans post high school, and many colleges no longer use the scores as an acceptance criteria. He believes those factors may be leading some students to not apply themselves as well as they could.

“There are students here that are knowingly far more capable than their scores indicate because their response is, ‘This test doesn’t mean anything to my future,’” McCarty said. “And so it’s been really difficult to get that buy-in at that junior level.”

Additionally, Witt spoke about how the impacts of Covid and virtual schooling during the heat of the pandemic could be contributing to scores falling. For some younger students, who spent the first few years of their schooling in a virtual classroom, this year is their first standard, in-person educational experience. Witt said while teachers did their best with virtual opportunities, there are some students with “huge skill deficits” now.

“You can’t discount the impact Covid had,” Witt said.

In addition to the DPI report cards, Edgar middle and high schools have data available on a local report card, which captures some different statistics. All recent report cards can be found at https://www.edgar.k12.wi.us/ district/state-report-cards.cfm In other business:

n The annual school safety lockdown drills were conducted on December 12. According to Guden, teachers did not have advanced knowledge of the drills, but once the lockdown was announced over the loudspeakers, staff received an email and text revealing it was only a practice exercise. Guden said one focus that came out of the drill was the importance of making sure staff know the difference between a student hold, which would be a situation such as a medical emergency that required students to stay in classrooms, and a full lockdown, which means teachers are to shut doors, turn off lights and get everyone out of sight.

According to Guden, safety trainings, drills and consultations with the local police department happen annually, if not more.

n District Technology Coordinator Chris Trawicki gave a presentation to the board and answered questions about topics such as cybersecurity. With about 600 Chromebooks, 190 iPads and 150 desktop computers throughout the district, there are battery backups for servers and the technology is being constantly monitored for threats, according to Trawicki. The district has an incident plan that will be reviewed annually and Trawicki has consulted with nearby districts that have been the victims of cyberattacks. He said there is state support that can assist school districts in the event of an incident, with the potential for law enforcement and the FBI to become involved, depending on the scenario.

When asked by School Board Clerk Rebecca Normington about the chance of individuals within the school’s network, such as students, parents or staff, posing a hacking threat, Trawicki said the good thing about Chromebooks is they don’t provide much access to the larger network.

“They can’t just plug something in and run it without proper credentials,” Trawicki said.