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Wisconsin school and district report cards for 2024-25 released
94% of Wisconsin school districts meet or exceed expectations, according to new Wisconsin report cards.
MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin law requires the state grade school districts and public and choice schools. According to new report cards the state released on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 94% of districts are meeting or exceeding expectations.
Schools, district report cards
What we know:
Wisconsin grades each district on a five-star system – five stars for significantly exceeding expectations. The breakdown is as follows:
- 29 districts rated five stars (significantly exceeding expectations), including Elmbrook
- 151 districts rated four stars (exceeding expectations), including Brown Deer
- 175 districts rated three stars (meeting expectations), including Kenosha Unified
- 23 districts rated two stars (meeting few expectations), including Milwaukee
- 0 districts rated one star (failing to meet expectations)
What they're saying:
"The report cards are too easy. DPI is too easy a grader. For instance, there's not a single one-star district in all of Wisconsin, not Milwaukee, not Beloit, not Racine, not Menominee. And I think everybody can think of a few districts in Wisconsin that fail to meet expectations," said Quinton Klabon from the Institute for Reforming Government.
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"The purpose of these report cards is to inform communities about how their schools and their districts are doing. And also, it’s a really valuable tool for schools and districts to use to see things they may be doing right and things they may need more intervention in," said Christopher Bucher of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Milwaukee Public Schools
Local perspective:
In last year's school district report cards, Milwaukee was rated three stars. This year, it's a two-star rating.
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS)
However, the actual percentage rating was one point higher, with a total score this year of 59.5. How can that be? This year, State Superintendent Jill Underly approved new benchmarks, recommended by education leaders this August, laying out how to get each of the different star ratings.
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"We know that things are, according to the report cards, not moving in the right direction for Milwaukee Public Schools. The good news is new leadership should change the direction of the district by focusing on reading, by focusing on getting teachers into classrooms, by focusing on financial accountability. And so my hope is that in future years we see rising scores and rising performance within Milwaukee Public Schools," said Klabon.
MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius responded to the new report cards.
"We need to grow more and faster to truly meet and exceed the expectations that our families and community have for us — and the expectations we have for each other as educators. Our new Literacy Plan is the first step toward stronger growth," Cassellius said. "The Literacy Plan honors the dedication and commitment of our 4,000-plus teachers by giving them the modern tools and techniques that will help all students — and all means all — learn to read."
How districts are graded
Dig deeper:
The scores are calculated by a complicated formula.
It involves four priority areas:
- Achievement: test scores
- Growth: how achievement improves from year to year
- Target group outcomes: how the students with the lowest test scores perform
- On track to graduation: what percentage of each school and district are on track to graduate on time
The formula weighs more heavily towards growth when the student population is more economically disadvantaged.
The report cards also use multiple years of data.
"Overall, accountability scores from this year cannot directly be compared to prior years. Although the underlying data like absenteeism, graduation rates and other data do remain comparable," Bucher said. "We encourage everyone to use caution when making comparisons to past report cards. Again, this year’s results should be viewed as a fresh starting point under the new benchmarks."
"The bad news for parents is that the report cards have changed frequently since the pandemic. Almost every year, the formula has been different. The good news is: going forward, the formula is going to stay put for a few years. Unfortunately, I don't think the formula is very good," said Klabon.
Check your schools, districts
What you can do:
The Source: Information in this post was provided by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.