MADISON – Led by its intermediate school, the Luxemburg-Casco School District was considered to "exceed expectations" based on its scores for the 2020-21 school year in the annual report cards issued last week by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

The other two school districts in the county, Algoma and Kewaunee, earned scores that saw them "meet expectations."

The report cards for 2020-21 were the first produced by the DPI in two years after skipping the 2019-20 school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic that wreaked havoc on school districts and their learning plans and capabilities. The department noted in releasing the reports that this year's results should be interpreted with caution because of the pandemic, and because some of the methodologies were different in calculating this year's report cards from the previous report cards of 2018-19.

The overall accountability grade given to each school is based on their scores in four priority areas:

• student achievement, which measures students' skill and knowledge levels compared to state and national standards;
• growth, which measures student improvement in learning reading and mathematics;
• performance by students with the lowest test scores in their school, aka target group score; and
• "on-track to graduation," which shows how well students reach educational milestones that predict success after high school.

Under the DPI's scale, schools and districts with scores between 70 and 82.9 fall into the "exceeds expectations" rating. Those with a score between 83 and 100 "significantly exceed expectations"; those from 58 to 69.9 are rated as "meets expectations"; scores from 48 to 57.9 are considered to "meet few expectations"; and scores of 47.9 and lower "fail to meet expectations."

Most of the scores for the Kewaunee County districts decreased at least a little from two years ago, as they did across the state, although there were some notable improvements as well.

Luxemburg-Casco's overall accountability score was 75.5, compared to 77.4 in 2018-19. Its achievement score also fell slightly in that span, from 81.4 to 80.4, but that still ranked in the top 93.7% of all districts in the state, and its score in on-track to graduation rose from 90.8 to 91.9, among the top 91.3% in the state. Its growth score fell from 69.9 to 66.9.

In a news release from the district, Luxemburg-Casco also noted two scores in the Wisconsin Forward Exam that ranked second out of the 38 school districts in CESA 7, the agency of districts which covers Northeast Wisconsin from Sheboygan to Door County. The exams are administered each spring by the DPI to determine how well students are doing in relation to state academic Standards that outline what students should know and be able to do to be ready for college or a career following high school.

Luxemburg-Casco students improved from 60.1 two years ago to 62.0 for 2020-21 in the English Language Arts exam, while the Mathematics exam score decreased slightly from 69.9 to 69.1. Both of those exams are given to students in grades 3 through 8.

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Luxemburg-Casco's district score was bolstered by the report card for its Intermediate School, which had an overall score of 95.0 to put it in the "significantly exceeds expectations" category and ranked it 15th among 2,601 school buildings in the state. That included an achievement score of 91.3, better than 96% of K-5 schools in Wisconsin, a growth score of 99.2 (among the top 98.4%), a target group score of 99.5, and an on-track score of 93.4. The school also registered Mathematics scores of 99.5 in achievement and 100 in growth.

The Kewaunee School District registered an overall score of 65.8, compared to 73.1 two years ago. It scored 60.4 in student achievement after a 64.1 in 2018-19 and its on-track score was 84.6 compared to 89.7 two years ago, but its district growth score increased from 62.2 to 65.1.

Algoma's overall accountability score was 59.5 after recording a 65.9 two years ago. Its achievement score was 55.4, growth was 51.8 and on-track score was 83.8, compared to 63.3, 57.5 and 84.8 respectively in 2018-19.

For complete report cards or more information, visit dpi.wi.gov/accountability/report-cards.

Contact Christopher Clough at 920-741-7952, 920-562-8900 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Luxemburg-Casco school district 'exceeds expectations' on DPI report cards; Kewaunee, Algoma meet expectations