The Iowa Department of Education recently released the Iowa School Performance Profiles for all schools in 2022. This is the fourth year the profiles have been offered, with 2020 results impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mount VernonMount Vernon saw dips in scores at all buildings this school year.
“It is still somewhat of a challenge to interpret the scores and trends on the Iowa School Performance Profiles, as you had the outlier with 2020 and still need a few more years of ISASP data to determine what trends truly exist with performance data,” said superintendent Greg Batenhorst. “We saw a slight dip overall from 2021 to 2022, and the main indicator that led to the decline was overall student growth in math and language arts. Our levels of proficiency remain very high, and much higher than state averages and higher than many of our peers in the area. Those proficiency numbers were even a little higher last year, and thus it can sometimes be a challenge to show growth when overall performance is pretty high. That being said, our focus in our professional learning activities and establishment of school goals will be on the growth piece moving forward.”
Mount Vernon High School was rated as commendable this year with a 57.68, slipping from last year’s high performing rating of 60.93. The school was also targeted for intervention from the Department of Education for students with disabilities. The district will receive support to help bolster those numbers this year.
“We are still investigating the reason for the targeted designation for special education students at Mount Vernon High School, but at first glance it appears to be related to a lack of sufficient growth for these students in reading,” Batenhorst said. “We will work with our special education and school improvement consultants at GWAEA to determine the reason behind this designation, and will plan accordingly to address this area of growth for our students.”
The building was ahead of the statewide average in average achievement scores for English/language arts, mathematics, graduation rates for both four years and five years. The building was slightly behind the state average in growth in language arts, but proficiency in mathematics and language arts were also well above the state average for the district (81.71 compared to 70.84 in English and 78.66 compared to 64.97 in math).
Mount Vernon Middle School was rated as high performing with a rating of 63.19, a step down from last year’s exceptional with a score of 66.33. The district has no targeting needed by the state department of education. The building also exceeded the statewide average on every category that they were testing on, including proficiency, growth and average school performance in mathematics and English/language arts.
Washington Elementary School was rated as acceptable with a score of 51.92, a steep decline compared to last year’s 63.83 score that qualified them as high performing. The building was behind the state average scores in growth in English Language arts (41 for Washington compared to 50 for state) and mathematics (32 for Washington and 50 for the state). When it came to proficiency for the building, students at the district were still well ahead of the state average in both categories.
Growth is one of the scores that receives higher weighting in the Iowa School Performance Profiles, accounting for more than 40 percent of the scores for each building.
Batenhorst said that principals at the buildings use school performance, ISASP and FastBridge assessment data to write school goals and plan professional learning activities to achieve these goals. Batenhorst also said the School Improvement Advisory Committee will brainstorm how to use this data to improve teaching and learning in the district.
“Overall, we remain very pleased with the overall performance of our students,” Batenhorst said. “This happens because we have phenomenal teachers and support staff members, as well as great parents and community members who support our kids. We will take this latest data and develop plans that are differentiated to meet the individual needs of all our learners.”
Lisbon The elementary and middle school both saw improvements to their scores, and the high school saw a slight dip in their score this year.
“High performing and commendable are both something to be proud of,” said Lisbon superintendent Autumn Pino. “Even with these scores, these profiles still give us as administrators areas wwe need to work on. This is a true testament to the work of staff at our buildings as well.”
Lisbon Elementary School’s scores improved to 65.45 this year for a high performing rating. The district was also high performing last year with 62.33 score. The building had no targeted support needed.
All across the board in proficiency, growth and comparison to statewide average, the elementary building excelled this year. The largest percentage disparity to the statewide average was the elementary school’s growth in mathematics scores, which was 84 for Lisbon compared to the statewide average of 50.
Pino said that growth in math was because of efforts put in place last school year to focus onthose scores after last year’s results and data.
“Justin Brown and the elementary staff worked on more direct interventions and number talks to help them focus on growth in the building in those scores,” Pino said.
Lisbon Middle school improved their scores to 63.53, labeled as a high performing school district. Last year, the building was at commendable. There was no targeted support from the Department of Education this year.
Lisbon Middle School beat the statewide averages in all categories, including growth, proficiency and average scores in the building.
Lisbon High School slipped to a 54.96 score, giving them a commendable rating this year. Last year, the school had a 60.84 score marking them as high performing. There were no targeted categories from support from the Department of Education this year.
Lisbon High School was just ahead of the statewide averages in average school achievement scores in English and mathematics. The district was behind the statewide average of 50 in growth in language arts with 43. The district was above the percent proficiency in mathematics and language arts. In post-secondary readiness index, the district was behind the statewide average (47.74 Lisbon and 50 percent statewide).
Pino noted that the district will be addressing some of the post-secondary readiness for students with their increased career and technical education learning with the building addition moving forward at Lisbon in the next year.
In high school, the growth in math and English/language arts scores were weighted at 17.44 percent of the school’s score, with the post-secondary readiness having a 9 percent weighting.
Pino said she commends the staff and school board for their proactive decisions with other testing and data which has helped them identify areas for improvement and always pushing to do more for students.
“Administration has spent many hours analyzing that data and staff is doing everything we can to continue pushing students further,” Pino said.