Comparing School Districts
Why compare districts? The better a person’s education, the more opportunities they will have in life. For example, a University Degree from Harvard or MIT carries more weight than a degree from a state university. The better the educational foundation a child has, the more opportunity they will have in life.
Finding accurate data to compare school districts can be a challenge, but it can be done once you have a basic understanding of the data.
School districts are compared nationally, statewide, and by the conference. The most accurate method is by conference, which is school districts in a geographic area. Similar populations, economic circumstances, and values are generally regional. Top districts in the conference may not compare favorably to top districts in the state. Similarly, an underperforming district in a conference may look reasonable compared to the bottom districts in the state.
ACT Statewide 11th Grade Administration Results
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has a large amount of data on its website. The site also provides a Score Card for each district. The Score Card is difficult to understand and the underlying data is questionable. The data that can be considered valid is the ACT test. For example, they list the number of students that took the mandatory standardized test on the report card, but not the results. It also appears that some districts’ graduation rates equal or exceed the number of students that took the mandatory tests.
Beginning with the 2014-15 school year all 11th-grade students in Wisconsin (except for approximately 1% of students with cognitive disabilities who are assessed with an alternate assessment) are required to take the ACT.
To assist the reader to check any school district, follow these instructions to access that information.
https://wisedash.dpi.wi.gov/Dashboard/dashboard/19819
DPI Tools, School District Comparison
Top Bar- State Test
Second Bar- ACT Statewide
Drop Down- Filter Data
You can now compare districts by a multitude of options. I chose:
-Group By – All students-Test
Type- ACT, the top score is 36, in an effort to help the reader understand we added the percentage, (36/100%). Looking at the Gillet School District the composite ACT test is 18.1 or 50.1%, these scores are for 11th-grade students. Ninty-six percent graduate, go figure!
-School Year _ 2018-19
-ACT Subject- Composite
-District- I used this tab to get information on specific districts, and just compared them to the statewide.
-Percentages vs Percentiles
- Percentage means out of 100. For e.g, if you have scored 80%(80 percent) in an exam, then it means out of every 100, you have an 80 correct.
- Percentile means if the entire range of students is divided into 100 groups, which group do you belong to.
Districts were chosen at random,
| 2018/19 | Report Card | |||
| Higher preforming districts | Comp. ACT | Graduation Rate | Score | Economically Disadvantaged |
| (36)/Percentile | US News | DPI | DPI | |
| Kohler School District | 25.2/78 | 100.0% | 90.7 | 1.6% |
| Elmbrook School District | 23.8/68 | 96.0% | 88.9 | 8.0% |
| Hamilton School District | 22.4/64 | 86.4 | 13.4% | |
| Muskego-Norway School District | 21.9/58 | 97.0% | 83.8 | 8.8% |
| New Berlin School District | 22.7/64 | 100.0% | 86.9 | 12.2% |
| Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District | 23.8/69 | 97.0% | 82.6 | 18.7% |
| State Average | 19.6/46 | |||
| Lower performing districts | ||||
| Milwaukee | 15.5/20 | 69.1% | 58.4 | 82.9% |
| Green Bay | 17.7/33 | 84.0% | 66.9 | 59.4% |
| Racine | 17/33 | 75.0% | 58.6 | 63.9% |
| Beloit | 16.4/27 | 84.0% | 59.7 | 71.4% |
| Dalavan-Darien | 17.1/33 | 90.0% | 76.8 | 65.1% |
| Gillett | 18.1/40 | 96.0% | 71.3 | 51.8% |
| Superior | 19.3/46 | 86.0% | 66.1 | 47.7% |
Research universities such as Harvard, University of Minnesota, and many more have identified poverty as the issue with the ‘Gap’s in Education’. I have included the impoverished percentages from the DPI site.
DPI District Report Cards, while I have shared information from District Report Cards each Report Cards states:
‘Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction | dpi.wi.gov
‘Report cards for different types of schools or districts should not be directly compared.’ According the DPI.
This is not the case for ACT data, where the DPI actually provides tools on the site to compare district to district and/or district to state. This data (in my opinion) provides a much more accurate picture.
State-wide comparisons are somewhat revealing, however comparing districts like the Milwaukee School District (HS enrollment 23,367) with the Kolher School District (HS enrollment 221) does not have significant merit.
School district conferences are a more meaningful way to compare districts. For example, comparing ten Western Wisconsin school districts is more significant than the randomly chosen districts. These districts border one or more of the other districts.
| . | (Composite ACT) Break Down of ELA and Math/Percentile | College Readinss | US News, 2019 Ranking | School Digger Rank |
| Source | DPI | US NEWS | . | 421 Total |
| . | High=Best | % | High=Best | Lower=Best |
| Hudson | 21.3/56 | 53.5 | 92.91 | 26 |
| New Richmond | 22.2/64 | 32.1 | 81.27 | 29 |
| River Falls | 21.6/56 | 38.1 | 90.3 | 106 |
| Osceola | 21.2/56 | 24.7 | 85.42 | 51 |
| Amery | 21.2/56 | 23.6 | 78.11 | 74 |
| St. Croix Central | 21.1/56 | 35.1 | 90.69 | 82 |
| St. Croix Falls | 21.0/56 | 28.5 | 65.67 | 37 |
| Baldwin-Woodville | 20.9/49 | 33.9 | 81.26 | 71 |
| Prescott | 20.4/49 | 28.8 | 79.43 | 69 |
| Ellsworth | 20.2/49 | 26.2 | 85.29 | 90 |
| Statewide Average | 19.6/42 | |||
| Somerset | 19.4/42 | 26.6 | 75.92 | 164 |
There is NO correlation between standardized testing in the 11th grade and graduation rate. To confirm this data I use independent resources to confirm data provided by DPI.
| . | (Composite ACT) ELA and Math/ Percentile | College Readinss | US News, 2019 Ranking | School Digger Rank |
| Source | DPI | US NEWS | . | 421 Total |
| . | High=Best | % | High=Best | Lower=Best |
| Hudson | 21.3/58 | 53.5 | 92.91 | 26 |
| River Falls | 21.6/58 | 38.1 | 90.3 | 106 |
| Osceola | 21.2/58 | 24.7 | 85.42 | 51 |
| Amery | 21.2/58 | 23.6 | 78.11 | 74 |
| St. Croix Central | 21.1/58 | 35.1 | 90.69 | 82 |
| St. Croix Falls | 21.0/58 | 28.5 | 65.67 | 37 |
| Baldwin-Woodville | 20.9/52 | 33.9 | 81.26 | 71 |
| Prescott | 20.4/52 | 28.8 | 79.43 | 69 |
| Ellsworth | 20.2/52 | 26.2 | 85.29 | 90 |
| Statewide Average | 19.6/46 | |||
| Somerset | 19.4/46 | 26.6 | 75.92 | 164 |
The Somerset School District rated last in almost every rating among the conference. Perhaps the most disturbing is the Somerset School Districts College Readiness rating of 26.6 compared to the Hudson School District’s rating of 53.5. Hudson School District is rate TWICE as proficient in preparing students for college as Somerset.
For results converted from ACT test results to percentiles, go to:
https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/MultipleChoiceStemComposite.pdf
The information of percentiles is drawn from a large number of districts/schools using ACT standardized testing.
States that require all students to take the ACT with Writing
- Alabama
- Hawaii
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Utah
- Wisconsin
States that require all students to take the ACT (no Writing)
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Wyoming