Hamilton was one of only two K-12 school districts in the state that earned the top “significantly exceeds expectations” rating in the second annual School Report Card released today by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. In addition to the district earning a top rating, Lannon and Marcy elementary schools and Hamilton High School each earned “significantly exceeds expectations” at the school level, and all other schools in the district earned “exceeds expectations” ratings. The district had the highest overall score among K-12 Waukesha County school districts.
“Ensuring maximum achievement for each child is our mission, and staff members are committed to helping students reach their potential,” said Hamilton Superintendent Kathleen Cooke, Ph.D.
“The new School Report Card provides helpful information to monitor our progress in the areas that are our focus – rigorous standards, student growth and closing gaps,” Cooke said. “The district’s strategic plan has steps in place to address those areas.”
“This is one piece of data to help us assess our progress. We know we still have work that needs to be done, and our strategic plan will continue to guide our efforts,” she said.
Wisconsin implemented a new educational accountability system last year with more rigorous benchmarks and a new way to report school progress. Each public school now has a School Report Card that lets people know how well it is preparing students for their futures. Because of strategic planning efforts and a track record of focusing on student achievement, schools in the Hamilton School District earned positive ratings under the new system.
The new report cards present an overall accountability score calculated using four factors:
- student achievement on a state assessment;
- year-to-year student growth in reading and mathematics;
- success in closing gaps between specific groups of students; and
- predictors of high school graduation and postsecondary readiness.
The overall accountability score rates schools on a scale of 0 to 100 and places them in one of five categories: significantly exceeds expectations (83-100), exceeds expectations (73-82.9), meets expectations (63-72.9), meets few expectations (53-62.9) and fails to meet expectations (52.9 and below). Each Hamilton school was rated as “exceeds expectations” or “significantly exceeds expectations.”
Hamilton School District 2012-13 School Report Card data
|
School |
Overall score |
Student achievement |
Reading achievement |
Math achievement |
Overall rating |
|
Lannon |
87.1 |
90.0 |
40.0 |
50.0 |
Signif. exceeds |
|
Maple Ave. |
77.4 |
83.1 |
34.3 |
48.8 |
Exceeds |
|
Marcy |
86.5 |
91.9 |
42.7 |
49.3 |
Signif. exceeds |
|
Woodside |
81.6 |
82.9 |
35.6 |
47.3 |
Exceeds |
|
Templeton |
79.2 |
87.1 |
37.9 |
49.3 |
Exceeds |
|
Hamilton High |
84.8 |
84.0 |
39.2 |
44.9 |
Signif. exceeds |
|
District |
83.0 |
86.8 |
37.9 |
48.9 |
Signif. exceeds |
In addition to establishing School Report Cards, the new state accountability system is bringing about other changes in Wisconsin education including:
- The Wisconsin Concepts and Knowledge exam will be replaced in 2014-15 with a new national assessment.
- A new teacher and principal evaluation system which factors in student test scores and educator practices is being piloted statewide and will be fully implemented in 2014-15.