All School District of New Berlin schools continue to “significantly exceed” or “exceed” expectations according to 2018-19 state-issued District and School Report Cards released today. The District
also “significantly exceeds” expectations, one of only 40 of 421 districts in Wisconsin to reach that level.

Among this year’s highlights:

• The district’s overall score climbed for the second straight year, from 84.7 in 2016-17 to 85.7 in 2017-18 to 86.9 in 2018-19;
• West, with its 83.5, “significantly exceeds expectations” for the first time since the report cards were issued in 2014. In all previous years, West “exceeded expectations”;
• Eisenhower’s score climbed from 86.1 a year ago to a district-best 89.0;
• Both secondary schools, as well as Elmwood (87.4) and Ronald Reagan (84.2) elementary schools, significantly exceed expectations; Poplar Creek (82.4) and Orchard Lane (81.3) “exceed expectations”.

District and school report cards are intended to offer accountability of how well schools and districts statewide are preparing students to graduate college and career ready.

“We’re incredibly proud of the continued high levels of achievement by our district,” Superintendent Joe Garza said. “It says a lot about our students, staff and families that our district continues to be among a small percentage that is considered to ‘significantly exceed expectations’ in Wisconsin.

“We will use the report cards to identify strengths and areas where we can improve and continue to strive for the levels of excellence our community expects from its schools.”

Report cards provide an accountability index score from 0-100 based on performance in four priority areas:

• Student achievement, or level in knowledge and skills attained compared against state academic standards in English Language Arts and mathematics;
• Growth, or how rapidly students are gaining knowledge and skills from year to you, focusing on pace of improvement in students’ performance;
• Closing gaps in performance between specific student groups (comparing English language learners, low-income students, students with disabilities and members of racial or ethnic groups with their peers);
• On-track and postsecondary readiness, or how successfully students are achieving educational milestones that predict later success.

Additionally, schools and districts are evaluated on two student engagement indicators: absenteeism rate and dropout rate.

The 2018-19 DPI report cards included a few changes from previous years, the most significant being the inclusion of ACT Aspire test results (English language arts and mathematics) for 9th and 10th graders. Three years of data are used in Achievement and Growth priority area calculations and up to five years in Closing Gaps.

There were also changes to the closing gaps score (though the SDNB was not affected), some aspects of the report card display; and the qualifications resulting in report card eligibility.

All SDNB report cards can be viewed at www.nbexcellence.org/district/school-report-cards.cfm.

Please note: The School District of New Berlin has unique grade-level structures (elementary grades K-6, secondary grades 7-12) that should be taken into consideration when community members, media and others compare scores and ratings to other districts and schools.