Somewhat recently, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released its annual ratings for all public schools in Wisconsin. This article will provide some summary statistics with a bit of analysis. A deeper look at the numbers may be provided in a future article if this article is well received.
To start, the DPI rates each individual school and entire school districts based on a 100 point scale, with ratings broken down as follows:
| Rating | Score |
| Significantly Exceeds Expectations | 83 – 100 |
| Exceeds Expectations | 73 – 82.9 |
| Meets Expectations | 63 – 72.9 |
| Meets Few Expectations | 53 – 62.9 |
| Fails to Meet Expectations | 0 – 52.9 |
The ratings are mainly ranked on four factors—student achievement, growth, closing gaps, and on-track and post-secondary success. Much more information about the methodology, along with far more detailed reports on each district, can be found at the DPI website, which is linked below. As mentioned above, this article will provide just a few summary statistics.
Here are the overall ratings for each public school in the Manitowoc District, as well as the rating for the overall district:
| School | Rating |
| Entire Manitowoc District | 65.7 |
| Franklin Elementary | 63.3 |
| Jackson Elementary | 72.7 |
| Jefferson Elementary | 62.9 |
| Madison Elementary | 68.9 |
| Monroe Elementary | 73.3 |
| Stangel Elementary | 74.1 |
| Washington Junior High | 67.2 |
| Wilson Junior High | 64.4 |
| Lincoln High School | 62.3 |
Next, here is a table showing the Manitowoc School District along with other districts in Manitowoc County. A column showing the percentage of economically disadvantaged students has been added.
| District | Rating | % Economically Disadvantaged |
| Manitowoc | 65.7 | 40.9% |
| Two Rivers | 64.5 | 45.5% |
| Kiel | 75.1 | 17.4% |
| Mishicot | 72.9 | 22.5% |
| Reedsville | 74.4 | 23.7% |
| Valders | 71.1 | 16.3% |
Finally, a table showing the Manitowoc School District along with comparably sized districts within Northeastern Wisconsin, plus Milwaukee:
| District | Rating | % Economically Disadvantaged |
| Manitowoc | 65.7 | 40.9% |
| Appleton | 68.5 | 35.8% |
| Fond du Lac | 71.9 | 41.9% |
| Green Bay | 63.0 | 56.4% |
| Menasha | 73.4 | 56.5% |
| Neenah | 75.5 | 25.7% |
| Oshkosh | 74.0 | 41.1% |
| Sheboygan | 71.2 | 52.1% |
| Milwaukee | 57.0 | 85.6% |
Now, some analysis. I will start by saying that it is very difficult to get apples-to-apples comparisons between schools. There are just so many factors going into school success that it is difficult to capture all of them, and every person is likely to have his or her own priorities in terms of what is important. I have added the information about economically disadvantaged students because I think that would be an important factor in the overall success rate of a school district. However, the Department of Public Instruction website has considerably more information about what went into the ratings, and more specific information on each school. The entire methodology and ratings were developed by the DPI—These ratings are not coming from some evil conservative think tank or a private-school advocating public group with an ax to grind.
I think it can be safely said that, again, based on these ratings only, Manitowoc could be doing quite a bit better. First, let’s look at the table showing all of the Manitowoc schools. There aren’t too many surprises here to me. The elementary schools are ranked about how I would have guessed and, again, many of the lower scoring schools tend to be in lower income neighborhoods. It may surprise some that Washington Junior High schools scores noticeably higher than Wilson, and that Lincoln High School is the lowest rated school in the entire district.
The table showing all of the districts in Manitowoc County is interesting, but seems pretty easy to explain once I look at it more closely. The smaller districts have fewer students to educate, and a lower percentage of them are economically disadvantaged. I’m not sure those factors alone explain the rating difference, but I think they would play a significant part.
More interesting is the table showing the similarly sized districts in our part of the state. Here, Manitowoc appears to lag. The only district that has a lower rating is Green Bay. The economically disadvantaged statistic helps explain why Manitowoc lags, say, Neenah, but it doesn’t come close to explaining why Manitowoc is behind districts like Appleton, Fond du Lac, and Oshkosh, oftentimes by a rather wide margin. To put things in some perspective, though, Manitowoc’s district does “meet expectations”, and I have also included Milwaukee which many would view as one of the worst districts in the state. Manitowoc is nowhere near that.
Questions for Discussion:
What factors should be used to rate schools?
Does Manitowoc’s rating seem accurate?
Is Manitowoc’s rating acceptable? What score should Manitowoc strive for?
Should there be consequences for districts that score below a certain threshold?
https://dpi.wi.gov/accountability/report-cards
