The Warren County R-III school district is looking ahead on how to improve their Annual Performance Report scores. 

The district’s most recent score for the 2021-2022 school year was 64.2 out of 100 possible points. The district’s lowest category was in academic achievement growth, where the district received four out of 36 possible points for academic achievement growth in English Language arts and mathematics. 

Warren County R-III superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith stressed the growth scores are determined by analyzing a student’s score compared to their projected score. 

“Some kids are predicted to do worse,”  Klinginsmith said. “Some kids are predicted to do better based on a magic formula. It really is a magical formula that nobody can explain to us.” 

Klinginsmith believes students in the high performing category are projected to do worse than they scored in previous years. Based on the data, he believes a district obtains points if their students meet the projected goal, even if it is a worse score than in previous years. Students who are testing in the negative deviation need to improve their score to reach the predicted score and get the points, Klinginsmith believes. 

“The districts that don’t have high performing kids actually have to move kids and show kids actually doing better,” Klinginsmith said. “A high performing district doesn’t necessarily have to do that and their kids can actually regress and they’ll be ahead of the predicted.” 

Klinginsmith stressed he does not want to completely change the district’s philosophy based on one year’s test scores. He thinks they will want to monitor their test scores. If they come back poorly again in the growth model area, the district will need to adjust what they are doing. This could include utilizing the four interventionists currently funded by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds at the middle school. They currently have one interventionist at the middle school and one at each elementary school funded by ESSER. The funds are set to expire after the upcoming school year. The district would pay for the four middle school interventionists out of their budget, if they decide to utilize the interventionists at the middle school.

Warren County R-III board member Sarah Janes said if the district utilizes the four interventionists at the middle school, she wants to make sure those positions are not utilized as substitute teachers. 

“Obviously, subbing is important,” Janes said. “But the reason they were hired, all the education they had to put in to get that job goes out the window when they’re having to pass out worksheets and when they’re having to do the work of the sub. That’s at any level. I think that’s my concern about loading a bunch at the middle school.” 

Klinginsmith stressed the interventionist model at the middle school would be different from the model the district used at the elementary schools. They would have separate classes, he said. 

The district is planning to utilize systems to track academic achievement data for kindergarten through eighth grade. They will expect educators to meet collaboratively with their grade level or department teams, discuss how the students are learning and discuss best practices. They will have conversations based on actual results. The district is also planning to adjust the committee structures at the secondary education level. 

“I really like hearing that,” Warren County R-III board member Ginger Schenck said. “I hope that is the direction that we can proceed. To me, the data is useless if we’re not using it in a productive way to really drive our instructional practices. And that’s the whole purpose of the data is to drive instructional practices. We know that’s the number one thing that’s going to help kids achieve better on the assessments.”