Wright City schools celebrate improved student outcomes

Derrick Forsythe, Correspondent
Posted 11/16/21

After receiving the latest round of feedback from the state concerning performance, the Wright City R-II School District is celebrating growth in multiple areas, despite the disruptions over the past …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Wright City schools celebrate improved student outcomes

Posted

After receiving the latest round of feedback from the state concerning performance, the Wright City R-II School District is celebrating growth in multiple areas, despite the disruptions over the past two years. The Wright City School Board reviewed the results from the Missouri Assessment Program and the End of Course data during its monthly meeting on Oct. 21.

“This feedback represents our main marker of student achievement,” said Superintendent Dr. Chris Berger. “We were pleased with the results.”

R-II was tested in 19 areas, including seven at both West Elementary and the middle school and five at the high school.
“We were able to see a lot of improvements,” said Berger. “We’re primarily looking at 2019 versus the testing cycle of last spring, with school having been disrupted during the spring of 2020.”

R-II tested 99 percent of eligible students. Compared to the same feedback from the 2019 school year, thirteen of those areas showed progress.

“That’s what we may be most proud of, is that 13 of the areas assessed showed growth,” said Berger. “That may be the key, because we’re valuing growth no matter where we’re at.”

Out of the 18 areas assessed, seven of those showed Wright City exceeding the state average. This is an increase from just three hitting that mark in 2019. Four of the areas surpassing state marks were related to math performance, up from zero when tested in 2019.

“Overall we’re pleased, because we’re seeing improvement, but this certainly identifies opportunities that we can further improve upon as well,” added Berger.

Other areas that reflected growth included six of the 11 measured cohorts.

R-II also showed improvement among special education students in 13 of 17 assessed areas. Wright City’s SPED scores exceeded the state average in nine of 17 areas.

“I think a change in focus in the last couple years is our subgroups so we’re reporting that out monthly to the board,” said Berger. “The subgroups we identified to focus on are (individual education plan) and English Language Learners (ELL), which are both significant subgroups within our district.”

R-II currently has a Hispanic enrollment of around 10 percent and has historically had one of the higher ELL percentage rates across the state.

Berger said the district will target those areas in which they are not seeing growth and reinforce what is working effectively.

“Among our actions moving forward for continued success are really a strong adherence to our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan and the strategies outlined in that CSIP,” said Berger. “The number one thing that will give us continued success is what we call Impact Teams. The last three years we’ve been putting those in place.”

Impact teams bring educators together to identify gaps in learning and address those deficits through differentiated instruction and strategies.


X