The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released results from the Wisconsin Student Assessment System exams given to students during the spring of the 2020-21 school year. The spring 2021 exams marked the first in-person state testing in the Forward Exam and ACT Aspire exams since the 2018-19 school year.
OASD Forward Exam Results
The Forward Exam is administered in different content areas based on a student's age. Oconomowoc Area School District (OASD) students took the following exams:
- Grades 3-8: Forward Exams in English language arts and mathematics
- Grades 4 and 8: Additional Forward Exam in science
- Grades 4, 8, and 10: Additional Forward Exam in social studies
We are happy to share that OASD students made gains in the Forward Exam when compared to 2018-19 results:
- OASD English language arts (ELA) scores increased .3%
- OASD math scores increased .5%
- The largest OASD gains were seen in 8th grade, where ELA scores increased 5.5% and math scores increased 3.1%
- These gains are especially noteworthy when compared to the overall decreases experienced at the state level
The OASD Director of Research, Evaluation, and Accountability, Dr. Derick Kiger, attributes the Forward Exam gains, in part, to the roadmap provided by the district strategic plan, saying, "The OASD continued to follow its strategic plan throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which helped maintain a systemwide focus on improving student achievement and other key performance objectives. For example, we identified ELA as a growth opportunity at the intermediate grade levels and supported the efforts of our staff to improve student proficiency in that area."
OASD Director of Curriculum and Instruction, John Flannery echoed those sentiments, saying, "I'm proud of the efforts of our students, teachers, principals, support staff, and families over the past two years, as they deserve so much credit for these positive results."
"We felt strongly that our district's instructional plan during the pandemic maintained the best possible balance of managing daily operations with a responsibility of increasing student achievement," he added.
There are many factors that affect student testing results. We believe the ability of our students and staff to make gains during a pandemic was the result of:
- The district strategic plan and our work around specific ELA and math proficiency.
- The partnership between our students, staff, and district families to keep our students on track with their learning throughout the changing environment of the pandemic.
- The creation of our fully virtual learning environment, the Ocon Virtual Learning Community (OVLC) during the 2020-2021 school year. The OVLC was led by OASD teachers whose teaching was dedicated to the students in OVLC; they were not split between OVLC and classroom instruction.
- The virtual learning management systems used by teachers in 4K-grade 12, which helped students stay on track and engaged in their schoolwork If they were out sick or in temporary quarantine.
For more information on the OASD 2019-2024 Strategic Plan and Key Performance Objectives, please visit www.oasd.org/StrategicPlan.
Statewide school district exam results can be found on the Wisconsin DPI's data portal, called WISEdash. Click on the State Tests tab on http://wisedash.dpi.wi.gov.
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