OSHKOSH – At least one thing is pointing up in the district.
School grades appear to be improving in the community, with the Oshkosh Area School District recording an increase in its overall score on the annual student performance report cards issued by Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction.
Saying OASD “exceeds expectations,” DPI gave the district an overall score of 71.3 — a significant jump from last year’s rating of 69.7.
It’s the second time in as many years OASD has improved on its DPI rating, with the 71.3 overall score serving as the district’s highest mark since the 2018-19 school year when Oshkosh received a 72.4 rating.
The release of the annual report cards comes a week after OASD’s Board of Education expressed concerns over the district’s less-than-flattering results from its Forward Exam and ACT test scores.
OASD is also in the process of reducing its operational budget, which the district says “will inevitably involve fewer positions” amid a projected $6 million deficit for the 2026-27 school year and declining student enrollment.
What are student performance report cards?
Report cards are given to all schools and districts measuring them on four key areas: student achievement, year-to-year knowledge growth, the performance of their lowest student percentile and their on track to graduate numbers.
Those first two areas, achievement and knowledge growth, are then graded in separate sections for English Language Arts and Mathematics.
Each district and school receive a weighted average from zero to 100 based on those scores, which determine if they fall in categories of “fails to meet expectations,” “meets few expectations,” “meets expectations,” “exceeds expectations” and “significantly exceeds expectations.”
How did OASD’s schools perform?
Two schools — Traeger Middle (89.8) and Oakwood Elementary (88.6) — significantly exceeded expectations while six other schools, including both high schools, Oshkosh North (77.1) and Oshkosh West (74), exceeded expectations.
Six schools met expectations, as was the case with last year’s report, while Vel Phillips Middle School (59.3), Roosevelt Elementary (58.7) and Jefferson Elementary (54.7) met few expectations.
What were the scores for the district?
Overall, the district received average scores of 60 in English Language Arts and 61 in Mathematics, marked improvements on last year’s respective scores of 55.9 and 55.3.
Those scores, despite serving as increases for Oshkosh, still trail the state averages of 63.9 in English Language Arts and 65.6 for Mathematics.
Conversely, the district scored significantly higher than the state averages for growth in both subject areas, having recorded 71.7 for Math and Language Arts as opposed to 66.
This was down from Oshkosh’s growth of 73.6 for both areas over the 2023-24 school year.
Only 16.1% of the district’s students are considered chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year, as opposed to 19.8% for the state. That number was 14.1% for OASD a year ago.
The district’s “on track to graduate” score improved slightly from 91.1 to 91.4 but still trailed the state’s average of 91.9% for a second year running.
How did neighboring districts score?
Once again, Winneconne Community (80.4), Omro (79.9) and Neenah Joint (72.8) all exceeded expectations with their overall scores while Menasha Joint (69) met expectations.
Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@usatodayco.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @justinmarville.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh Area School District ‘exceeds expectations’ on latest state DPI report card
Reporting by Justin Marville, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
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