Photo Credit: CoolestCoast.com
Today on our deep dive into the Manitowoc Public School District, we are taking a look at how they fared on the District Accountability Report Card.
The information is portrayed on a scatter plot, with the y-axis showing the amount of money a district makes per student, and the x-axis showing the overall score for the district (which you can see below).
Interim Manitowoc Public School District Superintendent Jim Feil says there is a typical trend that arises in these reports.
“Typically…you would see a high cluster of low funded, low performing schools in the lower left quadrant,” he explained. “Typically the pattern has been a movement [of] more revenue, more growth.”
The MPSD is currently sitting in the lower left quadrant, with their $14,000 per student below the state average, and their accountability score of about 60 also being below average.
“The ideal situation, or the one that I would want to benchmark to…is the one in the bottom right column,” he said. “Getting the greatest return for the resources provided, where you don’t have to be a rich district to accomplish great things.”
One issue that is seen statewide, is that the school districts that are spending more per student are not getting the results they should be.
Technically speaking, the MPSD is meeting expectations, as they are performing as well as the state expects them to based on income.
Feil said that’s not good enough.
“We all have to understand that no state wants us to necessarily look bad,” he said. “They all want to grow and to improve, but the state Report Card has us where, it’s not where we want to be.”
Feil said the best way to better the MPSD’s score without getting more money is by focusing on education, especially at the earlier grade levels.
In tomorrow’s report, we will take a closer look at what the district is doing to make that happen.
Click here to view our report on the MPSD’s financial situation.
