Does Brandon Valley make the grade?
By:
Jamie Hult, Staff writer
The report cards are out for Brandon Valley schools, and once again, the district scored well above the state average and surrounding school districts.
Released by the South Dakota Department of Education last week, the annual report cards grade public schools statewide on a 100-point system called the School Performance Index.
Among BV’s seven schools, Robert Bennis Elementary scored highest with an 82.41, followed closely by Brandon Valley High School at 81.3. Brandon Valley Intermediate School had the lowest grade at 61.22.
Superintendent Dr. Jarod Larson said SPI scores are one component the district uses to measurwe academic success.
“The scores are really positive,” he said. “On Oct. 6 our school improvements teams will do a data dig to drill down, look at individual grade levels and implement strategies based on that data.”
The SPI looks at three areas when scoring elementary and middle schools: student achievement, academic growth over three years, and attendance. High schools are scored in student achievement, graduation rate and college and career readiness. Student achievement is based on English and math scores over three years of performance on the Smarter Balanced state assessments.
Brandon Valley’s elementary and middle schools averaged 72.63 – nearly 20 points above the state average (52.76).
BVHS’s score of 81.3 far surpassed the state average (67.49), as well as grades given to high schools in Aberdeen, Brookings, Harrisburg, Huron, Mitchell, Pierre, Sioux Falls, Watertown and Yankton.
College and career readiness incorporates performance on the Smarter Balanced assessment, in addition to the ACT and Accuplacer. Many high schools, including Brandon Valley’s, saw a dip in their scores this year; according to Larson, this is the first school year the DOE has used Smarter Balanced scores as a factor in college and career readiness. Larson attributed the decrease to the wider pool of students; while all students take the Smarter Balanced achievement test, he pointed out, the ACT is typically taken by college-bound students.
“It’s like comparing apples and oranges,” he said.
The Department of Education’s annual report cards also assign a classification to each school – exemplary for schools scoring in the top 5 percent of the state, status for schools scoring in the top 10 percent, progressing for schools scoring in the middle: and below the top 10 percent but higher than the bottom 5 percent.
The DOE website shows SPI scores for each school in the state and gives a breakdown for each school district. Because the DOE is incorporating standards from the Every Student Succeeds Act into the SPI, the classifications from the 2016-17 school year did not change with this report card release.
“They’re not necessarily accurate,” Larson explained.
The full report cards are available for public review at www.doe.sd.gov
A breakdown of report cards throughout the school district shows the following:
Brandon Elementary
SPI score: 71.42
Academic growth: 69.60
Attendance: 90.88
Student achievement: 63.30
Student population: 763
Average teaching experience: 11 years
Fred Assam Elementary
SPI score: 74.37
Academic growth: 73.20
Attendance: 91.43
Student achievement: 67.00
Student population: 536
Average teaching experience: 14 years
Robert Bennis Elementary
SPI score: 82.41
Academic Growth: 84.17
Attendance: 92.37
Student achievement: 75.67
Student population: 662
Average teaching experience: 15 years
Valley Springs Elementary
SPI score: 66.63
Academic Growth: 65.00
Attendance: 86.36
Student achievement: 58.40
Student population: 137
Average teaching experience: 16
Brandon Valley Middle School
SPI score: 65.05
Academic Growth: 59.25
Attendance: 85.08
Student achievement: 60.83
Student population: 1,936
Average teaching experience: 12 years
Brandon Valley Intermediate School
SPI score: 62.22
Academic Growth: 50.77
Attendance: 84.92
Student achievement: 59.83
Student population: 1,252
Average teaching experience: 11 years
Brandon Valley High School
SPI score: 81.30
College and Career Readiness: 80.37
High School Completion: 97.03
Student achievement: 70.20
Student population: 718
Average teaching experience: 15
