Student Performance Data

Upon the conclusion of each school year, MTSD produces a comprehensive Quality Report to the community that serves as an annual report of academic program, operational review and performance in the District. Due to the timing of student assessments and when the district receives assessment results, often data is not available in time for inclusion in the Quality Report. With the 2020-2021 school year having recently come to a close, MTSD is working to analyze end-of-year and cumulative data and will provide updated progress on student achievement and student assessment results here.

Progress Updates

Strategic Plan

Milestones

State Assessments

Frequently Asked Questions

Was there learning loss during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years due to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

There is no question that the statewide school closure in March 2020 last school year and the challenges of providing families the option of both in-person and virtual learning throughout this school year, disrupted the achievement levels we have all been accustomed to in the Mequon-Thiensville School District.

Here is what we are doing about it:

Providing summer academic programming focused specifically on eliminating student reading and math deficits.
Reinstituting pre-pandemic bell schedules allowing for teacher collaboration time within the work day for proactive data review and planning to inform instruction and individualized student support.
Providing a variety of after school content-specific support/test-prep classes, which are facilitated by our teachers.
Continuing to implement building-level student review teams to regularly review quantitative and qualitative student outcomes to determine individualized student support needs.
Developing and implementing an onsite high school credit recovery program for juniors and seniors at risk of not graduating on time.

How is the District addressing the social and emotional well-being of students as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic?

The Board of Education, administration, and school faculty and staff prioritize the social and emotional growth and well-being of each student alongside their academic growth. The Board recently approved the 2021-2024 Strategic Plan in March 2021 and with it, the strategic objective to: respond with urgency, flexibility and compassion to the individual social and emotional needs of students as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. An initiative specific to meeting this objective is the addition of a school psychologist to the district’s student services team. Connecting our students with student services personnel is an essential component to supporting the individual needs of each child.

More information regarding social emotional learning and support can be reviewed here.

Does MTSD utilize the ACT exam to assess student achievement at the high school level?

Yes, MTSD utilizes ACT results as an annual measure of student performance. Beginning in the spring of 2015, Wisconsin began requiring all 11th-grade students to be administered the ACT. As a result, the Homestead High School graduating class of 2016 was the first full class of students to be required to take the assessment. Up until that time, the ACT exam was optional for those students in a graduating class that had the desire to take it.

The graduating class at Homestead High School has maintained an ACT composite score above a 24.5 since 2016. The Class of 2020 had an ACT average composite score of 24.7, while the statewide average composite score statewide for the same year was 19.1. Prior year ACT data is included annually in the school district’s Quality Report each summer (as it is administered in the spring).

Student performance (specifically Milestones for Post-Secondary Success) has declined in some areas since the 2016-2017 school year. Why is this, and what is being done to correct it?

MTSD has maintained a consistent curriculum and resources for ELA and math since the 2016-2017 school year. The biggest impact on student performance has been the 54% turnover in 1st through 5th grade teachers since the 2016-2017 school year. In addition to the percentage of elementary teacher turnover, we have also hired two new elementary literacy and one new elementary math specialist in that time. As such, our focus for the past four years has been on helping to build our new teacher capacity to effectively deliver our ELA and math curriculum through targeted professional learning and coaching provided by our instructional specialists.