Students aren’t the only ones that get graded. Starting just last year, schools statewide have received “report cards” from the Department of Public Instruction as a part of the new state accountability system. This system is part of a five-year plan designed to ensure that every child is able to graduate from college and is career ready. These grades are developed from four categories: Student Achievement, Student Growth, Closing Gaps and On-Track and Postsecondary Readiness. Within each of those main “Priority Areas” are subcategories that go into further depth in the scoring system. Subcategories include Attendance Rate, Reading Achievement, and others. The Overall Accountability Score, ranging from 0-100 percent, is the weighted average of those areas. This year, South has managed to rise 6.7 percent, going from a score of 62.2 to 68.9. This makes South the highest scoring school in the Sheboygan Area School District amongst those who got graded, placing 3.1 percent higher than cross-town school North, says South’s Principal Michael Trimberger. “North got a score, South got a score, and Ideas got a score, and we were the highest out of those three.” Trimberger plans on increasing the score next year to at least 73 percent, a 4.9 percent leap from South’s current location. “The place that we can improve the most is reading…” Trimberger stated, as South scored 5.7 points below the state average of 32.2/50 in the Reading Achievement subcategory. Program implementations, such as the homeroom reading practice, are hoped to raise this subcategory’s score to the state’s average by teaching students to be more analytical readers. Trimberger hopes to keep South as the top scoring school in the district, and says, “We are going to have to increase our score by about 4 points to stay the top school.” Other policies have been enacted to help reach this goal, such as the infamous dress code and tardy policies. All of these rules, Trimberger says, are to get students “prepared for that college readiness” and to “[treat] school like it’s a job”. As the years progress, faculty and administration only hope to keep raising the bar to maintain South’s status as the top ranked school in the SASD. Story by Briana Wojcik /Photo by Jesus M Rivera