Why Growth Matters: Understanding Your School Report Card

When your school report card arrives, we know where most people look first. The overall score. The achievement percentages. The comparison to other schools. But here's what we've learned after years of working with districts across Wisconsin: if you're not looking at growth first, you're missing the most important story your data has to tell.

Growth tells you something that achievement alone cannot. It tells you whether your school is actually making a difference in the trajectory of students' learning, regardless of where those students started.

The Most Honest Metric

The growth metric on Wisconsin's Accountability Report Card is what we call the most honest measure of the four scoring areas. Unlike proficiency rates that can be heavily influenced by the demographics of your student population, growth asks a fairer question: given the students you serve, are you moving them forward at a rate that exceeds what would typically be expected?

This is a three-year metric that compares the growth of students in your school to others just like them across the state. The value-added model takes students who score similarly and have comparable demographics and examines their progress statewide to see which schools are accelerating learning at a faster pace.

A score of 3.0 means your students are progressing at the expected rate compared to similar students statewide. Above 3.0? You're accelerating growth beyond typical expectations. Below 3.0? There's room to strengthen your impact on student learning.

A Real Example of What Growth Measures

Let us give you a concrete example. Laura is a student facing economic hardships who scored "Meeting" on the Wisconsin Forward exam in math as a sixth grader with a score of 1650. That becomes her starting point.

Throughout seventh grade, her teachers worked intentionally. They conferenced with her regularly, provided targeted feedback, and gave her extension challenges in areas where she'd mastered content. When the Forward Exam came around, Laura scored 1685, pushing her to Advanced level. In value-added calculations, she demonstrated extremely high growth, beating 95% of students just like her across the state.

Her individual growth then gets aggregated with all other students who meet the criteria "Economically disadvantaged" in her school. If that group collectively shows high growth, the school scores well in value-added growth for this subgroup.

This is why growth matters. It isolates your school's contribution by controlling for external factors like prior test scores and demographics. It levels the playing field and recognizes that schools serve different populations.

Where Growth Data Gets Really Powerful

Here's where most schools stop too soon: they look at the overall building score and move on. But the real power of growth data lies in the disaggregated analysis.

Pull apart your growth scores by student group. Are students with disabilities growing at the same rate as their peers? What about English learners? Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds? This is where you'll uncover equity gaps that might be completely hidden in overall proficiency data.

We've worked with districts where overall growth looked solid at 3.2 or 3.3, but when we examined students with disabilities specifically, their growth was consistently at 2.7 or 2.8. That gap told us something actionable: the practices being used weren't moving the needle for this particular group of students.

What Drives Growth

In our experience working across Wisconsin, schools with strong processes focused on student learning make the most significant improvements in growth scores. Several patterns emerge consistently.

Data-driven instruction matters. But not just any data. You need both lagging data like annual assessments and leading data like weekly attendance rates, chronic absenteeism, and discipline referrals. When you monitor both, you can identify problems early and intervene immediately rather than waiting months for test results to reveal what you should have addressed in September.

Tier 1 instruction is everything. Whether we're talking about literacy or math, the path to sustained gains lies in high-quality core instruction. This isn't just about covering curriculum. It's about transforming the classroom experience through high-engagement strategies, explicit modeling of thinking processes, and rigorous problems that require students to apply knowledge in new contexts.

Professional learning must be targeted. If your growth scores are below 3.0 for specific student groups, you need professional learning focused on differentiating instruction for those learners. Training on high-impact instructional routines that specifically address students who are approaching or developing proficiency pays dividends. These are the students who fall through the cracks because they're not far enough behind to trigger intensive interventions but aren't quite where they need to be.

Collaborative structures accelerate improvement. When teachers have protocols to review data together, model effective strategies for each other, and engage in coaching cycles tied to student growth, improvement accelerates. This work requires dedicated time, but the investment shows up in your growth scores.

The Foundations Beneath It All

Basic Needs

Here's something critical that often gets overlooked in conversations about academic growth: students can't learn when their basic needs aren't met. You can have the best curriculum and the most skilled teachers, but if students don't feel safe, if they don't feel like they belong, if they're dealing with trauma or instability, learning stops.

The rate and pace of growth happens differently for each student based on foundational pieces: psychological safety, emotional well-being, and belonging. Research shows that comprehensive school mental health systems increase academic achievement and graduation rates, increase student engagement and connectedness, decrease the need for restrictive placements, and improve school climate.

This isn't separate from academics. It's the foundation that makes academic growth possible.

Accessing the Curriculum

When we see lagging growth for students, the first question we ask isn't about the intervention. It's about access. Can students actually access and engage with the universal curriculum? 

Too often, we're working harder than ever while students aren't making the growth we'd expect. One of the smartest moves districts can make is examining how students are accessing grade-level content. A student who decodes at a third-grade level can still participate in deep, meaningful discussions with seventh-grade classmates about rich, grade-level text when you provide the right tools.

Text-to-speech tools, platforms that adjust text complexity without altering content, and other assistive technologies can bridge the gap. With these supports, students access the material, engage in higher-level thinking, and build stronger comprehension. This shows up in growth scores.

First things first: students must be able to access and engage with the standards if we expect them to learn them.

The Question Worth Answering

Growth scores ask a question that matters: given the students you serve, are you accelerating their learning beyond what would typically be expected?

That's not a gotcha question. It's an invitation to honest reflection about whether your efforts are translating into actual learning gains for students. It recognizes the different challenges schools face and asks about your impact, not your starting point.

So when you get your school report card, go straight to growth. Look at the overall score, yes. But then dig into the disaggregated data. Look for patterns. Look for gaps. And then have honest conversations with your team about what the data is revealing.

Because growth is what we're all here for. Not to sort students into categories of proficient and not proficient, but to ensure that every student, regardless of where they start, is making meaningful progress. That's the work that matters.

Looking for more specific insights and strategies on growth? Please check out our next blog, “Practical Strategies for Growth That Move the Needle on School Report Cards” that will be published on December 11, 2025.

Need help making sense of your growth data or developing systems to accelerate student learning? CESA 6 is here. Our team specializes in supporting school and district teams in developing systems that promote both academic growth and student well-being. We want to Empower Students Together.

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