Knapp Elementary State Report Card Score Increases

Nov. 13, 2018—We know that the collective action happening at Knapp A group of adults stand under the Gilbert Knapp Elementary sign on the side of the school. They hold inspirational banners and raise their hands in the air.

A group of adults stand under the Gilbert Knapp Elementary sign on the side of the school. They hold inspirational banners and raise their hands in the air.

Elementary, Racine’s first community school, is making a positive impact. We saw it in our test scores as math and reading proficiency increased over the last two years. We see it in the 92 percent retention rate of our staff from last year to this year when Knapp previously experienced very high staff turnover. We see it in the smiles of the students eating dinner in the afterschool program and in the excitement of the parents coming together as parent leaders to organize support for their school and community.

On November 13, the official state report card was released, and we see our positive impact reflected in the score. The state report card assesses a school’s performance from 0-100, giving points for student achievement, school growth, closing gaps, and on-track and post-secondary readiness. Knapp’s score for 2017-18 is 56.7, which is an increase of 16.3 points over last year. This increase, which is the highest among all RUSD schools, moves us out of the “Fails to Meet Expectations” category and just six points shy of the “Meets Expectations” category.

We know that there is still a lot of work to do, but we are moving the needle in the right direction. National data and research show that the community school strategy has a five- to seven-year turnaround; as this is year three of LIFT’s implementation at Knapp, we are right on track. Thank you to everyone for your continued support of our community school work—we are stronger together.