Yesterday, the Muscatine Community School District celebrated it’s elementary teachers and the hard work they do each and every day for our students by highlighting progress made in lowering chronic absenteeism, as well as progress made in increasing reading scores!

Also recognized were three elementary buildings: Franklin Elementary, Grant Elementary, and McKinley Elementary for being recognized by the Iowa Department of Education for reaching Commendable status on the Iowa Report Card. They are ranked in the top 28% of schools in Iowa! Congratulations Franklin, Grant and McKinley staff!

Here is a video highlighting the achievements at the elementary level:

About the Iowa Report Card:

• The Iowa Report Card was created in response to a 2013 state legislative requirement and has been ranking school since 2015.
• The Iowa Report Card offers a high-level view of student performance across measures of achievement, because several indicators are based on a result of Iowa Assessments, fluctuations in student test scores can impact school scores and ratings.
• Based on a two-year period of school performances on the measures used, schools are ranked on one of the following six ratings: Exceptional, High Performing, Commendable, Acceptable, and Needs Improvement and Priority.
• Measurements that are used: Proficiency, Closing the Achievement Gap, College and Career-Ready Growth, Annual Expected Growth, College and Career Readiness, Graduate Rate, Attendance, Staff Retention, and Teacher Survey of Parent Involvement.
• Muscatine Community School District has zero schools that are in the Priority Level, five school that improved a level and for the first time, three schools that are ranked at the Commendable level (Franklin, Grant, and McKinley!).
• Even though The Iowa Report Card rankings do not tell the whole story, the rankings are starting to show that hard work, curricula, and appropriate professional development is starting to pay off for MCSD’s students!