District advances on test results
Students progress over two years
Muskego — In the all-important performance on the ACT college entrance examinations, Muskego-Norway students have made steady progress over the last two years. They topped the average for Waukesha County last year, when only two years ago, they were trailing the countywide average score. At that time the county average score was 23.18 and Muskego-Norway's 22.8 for the 2006-07 school year.
But in two years, Muskego-Norway has pulled slightly ahead. Muskego's average score in 2008-09 was 23.5 while the county average was 23.45.
That puts Muskego-Norway in the upper half of Waukesha County school districts.
"We used to be in the bottom third," said Superintendent Joseph Schroeder. "Now we are in the next third and are within striking distance of the top third."
A good ACT score enhances prospects that a student will be accepted into the college of his or her choice.
Muskego-Norway's ACT average score also beat the average for its athletic conference by quite a bit. The conference ACT average score was 21.73, compared with Muskego's 23.5.
Another measure of college readiness is participation in advanced placement exams and the percent getting passing scores. In the percentage of students who passed and actually got college credit, Muskego trailed the county in general, but again beat the conference average for the year 2007-08, the latest year for which comparable numbers are available.
Seventy-two percent of Muskego-Norway students passed the AP exams, compared with 75.79 percent countywide and 57.58 percent in conference schools.
The percentage of Muskego students passing AP exams shot up resoundingly in 2008-09 to 76 percent, however. And that was with 24 percent participation, far higher than the 15.9 percent the year before.
The comparatively high performance last year, flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Schroeder said, normally the higher the participation, the lower the scores. Comparable data is not available for the county and conference averages for 2008-09.
In 2008-09 statewide testing in grades four, eight and 10 to try to make sure all students are at or above grade level, Muskego-Norway's results were competitive with the county in math and reading, and exceed the county average for grade 10 in math.
In the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts testing in math, 87.1 percent of Muskego-Norway 10th graders were at or above grade level, which is higher than the 86.69 percent for Waukesha County.
In fourth grade, Muskego had 93 percent at or above grade level in math compared to 94.19 for the county; and it had 91.1 percent of eighth-graders compared with 92.22 countywide.
Muskego's WKCE scores have generally been on the upswing with a higher percentage of students keeping up with their grade levels.
In math, the percentage of students at least at grade level rose for all three grades.
That also was true in reading for grades eight and 10, but the percentage fell in fourth grade.
Comparing Muskego with the county for last year, 91.17 of Muskego students were keeping up in reading for all three grades, compared with 92.16 percent for the county.
School Board member Rick Petfalski is pleased with Muskego's overall progress.
"We've made a lot of inroads compared to where we were a short time ago," he said.
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