Grades are in, and it looks like students in Wasatch County and Park City are pretty darn smart compared to their peers statewide.
The Utah Board of Education sent out a news release Tuesday morning as well as links to what it calls school report cards, which measure the performance of individual schools and districts in the state, as well as Utah as a whole.
“The Utah School Report Card allows parents to examine school performance indicators, such as achievement and growth,” the release states.
In order to determine achievement scores for schools, districts and the state as a whole, the school board measures the number of students who score proficient on standardized tests. This means the RISE test is used for grades 3 through 8, while the Utah Aspire Plus gives the measurements for grades 9 through 10. Students in 11th grade are meted against the ACT test, and 12th graders do not have a statewide assessment, according to the state board’s accountability specialist, Ann-Michelle Neal.
This year, the report card states it had a 97% participation rate from Utah’s schools.
According to the report’s achievement section, Utah’s primary and secondary students sit below 50% efficiency in language arts, math and science.
High school achievement in language arts increased 1.6% to 45.9% since last year, science rose 1.1% to 35.2% and math fell 1.7% to land at 30.8%.
Grades 3 through 8 saw a 0.9% rise in language arts achievement to 45.7%, a 0.1% drop in mathematics to 44.1% and a 1% gain in science to 49.5%.
The Wasatch County and Park City school districts both exceeded their peers at a state level.
Wasatch County had a reported 88.7% participation rate. Its elementary schoolers have become more proficient in all three subjects, placing them at 60.3% in English, 59.2% in mathematics and 57.9% in science.
The district’s high schoolers showed significant gains of over 10% in both language arts and science, where they were measured as 54.8% and 42.8% proficiency, respectively.
In mathematics, they saw an 0.8% decrease, taking them to 36.6% and landing them only about 6% ahead of the state in general.
Park City schools show similar proficiency to Wasatch County’s.
With 98.1% participation, the report card determined 57.4% of elementary schoolers are proficient in language arts, 53.6% in math and 62.1% in science.
The district’s high schoolers were deemed to be 60.8% proficient in English, 54.9% in science and 39.8% in math, the only category that saw a slight drop of less than 2%.
According to a statement released by the Park City School District the day of the report card’s release, the district also saw a 14% exclusion rate for 9th and 10th graders whose parents opted them out of the state’s Aspire Plus test, something that it says isn’t accounted for in the 98.1% participation statistic.
“We are proud of our students’ progress and grateful for the exceptional educators across the district,” Park City School District Chief Teaching and Learning Officer Stacey Briggs said. “The report not only highlights our students’ achievements and development, but also guides us as we continue pinpointing areas where additional support is essential for their success.”
Wasatch school officials seemed to be similarly happy with their marks on the state report card.
On Oct. 26, the district released a statement about its schools’ RISE testing data, stating that by that measurement “the Utah State Board of Education has placed Wasatch County School District (WCSD) at the top of school districts across the state in ELA (English Language Arts) proficiency for the 2022-23 year. “
The statement adds that by the same district measures third in math and seventh in science.
“We got here with a determination to help as many students become proficient as possible,” WCSD Superintendent Paul Sweat said. “We did it by clearly identifying our standards and objectives and then working together in high-functioning, collaborative teams to make sure that as many students as possible are being deemed proficient.”
Along with proficiency, the state report card also measures other aspects of school districts, such as postsecondary readiness, English-learner progress and student growth.
Both local districts are several percentage points ahead of the state in each measured category of high schoolers’ growth, which includes math, language arts and science. PCSD also pushes about 9% higher than the state in growth of the lowest 25% while WCSD remains only slightly above Utah’s overall score.
While the state as a whole was reported to have 31.2% of English-learners in high school “making adequate progress” and 11.7% achieving proficiency, PCSD saw 45% progressing adequately and 27.4% becoming proficient. WCSD was measured to have 57.9% of English-learners appropriately progressing and 39.7% hitting proficiency standards.
Both school districts have relatively high four-year graduation rates, with WCSD’s at 93.2% and PCSD’s at 93.7%.