G-R superintendent addresses 'targeted for improvement' designation

The Iowa Department of Education recently designated over 300 school buildings in Iowa as ‘targets for improvement’ according to Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) guidelines, and in Grundy County, the Gladbrook-Reinbeck Elementary School in Reinbeck was the only facility to make the list. In a recent e-mail exchange with The Grundy Register, Superintendent David Hill explained what that means for G-R and how it fits into the bigger picture.
           
Like the Aplington-Parkersburg Middle School, which received the designation for similar reasons, one subgroup of students (those who receive free and reduced lunches) scored below the established cut score from last year’s Iowa Assessment—in this case, the average was just 44 one hundredths of a percentage point under the cutoff.
           
“We're proud of G-R Elementary's overall student achievement, which was even higher than some schools that were not listed for targeted or comprehensive support.  It really all comes down to the one subgroup,” Hill said. “When just one subgroup can make the difference, I predict that high quality school systems all over Iowa will bounce back and forth between "met" status and "targeted" status in the coming years.” 
 
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