Allamakee Community School District performing above statewide averages in all aspects of the recently released Iowa School Performance Profiles
by Brianne Grimstad
Early in the second full week of November, the Iowa Department of Education released the results of the new state school performance ratings and federal designations, called the Iowa School Performance Profiles. Using data from the 2023-2024 school year, this year’s Profiles marked the first time new state school performance ratings and federal designations have been determined using an updated state plan for school accountability and support.
“Our performance profiles provide critical, transparent information for families, educators, and communities on how our schools are serving all students,” said Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow. “Built with the feedback of thousands of Iowans, our new, world-class accountability system celebrates school success and supports continuous improvement, focusing resources on the classroom and what has the greatest impact on student achievement and growth. The Department will continue to partner with schools in need of support to accelerate student learning through high-quality instructional materials and practices, evidence-based professional learning, leadership coaching, and learner engagement.”
This new ratings system examines a set of core indicators that include proficiency in the areas of English language arts (ELA), math and science, academic growth in math and ELA, chronic absenteeism, graduation rates, and postsecondary readiness index in the areas of college credits and work based learning, among others. The updates to the approved accountability system for this year provide consistently rigorous, reliable and fair school ratings that are easily understood by families, educators, communities and taxpayers.
Overall, the Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) exceeded the state of Iowa average in the areas most beneficial, such as graduation rates, post-secondary readiness and proficiency, and was also lower than the state average in chronic absenteeism. The results were also broken down to look at each individual education center in every school district, as well as broken down by demographics.
Chronic absenteeism (students who were absent for more than 10% of school days for any reason) has been a focus of Iowa’s legislators, with Senate File 2435 being signed into law earlier this year. ACSD Superintendent Jay Mathis noted that the new law gives Iowa school districts a consistent definition of chronic absenteeism and support to correct that.
“We know that the more kids are in school, the better their chances of success are,” Mathis said.
Overall, ACSD had a 15.95% rate for chronic absenteeism for the 2023-2024 school year, coming in under the state average of 21.63%. The district had a score of 3.63% in attendance growth, slightly above the state average of 2.18%.
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