April 10, 2025
Local NewsState & National

CHS rated ‘commendable’ on Iowa School Report Card

By IAN RICHARDSON

This screenshot of the Iowa School Report Card website shows Creston High School's overall rating (65.9 points), as well as its proficiency, closing achievement gap and college and career ready growth scores. The state average for each of these measurements is marked on the graph by a red flag. The report included eight total measurements, with expanded details available for each one. To the left is a graph showing the distribution of Iowa high schools among the six ratings. Creston was among 38 percent of schools receiving a "commendable" rating. Access the full report for any Iowa school at reports.educateiowa.gov/schoolreportcard.

Creston High School has received a “commendable” rating, and Creston elementary and middle schools have received “acceptable” ratings under a new school measurement system released by the Iowa Department of Education Wednesday.

Called the Iowa School Report Card, the system provides a snapshot of school performance based on measurements including reading and math proficiency, closing of achievement gaps and college and career readiness. Based on this weighted score, schools receive one of six ratings: exceptional, high-performing, commendable, acceptable, needs improvement and priority.

In addition to Creston, 76 percent of Iowa high schools, 73 percent of Iowa middle schools and 70 percent of Iowa elementary schools received either a commendable or acceptable rating.

Creston Superintendent Steve McDermott said the ratings could have been worse, but the district wants to do better.

“We want to be commendable and beyond at all schools,” McDermott said. “We certainly aren’t satisfied with our ratings at this point and definitely want to keep moving toward improvement.”

Scoring

Of the eight measurements used to rate high schools, Creston High School scored at or above state average in five of the categories, including the two highest-weighted ones: proficiency and closing achievement gap. Creston’s reading and math proficiency (87.5 percent) outpaced the state average by more than 8 percentage points, and the closing achievement gap score (60.4 percent) outpaced the state by 10 percentage points.

The high school scored well below state average on college and career ready growth (29.4 percent) and annual expected growth (40.6 percent). Creston High School Principal Bill Messerole said those two lower scores are a result of the school’s already above-average college readiness and proficiency scores.

“Overall, where our group started there wasn’t enough room for growth, so our growth wasn’t there,” Messerole said. “It doesn’t mean they didn’t grow, it just means they didn’t have enough room to grow.”

Creston Middle School was near or above state average in all seven measurements used for middle schools except college and career readiness (25.7 percent), where it fell short by 13 percentage points.

Creston Elementary School was slightly above state averages in all six measurements used for elementary schools except proficiency (72.1 percent), where it fell short of the state average by 7 percentage points. Both schools scored on the higher end of the acceptable rating.

Purpose

The Iowa School Report Card website states the goal of the report cards is not to “make a conclusion about the quality of the staff or provide important information about ongoing work to raise student achievement.” Instead, the report cards are to create talking points among staff, administration and parents about where each school is at in increasing student achievement.

Messerole said these measurements — many of them using data from the Iowa Assessments taken by the previous two years’ junior classes — are good to look at but, like other measurements, don’t necessarily tell the whole story when it comes to his high schoolers.

“It’s a data set,” Messerole said. “Our MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) tests are three data sets. Our ACT scores are a data set. You just you don’t put all of your eggs into one data set, but you look to be sure that if you’re trending anywhere that you’re trending up and not trending down.”

Around the area

Most schools in the News Advertiser’s coverage area also received commendable and acceptable ratings. Among neighboring schools, Murray High School, Sylvia Enarson Elementary School in Villisca and Bedford’s elementary and high schools received high-performing ratings. Adair-Casey Junior-Senior High School received a priority rating.

Others, such as Diagonal Community School and Orient-Macksburg High School, received no overall rating because their groups of students were too small.

“It’s to protect the anonymity of students in small classrooms,” said Karleen Stephens, Diagonal’s superintendent. “If your subgroup is 20 or less, they won’t give you that final rating.”

In coming years, the report cards will add two more measurements: parent involvement and community activities/involvement.

To further explore the report cards, which also include demographic information and closer looks at each of the measurements, visit reports.educateiowa.gov/schoolreportcard.