How does Warsaw Community High School compare to other high schools in the state? Using the most recent data available, from the 2011-12 school year, Warsaw Community Schools Chief Accountability Officer Amy Sivley answered that question Monday night during the school board’s regular monthly meeting. She compared WCHS to 20 other schools from the Northern Lakes Conference (Concord, Wawasee, etc.), schools with similar demographics (Columbus East, Kokomo, Mishawaka, etc.) and high-performing schools (Carroll, Chesterton, Crown Point, Homestead, etc.). As the Indiana Department of Education has not updated ACT or SAT data for schools on its website yet, Sivley was not able to compare the schools in those areas. Advanced Placement data also was limited to 2010-11 as 2011-12 was not yet available from the DOE. Last year, enrollment at WCHS was 2,138 students. This month, per Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz’s enrollment report, that number is now at 2,145 students. That puts WCHS sixth in enrollment out of the 21 schools in the comparison. The highest enrollment for 2011-12 was at Penn with 3,599 students, with the lowest at NorthWood with 900 students. WCHS also was sixth for English language learners enrollment at 6.4 percent. Goshen had the highest at 17.8 percent, with the lowest being at Chesterton with 0.3 percent. “The numbers are just for the high school. Corporation wide, the numbers were obviously higher,” Sivley said. The number of students on the free and/or reduced lunch program increased at WCHS from 39.8 percent in 2010-11 to 42 percent in 2011-12, she indicated. However, WCHS moved from 10th to 11th place in the comparison because other schools also had increases. The largest percentage of students in the free and/or reduced lunch program was at Goshen at 59.9 percent. Homestead had the lowest at 12.3 percent. Moving from 18th place in 2010-11 to 14th in 2011-12, WCHS had 78.1 percent pass the Algebra end-of-course assessment last year. That was 14th out of the 21 schools. The highest was Wawasee at 93.9 percent passing in 2011-12, with the lowest being New Haven at 24.5 percent. For the biology ECA, WCHS was at ninth at 49.3 percent passing. Sivley said she knows this is something WCHS Principal Troy Akers and Warsaw Area Career Center Principal Ronna Kawsky are addressing. Carroll had the highest biology ECA passing percentage at 70.2 percent, with Southport at the lowest at 24.3 percent. Wawasee was fourth at 61.5 percent. At 84.9 percent, WCHS was eighth last year for percentage of students passing the English 10 ECA. Sivley said that was one spot up from the year prior. Crown Point was highest at 92.3 percent passing, while Kokomo was lowest at 56.1 percent passing. Using the 2010-11 data, WCHS had 15.3 percent of its students pass AP exams. Homestead was highest at nearly 30 percent, while Mishawaka was lowest at almost 5 percent. Though WCHS was 12th on the list for its 2011-12 graduation rate, Sivley reported it did increase from 88.8 percent in 2010-11 to 91.2 percent in 2011-12. Crown Point was highest at 97.4 percent graduating, followed by Carroll at 97.2 percent and Penn at 96.3 percent. The bottom three schools in the comparison were Elkhart Memorial at 84.4 percent, Columbus East at 82.9 percent and Mishawaka at 82.5 percent. Moving up to ninth place, WCHS had 36.9 percent of its students earn the Honors Diploma in 2012. NorthWood took top honors at 47.9 percent, with Elkhart Memorial having the lowest at 18.8 percent. Sivley stated, “WCHS and WACC have demonstrated academic success in comparison to conference schools, schools with like demographics and schools considered to be high performing. As you go through those slides ... you can really see the schools above us are high-performing schools.” She concluded by stating, “These improvements and successes can be attributed to the dedicated faculty, staff and administrators that work diligently every day to move our mission forward.” “That’s great, great information,” Board President Jennifer Tandy told her. Curt Hermann, board member, asked how the high-performing schools were chosen as high-performing. Sivley responded former CAO and now Madison Principal Tom Kline selected those years ago. They are schools that tend to be high performing. However, she did concede that it may be time to re-evaluate which schools were selected for comparison.
