On March 6,  2020 Cascade Public Schools was given our 2018-2019 District Report Cards.  The results were reported to the school board at the March 17th board meeting. District Report cards are a requirement of the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA, formerly No Child Left Behind.  Montana identifies schools in the following ways: Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) Schools, Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) schools, and Universal Support Schools.

The data used to determine a school’s classification are student achievement scores in math, reading,  science, student attendance, student growth, and graduation rates. 

Cascade Elementary and Junior High School have been classified as Universal. A Universal classification can be described as passing or that the school is performing above the bottom five percent on statewide assessments. 

The Elementary and Junior High exceed the state in all of the state test scores, reading growth, and school attendance. 

Cascade High School has been classified as a Targeted school. OPI classifies a school as Targeted if any student group performs in the lowest 5% of Montana’s schools.

The High School is below the state averages in reading (Cascade has 69% below proficient, Montana 50% below proficient), and science test scores (Cascade has 64% below proficient, Montana is 39% below proficient), graduation rates in the last 4 years (Cascade 86%, Montana 87%)  and school attendance (Cascade has 38% of HS students above a 95% attendance rate, Montana has 44% above the 95% attendance rate). The high school is above the state average in college readiness which is based on the number of students who plan to attend college (Cascade 95%, Montana 64%) and math scores (Cascade has 56% below proficient, Montana has 59% below proficient). 

Schools that are identified as Targeted must conduct a needs assessment of their instructional components (leadership, professional development, curriculum, and standards). After conducting the needs assessment, the school will be required to draft a Continuous School Improvement Plan with goals focused on the areas that need improvement. 

In addition, targeted schools must provide teachers with literacy and math improvement opportunities through regional training and on-line courses through the Montana Learning Hub, identify actions that the district will take in the Continuous School Improvement Plan, and attend OPI sponsored conferences.

Cascade’s leadership tracked data from previous years using SBAC, ACT, MAPS, and FastBridge. The results were reported at school board meetings. The data identified a need for improvement in the high school. Cascade Public Schools is committed to bringing the High School up to a Universal Classification and has already begun the process, in the hopes that we can show improvement before the Office of Public Instruction steps in.

The district has already been working on improving instruction and learning within the high school through professional development, curriculum training, and standards-based instruction. 

The school leadership believes that Cascade High School must take a cross-curricular approach to improvement in the identified areas, which means working together to accomplish our goals.

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Miller, Mrs. Pieper, or Mrs. Price to discuss. Copies of Cascade Schools ESSA report cards are included in this article.