Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Friday, January 24th, 2025.
Have your host, James here.
We're joined right now by Roxanne Filz.
She is director of Curriculum and Instruction with our Wisconsin Rapids public schools.
Roxanne, good to see you.
Good to have you in studio.
Thank you very much.
Feels like it's been a while.
It's good to have you and get it be able to talk with you and hang out.
We don't want to thank Ron for setting this up and everything.
Ron was going to join us, but the day job comes first and we get that.
We completely understand that.
Hard at work for our kids out there.
We appreciate that.
Appreciate you being here and Roxanne, if you don't mind,
before we dive into district report cards and some of the other topics we have today,
I thought it'd be kind of fun for the audience to know a little bit more about what you do
as director of Curriculum and Instruction.
That is a very, like, it sounds very cool.
I'll be honest with you, it sounds like a very cool title.
What does it mean what do you exactly do?
Well, thank you.
Thank you very much, James, for having me here.
And I would first like to start by recognizing our CTE teachers,
it's CTE computer technology education month.
I'd like to recognize them in the first week of February then is also our school counselors
month.
Our school counselors week, so I'd like to give some appreciation a shout out to them.
Two great groups.
Perfect.
Big thank you to them.
Director of Curriculum Instruction, it is a big umbrella that there's a lot of things
that fall underneath that.
So basically, any purchases, any time that we change any sort of curriculum in any of our
curricular areas from 4K, even early childhood all the way through our 12th grade students
comes through my office.
So I'm in charge of making sure that the curriculum that we are purchasing, that we're using
our classrooms, it's standard-based, it fits what the state is saying that we need to
be teaching, that it is approved by our different curricular committees, that it is school board
approved.
It's my job to give an update every month to the school board through our services committee
on what we're doing in curriculum, whether that be professional development, the way that
we're hiring teachers and retaining teachers.
Our mentor, new teacher program is something that I work with.
I work with all the Title 1, Title 2, Title 4 grants in ensuring that we're giving equitable
services to all of our students as far as our curricular resources are concerned.
We need to evaluate our different curricular areas every year on, do we have any holes
or gaps in what it is that we're supposed to be teaching?
Are we using best practices?
Are our teachers getting the time that they need to collaborate?
Are they getting the professional development that they need?
Do our report card standards that we report to parents?
Do they align with what it is we're teaching in the classroom and if they don't, what do
we need to change with that?
A lot of that comes through my office.
I lead a lot of various amount of committees at the district level and do a lot of reporting
both to the state and to the school board on what we're doing in curriculum.
Thank you for that, Roxanne.
When do you breathe?
I drove because, and I think the audience is asking the same question there with a little
bit.
I bring this up, one, I do think it's very interesting what you do, I really do.
I would love to ghost you sometime in your job and what you do.
But I hope this also puts a little understanding to our audience out there whether you have
kids in school or not, some empathy for so many of the people working in this industry
and how there is nobody doing one job.
Everybody's got multiple things on their plate and that takes a lot.
There's a lot of spitting plates.
We use that term a lot here on radio.
All of us are spitting plates, we get this one going and then we got to go get this one
going.
100% true.
That's a whole other level when it comes to what you're doing.
I think that for a lot of us, every one of us at some point in high school got to choose
some classes and sometimes that could be a little overwhelming when you look at that
list of classes and how many there are.
Roxanne has to do that basically for every class in the whole school district essentially
and everything.
It's just that I just admire it so much and I do appreciate you giving us some insight
into that.
I hope that the audience can also take some appreciation for what you do and what you
do for our kids out there.
I do want to give shout out to my curriculum coordinators.
I do have various leaders in the different curricular areas who manage the minutia of
the day to day in the classrooms that needs to be done but then we work closely together
on what you need.
What can I do?
How can I come in and support you?
I'm in classrooms and watching good teaching and watching ways that I can support that.
So I do have a great team around me which makes it easier.
That's help.
I can relate to that.
I can relate to that.
We did want to take some time to talk about district report cards.
Let's dive right into that.
How did that turn out this year?
Did I do well?
No.
Thankfully, we don't have to do mine but we do want to dive into this subject.
Sure.
Our district report cards came out.
They were released to the board in November.
I gave a full board report to the actual board committee at the board meeting, not through
ed services.
As a whole, as a district, we've met expectations and we've improved.
We've steadily improved since 2020-2021.
So that's a good sign that we are recovering and our students are improving.
Six out of seven of our elementary school's exceeded expectations, the one that did not
met expectations, Lincoln High School exceeded expectations, our middle school met expectations.
We don't get a report card for pitch early learnings, excuse me, and then our alternative
school gets an alternative or receives an alternative report card and Central Oaks Academy
met expectations.
So overall, we did really well.
And when you look at it, during my report, I give a comparison of how we fit in not with
just local school districts, not as a competition, but just to see, are we doing what we need to
do?
And also with the valley.
And we were the third highest in overall district scores when we're comparing ourselves
with surrounding districts or with schools in the valley.
And that's also including where the second highest in economically disadvantaged students.
So we're really working hard at making sure that what we're offering to students, we are
removing barriers for all of our students so they're able to take advantage of the different
programs that we offer and we're trying to do it in the best way that we can.
That hit me.
That got my heart.
I was one of those people and I can relate to that.
That's so cool to see.
To hear.
That's really awesome.
Right.
And the other high point that I want to make just about school report cards in general was
the fact that Lincoln High School was the second highest in the area and in the valley.
Only behind Pitzville was the only school in the area that scored higher than them and
the overall school score for the report card.
So and the one elementary school that didn't exceed expectations missed it by 0.4%.
Yeah.
Come on.
Yeah.
That's right there.
It's right there.
And they still met expectations.
They did.
They absolutely did.
And the nice thing about that I like about school report cards is it's not just based
on test scores.
It's not just on the state standardized test.
It also takes in graduation rates.
It takes in attendance.
It takes in our students not just achieving at grade level, but even those that aren't at
grade level, are they growing?
What is the percentage of students that are going so basically if they're achieving,
are they going, you know, are they getting to the grade level?
If they're growing, are they at for layman's terms?
Are they at a B and now at a higher B or are they, you know, they may be below the benchmark,
but are they growing and getting to the benchmark?
And we get credit for that, which really helps us because that's what the overall view
should be of a school.
Our students growing.
I think that everybody can take some pride from this.
I think there's a lot of good feeling that comes from this as a former Lincoln alum.
I am certain think bragging in my head about it and everything, but just as that feels
good, there's some, you know, importance behind this in the data that's collected with
these, this information as far as funding and other things that go, you know, this plays
into.
Correct.
And it's, we want to be able to just highlight what we do well because you know, you know,
as much as I do that, what makes the paper are the negative things.
And you know, what we need to do is just highlight the things that we do well.
For instance, the school report card also looks at our advanced classes that we offer at
Lincoln High School, our AP classes, our industry recognized credentials and our work-based
learning.
And we've improved greatly, even just this year.
So at the end of 2023, the graduates we had 16% of our graduates, which equaled 169
students, took an AP course.
This last graduates of 2024, we had 189 students.
So we've increased their dual enrollment 2023 graduates.
We had 31.3% take at least one dual enrollment course.
Now we're at 47%.
So 543 dual enrollment courses were taken by our students.
We recognize credentials.
We have 57 students that earned at least one industry recognized credential that graduated
last year in 2024.
And we have 121 students that graduated in 2024 that participated in a work-based learning
program.
So it's not just about what are the test scores, what's that snapshot in time, but it's
also that view of what are we doing to make our students ready for the next step, whether
it be a four-year college, a two-year college, an associate degree, whether it be earning
an internship or an apprenticeship in high school, so that they're able to walk out
of their senior year graduation and start a job because they've had work-based experience
because they've earned their industry recognized credentials that go right on their resume
once they leave high school.
And we are very, we as a district are very supportive of those things.
We have our building instruction class that builds a house every year for somebody that
wants it.
I mean, you don't see that in other areas.
Schools is off.
You know, it's often.
And this is something I think a lot of, almost everybody can take pride in.
New parents out there that help with this so much, you can take a lot of pride in this.
Certainly, the staff and the teachers that put so much into these things, some of the
other groups that work in the schools, certainly helping out with this, I do want to take
a note to compliment the students too though.
Absolutely.
And so much of the work that we get into when we talk about these things, and that should
be noted.
I don't know if we, I'm not seeing you and your staff.
Or just me and me and society that we don't do that I think enough and just, hey, these
are pretty impressive numbers.
These kids are pretty darn impressive.
They are.
That's pretty cool.
I had the opportunity a couple of years ago to sit with Eric Siler, who is our CTE
coordinator, and he went into a, into a, I think was point precision in Pulver, and was
doing an exit interview with a student who was, who had worked so hard his senior year
that he was able to graduate and walk right into a position at point precision with little
training because he had it all.
Well, it's the motivation and the desire of our students to want to know what they want
to do and aren't afraid to go out and get it because the opportunities are there for
them.
And, and it's so encouraging seeing so much of this in the younger generation.
Yes.
They're not, they're not going to sit back and wait for their opportunity.
They're taking it.
They're jumping into it.
And that is shown by the number of students that are enrolling in these courses.
And, I mean, a very motivated student could enter a college, a four year college as a second
year, or second semester sophomore if they've received all of the credits that they could
at high school if they were motivated to do it.
So we have a lot of students that leave Lincoln high school with almost a four year college
done, or they have an associate degree or very close to an associate degree when they leave
Lincoln.
So it really gets them set up for the next step.
And speaking of that, I think a natural transition going right into dual credits, AP options,
some of that that is offered and some of the, I think, really cool things that are being
going on with this.
Right.
Right.
We offer things like some of our industry recognized credentials.
We've got eight courses.
We have an assisted childcare teacher course, a CNA course, Fusion 360, which is computer
aided drawing course.
We have an advanced manufacturing IT, which is infant toddler.
These are all industry recognized credentials that students can leave Lincoln high school with
that in their back pocket.
The building a construction, which is part of the International Carpenters Training, Microsoft
Office credential that we can give students and a snap on certification through our auto
classes.
And we're adding five more industry, or in the process of adding five more industry recognized
credentials for next year already.
And the nice thing is the more that we can encourage students to take things like these
industry recognized credentials or this work-based learning, the more money the school
district receives because for every student that finishes one of these programs successfully,
we get monies back through a workforce incentive grant.
So those incentive grants help us beef up our technical learning resources that we need
for students to continue to grow.
It's such a win-win kind of situation.
All of this that we've been talking about here with all these things.
And with the dual credit option, it's not just a win-win for the students, for the school
and all of these things, the business world and our taxes and our economy and all these
things are made better by this.
The sooner we can get kids into the workforce and not just throw them into the workforce
but they're prepared for, I love the idea of setting these kids up to succeed.
I love the idea of, hey, you're out there in the real world now.
Good luck.
No, no, that's not enough.
We're going to get to you a hand there.
We're going to say good luck while we're also seeing you to this business or something.
Get you on your feet a little bit.
Get you started on this and adulthood, let alone in the workforce and really give them
the chance to achieve the things that they want to.
And none of this would be possible if it weren't for our partnerships with Midstate Technical
College who works hand in hand with us and we have a dual credit partnership with UW-Green
Bay.
And if we weren't able to offer discounted credits to our students or scholarships through
UW-Green Bay or if Midstate wasn't able to work with us in offering these courses to
our students, we wouldn't be in the position that we're in.
And kudos to all of the companies out there in the local companies, the local businesses
that take our students in and offer them these apprenticeships because if it weren't for
our community partnerships, this program definitely wouldn't be as successful as it is.
And just in the little bit of research I've been able to do on this subject, not just
here but around the country and everything, you're going to be seeing more of this, I think,
going forward.
You're going to be seeing more of these businesses, seeing the smartness in this and being
able to build a bridge.
And oh, I could have somebody already almost ready to go into my company before they even
graduate high school.
That is staggering, interesting to me, and very cool for not just again all the topics
that I've mentioned here, but I just think that that feels more and more like the system
that we should have always had.
I totally agree.
It really makes sense a lot.
And it keeps our graduates here.
Yes, which is so key to going forward to, I mean, we talk about this when we're mad
all the time and really with all the mayors we've had on, one of the biggest things any
rural community is looking to do is keep their people and being able to do that, this helps
with that a lot, especially the recruiting part of it and everything.
Absolutely.
We wanted to touch on one other thing to the possibility of youth apprenticeship options.
This is a good option or a good availability for kids too.
Right.
And we're able to partner again with all of our local businesses, so that we're able
to partner with them to give that opportunity to our students.
So what we're wondering about that is, are there going to be more options available?
If I'm a business out there listening to this and I'm like, oh, that's a really good
idea.
Can I reach out?
Can I find out more about?
Absolutely.
You can reach out to me or to Eric Seiler, who is our CTE coordinator and works very,
very hard with trying to make as many connections as he can in the community to get our students
into various businesses and we're always looking for more opportunities for our students
to get out there and perform an apprenticeship program or even get some work-based learning
experience.
We're speaking with Roxanne Filts, Director of Curriculum and Instructional with Wisconsin
Rapids Public Schools.
Roxanne, before we get into our final topic here, I did want to mention one thing and this
comes up, this isn't so much from me as it is from the community.
I hear this.
One of the more consistent things I hear from our community is they so much appreciate
the transparency and the openness of you and the staff and Ron and so many of the individuals
that are working in this industry, the teachers out there.
You know better than I do how vital that is in this day and age and I think that often
I know, especially experiencing this quite a bit in my life, more times than not, the
reason people have an issue or a problem or fear of something is that just don't know.
Growing up, I had plenty of times where people found out I was Jewish and were afraid to
shake my hand or something like that and then when they find out a little bit they're
like, oh, you're just a person.
You're no different than me at all or anything and then you clear that up and everything.
I genuinely think that most people out there have a good heart, have good intentions.
They just don't have all the information.
With transparency, we get that out there and you guys cover that, do such a good job
of that.
I just wanted to take a note and mention that.
I appreciate that.
That's one thing I try to do.
It would be very transparent.
We wanted to talk a little bit about Act 20 and how this will impact WRPS.
Sure.
Act 20 is on the front center plate of anybody in curriculum right now and I'm very
fortunate to have an assistant director of curriculum, Jen Wilhorn, who has taken
on our Act 20 work.
She is just doing a great job of organizing all that.
So those of you that are not familiar with Act 20, what Act 20 does, it requires its
schools assess early reading skills in students in grades 4K through 3rd and that it requires
daily reading instruction in K through 3 that's based on the science of reading and because
of that, we have had to change our reading curriculum this year, which we purchased a program
called Amplify CKLA and we went through the entire curriculum purchase process, which
includes an open forum for parents and community members to come in and look at whatever it is
that we're purchasing.
It's out there.
You can look at everything, ask any questions that you want.
Another thing that we've had to do is because we're implementing Amplify CKLA, we have had
to make sure that our teachers received the professional development of the training
that they needed, not just for making sure that Amplify is used correctly, but all of the
training that we need for the required screeners because we had to change to the state screener,
the state adopted Ames Web Plus and they adopted it late because it wasn't until the school
you started that we knew what the screener was going to be.
So now all of our teachers had to be trained on how to give the screener.
So what Act 20 requires is that every student in grades K through 3 receives this universal
screener and any student that scores under the 25th percentile then has to go through
diagnostic testing within 10 days of getting their results on the screener.
So we are in the process now, we had to implement it starting mid-year.
So our third grade students across the district have completed the screener and we've completed
the diagnostic testing for those that scored underneath the 25th percentile.
We have completed the screeners for our second graders and now we're working on the diagnostic
screeners that have to follow if they've scored below the 25th percentile.
And all of this is done by our reading interventions and our classroom teachers and it is a lot
of work and kudos to them and a shout out to them for what they're doing.
And then any student that scores under the 25th percentile, now we have to write a personal
reading plan for these students.
What are the goals?
Where are their deficits?
It's informing constant communication with parents on these were the screeners.
This was a diagnostic testing.
This is where your student is struggling and this is our plan for being able to get your
student back to grade level.
So all of this is being done at the same time that our teachers and our elementary administrators
are all k-3 teachers and we chose to do k-5 because of the transient sea of our staff
going from grade level to grade level.
They have to receive a state required reading training which is 40 hours of reading training
that has to be done outside of the regular school day.
So we've chosen to do that on our professional development days and all of our elementary school
teachers are going through this and going through this training as so as our administrators.
So that's in addition to what we're doing already.
And we also have to write a literacy plan that is posted on our district report card that
is a requirement of act 20.
And then the next steps is we have to create a promotion plan, a promotion plan from
third grade to fourth grade that has to be accepted by the boards.
We have to get that to our school board by June and we're getting some guidance from
the DPI and from our board policy program writers, which is Neola, we're getting some guidance
from them as well.
And then finally we have to develop what we're going to offer during summer school for
those students that aren't meeting the goals and their personal reading plans.
So it is a huge, huge undertaking and it's not just rapids, it's all public school districts
that have to go through this.
Wonderful description.
Thank you so much for that, especially for those that may not be familiar with what this
is and hopefully everybody else had a similar feeling that I did to this.
My goodness, we have amazing teachers and amazing people in this industry, that's just incredible
individuals.
Nobody gets into teaching for fame or money or anything.
They get into it because they have a passion and a love for this and it shows with things
like this that the dedication to our kids, the dedication to our future.
There is no greater investment any of us can make than the kids and the future of this.
It's such, we all understand how important reading is, it's great to hear all the work
that's being done.
It's also, I hope everybody again just could take a breath and be like, wow, we have some
amazing teachers, some amazing people in this industry working so hard for our kids.
100% and the thing is, you know, you can agree with Act 20, you don't have to agree with
Act 20, that doesn't matter.
The idea that we are talking about reading and we're doing what's best for our kids to
get them to succeed and we're making sure that reading is in the forefront, that can't
be bad.
But at the same time, we don't want to put anything else in the background.
You don't want to have math slip because we're concentrating too much on reading.
And so we're working really hard with our math programs as well.
But right now the focus just seems to be on making sure that Act 20 is not only implemented
to the letter of the law, but also we want to make sure that it's improving student learning.
We're not going to do it because we just have to, we want to do it because it's what's best
for kids.
Well said, if you have questions or further looking for further information, encourage you
to check out the website, www.rps.org, www.rps.org, encourage you to do that and be sure to
file them on social media as well.
It's a great way to keep up the day and all the things going on in our public schools.
Roxanne, don't be a stranger.
Oh, we look forward to hanging out again and talking real soon.
I enjoyed this very much.
Thank you.
Have a great weekend.
You as well.
And everybody out there have a great weekend.
A big thank you to Pam Hilke and the amazing scheduling she does weekend and week out.
We appreciate you, Pam.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you next week right here at WFHR.
