And includes things like how many students are on grade level in math and reading and closing the achievement gap for students who are low income, dont speak english as a first language or are in special education. For high schools only, Graduation Rates are considered and student attendance and staff retention round out the rest of what goes into a schools grade. Its a grade some schools are celebrating, and others think are downright wrong. This is a story of two schools Solon High School and Vinton Shellsburg middle school. Both are in eastern iowa, both have populations that are mostly white and speak english, but after that, the similarities end. Only 7 of Solon High Schools students are low income. Vintonshellsburg middle schools poverty percentage is four times that. Solon has about 8 percent of its students in special education. Vintonshellsburg has 15 thats almost that more than 92 percent of its students are meeting math and reading expectations according to the state test. Vintonshellsburgs proficiency rate is almost 85percent. So which school got the a , and which got the b . 16 21 33 its frustrating to see that metric because were not being rated in the top percent of high schools. 40 solons principal is struggling with that b. Its a grade that 33 percent of all iowa high schools received in this new report card. His school had a poor showing in some critical areas solon has a wide achievement gap and students didnt make enough growth in their learning year to year. 16 38 we pride ourselves on high student achievement, but its hard to grow when students are already in the 90th percentile or above on the iowa assessment. Vintonshellsburg middle school is in elite company. Only nine other middle schools in the state received an aplus. Kris howesvonstein middle School Science teacher34 38 we feel like weve been working very hard at it so when we get that recognition that what were doing is paying off it felt good 45 vintonshellsburg slashed its achievement gap by more than half in two years. It also had explosive growth. 3 29 we do a great job of catching kids right when they need extra support. That extra support means a struggling reader could spend two and a half hours a day in reading classes. Shelly petersen vintonshellsurg middle School Principal 6 23 so were going to put the dollars where the need is and our focus is to make sure that kids can read. 29 emma wiley vintonshellsburg 7th grader 14 50 we do vocab words and you have a book goal, and it forces you to read more so you get better at the reading 15 05hunter hillman vintonshellsburg 7th grader 20 19 i didnt want to read in front of kids in my class because i wasnt a fluent reading but now im a fluent reader like pages at a time 30 teachers at Vinton Shellsburg come in early and stay late without getting paid to supervise homework help and plan with other teachers. The high academic of a philosophy every staff member has about kids, regardless of their income level or special needs. 31 52 ive been teaching for 27 years and i think when i first started teach it and if they dont get it they get the lower grade 03 now we want all kids to learn it 05 12 20 our successes every year just builds the momentum to do more 29 at Solon High School the grade of a b didnt inspire an overhaul. 16 20 19 thats whats hard with this data is to decide whats actionable. What would we need to change to improve this 29 because while it reflects measurable improvement at one school, its a struggle for another building to make sense of the less thenperfect grade. We reached out to the state and they said high achieving schools like Solon High School can still do well in the grading system by demonstratin g growth. Card needs some work. Next year theyll include achievement gap measure and there could be other changes based on the significant feedback theyve already received. Weve translated the states grades into regular letter grades on this story on our website. We also have links to the states technical guide and more insight as to how Vinton Shellsburg middle school is excelling. Winds are blowing pretty strong tonight, but with mild temperatures. This is a live look from our waverly city cam. Meteorologist joe winters joins us now. Joe, a large majority of counties in our viewing area are under a wind advisory . When you think of february weather normally snow, wind and cold come to mind. While we will have strong winds the next couple of days features no snowfall and mild temperatures. Highs should be able to rise eastern iowa on friday with some 60s a definite possibility. Our milder than normal conditions continue through sunday. Winds friday will turn to the west at 2030 mph. Gusts could approach 45mph so take care if you are driving a high profile vehicle. Have a great night tonight rising temps, breezy low 4248 winds s 1525tomorrow m sunny, windy, mild high 5662 winds w 2030 back to you. Investigators are looking into what caused an unusual odor that forced a passenger plane to land today in waterloo. The waterloo Regional Airport says an American Airlines envoy flight was going from sioux falls to chicago this afternoon. It was carrying 26 passengers and three crew members, some of whom smelled the odor shortly after takeoff. The plane made an Emergency Landing in waterloo. A backup aircraft an eastern iowa senator is calling on the iowa house to consider a bill that would stop the privatization of medicaid. I am calling on the house to take this bill up and give it a fair hearing. If they are listening to the people they represent, they need to bring this bill up before the entire iowa house and let there be a vote. The Medicaid Program is administered by the department of human services. Its not a legislated program. What the legislature does is legislates the amount of money needed for the Medicaid Program or the state match for the Medicaid Program the democratic controlled senate has already passed a bill that would stop the transition that takes effect march 1st. But Republican Leaders say they have no some people in North Liberty have a better idea tonight about a handful of projects the citys planning for the next couple of years. At an open house, the city showed various planning stages of those projects. Many of them involve street improvements and expansions. One will widen the lanes of penn street on the west side of town, near the i380 interchange. The city also has plans to expand and add to city parks, and make to prepare for the new liberty high school. The city administrator says people in North Liberty should expect traffic delays. 32 05 14 its fun and exciting to be part of a growing community, and of course one of those challenges is keeping up with the infrastructure and then having patience as we make those improvements. The widening of penn street near i380 is set to begin in early april. A proposed art project on the ped mall in iowa city is causing some controversy. The Downtown District is asking the city for 50thousand dollars so it can hire a the 500thousand dollars needed for this 30foot sculpture. Critics say the Downtown District should be able to raise own. Supporters say funding the project is in the best interest of the city. when you can lever a 50,000 half Million Dollar sculpture, or a work of art, or improvement in a district that will enhance the quality of life for everyone, i think why not do that. the city council was split on the issue during a meeting earlier this month. The council will vote on the matter again next month. Some students in the Clear Creek Amana School district are now learning in new quarters. They recently moved into an addition to the middle school thats been months in the making. Stay with your 24 hour middle School Students in the district are settling into their new classrooms. They just moved into a new addition that was supposed to be completed back in august. The addition was funded by part of a 48 Million Dollar bond issue voters passed in 2014. Kcrg tv nines Jill Kasparie reports the new addition to the school in tiffin includes 23 classrooms, a new cafeteria, new offices and a new library. 17 15 27 you cant get an integer when you have 15 . Students are getting used to their new space. Many say its terrific. 17 39 10 its really awesome. Thats about all you can say still see a Cardboard Box every now and then rolling into the new classrooms. We did a couple transition days before we fully moved over. We brought the kids over showed them all the rooms, had them walk their schedule so they could see where everything was at. 17 19 57 i think its pretty cool. Its kind of hard to adjust to it. But School Leaders say its a relief to finally get inside. The principal says the project was behind from the very beginning for a number of issues. The project started may 2014 and was supposed to be completed august of 2015, so we were a significant number of days behind. We moved in about 180 days after the date we originally thought wed move in, but all along we knew teachers say they like the new cafeteria space, new technology and the commons areas. Its nice to see we actually have space for kids to Work Together to actually be able to move from place to place and not have it be like a thats addition creates enough room for 750 students. Thats space the principal says the school will need in the future with growing enrollment. For now, current students are just excited to see the changes. I actually look forward to coming to school now. Me too. Its a lot better now. Yeah. In tiffin, Jill Kasparie, kcrgtv9 news. As part of the project, students moved out of the oldest portion of the middle School Building because renovations on that part will start on monday. Those should be finished by next october. Republican donald trump says he doesnt Like Fighting with pope francis. Trump softened his criticism against the pope at a townhall meeting tonight. When you think of february normally snow, wind and cold come to mind. While we will have strong winds the next couple of days features no snowfall and mild temperatures. Highs should be able to rise into the 50s through eastern iowa on friday with some possibility. Our milder than normal conditions continue through sunday. Winds friday will turn to the west at 2030 mph. Gusts could approach 45mph so take care if you are driving a high profile vehicle. Have a great night tonight rising temps, breezy low 4248 winds s 1525tomorrow m sunny, windy, mild high 5662 winds w 2030tomorrow night mostly clear low 3440 winds w 1020saturday mostly high 56 low 37 sunday partly cloudy high 49 low 34 monday partly cloudy high 39 low 29 tuesday partly cloudy high 40 low 26 wednesday mostly cloudy high 39 low 25 thursday fighting with pope francis. But the president ial candidate says the pontiff doesnt fully understand his plan to build a wall across the u smexico border. His comments came today after the pope suggested that anyone who wants to build a border wall, instead of bridges, isnt christian. Trump responded by saying its disgraceful for a religious leader to question someones faith. But at a town hall tonight, trump told voters that that illegal immigration causes. I think that he heard one side of the story, which is probably from the mexican government. He didnt see the tremendous strain that the border is causing us with respect to illegal immigration, with the drugs pouring across the border. On the democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders made their pitches to voters tonight just two days before the nevada caucuses. Were in a campaign and the secretary will say what shell say. I just dont know where all this comes from. Maybe its because senator sanders wasnt really a democrat until president. Both sanders and clinton also said they would build upon president obamas executive actions to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. President obama he will meet with raul castro during his visit to cuba next month. A will discuss human rights and Political Freedoms president. President obama hopes his Upcoming Trip will build a positive relationship with the country. Up next tonight, scott has highlights from the iowa women and boys district basketball. And josh will have more from the state wrestling tournament in des moines. Stay with your 24 hour news source, kcrgtv9. The state wrestling tournament tonight with first round action in class 2a. Josh has more from des moines. Lets start the class 2a action at 113, south tamas brady fritz comes up the with the takedown. He hung on to win 54 to advance also at 113, cascades sam martin is moving on to the next round after this third period fall against walter long of Bondurant Farrar at 126, Brock Rathbun of center pointurbana is going for his 3rd state title. He takes care of business in the first round with a 2nd period tech fall i wanted to go out there and get a fall pretty quick and get off the mat right away. But when i got the tech fall, i felt pretty good. Hopefully, it goes that way the rest of the tournament. Onto 138, Anthony Dudek of Dubuque Wahlert collects three points for this near fall. He beat jordan renshaw of glenwood in a 141 major decision at 160, jake juhl of independence comes up with a 4point sequence. First two points for the takedown, and then two more for the back points. He moves on with the 92 North Fayette valley comes up with a 2nd period pin to improve to 390 on the year hell face vic malloy of williamsburg in the quarterfinals. Malloy beat chris bridges of davenport assumption 104 in his first round matchup at 195, blade durbala of Benton Community is wrestling in his first state tournament. And what a way to start by shutting out your opponent, 60 to move on at 285, unions michael ahrendsen quickly pins his opponent in just 27 seconds to head on to the quarterfinals which start tomorrow. Josh christensen, kcrgtv9 sports. For highlights from class 1a and 3a go to kcrg. Com. Bluders bunch was trying to snap a four game losing streak tonight against purdue. Scott westerberg has the highlights. Some other hawkeye athletes in the house including Football Players drew ott and Marshall Koehn and theres peter jok sitting courtside. Iowa women with a fast break early in the first quarter. Tania davis bounces it to ally disterhoft. The former iowa city west allstater finished with a dozen. Freshman Megan Gustafson has been a doubledouble machine as of hawks with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Just shy of another double double. Iowas other young post player, chase coley, had a big night as well. Coley squares up and hits the 15 footer. She chipped in with 14 points and 7 boards. Back to gustafson. Th is time she steps out and buries the free throw line jumper. Then coley takes the pass from disterhoft and lays it in as the hawkeyes get back in the win column 6355 over purdue. In iowa city, Scott Westerberg tv9 sports. The road to des moines continued tonight on the hardwood with second round district play. In class 1a alburnett took on central city. And they go inside to big Jordan Stewart for the easy duce and 15 point lead. But Blake Willenborg plays a little string music to cut the lead to 8 in the third quarter. But the pirates responded with a big time drive by ryan moyle and then the they go back to the big fella stewart for two more and alburnett advances with the 6338 win. The pirates will face north linn next. The lynx hosted central elkader and brian kelly first. But the rest was all lynx chistian moore with two inside and then checkout the drive by former tv 9 athlete of the jake hilmer for the bucket and one and they jumped out to a 143 lead. Ryan miller burries from the top of the key and north linn moves on with the win. Down south lone tree hosted ims. The lions jump out to the early lead. Niko gosnell inside for 2. Lone tree up 6. The lions did a good job for much of the first half on sharpshooter Eli Gingerich but here he gets free and rattles in a three. Gingerich finished with 16. But the night belonged to Jovonte Squiers and lone tree. Squiers scored a game high 25 as lone tree advances 5043. And finally on 9. 2 tonight iowa city west wrapped up the regular season entertaining hempstead. Devonte lane connects from downtown. The mustangs answer with the quick first step from savion williams. But the trojans with just too with the triple from the corner and then checkout wally parks with the baseline flush and west beat hempstead. And finally Cordell Pemsl of Dubuque Wahlert is our athlete of the week sponsored by cedar rapids toyota. Because of time contraints we will feature cordell tomorrow night at 6 00. Thanks, scott. One last look at the forecast, joe. When you think of february weather normally snow, wind and cold come to mind. While we will have strong winds the next couple of days features no snowfall and mild temperatures. Highs should be able to rise into the 50s through eastern iowa on friday with some 60s a definite possibility. Our milder than normal conditions continue through sunday. Winds thanks for joining us for kcrgtv9 news at 10. We hope to have you here again tomorrow. Dicky from hollywood its Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight, kerry washington, nikolaj costerwaldau, this week in unnecessary censorship and music from jason derulo with cleto and the cletones. And now, nobody move, heres jimmy kimmel
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