Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
BERGLAND — Four of the six high schools in the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District have received bronze ratings from U.S. News and World Reports. Ironwood, Besssmer, Watersmeet and Ontonagon high schools received the awards for mathematics and reading in a national ranking with schools across the nation.
Bessemer had the highest proficiency among GOISD schools in mathematics and reading.
Bessemer’s proficiency in reading was measured through testing to be 60 percent. Ironwood and Watersmeet were both at 54 percent, and Ontonagon, 48 percent.
The mathematics proficiency for the bronze ratings were Bessemer 42 percent, Ontonagon 32 percent, Ironwood 28 percent and Watersmeet 8 percent.
The school profiles, published by U.S. News and World Reports, also considered the percentage of economically disadvantaged students. The four bronze schools had high percentages of economically disadvantaged students. Watersmeet had 69 percent, Ontonagon 53 percent, Bessemer 39 percent, Ironwood 54 percent.
The study also ranked the percentage of disadvantaged students who were proficient. The three highest rankings in the GOISD were Ironwood 46 percent, Bessemer 44 percent and Ontonagon 42 percent.
The study also ranked the overall student performance on state exams. The calculations by U.S. News were the first of two steps in determining which schools received the gold, silver or bronze medals. The overall test performance of Bessemer was 68 percent, Ontonagon 65 percent, Ironwood 59 percent and Watersmeet 46 percent.
GOISD Superintendent Bruce Mayle congratulated the four schools on their awards and their efforts to continually upgrade the education of the students.
U.S. News and World Report reviewed more than 29,000 high schools as part of its study.