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Grosse Ile Township Schools Receive All A’s On the 2007 Michigan School Report Cards By: Dr. Karen Roth, Curriculum Director
The Grosse Ile Township Schools have received their 2007 Michigan Report Cards, and all four schools, Meridian, Parke Lane, Middle School and High School, have received As and made Adequate Yearly Progress. This is a very important accomplishment for the Grosse Ile Township Schools. Grosse Ile High School was one of 32 high schools in the state to receive an A grade. There are over one thousand high schools in the state of Michigan! Grosse Ile is also one of very few school districts in the state to have all of their schools receive an A grade. It is also the third time in the four years that the State of Michigan has been using the Michigan School Report Cards that Grosse Ile Township Schools have received all As on their report cards.
Why is this so important to the schools and community? The Michigan School Report Card is the State of Michigan’s way of measuring how well its schools are educating their children. Every school and school district in the state is rated by the same measure: the Michigan Educational Assessment Program, also know as MEAP. Grosse Ile students consistently score at the highest levels in the state.
In addition to receiving all As on the Michigan School Report Card, all of Grosse Ile’s schools have also achieved Adequate Yearly Progress which is a federal measure that is part of the No Child Left Behind legislation. Its overall goal is to have 100% of all children reading and computing on grade level by 2014. It measures the following four things: 1. Based on the MEAP scores in English Language Arts and Math for elementary and English Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies for middle and high schools, scores must continually improve each year. One of the challenges for the Grosse Ile Schools is to keep increasing test scores that are already very high. It becomes more difficult to continue to move in an upward direction. As an example, the high school Social Studies MEAP score this year is 97%. This means there are only 3% of the students scoring below the level of proficiency.
2. Number of students tested for each grade level taking the MEAP test must be 95% or higher. The number of students tested for each grade level exceeds the 95% expectation.
3. Graduation rate for high schools must be 80%. Grosse Ile’s high school graduation rate is 96.3%, greatly exceeding the State Goal of 80%.
4. Attendance rate for elementary and middle schools must be 85%. The attendance rates are: Meridian-96.7%; Parke Lane-96.5%; Middle School- 98.4%, all exceeding the State Goal of 85%.
How have the schools done since the Michigan School Report Card began in 2004?
2004 2005 2006 2007 Met AYP Meridian A A A A Yes 4 years Parke Lane A A A A Yes 4 years Middle School A B A A Yes 4 years High School A B A A Yes 4 years
Comments:
As you can see from the four year summary of each school’s report card, the district has received an A for each year at the elementary level. In 2005 the district received a B for both secondary schools. This year the grade is A again for the Middle and High Schools.
The staff and administration have worked very hard to ensure that the students are prepared to do well on the MEAP tests. We do this by constantly reviewing the K-12 curriculum to make sure that it is aligned with the Michigan Curriculum Framework, which sets the standards for all schools in the state. We also review research and best practices and implement new programs that will enhance our students’ academic achievement.
Making sure that our schools are outstanding in every way is really a team effort that involves the teachers, administrators, staff, parents and Board of Education working together. It is important to say, that while we are very happy with the results of the Michigan School Report Card, there are so many other tangible and intangible ways to measure the quality of a school district. Our students excel on other standardized tests, Advanced Placement tests, science fair projects, and other academic competitions that they participate in.
As a school district, we are committed to excellence for our students and community and will continue to seek out the best and most challenging learning opportunities for our staff and students.
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