By Megan Kelley
Review Writer
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Schools Board of Education heard the third and final student achievement presentation of the 2022-23 school year during its meeting on June 28.

The board was joined by LOCS Data Specialist Kirk Webber, who gave an overview on student progress in nationally normed benchmark assessments in reading, math as well as Social Emotional Learning and attendance.

Reading
In grades two through nine, the district saw an improvement across the board of 2.96 percent from the fall, with 2,822 (76.89 percent) students testing at a proficient level compared to the 2,671 (73.93 percent) that were listed as proficient in the fall.

The goal traditionally is to have 80 percent of students testing as proficient.

“We’re not there yet but that would be the goal,” Webber said. “If you look at what we did at this point last year, we still improved by .54 percent from last year. So, we’re making that progress.”

In kindergarten the district saw a huge jump from the fall with a 12.79 percent improvement from 327 students (68.13 percent) testing proficiently to 386 students (80.92 percent) being marked as proficient in early Reading.

“There is no previous data to look at with this cohort because they’re in kindergarten but that was some solid growth there,” Webber said.

First grade also saw a jump from 313 students (66.6 percent) testing as proficient in the fall to 363 students (76.42 percent) in the spring.

While most grades saw improvement, fourth grade actually saw a bit of a drop in reading proficiency from 346 students (78.64 percent) in the fall reading proficiently to 329 students (75.81 percent).

“Grade four is an interesting grade. They look not as good with the reading but they really do well with the math,” Webber said. “The one thing I would say is: it’s still a pretty good percentage but we would like to see more excellence.”

Fifth grade also saw a bit of a drop from 348 students (74.52 percent) testing proficiently in the fall to 337 students (72.32 percent) testing proficiently in the spring.

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade all reached the 80 percent threshold by the spring.

Math
Overall, LOCS saw an improvement in math proficiency from 2,500 students (74.81) percent) testing proficiently in the fall to 2,589 students (77.19 percent) testing proficiently in the spring.

Comparing the fall to the spring, kindergarten saw a slight drop from 368 students (75.26 percent) marked as proficient in the fall to 349 students (73.63 percent) listed as proficient in the spring.

First grade also saw a drop of about 3.27 percent from 396 students (83.1 percent) of students in the fall testing proficiently to 378 students (79.92 percent) testing proficiently in the spring.

Second grade saw some slight improvement while third grade saw a decrease in proficiency from fall to spring, with 302 students (68.02 percent) of students testing proficient in the fall and 314 students (70.56 percent) in the spring testing proficiently. However, they did see an increase from spring 2021-22 to spring 2022-23.

Third grade also saw a decrease in proficiency from fall to spring with 380 students (75.25 percent) marked as proficient in the fall to 361 students (71.63 percent) listed as proficient in the spring.

Fourth grade hit the 80 percent threshold from fall to spring and fifth grade saw an over four percent increase from fall to spring.
Sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade all exceeded the 80 percent threshold goal as well.
Attendance
During the 2022-23 school year, district attendance was at 92.67 percent, a 2.29 percent improvement from the 2021-22 school year.
According to Webber, the school attendance rate statewide for the 2021-22 school year was 88 percent.
As a district, all district buildings, with the exception of the Pine Tree Center, saw improvement in attendance rates.

“What we’re looking for is students to be here because the way it normally works is you do better in school when you’re at school,” Webber said. “What is the goal? Yeah, we’d like 100 percent, I don’t even think that’s possible, but if we could get over 95 percent or something, that would be really good.”

High School
The average GPA across all four grades at Lake Orion High School for the 2022-23 school year sat at 3.37. On average, the district found that the GPAs increased .76 points each school year.

Testing
M-Step scores for grades three through eight and 11 are expected to be released later this summer with SAT and PSAT results arriving at the end of last month. Advanced placement results were released earlier this month.

Webber is expected to present these results in the fall during his beginning of the year student achievement presentation.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
LOCS utilizes SAEBRS (Social, Academic, Emotional Behavior Risk Screener) and mySAEBRS to collect SEL data. The SAEBRS program is teachers evaluating their students while mySAEBRS is students evaluating themselves.

Overall, SAEBRS, which is only used at the elementary schools, saw a slight increase from fall to spring with 1,956 students (86.02 percent) marked as low risk in the fall to 1,982 (87.66 percent) listed as low risk in the spring.

In fourth through 12th grade, students take the mySAEBRS screener. As a district, they saw a drop of about 1.92 percent in students who were low risk from the fall to the spring.

Webber is expected to provide further updates in October after the 2023-24 school year has begun.

The Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education meets regularly at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at the Administration Building, 315 N. Lapeer St. For agendas and meeting dates go to lakeorionschools.org.