Michigan Educational Assessment Program scores are ready, and, in sticking with tradition, Lake Orion’s numbers are impressive.
‘As you can see we did very well,? said Heidi Kast, superintendent of educational services.
Of the 28 school districts in Oakland County, schools in the district placed in the top seven in each area tested ? reading, writing, English language arts, math, science and social studies.
‘When you look at the fact that we’re in the top seven in every category, and our per-pupil funding is somewhere close to fourteenth or fifteenth in the county, we did all right,? said Superintendent Ken Gutman.
With such achievements in state testing, school leaders will have a difficult job deciding where funding cuts will land without letting academics suffer.
‘Our success starts in the classrooms, it starts with parents and things are going very well. We have some difficulties coming up with our finances with costs going up and we’ll continue to not get more money from the state,? said Gutman.
In math and reading, 92% of students were at or above state proficiency levels making LO seventh and sixth, respectively, in Oakland County. Writing was at 82% and in sixth place. English language arts was 92% and fourth. The district also took sixth in science at 92%. And it was fifth in social studies at 88%.
This year is the first year the district’s utilized a common score evaluation method in each school. In previous years, each building had its own analysis process but the administration feels the universal system will prove more meaningful.
‘We felt that it was necessary that we had a common MEAP analysis so that the district leaders are all analyzing in a common way,? said Kast. ‘Analyzing differently makes it hard to make comparisons.?
Administrators took the best aspects of each school’s method and created a three-step analysis, according to Kast. The process starts off broad and then it zeros down to each student. Staff then create a plan for each individual that is not meeting proficiency in each of the different subject areas.
‘Particularly when you make transitions ? fifth to sixth grade, eighth to ninth grade ? if we’re speaking different languages we’re making it more difficult for children to be successful, so this new process will eliminate a lot of the transitional difficulties,? said Gutman. ‘Those (individual methods) were valuable, but to have the common language makes more sense.?
The analysis focused more on individual growth than grade level comparisons from previous years. For example, it focused on a particular student’s improvement from fourth to fifth grade instead of the fifth grade class of 2008 and 2009.
‘What matters is, did each child show an appropriate amount of growth,? Gutman said. ‘Overall, we’re really pleased with these scores. They’re pretty incredible. Again, we won’t rest ? we still need to continue to improve on these but they’re pretty good,? he added.