High marks for Clarkston schools in study

According to a 2016 Michigan Education Finance Study, Clarkston Community Schools was 1 of 58 schools in the state ranked “Notably Successful.”
“Our district achieves at a high level and we are efficient with our expenditures,” said Clarkston Superintendent Dr. Rod Rock.
To achieve the Notably Succesful label, Clarkston met the Above Average and High Absolute Performance standards. Other Notably Successful districts included Bloomfield Hills, Lake Orion, Rochester, and Troy., which all receive more funding from the state than Clarkston, said Superintendent Dr. Rod Rock.
“Clarkston is a minimum foundation district. Lake Orion receives approximately $800 more per student than us, and we meet the same criteria as a Notably Successful District,” Rock said. “Others, like Troy and Bloomfield, receive quite a bit more per pupil.”
The study was performed by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates (APA), a Denver, Colo., education policy consulting firm. It analyzed all 541 districts in Michigan, but for the study excluded 13 “outlier districts,” which spend $21,030 or more per student.
“In an analysis of spending across school districts, higher spending outlier districts can skew the data significantly,” according to the study.
The study’s scored districts on five standards:
• Above Average, percentage of students scoring proficient or above is above the statewide average in all tested subjects;
• High Absolute Performance, percentage of students scoring proficient or above is at least one standard deviation above the statewide average in all tested subjects;
• Growth, change in the percentage of district students scoring proficient or above between 2009-2014 was above the statewide average in all tested subjects;
• Special Populations, percentage of students in each demographic subgroup in the district is above the statewide average in all tested subjects; and
• Notably Successful, Districts meeting the Above Average Performance standard and one additional performance standard.
There were 186 districts that met the Above Average performance standard, while 58 districts met the Notably Successful standard. The report recommends that the state increase per pupil funding to about $8,600 per pupil. Clarkston currently receives about $7,500 per pupil.
“Clarkston operates with a balanced budget, has increased our fund equity, improved compensation for employees, and continues to achieve at a high level,” Rock said. “We have added world language, art, and music instruction at the elementary school level. We continue to offer students many choices in their academics, athletics, and clubs. We have also avoided closing schools, privatizing services, and cutting programs.”

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