While Lake Orion took home a ‘B? on their Michigan Education YES! Program report card, they are among 23 county high schools to not make the grade when it comes to Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
Other high schools not meeting AYP requirements include Bloomfield Hills Andover and Lahser, Rochester and Troy High and Troy Athens.
AYP is mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind law, and judges a school on a variety of factors, such as test scores, percentage rate of students taking assessment and rate of high school graduates.
According to the Michigan Department of Education, 489 high schools around the state did not make AYP, a number that is up over nine-percent from last year.
‘This isn’t expected,? said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan. ‘We changed our high school graduation requirements because we knew we needed higher standards to prepare our kids for the demands of college and the work world. These results just remind us how critical that change was.?
Among the changes last year was the new rigorous Michigan Merit Exam (MME), which required, for the first time, all Michigan high school students to take the ACT college entrance exam.
According to Linda Glowaz, assessment consulant for Lake Orion schools, the new strict MME requirements took a lot of districts by surprise. Because of in-depth writing portions, many students around the county had invalid scores, which in turn, affected AYP.
Another key part in understanding AYP is knowing that not only is a school looked at as a whole, but all of their subgroups must also pass requirements. Anytime the school has 30 or more students in a subgroup, such as special education students, English as a second language (ESL) students or economically disadvantaged students, that group must also pass requirements in order for the school to pass.
‘The subgroups, such as special education and ESL students, are judged at the same benchmarks as all other students,? Glowaz said, explaining that some students can’t learn at the same pace as others, for whatever reasons, but are still judged by the same standards.
‘We know that our subgroups need to be worked with,? she added. ‘We try really hard with them and we keep trying.?
At the high school level, AYP is based on the junior class, which means that every year the subgroups that Lake Orion may be scored on can change. This past year, AYP standards were not met in two of Lake Orion’s subgroups and, according to Glowaz, next year those same subgroups may not even exist (as there must be 30 students for it to qualify as a subgroup).
Lake Orion High School is at a Phase III, meaning that this is not the first time the school has not met AYP standards, but according to Glowaz, it’s due to different reasons.
Because of the phasing, Lake Orion is required to notify parents about not meeting AYP requirements, as well as create a school improvement plan that addresses some of these needs. Glowaz said this is something that Lake Orion does every year, and she is working with the high school, looking at data and identifying some of the defiencies so Orion can work on improving.
‘They have been quite aggressive,? Glowaz said, ‘learning to work with students to help them meet standards.?
‘It’s not an overnight task,? she added. ‘Change takes time.?
All seven of Lake Orion’s elementary schools and three middle schools met AYP standards.