Straight A’s for Oxford Schools

The Michigan Department of Education recently released report cards to Oxford’s elementary and middle schools, along with the annual report on each school’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the 2007-08 school year as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Law.
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum for Oxford Schools, Jim Schwarz, said every one of the schools, excluding the high school, received an ‘A? grade and all met AYP. The high school’s grades will not be figured until the end of June.
‘That is quite the phenomenal feat at this juncture towards (obtaining) 100 percent proficiency by 2014,? he told the school board at their regular meeting last Tuesday.
According to the Michigan Dept. of Education’s website, AYP is a state measurement of student achievement, governed and approved by the U.S. Department of Education.
Schwarz said the language arts and math portions of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test results, curriculum, teacher quality, professional development, parent involvement, drop-out rates, school facilities and the state average all play a large role in how a school is graded.
Schwarz attributes the great report card to the district’s teachers ‘taking advantage? of the various staff development sessions.
‘Those grades rest on what’s going on in those classrooms,? he said, adding that many districts in the state didn’t hold the same ‘caliber? of report card that Oxford did.