In Brief: Board Discusses Schools Enrollment, Rankings

The heard a brief explanation of top-to-bottom rankings and district enrollment at Thursday night's school board meeting.

Rankings vs. Scores

Director of Instruction Sarah Olson gave a brief explanation of top-to-bottom rankings to the school board.

The ranking is part of an annual list that factors students' performance on standardized tests in all five academic subjects, graduation rates, student improvement and other Michigan Department of Education guidelines.

Olson reminded the board the numbers are rankings, not scores.

"We know Royal Oak is a high-performing district that is not in need of assistance from the state or federal government," Olson said. "These rankings are far from comparing MEAP scores."

Olson said several formulas are used to come up with the top-to-bottom rankings. In Royal Oak, two schools had rankings in the bottom half. Oakland was ranked 40 and Upton was ranked 37.

Olson said a ranking of 37 does not mean only 37 percent of students are achievers. She reminded the public that Upton had MEAP math scores of 89.9 and reading scores of 89.4, scores that are above county averages.

"Just because another school has a higher ranking, it does not mean they outperformed us in ACT test scores or MEAPs," she said.

District enrollment

Director of Administrative Services Cheryl Goodgine discussed enrollment. Goodgine said the district has projected a loss of 108 students for the 2011-12 school year.

"The fall count day has been moved up one week to Oct. 5," Goodgine said. She reminded residents the district is still enrolling students.

Zangle is live

Goodgine also reported that the Zangle system is live and getting great reviews. Parents who have not set up their accounts can call the Board of Education office for help.

The Zangle system enables parents, teachers, students and administrators to connect to the schools over the Internet and assists in making decisions.