Schools

Most Royal Oak Schools Score an 'A' on State Report Cards

Elementary schools and middle schools earn A's, while the high school gets a B.

Nearly all of Royal Oak schools showed overall Adequate Yearly Progress in in math and reading during the 2010-11 school year, according to the school "report cards" released on Monday.

Michigan Department of Education released this year's Education YES! and Adequate Yearly Progress data, also known as school report cards, on its website www.mischooldata.org.

Education YES! is the state yardstick for school accreditation. All Royal Oak Neighborhood Schools earned a letter grade of A, with the exception of the high school, which earned a B.

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AYP is data tied to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 and is what the federal government uses to hold schools accountable. They are calculated for all 3,437 public schools in the state using target achievement goals.

Royal Oak High was one of 219 high schools in the state that did not make AYP.

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Overall, Michigan schools saw a 7.1 percentage point decrease in students making AYP, dropping from from 86 percent of schools in 2009-10 to 79 percent in 2010-11.

Education YES! Report Cards: 

  • Grade: A
  •  Grade: A 
  • Grade: A
  • Grade: A
  • Grade: A
  • Grade: A
  • l Grade: A
  • Grade: B

did not receive a grade because of its special student population. Churchill offers alternative high school programs, adult English as a second language for foreign-born adults, GED preparation classes and testing, and a variety of adult enrichment classes and programs. 

Royal Oak Superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin said the letter grades are confirmation that Royal Oak schools are the best choice in Oakland County for student achievement and student success.

Of the school report card Lewis-Lakin said, “I am pleased, but I won’t be satisfied until we earn all A's.” 

Adequate Yearly Progress

The AYP national standard looks at how well districts/schools performed on Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) in English and math. Other indicators include how many students participate in the assessment, and graduation and attendance rates.

All Royal Oak Schools met the AYP standards, with the exception of Royal Oak High School, which did not meet an AYP goal for one student subgroup participation in math. Subgroups include major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities and students who are economically disadvantaged.

Lewis-Lakin says the matrix for AYP contains 50 cells, or goals. A school must reach all 50 goals in the matrix to make AYP. The superintendent says when you consider the district has nine schools, “there are 450 cells we have to meet, and we missed one" – for participation in math by a subgroup.

Lewis-Lakin says the district will move to address the lone missed cell and is confident that the district will meet participation targets for all subgroups in the future.

When looking at the total student enrollment of Royal Oak High, the school did meet the 95% participation goal.

Tougher standards

Royal Oak's score was part of a trend: There was a 21.9 percent decrease in the number of high schools making AYP this year. Alternative schools also had a substantial decrease in the percentage making AYP, from 36.6 percent last year to 17.7 percent this year.

State school officials attributed the overall drop in scores to the increased rigor: Federal proficiency targets increased this year and schools had to have a higher percentage of students proficient to be considered as having made AYP.

"We are raising the bar on what they need to know, to also raise AYP simultaneously is very, very difficult," said Jan Ellis, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Education, in a statement released along with the data.

Between the 2009-10 and the 2010-11 school year, targets jumped between 8 percent and 10 percent. For instance, in math, 2010-11 represented the first proficiency target increase since 2006-07; the previous three years retained the same targets.

Ellis said every time the state increases the target by 10 or 12 points, especially in math, there tends to be a group of students on the cusp, that when the scores increase, they just don't make it.

Ellis said the state is awaiting word on whether the federal government will give Michigan a waiver on meeting proficiency targets in the next 10 years as it works on boosting overall academic performance.

While statewide trends show a drop in proficiency, it should be noted Royal Oak High School did make AYP because it did not meet a participation goal of 95% for one student subgroup. It was not due to a drop in test scores.

Click here to find out more about how your school performed.


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