WBCH offers this space to area school superintendents to highlight news in their districts. This posting is from Lakewood School’s  Superintendent Randy Fleenor:

 

“Setting: A Key to Success

Thank you for allowing Lakewood Public Schools to be part of your child’s education. Grades 3rd– 8th and 11th participated in Michigan’s statewide test—the M-STEP exam—this past spring.

 

You may have already received M-STEP information from your child’s teacher, or will shortly. You may find the district’s M-STEP overview information on our website or by following this link: https://bit.ly/2wxfAYR.

 

Here’s some good news about the test: teachers and parents can use student scores to make sure they’re doing all the right things; working together, they can learn how to support every student to improve scores for next year; test scores can assist in goal setting.

 

Goodwin & Miller, (2012) found that giving effective, timely, and clear feedback to students translated into a 28% higher achievement rate by students compared to those counterparts that did not receive feedback. 28%! It is clear that students who review their own achievement data, set, and monitor their own goals out-achieve those students who do not have these types of habits.

 

Of course, this needs to be done in a healthy, balanced manner. Test scores aren’t everything; although they can provide key insights for teachers and parents. We use this data, as well as other forms of summative and formative data within the district to identify several things.

 

Specific student results help teachers and principals identify growth areas for each student. For example, a student’s scores may indicate a weakness in a certain reading or writing skill. Knowing specifically what these struggle areas are allows the teacher to fine tune instruction.

 

It also allows for the application of additional supports if warranted. District-wide data allows us to look for broad trends. An example of this would be looking at how all of 3rd grade is performing in a certain content area within the subject of Math. If the majority of student data indicates non-proficiency in fractions, this may be an indication of a gap in curriculum.

 

This year’s 3rd– 8th grade M-STEP data indicates an overall (all subjects and grade) 2% increase in composite proficiency scores from 45.6% to 47.8%. Specific subjects results for 3rd-8th grade were: 3% increase in English/Language Arts proficiency (58% to 61%), held steady in math proficiency (46%), 11% increase in Social Studies proficiency (29% to 40 %), and a 5% decrease in Science proficiency (28% to 23%).

 

Eleventh grade reported: 9% decrease in Social Studies proficiency (54% to 45%), and a 7% decrease in Science proficiency (48% to 41%). Overall, the high school remains constant with growth scores compared to 2015, at 42.7% proficiency in all subjects in 11th grade. Teachers and principals are in the process of discussing this data to determine the reasons for gains and deficiencies.

 

If you would like to see how our district stacks up against our peers in the county, visit https://www.lakewoodps.org/Page/535 and click on the composite score links.

Our teachers, support staff, and principals work tirelessly to ensure that our children receive the very best opportunities for learning. These scores represent their dedication and hard work partnering with the home; together, we’re better!

Thank you for your continued support.”