16 Troy Schools Receive A's, 3 Earn B's on State Report Card

Grade changes to two schools in the from "A" to "B" won't change the overall mission of the district, a district administrator said Tuesday.

School report cards released Monday by the Michigan Department of Education revealed and didn't make Adequate Yearly Progress. , which doesn't receive a letter grade, also didn't make AYP this year.

Athens was ranked in June as the sixth best high school in Michigan and 229th nationally by .

"For us, it doesn't change our work," said Richard Machesky, assistant superintendent for secondary education for the district. "(Our mission) is looking at each individual student and finding where they need to be and focusing instruction to get them where they need to be."

The federal government uses AYP scores to hold schools accountable under No Child Left Behind. They are calculated for all 3,437 public schools in the state using target achievement goals. Federal requirements mandate that 100 percent of students at all schools meet AYP by 2014.

Some say the goal is unrealistic without compromising educational standards in the state.

"With proficiency requirements for subgroups continuing to rise, it's going to get harder and harder for these groups to meet AYP," Machesky said.

He said the state has previously lowered proficiency standards. Adjustments are now taking effect as the state raises proficiency standards across the state.

Schools not meeting AYP

Athens High School and Larson Middle School received a "B" grade and didn't attain AYP status. In addition, Niles Community High School, which doesn't receive a letter grade, was identified as a school needing to improve.

Scoring by the state identified students with disabilities as the subgroup failing to meet standards for AYP at Athens and Larson. Scores among all students at Niles, the district's alternative high school, were below AYP standards.

Machesky said data regarding subgroups indicate AYP at the individual schools were missed by scores from one student at Larson and about three at Athens.

"It doesn't come as a surprise given the subgroups we know exist," he said.

He said this is the first year that Larson and Athens didn't meet AYP, and won't jeopardize any state or federal funding.

Tougher standards

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 score requirements 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.