Capitol News

The Lansing School District board of education held a special study session meeting last week that focused on the progress and continued efforts to increase student proficiency, especially in their identified partnership schools.

One avenue the district is using to increase proficiency is the multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) for academics.

“This is one the board is probably heard the most about, especially with our 90-day presentations, and… this goal in particular will carry us through to our 36-month benchmark,” Deputy Superintendent Jessica Benavides said during her presentation.

With that, the district wants to see higher levels of proficiency in ELA and math, as measured by Mstep and the SAT, Benavides said. School officials are also looking to see improvements in year-over-year growth among all the students.

The partnership schools were singled out and identified last November in conjunction with a part of the state’s program to comply with Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The state rates schools on the basis of proficiency, growth, graduation rate, English learner progress, school quality, assessment participation and EL participation.

Student growth (34%) and student proficiency (29%) are the two elements that are weighted most heavily now. The plan weighs each of the categories and scores all schools based on the percentage of each category target met, with a perfect score being 100 points. Schools that score under 23.88 are identified as partnership schools. That cut-off level will change yearly, with the line being drawn where it encompasses the bottom 5% of schools.

Identified schools are further categorized as CSI (bottom 5%), ATS (a student subgroup in the bottom 5% and one or more student subgroup in the bottom 25%) or TSI (a student subgroup in the bottom 25%).

The district had two schools, Dwight Rich and Sheridan Road, which were identified as ATS. Thirteen others have been officially designated as CSI schools, including Attwood, Averill, Gardner, Gier Park, JW Sexton, Lyons, Mt. Hope, North, Reo, Wexford, CAK120, Eastern and Everett.

The district signed the partnership agreement with the Michigan Department of Education on Monday. The district will be required to give an 18-month benchmark update by November 2024, and a final evaluation in December of 2025.

The Michigan Department of Education partners with the school through some funding avenues, resources, information, and accountability timelines to help them improve the designation of their school. Each building has created a unique plan with specific goals, like attendance levels, academic growth numbers and additional support for students, that they will strive to achieve. For the younger schools, they are also really focusing on creating behavioral expectations to promote better habits and a better learning environment for students and teachers alike.