School Annual Education Report (AER)
January 24, 2017
Dear Parents and Community Members:
We are pleased to present you with the Annual Education Report (AER) which provides key information on the 2015-16 educational progress for the Merritt Academy. The AER addresses the complex reporting information required by federal and state laws. The school’s report contains information about student assessment, accountability, and teacher quality. If you have any questions about the AER, please contact Tracy Cohrs for assistance.
The AER is available for you to review electronically by visiting the following web site www.merritt-academy.org or you may review a copy in the main office at your child’s school.
For the 2016-17 year, no new Priority or Focus schools were named; some Priority or Focus schools did exit their status because they met the exit criteria. New Reward schools were identified using school rankings and Beating the Odds information. A Focus school is one that has a large achievement gap between the highest and lowest achieving 30% of schools. A Priority school is one whose achievement and growth is in the lowest 5% of all schools in the state. A Reward school is one that has achieved one or more of the following distinctions: top 5% of schools on the Top-to-Bottom School Rankings, top 5% of schools making the greatest gains in achievement (improvement metric), or “Beating the Odds” by outperforming the school’s predicted ranking and/or similar schools. Some schools are not identified with any of these labels. In these cases no label is given.
Our school was identified as not having a label.
One of the key challenges identified in reviewing the combined report is working on closing the achievement gap. The school is working an modifying the current response to intervention (RTI) program, multi-tiered system (MTSS), and special education program to address this issue.
State law requires that we also report additional information.
- PROCESS FOR ASSIGNING PUPILS TO THE SCHOOL
- Students apply to the school during the two-week open enrollment period. If there are open spots available all students are accepted. If there is not enough spots a lottery is held. After the open enrollment period students are accepted on a first come basis.
- THE STATUS OF THE 3-5 YEAR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN
- In 2015-16 the school improvement plan goals were monitored. Progress was made on each of these goals. In 2016-17 the goals were changed to address new areas of weakness. Thus far for 2016-16, the students are showing progress toward the goals.
- A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH SPECIALIZED SCHOOL
- We do not have any specialized schools.
- IDENTIFY HOW TO ACCESS A COPY OF THE CORE CURRICULUM, A DESCRIPTION OF ITS IMPLEMENTATION, AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE VARIANCES FROM THE STATE’S MODEL
- A copy of the curriculum can be found on teacher web pages. The common core is fully implemented at all grade levels. The school is beginning to implement the Michigan Science Standards. There are no variances from the state’s model.
- THE AGGREGATE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT RESULTS FOR ANY LOCAL COMPETENCY TESTS OR NATIONALLY NORMED ACHIEVEMENT TESTS
Percentage of students meeting winter growth goals in Performance Series and NWEA
|
|
Reading 14/15 |
Reading 15/16 |
Math 14/15 |
Math 15/16 |
|
Kindergarten |
N/A |
94% |
N/A |
94% |
|
First |
N/A |
68% |
N/A |
66% |
|
Second |
70% |
79% |
74% |
81% |
|
Third |
75% |
88% |
59% |
69% |
|
Fourth |
75% |
78% |
74% |
75% |
|
Fifth |
88% |
91% |
90% |
88% |
|
Sixth |
82% |
60% |
85% |
74% |
|
Seventh |
72% |
59% |
77% |
80% |
|
Eighth |
68% |
665% |
58% |
89% |
- IDENTIFY THE NUMBER AND PERCENT OF STUDENTS REPRESENTED BY PARENTS AT PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES
- Parent teacher conferences are held two times a year. In 2014-16 the number of students represented between the two is 323. This is equal to 60%. In 2015-16 the number represented for conferences are 413. This is equal to 79%.
- FOR HIGH SCHOOLS, ONLY ALSO REPORT ON THE FOLLOWING:
- THE NUMBER AND PERCENT OF POSTSECONDARY ENROLLMENTS
i. In 2014-15 there were 5 students in Dual Enrollment. This is equal to 1%
In 2015-16 there were 5 students in Dual Enrollment. This is equal to 1%.
- THE NUMBER OF COLLEGE EQUIVALENT COURSES OFFERED (AP/IB)
i. Zero for both 2014-15 and 2015-16.
- THE NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN COLLEGE EQUIVALENT COURSES (AP/IB)
i. Zero for both 2014-15 and 2015-16.
- THE NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS RECEIVING A SCORE LEADING TO COLLEGE CREDIT
i. Zero for both 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Merritt Academy performed well on the M-Step compared to state and local district averages. The school successfully moved from Performance Series testing to NWEA testing. Our 8-man football team reached in playoffs and hosted our first home play off game. In addition, the Middle and High school concert bands received all 1’s at festival and went to state competition.
Sincerely,
Nathan Seiferlein
