RCS Middle Schools Performance
Part I: Elementary School Analysis
Part II: Middle School Analysis
Part III: High School Analysis
The state of Michigan recently provided data on most public elementary, middle, and high schools. When you go to your local newspaper, you can probably find a way to query the data or a list of how the neighborhood schools performed. I find the data behind the data more interesting.
For Rochester Community Schools, I’ve extracted pertinent data from the 2011 Top to Bottom Individual School Lookup spreadsheet provided by the state. I’ve used definitions based on the 2011 Top to Bottom Ranking Overview presentation. All numbers are relative. For each category, higher numbers are better. Just remember when looking at negative numbers, -1 is higher than -2, so -1 is considered better than -2.
Data Definitions:
- % Proficient 2 Year Average -Percent judged proficient in a subject by the state’s standardized tests for the past two years.
- Relative Achievement Score 2 Year Average – How student achievement compared to state averages for the past two years. Positive is better than state average. Negative is worse than state average.
- Relative Improvement Between Years – Did the school improve and by how much? Positive is better than state average. Negative is worse than state average.
- Achievement Gap 2 Year Average – The difference in achievement between the 30% and the bottom 30% at the school averaged over the past two years. This will always be a negative number and closer to zero indicates a smaller achievement gap.
Below are the values from the state’s website. To calculate the scores you’ve seen elsewhere, average achievement counts for 50%, relative improvement counts for 25%, and achievement gap narrowness counts for 25%. My comments are below the data.
| Math | ||||
| School Name | % Proficient 2 Year Avg |
Rel. Achievement Score 2 Year Avg |
Relative Improvement Between Years |
Achievement Gap 2 Year Avg |
| . | ||||
| Hart | 94.75 | 0.97 | 0.75 | -2.49 |
| Reuther | 89.11 | 0.67 | 0.60 | -2.79 |
| Van Hoosen | 95.39 | 1.06 | 0.78 | -2.50 |
| West | 92.45 | 0.85 | 0.69 | -2.65 |
| Reading | ||||
| School Name | % Proficent 2 Year Avg |
Rel. Achievement Score 2 Year Avg |
Relative Improvement Between Years |
Achievement Gap 2 Year Avg |
| . | ||||
| Hart | 96.27 | 0.74 | 0.59 | -2.12 |
| Reuther | 90.88 | 0.45 | 0.45 | -2.27 |
| Van Hoosen | 96.96 | 0.81 | 0.72 | -2.17 |
| West | 93.83 | 0.57 | 0.51 | -2.25 |
| Science | ||||
| School Name | % Proficent 2 Year Avg |
Rel. Achievement Score 2 Year Avg |
Relative Improvement Between Years |
Achievement Gap 2 Year Avg |
| . | ||||
| Hart | 93.08 | 0.65 | 0.02 | -2.16 |
| Reuther | 88.79 | 0.39 | -0.01 | -2.12 |
| Van Hoosen | 95.12 | 0.70 | -0.03 | -2.19 |
| West | 93.00 | 0.63 | 0.02 | -2.19 |
| Social Studies | ||||
| School Name | % Proficent 2 Year Avg |
Rel. Achievement Score 2 Year Avg |
Relative Improvement Between Years |
Achievement Gap 2 Year Avg |
| . | ||||
| Hart | 92.49 | 0.70 | -0.02 | -2.10 |
| Reuther | 89.77 | 0.55 | 0.03 | -2.19 |
| Van Hoosen | 95.89 | 0.79 | 0.05 | -2.02 |
| West | 90.23 | 0.64 | -0.05 | -2.31 |
.
Unlike the RCS elementary schools where proficiency did not necessarily line up with achievement, the middle schools show a strong correlation between achievement and proficiency. It is interesting to note that while math and reading improved at each school significantly more than the state average, science and social studies have not. In the past couple of years, Rochester Community Schools has implemented math and English classes at the middle school level for advanced students.
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