By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
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Brandon Twp. — During the regular Monday night meeting, principals in the Brandon School District presented their spring 2024 state assessment achievement data and the 2023-2024 local assessment growth data.
The scores are based on M-STEP, SAT and PSAT assessments.
At the high school level, students out-preformed the state average proficiency in ninth grade English language arts (ELA), tenth grade ELA, and eleventh grade math, social studies and science. They met state average proficiency for tenth grade math and eleventh grade ELA. They also out performed Oakland County in eleventh grade social studies and science. The county did not have data for ninth and tenth grade levels to compare to yet.
“Very proud with some of our scores but we also realize that we have a long way to go in some areas too, we constantly want to improve,” said BHS principal Dan Stevens. “Overall, we are typically right around where everybody else is, a little higher in some areas, a little lower in some areas, but right around the averages which is good. When you really dig into this data, you can really see where our true weak spots are and where our strengths are.”
In addition, according to NWEA scores, the ninth and tenth grade students exceeded the projected growth in language arts, as well as ninth grade math. While they still had some observed growth for tenth grade math, they did not meet the projected growth.
“You can see three of the four spots, we exceeded where the algorithm said we needed to end up, so we’re pretty proud of that,” he said.
For the middle school, students outpaced the state averages in seventh grade math and eighth grade ELA and social studies. They also exceeded county averages in seventh grade math.
“We want to see that change between the state and our scores closing and us overtake it,” said BMS Principal Kevin Ayers. “Although I know I speak for all educators when I say we’re shooting at a moving target all the time, that target is changing, but we want that reference point to be there.”
As far as NWEA scores and projected growth, there was observed growth in sixth grade language arts, eighth grade language arts and seventh grade math. In sixth grade math and eighth grade math, students met or exceeded the projected growth.
“I took a peek at the 2024 fall data, and if you were to display it, you would see that all of these gaps are also closing, which is what you want to see,” he said.
At Harvey-Swanson Elementary School, students outperformed the state in fifth grade ELA according to the M-STEP data.
“We definitely have some work to do, but if you were to take last year’s data and compare to this year’s data, we have shown a lot of growth in math, which was our focus,” said HSE principal Jessica Hevel.
The growth data showed that students met or exceeded projected growth in language arts in grades K-3 and 5, and in math for grades K-4. Other grades still had observed growth that did not meet the projected growth.
“In most grade levels, we have surpassed our projected growth,” she said.
Oakwood Elementary students outperformed the state in third grade ELA and math, fourth grade ELA and math, and fifth grade ELA, math, social studies and science. They also outperformed the county in fourth grade ELA and math and fifth grade ELA.
“We had some wonderful growth last year,” said Oakwood Principal Colleen Ransford.
In the growth data, the students met or exceeded the projected growth in kindergarten language arts and K-4 math. All other grades saw some growth in math and language arts as well.
Across the district, the NEWA scores showed the percentage of students K-8 who were listed as “significantly behind grade level” in the 2023-2024 school year.
“There were certain areas that in 23-24, our fall initial scores are much lower this year than they were last year and the year before,” said director of curriculum and instruction Coy Stewart. “That indicates the gap is closing because there’s not as much distance to cover as far as lowering between the fall and the spring.”
In reading and math, from fall 2023 to spring 2024, the fields of kindergarten math, second grade reading, second grade math, third grade reading and third grade math all decreased in the percentage of students who were significantly behind grade level.
“We’re taking advantage of those late-starts to get our 6-12 teachers together in every one of our core content areas and beyond, so far it’s really been working out,” said Stewart. “Math continues to be an area of growth across the district. Particularly in sixth grade, that data across the whole county is still low in sixth grade, so that’s something we are continuing to look at.”