Schools
Troy Ranks Among Top School Districts in Oakland County
Here are the best of the best schools in Michigan, according to a new rating system released this week.
Troy Schools boasts some of the highest-rated schools in Oakland County, according to Michigan Department of Education ratings for school districts and schools across the state using a new system that replaces the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
The new rating system, called School Accountability Scorecards, assigns each school and district a color based on a combination of student assessments, graduation rates, attendance rates and other factors.
Troy boasts 10 schools with the "Reward" designation, offered to the top schools in the county. Last year, the district was among 48 percent state-wide that did not make AYP, due in part to higher "cut scores" used on the MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) and MME (Michigan Merit Exam) tests.
"The old system of assigning grades didn’t give us as much information as the new standard," Anne Mull, Director of Instruction and Assessment for Troy schools, said via e-mail. "The external reviewers gave the Troy School District some of the highest scores the reviewers had ever given.
While the State’s standards provide us with some additional information gauging the success of student learning beyond the old standard, it is important for our community to know that we are continuously engaged in many ways of monitoring our success meeting the needs of our students."
The new system also holds schools accountable for the academic growth of their lowest-performing 30 percent of students.
"This is expected to have schools focusing on every student’s academic growth," State Superintendent Mike Flanagan said in a press release issued Tuesday. "We believe that every school can reach these goals."Mull said that while the goal in Troy is college and career readiness for all students, that the lowest-performing 30 percent of students exceeded those standards in comparison with neighboring districts.
"We are committed to acceleration of learning- not remediation," she said. "Our work is to provide students with the knowledge and skills to achieve all that they and their families desire for them. To achieve this goal, we provide accelerated opportunities for students who are struggling- including extra time ... whatever it takes."
To see your school's rating, search for your school district in the first dropdown menu above. Then, choose your school. To see your school district's rating, choose the school district in the first dropdown, and then find the school district name again in the "Schools" dropdown menu.
How to interpret the ratings
Scorecard Color: The colors are tied to a certain amount of points earned in the different components:
- GREEN: Received 85 percent or greater of possible points.
- LIME: Received between 70 percent and 85 percent of possible points.
- YELLOW: Received between 60 percent and 70 percent of possible points.
- ORANGE: Received between 50 percent and 60 percent of possible points.
- RED: Received less than 50 percent of possible points.
Statewide Percentile Ranking: Shows how schools are ranked on their student performance in mathematics, reading, writing, science and social studies. Schools are ranked with an overall percentile from 99 to 0.
PFR Status: Shows whether a school is a reward school, priority school or a focus schools. Not every school fits into one of these categories.
- Reward Schools: The top five percent of all Michigan schools in the annual top-to-bottom ranking and the top five percent making the greatest academic progress over the past four years.
- Priority Schools: Previously called persistently lowest achieving schools, these are now identified as those in the bottom five percent of the annual top-to-bottom ranking and any high school with a graduation rate of less than 60 percent for three consecutive years. These schools will be required to come up with a plan to improve.
- Focus Schools: The 10 percent of schools with the widest achievement gaps, meaning the academic disparity between the top 30 percent of students and the bottom 30 percent. The schools are now charged with bridging the gap.
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