Making the Grade

Several years ago the state of Michigan began giving letter grades to schools as part of the Education Yes! initiative. State school improvement efforts have converged with NCLB requirements, and now all states give their schools some kind of performance review that includes AYP status. While this is certainly an imperfect system, it does give schools some standard for improvement. This year, we're proud to announce that Grosse Pointe North High School received an "A" on the state report card.

All schools in the Grosse Pointe district received letter grades of "A's". North's scores are far above state averages, as is true district wide, but that is not the only measure of success. In addition, for high schools the graduation / dropout rate is counted, achievement change (improvement from year to year) is counted, and the AYP status considers performance of what the law calls "sub-groups" - minority students, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and special education students.

North's focus last year was on closing the achievement gap between our lowest and highest achieving students, and the school's improvements in that area led to North making AYP and receiving a letter grade of "A". For this year, we have even bigger and bolder plans to bolster achievement gains. Look soon for posts regarding North's "100 Club", a new program for all juniors.

For now, we've made the grade and it's an "A", confirming what we all know - North High School is an exemplary school!