North Earns an "A", More Achievement Successes

The 2011 State of Michigan MME (Michigan Merit Exam) scores are back with good news for Grosse Pointe North. On the heels of moving up 250 spots on the national Top School Rankings to the top 3% in the nation, North saw improvement gains in every tested area of the MME except social studies which stayed constant with 89% students proficient.

North was up 4% in reading, 3% in writing and science, and 2% in math. In addition, the achievement gap between low performing sub-groups and our highest performing groups has narrowed considerably. In the three years since North implemented our High Schools 2.0 and freshman academic team models, the achievement gap has narrowed by 21 percentage points in math, and 11 percentage points in English Language Arts (ELA).

The really good news is that gains in narrowing the achievement gap have not come at the expense of our top performing student groups. In our five year achievement analysis from 2007 through 2011, achievement at the top end has remained constant or grown in ELA and math despite reduced state funding and staffing, and despite the fact that the number of socioeconomically disadvantaged students in the testing population has tripled in that time. North is maintaining a high level of performance with all students, while seeing our lowest performing students steadily improve.

Finally, once again, the state has given North High School an "A" on our state report card, validating the hard work by students and staff. It's a great time to be a Norseman!