WILLIAMSTON MICH. — For the fourth year in a row, the Williamston School District has scored number one in mid-Michigan on the state scorecard index.
“This was the first year that data has been available since the pandemic started," Superintendent Adam Spina said. "So we kind of picked up where we left off.”
Spina said after coming out of a tough couple years with the COVID pandemic, he was happy to see the hard work pay off.
"It's a community achievement, but I think it's the the efforts of our teachers here that really made the difference in terms of maintaining those that consistency throughout these very difficult periods of time,” Spina said.
According to the state index, Williamston High School has an overall index of 97.49 out of 100.
That overall score is broken down into a 98 percent graduation rate, 100 summative proficiency, 99.66 summative growth, 87.25 school quality/student success and 93.12 assessment participation. Each factor has a percentage weight contributing to the overall index score.
Spina said one area he was surprised to see unchanged was SAT scores.
“What we noticed is our SAT scores, somewhat surprisingly, remained consistent," Spina said. "Our students at our high school, juniors, performed at the same high level they had prior to COVID, and so there was not a drop off whatsoever.”
The school index isn't just for high schools across the state, but also gives letter grades to other schools in the district that are eligible.
For Williamston, Spina said each one received top ratings of an A.
“All our schools that take a letter grade, they take a state assessment or an A on that metric, and then, all three of those schools that also take a state assessment are also listed as a reward school, which is the highest level possible under that accountability mechanism,” Spina said.
While Williamston didn't fall from the number one spot, Spina said they did see a drop in some areas.
"We noticed grades three through eight on M-STEP, like pretty much everyone else in the state and in different state assessments throughout the country, we saw a pretty significant decrease,” Spina said.
Moving forward for that test, the district is working on ways to bring those scores back up in the coming years.
"We've been able to construct a number of proactive intervention programs, and so through the hard work of our staff, we really anticipate those scores are starting to rebound here over the next couple of years as kids are back in school consistently,” Spina said.
For now, Spina said they're going to continue programs to increase those test scores while also celebrating their success in this past year's scorecard.
“We do know that our scores decreased, and so we're just going to continue to chip away at it and get back to where we were in 2019," Spina said. "So, I think that's the biggest thing is just, it's some positive news for our staff coming out this really tough period, and they should be proud of what they've achieved.”
Williamston wasn't the only district who scored relatively well in mid-Michigan. Okemos Public Schools came in at number three with an overall index score of 87.61, DeWitt Public Schools was at four with 84.14, Haslett Public Schools was at five with 84.12 and East Lansing Public Schools was at seven with 78.08.
Want to see more local news? Visit the FOX47News Website.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox.
Select from these options: Neighborhood News, Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines, and Daily Forecasts.
