District goals will focus on bettering assessment scores

An article by Leslie Shepard    No Comments

The Huron Valley School District unveiled its goals for the 2011-12 school year on Thursday, Sept. 15, with the No. 1 priority being focused on increased student achievement in reading, writing and math measured by multiple assessments.

“As a board we believe that goal-setting and tracking is essential to understanding and evaluating where we are at as a district,” said Board of Education President Sean Carlson. “Goal-setting and tracking helps to drive focus and alignment across the school district. Goal-setting and tracking helps to ensure accountability for results.”

The district will be measuring improvement in the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test mean scale scores in all subjects for third- through eighth-grade by comparing the 2008-2011 results with those from 2009-2012. In the event state scores decrease, the district’s goal is to outperform the state’s trend.

The district also plans to decrease by 5 percent the number of fourth- and fifth-year students not on track to graduate. One avenue that will help achieve this goal is development of a plan to monitor student growth as measured by metrics and district assessments.

A second priority is to develop and implement district and building action plans that promote relationships, relevance and rigor for the benefit of student achievement. As one example, the district would like to see an increase in the Advanced Placement (AP) participation rate of 945 students and maintain or increase the current 69 percent passage rate.

Safety is always a priority for the district. This year the district is intent on providing a safe learning environment and a healthy workplace for students and staff, in tandem with promoting healthy lifestyles. Therefore, Huron Valley plans to enhance district safety initiatives and improve anti-bullying programming by developing building-based Caring Community Plans by October.

The district plans to implement health and wellness programming that will increase whole grain offerings by 50 percent and fruit and vegetables by 20 percent to promote a healthier lifestyle for those students purchasing school breakfast and/or lunches. Moreover, success will also be interdependent on achieving the eight healthy lifestyle objectives of the elementary Physical Education Program grant and developing a healthy lifestyle assessment for secondary students.

On the fiduciary side, the district will strategize to enhance resources by revenue maximization, cost containment, facilities management and employee relations. The district also expects the completion of bond and building and site sinking fund projects. The district also intends to present a trio of options to the school board for reutilization of vacant buildings by March 2012.

Lastly, the district plans to focus on effective communications and services. For example, the district would like to see steady or a reduction in the total number of grievances filed by all employee groups from the current three-year average of 25 grievances.