By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp. — During the regular Monday night meeting, principals in the Brandon School District presented their spring 2023 state assessment achievement data and the 2022-2023 local assessment growth data. The scores are based on M-STEP, SAT and PSAT assessments.
At the high school level, students out-preformed the state average proficiency in ninth grade math, tenth grade math and English language arts (ELA), and eleventh grade ELA, math, social studies and science. They also out performed Oakland County in eleventh grade ELA, social studies and science. The county did not have data for ninth and tenth grade levels to compare to.
“We all look at many different things in order to help our students improve, and one of those things that we use is data,” said BHS principal Dan Stevens. “This data is really important to us when analyzing where our kids’ strengths are.”
In addition, according to NWEA scores, the ninth and tenth grade students exceeded the projected growth in language arts. While they still had some observed growth for both grades in math, they did not meet the projected growth.
“We’re still growing, no matter what,” he said. “We learn from where we’re at, we learn what our strengths are, and we focus on our weaknesses to try and improve.”
For the middle school, students performed as well as or outperformed the state in all M-STEP tests except for sixth and seventh grade ELA scores. They also slightly outperformed the county in eighth grade social studies.
“The other part that’s really exciting is our high school and middle school curriculum are really collaborating together,” said Coy Stewart, director of instruction and curriculum.
As far as NWEA scores and projected growth, all three grades saw some growth in language arts and math, but they did not meet the grade-level projected growth.
“Oakland Schools is coming down to work with our teachers on instructional strategies,” said Stewart. “On top of that, we also have a whole new math instructional team at the middle school. We have veteran educators but new, new to us, but not new to what they do.”
At Harvey-Swanson Elementary School, students outperformed the state in third grade ELA and math, and fifth grade ELA and science. They also outperformed the county in fifth grade ELA and science.
“A lot of really great highlights at Harvey-Swanson,” said HSE principal Jessica Hevel. “It’s always great to outpace the state.”
The growth data showed that students met or exceeded projected growth in language arts in K-3 and fifth grades, and in kindergarten and third grade math. Other grade still had observed growth that did not meet the projected growth.
“We still have work to do, but it’s exciting to see the growth that’s there,” said Hevel.
Oakwood Elementary students outperformed the state in third grade ELA and Math, and fourth grade ELA and math. They also outperformed the county in third grade math and fourth grade ELA.
In the growth data, the students met or exceeded the projected growth in kindergarten language arts and math, second grade language arts, third grade math and fourth grade math.
“The overall goal is to increase engagement and motivation,” said Oakwood principal Colleen Ransford.
Across the district, the NEWA scores showed the percentage of students K-8 who were listed as “significantly behind grade level” in the 2022-2023 school year.
“This is really coming out of the pandemic,” said Stewart. “You can see, looking from fall to spring, in reading and in math, in most cases where we started, we ended up in a better place at the end of the school year. In most cases there was improvement.”
In reading and math, from fall 2022 to spring 2023, all grades decreased the percentage of students considered significantly behind grade level except sixth grade math, which had no change in percentage.
“We’re still outperforming our county counterparts, which is great,” said Stewart.
Math is a focus area for the district, and has been for several years. Proficiency in math continues to be a national problem and not specific to Brandon. The district will also continue to have individual data meetings with teachers three times a year to discuss student progress, as well as to provide support for instruction.
“The principals, K-12, are collaborating together,” said Stewart. “We collaborate, it’s one of our core beliefs.”