Dear Lansing School District Community,
As always, it is a pleasure to write to you all. I hope that you had a wonderful week. As I hope you all saw, we had some wonderful news to share with the community: our district-wide School Index Score (SIS) went up by 66.1% from 2021-2022 to 2022-2023. This is incredible. The SIS is an amalgam of multiple data points, including graduation rates, student growth, student proficiency, English Learner progress, test participation, and a "school quality/student success" score, which includes attendance rates, among others. Thus, the SIS shows a much more robust view of our schools than any individual data point. The idea that our district-wide score went up 66.1% shows you the true, positive system-wide changes we have brought over the last two years. And I can also tell you that the early indications from this current year show that we are continuing an upward trend.
The other information we shared was that our M-Step scores went up in every grade for both Math and ELA. Additionally, our student enrollment went up by 136 students this year, for a Fall 2023 count of 9,909. This is the first time we have seen real growth in decades. I am so proud of the incredible work of our educators, families, community, and, of course, students. Only with all of us working together can we make such wonderful progress.
However, though our SIS increased dramatically, our test scores increased, and our enrollment jumped, our overall proficiency rates are still low. Yes, our M-Step scores went up in every grade for Math and ELA, but our proficiency rates across the board are still well below where they should be. What this means, of course, is that we all need to focus on instruction. The more we ensure that we are teaching grade standards, holding firm to our approved curriculum, and making being proficient the baseline of every class, we will see improvements. But all of us have to help out. Just like how we moved mountains to improve attendance and graduation rates, relying on the entire community to support these efforts, we also need everyone's help getting our students to proficiency.
This month, our students are taking their NWEA tests. These are very good diagnostic, formative assessments that help show a student's growth and where each student is vis-a-vis their grade standards. The Parent Reports should be ready when we return from Winter Break. Please ask to see your child's NWEA scores. Ask their teachers and principals about your scholar's strengths and challenges. Ask for some ways to help your student. As a district, we are looking at all sorts of ways to help support our kids. We are trying to bring in more tutoring and mentoring. We are trying to have more after-school activities and weekend programs.
But we need all of your help. Can you volunteer at your child's school? Can you help run an after-school tutoring session? Can you mentor one student? With the community's support, we can tackle the proficiency concerns in our district. Let us use the NWEA results to guide our work. We will have about four months from when the NWEA parent reports are released until the M-Step exams to focus on getting our children to proficiency. I know that if we all focus on this work, we will do amazing things for our students.
If you have any questions about how you can help, please don't hesitate to contact me. We are making huge strides in our district, but for us to take the next step, we need even more love and help.
Thank you so much for all of your incredible support of our district. Together, we will do great things for the children of Lansing.
Benjamin Shuldiner, Superintendent
Lansing School District
