Dear Lansing School District Community,
I hope that this newsletter finds you well. I am happy to be writing to all of you again after the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope that you were able to visit with friends and family and take some time to rest and relax.
Last week, the Lansing State Journal ran a story about how the district's School Index Scores (SIS) are improving dramatically. I wanted to elaborate on this great news and put it in perspective.
When I arrived in Lansing, more than half our schools were about to be placed on some kind of Michigan Department of Education support list, with more than 10 of our schools being labeled as being in the bottom 5% in the state. This was unacceptable. The district immediately went to work to change this situation. Our educators, our students, and our community all focused their efforts on instruction, attendance, graduation, and support. We all knew we could do better. And we all knew our students and community deserved it. But we also knew it would take time.
Well, today, with this year's SIS now public, I want to express my pride in the work that has been done and the immense change these last few years have seen.
First a little primer. The SIS is a very important metric to use when evaluating schools and districts. Since it is not just one data point but an amalgam of test score data, attendance data, graduation data, and much more, the SIS gives you a fuller picture of how a school is doing. I appreciate that no formula can truly capture an entire school or district, but the SIS does as good a job as I have seen in trying to show the growth and attainment of its students. If anyone is at all interested in learning more about the SIS, please feel free to reach out to me or read about it on the MDE's website at https://www.michigan.gov/mde/services/school-performance-supports/accountability/school-index.
Three years ago, we had over ten schools under the "Partnership" 5% threshold. I am happy to report that we only have two schools that would qualify for Partnership if our evaluation time period was over this year. In fact, we still have one more year before we are evaluated again. This is incredible. Currently, a year early, we have only two schools that would be in Partnership.
But that is not all. Not only did our schools with historically low scores go up, but our schools with high scores continued to climb. Every single school now has a higher SIS than it did two years ago and the district's average SIS is almost double what it was in 2021-2022.
We had three schools score over 70 and three schools score over 60. I can't tell you how happy this makes me. For years Lansing has had a large number of schools in the bottom 5% of the state. Now, we are moving up as a district compared to other schools and districts in Michigan. Increasing scores is one thing (let's be honest, after COVID, all districts' attendance rates were going to go up), but increasing scores in relation to other districts is a totally different thing. Thus, both our relative and absolute scores are higher. This is real growth.
We are even starting to outperform schools in our surrounding areas. I certainly don't mean to throw shade on other districts, I have great respect for all of our neighboring schools and communities, but for far too long there has been a narrative that other districts do a better job than Lansing in educating its children. For example, for the first time in years, if ever, we are having multiple schools score higher than many of the schools in Holt and Waverly.
For instance, Lansing Tech High School scored higher than Holt High School and Waverly High School. Cumberland, Forest View, Cavanaugh, Post Oak (K-8), and Pattengill (K-8) scored higher than Winans, East IM, and Waverly Middle School. Cumberland and Forest View scored higher than Dimondale and Washington Woods. Cumberland, Forest View, Cavanaugh, Post Oak, and Pattengill scored higher than Holt Junior High and Hope School.
Though we have a long journey to go to make the Lansing School District a top district in the state, these new School Index Scores show we are well on our way. The growth over the last three years has been tremendous, thanks to our staff, students, and the community. I hope these results make you all proud to be part of our district; I know they do for me.
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
