Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Welcome Back!

Recently, you may have heard that five of our GPPSS schools were
designated “Focus Schools” by the Michigan Department of Education.
These schools include: Defer, Ferry, Trombly, Parcells, and Pierce. This
does NOT mean that these schools are low performing schools. In fact,
our test results show that all of our schools are excellent schools and we
are very proud of the achievements of our students at each of them.
What the Focus School designation means is that the gap between the
highest 30% of performing students and the lowest 30% of performing
students on standardized tests at a particular school is among the top
ten percent of gaps statewide. This is not surprising to us because we
know that many of our top students perform at extremely high levels.
Likewise, we also know that our lowest 30% do much better than the
lowest 30% of students statewide, but actual performance is not figured
into the designation, only the gap itself.
We are constantly working to improve the performance of our lowest
performing students and this designation will bring additional limited
resources toward bridging the disparity. The Michigan Department of
Education will develop and provide a District Toolkit for Focus Schools.
MDE will provide technical assistance to these districts on the use of the
toolkits in the form of MDE-trained and paid-for District Improvement
Facilitators. While this will allow us to continue intervention efforts to
bring up student performance, it will not change our mission of providing
an exemplary education for all Grosse Pointe Public School System
students. As we work to close these achievement gaps, we will continue
to meet the needs of our high and average scoring students and
challenge them to keep moving forward in their individualized
educational plans.
The most important thing to remember here is that the overall
performance of Defer students has not been called into question. We are
very proud of our school and are confident that our teachers and staff
are among the best in the field.

On October 9th I will be presenting the Defer Annual PA-25 Report and
our School Improvement Goals at 6:30 pm in the Defer Library, just prior
to the PTO meeting at 7:00pm. Please join me for this presentation.

Dates to Remember
September
17 Constitution Day
18 Picture Day
20 Back to School Night @ 7:00 pm Defer Gym (Parents Only)
28 Fifth Grade to Camp Howell Day Camp
F4 After Dark (PTO) 6:00 pm
October
1—5 Walk to School Week
6 PTO Progressive Dinner
9 PTO Meeting @ 7:00pm Library
10 Market Day Pick-up between 2:00 and 4:00pm
11—31 MEAP Testing Grades 3, 4, 5
15 Picture Retake Day
31 AM SCHOOL ONLY — Halloween Parade, Assembly & Parties
PM Staff Development