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February 15, 2024
Dear Parents and Community Members:
We are pleased to present you with the Annual Education Report (AER) which provides key information on the 2022-2023 educational progress for Carman-Ainsworth High School. The AER addresses the complex reporting information required by federal and state laws. The school’s report contains information about student assessment, accountability, and teacher quality. If you have any questions about the AER, please contact Charles LaClear for assistance.
The AER is available for you to review electronically by visiting the following web site https://www.mischooldata.org/annual-education-report-1?Common_Locations=1-S,6159,984,80 or you may review a copy in the main office at your child’s school.
For the 2022-2023 school year, schools were identified using definitions and labels as required in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). A Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) school is one that has at least one underperforming student subgroup. An Additional Targeted Support (ATS) school is one that has a student subgroup performing at the same level as the lowest 5% of all schools in the state. A Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school is one whose performance is in the lowest 5% of all schools in the state or has a graduation rate at or below 67%. Some schools are not identified with any of these labels. In these cases, no label is given. During the 2022-2023 school year we were labeled as a Targeted Support and Improvement school, as we have one subgroup of our student population that underperformed. It is our goal to ensure that ALL of our students demonstrate proficiency and growth on all state assessments.
Carman-Ainsworth High School is the only traditional high school within the Carman-Ainsworth Community Schools. Students within our district boundaries do not need to apply or be selected to attend Carman-Ainsworth High School. We do participate in the district’s School of Choice program and all policies of the State School Aid Act are followed.
The Michigan Integrated Continuous Improvement Process (MICIP) is the pathway by which districts improve student outcomes by assessing whole child needs to develop plans and coordinate funding. Carman-Ainsworth High School has a team of members that works with the district at large. We are following MICIP in order to improve student outcome and improve financial coordination.
Our core curriculum can be accessed at https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-28753_64839_65510---,00.html. This state website contains the content standards of all core curriculum. We offer many electives at Carman-Ainsworth High School, teachers follow the curriculum of the state and/or national organization that oversees their disciplines. Curricula for courses not listed can be received by contacting Charles LaClear at Carman-Ainsworth High School.
Nationally normed exams like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) can yield valuable information to guide instruction. Juniors taking the SAT in the spring of 2022 had a mean total score of 846; Evidence Based Reading and Writing (ERW) score of 437 and Math score of 410. Northwest Evaluation Association predicts grade level growth for the school year. Freshmen and juniors exceeded projected growth in math, while sophomores fell just short of projected growth. When looking at reading scores only our freshmen exceeded projected growth, while our sophomores and juniors fell just short of their goal.
We value parental involvement and look for new ways for parents to engage as active partners in the student’s education. We believe that students benefit when parents/guardians are actively involved in the educational process. Carman-Ainsworth provides parents and students with 24 hour access to grades, notes, and comments regarding student achievement, attendance, and performance via ParentVue and StudentVue. Many parents and students find this extremely helpful to check on student progress and use it as opportunity to reach out to teachers. We offer two formal Parent-Teacher Conferences per year, one per semester. The last two conferences we have averaged an attendance rate of 38% when we consider face-to-face conferences and virtual meetings, parents have appreciated the flexible accommodations that we offered during Covid-19. This obviously does not take into account the numerous communications prompted by ParentVue, but we are constantly looking for ways to increase face- to-face conversations between parents and teachers.
Dual enrollment (DE) opportunities abound at Carman-Ainsworth High School. In 2021-2022 we had 79 (roughly 8%) students enrolled in postsecondary courses. In total 936 college credits were earned by Carman-Ainsworth High School students. Another 129 (12.1%) students took advantage of the six (6) college equivalent courses taught by our own highly qualified teachers. We proudly offer Advanced Placement courses in Language, Literature, Calculus, United States History, World History, Psychology, and we alternate Biology and Chemistry every other year. Thirty-seven students elected to take seventy-one Advanced Placement exams in spring 2023 and thirty-eight of those tests received a score of “3” or higher, the threshold that many colleges award credit.
Carman-Ainsworth High School has always taken academics very seriously. Areas of concern and focus for Carman-Ainsworth High School deal specifically with English Language Arts and Math. Math continues to be an area where we struggle. We have been making steady increases in math by focusing on Algebra I support structures, offering a pre-algebra course making sure that struggling students receive support as early as possible. As a result of 2022-2023 assessment results a Math Lab elective is now offered for incoming students that struggled in Middle School math. We also are in the process of a math curriculum selection process.
The faculty and staff of Carman-Ainsworth High School are very proud of our students. Carman-Ainsworth students continue to be wonderful contributors to their communities upon graduation. Our students are bright, resilient, and are prepared for challenges after high school. We remain committed to constant improvement. We regularly assess our policies and procedures to ensure that they are best serving our students, and we are continuously searching for best practices to reach our students.
Sincerely,
Charles LaClear
Principal, Carman-Ainsworth High School