THS Does Not Meet Federal Academic Goals

did not meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to statistics released Monday morning by the Michigan Department of Education.

Though nearly the entire school met federal requirements, one subgroup did not.

Students are characterized into many subgroups, which allows officials to determine what segment of the student population is struggling. At the high school, for instance, students with disabilities were the subgroup that did not meet federal standards.

All of the other subgroups at Trenton Public Schools met the required Adequate Yearly Progress or AYP, but if one subgroup does not make AYP then the entire school fails to meet AYP.

Schools are judged on how well students perform on the Michigan Educational Achievement Program test and the .

Ann Deneroff, director of curriculum, said the district is constantly looking at curriculum for ways to make students more successful, and will implement new methods of teaching, including co-teaching, to bring scores up in math and reading for students with disabilities.

She added that she does not think parents in the district will look down on the school because there are "many inequities" in the way AYP works.

For example, a subgroup must contain no less than 30 students. If Trenton High School had only 29 students in the failing subgroup, the school would have met federal requirements in all subgroups.

"I don't think it really impacts the way the public thinks," Deneroff said.

Overall, Michigan schools saw a 7.1 percentage point decrease in students meeting the federal academic goals, dropping from 86 percent of schools in 2009-10 to 79 percent in 2010-11.

In addition to the federal guidelines, schools also are graded through a state accreditation system known as Education Yes! Those grades are derived largely from student test scores.

and elementary schools and received an “A,” while the high school received a “B.”