Oakley W. Best Middle School Achievement ~ Responsibility ~ Success in Life Principal Jon Znamierowski Assitant Principal 22201 Powers Ave. Dearborn Heights, MI 48125 Claudia Portscheller, Ed.D. (313) 278-6200 (313) 274-2470 - Fax Counselors Kerry Herd Ann Stubbs August 18, 2014 Dear Parents and Community Members: We are pleased to present you with the Annual Education Report (AER), which provides key information on the 2013-2014 educational progress for the O. W. Best Middle 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 Mr. Znamierowski for assistance. The AER is available for you to review electronically by visiting the following web site www.district7.net or you may review a copy in our main office at your child’s school. The state has identified some schools with the status of Reward, Focus or Priority. A Reward school is one that is outperforming other schools in achievement, growth, or is performing better than other schools with a similar student population. A Focus school is one that has a large achievement gap in 30% of its student achievement scores. A Priority school is one whose achievement and growth is in the lowest 5% of all schools in the state. Our school has been not been identified as having been given a label. O. W. Best MEAP Scores 2013 and 2014 12/13 13/14 6th Reading 62% 62% 7th Reading 52% 56% 8th Reading 65% 61% 6th Math 37% 25% 7th Math 26% 33% 8th Math 24% 22% 7th Writing 54% 51% O. W. Best is, like most schools, facing the problem of declining state dollars to run our school. In fact, we are operating with the same dollars as we did back in the 1990’s. In addition, because we are a school of choice, we have students who are coming from other school districts and teaching those students about the expectations for being at Dearborn Heights School District #7 Doing What’s Best for Kids North Central Association Accreditation Oakley W. Best Middle School Achievement ~ Responsibility ~ Success in Life Principal Jon Znamierowski 22201 Powers Ave. Dearborn Heights, MI 48125 Assitant Principal Claudia Portscheller, Ed.D. (313) 278-6200 (313) 274-2470 - Fax Counselors Kerry Herd Ann Stubbs O. W. Best Middle School has been one of the school’s priorities for the past several years. Finally, O. W. Best has embarked on systematic improvement in both our curriculum and our facilities. We have added two new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) labs to give our students a much better opportunity to do hands-on projects in those four disciplines. Science, math, and English are the areas where we are concentrating our school improvement efforts and are reflected in our School Improvement Plan. In addition, O. W. Best is proud to report that our Parent/Teacher conference rate has maintained at 71% for the past two years. Parents are a key element in student success and we have actively worked hard to get parents to attend our conferences. An engaged parent leads to a successful student. A second area where O. W. Best has worked hard to improve instruction has been reflected in the writing and implementation of our School Improvement Plan. O. W. Best has been chosen as a Smarter Balanced Testing pilot site. The staff has worked diligently to make sure that our School Improvement Plan is in sync the new Common Core requirements. We feel the School Improvement Plan is the guide for our school, not only next year, but into the future as well. Finally I would like to congratulate our parents and staff for working so well together to help make O. W. Best an orderly and predictable place for adolescents to learn and grow! Sincerely, Jon Znamierowski, Principal O. W. Best Middle School Dearborn Heights School District #7 Doing What’s Best for Kids North Central Association Accreditation