Venture Annual Report

January 30, 2024

Dear Parents and Community Members:

We are pleased to present you with the Annual Education Report (AER), which provides key information on the 2023-24 educational progress for Venture Academy. 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 Roberta Parker for assistance.

The AER is available for you to review electronically by visiting the following website:https://www.mischooldata.org/annual-education-report-1/ or you may review a copy in the main office at your child’s school.

For the 2023-24 school year, schools were identified based on previous years’ performance using definitions and labels as required in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). A Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) school is one that had at least one underperforming student subgroup in 2018-19. An Additional Targeted Support (ATS) school is one that had a student subgroup performing at the same level as the lowest 5% of all schools in the state in 2017-18. A Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school is one whose performance was in the lowest 5% of all schools in the state or had a graduation rate at or below 67% in 2016-17. Some schools are not identified with any of these labels. In these cases, no label is given.

Fortunately, our school has not been given one of these labels.

A majority of students attending Venture Academy are credit deficient. This significantly impacts the success rate of grade level standardized assessments. Our goal has been to support the whole child as a means to improve academic success. Venture Academy has exceptional graduation rates for its at-risk population.

State law requires that we also report additional information that we have included below from the 2021-22 & 2022-23 school years:

PROCESS FOR ASSIGNING PUPILS TO THE SCHOOL

Students in Zeeland are assigned based upon their geographical home location. ZPS also offers school of choice openings, which are placed after the residents of Zeeland are assigned to their home school. Our Spanish Immersion & Balanced Calendar PBL programs are filled on a first come, first served basis and may change the building of choice for students. There are 7 elementary schools in Zeeland and those schools feed into two middle schools, Cityside and Creekside. New Groningen, Roosevelt, ZQuest, and Quincy elementaries feed into Creekside Middle School and eventually to Zeeland West High School. Adams, Lincoln, and Woodbridge elementaries feed into Cityside Middle School, and eventually to Zeeland East High School.

Students may be referred to Venture Academy by their Zeeland East or Zeeland West High School counselor due to credit deficiency or other factors impacting their academic success. Students may also choose Venture Academy to meet their unique academic situation as Venture Academy offers a much smaller setting with small group or individualized support.

THE STATUS OF THE 3-5 YEAR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN

Over the past three years, the district has been working through steps in the MICIP platform to identify three key goal areas: SEL (social-emotional learning), Mathematics, and English Language Arts. ZPS elementaries are in the process of implementing Second Step, a social-emotional core learning resource. At Venture Academy, our focus has been supporting the whole child through mental health support. A PreK-12 Math Coalition is working to examine math achievement and instructional practices across the wide. At Venture Academy, our focus has been math intervention targeted at course completion and credit recovery. The district is just beginning to examine ELA data, following an implementation cycle that began 7 years ago to determine strengths and needs. At Venture Academy, we have identified the following strengths and needs: increased focus on reading comprehension through teacher-led workshops.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH SPECIALIZED SCHOOL

Students in the elementary program at Zeeland Public Schools are given the opportunity to participate in a variety of experiences in addition to traditional education programs that include special education, Gifted and Talented for 4th/5th grade students, Spanish Immersion, and Zeeland Quest (a K-8, year-round balanced calendar, project-based learning school).

IDENTIFY HOW TO ACCESS A COPY OF THE CORE CURRICULUM, A DESCRIPTION OF ITS IMPLEMENTATION, AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE VARIANCES FROM THE STATE’S MODEL

The Core Curriculum for our school is based upon the State of Michigan Standards and National Common Core Standards. This information is available at our school office or on our district website. Zeeland Public Schools makes sure our students are provided challenging lessons that are consistent across grade levels. A team of Zeeland educators regularly evaluates and revises our curriculum to ensure that classroom lessons meet state requirements for kindergarten through twelfth grade.

THE AGGREGATE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT RESULTS FOR ANY LOCAL COMPETENCY TESTS OR NATIONALLY NORMED ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

IDENTIFY THE NUMBER AND PERCENT OF STUDENTS REPRESENTED BY PARENTS AT PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES

During the 2022-23 school year, Venture Academy had 80/80, comprising 100% of parents representing their student(s) at parent-teacher conferences.

FOR HIGH SCHOOLS, ONLY ALSO REPORT ON THE FOLLOWING:

THE NUMBER AND PERCENT OF POSTSECONDARY ENROLLMENTS (DUAL ENROLLMENT: 0 (0%)

THE NUMBER OF COLLEGE EQUIVALENT COURSES OFFERED (AP/IB): 17

THE NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN COLLEGE EQUIVALENT COURSES (AP/IB): 1 (1%)

THE NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS RECEIVING A SCORE LEADING TO COLLEGE CREDIT: 1 (100%)

CONCLUSION

ZPS is proud of the work happening in each building. The commitment of district staff to ensure that all Zeeland students are able to learn in an environment where they feel safe, valued, and loved is evident at all levels. At Venture Academy, we are particularly proud of our commitment to building strong relationships that consequently bolster student academic success. Our commitment to student graduation is evident through our 4-, 5- and 6-year graduation rates. With the partnership of family and community, we take pride in fostering lifelong learners.

Sincerely,

Roberta Parker