ZEHS Annual Report
Alternative Text: Zeeland East High School Annual Report
February 2, 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 Zeeland East 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 Jessica Knoth 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.
Despite not receiving a label, the pandemic has created new needs for our school. For example, gaps in learning have increased for students due to absences and remote learning. Along with that, we have seen an increased number of students struggling with mental illness and overall struggles with peers. In response to this, we have increased counselors and interventionists at the 9-12 level and have provided free credit recovery options for students over the summer.
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.
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: Staff and Student Wellness, Mathematics, and English Language Arts. At Zeeland East, our focus has been implementing weekly Character Strong lessons that focus on the social and emotional growth of our students. Lessons focus on helping students with managing stress, increasing their mental health capacity, homework management, coping skills, and leadership values. A PreK-12 Math Coalition is working to examine math achievement and instructional practices across the wide. At Zeeland East, our focus has been on implementing our Math Essentials aimed at supporting students’ transitioning from middle school to high school mathematics. This course will reinforce essential standards from 6th through 8th-grade CCSS in a smaller class setting. The district is just beginning to examine ELA data, following an implementation cycle that began 8 years ago to determine strengths and needs. At Zeeland East, we have continued to have high pass rates in ELA courses but seek to highlight the most important skills we know students need for college and careers. Along with this, our school improvement team has started to analyze district ELA data to determine future goals and opportunities.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH SPECIALIZED SCHOOL
Students in the elementary program at Zeeland Public Schools is 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 with 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, Zeeland East High School had 210 parents or approximately 22% 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: 6 or .5%
THE NUMBER OF COLLEGE EQUIVALENT COURSES OFFERED (AP/IB): 18
THE NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN COLLEGE EQUIVALENT COURSES (AP/IB): 270 or 27%
THE NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS RECEIVING A SCORE LEADING TO COLLEGE CREDIT: 77%
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 Zeeland East, we are particularly proud of the student-centered staff and culture established at our building. Our primary focus as a school is to ensure all students are safe, valued, loved, and learning. With the partnership of family and community, we take pride in fostering lifelong learners.
Sincerely,
Jessica Knoth
Principal
Zeeland East High School