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Lansing Schools "nearly perfect" in AYP

By Gretchen Millich

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-858699.mp3

Lansing, MI – Lansing school officials are celebrating what they call a "nearly perfect" score in meeting performance goals for the 2008-2009 school year. Thirty-one out of 33 Lansing schools made Adequate Yearly Progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law. That includes two of Lansing's three high schools - Everett and Sexton. All three have consistently failed for the last five years.

Superintendent T.C. Wallace says it's a tremendous accomplishment for Lansing. "We were convinced that the public didn't know the good things that were happening in the school district. So we've concentrated for the last two years on a tremendous public relations campaign to get the word out," he says. "This causes everybody to take note. Well, there are wonderful things taking place in the Lansing School district."

School Board President Hugh Clarke says it's a boost for staff, students and families, "because it hasn't happened in this district in awhile." Clarke says, "We've taken our lumps for it. People somehow thought that children can't be educated in the Lansing School District, but with a change in attitude and an administration that came in with a no-holds-barred plan, to have two of those three jump out and do it in less than two years, I think is significant."

Riddle Elementary School and Eastern High School did not meet performance goals. School officials say students at Eastern did improve their proficiency levels on the Michigan Merit Exam.

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