SHS Education Report

February 7, 2023  

Dear Parents and Community Members: 

We are pleased to present you with the Annual Education Report (AER), which provides key information on the 2021-22 educational progress for the Saugatuck 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 Principal, Mark Neidlinger for any necessary assistance. 

The AER is available for you to review electronically by visiting the following web site https://bit.ly/3GDhVop, or you may review a copy in the main office of your child’s school. 

For the 2021-22 school year, schools were identified using definitions and labels as required in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). A Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) school is one that has at least one underperforming student subgroup. An Additional Targeted Support (ATS) school is one that has three or more underperforming student subgroups. A Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school is one whose performance is in the lowest 5% of all schools in the state or has a graduation rate at or below 67%. Some schools are not identified with any of these labels. In these cases, no label is given. 

Our school HAS NOT BEEN GIVEN ONE OF THESE LABELS. 

Saugatuck High School students continue to demonstrate academic proficiency and growth on state assessment at a much higher rate than the state and other Michigan schools with similar demographics. Our economically disadvantaged students at SHS scored nearly 26% above the state average for economically disadvantaged students over the past two years, they still slightly underperform their peers on state assessments. High expectations for student learning combined with strong support from our teachers and support staff including: differentiated instruction, team teaching, paraprofessional support, homework club, office hours, advisory periods, social-emotional supports,  formative assessments, and re-teaching strategies are all implemented to support our students and to close the achievement gap. Overall, our female students outperform male students by 8% on MME assessments. 

State law requires that we also report additional information. 

1. Process for assigning pupils to school: Students are assigned to our school based on the boundaries of our school district. In addition, we welcome students to come to Saugatuck High School through the School of Choice process. Students from neighboring school districts. Our juniors and seniors may elect to attend the Careerline Tech Center or they may wish to dual enroll at nearby colleges or attend the South Ottawa County Early College for part of their school day. Students may also wish to participate in the Work-based Learning Program that we offer for our upper-grade students
2. School Improvement Plan: Our 2021-2022 School Improvement Plan serves as a framework to guide our efforts to improve in all curricular areas. Our teachers frequently review and analyze data in order to adapt our curriculum to meet the needs of our students. SHS continues to have goals in math, reading, writing, science and teacher use of educational technology.
3. Core Curriculum: At Saugatuck High School, we are working to shift our curriculum to meet the requirements of the Common Core curriculum and Michigan Science Expectations adopted by the State of Michigan. Common Core standards can be reviewed by visiting the Michigan Department of Education website (http://gov/mde).
4. Parent/Teacher Conferences: We learned through the pandemic that our parents appreciate an option of in person conferences or remote conferences so we have moved to a model where there is choice in how to meet with your child’s teacher. During the 2021-2022 school year, an average of 60 of our parents were in attendance for Parent/Teacher conferences, or approximately 84% of our students’ parents.
5. Our students have the opportunity to earn college credit through concurrent enrollment with Lake Michigan College and Ferris State University, Dual Enrollment through Hope College, and through participation in the South Ottawa Early College. During the 2021-2022 school year 45 students earned 120 college credits. Recently, Saugatuck High School was one of only 433 schools across the United States and Canada to be named to the Advanced Placement Honor Roll. Students at Saugatuck High School have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement courses in Environmental Science, Psychology, Government, U.S. and World History, Technology, Language and Composition and Literature and Composition as well as a variety of AP courses that are offered online. In 2021-2022, 30% of our HS students took AP exams (91/299). 91 students took 128 AP exams with an average score of 3.4. 66 out of 91 students had a score of 3 or higher, the equivalent of 77%. We have 23 AP Scholars who took more than one AP course successfully. In the spring of 2022, we were proud to graduate 88 eager young adults, while this spring we anticipate all 58 of our students will graduate on May 25th. 

I am extremely proud of the work ethic, creativity, academic achievement, character and the attitude displayed by our students each and every day. I am also deeply appreciative of the many charismatic adults; parents, teachers, coaches, and support staff that make a difference for our students’ day in and day out. 

Sincerely, 

Mr. Mark Neidlinger
Principal
Saugatuck High School

MN:kjs