Bay City Academy had a remarkable showing in this year’s top-to-bottom school rankings. The rankings are based on how well each charter school and traditional public in the state performs on standardized tests.
The charter school has two campuses in Bay City, and both of them showed incredible improvement when the Michigan Department of Education released the rankings last week.
The Bay City Academy Madison Arts Campus, which had been in the zero percentile, shot all the way up to the 39th percentile. The Bay City Academy Farragut Campus, meanwhile, ranked in the 83rd percentile – outperforming every other elementary school in Bay City.
School officials were understandably elated at the results.
“I am so proud of our BCA family,” said Darci Long, the second principal at Bay City Academy. “We have the most diligent, hard-working staff, who continue to do what is best for kids in all capacities. Most importantly, I am so proud of our students who have responded to the high expectations we have set before them. We know we are not done striving for excellence. There is more work to accomplish, but we are moving forward with great resolve to continue meeting the needs of all our students.”
Bay City Academy Elementary Principal Jill Plant echoed those feelings.
“Plain and simple, we put students first,” Plant said. “Our relationship with them comes before any test, assignment, or responsibility. We know the relationship is essential and that we must have a mutual respect and level of trust with each other in order for students to succeed.
“Students will not work for you unless they know you, the teacher, have their best interest in mind and you care about them. Once the relationship has been established, we look at what we want them to achieve based on standards, meet them where they are academically, and tailor our instruction based on the data. We use data from NWEA, M-STEP, supplemental materials, and our internal assessments to drive our instruction.”
Bay City Academy also operates North Central Academy, a charter school in Mancelona, and that school also showed remarkable improvement, jumping a whopping 64 points. North Central Academy went from the 13th percentile to the 77th percentile.
Bay City Academy is authorized by Lake Superior State University and managed by Mitten Management.
