New Groningen Annual Report

January 12, 2026

Dear Parents and Community Members:

We are pleased to present you with the Annual Education Report (AER), which provides key information on the 2025-26 educational progress for New Groningen Elementary. 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 Leslie Rindfliesch for assistance.

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

For the 2025-26 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 2024-25. 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 2021-22. 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%, failed to exit CSI status in 2024-25, or failed to exit ATS status in 2021-22. Some schools are not identified with any of these labels. In these cases, no status label is given.

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

As a school, we continue to work on making sure that all of our students are challenged in their learning and that they all are making academic gains throughout the year. We provide a comprehensive phonics program, Phonics First (grades K-3), a Word Study program called Structures for 4th &  5th graders, a rigorous, knowledge-based reading & writing program (Bookworms), along with a differentiated instruction block aimed at meeting individual student needs in K-5.  As a result of our District Improvement data, this year’s focus has been on utilizing student data to inform Tier 2 interventions for both reading and math.

State law requires that we also report additional information that we have included below from the 2023-24 & 2024-25 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:  Student Well Being, Mathematics, and English Language Arts.  At New Groningen Elementary, our focus has been ensuring school wide positive behavior expectations and consistency through strengthening our tier 1 practices, and this year launched Learning Labs around these practices.  A PreK-12 Math Coalition is working to examine math achievement and instructional practices across the district.  At New Groningen Elementary, our focus has been on math vertical alignment, Young 5’s through 5th grade, and taking actionable steps to improve proficiency of identified essential standards. The district is just beginning to examine ELA data, following an implementation cycle that began 8 years ago to determine strengths and needs.  At New Groningen Elementary, we continue to strengthen our 90-minute reading block, focusing on differentiated instruction and WIN (in both reading and math). In addition to academics, New Groningen continues to address social emotional learning through Second Step curriculum (tier 1) and a strong process for tier 2 and tier 3 supports.  

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 2024-25 school year, New Groningen Elementary had 98% of parents and other adults representing their student(s) at parent-teacher conferences. 

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 New Groningen Elementary, we are particularly proud that we work to ensure that every student receives the quality education that they deserve. We continue to strive toward excellence in our school and community. New Groningen Elementary School, in partnership with staff, family and community, will strive to promote learning as a lifelong goal by providing opportunities for all students to succeed. New Groningen staff will continue to give their best to each student who walks into the school each day during the school year. With the partnership of family and community, we take pride in fostering lifelong learners.

Sincerely,

Leslie Rindfleisch
Principal
New Groningen Elementary