NILES — Niles Community Schools’ MEAP test scores continue to show improvement despite the district’s higher-than-state-average socioeconomic disadvantaged and special education population.

In 25 of the 28 Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests taken by Michigan third- through eighth-graders in 2007, Niles students bested the state average.

"We are absolutely beating the heck out of state scores," Curriculum Director Jim Craig said Monday during a board agenda planning meeting.

Craig said the district — which has 48 percent of its students qualifying for free and reduced lunch compared with the state’s 37 percent average — does not buy into the idea that students that come from poorer homes will do worse in school. The district also has about 19 percent of its students in special education compared with a state average of 13 percent.

"We believe that every child can learn," Craig said.

And Niles has made a point to target those who are struggling in the classroom with a slew of interventions. Craig said the district is "long past curriculum alignment." Once a district’s scores rise above about 80 percent, he explained, "what you find are individual kids who need targeted interventions."

Niles, Craig continued, employs one-on-one interventions "because we found that’s what’s effective."

Elementary school students take DIBELS tests, which assess literacy skills and tell teachers where they need extra help. Other reading and math programs provide similar support.

At the middle school level a self-paced program called PassKey helps students who are below grade level. The building also uses a practice known as "looping," where students stay with the same teachers for seventh and eighth grades. Reading was added as a fifth core subject.

Superintendent Doug Law said the biggest change he has seen in the past several years occurred in the attitude of the staff. When confronted with a challenge, he said, staff begin asking "what do we need to do differently?"

Niles also has started a math, reading and writing intensive summer school program that targets students who failed the MEAP.

Craig also announced that Oak Manor Sixth Grade Center won its appeal with the state and received an A on its state school report card for last year. The building had been classified as a K-6 building instead of just a sixth-grade building.