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544 Michigan schools fail federal standards

BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI, LORI HIGGINS and CHASTITY PRATT
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS

August 25, 2006

Did your school make the grade?

For a complete report with statewide results, go to www.michigan.gov/mde .

How they're graded

Don't speak the language educators use to describe things like Adequate Yearly Progress? Here's a primer: • Adequate Yearly Progress tracks how well schools meet the state and federal requirements for continuous improvement. In Michigan, this improvement is measured by the state report cards. • Schools receive grades of A, B, C, D-alert or unaccredited. • Their overall grades are based on six factors, including: the latest MEAP scores; the change on the MEAP test from last year; amount of growth on the MEAP; "engagement" indicators such as parent involvement and attendance; teacher quality and development, and learning opportunities.

The 7 steps of discipline

Schools that don't make Adequate Yearly Progress for two or more consecutive years are placed on the sanctions list, as required by federal law. The sanctions get worse each year a school does not make AYP, ranging from having to provide transportation to another school to tutorial services to eventual school restructuring. They are: • Phase 0: Rating given to a school that did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress for the first time in a subject. Federal requirements don't start until it fails two straight years in the same subject. • Phase 1: A school that didn't meet the standards for two consecutive years must offer its children's families the choice of attending a better school and transportation to that new school. • Phase 2: This rating goes to a school with three consecutive years of failing, and requires continuting school improvement, including offering the ability to transfer to a better school, transportation to that school and supplemental services. • Phase 3: A school that has failed to meet standards for the fourth consecutive year must take corrective action and continue to offer the choice of another school, transportation, supplemental services and take further steps. • Phase 4: This applies to schools that have failed to meet standards for the fifth consecutive year and requires restructuring. The school must continue offering the choice of transferring to another school, transportation and supplemental services. It also must develop a plan to restructure the school. • Phase 5: Any school that fails to meet adequate yearly progress for six consecutive years must implement a restructuring plan and continue the choice, transportation and supplemental services. • Phase 6: A school that is listed as failing for seven consecutive years must undergo a comprehensive school audit by an external team. It also gets a mandatory assignment of a coach and faces other penalties. The school also must continue offering the school choice, transportation and supplemental services and continue to implement the restructuring plan.

Roughly 1 in every 7 schools in Michigan is struggling and fails to meet federal standards, according to report cards issued Thursday by the state Department of Education.

The number of Michigan schools that don't meet the goals prescribed by the No Child Left Behind Act grew from 436 last year to 544.

"This is a concern for us, as well as other districts across the state," said Tracy Van Peeren, executive director of curriculum for Lakeview Public Schools in St. Clair Shores.

Lakeview failed to make Annual Yearly Progress for the first time this year because not enough special education students took algebra and did not score high enough on the math portion of the MEAP.

Of the 544 Michigan schools that received failing grades, 103 were in Detroit, the state's largest school district with 225 schools.

Detroit Superintendent William F. Coleman III said the reason Detroit fared worse this year than last -- when 63 of its schools failed -- is largely because the state moved up the testing period for the MEAP test to October from February.

He said that change gave students and teachers less time to prepare for the test, which is among the things the government uses to assess schools.

"It wasn't just something that happened in Detroit," Coleman said.

Educators pointed to other reasons for the rising number of struggling schools, including rules that don't allow the scores of special education students on alternate tests to count in evaluating a school's progress and because alternative schools that serve dropouts were included for the first time this year.

No Child Left Behind has brought more oversight of U.S. public schools, but the law leaves it up to the states to decide which sanctions to levy on schools that repeatedly fail to improve.

The sanctions include requiring the district to allow students in failing schools to transfer to better performing schools and to provide transportation to them. It also requires restructuring and other oversight.

The report cards issued Thursday are being carefully scrutinized by educators across the state.

But there is some question about how heavily they weigh with parents.

Nancy Moore's daughter, Michelle, is a junior at Conner Creek Academy East in Roseville, which did not meet the state standards in math. But the Eastpointe mom said the report card doesn't matter to her, as long as her child is being well-served.

"I was more interested in a school that stressed the basics and maybe was a little bit smaller in size," Moore said.

Lottie Parker pulled her three children out of schools in the Pontiac school district this year because she, and her children, preferred the programs offered by the Pontiac Academy for Excellence.

That school, a public charter school, as well as six schools in the Pontiac district, were listed as needing improvement.

But for Parker, there's more to a school's quality than how it measures up to the federal standards.

"There are a lot more extracurriculars, after-school programs like dance and band and cheerleading and after-school tutoring," Parker said of the academy. "They just go above and beyond, more than I can say for the Pontiac school district."

Mary Fulton, a policy analyst with the Denver-based Education Commission of the States, said about 70% of the schools nationwide identified as failing and facing No Child Left Behind sanctions are in just seven states: Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia.

Fulton's organization is a nonprofit group that researches education issues for states.

High schools made up the bulk of Michigan's schools in need of improvement -- 400 of the low-performing schools were high schools, said Sharif Shakrani, codirector of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University. For many of those schools, low math and English language arts scores were a problem.

Michigan plans to implement tougher graduation requirements starting with the class of 2010.

The news isn't all bad for Michigan. While the number of schools identified as failing rose, the state also saw 92 come off the list this year.

"When we focus resources on these critical, high-priority schools, it has a positive impact on schools and can help students achieve at higher levels," said State Board of Education President Kathleen N. Straus. "We need to use these success strategies and replicate them with other struggling schools across the state."

Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-469-4681 or pwalsh@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.