Do you know what makes a school great? The Michigan Department of Education believes
they know. In August, the state of
Michigan released its latest "school accountability" report. This
year's version is called the "scorecard." Calling it a
"scorecard" suggests that the state has the ability to identify
school winners and losers. After all, isn’t that why we keep score, to see who
wins? In each of the past two years the
winners and losers were identified by a color:
· Green (Best)
· Lime Green
· Yellow (Average)
· Orange
· Red (Worst)
Additionally, schools were given a label: “Reward”, “Focus”
and “Priority” and ranked from top to bottom against all schools in the state. The
reward label is given to the highest ranked schools and/or schools that have
demonstrated substantial growth. The focus label is assigned to schools needing
improvement and the priority label is designated for the schools considered to
be among the worst in the state. The top to bottom list ranks all schools,
regardless of the grade level served. In
other words, elementary schools are ranked against to high schools. High
schools are ranked against middle schools, etc.
The scorecard and rankings are based on
several factors including: Student
participation in state assessments, student proficiency on state assessments,
graduation or attendance and district reporting on school improvement plans
(SIP) and teacher effectiveness. At the
high school level the key indicators include:
Proficiency on the MME, ACT scores, graduation rates. Improvement or Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
in student proficiency is also taken into account.
My guess is that you know exactly which
color is better than the other. Here are
scores from two high schools in Michigan.
One is “Green” a “Reward” school and ranked among the top 20 percent of all
schools in the state. The other is “Yellow”
a “Focus” school and ranked in the bottom 36 percent of all schools in the
state.
School A
|
2014
|
MME
|
20.4%
|
ACT Mean
|
20.7
|
College Ready
|
23.3%
|
Graduation Rate
|
92.4%
|
Drop Out Rate
|
3.1%
|
School B
|
2014
|
MME
|
13.2%
|
ACT Mean
|
19.7
|
College Ready
|
15.1%
|
Graduation Rate
|
80.9
|
Drop Out Rate
|
10.6
|
Can you guess which is which? Which school has a higher rating
than the other? That's right! Despite
having lower test scores, School B is the better school according the State of
Michigan. To make the point clear, the school that demonstrated higher
proficiency on the state assessments is rated less effective than the school
that demonstrated lower proficiency. The
colors evidently have very little to do with actual performance.
Lets look at another example. As mentioned, the state values improvement from
year to year and rewards schools that show improvement (AYP) within the key
indicators from one year to the next. Both
of these schools are “Yellow”. Knowing
that, how would you rank these two schools?
School
A
|
2013
|
2014
|
MME
|
21.4
|
20.4%
|
ACT Mean
|
20.5
|
20.7
|
College Ready
|
22.0%
|
23.3%
|
Graduation Rate
|
88.4%
|
92.4%
|
Drop Out Rate
|
7.4%
|
3.1%
|
School
B
|
2013
|
2014
|
MME
|
18.7%
|
11.2%
|
ACT Mean
|
20.1%
|
19.5
|
College Ready
|
17.4%
|
12.9%
|
Graduation Rate
|
86.7%
|
89.6%
|
Drop Out Rate
|
8.4%
|
7.5%
|
So which School is deemed “better” by the state? If you chose School B, you are right
again! Despite having lower overall scores
AND having their MME and ACT indicators decrease, School B is a “Reward” school
and ranked in the top 17 percent of all schools in the State. School A demonstrated overall improvement in
their ACT/MME indicators and had higher overall scores, yet it is a “Focus” school
and ranked in the bottom 36 percent of all schools in the state. Makes sense right? I don’t think so either.
I have been told that the new "color coded" system
is not designed to compare schools. The state would say that it is based on goals
met and goals not met. But each school
is different. Each school has different
goals based on subgroups. If you have
few subgroups you have few scores. There
is a nuance to the system that clearly gets lost in translation and is not
communicated to the public.
To have a system that so fundamentally miscommunicates to
the public, to parents, to school staff suggests that it is broken. This is unfortunate because the reality is that
the system is used to compare schools. Every year newspapers across the state
announce the scorecard release with front-page coverage and it was the lead
story on many television and radio broadcasts in the days immediately following
the release. Schools and districts are named
along with their colors and their rankings. The reality is parents and
community members do look at the color and ranking of their schools and the do
compare it to the color and ranking of other schools. Many assume, incorrectly, that schools with yellows
are worse than schools with green and that schools within yellow are all the
same.
For the record, Grand Ledge High School is School A in both
examples. As the High School Principal,
I am often asked how I interpret the results.
Is Grand Ledge High School truly “Yellow”? My answer is simple; our colors are Blue and
Gold. Let me explain. I don't care what
the state "scorecard" reveals because it does not tell the whole
story. I know the whole story.
I know that Grand Ledge High School is a good High School. In many areas we are great. The fact is our students learn. Our faculty and staff care. We offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses, dozens of after school clubs and activities, highly qualified and certified staff, new technology, successful athletic programing, community partnerships, support systems to combat drop outs and help struggling learners, alternative education programming, job shadowing, and employment internships.
I know that each year we have National Merit Semi-Finalists and Finalists and we have had a National Merit scholarship winner in two of the past four years. We have Advanced Placement (AP) Scholars and this past year we were one of only 477 schools in the United States and Canada (one of 31 in our state) to be named to the Advanced Placement Honor Roll. This is the second time in the past four years we have received this honor.
I know that our students and staff produce nationally recognized musicals. Our bands and choirs earn the highest marks at solo and ensemble festivals.
I know that our athletic teams are competitive and, at times, the best in the state. We have coaches who challenge students to improve but more importantly we have coaches who care about each student.
I know that we do well on the objective measures of success and other key indicators that the state seems to care a great deal about. Results from the ACT/MME and Advanced Placement (AP) testing rank us above the state average and in some instances among the highest performing districts in the state. We have one of the highest graduation rates in the state. Our student attendance rate is exceptionally high.
I know that Grand Ledge High School is a good High School. In many areas we are great. The fact is our students learn. Our faculty and staff care. We offer Advanced Placement (AP) courses, dozens of after school clubs and activities, highly qualified and certified staff, new technology, successful athletic programing, community partnerships, support systems to combat drop outs and help struggling learners, alternative education programming, job shadowing, and employment internships.
I know that each year we have National Merit Semi-Finalists and Finalists and we have had a National Merit scholarship winner in two of the past four years. We have Advanced Placement (AP) Scholars and this past year we were one of only 477 schools in the United States and Canada (one of 31 in our state) to be named to the Advanced Placement Honor Roll. This is the second time in the past four years we have received this honor.
I know that our students and staff produce nationally recognized musicals. Our bands and choirs earn the highest marks at solo and ensemble festivals.
I know that our athletic teams are competitive and, at times, the best in the state. We have coaches who challenge students to improve but more importantly we have coaches who care about each student.
I know that we do well on the objective measures of success and other key indicators that the state seems to care a great deal about. Results from the ACT/MME and Advanced Placement (AP) testing rank us above the state average and in some instances among the highest performing districts in the state. We have one of the highest graduation rates in the state. Our student attendance rate is exceptionally high.
I know that Grand Ledge students graduate with the skills
the need to be successful in life. Our
students are accepted into the top colleges and universities in the State and
Nation. The Class of 2013 received over
$2,000,000 in academic and athletic scholarships offers.
I know that we have wonderful diversity in our building. Our school serves the Communities of Grand Ledge, Delta Mills, Delta Center, Eagle, Mulliken, and Wacousta. As a result we have over 1700 students from a wide range of backgrounds. Every year we have dozens of foreign exchange students attend our school and our exchange program with our “sister school” in Lohne, Germany is entering its 33rd year. This diversity provides an opportunity for our students to experience the world that they will live and work in and gain experiences that will give them confidence as they go off to college and enter the world of work.
I know that we have wonderful diversity in our building. Our school serves the Communities of Grand Ledge, Delta Mills, Delta Center, Eagle, Mulliken, and Wacousta. As a result we have over 1700 students from a wide range of backgrounds. Every year we have dozens of foreign exchange students attend our school and our exchange program with our “sister school” in Lohne, Germany is entering its 33rd year. This diversity provides an opportunity for our students to experience the world that they will live and work in and gain experiences that will give them confidence as they go off to college and enter the world of work.
I know that Comet PRIDE is more that a slogan to our
students and staff. We strive to be
Positive be Responsible, have Integrity, be Determined and be Engaged in
everything we do. As a result, our
school is a clean, safe and welcoming place.
I also know we can do better. We do have achievement gaps between the bottom 30 percent of our students and our population as a whole. Some of these gaps are quite large. We have put in place a variety of supports to address these gaps. We have created year-long courses for students who struggle in Math and English. We have created conceptual courses for students who struggle in Chemistry and Physics. We have made adjustments to curriculum and classroom instruction that is based on our data and research on best practices. We have Intervention rooms and intervention coaches in Math, English, Science and Social Studies. We have reading support classes and ACT skills classes. We have created a “Check and Connect” program at the high school to connect students in smaller groups with a teacher who cares and who can help focus them academically. We have teachers who run help rooms before school, after school and during their lunches. We have teachers who come in early and stay late to tutor. We have teachers who call parents and encourage students every day.
We are creating a rich, internal accountability system that will allow us to us to focus attention not only on the state measurements but also our own internal assessments to give parents a clearer and more accurate picture of their child’s achievement.
I also know we can do better. We do have achievement gaps between the bottom 30 percent of our students and our population as a whole. Some of these gaps are quite large. We have put in place a variety of supports to address these gaps. We have created year-long courses for students who struggle in Math and English. We have created conceptual courses for students who struggle in Chemistry and Physics. We have made adjustments to curriculum and classroom instruction that is based on our data and research on best practices. We have Intervention rooms and intervention coaches in Math, English, Science and Social Studies. We have reading support classes and ACT skills classes. We have created a “Check and Connect” program at the high school to connect students in smaller groups with a teacher who cares and who can help focus them academically. We have teachers who run help rooms before school, after school and during their lunches. We have teachers who come in early and stay late to tutor. We have teachers who call parents and encourage students every day.
We are creating a rich, internal accountability system that will allow us to us to focus attention not only on the state measurements but also our own internal assessments to give parents a clearer and more accurate picture of their child’s achievement.
So do I care about the state "scorecard?" Not really,
because I know our school. I know the whole story. I know the students, teachers and the staff. I know that we are making progress and that a
state "scorecard" cannot truly capture the good things that happen in
Grand Ledge High School every day.
Grand Ledge High School is a wonderful, rich, vibrant, and
exciting place to learn. It has been the
focal point and a source of community pride since 1886. Many adults living in our community graduated
from Grand Ledge High School (myself included).
In fact, it is not uncommon to have several generations from a family
graduate from GLHS.
Our goals will continue to challenge us to help each student
make a year's growth in a year's time and perform at a high level. We accept
that challenge and together we are working hard to ensure that each student is
challenged to reach his or her potential.
Proud to be a Comet!
