Michigan Districts Must Allow Students to Move from Schools with Performance Gaps

with large gaps in student achievement, as gauged by the Michigan Department of Education, will apparently not be required to facilitate much student-shifting between schools.

Last week's release of school report cards, which includes the list of public schools meeting state standards through Adequate Yearly Progress, came with controversy in some local school districts. As part of a set of requirements for state-named "Focus Schools," districts have to allow a number of students to move out of any school in that category and into another designated school within the district beginning in the 2012-13 school year.

That requirement only applies to schools that are receiving federal tax money from a program named Title I, which is designed to help fund schools with high percentages of students from low-income families. Affected districts are asked to set aside 10 percent of their Title I income budget to facilitate transportation for students who wish to move.

Six schools in the district received the "Focus" categorization, , including its high school, both middle schools, and three elementaries: Scotch, Sheiko, and Roosevelt.

Of those, only Roosevelt, Abbott Middle School, and Orchard Lake Middle School receive Title I funds, the data shows.

The increase of schools not making AYP is due in part to the  now used on the MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) and MME (Michigan Merit Exam) tests. In addition, the state now factors graduation rates for all students into the calculations and also now includes the achievement of certain student populations who previously may have not been counted.

More data released last week further illustrates the possibility of a growing performance gap. has seen a 161 percent increase in students participating in the Advanced Placement program since 2001, with 76 percent of students testing a "3" or higher on the 804 AP exams taken in 2012, according to the data.

West Bloomfield Schools Assistant Superintendent Robert Martin said that although Roosevelt parents will soon expect to see a letter in the mail outlining their options, he does not expect a significant drop in enrollment, nor a dramatic change in the way that resources are allocated to students between varying levels of achievement.

Several programs currently exist within the district to improve the education of struggling students, while others, such as AVID, exist to push middle-achieving students towards the top. 

"The fact that there’s an achievement gap in West Bloomfield schools is not a surprise to us. That’s something we know is happening, something we know we need to deal with," Martin said. "We don't see 'focus' as synonymous with failure."

However, some districts with a larger number of schools in the "Focus" category will have to take drastic action. In Dearborn, for instance, the district has to set aside $1 million to cover transportation for students that transfer out of one of the district's Focus schools, Superintendent Brian Whiston told Dearborn Patch.

Five of the six Dearborn schools under "Focus" designation received Title I funds.

According to Vanessa Keesler, the head of Evaluation, Research and Accountability for the Michigan Department of Education, this school-of-choice policy has always been in place for schools that have not achieved AYP status.

But the Focus School designation–applied to 358 schools in 176 districts across the state–is one of three new categories identified by the MDE.

Reward Schools are the top five percent of all Michigan schools and the top five percent making the greatest academic progress; Priority Schools are the lowest achieving schools in the state; Focus Schools are the 10 percent of schools with the widest academic disparity between the top 30 percent of students and the bottom 30 percent.

While every individual school in West Bloomfield made AYP standards, the district on a whole did not, failing to meet standards in math and reading, according to the data.

It is among a surprising list of southeast Michigan school districts that have gone from a passing AYP designation a year ago to failing today. In total, 262 districts (48 percent) statewide did not make AYP, compared to 37 (6.7 percent) last year. At the school building level, 82 percent of schools made AYP across the state, compared to 79 percent last year.

Whiston , as they include some schools that are high-achieving, such as Bryant–the district's top-performing middle school.

"I'm frustrated that good school districts are potentially getting a black eye," he said at a press conference last week.

Beyond allowing some students to transfer schools, Focus Schools must utilize an MDE-provided District Toolkit, plus MDE-trained and paid-for District Improvement Facilitators. Both are aimed at closing the achievement gap.

Districts will have one year to self-diagnose and self-prescribe customized changes in their supports to the Focus Schools and their students, according to the MDE. There are escalating supports and consequences for Focus Schools that do not close their achievement gaps.

"Since No Child Left Behind, there’s been a punitive approach to school reform. It’s trying to get schools to improve through humiliation and embarrassment, the further you got down that list. … (AYP) is continuing in that vein," Martin said.

"But if in doing so we're making the achievement gap more transparent, and we can do something for kids that are struggling, then I’m 100 percent for it."