Let's talk about Focus Schools

I recently had an exchange with Martin Ackley, the Director of Communications for the Michigan Department of Education about the state's new achievement classification system. In an official communication he suggested that some schools were not accepting the Focus Schools designation and were, as he put it, providing "inaccurate interpretations."

I emailed him to give him my perspective.  Here is what I wrote.

Hi Mr. Ackley,

I appreciate your email today clarifying the Focus Schools issue.

Here in Novi, where I started one year ago, we made closing the achievement gap a district goal in July 2011. We know that we have achievement gaps. We know that every student deserves a quality education and the same opportunities.

Here is what we have done to try and close the gap in the one year since I have been in Novi:

1. Established two district goals that focused on achievement for all student:
1. The Novi School District will ensure that all students make no less than one year’s growth in one year’s time.
2. The Novi School District will ensure that all students achieve at a high level – there will be no achievement gaps.
2. Created an administrative evaluation that rated principals and the Superintendent on progress on these goals.
3. Hired a Director of Student Growth to help our schools manage data more efficiently.
4. Began testing students twice a year with the NWEA so that we could track growth more accurately.
5. Created a pilot class at the middle school to focus on students who struggle in math to provide them with an intensive remedial experience.
6. Expanded that middle school pilot to students in grades 5-10 to raise achievement for the students who struggle.
7. Collaborated with our Parents of African American Students of Novi to run Saturday math tutoring.
8. 8Ran a summer school program for students in grades 5 and 6 focusing on improving math skills.
9. Hired a Coordinator of Title I and Title III Programs to create a systematic approach to students throughout the district.
10. Spent over 8500 teacher hours developing our online curriculum using Atlas Rubicon so that every teacher would have access to the curriculum and assessments. (This actually started the year before I arrived in Novi.)
11. Created a public curriculum webpage that will allow every parent access to instructional units, key questions, and vocabulary so that every parent can be confident that instruction is similar throughout the district.
12. Created a teacher observation tool that focuses on effective instruction that will be used throughout the district to ensure high quality instruction.
13. Collaborated with the Novi Public Library to encourage summer reading.

I agree with you that having any achievement gap is something that we should work to eliminate. I also agree that large achievement gaps should focus a school and a district’s effort on working to improve them. I hope that the steps we have made, and the steps that we will continue to make, confirms that commitment.

Having said that I think I should let you know that I think the Focus School designation erroneously identifies schools that need help. Perhaps what I should say is that I think the Focus School designation does not go far enough. There are other schools in our state that need someone to focus on them and they too should have the light of a designation shone on them.

Look at this graph:

2012 MME Results	Math	Reading	Science	Social Studies	Writing
High School One
Level 1: Advanced	117	156	143	139	76
Level 2: Proficient	201	220	144	192	294
Level 3: Partially Proficient	112	85	90	121	113
Level 4: Not Proficient	74	50	127	53	29
Met or Exceeded	318	376	287	331	370
	61.87%	73.58%	56.94%	65.54%	72.27%
Not Met	186	135	217	174	142
Number Included	504	511	504	505	512
Number Tested	514	514	514	514	514
High School Two
	Math	Reading	Science	Social Studies	Writing
Level 1: Advanced	11	57	26	55	12
Level 2: Proficient	87	162	75	110	173
Level 3: Partially Proficient	132	73	110	122	124
Level 4: Not Proficient	94	32	113	37	16
Met or Exceeded	98	219	101	165	185
	29.97%	66.97%	30.89%	50.46%	56.57%
Not Met	226	105	223	159	140
Number Included	324	324	324	324	325
Number Tested	327	327	327	327	327

Which high school needs the attention of the state? I would suggest that the high school where less than 30% of the students are proficient on the math portion of the MME and only 31% are proficient on the science potion of the MME needs more help than the high school where 61% of the students were proficient on the math MME and 57% of the students were proficient on the science MME. Yet that is not the case. High school one – the higher achieving high school – is the Focus School. The lower achieving high school escapes without a label at all.

My community sees numbers like this and loses faith in the accountability system of the state. I have to defend a system that says high school two receives no state designations while trying to justify why the high school in my district does receive what is perceived as a negative state designation.  

Two years ago the state of Michigan recognized Deerfield Elementary as a school that “beat the odds.” In the Top-to-Bottom ratings Deerfield is the 10^th school listed out of over 3000 schools. It is in the 99^th percentile rank. An exceptional school. Yet it is a Focus School. 81% of its lowest 30 percent are proficient on the math MEAP assessment.

Does it have achievement gaps? Yes. Are we working to close them? Absolutely.

But when those in my district, when those at Deerfield, examine the labels the state chooses to put on schools and sees that schools in our district are identified as needing state intervention when schools with much lower performance are not designated, the system becomes less valid in the minds of my parents and my teachers.

The state needs to do a better job of explaining that just because a school is on this list does not mean that its students are low performing. In fact, in our district our high performing schools are on the list.

Again, the list suggests that a high achieving school that is working on eliminating gaps by bringing everybody up somehow needs state intervention when a low performing school with no gaps does not. The public loses faith in the system when the system makes no sense o when the system is confusing.

My responsibility as a Superintendent is to explain to my community the progress out schools are making. We are developing a method to communicate to our community how each student is doing. We will answer two fundamental questions: 

• Is your child making a year’s growth in a year’s time?
• Is your child achieving at a high level?

I support measures that make sense. The “Focus School” label does not make sense because it suggests a school is low achieving. I then must spend my time explaining a system that does not accurately represent our school district.

I support MDE initiatives. This one, however, is hard to explain to my community.

If you made it to the end of this email I appreciate that. I apologize for being so long winded. I received your email today about how some Superintendents and some districts are responding to the Focus School designations. I just wanted to take time to explain how things look from my perspective.

Thanks.