Troy Schools Fail to Meet AYP; State Identifies New School Designations

Today the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) released its school report cards, which includes the list of schools meeting state standards through Adequate Yearly Progress.

In Troy, all but one school in the made AYP, though 12 Troy schools were designated as "focus" schools – the 10 percent of Michigan schools with the widest achievement gaps between the top and bottom 30 percent of students.

“The reason for that is because we have such high achieving kids," Troy School District spokesperson Kerry Birmingham said. "We anticipated being on a list like this because our top 30 percent score so high that the gap is going to be naturally higher for a district or school that is high performing.

"We have kids that score 100 percent, and then you’re comparing those kids to the lower 30 percent. Not that we don’t take that seriously or work to improve ... but I don’t know that the label ‘focus school’ is particularly helpful for us because it doesn’t change what we do.”

The only Troy school not to meet AYP this year was Troy's alternative high school, , because of the school's graduation rate.  

There is good news for Troy Schools, however: four Troy schools – , , and elementary schools – were all designated as "reward" schools, placing them in the top five percent of all Michigan schools in the annual top-to-bottom ranking.

“We applaud the hard work and achievement of the educators and students in our Reward Schools because they are zeroed in on improving learning,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan in a press release. “We need to instill that goal in so many more schools, in order to help all kids be career and college-ready and successful in life.”

The changes this year may not matter in the long run. Because of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) , the state in 2012-2013 will no longer be measuring districts based on AYP. Starting next year, school districts will receive accountability scorecards that use five different colors to recognize varying levels of achievement and accountability for each school and district.

Troy among districts failing AYP

Though every school in the district met AYP except for Niles, the Troy School District as a whole did not, failing to meet graduation rate standards, according to the MDE.

"Many of the students who counted as not graduating were with us for an extremely short amount of time," Birmingham said. "Unlike achievement targets where students must be in attendance for a full academic year before being used in AYP, graduation rates are figured using students who may have been with us for as little as a day."

Troy 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.

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.

In the past, districts only needed to meet AYP targets at one of three levels - elementary, middle and high school. Now, they are required to meet them at all three.

Jan Ellis, a spokeswoman for the MDE, said this year's designations put a focus on the achievement gaps between students and really tries to highlight the need for all students to achieve success.

"The goal is to have all students proficient, not just some," she said, adding that in the past there was the ability to mask poor student performance because the focus was on those students who were doing really well.

Another measure of performance on the report cards is the Education Yes! grade, which is based on student achievement, achievement growth and self-assessments from schools. 

New school designations

While AYP was designed to measure student achievement as required by the federal NCLB, the waiver, received last month, frees Michigan from following some of the NCLB rules.

As a result of the waiver, the MDE has identified three new school designations: reward schools, priority schools and focus schools. Not every school fits into one of these categories.

Reward Schools: The top five percent of all Michigan schools in the annual top-to-bottom ranking and the top five percent making the greatest academic progress over the past four years.

Priority Schools: Previously called persistently lowest achieving schools, these are now identified as those in the bottom five percent of the annual top-to-bottom ranking and any high school with a graduation rate of less than 60 percent for three consecutive years. There were 146 priority schools identified this year. These schools will be required to come up with a plan to improve.  None of them are in Troy.

Focus Schools: The 10 percent of schools with the widest achievement gaps, meaning the academic disparity between the top 30 percent of students and the bottom 30 percent. That list includes 358 schools – including every school in Troy – many who in the past would be considered high-achieving. The schools are now charged with bridging the gap.

Focus schools in Troy are: , , and middle schools; , , , , ,  and  elementary schools; and . 

“We are committed to closing the achievement gaps in all of our schools for all of our students,” Flanagan said in the release. “With this measure of transparency, schools will be identified and held accountable for the achievement of all of their students.”