MI State Releases School Report Cards (PDF) - The Michigan Department of Education today issued its EducationYES! Report Cards to Michigan elementary, middle, and high schools along with the annual report on each school’s Adequate Yearly Progress as required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. Also see: Schools Making AYP in 2005; Schools Not Making AYP in 2005; Districts Making AYP in 2005; and Districts Not Making AYP in 2005.

MI Understanding Michigan’s District Report Cards (2004) - This is the first time school districts as a whole have received report cards. Similar to individual schools, the district report card is based on: Minimum size of 30 students in each subgroup for the district, in the grades tested, using the same rules as applied to individual schools and Overall student achievement in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) over the entire district.

MI Ed Board Adopts Progress Standards For Districts - Despite complaints from larger districts that they would be at a disadvantage from the policy, the State Board of Education adopted a policy Tuesday that requires all districts to adopt adequate yearly progress standards for at least two of their school levels to be considered having met AYP overall.

MI Memorandum: School District Report Cards (PDF) - On the agenda for the Michigan State Board of Education meeting, Tuesday, October 12 (to be held at 9:30 AM in Grand Rapids at the Grand Rapids Public Schools Admin Building, 1331 Franklin, SE.): Memo from State Superintendent Tom Watkins: At the September 14 meeting of the State Board of education, a proposal was presented for discussion pertaining to the manner in which school district report cards would be calculated. The proposal was faxed to all local and intermediate school district superintendents, as well as authorizers and directors of public school academies. Presentations on the proposal were also made at the fall meetings of several professional associations. Based on the reactions and suggestions received to date, the proposal has been revised to reflect what follows in this memorandum.

MI Memorandum: School Performance Indicators Under Ed Yes! (PDF) - On the agenda for the Michigan State Board of Education meeting, Tuesday, October 12 (to be held at 9:30 AM in Grand Rapids at the Grand Rapids Public Schools Admin Building, 1331 Franklin, SE.): Memo from State Superintendent Tom Watkins on proposed changes to the weight given performance indicators in calculating a school's "grade" under the Michigan school accountability plan "Ed Yes!" The changes would make it more difficult for a school that receives a "D" or "F" in academic achievement to raise that grade by rating themselves highly on the performance indicators.

MI Schools Making AYP For One Year - Preliminary calculations indicate that a number of schools that were implementing some phase of NCLB consequences, because of not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) in the past, have just made AYP on the 2004 EducationYES! report cards.
 

MI Schools That Did Not Make AYP - Schools that are in Phase 3 (Corrective Action) and Phase 4 (Development of Restructuring Plan) are reminded that NCLB - Section 1116(b)(8)(C) - requires that a school district: * Provide prompt notice to parents and teachers of the need for corrective action or restructuring planning, and * Provide parents and teachers an "adequate opportunity" to: 1. Comment before taking any action, and 2. Participate in developing any plan. This is a reminder to schools that did not make adequate yearly progress (AYP) on the 2004 preliminary school EducationYES! report cards that were just issued.

TX Secondary Experience: More Schools Providing Job Training - Even though Kevin Hitchel had never worked in a construction zone, he wanted to be a civil engineer the day he walked into his high school's construction class. "I didn't know what I would be doing, but I knew it would help me," said Hitchel, who graduated last month from Clear Lake High School. By then, the 18-year-old knew how to draw a blueprint, fix a baseball-size hole in a wall, outfit a room with electrical wires and recite the names and functions of more than 100 hand tools and household fixtures. As business owners request more experience from their entry-level employees, the nation's high schools are beginning to train -- not just educate -- students such as Hitchel.

MI Michigan Senate to Look at Self-Grading Schools - A Michigan Senate panel will look into the Department of Education's decision to base one-third of its school report card grade on a school's own self-evaluation after a Detroit News report revealed that several Detroit-area schools gave themselves As to prevent themselves from failing.

MI The Many Ways to Flunk AYP under NCLB: Different Approaches, Different Results - Michigan Department of Education officials said today it shouldn't come as a surprise that some of the state's best schools were labeled as not making "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) under the new federal guidelines, noting that a school has some 50 ways it can trip up.