As I sit at my AAPS BOE meeting, I am trying to find the humor in the state’s color coding system intended to provide a ‘simple color code’ so families can make good choices on behalf of their students. Laughable: 2 of the 4 ‘green’ (highest-ranking) schools in Michigan are closed. Destructive: there is an inverse relationship between proficiency results and the color-coding. Please see the table below for an example, thanks to the analysis of Trustee Andy Thomas:
Ashley high school was rated Green, but has no proficiency scores in math available. This is one of our state’s 4 highest ranking schools in the color-coded system. Mayville is ranked near the bottom in the top-to-bottom ranking and <36% of their students are proficient in math; however, they are ranked ‘lime’ – which is supposed to be a family’s sign that this is a good school. In contrast, Pioneer High School is 93% (near the top); 80.9% of its students are proficient in math; but it is ranked ‘red’ – which is supposed to be a family’s sign that this is a bad school.
In comparing Pioneer with other ‘lime’-rated schools, this trend is maintained.
It is hard to imagine that this accountability system is sending the right message to our state’s families. Rather, this seems to be part of a more concerted effort to destroy our traditional public schools – especially those that are diverse, large schools.
Our BOE has already sent this report to the State Superintendent. We will also be sending this to our esteemed chairs of the House and Senate Education Committees, as they consider changing this system to a letter-graded approach. If they use the same methodology, but substitute grades A – F for Green – Red, respectively, we have not changed the message to our families.
It is sad that our legislators continue to get away with this kind of poor policy-making. I do hope we can elect new legislative leaders on November 4th that are truly interested in helping families across our state make good decisions for their children.
