The state education plan was insufficient to receive review, according to a letter sent Friday (8-4-17) from the U.S. Department of Education.
The letter requested more information on how the state would identify and hold struggling schools accountable.
Bill Disessa is the spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Education. He said the state is moving from a ranking system that identified ‘priority’ struggling schools to, what he called, a transparency dashboard.
“We won’t have priority schools labeled moving forward under the new accountability system but we’ll obviously still be working with districts to get them the supports they need when they need those supports.”
Struggling schools were previously identified as being in the bottom five percent of the state rankings.
Disessa said instead of rankings the state will provide a number of, yet undetermined, metrics.
“It’s going to have several sort of measurements and gauges that students, educators, and parents could use to see how their school is doing, they can compare that performance to other schools of their choice or similar schools throughout the state.”
Disessa said federal officials were unclear how the transparency dashboard would be used to identify struggling schools and hold them accountable.
The requested additions to the state education plan are expected to be submitted to federal officials before the end of August.