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Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

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audiophile
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Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by audiophile » Thu Mar 23, 2023 7:11 am

https://wfnt.com/ixp/87/p/michigan-hous ... 2-schools/

I think the A-F grading system makes it easier to see a student's progress, so I think it also helpful to have schools graded this way which the bill is eliminating.

So I guess an F will now be "needs work". :rolleyes

The list of poor-performing schools would also be nixed.

-edited for clarity-
Last edited by audiophile on Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Bull Shannon
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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by Bull Shannon » Thu Mar 23, 2023 7:44 am

audiophile wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 7:11 am
https://wfnt.com/ixp/87/p/michigan-hous ... 2-schools/

I think the A-F grading system makes it easier to see a student's progress.

So I guess an F will now be "needs work". :rolleyes

The list of poor-performing schools would also be nixed.
Did you read the article? They aren't eliminating the grading system for students, they're eliminating it for school performance.



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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by Mike » Thu Mar 23, 2023 7:51 am

That overly-simplistic blurb does a piss-poor job of reporting the issues at play (which may be why you picked it to source).

Here's a better one: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... 011842007/

The headline alone is equally bad, but the article within is far more detailed.

Lansing — The Michigan House voted Tuesday to ditch an A–F letter grade system for overall academic performance of K-12 public schools.

The bill, approved on a 63-45 vote in the Democratic-controlled House, would eliminate both the statewide system that assigns letter grades and rankings to public schools and the requirement that the Michigan Department of Education compiles a list of the state's lowest-performing schools determined through the grades and rankings.

The grading system — long opposed by state education officials — was approved in December 2018 by a Republican-lead Legislature in the early morning hours of a lame-duck session.

Rep. Matt Koleszar, the Plymouth Democrat and former teacher who sponsored the bill, compared the grading system to a confusing, incomplete piece of homework he'd expected from a student rushing to make deadline.

The grading policy, he said, is a "duplicative, confusing system that received bipartisan opposition" and passed the formerly Republican-led majority by the slimmest of margins.

"It does nothing to actually improve a school’s performance," Koleszar said. "It is way too focused on standardized testing data which has no bearing on what our schools are dealing with.”

Rep. Jaime Greene, R-Richmond, urged lawmakers to hold off on repeal and instead find a system that works for parents and children.

"It is time to stop ramming through legislation," Greene said on the House floor.

Koleszar's legislation, House Bill 4166, was introduced March 2 and voted out of the House Education Committee Tuesday morning after a brief hearing.

Under the existing law, MDE is required by Sept. 1 to release A-to-F grades for public schools based on their performance on certain indicators and rankings on metrics. The published grades and rankings are in addition to MDE’s school index score, which also measures school performance.

The bill also would end a rule that MDE implement accountability measures for schools in the bottom 5% based on the grades and that districts and charter school authorizers not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school.

Passage of the A-F system gave Michigan two separate accountability systems for its K-12 schools. It was already using a system under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act when state lawmakers imposed the new grading system.

Michigan has a school index system with an overall index ranging from 0-100 for each school based on student growth, proficiency, graduation rates, attendance rates, advanced coursework completion, postsecondary enrollment, staffing ratios and the educational progress of students from families where English is not the primary language spoken at home.

MDE officials have said the A-F system does not conform with federal law requirements and that Michigan schools are subject to two stand-alone accountability systems, with similar, but slightly different criteria for identification of low-performing schools.

The state board of education supports getting rid of the system, calling it unnecessary and duplicative of information found the department's Parent Dashboard for School Transparency.

The Michigan Department of Education has said the grading system "distills the performance of schools into overly simple letter grades" and "relies too heavily on assessment data to the exclusion of other important measures of student progress."

The state's School Index already requires by federal law that states identify low performing schools and provide supports to those identified schools, MDE spokesman Martin Ackley said.

"MDE will continue to identify and support low-performing schools through the School Index system as it has done since 2017," Ackley said Monday.

Many educators support the system's demise, while others call it a move away from transparency for the state's K-12 education system.

"The multiple letter grade system in Michigan is incoherent and irrelevant to school districts and schools. It is a product of an historic disconnect between governors, the Legislature, MDE, and school districts," Superintendent Nikolai Vitti with Detroit Public Community Schools, said in an email.

"K-12 public education needs a coherent, fair, and reliable Michigan accountability system...However, they do have a responsibility to replace it with something more coherent, relevant, fair, and reliable to ensure that student achievement improves in the state," Vitti said.

Beth DeShone, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, said the bills amounts to anti-transparency legislation brought forward by House Democrats to intentionally hide school performance reports from Michigan parents.

The school report cards are designed to help parents and taxpayers hold elected officials, local school boards, and the state’s public school bureaucracy accountable for what they do — and do not — deliver for children, DeShone said.

"Let's be very clear about this — House Bill 4166 is anti-transparency legislation. It's a push to sweep learning loss under the rug, and kids along with it," DeShone said in a statement. "Beyond school report cards, this legislation would kill numerous additional transparency requirements designed to inform parents and policymakers alike. It's a bill that will exacerbate inequalities, widen the learning gap, and disproportionately punish students in schools that struggle the most."

Leadership from the state's charter school association is taking a neutral stand on the bill.

"We support a single statewide academic accountability system, one that is aligned and considers federal, state, authorizer, school level accountability, stated in Michigan statute, that would incorporate consistent, minimum rules for charter public school performance," Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, said in an email.

The first year the system was to be rolled out, MDE did not meet the Sept. 1 legislative deadline to issue letter grades to public schools because the data needed for the 2018-19 school year was not available until after Sept. 1 that year.



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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by Round Six » Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:36 am

From the Detroit News article Mike quoted:

" .... The bill also would end a rule that MDE implement accountability measures for schools in the bottom 5% based on the grades and that districts and charter school authorizers not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school .... "

What's this "not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school" about? I'm befuddled about the what and why of this phrase. Does the new bill enact or eliminate boarding up a building because the school inside wasn't doing that well? Just sounds weird to me.


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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by audiophile » Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:51 am

Thank you for the link to the other article. This was the first one I stumbled upon.

...And yes, it is school's grade, but I expect it to happen for students next.


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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by km1125 » Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:58 am

Round Six wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:36 am
From the Detroit News article Mike quoted:

" .... The bill also would end a rule that MDE implement accountability measures for schools in the bottom 5% based on the grades and that districts and charter school authorizers not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school .... "

What's this "not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school" about? I'm befuddled about the what and why of this phrase. Does the new bill enact or eliminate boarding up a building because the school inside wasn't doing that well? Just sounds weird to me.
Yea, that was confusing at best. I read it as "the new law eliminates the rule that a school cannot be reopened in a location where a low-performing school was closed". I don't know if that's the correct interpretation, but I don't see a reason why a school BUILDING shouldn't be reused, provided it has the capabilities to function as one. Just because a school failed to perform in it doesn't mean it's the BUILDING's fault.



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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by TC Talks » Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:01 pm

audiophile wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:51 am
Thank you for the link to the other article. This was the first one I stumbled upon.

...And yes, it is school's grade, but I expect it to happen for students next.
If I were you, I'd teach your kids your kri$tian view of life and not worry about public education, complete with sex education and science.


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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by audiophile » Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:02 pm

km1125 wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:58 am
Round Six wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:36 am
From the Detroit News article Mike quoted:

" .... The bill also would end a rule that MDE implement accountability measures for schools in the bottom 5% based on the grades and that districts and charter school authorizers not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school .... "

What's this "not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school" about? I'm befuddled about the what and why of this phrase. Does the new bill enact or eliminate boarding up a building because the school inside wasn't doing that well? Just sounds weird to me.
Yea, that was confusing at best. I read it as "the new law eliminates the rule that a school cannot be reopened in a location where a low-performing school was closed". I don't know if that's the correct interpretation, but I don't see a reason why a school BUILDING shouldn't be reused, provided it has the capabilities to function as one. Just because a school failed to perform in it doesn't mean it's the BUILDING's fault.
Didn't they demolish certain school buildings where certain tragic events happened? I agree it's not the buildings fault, and felt that was a waste too.


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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by paul8539 » Mon Mar 27, 2023 10:31 am

We need to rate our politicians by school grades. How would you rate Mrs. Mallory?



km1125
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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by km1125 » Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:07 am

audiophile wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:02 pm
km1125 wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:58 am
Round Six wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:36 am
From the Detroit News article Mike quoted:

" .... The bill also would end a rule that MDE implement accountability measures for schools in the bottom 5% based on the grades and that districts and charter school authorizers not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school .... "

What's this "not reopen a school at the same location as a low-performing school" about? I'm befuddled about the what and why of this phrase. Does the new bill enact or eliminate boarding up a building because the school inside wasn't doing that well? Just sounds weird to me.
Yea, that was confusing at best. I read it as "the new law eliminates the rule that a school cannot be reopened in a location where a low-performing school was closed". I don't know if that's the correct interpretation, but I don't see a reason why a school BUILDING shouldn't be reused, provided it has the capabilities to function as one. Just because a school failed to perform in it doesn't mean it's the BUILDING's fault.
Didn't they demolish certain school buildings where certain tragic events happened? I agree it's not the buildings fault, and felt that was a waste too.
Yes, they certainly do that.

Honestly, I think that's more of a "money grab" to get someone else (state, feds, etc) to pay for a nice, new building rather than try and get the local community to cough up the funds to do so, as well as play into the hands of the sensationalistic "journalists". "Never let a good tragedy go to waste!"



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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by Mega Hertz » Mon Mar 27, 2023 9:30 pm

I only clicked in this because it said "Dumocrats". That's new and original and I'm always looking for freshness in my life.

Well, I'm off to Farmer Jack.


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Re: Dumbocrats Vote to Eliminate School Grades

Post by audiophile » Mon Mar 27, 2023 10:13 pm

LOL

I thought you shopped at A&P?


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