I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake.

I feel like a broken record, reporting over and over again about failing schools in Detroit. But this time, the article I found in the Detroit News found that nearly half of the 1,149 schools throughout the state of Michigan have failed to meet their Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals. While these results are in no way comforting, I suppose it is nice to see that both suburban and inner schools were on the failing list, so critics can no longer say that the only schools who struggle to meet NCLB standards are poor, urban schools.

The MEAP test was replaced last year by the Michigan Merit test, which is formatted much like the ACT and is now used to measure AYP across the state. The first group of juniors took the test in the spring of 2007, however, the new curriculum used to prepare students for the new, rigorous Michigan Merit exam did not begin until fall 2007. So those students took a much more difficult exam than the MEAP test without adequate preparation because the state did not have an approved test curriculum in place until fall. And now people are surprised that the scores are so low. I suppose it’s just another look at how well politics and education mix. /sarcasm

I was pleased to see that the paper had interviewed several parents who understand that more standardized tests/harder exams =/= a successful/unsuccessful school or a better education. Rather, those parents interviewed voiced the same concerns I have in this journal: an entire school cannot be deemed “failing” because a few groups of ill-prepared students, such as non-English speakers and special education students, did not perform to state standards for “normal” students. A brilliant quote came from one mother who feels that standardized tests are being misused by the state:

Lisa Murchison, a Warren Consolidated parent, said she doesn’t think standardized tests are the right way to measure academic performance.

“With all of the rules associated with AYP, how can you expect every fourth-grader or every 10th-grader to be at the same level?”

“There is too much government control in this, and the government is not letting schools succeed on their own,” she said.

At least some parents are starting to understand what educators have been saying all along.

My favorite part of article has to be the bit about the need to offer Algebra II in high school. My high school used the integrated method (I have since learned that it is not always the most effective program to teach math), but I don’t feel as if my education was lacking or that I was unprepared for college classes because I was not offered Algebra II. Sharif Shakrani, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University, makes it sound like Algebra II is the golden ticket that will allow students to be completely successful in college, and for schools to pass AYP.

Shakrani said schools, including those in Detroit, need to do a better job of ensuring students take Algebra II.

“Every school now must offer Algebra II,” he said. “But the proportion of students who take it — like at Cass Tech, King and Renaissance — is very high and they’re doing all right. But at other schools, the proportion taking it is very low, and those are the schools in trouble.”

If only those in education administration and policy-makers would talk with real-life teachers who are the ones in the classroom everyday, trying to prepare students for the tests as well as teach them the necessary skills to function in the world. If more teachers had a direct say in setting standards and reforms, I believe NCLB could actually work.

Feds Flunk More Michigan High Schools
Shawn D. Lewis, December 1, 2007
The Detroit News