MME

LANSING--Eight out of 10 public schools in Michigan made Adequate Yearly Progress this past school year despite a big jump in the goals,
according to the Michigan Department of Education.

The state’s EducationYES! Report Cards were released publicly today for
Michigan elementary, middle, and high schools, along with the annual
report on each school’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as required by
the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law.

Hope you've listened to one or more of our Back to School podcasts.
I'm feeling that we've done a real service for our members with them. I just finished listening to the one we did with Sally Vaughn, Chief Academic Office/Association Supt. for MDE. Yes, I wish I was a better interviewer, but the "what's the one thing you want a principal to know" questions give great direction to you as a school administrator.

This article calls on the middle level to step up to help boost student achievement in high school, and to help curb dropouts. Let's start a discussion! Let us know you reaction by adding a comment to this post.--Diane Mc

FROM The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board
8/11/08

Test scores show need to get more help to students

By Wendy Zdeb, MASSP Board of Directors

If your school did not make AYP due to the participation rate in your school’s special education sub group, you may want to formulate an appeal based on information contained in the student’s IEP. There are a variety of reasons that may keep a student from being counted in the school’s participation rate such as:

Detroit's Numbers Are Bad; Pontiac's Are Worse
Only 6 percent of Pontiac Public Schools juniors met state testing standards in math this past March, according to Michigan Merit Examination (MME) test results released today by the Department of Education (MDE).
In fact, 83.1 percent of test takers in this Pontiac junior class fell into the lowest-scoring category possible.

To view MME scores and other resources, click here

Changes in MEAP and MME for 08-09: Find out what you need to know about the MME and MERIT Exam. Listen In

Change system for sake of students
BY MIKE FLANAGAN • June 29, 2008
Narrow thinkers wanting to water down the new high school graduation requirements have wrongly bleated that the new Michigan Merit Curriculum is "cookie cutter," because it expects that all kids will learn the same rigorous academic content.
Well, it is not the curriculum that is cookie cutter; it's the current educational system, which wants all kids to fit in that box we call a classroom, when some just won't. We don't need to change the new requirements. We need to change the system.

• Small-Schools Push Tied to Graduation Rates (New Spin on Governor's Proposal)
• Michigan's Tougher Graduation Standards Causing Headaches
• Gutting New Curriculum Would Doom Our Children