By BOB OLIVER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Improvements at Edsel Ford High School pulled it from the bottom 1 percent of schools across the state, but it wasn’t the only Dearborn Public School to see gains over the last academic year.
The Michigan Department of Education released its “Top-to-Bottom” rankings Aug. 13, which ranks schools across the state based on a score derived from each school’s Michigan Merit Examination achievement scores, improvement and achievement gap as well as graduation rate and improvement.
The MDE labels schools as “reward,” schools that finished in the top 5 percent across the state, “focus,” schools that have the largest gap between the top 30 percent and bottom 30 percent in terms of academic achievements or “priority,” schools in the bottom 5 percent in state rankings.
The rankings were discussed at the DPS Board of Education meeting Aug. 25.
“Our high schools are probably where we showed the most growth,” DPS Director of Compensatory Education and School Improvement Kathleen McBroom said. “Three high schools saw jumps in the rankings while Henry Ford Early College stayed the same in the 99 percentile, which is the highest in the state.”
EFHS went from the bottom 1 percent to 29th, a gain of 28 percent, while Dearborn High and Fordson went up 39 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
The jump at EFHS pulled the school off of the state’s priority list, though it will remain on a four-year cohort list and continue to be closely monitored by the state.
Despite the big gains, Dearborn High remained a focus school for the second year in a row.
McBroom said the school still has a large gap in reading, writing and math between the highest and lowest achieving students.
“We have made large gains academically, but the gap is still there between students, so we have to keep working to shorten that gap,” McBroom said.
District-wide, 16 schools moved up in the state rankings and 15 moved down, which is similar to last year when 15 moved up and 17 moved down.
“We also had 10 schools move up or down in the rankings by 5 percentage points or less, 8 schools showing double-digit gains and 8 showing double-digit losses,” McBroom said.
Overall, the district had six focus schools, which were Dearborn High; Haigh, Nowlin, Salina and William Ford elementaries; and Salina Intermediate.
McBroom said the label isn’t fair for schools because schools like Nowlin and William Ford made gains in subjects like math and writing but still remained on the list.
“There are no goals that schools can aim for every year because it depends on how every other school across the state has performed,” McBroom said. “It’s a constantly moving target. This causes frustration for those schools trying to move out of ‘focus’ status.”
Trustee Joseph Guido agreed.
“I don’t see how schools can make a double-digit gain in one year and still be a focus school,” Guido said. “Some of our schools are doing great and don’t deserve the status they’re in.”
Howe, Lowrey and Woodworth elementary schools were focus schools last year but worked their way off of this year’s list.
“These schools have significantly reduced their achievement gaps in their buildings,” McBroom said. “Howe went from a focus to a reward school and Lowrey Elementary jumped 24 points.”
The district also had seven reward schools, which were Linbergh, Howard, Iris Becker, Maples and McCollough elementaries; Henry Ford Early College; and Howe Trainable Center.
(Bob Oliver can be reached at [email protected].)