05/10/2006

State, feds reach testing deal

Schools likely to avoid failing grades

LANSING (AP) — In a late reprieve, hundreds of Michigan schools likely will avoid failing academic progress standards under the federal government's No Child Left Behind law.

Federal officials this week struck a deal with the Michigan Department of Education related to part of the state's concerns about standardized testing and alternative assessments.

The agreement will allow Michigan to count alternate assessments often given to disabled or special education students toward minimum participation rates. In exchange, the Michigan Department of Education will forfeit an undetermined amount of federal funding it uses for administrative purposes.

Schools are supposed to have 95 percent of students take standardized tests as part of No Child Left Behind, a federal program aimed at improving math and reading skills. Like most states, Michigan allows some students to take alternate assessments for their regular tests.

The U.S. Department of Education had ruled that two of the three alternate assessments Michigan gave students last fall were invalid because those assessments did not assess math and reading. Students who took those assessments instead of the more common Michigan Educational Assessment Program exams were not going to be counted as even taking them.

But that decision was reversed this week, the state Department of Education said.

"This will help hundreds of schools," said Martin Ackley, a Michigan Department of Education spokesman.

Students at hundreds of Michigan elementary and middle schools were given the alternate assessments, called MI-Access, last fall.

Schools are awaiting their annual school report cards to see if they meet adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind standards.

The reversal came after lobbying by some Michigan congressional offices and by state K-12 schools chief Mike Flanagan, including a visit with U.S. education officials in Washington.

In a memo to school districts, the state education department said Flanagan determined it was more appropriate for the department to "take the hit on this" rather than have local schools and programs "inappropriately labeled" as having not met academic progress standards.

The Michigan Department of Education added it is working on new alternative assessments that will meet federal scrutiny for next school year.

"It worked out all right (this year)," said Ray Telman, executive director of the Middle Cities Education Association, which represents several urban school districts in the state. "Hopefully we won't have this palpitation as we move forward next fall."

But not all differences between the state and federal education officials have been settled. Federal officials have not signed off on Michigan's requests to change how the size of subgroups are calculated, which also could result in hundreds of schools not making adequate yearly progress this year.

Schools must report MEAP scores by categories — such as race, English proficiency and special education. Failure in any category means the whole school fails.

If the number of students tested in any category falls below a minimum set by the state, the schools do not have to break out separate scores for that group. In Michigan, that number is 30.

The state asked the federal government for permission to raise that number depending on the size of the school, so larger schools are not penalized. But that request has been denied.