Michigan A-F Accountability and Student Growth: Making the Most of NWEA Data

For Michigan educators, debates around A-F accountability initiatives are a familiar topic. But, Detroit Public Schools Community District’s recent announcement shows some significant movement on the issue. The district signaled that, beginning in October 2019, every public school in the city will be labeled with a letter grade ranging from As for the very top-performing schools to Fs for those requiring serious improvement. Ultimately, the program is intended to incentivize educators to make necessary school improvements and empower parents with information to make choices regarding their children’s education.

School grades will be determined using a 100-point scale, and student growth is poised to be a primary factor. Of those scale scores, 56 percent will be based on student improvement on standardized test scores and increases in graduation rate; 24 percent will be based on student proficiency, raw graduation rates, and performance on college- and career-level classes; and the remaining 20 percent will be based on nonacademic factors like absenteeism and reenrollment rates.

This focus on growth is an important initiative, and its heavy emphasis on growth will put even more focus on finding and fully utilizing effective measures of growth, like the NWEA™ MAP® Growth™ assessment. Even more importantly, educators will have to be able to answer “what’s next?” with the data those assessments provide. To do so, more and more educators in Michigan (and across the country) are taking advantage of Edmentum Exact Path.

Edmentum has worked closely with NWEA to build an integration that allows NWEA MAP Growth assessment Rasch Unit (RIT) scores to be uploaded directly to Exact Path so that each student receives an individualized, scaffolded learning path just right for him or her. Students work through no more than four skills at a time, with dynamic progress checks built-in to spiral learning, ensure that students are prepared to move on, and automatically adjust the learning path as needed. Detailed reporting and easy-to-use dashboards enable educators to monitor whole-class and student progress to plan lessons, make real-time instructional decisions, group students, and communicate with caregivers.

Here are just a few of the reasons that Michigan educators are leveraging Edmentum Exact Path to meet student growth objectives:

• Comprehensive NWEA assessment integrations with MAP Growth K–2 in addition to MAP Growth for Math and Reading
• Carefully crafted content specific to each student’s needs—whether below, on, or above grade level
• High-quality, instructionally sound curriculum through 12th grade, aligned to Michigan M-STEP standards and created by in-house subject matter experts
• Alignment to M-STEP standards related to speaking and listening
• Coverage of Michigan Merit Curriculum college- and career-readiness goals with rigorous knowledge and skills in core disciplines, including math, reading, and language arts
• Built-in Mastery Trophies and teacher-defined Learning Challenges

Interested in learning more about how Edmentum Exact Path can meet your needs in support of the Detroit A-F accountability initiative and other student growth-related programs in Michigan? Multiple districts in the area, including Allen Park, Dearborn, and New Paradigm are already experiencing success. Email our Michigan team, and we will be in touch to tell you more about Michigan school district success stories!