Poverty matters in school rankings: New system reveals struggles at successful schools

Poverty is a common thread among the area’s struggling schools, but Michigan’s new accountability system revealed weaknesses at buildings that passed the old system with flying colors.

Case in point: Quincy Middle School.
That rural Branch County school has never appeared on a state watch list for poor student achievement. Every year, it has hit the state’s “adequate yearly progress” benchmarks for the share of students who test proficient or better on state tests.


But for the 2011-12 school year, the first time schools were held accountable to a new system allowed by a federal waiver to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Quincy Middle School was among 12 local buildings on the state’s list of “focus schools.”

Focus schools are those with wide gaps between the test scores of their highest- and lowest-performing students, regardless of race or income.


http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20120812/NEWS01/308120017/Poverty-matters-school-rankings