With the announcement last month that the United States Department of Education (USED) approved Michigan’s application to participate in a Growth Model pilot, many local school districts have wondered how they can be part of the pilot.

In response, the Michigan Department of Education last week issued a notice that every local school district will automatically be included in the pilot. Moreover, MDE says there is no need for local school districts to “apply” to be part of the pilot program.

The Growth Model calculations will be used to determine this year’s AYP results. Final AYP results for the 2007-2008 school year will add the “on track” students into the AYP calculation system to create final AYP determinations. This will result in a modest number of schools that originally had not made AYP ultimately making AYP in the final determination. No schools will be affected negatively by considering student progress toward proficiency.

 Three key features of Michigan’s Growth Model include:

• Using performance level change (first reported for fall 2007) to track students performance from year to year;
• Measuring whether students who are not yet proficient are “on track” to becoming proficient within three years; and
• Determining that if students are “on track” toward becoming proficient within three years, those students will count toward schools making AYP even if they are not yet proficient.

The MDE further clarified that identifying students who are “on track” toward proficiency within three years will apply only to grades 4-8 for the state’s English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests. Those are the only two subjects required by NCLB to be tested and used to determine AYP.Third graders will not be identified as being “on track” since that is the first time those students’ achievement is measured.