Understanding Common Concerns about the Focus

School MetricAugust 2012

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What are they? How are they determined? How do Focus Schools compare to

Non-Focus schools? What happens once a school is

named? How does a school exit Focus School

status?

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Schools with the largest achievement gaps.

Achievement gap is defined as the difference between the average scale score for the top 30% of students and the bottom 30% of students.

This methodology is an improvement over using a solely demographic-based gap methodology because it targets achievement gaps.

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Focus schools are merely one of many methods in the system to identify schools in need of interventions and support.

Identifying Focus Schools is a critical component to Michigan achieving key goals:• -to close the achievement gap within schools • -to reduce the achievement gap statewide

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The bottom 30% subgroup is comprised of the traditional ESEA subgroups.

All “traditional” subgroups are represented.

Most commonly occurring subgroups in the Bottom 30%:• students with disabilities• limited English proficient students• black/African American students• economically disadvantaged students

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0.2

.4.6

Economically Disadvantaged Students with Disabilities

Limited English Proficient WhiteBlack Asian/Pacific IslanderHispanic Multiracial

Focus schools have even higher concentrations of the subgroups (mentioned previously) in their bottom 30% subgroup than non-Focus schools.

This indicates that the Focus methodology is • still detecting differences in achievement in traditional

subgroups • identifying schools where there are not only large

achievement gaps in general, but where there are also large gaps between demographic subgroups

• identifies schools that otherwise may not be identified using traditional subgroup methodology

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0.2

.4.6

.8

Non-Focus School Focus School

Economic Disadvantage Students with DisabilitiesLimited English Proficient WhiteBlack/African American Asian

Hispanic Multiracial

Graphs by focusv1

Analyses conducted to determine if the bottom 30% subgroup consisted solely of any demographic subgroup

To address the question:• Does the bottom 30% “solely” consist of

any one subgroup?

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01

23

0 .5 1 0 .5 1

Non-Focus School Focus School

Den

sity

Percent Economically Disadvantaged Students in the Bottom 30%Graphs by focusv1

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05

10

15

0 .5 1 0 .5 1

Non-Focus School Focus School

Den

sity

Percent Black Students in Bottom 30% SubgroupGraphs by focusv1

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05

10

15

20

0 .5 1 0 .5 1

Non-Focus School Focus School

Den

sity

Percent Black Students in School OverallGraphs by focusv1

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0.0

5.1

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.2.2

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Non-Focus School Focus School

Avg % SWD in Top 30% Avg % SWD in Middle 40%

Avg % SWD in Bottom 30% Avg % SWD School

Graphs by focusv113

0.0

5.1

.15

.2.2

5

Non-Priority School Priority School

Avg%SWD Top 30% Avg%SWDMiddle40%

Avg%SWDBottom30% Avg%SWDSchool

Graphs by priority

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Focus schools have even higher concentrations of the subgroups (mentioned previously) in their bottom 30% subgroup than non-Focus schools.

This indicates that the Focus methodology is • - still detecting differences in achievement in

traditional subgroups • - identifying schools where there are not only

large achievement gaps in general, but where there are also large gaps between demographic subgroups

• -identifies schools that otherwise may not be identified using traditional subgroup methodology

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0.2

.4.6

.8

Non-Focus School Focus School

Economic Disadvantage Students with DisabilitiesLimited English Proficient WhiteBlack/African American Asian

Hispanic Multiracial

Graphs by focusv1

Are Focus schools only high-achieving schools?

Are Focus schools only high socioeconomic status schools?

Is the bottom 30% subgroup in Focus schools actually high performing?

Are schools more likely to be Focus schools if they have [fill in the blank group] kids?

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02

04

06

08

01

00P

erc

ent E

con

omic

ally

Dis

adva

nta

ged

0 20 40 60 80 100Overall Percentile Rank

Focus Schools Non-Focus Schools

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01

000

50

100

0 50 100 0 50 100

Urban Suburb

Town Rural

Focus School Non-Focus School

Pe

rcen

t ED

Stu

dent

s

School Percentile Rank

Graphs by locale4cat

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05

01

00

0 50 100 0 50 100

Elementary/Middle School High School

Focus Non-Focus

Pe

rcen

t ED

Stu

dent

s

Overall Percentile Rank

Graphs by gradespan

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02

04

06

08

01

00P

erc

ent M

inor

ity S

tude

nts

in B

uild

ing

0 20 40 60 80 100Overall Percentile Rank

Focus Schools Non-Focus Schools

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Is the bottom 30% subgroup in Focus schools actually high-performing?

Is the bottom 30% subgroup in Focus schools higher than the top 30% subgroup in non-Focus schools?

Is the top 30% subgroup in focus schools higher-performing than non-focus schools?

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Across all subject areas and E/MS and high school, the bottom 30% subgroup consistently had average achievement z-score below zero, and most of them are between -0.5 and -1.5.

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0.5

11

.5

-2 -1 0 1 -2 -1 0 1

Non-Focus Focus

Den

sity

Bottom 30% Reading E/MSGraphs by Focus

0.5

11

.5

0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3

Non-Focus Focus

Den

sity

Top 30% Subgroup Reading E/MSGraphs by FocusBottom 30% Top 30%

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Have not detected any significant patterns yet

Continuing to analyze the data Because metric compares top 30

percent of kids to bottom 30 percent of kids in the school, it’s unlikely the gap is being driven exclusively by one group or type of kids.

Hypothesis: Schools with a range of student economic disadvantage are more likely to be Focus schools, because the higher income kids are all in the top 30% and the low income kids are all in the bottom 30%

This would make the metric a proxy for socioeconomic gap, not achievement gap

0.5

11

.5

-2 -1 0 1 -2 -1 0 1

Non-Focus Focus

Den

sity

Bottom 30% Reading E/MSGraphs by Focus

0.5

11

.5

0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3

Non-Focus Focus

Den

sity

Top 30% Subgroup Reading E/MSGraphs by FocusBottom 30% Top 30%

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See “Focus Schools Facts and Figures” on www.mi.gov/focusschools for more detail on these graphics

Contact mde-accountability@michigan.gov

Call 877-560-8378, option 6 to speak with a member of the Evaluation Research and Accountability Unit

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