The MDE recently released information about Statewide 3-8 Benchmark Assessments.  For details and links to the three approved assessments, see the MDE State Benchmark Assessment FAQ.

The MDE also recently released updated approved initial and extensive K-3 assessments for the Third Grade Reading Law.

It is important for school leaders to understand which assessments are required and which are optional, as well as which assessments are funded or not funded.  The new Statewide Benchmark Assessments are for grades 3 - 8 and are optional, but funded by the state.  The Initial and Extensive assessments for grades K - 3 are required, but possibly not funded next year based on proposed state budgets (schools have previously been able to apply to be reimbursed for early literacy assessment expenses through Section 104d Early Literacy Grant, but this will likely be moved to MDE to fund the optional 3-8 approved benchmarks).

The final video has been posted to help explain the School Index on the School Accountability Page.  This last video tackles the topic of Adequate Growth in the School Index.  In short, students in grades 4-11 are given a Student Growth Percentile which is a normative measure based on how well they scored compared to other students who had similar achievement scores in previous year(s).  Statistics are used to then differentiate an adequate target that would assure students would maintain or obtain proficiency within in the next couple of years.  The percent of students who met this adequate growth target is reported on the School Index. 

Following the introductory videos explaining how the school index reports the percentage of a state set target, a new video has been posted on proficiency.  In this video, we examine how the state set the targets for proficiency at the 75th percentile, meaning 25% of schools are already above the target.  We also examine how content areas are weighted by the number of students but subgroups are not weighted the same. Visit the Accountability Page for the collection of support videos and other resources. 

In addition to the requirement of an improvement plan in June, please remember each building and each district must submit a program evaluation using the "long form" provided by MDE.  The department requires only one evaluation to be submitted on the "long form" for each entity into ASSIST.  All federally funded programs must also be evaluated and districts would likely benefit from the "compact evaluation form" found on the Prog Eval Page.  A new video has been posted explaining how the evaluation process fits into school improvement and the tools available on the SI Timeline.  

ESSA requires new labels such as Comprehensive Support and Improvement schools which replace the previous label Priority.  With the new labels also come a new system to identify the lowest 5% of schools in the state.  
The Accountability Page will be updated over the next couple of weeks to include videos and resources that hopefully help educators to make sense of this complicated index system.  The first of these videos comes in two parts, about 10 minutes each.  Part 1a covers the purpose, labels, how to interpret the overall score, this might be intuitive for some people.  Video 1b digs a little deeper into the score calculations of participation components.  The next video, not yet posted, will cover the differences between proficiency on MI School Data and the Proficiency Index (and why the index does not favor MS).  

Over the past several days, we have updated some areas of the sitimeline.  The practical monthly checklist has been revised to be more reader friendly and incorporates embedded support links.  In addition, a new Comprehensive Needs Assessment page has been developed and is ready to use.   We hope this page will provide clarity around the question "What is a CNA?"  All schools are required to complete a CNA under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).