ypsi~dixit

That's what you get when the schools run on autopilot for almost a decade. They might be long gone, but they aren't outside the reach of the long arm of the law, now, are they?

I heard - don't know if it's true - that when a certain district higher-up left about a year ago, the computer used to track grants came up wiped entirely clean shortly following her departure. Anyone else hear that?

At least they're not sweeping it under the rug. That's how they used to do business way back when. It's kind of refreshing to be able to read about the thievery on the front page rather than just hearing it through the grapevine.

The "replacements" line was particularly silly. Indeed, phones are so breakable--they're constantly in need of replacement. Right. I've had the same old pushbutton here at work for 8 years. And I have a 1960s rotary at home. Seems to be hanging in there OK.

Long arm of the law: you heard correctly. Former Executive Director of Educational Services Noni Miller did, indeed, leave little information behind for her successor to work with. It makes one wonder why, doesn't it? Was she just being vindictive because Dr Zuhlke's leaving practically forced her to seek employment elsewhere? Or was she hiding a practice of mismanagement of the grants?

I don't know if there is anything to be done to go after the previous administration legally. If there is, I doubt it would be the district, but rather the agencies that gave the grants that would instigate the process.

I do end up feeling sorry for Richard Weigel and Dr. Hawkins that they have had to spend the last year not only doing their jobs, but cleaning up the messes left by their predecessors. The fact that the district has still managed to make so much progress is a testimony to their abilities and dedication to making things right.

May I suggest a change for the sake of clarity?

"Ypsi-area schools" might refer to any of the three districts serving the 48197/8 ZIP codes, but "Ypsi schools" implies the only district with Ypsi in its name. In an article talking about Willow Run and YHS, "Ypsi-area schools" provides more clarity.

The Michigan Department of Education has just announced that the School District of Ypsilanti is one of four districts in the State that did not meet the requirements for annual yearly progress this year. The four districts are:

Lewis Cass ISD
Climax-Scotts Community Schools
School District of Ypsilanti
School District of the City of Inkster

Weigel's got his work cut out for him. I wish him well.

I meant to write adequate yearly progress. Oops.

Ingrid: Wow. I didn't realize that was the case. Here's hoping Mr. W. can pull things up.

Yea, that is a downer. Though I can't explain it comprehensively, I can give an overview. For the full version, I'm hoping Richard can speak about it on Monday at the BOE meeting.

All of our schools made AYP except for the High School. The reason the HS didn't is because New Directions (the program for kids having trouble that we ended last year), had a low graduation rate. So, even though the aggregated graduation rate of HS and New Directions students exceeded state requirements (which means it should have made AYP), the entire HS was held to not have made AYP due to the one programs low rate of graduation. So on the basis of a single factor, the HS is labeled as failing, even though it's not. Go figure.

Another factor was that the federal gov't refused this year for the first time to accept one of the tests we have historically used to accurately assess the performance of disabled kids. Consequently, they had to take the MEAP (Michigan's standardized test), and too many of them failed. This isn't to suggest they aren't learning, but it does suggest that more time and resources will have to be put into teaching to the test rather than ensuring they learn. This disproportionately affects us, because about 20% of our students have some kind of learning disability, a higher proportion than any other district in the county.

To put all this in context, it is actually possible to have every single school make AYP in a district, but still have the district not make AYP. To provide an example of some of the paradoxes here, there are schools that, according to NCLB, are in the final phase of penalties throughout the state, yet many of them are in districts that made AYP. We, on the other hand, have all our schools but the HS making AYP (none of our schools are in penalty phases), but the district is labeled as failing. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and it's frustrating to have these labels imposed that don't reflect reality.

What is interesting is that we actually have made a lot of progress in the last couple of years. Some of our students have been accepted at Oberlin, Yale, the Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, West Point, U of M, Hope, Pomona, MSU, U of VA, and other very good colleges and Universities, many on scholarship. What's needed right now is a change in the law to help it more accurately reflect actual progress rather than permitting single factors to downgrade the rating of an entire district. It seems to be form over substance too much of the time.

I have generally found Weigel to be a smart and able administrator. That's why I was shocked at the comment he made in the Ann Arbor News today, referring to the Meap scores of Hispanic students and students with disabilities. Weigel is quoted as saying,"[w]e're being held hostage by a very small number of students." He's making it seem like these groups of students are deliberately trying to make the District look bad. How ridiculous.

Ingrid, I think you're taking Richard Weigel's comments the wrong way. I think you know Weigel doesn't feel the students are doing any of this deliberately. If Weigel said, instead, "We're being held hostage _because of_ a very small number of students" you'd have been okay with that. In fact, from talking with Weigel, that is probably what he said. Newspaper reporters do, occasionally, misquote, you know.

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