DEARBORN — Dearborn Public Schools received both good and bad news this year from the Michigan Department of Education.  While the majority of the 33 schools in the district earned an average rating on the State’s new reporting system for school performance, Edsel Ford High School was ranked as one of the worst in the State, casting a cloud on the district as it heads into the new school year.

The Michigan Department of Education recently released the Michigan School Accountability Scorecards, which is a color-coded system that ranks schools, based on participation and student proficiency on State assessments, student graduation or attendance rates, educator effectiveness reporting and school improvement plan reporting.

Schools are then divided into colors, to separate the categories. From highest to lowest, those colors include; green, lime-green, yellow, orange and red. All but two of Dearborn’s schools fell into the yellow category, receiving 60 to 70 percent of all possible points. It’s important to note that no school in Wayne County, or Oakland County received a green status. 

The two schools that did not make it into the yellow categories were two of the district’s high schools. Dearborn High received an orange ranking, while Edsel Ford received a red ranking.

Also remaining intact this year by the State were the classifications of ‘Reward,’ ‘Focus’ and ‘Priority’ schools. A ‘Reward’ school is a school with the highest achievement rates, while a ‘Focus’ school is one with the highest level of achievement gaps between students. A ‘Priority’ school is the worst of the three, with the lowest achievement rates.

Edsel Ford High School.

Edsel Ford, once again, received the worst ranking in this area and was the only school in the district ranked as a ‘Priority.’  Some of the schools in the district didn’t receive a ranking at all, which doesn’t mean anything negative or positive, just that they didn’t properly fit a classification. 

The news for Edsel Ford might come as troubling to many; it is in the bottom five percent of schools that are ranked across the entire State, based on the last few years of scores on the Michigan Merit Exam (MME).

The district announced this week that they have implemented new procedures at Edsel Ford, in order to best benefit the students there. For the 2013-2014 school year, Edsel Ford will be operating with one extra hour a day. Students will be dismissed at 3:15 p.m., instead of the usual 2:15 dismissal that the district’s two other high schools will continue to follow. The school plans to use that extra time for students to obtain stronger skills in math, reading, science and social studies. 

The extra hour does not apply to students in the new collegiate academy, or those attending the Dearborn Center for Science, Math and Technology. It also will not affect those in dual enrollment. Additionally, individual students who are doing exceptionally well with their grades may not have to remain for the extra hour as the school years progresses.

The district will budget the extra hour of classes from their $10 million title one funds. According to Dearborn Superintendent Brian Whiston, 20% of that budget will be allocated to Edsel Ford alone, meaning it will be taken from money that was intended for other schools. Whiston says that, despite the ranking, there has actually been progress at Edsel Ford within the last year.

“What they are looking at is four years of student achievements. Yes, compared to four years ago, we have gone down. But if you look at two years ago, we’ve actually improved. There’s been student growth…Test scores are up and graduation rates are up six percent,” Whiston says.

Last year, the school also had similar rankings, and the State of Michigan offered four options for the school; either close the building, restart the school completely, replace at least half of the staff, or hire a new principal with a new strategy.

The district ultimately decided to bring in a new principal, Scott Casebolt. Since his time there, test scores in writing, math, science and social studies showed improvement on the spring MME. Whiston says that he would prefer that the State use a different method when gathering data, but the district will have to deal with it.

“I don’t think it’s the best way. I think we should be graded based on the year’s achievements. There are a lot of great things going on that they are missing. I think their call was wrong, but I’m not running from it. We are addressing the issues, but we aren’t going to let it define Edsel Ford and the community,” Whiston adds. 

Letters were sent out to parents on Tuesday, explaining the situation at Edsel Ford. Parents from eight other schools, who were listed as ‘Focus’ schools, will also be getting letters. Those schools are Dearborn High, William Ford, Haigh, Howe, Lowrey, Salina, Nowlin and Woodworth. 

Many would assume that ESL students may be the reason for the large gaps at the schools that are listed as ‘Focus’ schools, but Whiston says that is not the case. Even though bi-lingual students have a significant presence at the majority of the schools, the school district has actually improved in most areas, whereas the majority of the State remained flat.

Bryant Middle School and Fordson High School were listed as ‘Focus’ schools last year, but moved off the list this year, because of improved scores. Those two schools didn’t rank in any of the three categories this year.

Other good news for the district includes its seven ‘Reward’ schools, Last year, only five schools were given that classification. The schools listed as a ‘Reward’ school are: Becker, Henry Ford Early College, Howard, Lindbergh, Long, Maples and McCollough.

New to the list this year was Becker, which joins Maples as the only two schools from the east end of the district on the ‘Reward’ list.