What are we focusing on?

The state of Michigan received a No Child Left Behind waiver. One of the things that this waiver does is create a new achievement status category called "Focus Schools." What is a "Focus School?" Here is the state explanation:

Focus Schools consist of the ten percent of schools on the Top-to-Bottom list with the largest achievement gaps between its top 30 percent of students and its bottom 30 percent, based on average scale score. 

Here are the Michigan Merit Scores of two high schools in the state of Michigan. One of them was identified as a Focus School and one of them was not. One of them was flagged as needing state assistance and one of them was not. Can you identify the Focus School, the school that needs state assistance?

	Math	Reading	Science	Social Studies	Writing
Level 1: Advanced	117	156	143	139	76
Level 2: Proficient	201	220	144	192	294
Level 3: Partially Proficient	112	85	90	121	113
Level 4: Not Proficient	74	50	127	53	29
Met or Exceeded	318	376	287	331	370
	61.87%	73.58%	56.94%	65.54%	72.27%
Not Met	186	135	217	174	142
Number Included	504	511	504	505	512
Number Tested	514	514	514	514	514
	Math	Reading	Science	Social Studies	Writing
Level 1: Advanced	11	57	26	55	12
Level 2: Proficient	87	162	75	110	173
Level 3: Partially Proficient	132	73	110	122	124
Level 4: Not Proficient	94	32	113	37	16
Met or Exceeded	98	219	101	165	185
	29.97%	66.97%	30.89%	50.46%	56.57%
Not Met	226	105	223	159	140
Number Included	324	324	324	324	325
Number Tested	327	327	327	327	327

The school with the higher number of students meeting or exceeding state standards was the school that was flagged as a Focus School. The other school evidently needs no assistance.

I understand the need to address achievement gaps. In fact, one of our district goals is to ensure that all students achieve at a high level - eliminate achievement gaps. Addressing achievement gaps is important to me and to my district.

However, does a focus exclusively on achievement gaps distort the true performance of schools?