The new online Parent Dashboard for School Transparency, which displays the performance of all K-12 public schools in Michigan, is now available. It was created with research by Public Policy Associates, Inc. (PPA).
The Michigan Department of Education retained PPA to assist in gathering stakeholder input for the State’s Every Student Succeeds Act plan and implementation efforts, in alignment with the Top 10 in 10 strategic vision. Part of this work included engaging parents in designing the new dashboard.
PPA conducted surveys and focus groups with parents across the state, and facilitated a Parent Advisory Group, to help ensure that the tool is useful to parents.
“Parents are eager for information about the schools their children attend or might attend, in an accessible manner. Their ideas were invaluable in developing the content and design of the dashboard,” said Colleen Graber, PPA’s Vice President, who managed the research effort. “Parents are important advocates for quality education, and the dashboard gives them critical information they need to engage in a dialogue with school administrators, board members, and teachers.”
The dashboard provides school-building-level data on key performance indicators, including:
- Performance: Percentage of students proficient in all subjects on state tests.
- Progress: Percentage of students making progress towards proficiency or increasing their proficiency in all subjects.
- Graduation rate: Percentage of students graduating from high school in four years.
- Advanced coursework: Percentage of students in grades 11 and 12 enrolling in and passing advanced coursework.
- Postsecondary enrollment: Percentage of students who enrolled in college after high school.
- On-track attendance: Percentage of students who miss fewer than 10% of class days.
- English Learner progress: Percentage of English Learner students who are showing progress on the WIDA test.
- Assessment participation: The percentage of students who took state tests, including the SAT, M-STEP, or MI-Access.
“Parents now have a more complete picture of how schools are serving their children,” said Ms. Graber. “In the next phases of the dashboard, MDE will be adding more of the performance measures and the school comparison enhancements that parents told us they wanted. As more feedback comes in, the value of the tool grows.”
The website can be accessed on any computer or mobile device. A brief survey, available through the site, is collecting user feedback on the dashboard.