Build a growth system that supports all students

The advice. “Would rather see a system that supports all kids.”

Offered directly against OEAA’s account of the AGP’s origin: it “was an attempt to communicate the urgency to make improvements.”

Why. A metric designed to communicate urgency and a metric designed to guide instruction are different instruments, and Michigan has been using one for both. Urgency-signalling tolerates targets that cannot be met — that is what makes them urgent. Instructional guidance does not.

Paired with the committee’s broader position: “Schools should not be focusing on proficiency; their goal is to produce and maximize growth.”

Why it is hard. The AGP is embedded in a federally approved accountability plan whose purpose is identification. See ESSA Plan Constraints. Reorienting the metric toward support without changing the plan means the same number carries two incompatible jobs.

Status. Open. This is a framing recommendation rather than an actionable one, and it is the premise underneath most of the session’s other growth advice.