|
Gongwer News
Service, March 23, 2005
Children participating in the Michigan School Readiness Program were
receiving a quality education, but the Department of Education was not
taking steps to ensure that was always true, according to a report
released Wednesday by Auditor General Thomas McTavish.
The School Readiness Program provides grants to school districts around
the state to provide preschool programs to at-risk children. Auditors
found that children involved in the programs showed higher academic
achievement than their counterparts who did not participate. The review
found, on average, participants had higher Michigan Educational Assessment
Program math and reading scores than other at-risk students and only
slightly lower scores then non-at-risk students.
But it also found some instances where students had not appeared to
benefit from the program.
And the auditors said the department had only studied one group of
children moving through the system to come up with those results. A report
released in 2002 followed children who had participated in the School
Readiness Program in 1995-96.
Department officials said further studies had not been completed because
of difficulties finding control groups, but auditors noted that the Center
for Educational Performance and Information could provide options for such
groups.
The department is now working on both a longitudinal study of the Michigan
program and a multi-state study of similar programs. Districts could
voluntarily provide data on students involved in the programs for the
2003-04 school year and was required to provide the information for the
2004-05 school year.
It also noted it was working with private groups to collect information on
the programs in private schools.
Auditors also cited the department for the few number of people it has
working on the program. For instance, it said the department was not
completing sufficient site visits to be sure districts receiving the
grants were operating appropriate programs. And it had only one person
trained to operate the database that held the application and program
information with no printed instructions on using that database.
The department agreed on the need to train additional workers on the
database and said it was seeking funding for an additional person. But
officials feared seeking funds for additional people to conduct
inspections would mean loss of some of the grant funds from the program to
pay for those positions.
The audit also cited the department for completing the grant application
process too late in fiscal year 2003-04, but officials said the delay was
the result of legislative changes in the program that had to be
accommodated in the final applications.
|
