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Last spring, Michigan third grade students recorded their lowest performance in English language arts in the 11-year history of the state test.
Only 38.9% of the third graders were proficient in ELA, down from 39.6% in 2024, according to latest results released Wednesday from the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, known as the M-STEP.
There are some positive trends: Test scores are up in four out of six grades in both English language arts and math. Still, overall proficiency rates remain below pre-pandemic levels in all subjects and grades except eighth grade English language arts.
Those eighth grade students were third graders when schools shut down in spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The results show Michigan’s educators still face an uphill battle to recover learning lost during the pandemic. Michigan has fared poorly compared to most states in national tests, with its students among the farthest behind compared to where they were before COVID disrupted learning across the country.
The state’s students fell behind peers in places like Mississippi despite tens of thousands of additional staff, free early childhood education, and greater free nutrition options.
State Superintendent Michael Rice, who is leaving his post soon, focused his comments on recent gains and made little mention of the steep losses students registered in 2022 and 2023.
“It is noteworthy that in many grades, Michigan students posted the highest math and ELA proficiency rates in the last three school years,” Rice said in a news release. “At the same time, however, ELA scores in grades 3 and 4 remain a concern. Once fully implemented, historic 2024 laws to address early literacy and dyslexia will help substantially, but we must do more to improve literacy skills of young readers.”
Lawmakers passed two bipartisan laws last year aimed at improving how schools teach literacy skills. The laws will require schools to screen students for characteristics of dyslexia and provide evidence-based literacy instruction. Plus, educator preparation programs will be required to train future teachers on dyslexia and student support strategies. The state is also investing millions in teacher training and curriculum materials.
The Michigan Department of Education did highlight that students who were learning remotely in 2020-21 continue to struggle.
MDE determined that of all economically disadvantaged 3-7 graders who spent seven months or more studying from home that year, 16.9% were proficient in ELA this past spring, compared to 27.6% of those who were in school more frequently.
In math, the gap was similar: 10.4% who were homebound for seven months or more compared to 22.3% who were not.
Those same gaps affected those who are not economically disadvantaged. In ELA, 45.6% of students in longer remote settings were proficient compared to 56.8% of those who were in school more. In math, the gap was bigger: 36.8% proficient for the remote students compared to 52.8% to those in school longer.
School districts administer the test to students in the spring.
Here’s how students in some Michigan districts performed
Dearborn Public Schools: The Wayne County district’s fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grade math scores are up compared to pre-pandemic. Its reading scores are down in most grades tested but up in fifth grade. Superintendent Glenn Maleyko is poised to become the next state superintendent.
Detroit Public Schools Community District: The state’s largest public school district reports higher ELA scores compared to pre-pandemic scores in all grades tested. Math is also up in fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grade. The proficiency rates are still much lower than the statewide numbers. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has testified in support of bills to help students with dyslexia, and DPSCD has hired more than 250 academic interventionists to help students, using funds from a literacy lawsuit. (DPSCD’s results are labeled “Detroit” in Bridge’s searchable database.)
Ann Arbor Public Schools: The Washtenaw County school district’s scores are below pre-pandemic levels across third through eighth grade in both ELA and math. But ELA and math scores are up in all grades compared to last year, except third grade ELA.
Grand Rapids Public Schools: The Kent County district’s sixth and seventh grade math scores are higher than pre-pandemic along with the seventh grade ELA. Compared to last year, math scores are up in each grade, but ELA scores are down in each grade.
Literacy scores remain a concern
During the first school year that the M-STEP was administered, 2014-2015, half of the third grade students were proficient. Last year, 39.6% of third grade students were proficient in ELA.
Rice reiterated calls for several funding and policy changes. The Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have failed to meet a school budget deal, blowing past a July 1 deadline in law.
“The Michigan legislature needs to provide our children with lower class sizes in high-poverty K-3 classrooms, more in-person instructional time, funding for more research-based, early literacy materials that help drive improved student achievement, and mandatory training in Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) on the science of reading for teachers and administrators in grades K-5 and all literacy coaches,” Rice said. “These research-based measures would also help students improve their reading skills.”
The Senate Education Committee heard testimony earlier this month about a pilot project to fund lower class sizes in specific districts. Rice has called for the state Legislature to double the funding for evidence-based literacy materials.
Recently, 561 school districts received a total of $87 million to purchase materials but they had to select from either curriculum funds, professional development, or “interventions.” The state offers grants for LETRS training, but the training is optional.
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, who helped lead the charge to pass the literacy laws, told Bridge the “test scores confirm that we need to make changes around literacy.” Change will take time, he cautioned.
“I think the changes we made last fall are absolutely necessary and important.”
State House Rep. Jaime Greene, R-Richmond, said the results underscore the importance of the legislation. School districts have a few years before the requirements fully kick in, but Greene said districts that can should “fast track” changes “because what they are currently doing is absolutely not working.”
Venessa Keesler, president and CEO of school reform group Launch Michigan, told Bridge “Literacy has to be the state’s top priority. And the good news is we actually know what to do, and we’re doing most of it.”
She called for high-quality curriculum and teacher training requirements. Additionally, she said districts should use assessments that determine if students have decoding skills, and then use that data to make changes to course correct more quickly.
Income gap drops
The latest test results show that the gap between students from low-income homes and those who are not remains vast in Michigan —with the latter group of students having proficiency rates that double those of students from low-income homes — but it has shrunk since the pandemic.
But it’s contracted largely because overall proficiency rates among students who are not from low-income homes fell even farther than their peers. For instance, 31.3% of third graders from low-income homes were proficient in English in the 2018-19 school year, compared to 62.8% of those who are not from low-income homes.
The scores of students who are not from low income homes, however, fell 7.1 percentage points, to 55.7% this past spring, while their peers’ scores fell 5.6 percentage points to 25.7%; the gap shrunk from 31.5 points to 30. That runs counter to some research that has found that the gap nationally actually widened since the pandemic.
Mike Wilkinson is a reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach him at mwilkinson@bridgemi.com.
Isabel Lohman is a reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com.
