K-12 Education
Top-Ten for Education: Not By Chance
For the first time in the state’s history, Michigan public schools are able to compare their performance in some subjects to other states around the country for all students. A new analysis of this historic new comparative data by The Education Trust-Midwest shows Michigan’s third graders showed the greatest decline in third-grade reading compared to other states participating in the same assessment consortium, despite nearly $80 million of targeted state investment to improve reading outcomes.
Michigan students also are among the lowest performing students among peers for third-grade reading, which is one of the most important indicators of lifelong student success and lifelong employment. This news is among the takeaways of the report released today, Top Ten for Education: Not By Chance, which delves deeply to the challenges Michigan schools and leaders face in raising student achievement.
“Michigan’s young students are just as bright and talented as other students around the country,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of the nonpartisan think tank, The Education Trust-Midwest. “The question is not whether we should be investing in improving third-grade reading for Michigan children. The question is, how does Michigan become more effective at improving teaching and learning, as leading education states have done?”
“We can turn things around in Michigan,” Arellano says. “Just as Michiganders worked together to turn around our ailing auto industry during the Great Recession and continue to move toward a more vibrant economy, today we need to work together to turn around our P-12 public school system. Visit www.michiganachieves.com to join us in being a voice for great public schools for all children.”