Another year, another disastrous round of test scores by Michigan K-12 students, across the state and across all grades who were tested.
While state Department of Education officials prefer to emphasize the “minor gains” buried within the 2019 results from the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP), the bigger picture remains grim.
A majority of all elementary and middle school kids tested – those in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 – failed the M-STEP exam in English language and arts. That means they failed to receive a “proficient” score that would indicate they sufficiently knew the material on the test.
The bleak results were similar on the math portion of the M-STEP, except that in grades 5, 6 and 7 just barely one-third passed the test.
And in social studies, the scores were abysmal again this year, sinking to new lows. Fewer than on in five 5th graders received a passing score.
No science tests were taken this year as the Education Department is reconfiguring the test to better represent the new science curriculum introduced statewide. Science has been the area where Michigan students have fared worst in recent years.
Michigan’s 11th grade, pre-college SAT scores in reading and writing and mathematics showed declines. Some 55 percent of the high school juniors who took the test in March scored at a “college ready” level in English language arts, while just 36 percent reached an acceptable outcome in math.
In the beleaguered Detroit school district, just 12 percent of 3rd graders demonstrate sufficient reading skills to pass the test. About 7 percent of 6th graders were successful in the math test and nearly all of the kids who took the M-STEP social studies test – 5th and 8th graders – failed.
But Michigan’s slide toward the bottom among the 50 states is not just a Motown problem.
In the southeast Michigan suburbs, for example, the Clintondale school district in Macomb County posted results indicating that three-quarters or more of the students flunked the English and math exams.
In the Oak Park district in Oakland County, a mere 12 percent of students mastered the math test and the reading and writing scores weren’t much better.
A vast majority of students failed the M-STEP from Lansing to Alpena, and from Kalamazoo to Kalkaska.
More granular data, reflecting scores at each individual school building, can be obtained here.
