New data released from Michigan’s Department of Education reveals mixed student progress in 2024, with some grades scoring higher on standardized tests than last year and others performing their lowest in years.
Math, English language arts and science scores were gathered through the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP, for grades three through seven, while scores for older students came from PSAT and SAT results.
Eleventh-graders had the worst overall decline, scoring lower than last year in all three subjects, with a drop of 3.6 percentage points in math. Grades three through seven improved in the subject, but grade eight also had a 3.7 percentage point drop in scores since last year.
“We will continue to work with local schools, MDE leadership, legislators and the governor to improve student learning,” State Board of Education President Dr. Pamela Pugh said Wednesday. “It’s nice to see progress on most assessments this year, but we want our students to continue their progress in the coming years as well.”
Grades five, seven, and eight performed better in 2024 on ELA, while grade six remained the same and grades three and four fell behind.
Science scores were available for grades five, eight, and 11. While grades five and eight showed improvement, grade 11 fell behind.
“These results reflect hard work by students and educators and investments in education by the governor and legislature,” State Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice said. “That said, much work remains, both instructionally and financially, for needed supports to students.”
The results also revealed that students – particularly the economically disadvantaged – perform roughly ten percentage points worse when learning remotely instead of in-person.
When learning in person, 28.8% of students from low-income households in Michigan perform at or above proficiency in ELA. The numbers drop to 19.9% when switched to remote learning. In math, economically disadvantaged students perform at or above proficiency by 22.4%; this drops to only 12% when classes function remotely.
“This year’s scores also show that, on average, being educated remotely during the 2020-21 school year rather than in-person during the pandemic affected progress,” Rice said. “Poverty, remoteness of instruction in the 2020-21 school year, and being in the learning-to-read window at the beginning of the pandemic have been layered challenges with which some of our children continue to struggle.”
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The Center Square is a publication of the Franklin News Foundation.