Michigan’s third-graders – at a developmental stage when the stakes are high for mastery of reading skills – scored lower on the state’s M-STEP test compared with 2023, while elementary school students broadly improved in math, according to data released Wednesday by the Michigan State Department of Education.
State test results, based on exams students took in the spring, show that third- and fourth-grade scores have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. While in 2019, 45% of third-graders scored proficient or better on the test, this year’s results show that number fell below 40% for the first time, a grim milestone for students, educators and policymakers. Overall, student performance across the state varied on the reading and math tests: Most grade levels showed improvement on the test, particularly in math.
The results suggest that the state’s youngest readers, who started school at the height of the pandemic, are struggling.
This year, 39.6% of third-graders scored proficient or better on the state reading test, compared to 40.9% in 2023. As parents and policymakers nationally advocate for better reading instruction, these results follow some stalled efforts by state lawmakers and others to improve reading instruction in Michigan.
In a press release, Michigan Department of Education officials wrote that students considered impoverished and those who attended school online during the 2020-21 school year struggled on the tests, further widening the achievement gap between students from low-income families and students from wealthier families.
“The fact that students were in the reading learning phase – preschool or early elementary grades – at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak also had an impact on assessment scores, on average,” wrote Michael Rice, the state’s education secretary.
In the state’s largest school district, the Detroit Public Schools Community District, 11.7% of third-graders scored proficient or advanced on the reading test, up from 12.4% last year. But fifth-graders’ scores rose significantly, from 11.6% proficient or higher in 2023 to 15.4% this year, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. In math, Detroit saw scores improve in most grades, with many achievement levels surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
Statewide M-STEP math scores improved in grades three through seven between the 2023-24 and 2022-23 school years. Reading scores improved in grades five and seven, remained the same in grade six, and declined in grades three and four. Older students took either the PSAT or the SAT in math and reading.
National researchers have shared Rice’s concerns about the recovery from the pandemic, finding that students have not made up for losses from 2019 to 2022, when schools were closed intermittently for fear of the coronavirus spreading and infecting children.
Mixed results when reading
Third-grade reading scores have declined every year since 2019, when 45% of students taking the test were proficient or advanced.
While the results show that more English language interventions are needed in lower grades, it is unclear whether these interventions are feasible in time-strapped classrooms and money-strapped districts. Federal aid for pandemic recovery has largely dried up.
The findings also remind education leaders like Rice that state lawmakers have not passed legislation that advocates say would require schools to identify and help students with disabilities that contribute to reading difficulties. Rice also wrote that the department will continue to encourage educators to take LETRS training, which focuses on phonics and the way students process and identify sounds in words. In recent years, more budgetary resources have been put into training educators, including $10 million in last fiscal year’s budget for LETRS training.
The performance of students classified as economically disadvantaged in grades 3 through 7 was significantly lower than that of students who are not economically disadvantaged: 27.3% of students in the economically disadvantaged group scored proficient or better, and 57.6% of students who are not economically disadvantaged scored proficient or better.
Eighth-graders who took the PSAT made tremendous improvements: from 59.7% scoring “proficient” or better in 2023 to 64.5% in 2024.
Shows progress in mathematics
Rice praised improvements in math scores in grades 3 through 7, which, while still below pre-pandemic levels, show students recovering.
“We are encouraged to observe continued, incremental improvement in the levels of performance measured on most M-STEP and SAT/PSAT tests, particularly on the M-STEP math tests,” Rice wrote.
However, as with reading, there were large income-related differences in performance here too: 21.8 percent of students from poorer backgrounds in third to seventh grade achieved a grade of “sufficient” or better in the mathematics test, and 53.6 percent of students from non-poorer backgrounds achieved a grade of “sufficient” or better.
Eleventh graders taking the SAT scored lower on the math portion of the test this year than last year: 29.9% scored proficient or better in 2023, and 26.3% scored proficient or better in 2024.
The findings underscore the larger tensions brewing around school funding this year after lawmakers failed to increase per-pupil funding for students for the first time since the 2020-21 school year. Officials also made significant cuts to mental health funding, which school leaders condemned.
Lawmakers argued that a budget measure that would save schools nearly $600 million in pension costs would ultimately give them more money per student. But many school superintendents were not convinced by that argument.
Student performance in the Detroit metropolitan area
This is what happened to students in some of the largest districts in the Detroit metropolitan area:
- Detroit Public Schools District: The percentage of proficient third- and fourth-graders declined in reading starting in 2023, while proficiency levels increased for grades 5 through 8. In math, proficiency levels increased in grades 3, 5, 6, and 7.
- Community schools in Utica: Reading proficiency in grades three through seven has declined. In Utica, math proficiency has declined in grades three, four, six, seven and eight.
- Public Schools in Ann Arbor: Reading proficiency has improved in all grades except sixth grade, and reading proficiency in all grades remains below pre-pandemic levels. Math proficiency has declined in grades 4, 7, and 8.
- Dearborn City Schools: Third-grade reading proficiency declined, while the percentage of students achieving at required or higher levels increased in all other grades tested. In math, the percentage of students achieving at required or higher levels increased in all grades except third and eighth grades, where the percentage of students achieving at required levels decreased starting in 2023.
- Plymouth-Canton Community Schools: Third and sixth grade reading proficiency declined while it increased in all other grades. The percentage of proficient sixth graders decreased from 58.2% in 2023 to 53.7% in 2024. In math, proficiency declined in grades 3, 5, 6, and 8 and increased in grades 4 and 7.
Contact Lily Altavena: [email protected] and Kristi Tanner: [email protected].
