LANSING – The Education Trust-Midwest released a report Tuesday that shows Michigan students performing below the national average in every category in the study, saying it showed the need for the Common Core standards and the effects they could have on education.
“In too many recent meetings, state leaders talk about how students will ‘all be in the same place’ when the new assessments are administered,” said Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust in a statement. “But they aren’t in the same place. Instead of just pretending that the same amount of effort will be required everywhere to get children to the new standards, we need to make sure that the lessons from states that have improved the most for all groups of children inform implementation work more broadly and ensure that struggling states have the extra help they will need to build the forward momentum that is already present elsewhere.”
Education Trust’s Michigan state report showed that students in the state are below the national average. According to the report, only 29 percent of Michigan students are proficient on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program 8th grade math test, which ranks Michigan as the 36th highest state.
Also included in the report were graduation rates for both high school and college students. About 74 percent of all Michigan students graduate from high school, which gives Michigan the 30th highest percentage of high school graduates. Of those graduates, about 60 percent of Michigan students attend college, which is only more than 16 states. Graduation rates from four-year colleges and universities are at 59 percent, and Michigan is ahead of 19 states with the number of adults with associate’s degree or higher.
According to Education Trust, about 80 percent of all Michigan students are prepared for college and careers, based on the statistics from the report.
“All states will need to work hard and smart to support their schools in making sure that all students get the learning opportunities they need to reach these college- and career-ready standards,” said Natasha Ushomirsky, senior data and policy analyst at The Education Trust and author of the report in a statement. “And no state – not the advocates or foundations that are supporting them – can afford to embark on this effort without an honest appraisal of where its students and schools are.”
This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
