Michigan Falls Further Behind In The Classroom: Fourth Grade Reading Scores 41st In Nation

DETROIT (WWJ) - A new report out this morning says Michigan is falling further behind in the classroom.

Research from Education Trust-Midwest shows Michigan fourth-graders are now ranked 41st in the nation for reading levels. That's down from 28th in 2003 and 38th in 2013.

Executives say if the state doesn't dramatically improve educational practices and policies, Michigan will fall to 48th by 2030.

The report says to fix the problem, first and foremost, Michigan must focus on early education to assure that all children are reading by the time they get out of third grade.

"Michigan's educational crisis is an economic crisis," Amber Arellano, executive director of The Education Trust-Midwest, said in a statement. "Leading education states show how important business leaders' voices are for greater quality and accountability in our public schools. We applaud those leaders who are a voice for equity, and invite others to join this important conversation."

Michigan's is declining so dramatically compared to other states nationwide, if things do not change dramatically, low-income Michigan students would not become top ten for fourth-grade reading even by 2051.

"We need to have a serious conversation about how to improve schools," said Arellano. "Michigan is an average spending state on education, but a terribly low-performing one compared to the rest of the U.S. Strong implementation is everything – and we are falling down on that front."

The report, Michigan's Talent Crisis: The Economic Case for Rebuilding Michigan's Broken Public Education System, shares if all Michigan students were at least meeting basic mastery for core reading and math skills on the national assessment, the economic benefit to our state would be enormous: an estimated increase of about $860 billion in gross domestic product.

A year ago, the Education Trust-Midwest launched Michigan Achieves, a campaign to make Michigan a top ten education state by 2030. The good news is that since that time, many state leaders including the governor, the new school superintendent, the state Board of Education and others have endorsed the same goal. And the state has taken some positive early steps toward a real improvement strategy.

For example, Michigan has adopted a number of significant changes. The state is on track to invest about $50 million in efforts to bolster third-grade reading over the next few years; and Michigan also has implemented college- and career-ready standards, "an absolutely essential high-leverage transformation strategy," said Suneet Bedi, a data and policy analyst at Ed Trust-Midwest.

The bad news is, progress on this front is fragile: serious threats may derail these efforts and undermine quality implementation, including the effort to raise performance standards for teaching and learning in Michigan.

"Michigan needs honest information about how it's performing against world-class college- and career-ready standards and other states – and we cannot lose our chance to do that," said Arellano.

For more information about the report, visit edtrustmidwest.org/MichiganAchieves.