By Rick Garcia
With economic recovery e?orts mostly focused on job development, there is a tendency for education to get lost in discussions about the future of the state. Fortunately, Governor Snyder has emphasized education as one of the key areas in his proposed roadmap to Michigan’s recovery.
Additionally, the Governor’s emphasis on measures of performance contributes to transparency and accountability in state government. However, the indicators for education do not provide enough breadth to give us a comprehensive profile with respect to the di?erent groups that comprise the state’s population.
In education, for example, the dashboard provides us with three indicators for measuring progress: (1) reading capability of third graders; (2) college readiness (as measured by ACT scores); and (3) percent of population with a Bachelor’s degree or higher. The Governor’s dashboard provides summary statistics from the Michigan Department of Education showing that in 2009, 90 percent of third graders in the state met the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) standards established by the Michigan Board of Education. This figure is up from 86 percent in 2007. The statewide average on the ACT, on the other hand, was 21 in 2010, down from 21.2 in 2007. Finally, the percent of the population with at least a Bachelor’s degree was 24.6 percent in 2009, down from 24.7 percent in 2007 and lower than the national figure of 27.9 percent in 2009.
All of these are important indicators for measuring progress in the area of education. However, what they do not tell us is how our schools are doing relative to Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans, and other racial minority groups. Additionally, all of our measures should have a comparison point, such as the national average. For instance, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides reading scores (among others) for fourth graders. Although it is not clear how MEAP reading tests align with the NAEP, Michigan students’ scores on the NAEP can be compared to the national average. In 2009, the average score of fourth graders from Michigan was 218, compared to 220 at the national level. Moreover, the gap between the 25th and 75th percentiles was 46 points, similar to the 44-point gap in 1992 (meaning the gap has not closed over the past two decades).
With regard to students of color, Latino students had an average score (206) that was 19 points below those of White students (225), and African Americans (194) were 31 points below. Only 36 percent of White students, 17 percent of Latinos, and 9 percent of African Americans in Michigan performed at Proficient or Advanced levels.
Regarding college readiness, average composite ACT scores have decreased for all groups in Michigan over the past three years. White students have gone from an average score of 22.2 in 2007 to 20.6 in 2009; Latinos have gone from 19.8 to 17.5 during the same period; and African Americans have gone from 16.9 to 15.6. Worse yet, in 2009, only 22 percent of White students in Michigan, 9 percent of Latinos, and 2 percent of African Americans met the ACT’s college-readiness benchmark across the four academic areas (English, Math, Reading, and Science). Data from the American Community Survey 2009 from the U.S. Census show that while 25.8 percent of Non-Hispanic Whites in Michigan had at least a Bachelor’s degree, only 14 percent of Latinos and 15.5 per- cent of African Americans did so.
At the national level, the figures were 31.1 percent, 12.7 percent, and 17.7 percent, respectively. Except for Latinos, all groups in Michigan were less likely to have a college degree than at the national level. And among Latinos, the percent is so low at both the state and the national levels that a focused initiative is warranted.
The future of Michigan, like that of the nation, is one of increased diversity. While in the short run it may help the state’s economy to attract “immigrant capital,” in the long run its future is bound up with that of its domestic populations and how well its public school systems can meet their educational needs.
At this time, and in recent years, Michigan’s education systems have failed its citizens by not producing better learning outcomes. If improvements are to be made in student achievement one has to keep not only measures of performance but also school culture, teacher competencies and expectations, and parental involvement front and center. As the saying goes, “one cannot continue to do the same thing over and over and expect di?erent results.
If the state is to move its economy forward, it cannot afford to have its education systems continue to leave Latinos, African Americans, and other students of color behind.
This article was an excerpt from Dr. Ruben Martinez of the Julian Samora Research Institute’s NEXO Newsletter.
Rick Garcia, a nonprofit executive, a civil rights advocate, blogger and a contributing writer for The New Citizens Press can be reached at rrgarcianrg@gmail.com
This was printed in the August 11, 2013 – August 24, 2013 Edition
