LANSING – Superintendent of Public Instruction Brian Whiston is pushing a plan to make Michigan a top 10 state for education in the next 10 years, but a report released Thursday by the Education Trust Midwest shows it could fall to the bottom 10 on its current trajectory.
The report, Michigan’s Talent Crisis, predicted the state would slide on most measures over the next 15 years if it does not adopt some substantial reforms.
The report showed Michigan is already in the bottom 10 for fourth grade-reading based on scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress. But it predicted the state would fall to 48th from its current 41st position by 2030.
In eighth-grade mathematics, Michigan is just outside the bottom 10 at 38th, but the report said it would fall to 43rd on its current path.
Between those scores and other issues, the report predicted Michigan would be 35th nationally in the percentage of high school students who enroll in some post-secondary program, a drop from its current 25th ranking.
The group couched the report not only to promote the education reforms it has backed for some time (notably more funding for schools and better professional development for teachers), but also to attract more business support for those proposals.
“Michigan’s educational crisis is an economic crisis,” Amber Arellano, executive director of The Education Trust-Midwest, said in a statement announcing the report. “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.”
The report quotes several business leaders on the importance of improving the state’s educational performance.
“The disconnect in Michigan is that we have some of the best higher education in the world, but more and more, we have to fill those seats with students from out-of-state because many of our own students, through no fault of their own, are coming out of high school not prepared for college,” Brian Cloyd, vice president of global corporate relations for Steelcase Incorporated, said in the report.
The report estimated that having all Michigan students score at least in the basic mastery range on the NAEP would add $860 billion to the state’s economy as those students entered the workforce.
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