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Two years ago, Michigan fourth and eighth graders recorded their worst reading scores in 30 years on a national exam known as the “nation’s report card.” In 2024, they did not improve.

The results of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, also show Michigan fourth and eighth graders continue to fall behind national averages in math.

“We have work to do,” Michael Rice, Michigan’s state superintendent, told Chalkbeat Detroit in an email.

Michigan students’ average scores in fourth and eighth grade reading and math did not change in statistically significant ways compared to the last time the test was administered in 2022.

“At the highest level, we’re far from fully recovered from the impact of the pandemic,” said Dan Goldhaber, a researcher who studies student achievement and member of the National Center for Education Statistics standing committee.

“It looks like recovery — where it exists — is pretty uneven,” he added.

Michigan’s scores reflect what the NAEP results show on the national level: Students are not at or near where they were before the pandemic.

“We’re not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground students lost during the pandemic,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Educational Statistics, on a phone call with reporters. “Where we are seeing signs of recovery, they’re mostly in math and largely driven by higher performing students.”

The gaps between the nation’s highest and lowest performing students continue to widen, Carr added.

Here are some of the takeaways from the results:

• In reading, just 24% of Michigan fourth graders were proficient in 2024, which was not considered a statistically significant difference from 2022. Nationally, 30% were proficient last year.
• In math, 37% of Michigan fourth graders were proficient last year, a result that did not change in a statistically significant way from 2022 . Nationally, 40% of their peers were proficient in 2024.
• Thirty-one states scored higher in fourth grade reading than Michigan, which was tied, statistically, with 18 states, according to the NAEP results.
• In fourth grade math, Michigan’s average score was bested by 16 states, was statistically the same as 29 others, and better than six states.
• It was a similar trend for eighth graders, 24% of whom were proficient in math — below the U.S. average of 27%. In reading, 24% of Michigan students were proficient, which was below the national average.
• Twenty-five states had higher math scores, among eighth graders, 18 were the same and eight were lower. In reading, 18 states had higher average scores, 26 were statistically the same, and seven were lower.

NAEP results are reported by the percentages of students who performed at three achievement levels — basic, proficient, and advanced. On NAEP, a proficient score does not equate to grade-level proficiency.

The biennial test includes a representative subset of students from traditional public, charter, and private schools from across the country. Nationwide, 235,000 fourth grade students took the test from 6,100 schools. There were 230,000 eighth grade students who took the test from 5,400 schools.

Michigan’s scores have worsened since before the pandemic. They decreased in reading for both grades and in math for the eighth grade. There was no significant change in fourth grade math compared to before the pandemic.

“There are going to be a lot more kids than we would hope are going to struggle with later life schooling and labor market outcomes,” Goldhaber said, referring to national trends. “Because there is a pretty strong connection between how well kids do on tests and their later life outcomes.”

How do NAEP results compare to other assessment data?

The 2024 NAEP data mirrors other test results that found many students who entered kindergarten and first grade during the early days of the pandemic are still struggling to catch up in reading.

The Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, known as the M-STEP, showed reading and writing proficiency among Michigan third and fourth graders was at a 10-year low in spring 2024.

Additionally, benchmark assessments given to compare scores for individual Michigan K-8 students each spring and fall showed fewer third and fourth graders were proficient in reading in 2023-24 compared to previous years.

But students made significant progress in improving math achievement scores on the benchmark assessments since the 2020-21 school year.

One of the big differences between NAEP and other assessments is that it is lower stakes for students, said Tara Kilbride, assistant director for research at the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative. Assessments like M-STEP play a role in state accountability, and other exams can inform the direction teachers take in instruction for individual students.

NAEP can be helpful as a “pulse check” to see how Michigan students are progressing compared to the rest of the country, said Kilbride.

How is Michigan addressing its literacy woes?

Under Republican leadership, Michigan lawmakers created a law that outlined steps school districts had to take when students were significantly behind in reading on the M-STEP.

Starting with the 2019-2020 school year, schools were expected to hold some students back if they did not meet expectations. But the pandemic hit and schools held back very few students in the following year. Democrats ended the third-grade retention requirement in 2023.

After the 2024 M-STEP results were released, Michigan lawmakers passed legislation to include the “science of reading” in early literacy curriculum.

The “science of reading” refers to a body of knowledge that emphasizes phonics along with building vocabulary and background knowledge.

Districts will have to comply with many of the provisions in the bill package by 2027-28.

“If the legislation does result in more students being screened and receiving interventions, it could result in improved early literacy outcomes,” said Kilbride.

States such as Tennessee and Mississippi that have passed similar bills made big improvements in reading scores on state proficiency assessments.

Currently, Michigan schools do not have to follow a set reading curriculum, though the Michigan Department of Education gives guidance on using evidence-based programs.

Reading lessons may vary widely within districts and even within classrooms in the same school, according to a 2022 policy brief by EPIC. Many of the districts that responded to EPIC’s survey were using poorly rated or unrated lesson plans.

Chronic absenteeism continues to impact achievement

Carr, the commissioner of the National Center for Educational Statistics, said chronic absenteeism likely impacted NAEP scores.

“We have seen an improvement in chronic absenteeism,” she said. “It’s not where it needs to be, but it’s particularly noteworthy among the lower performing students.”

Michigan has long had high rates of chronic absenteeism, which is defined as students missing 10% or more of the school year.

In the 2023-24 school year, 29.5% of Michigan students were chronically absent — a significantly higher percentage compared to the last pre-pandemic school year when it was 19.7% of students.

Isabel Lohman reports on early childhood, K-12, and higher education for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Mike Wilkinson is a data reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach him at mwilkinson@bridgemi.com.