Michigan Ranks 50th in US for School Performance Metrics

[Wesley Mouch]

Gee, what's her name that's running the Federal system now? Where is she from? And what was her mission?

When a report produces findings you adore, suspicion is best.

The report calls for an increase of $3.6 billion per year, or a 20% increase.

The report writers are not only experts in school funding / school performance, but also in how to fix the problem. And its so easy. Just pour more money. Who knew?

[DeLemur]

When a report produces findings you adore, suspicion is best.

The report writers are not only experts in school funding / school performance, but also in how to fix the problem. And its so easy. Just pour more money. Who knew?

Money means a lot when teachers are making 40K a year and would rather be delivering cardboard boxes all day long for UPS and making more money. We need quality educators and invested parents.
When you're dead last in funding increases and dead last in performance change, something tells me you should pay attention to the money. Not like the skills of 2019 are any different from 1994 are they? Sure manufacturing facilities look identical to then and the skills don't really need much math or programming. We'll do alright with the lowest performance increases in Math and Reading.

I'm sorry, but you don't deserve to be the sarcastic guy here after this report. Guess, that'll be me.

[oladub]

Money means a lot when teachers are making 40K a year and would rather be delivering cardboard boxes all day long for UPS and making more money. We need quality educators and invested parents.
When you're dead last in funding increases and dead last in performance change, something tells me you should pay attention to the money. Not like the skills of 2019 are any different from 1994 are they? Sure manufacturing facilities look identical to then and the skills don't really need much math or programming. We'll do alright with the lowest performance increases in Math and Reading.

According to a 2018 USA Today article citing U.S. Department of Labor numbers, Michigan ranks 13th. of 50 among states in teacher pay.

13. Michigan

• Median salary, school teachers: $62,442
• Median salary, all workers: $36,650 [[23rd highest)
• Per pupil expenditure: $12,765 [[21st highest)
• High school graduation rate: 79.8 percent [[15th lowest)
• Cost of living: 6.5 percent less than national avg. [[22nd lowest)

[DeLemur]

According to a 2018 USA Today article citing U.S. Department of Labor numbers, Michigan ranks 13th. of 50 among states in teacher pay.

13. Michigan

• Median salary, school teachers: $62,442
• Median salary, all workers: $36,650 [[23rd highest)
• Per pupil expenditure: $12,765 [[21st highest)
• High school graduation rate: 79.8 percent [[15th lowest)
• Cost of living: 6.5 percent less than national avg. [[22nd lowest)

This is good data. Higher than I expected, from the anecdotal evidence I hear from friends who've taught in Charter schools or started in DPS.

[Zacha341]

The charters are lower than DPS on average.

And that salary range quote is for a certified, masters level teacher quite a few years in. Not intro.

This is good data. Higher than I expected, from the anecdotal evidence I hear from friends who've taught in Charter schools or started in DPS.

[Canadian Visitor]

According to a 2018 USA Today article citing U.S. Department of Labor numbers, Michigan ranks 13th. of 50 among states in teacher pay.

13. Michigan

• Median salary, school teachers: $62,442
• Median salary, all workers: $36,650 [[23rd highest)
• Per pupil expenditure: $12,765 [[21st highest)
• High school graduation rate: 79.8 percent [[15th lowest)
• Cost of living: 6.5 percent less than national avg. [[22nd lowest)

By far the most important metric there is HS Graduation.

Others not listed would be performance on SATs and other standardized tests, PISA results, % of students who move on to post-secondary and who graduate post-secondary.

***

I don't believe, based on what I've seen here, that anyone would disagree that Michigan under performs on education.

The reasonable question is then why.

To answer that, you first need to break down the Michigan results regionally.

This is important because it helps answer the questions about state-wide choices such as curriculum, length of school day and year etc.

If it turns out results are more in line w/acceptable when you remove, let's say, the 4 worst performing boards.....then the state-level fixes might be smaller, and the issue more centered on the problematic boards.

If the results are still disappointing when you extract the poorest performers, then there is a need for more comprehensive change at the state level.

Without having studied the issue in detail, my suspicion would be a bit of both.

I see Michigan has lengthened the school year in recent years to be more in line w/US norms, but its still really short by global standards.

Ontario's school year is 194 days.

In respect of funding per pupil, I would like to see how that breakdown compares between different boards.

I think logically you start with a base amount per student that is equal across a jurisdiction.

You then add money to deal with extraordinary costs such as busing in rural areas, the cost of older school buildings that less efficient and have higher repair costs, as well as proportion of higher-needs students.

The base sum may be unreasonably low or about right; but how its allocated is every bit as important.

[hybridy]

we jumped out of the birmingham district into another public district that is also top-ranking in a new state. my first grader while not behind, did have an adjustment period. in addition to 20 minutes of required nightly reading, she also had daily math homework...IN FIRST GRADE! she did not have any of this daily work in birmingham school district.

i do wonder how michigan's large urban districts skew that data? DPS, Flint, etc.