Chad Selweski covered state and regional politics for The Macomb Daily for nearly 30 years. He contributes to Deadline Detroit and blogs at Politically Speaking.
By Chad Selweski
A bill newly introduced in the state Legislature will grant local school officials a passing grade even as the facts show that Michigan students lag behind the national average in test scores, and the U.S. average subsequently ranks far below many Western industrial nations in student performance.
That reality, more than trade agreements or globalization or immigration, puts our Michigan kids at a disadvantage when trying to secure a post-high school job that offers decent wages and a promising future.
The House bill targets for elimination the Common Core education reform program, which has been disparaged by myths and alternative facts over the past several years. Its basic premise relied upon wholly modernizing the U.S. K-12 student testing process so that our kids don’t lag so far behind the rest of the industrialized world.
Though Common Core was encouraged by the Obama administration, it is not a federally mandated curriculum -- or a curriculum at all. It consists of learning outcomes that broadly set national goals in math, science, English and social studies. It was created by the bipartisan National Governor’s Association, along with school superintendents nationwide, after many years of research. Before Common Core became the subject of Obama-based conspiracy theories, it was widely embraced across the nation by business, labor and a bipartisan array of state legislators, including in Michigan.
Rep. Gary Glenn
So, who is the genius behind this attempt in Lansing to cover our eyes and ignore abysmal test scores among Michigan’s K-12 students? It’s Rep. Gary Glenn, a far-right ideologue and homophobe who seems to put his paranoia about the federal and state government above what is best for our state’s students.
The bottom line: U.S. students are mediocre, on a global basis, and Common Core is an attempt to raise test scores, not just on a national average but in every state and every school district.
In a distasteful bit of irony, the Michigan House Committee on Competitiveness seems ready to embrace Glenn’s bill, with the help of numerous Republican co-sponsors. The measure would repeal Common Core standards the state adopted in 2010 and make testing an option. At one point, 47 states had joined Michigan in signing on to Common Core but, after fierce opposition was mounted, that number is down to 42 states. The outliers are Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Alaska, Nebraska, Indiana, and South Carolina.
Poor Rankings For U.S.
In global testing of 15-year-old students in dozens of industrialized countries, the U.S. ranks below average in mathematics, behind nations such as Estonia, Denmark and Slovenia. In reading skills, the U.S. stands in the middle of the pack, trailing the likes of Belgium, Finland and Switzerland. In science, we are average, with Poland and Austria outscoring our kids.
These rankings are based on the Programme for International Student Assessment. The PISA exam tests kids’ ability to use their academic skills to solve real-world workplace situations.
Yet, Glenn, a central Michigan Republican, seems to demonize Common Core and embrace local control even at the expense of students he represents in the state House.
According to a comprehensive, statewide analysis by Bridge Magazine,students in the largest school district in Glenn’s House district, Midland, are not faring well. Only 30-40% of Midland high school students are considered “college ready.”
What many parents need to know is that, based on a vast number of student test scores, their local school officials have been scamming them for years by emphasizing that mediocre-at-best exam results represent an improvement over past years. They’re told those stats should be a point of pride among all parents and taxpayers.
When more than two-thirds of students statewide who took the 2014 standardized test couldn't read at their grade level, Gov. Rick Snyder seemed pleased that “these improved scores reflect the hard work of the students.”
Testing Merry-Go-Round
In recent years, Michigan has experienced a continuing merry-go-round of standardized testing – MEAP, then MME, then M-STEP. Results have been familiar – always bad.
Worse yet, test scores among minorities – blacks and Hispanics – remain so low that it’s hard to imagine many of these kids succeeding in an economy where post-secondary education is demanded by employers, even among applicants for traditional blue-collar jobs. The Detroit schools face an especially frightful situation.
In 2014, the ACT college entrance exam scores that were released along with the MME results found that nearly 200 high schools in Michigan did not have a single student who was “college ready” by the ACT’s standards.
That is a stunning number. Why are parents and taxpayers in those communities paying $7,000 or $8,000 per student — each year, for 12 years — if none of these teens are ready for college at the end of the K-12 education process?
The 2015 switch to M-STEP, a Common Core-inspired new exam that is more difficult than prior tests, found that the student scores predictably indicated a step backward. Michigan students’ lack of competitiveness with their peers throughout the nation and across the globe became even more apparent.
Common Core critics seem bent on preserving a 20th Century status quo in teaching standards for our kids. Rather than relying upon rote memorization in the classroom that was typical a century ago, the new standards require logic and problem-solving.
The Common Core-based tests implemented by the states emphasize “word problems,” not multiple choice, that force students to rely upon their knowledge, creativity, analytical abilities and critical thinking – all the attributes 21st Century employers demand of their workforce.
'An Incredible Shift'
As a result, the Common Core tests don't look like the standardized exams that most students have taken in the past. Instead of No. 2 pencils used to fill in bubble sheets, they incorporate computers that engage students in videos, drag-and-drop responses and open-ended questions that ask them to explain their reasoning.
"It represents an incredible shift in the way we think about testing," said Laura McGiffert Slover, CEO of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, one of the groups developing Common Core-based tests. "We really believe this is going to change the paradigm."
In 2013, in a moment of controversial candor, former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that in states where Common Core had already taken root, “white suburban moms” suddenly discovered that their kids aren’t as “brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”
That was an ugly truth. But the last thing our students need is an every-kid-deserves-a-trophy mentality. That's a path to mediocrity.
Disingenuous finger-pointing by hyper-partisans like Rep. Glenn will not change the fact that Washington is not to blame for a sub-par education system for our kids.
