As Education Recovers from COVID, Minority and Low Income Students Lagging Behind
(Kurt Metzger, Dec. 10, 2023)
Oakland County, MI -Across Oakland County, M-STEP test scores are increasing, but minority and low-income students are not progressing as quickly as others.
The recent release of the state’s ‘student growth’ report (comparing test scores in 2022-23 school year with 2021-22) allows me to once again look at Oakland Schools in relation to racial/ethnic differences within the county. Such a comparison also allows us to get some idea of the pandemic effect on learning.
The Student Growth report shows changes in student scores over time for students who have taken two or more consecutive state assessment tests in Michigan. Michigan uses a measure called student growth percentiles, or SGPs, as its growth score. SGPs measure student growth in comparison to other students with similar prior test scores. This helps students, parents, and educators determine if a student’s learning is above, near, or below the average of their comparison group.
I decided to take a look at the growth performance of 4th and 8th graders in Oakland County across four major racial/ethnic categories – Asian, White, Hispanic/Latino and African American – for both English Language Arts and Mathematics. I also included children categorized as ‘economically disadvantaged’ to understand how they performed. Students are judged as scoring ‘above average growth,’ ‘average growth,’ and ‘below average growth.’ The charts below are based on the share of students (4th or 8th graders) who scored ‘below average growth,’ indicating a need for independent education plans, tutoring and other educational interventions.
I selected 4th graders because of the importance of reading skills at this age. It is said that children learn to read up to third grade. Beginning in fourth grade, they read to learn. It is also critical that children’s math skills are up to grade level, or else they face a future of ‘hating math’ and falling farther behind. I look at 8th grade as another pivotal year in a child’s educational journey. It marks the last year of middle school and serves as providing important educational, social and emotional structures that will prepare them for high school.
The charts below, one for 4th grade and one for 8th, show the share of children, by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status who demonstrated ‘below average growth’ since the previous year. A number of articles over the last year have discussed the educational losses suffered by students – particularly Black and brown students – due to the pandemic.
The charts are essentially identical (and are replicable statewide), in that the shares of ‘below average growth’ are lowest for Asian students, followed by white, Hispanic, Economically Disadvantaged, and African American. In both grades, in both subjects, African American students have the highest shares of ‘below average growth,’ almost twice that of Asian students and 40 percent more than white students.
While the racial distributions within school districts do not allow for cross-group comparisons at grade level (less than 10 students in multiple groups), and district-wide data show variations in totals, the racial/ethnic gaps are always there.
On December 1, Gov. Whitmer launched the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential. The new department will be focused on developing talent to fill in-demand jobs, early learning and higher education, improving long-term student outcomes, and growing the economy.
The recognition of the Pre-K – Post Grad (PK-20) pipeline as a continuum, with a number of critical measurable goals along the path, has been identified and acted upon by many states, counties and regions, across the country. A dedication to maintaining up-to-date data, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities and socioeconomic status, is critical for the long-term if Michigan is serious about success.
