Department Illegally Hides School Performance Data from Parents
The Great Lakes Education Project today called on the State Board of
Education to hold accountable officials with the Michigan Department of Education for brazenly and continuously violating Michigan’s public school performance transparency law.
The Department today for more than a month has hidden school performance records from parents across the state. The Department is required by law to publish by September 1st
A-F letter grades for each school in the state in 5 areas – math and reading proficiency; math and reading growth; performance with English language learners; graduation rates; and a comparison of like schools.
“State law requires the Board of Education to be transparent with parents about their schools performance, but the Board is breaking that law,” said Beth DeShone, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project. “Parents deserve transparency about the performance of their children’s schools and taxpayers deserve accountability from the Department of Education. No one is above the law, and that includes Lansing bureaucrats.”
The Department has throughout Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s terms worked to ignore or undermine the state’s public school transparency laws. When they have published legally required transparency reports, they’ve often only done so after public pressure from parents and the media, and only after long, illegal delays.
“Lansing bureaucrats must comply with our state’s public school transparency law and they must comply today,” concluded DeShone.