State law required the Michigan Department of Education to publish A-F letter grades for each of the state’s public school buildings by September 1, 2019. They said it couldn’t be done. They said the earliest anyone could generate these report cards was March 1, 2020.
They were wrong.
Last week, the Great Lakes Education Project, using publicly available data from the 2017-2018 school assessments, produced A-F letter grades for approximately 2,800 public schools. We delivered those report cards to the State Board of Education and every state legislator. We also made the information available to the public on our website – www.glep.org/a-f – so every parent can see how their students’ school is performing.
Transparency and school accountability is important, and parents deserve to have all the information possible when it comes to making the best educational choices for their children’s future. No more excuses! The Department of Education should follow the law, and provide that accountability through A-F letter grades for schools.
Beth DeShone
Executive Director, Great Lakes Education Project
Associated Press:Group criticizes delayed release of A-to-F grade for schools
“The Michigan Department of Education is facing criticism from a conservative education group for not publishing A-through-F letter grades for public schools.“A 2018 law requires the agency to have assigned each school a grade in five categories by Sept. 1 and each year following. But the department does not plan to release the initial grades until March.”
WLNS:Great Lakes Education Project to deliver new report to State Board of Education
“The Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP) is planning to provide the state Board of Education a copy of “a major new school performance report,” Tuesday morning, according to a press release.“The announcement that the Lansing-based non-profit will hand-deliver a new performance report comes as the Michigan Department of Education was found to have violated state law by withholding the publishing of letter grades for each school in the state.”
“The Great Lakes Education Project, a right-leaning group based in Lansing, published report cards for 2,800 schools in the state, assigning letter grades for the same categories the state would. The law set a Sept. 1 deadline for the education department to produce the report cards. Beth DeShone, executive director of the project, said the state has been dragging its feet on the implementation.”
How does your school stack up? Find your school’s report card at
www.glep.org/a-f.
Contact the Michigan Department of Education, and ask them why they still refuse to follow the law.
