So How Are Michigan’s Public Schools Doing, Anyway?

Last night on 60 Minutes, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had trouble with a few of the questions. First, Lesley Stahl asked why it made sense to take money away from public schools that were failing. Would that make them better? DeVos said that in Florida, for example, which allows lots of student choice, “the traditional public schools actually– the results get better.”

Then Stahl switched to Michigan, DeVos’s home state, and one that she’s spent years trying to make more charter friendly. Here’s how it went:

Stahl: Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?
DeVos: I don’t know. Overall, I– I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better.
Stahl: The whole state is not doing well.
DeVos: Well, there are certainly lots of pockets where this– the students are doing well and–
Stahl: No, but your argument that if you take funds away that the schools will get better, is not working in Michigan where you had a huge impact and influence over the direction of the school system here.
DeVos: I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them.
Stahl: The public schools here are doing worse than they did.
DeVos: Michigan schools need to do better. There is no doubt about it.

How are public schools doing in Michigan? DeVos didn’t seem to know, and Stahl was quite sure they’re doing worse. There’s no single answer to this question, but one quick way to ground yourself is to look at NAEP scores over time. So I hopped over to the NAEP website, which announced a fancy new data explorer tool, and explored. Here’s the answer:¹

Stahl seemed quite sure that public schools were doing worse, but the NAEP data suggests that in both math and reading they’ve improved over the past decade by as much or more than the national average. DeVos should have known that!

Unfortunately for DeVos, the same data suggests that charter schools in Michigan are doing worse over time. The data is jumpy, but in both math and reading the 2015 scores are below the 2005 scores.

These figures aren’t broken down by race or income or location or any of that, so don’t take them too seriously. Still, they provide a rough look at how Michigan kids are doing, and it sure looks like they’re doing steadily better in public schools but not in charter schools. I think everyone in this 60 Minutes segment should have done a little more homework.

¹I chose 8th grade because there was almost no data for 12th grade. But if Michigan is like the rest of the country, test scores for 12th graders are probably pretty flat.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate