LANSING, MI – Just after 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would assign letter grades to schools, something supporters say helps parents see how their schools stack up, but opponents claim will cause chaos.
House Bill 5526 would create an A-F letter grading system for schools. But under changes on the House floor it would not be a single grade assigned to each school. Instead, each school would get five separate letter grades in the areas of proficiency in math and English language arts, growth in math and English language arts, growth in English as a Second Language proficiency, graduation rates and academic performance compared to like schools.
The system would be created by the Michigan Department of Education and reviewed by a newly-created, five-member peer review panel that submits a report to the department and legislature. The peer review panel would include three members appointed by the governor, one appointed by the Senate Majority Leader and one appointed by the Speaker of the House.
The letter grades would work in concert with a parent dashboard and school index system currently in place under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.
Republicans spent much of the marathon, 17-hour session Wednesday and Thursday discussing the bill and holding multiple caucus meetings. It ended up passing 56-53, with Democrats and a handful of Republicans voting against it.
“I think that this is a good thing for Michigan. I think it will help not only parents but it will also help schools identify, help identify their weaknesses and try to focus on trying to bring those areas of weaknesses up,” said bill sponsor Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw.
He said the bill had to be changed in the sausage-making process but was “a good foundation.”
Democrats, however, vigorously opposed the measure.
Rep. Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills, said adopting the A-F system would put Michigan in line with the systems of lower-performing states in education, not the high performers.
“What are we doing here? How is this moving our state forward?” she asked.
Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, D-Detroit, a former teacher, compared the bill to an “ill-prepared project pieced together the night before it was due,” and said it was designed to circumvent the state board of education, which flips to Democratic control in January.
She was cut off from speaking after mentioning the influence of the family of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos on education policy.
“This legislation does nothing more than provide an avenue for the likes of the DeVos family to push their agenda, eviscerating public education in our state,” she said.
Kelly hit back against allegations of influence from the West Michigan family, saying that while the DeVos family had supported similar measures elsewhere but no family member specifically asked him for this bill.
“This idea that you come here as a blank slate and lobbyists write on you is just absolutely ridiculous, whether it’s the DeVos or whatever. Is the DeVos any different influence than the MEA (Michigan Education Association) on their side, or the UAW? No,” Kelly said.
Rep. Kristy Pagan, D-Canton, pointed out this would be Michigan’s third school performance grading system since 2012.
“These actions cause chaos in our school systems and force our teachers into over-emphasizing test scores,” she said, speaking in opposition to the bill on the House floor.
The idea of a letter grading system has been under consideration in some form for years. The Michigan Department of Education announced but later backed off a plan to institute the grading system after getting negative public feedback last year, landing on a dashboard instead.
The A-F system would overlay that dashboard and both will remain in place, Kelly said.
The A-F grading idea has traditionally drawn some opposition from school leaders, who have argued it is too simplistic and could unfairly tag schools with a bad overall grade when they’re improving in certain areas.
Why educators continue arguing against A to F grades for schools
After the vote early Thursday morning the Tri-County Alliance for Public Education criticized the bill in a press release.
“Educators, school boards, parents and business leaders from across Michigan have spoken out against this poorly thought out legislation because it does nothing to help schools or our students. Instead, it will only stigmatize countless schools across the state and further set back the education community’s efforts to improve the quality of education we are providing our students," said Dr. Russell Pickell, Superintendent of Riverview Schools.
“In a lame-duck session unfortunately characterized by a hyper-partisan agenda, it seems that even our schools and our students aren’t safe from politics being put ahead of good policy in the middle of the night.”
The bill heads next to the Senate for consideration. And there’s not a lot of wiggle room, Kelly warned.
“They’ll probably go through some of the same gyrations as we did here. I have warned that it can’t come back, so pretty much take it as-is,” he said.
It would need to pass the Senate and be signed by Gov. Rick Snyder become law.