By Elena Durnbaugh
Assistant Editor
Posted: March 13, 2023 8:52 AM

The House has introduced a bill that would repeal Michigan's controversial letter grading system for schools.

The system was put in place during the 2018 lame-duck session. Under the legislation, schools receive letter grades, A-F, based on student proficiency in math and English, student growth in math and English, student growth among English language learners, graduation rates and school's academic performance of the state assessment compared to similar schools.

"This was something that was registered during lame duck and passed by quite literally one vote," said Rep. Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth) the sponsor of the bill. "It was a 56-53 vote, and a 63-47 majority Republican legislature, so that shows you how divisive this was."

Michigan also has a school index system that provides feedback on how schools are performing in different areas, but the letter grade system was introduced because some people felt it wasn't sufficiently clear for parents.

"As of right now, it's not even being used because it doesn't meet federal standards." Mr. Koleszar said. "So, because it doesn't meet federal standards, and we already use the index system for the state of Michigan, which is federally approved … there's a lot of questions why we would keep it at statute."

Peter Spadafore, executive director of the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, called the legislation (HB 4166) to repeal the grading system "long overdue."

"Michigan's dual accountability systems lead to confusion and fail to improve outcomes for students," Mr. Spadafore said. "The current system fails to measure student growth, doesn't inform parents, and doesn't help student learning. Michigan's letter grading system was ill-informed when it was signed into law and has not led to improved student performance since."

Mr. Koleszar said that there are some people, especially within the charter school community, who are concerned that repealing the A-F grading system might hurt accountability measures at schools. He said that was important for people to remember that even if the letter grade system was repealed, the state index system would still provide that accountability.

"This is why we have bills that go through a hearings process at a testimony process. We can make sure that we're weighing all concerns and making sure we can come up with the best possible law that can hopefully get as many people as possible on board," he said.

Beth DeShone, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, was critical of repealing the grading system.

"Parents expect more from the House than legislation designed to hide school performance data from families and taxpayers. Let's be very clear about this – House Bill 4166 is disdainful anti-transparency legislation. It's a push to sweep learning loss under the rug, and kids along with it," Ms. DeShone said.

She went on to say that the legislation would strip transparency requirements for schools, which serve to inform parents and policymakers.

"It's a bill that will exacerbate inequalities, widen the learning gap, and disproportionately punish students in schools that struggle the most," Ms. DeShone said.

Repealing the current system would remove ratings the state isn't currently using, but the state's index system would still be in place, Mr. Koleszar said.

"If there are ways to improve the index system, I'm all for it," he said, "But it's always important to remember that anything we do with the state index system, if we change it, it has to be approved by the U.S. Department of Education to make sure it meets the standards."

Mr. Koleszar could not say how quickly the bill might move through the committee process, but he said he hoped it would be soon.

"The sooner the better," he said. "This is something that I think is overdue, especially because it was pass(ed) in 2018 and we're still not using it now. But again, I want to make sure everybody that would like to have a conversation with me has the opportunity to do so."