A-F Grading for Michigan Schools: 6 Things to Know

Parents will soon be able to find out if their children’s schools are getting failing, passing or superior grades under a program the Michigan Department of Education has adopted at the urging of state school Superintendent Brian Whiston.

As students do, schools and school districts will get letter grades of A-F under a program that replaces the color-coded system that many parents and educators described as confusing.

“We have to create a system that makes sense,” Whiston said of the program, which will be implemented in 2017-18, in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.

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The program, which about a dozen states have adopted, has been controversial nationwide, and the Michigan Department of Education is currently listening to parents, educators, business owners and others before deciding how the system will be implemented.

Here are six things to know about the system:

1. High test scores aren’t an automatic A. Scores must show continuous improvement to get an A.
2. Test score improvement can count for up to 50 percent of a school’s grade, especially at the elementary level.
3. Graduation and attendance rates also contribute to schools’ grades.
4. Class size, program offerings and budget information, all important to parents when they’re choosing schools, also affect the grades.
5. The state Education Department would intervene when schools receive D or F grades, but failure to make improvements could result in school closure by the State School Reform Office.
6. The grading system was adopted as part of a larger effort to make Michigan schools among the 10 top performing in the nation, as well as comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, the reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education law approved by Congress last fall.

The grading system has been sharply criticized in some the states where it’s already in use. The National Association of School Principals opposes the grading system and at least one state, Virginia, has repealed legislation that approved it.

Gary Naeyaert, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, told the Free Press the A-F grading system is more effective for measuring school success than other systems, which he said have illustrated problems of poverty.

However, one of the complaints against the system nationwide is that it punishes schools that serve the poor and disadvantaged.

Alan Ehrenhalt, editor of Governing Magazine, wrote that in Maine, the grading scale tracked demographics.

“... Schools in poorer communities around the state nearly all finished lower than their counterparts in affluent suburbs, regardless of academic methods. High schools that were graded A had an average of 9 percent of their students on free or reduced price lunch. Schools that got an F had 61 percent of their students receiving subsidized lunches. To a great extent, the test was simply a measure of poverty, not school quality.”

Chris Wigent, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators, told the Free Press that although he has reservations about the grading system, he’s glad the Education Department is seeking comments on the system.

“MDE has made it very clear that this is the direction they're headed,” Wigent said. “We can continue to have that debate. Right now the focus needs to be on putting the system together.”

Michigan PTA President Ruthann Jaquette, of Grand Ledge, generally favors the A-F grading system, but cautioned that it should not be used as “a club to hold over schools and teachers’ heads.”

Have an Opinion on This?
Tell us what you think in the comments. If you’d like to be part of a virtual focus group for parents or teachers, go here, click on the "ESSA" icon on the homepage, then click on the “Get Involved” icon. If you need help, call the MDE’s main number, (517) 373-3324.

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