MARQUETTE — A recent report by the Michigan Department of Education shows progress toward achieving its educational strategic plan, including higher graduation rates.

Other reports, however, show that some Michigan students’ test scores fell as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state’s strategic plan is based on eight long-range goals, each focused on a different educational need.

The department’s report focuses on two of those goals: addressing the teacher shortage and providing adequate and equitable school funding because they are resources necessary for education.

Three other goals – expansion of early childhood education, improvement of early literacy and health, safety and wellness of young children also are important in that they support students early in their lives, according to the plan.

The remaining goals are secondary school program expansion, graduation rates and technical training credentials.

The department measured progress toward all eight goals.

For example, Goal 5, “Graduation Rates,” shows that between 2013 and 2023 the percent of students who graduated from high school after four years increased from 77% to nearly 82%, an improvement of almost five percentage points.

Improvement was even more pronounced among students of color, the study said.

Michigan’s eight long-range goals for the schools. Source: Michigan Department of Education

To put those figures into context, over 1.4 million students were enrolled in Michigan public schools in the 2023-24 school year.

According to the report, graduation rates in Michigan have largely recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

The state’s strategic plan also outlined a range of programs designed to help districts achieve the goals.

For example, to improve graduation rates, the state offered several options: the Michigan Merit Curriculum, an early warning intervention and monitoring system, opportunities to provide career and technical education, and additional funding for intermediate and local districts.

Other experts say Michigan’s education system needs more improvement.

According to reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the Covid pandemic had a wide range of negative impacts on students across the nation.

In particular, the pandemic widened performance gaps that already existed due to the switch to remote learning from in-person instruction.

Studies from the U.S. Department of Education show that in-person instruction is a key part of student performance.

And researchers at Harvard University and Stanford University reveal how school closures and local conditions exacerbated inequality among communities, including in Michigan.

They found that where children lived during the pandemic mattered more to their academic progress than their family background, income or internet speed.

Moreover, after studying where test scores rose or fell in the decade before the pandemic, the researchers found that the impacts lingered for years.

For example, in comparing Grand Rapids Public Schools with Forest Hills Public Schools in a nearby suburb, they discovered that Grand Rapids students had lost over two thirds of a year of instruction in math, and almost four-fifths of a year in reading, according to the Harvard and Stanford study. That is the equivalent of losing four months of instruction in math and almost seven months of instruction in reading.

In contrast, Forest Hills students lost virtually nothing, the study said. In that district, they continued learning at the same pace as before the pandemic due in large part to community-wide advantages, including better access to broadband and fewer economic disruptions such as unemployment rates.

The researchers concluded that Michigan has barely begun to recover from significant learning loss due to the school lockdowns.

“No one wants to leave poor kids footing the bill, but that is the path Michigan is on,” said Thomas Kane, the faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard and one of the study’s co-authors.

Michael Rice, the state superintendent of public instruction, said Michigan schools must continue to reduce their staffing shortage

“Student in-person instructional time is more valuable than remote learning,” he said, and hiring enough teachers is the key to solving that problem.