Assessments show most young students can’t meet state standards for reading

Editor’s note: The text has been revised to state “proficient or above” rather than “proficient” to more precisely reflect official data.

Key scores on Michigan’s official standardized tests declined again, according to recently released results.

Results from the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP, showed a decline in third and fourth grade performance in reading, with performance for third grade math declining as well.

More than 60% of third graders and nearly 58% of the state’s fourth graders failed the reading portion of the M-STEP, Molly Macek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, wrote in a Sept. 9 commentary.

This follows declines of previous years.

Far less than half of third grade students — 39.6% — scored proficient or above on the English Language Arts part of the M-STEP in 2024, according to a press release from the Michigan Department of Education. That share dipped to 38.9% in 2025. The performance of fourth grade students slid as well, going from 43.3% scoring proficient or above in 2024 to 42.4% doing so in 2025.

Math scores improved for one of those grades but worsened for the other.

M-STEP scores revealed that 43.4% of third graders scored proficient or above in math in 2024 and 42.7% were in that category in 2025. The share of fourth graders scoring proficient or better in math increased from 39.1% in 2024 to 39.4% in 2025.

The Michigan Department of Education, in its Aug. 27 press release, reported that students had improved on many tests. But M-STEP scores in all tested grades are still lower than they were before the pandemic, Macek told Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The state education department acknowledged the shortcoming. “As noted in our press release, while proficiency levels improved on 14 of 20 state assessments, there is more work to do – which is demonstrated by the lower proficiency rates in third- and fourth-grade English Language Arts,” Bob Wheaton, director of the Office of Public and Governmental Affairs, told CapCon in an email.

Wheaton pointed to several ongoing efforts to improve student achievement, including those propelled by bipartisan support for laws enacted in 2024 to address dyslexia and early literacy.

The scores were published at the same time the Michigan Education Association said teachers in many districts still lacked a contract.

Macek, the Mackinac Center education analyst, said that district leaders can use contracts as a way to advance student performance.

“As contract negotiations stall, school officials should consider policies like merit pay that reward the most effective teachers and incentivize underperforming ones to improve,” Macek told CapCon. Contracts that do not place a priority on teacher performance and professional growth will do nothing to improve student achievement, she added.

The Michigan Education Association did not respond to an emailed request for comment.