Birch Run teachers union president decries state testing

The president of the teachers union at Birch Run Area Schools denounced standardized testing in a recent article for a Michigan Education Association newsletter.

Amy Urbanowski-Nowak, president of the Birch Run Education Association, lamented the prominent role of objective assessments in a December opinion piece for the state teachers union’s newsletter.

"We have students sitting in classrooms everyday who excel in many ways that a standardized test can’t measure and the news reports and charts and graphs will never convey," Urbanowski-Nowak wrote.

Test scores from M-STEP, Michigan’s assessment of public school students, paint an unfavorable picture of Urbanowski-Nowak’s district.

• More than two-thirds (68%) of third graders at Birch Run Area Schools were not proficient on the English Language Arts exam in 2024-25.
• Two-thirds (66%) of the district’s third-grade students were not proficient in math in 2024-25.

Research by the group Tennesseans for Quality Early Education concludes that proficiency in reading and math by the end of third grade is one of the strongest predictors of future academic achievement and career success.

Older students have an equally poor record, according to the M-STEP results.

• Two-thirds (66%) of seventh graders were proficient in English.
• Nearly three-fourths (73%) were not proficient in math in 2024-25.

Lack of proficiency among third grade students is a problem in many Michigan communities, not just in Birch Run.

• Statewide, 61% of students were not proficient in English in 2024-25.
• More than half (57%) were not proficient in math.

The record also was poor among the state’s seventh-grade students.

• Three of every five students (60%) were not proficient in English in 2024-25.
• Two in three students (67%) were not proficient in math.

Urbanowski-Nowak dismissed standardized testing by citing anecdotal evidence of student achievement that is not measured by test results.

“Young people are figuring out how to dissect sources for credibility in their English courses, a skill they will carry into the real world,” she wrote. “I have seen students compete in public speaking competitions in the forensic circuit, among peers from all around the state, and do so with confidence and eloquence.

“I have seen some gather courage to present in front of their community during drama productions and wow audiences,” she continued. “I have seen students motivating their fellow classmates to succeed and helping those in need.

“But test scores do not show any of this.”

State taxpayers have increased their support for the district since the COVID lockdowns.

State funding for Birch Run schools increased from $7,840 in 2018-19 to $11,678 per pupil in 2024-25, according to the Department of Education’s statistical bulletin.