The recently released 2017 results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, often called the “nation’s report card”) show little change in Michigan’s dismal performance in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math. Michigan’s rank among the states in fourth-grade reading ticked up six places, but only because other states slipped. Our 2017 scale score was actually lower than our 2011 score and only 32 percent of our fourth-graders were deemed proficient in reading in 2017. And we ranked last in the Midwest in every category.
