DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has introduced his education plan in his campaign as an Independent candidate to be the next governor of Michigan.

Duggan is proposing a “five-year accountability timeline” for failing schools where, if there is no progress, the principal is fired after three years and after five years of no progress, the superintendent would be fired.

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Duggan stated that such accountability was necessary because 60% of Michigan’s fourth graders were not reading at grade level and the state was 44th in the U.S. for 8-year-olds in reading.

At a time when many in the state have expressed concern over the state’s academic performance on standardized tests, local school administrators are receiving their highest marks to date.

Local K-12 administrators received their best ratings since the system was created in 2011-12 with an all-time high of 46% getting the top “highly effective” rating in 2023-24, the latest year data is available from the state. There are four possible evaluation classifications. The second highest is “effective” and 55% of administrators got that rating in 2023-24.

Since 2012-13, there have been so few administrators given the lowest rating of “ineffective” that it registers as 0%. The evaluation data is provided by the state of Michigan.

The “Administrators” title includes positions such as superintendents, assistant superintendents, principals and assistant principals.