LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Several school districts in Michigan say that the state of Michigan’s new report that measures the percentage of courses passed at each district and across the state is underreporting the pass rates.
River Rouge, Detroit, and Brighton.
Michigan News Source contacted River Rouge, Detroit and Brighton and asked about their course-pass rates and all three school districts reported them as inaccurate and too low. Brighton’s course-pass rate was listed at 48.8%, River Rouge was 41.% and Detroit’s was 80.5% The statewide average was reported at 87.3%.
MORE NEWS: Running on Empty: Jackson Transit Blames Cuts for Service Snags
“Thank you for the heads up on this,” Matt Outlaw, superintendent at Brighton Area Schools, said in an email to Michigan News Source. “This is definitely not accurate for our district. We are among the highest performing districts in the State.”
The data.
The Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) released data that measured the percentage of courses being passed by students.
It described the methodology in this manner:
“For example, if a district had three Math courses, and each course had 25 students, 20 of whom were reported as passing in each class, the calculation for Math courses in that district would be: 60 courses reported as Completed/Passed divided by 75 total courses reported = 80% of courses passed.”
A flaw?
However, Detroit Public Schools Community District said it found a flaw in the methodology. The state is measuring students who withdraw from classes as failures, and that may not be the case.
“The discrepancy stems from an issue in the state’s methodology, as the public report includes administrative course withdrawals in its calculation, which are not academic failures. They often result from student transfers or schedule changes, and their inclusion artificially lowers the pass rate,” said Chrystal Wilson, spokeswoman for the Detroit Public Schools Community District.
MORE NEWS: Justice Department: East Lansing Only Sanctuary City in Michigan
She continued, “We’ve been working with the state’s Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) to clarify these discrepancies. In response, the state has informed us they plan to update the report’s “About this Report” section for greater clarity and are considering updates to the report itself based on these discrepancies.”
Clarification needed.
CEPI spokesman James Hines confirmed the issue. He said the CEPI report includes the number of courses reported as “passed” and then divided by the total number of courses reported. That “total number of courses reported” does include students who have withdrawn as not passing.
He said they would include a clarification on the methodology in the “About This Report” document.