Whitmer repeals A-F letter grade system for ranking Michigan's public schools

Michigan's public schools will no longer be ranked based on their performance using an A-F grading system.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed House Bill 4166 Monday to eliminate the letter grade system for public school rankings, characterizing it as burdensome red tape for Michigan's schools. The rankings provide a way for parents to evaluate and compare public schools in their communities. Public schools will continue to issue grades for assignments and tests to students.

"Today’s legislation will eliminate burdensome requirements and allow schools to implement the best practices to help their students succeed," Whitmer said in a statement.

She went on to champion investments her administration has made in education. "Let’s continue getting things done to support Michigan children and give them the phenomenal education that they deserve," she said.

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The Democratic bill passed on a party-line vote in the state Senate, but received bipartisan support in the state House. While the legislation signed by Whitmer repeals the current grading system for ranking schools, it preserves the current index system that also measures school performance.

Bill sponsor and former teacher state Rep. Matt Koleszar, D-Plymouth, called the A-F system for ranking schools "duplicative and ineffective" in a statement.

In 2018, former Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, approved the A-F system passed by Republican lawmakers after the election that year.

"This legislation was rushed through in lame duck, with strong opposition from public educators, administrators, and school boards. I am proud to get another law off the books that never served to help our students," Koleszar said.

Republican opponents said that the bill will take away from parents an easy-to-understand tool to evaluate school performance.

But Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice celebrated the change as a win for parents. "Less is more with the repeal of the A-F system, which always tried to create the false impression that rating schools was easy," he said in a statement. "It isn’t. Schools are complex, and what educators do daily for children is as well. It distills poorly into a letter grade system."

Michigan's school index system — which will remain intact under the legislation signed by Whitmer — is designed to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act requiring every state to have an accountability system for public schools. It includes data about each school and assigns points based on factors such as chronic absenteeism, graduation rate and English learner progress.

Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer repeals letter grade rankings for public schools