by P.D. Lesko

MY TWO SONS have been, at various times, advanced in social studies, reading, mathematics and science, according to their scores on the MEAP tests. During the past two years, their overall proficiency scores dropped slightly as a result of the changes made by the Michigan Board of Education to the cut off scores for each subject. I’m delighted.

In past years, about 80 percent of Michigan students tested as “proficient” in reading and math. However, only 10 percent of the state’s high school graduates, overall, were college ready. Then again, in past years, some students were considered proficient if they answered 39 percent of the questions in a subject correctly. My sons’ scores dropped because the curve upon which Michigan school children’s MEAP tests have been graded was raised. Now, Michigan school kids must answer 65 percent of the test questions correctly to earn any level of “proficient.”

If the students in my literature courses at the University of Michigan had answered 39 percent of their test questions correctly, they would have failed the exam. I would have had undergraduates ranting and/or sobbing, in turns, in my office. Neither would a 65 percent been a reason to celebrate—a grade of D in college is an academic auto wreck in which one escapes with one’s life, just barely.

Our sons attend the Ann Arbor Public Schools, a system funded by over $183,000,000 in taxes and other revenue. It has one of the most embarrassing and pronounced achievement gaps in the state and in the country—a gap that is widening, despite much money spent, and prolonged hand-wringing by s series of superintendents and the Board of Education members. Black students in one of the richest districts in the state eventually fall behind by as much as a whole grade academically, and are much more likely to fail classes than white students; Black students graduate in smaller numbers. The new superintendent, has said nothing about her district’s achievement gap. Patricia Green, the District’s former superintendent, was reported to have said she “came to Ann Arbor to eliminate the achievement gap.”

I wanted her to succeed, but must be honest and say I thought she has a better chance of eliminating world hunger. Then, she was gone.

Under the state’s new cut scores, it was also reported that Ann Arbor’s overall proficiency rate dropped from 98 to 60 percent. The overall proficiency rate of the District’s black students plummeted from 94 percent to 22 percent. The AAPS achievement gap between black students and all others skyrocketed from 4 percent to 38 percent.

Ann Arbor is not the only rich, white school district in Michigan with an achievement gap problem. It’s just the poster child.

The raised cut scores are portrayed as the “problem,” and Michigan’s K-12 school administrators are in damage control mode. Don’t panic: the State toughened standards. Well, no. An artificially inflated MEAP grading curve was used to hide the truth: Michigan’s K-12 schools have not been rigorously educating the majority of the state’s 112,000 students, particularly minority students, only 38 percent of whom graduated from high school in 2009. In 2010 Michigan’s K-12 educational institutions received a $10.8 billion dollar pot of money from the Michigan Treasury, as well another $30-$35 billion dollars from property taxes, federal funds, and “enhancement millages” paid by city residents state-wide.

My middle school son came home with an assignment to write a paragraph for his teacher. He showed his finished work to me, complete with grammatical and spelling errors. I asked him to make corrections. His answer? The teacher had told her students that spelling and grammar did not matter. Together, my son and I corrected his work. I’m not the only parent who holds her kids to rigorous standards. Neither am I the only parent who welcomes the higher cut scores. Making sure that our state’s students and the people who teach them are held to rigorous standards is one of the least expensive options on the school improvement menu. Michigan taxpayers should expect no less. We should support those who’ve called for MEAP cut scores to be raised even further.

With a pot of K-12 funding larger than the Gross Domestic Products of entire countries such as Costa Rica, Latvia and Tunisia, Michigan parents and taxpayers should be able to expect a K-12 education system that delivers excellence, not mediocrity passed off as proficiency. Finally, if our governor is willing to appoint officials to step in when black majority districts have financial woes, it seems an equally good use of state resources for officials to step in when white majority school districts have significant and long-standing K-12 educational achievement gaps.

If Michigan schools in black majority districts are failing their black students, and schools in the state’s white majority districts are failing their black students, what we end up with is New Jim Crow: Together but Unequal—all for the bargain price of $40+ billion dollars per year.