The Detroit Free Press reports that the Michigan Department of Education releases the results of the latest Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests this morning. Parents, educators, realtors and politicians will all be looking to the results o tell them things about the state of Michigan's schools.

The article also says that for all the suggestions that teaching for the MEAP has helped schools, there's some evidence that students aren't doing as well as they might on college entrance exams or national assessment tests. An example: Michigan and Massachusetts were close on the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress test in fourth-grade math scores: 23% of Massachusetts students and 18% of Michigan students were proficient. By last year, 38% of Michigan fourth-graders were proficient in math compared to 49% in Massachusetts.

Sharif Shakrani, director of Michigan State University's Education Policy Center is quoted as saying: "Other states are not only catching up with Michigan, they are moving faster than Michigan." One potential reason is money: The state Department of Education's 1996 budget was $697.96 million. For 2006: $117.48 million. Add to that that school funding has remained relatively flat at a time when retirement and insurance costs are seeing double-digit increases.

MEAP results from the Michigan Department of Education web site

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