August 27, 2025
LANSING — Michigan students in most grades and most subjects performed better than last year on state assessments, according to 2025 M-STEP and SAT/PSAT scores released today by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).
Michigan students improved their performance on 14 of 20 tests in spring 2025, after improvement in 13 of 20 in spring 2024 and in 15 of 20 in spring 2023. In spring 2025, Michigan students improved in five of seven English language arts (ELA) grade-level assessments and in five of seven math grade-level assessments.
“It is noteworthy that in many grades, Michigan students posted the highest math and ELA proficiency rates in the last three school years,” said State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice. “At the same time, however, ELA scores in grades 3 and 4 remain a concern. Once fully implemented, historic 2024 laws to address early literacy and dyslexia will help substantially, but we must do more to improve literacy skills of young readers. The Michigan legislature needs to provide our children with lower class sizes in high-poverty K-3 classrooms, more in-person instructional time, funding for more research-based, early literacy materials that help drive improved student achievement, and mandatory training in Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) on the science of reading for teachers and administrators in grades K-5 and all literacy coaches. These research-based measures would also help students improve their reading skills.”
Declines in English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency rates for third and fourth grade demonstrate the need for the state to continue implementing research-based measures to help improve early literacy achievement.
Some Michigan students continue to recover from disrupted learning that originated during the COVID-19 pandemic. ELA proficiency rates for grades 5-7 in 2025 were the highest in the last three years. Math proficiency rates in grades 4-7 were also the highest in the last three years. That said, proficiency rates in 2025 for all grades in ELA and math still lag behind 2019, the last test administration before the COVID pandemic. In spring 2025, science performance improved in grade 8 but declined in grades 5 and 11.
The Center for Educational Performance and Information has posted statewide results under "K-12 Grade" on MI School Data (mischooldata.org), Michigan’s official education data portal.
Proficiency rates also improved for the three grades of students that take social studies assessments; however, changes to realign tests with revised content standards make strict comparisons with the preceding year non-analogous.
“Even with record-highs in graduation rates and gains in Advanced Placement success, Career and Technical Education completion, and dual enrollment, today’s M-STEP results underscore an urgent truth: too many Michigan students are still not getting what they need to succeed,” said Dr. Pamela Pugh, State Board of Education president. “Board members are committed to accelerating improvement, including, among other measures, mandating Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) training in the science of reading, funding additional high-quality early-literacy materials, reducing K–3 class sizes where poverty is highest, and fully implementing dyslexia screening and intervention. And we need a legislature that puts students over politics.”
Research shows a positive association between smaller class sizes and improved academic outcomes in early grades—particularly in high-poverty classrooms—which is why MDE is calling on the legislature to fund reduced class sizes in high-poverty K-3 classrooms. To effectively teach literacy and numeracy to early learners in these grades, class size reduction would permit strong whole group instruction and more effective small-group and 1:1 learning opportunities for students.
Further, it’s important for children to receive in-person instruction so students can interact face-to-face with teachers. State law requires a minimum of 180 days of instruction, but students typically experience fewer. The law permits up to nine days for closures due to conditions not within the control of school officials. In 2019, the state school aid act was amended to permit seven days of educator professional development to count as “student instructional time,” which can additionally reduce actual student instructional time to 164 days. Professional development is very important but shouldn’t be a replacement for student instructional time. Indeed, before the 2019-20 school year, students benefited from staff professional development, but the professional development did not reduce the number of days of student instruction. In addition, in 2023, despite lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state legislature amended the state school aid act again to permit 15 instructional days to be virtual instruction, a potential further reduction of the total days of in-person instruction to 149.
The Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP, is designed to gauge how well students are progressing toward state subject matter standards. These standards, developed for educators by educators, broadly outline what students should know and be able to do to be prepared to enter the workplace, career education training, and college.
When combined with classroom work, report cards, local district assessments, formative assessment practices (daily information about students’ knowledge, understanding, and skills to address their learning needs), and other local tools, M-STEP results help offer a comprehensive view of student progress and achievement.
The M-STEP assessments are rigorous and not meant to measure reading ability or math ability by themselves. They are meant to measure understanding of a broad set of rigorous subject matter standards. Because these assessments are high-bar tests, students who score partially proficient are not necessarily performing below their grade level, and many who are below the proficient benchmark are successful throughout school, in high school, in college, and in their chosen professions.
On the third grade ELA assessment, while 38.9% of students tested as advanced or proficient, another 24.6% tested as partially proficient.
The SAT is administered by the College Board and students’ scores are among many criteria that universities and colleges may use to make admissions decisions. The PSAT is a pretest for the SAT.
2025 M-STEP, PSAT and SAT Results
|
Subject |
Grade |
PercentProficientor Above 2024 |
Percent Proficient or Above 2025 |
Subject |
Grade |
Percent Proficient or Above 2024 |
Percent Proficient or Above 2025 |
|
ELA |
3 |
39.6% |
38.9% |
Math |
3 |
43.4% |
42.7% |
|
ELA |
4 |
43.3% |
42.4% |
Math |
4 |
39.1% |
39.4% |
|
ELA |
5 |
44.0% |
44.4% |
Math |
5 |
32.6% |
32.9% |
|
ELA |
6 |
37.5% |
38.6% |
Math |
6 |
31.0% |
31.5% |
|
ELA |
7 |
37.9% |
39.2% |
Math |
7 |
32.1% |
33.3% |
|
ELA |
8* |
64.5% |
65.3% |
Math |
8* |
32.6% |
30.4% |
|
ELA |
11** |
51.3% |
55.4% |
Math |
11** |
26.3% |
27.5% |
|
Science |
5 |
40.4% |
40.3% |
Social Studies |
5*** |
18.9% |
29.8% |
|
Science |
8 |
38.8% |
41.1% |
Social Studies |
8*** |
29.7% |
47.0% |
|
Science |
11 |
37.5% |
34.9% |
Social Studies |
11*** |
39.6% |
42.1% |
*Grade 8 students take the PSAT for grades 8/9 for math and ELA, while students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 take the M-STEP.
**Grade 11 students take the SAT for math and ELA.
***Grades 5, 8, and 11 social studies tests taken in 2025 were changed to realign them with revised content standards, which make strict comparisons with the preceding year non-analogous.
Students who are economically disadvantaged continue to have significantly lower proficiency rates than students from middle-class backgrounds. In Michigan, proficiency rates for economically disadvantaged students in ELA and math were less than half the rates for students who are not economically disadvantaged.
|
Group |
% Proficient or Advanced, M-STEP Grades 3-7 |
|
ELA |
|
|
Economically Disadvantaged |
27.0% |
|
Not Economically Disadvantaged |
56.6% |
|
Math |
|
|
Economically Disadvantaged |
21.7% |
|
Not Economically Disadvantaged |
52.6% |
Students in districts that learned remotely for seven or more months in the 2020-21 school year during the pandemic continue to have lower proficiency rates on average in math and ELA than students in districts that learned in person. Additionally, students who were economically disadvantaged and who were in districts that learned remotely in 2020-21 dealt with multiple challenges that likely played a role in lower proficiency rates, both pre- and post-pandemic. Economically disadvantaged students who were in districts that learned remotely in 2020-21 were on average less likely to test at or above proficiency than their economically disadvantaged peers who were in districts that learned in person 2020-21, as noted in the chart below.
|
% Proficient or Advanced, M-STEP Grades 3-7 |
||
|
Group |
In Person |
Remote* |
|
ELA |
||
|
Economically Disadvantaged |
27.6% |
16.9% |
|
Not Economically Disadvantaged |
56.8% |
45.6% |
|
Math |
||
|
Economically Disadvantaged |
22.3% |
10.4% |
|
Not Economically Disadvantaged |
52.8% |
36.8% |
* Students in districts that reported fully remote instruction for seven or more months of the 2020-21 school year.
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