Southeast Michigan business owners and executives say education is a top priority in Michigan now, according to a new survey of Crain's subscribers conducted by EPIC-MRA Corp. for Crain's Detroit Business and Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP.
The new polling found a strong alignment between metro Detroit's business community and the Michigan Achieves agenda. Among the similarities: business owners and executives say improving teacher performances through quality educator evaluations is a top priority. A lesser but notable priority: increasing state per-pupil school aid funding to K-12 school districts.
Newly reported ACT Composite scores show slow, but consistent improvement in student scores. Across the state, the mean composite ACT score for last school year was 19.9, up from 19.3 during the 2010-11 school year, out of a possible 36 points. This improvement comes despite predictions that the state's move to the Michigan Merit Curriculum's higher academic expectations for students in all schools would lead to lower scores on the college entrance assessment.
Michigan provides a college entrance assessment for free, to all 11thgrade students during the school day. Beginning this school year, students will take the College Board's SAT, instead of the ACT.