Michigan schools chief: Districts should lengthen school year given pandemic learning loss

Students are falling behind, regardless of whether their district offers all in-person classes or a hybrid approach to courses, Michigan Department of Education Superintendent Michael Rice told lawmakers on Tuesday. 

That means lawmakers should consider increasing the minimum number of instruction days required for schools next year, and local districts should also weigh instituting longer school years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"Given the pandemic, whether they were educated primarily at a distance or largely in person, most students will receive less instruction from March of last year through the end of this school year than in any similar period of their education," Rice said during a joint hearing of the House and Senate education committees. 

"The current minimum number of days, 180, was too low before the pandemic. It isn't close to that of high-performing nations. Students and staff need more days coming out of the pandemic." 

Rice did not suggest how many days districts should require. While most states also require at least 180 days, other countries require up to 200 instructional days or more per academic year.

The recommendation was one of several from Rice, who testified about the impact of bipartisan legislation approved before the start of this school year that allowed local districts to decide how best to educate students during the pandemic. 

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The chairwoman of the Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee, Lana Theis, R-Brighton, noted local districts already have the authority to determine whether longer school years are necessary. Rice agreed, while arguing lawmakers could incentivize or otherwise require a longer year to help students catch up.

The questions come amid a national debate about whether it is safe for schools to educate students in person. Rice supports a return to in-person classes for all schools as soon as possible, while noting the majority of students have that option right now. 

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From the start of the school year through mid-November, the state allowed Michigan districts to make that decision at the local level. Rice noted that through October, more than 80% of districts were offering in-person classes, pointing to state-compiled data provided by local districts. 

But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a ban on in-person classes for high schools and colleges in mid-November, noting the rise in COVID-19 cases, test positivity and deaths. The ban was lifted in late December. 

"In the absence of these orders, more people would have become infected and more would have died," Rice said. 

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He also argued lawmakers need to work together with the governor sooner rather than later to appropriate billions in federal education funds, in reference to questions about an ongoing political struggle between Republicans and Whitmer. 

"I think you have to bang out a deal between the governor and the Legislature. Does it need to take place today? It doesn't. Does it need to take place soon? It does," Rice said. 

In late 2020, Congress appropriated billions of dollars to Michigan and every other state to combat the spread of COVID-19, help schools get students back into classrooms and save struggling families and businesses. Although the funds are already approved for Michigan, the Legislature has to act to formally distribute those funds. 

House Republicans have a bill to allocate roughly $2 billion to schools, including a provision to give a financial incentive to schools that offer in-person learning by Feb. 15. But that legislation is tied to another bill that would strip the state of some emergency COVID-19 powers, instead outlining the criterion for local health departments to giving the ability to close in-person school or cancel sporting events. 

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House Education Committee Chairwoman Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield Township, refuted the idea that the Legislature needs to distribute those funds right away. 

"I know of no school system in this state that is not getting what they are budgeted to get for this school year. These extra dollars will sooner or later make it to our school districts, but acting like this is some emergency and they're not going to get the funds they need to operate — they're getting their budgets that were budgeted for this school year," Hornberger said. 

Rice said the sooner districts get the funds, the easier it will be to plan for the next school year, a year that he called "the most complicated school year for which most of us have ever planned." 

Theis focused her questions on how best to quantify learning loss experienced this year, as a way to examine which local districts found solutions to education during a pandemic. However, Rice said the state will not have comprehensive data to show until the end of the year. 

As it did last spring, Rice also said the department recently asked the federal government for a waiver to not administer federal standardized tests. He said there would be no way to administer the M-STEP tests, they take too much time to administer and local benchmark assessments are more appropriate and helpful for teachers. 

Hornberger balked a bit at his explanation. A former teacher, she said the education department is arguing against accountability for teachers. 

"There has been in this pandemic no other profession that I have witnessed that has advocated for lack of accountability in their job. And I'm not saying it's the teachers, but it seems to be coming from (the department) and it is a struggle," Hornberger said. 

Rice said it is important to understand learning loss, but the local assessments are sufficient.

Contact Dave Boucher: dboucher@freepress.com or 313-938-4591. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.