In a February 11, 2025, article in The Detroit News, Deborah Loewenberg Ball comments on the newly released Education Recovery Scorecard, a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University and the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University. The Scorecard shows that Michigan students’ recovery in mathematics is above the national average, ranking 17th among states in recovery in math between 2019 and 2024.
Reflecting on these data, Loewenberg Ball says these results are likely due to spending on teachers’ professional development, and that improvement should continue over time: “We now understand better that teaching is where the work happens for children.” However, she continues to worry about racial and socioeconomic disparities evident in the data, with Michigan’s students of color and students living in poverty scoring lower than their peers. Again, she asserts that the key to addressing these disparities is teaching: “We’re constantly trying to pump up scores and children’s learning without ever really talking about teaching,”