The Top 30/Bottom 30 Analysis provides data about students who scored in the upper, middle and lower range on state-administered standardized academic tests as compared to their peers within the school. Students in different grades, or who took different assessments, have their scores converted to a common scale, which can then be compared.
The report helps educators evaluate the gap between high performing and low performing students, as measured by standardized tests, and identifies which students or student groups need the most improvement. The gaps between the top 30 percent and bottom 30 percent have been a focus of federal accountability efforts.
Percentages can be misleading; consider the significance of the data when a subgroup is very small. You may see extremes in fluctuation if a subgroup is a small number of students. For example, 100 percent of a particular subgroup may be in the top or bottom 30 percent, but that subgroup may consist of very few students.
You can view the analysis of assessment performance by school, year and subject. Four bar graphs rank pupil performance in each of three performance bands: The top 30 percent, middle 40 percent, and bottom 30 percent. You'll see a breakdown for race/ethnicity, program participation groups (like English Language Learners and students with disabilities), gender, and grade level for your selected location. Hovering over any of the bars will show percentages for that specific category.
The report is updated in early spring. See the Recently Posted Reports page for when the report was last updated.
Due to the suspension of state assessments, assessment data for the 2019-20 school year is not available for M-STEP, MI-Access, SAT, PSAT, or ACT WorkKeys. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Education Department (USED) issued a waiver of the federal requirement that Michigan students take statewide summative assessments during the 2019-20 school year, as well as for waivers of related accountability and report card requirements. Executive Order 2020-65 waived state requirements for these assessments.
Use the Edit Report screen to select a location, school year and subject.
See the MI School Data Quick Start Guide for the basics of navigating the site and customizing a report.
Location Options
Locations Setting options: You must select a school for the Top 30/Bottom 30 report.
Logged-in Users
Users with secure access who are logged in can see unsuppressed numbers for the entities for which they have been specifically authorized.
The Top 30/Bottom 30 Analysis only includes the scores of students who have been at a school for a full academic year. For this report, the scores are shown in the school where the student completed the academic year.
CEPI collected the data used to compile this report using the Michigan Student Data System to identify students’ building and demographics information. For more information on the MSDS application and reporting rules, please see the MSDS Collection Details Manual on the CEPI website.
The Michigan Department Education’s Office of Educational and Accountability, which sets policies for state assessment (M-STEP, MI-Access, PSAT, SAT) administration, provided the test data.
If you have questions not addressed here or in the linked resources, please contact CEPI customer support at cepi@michigan.gov.
Disclosure Avoidance
To protect the privacy of individual students, CEPI applies data suppression rules to sensitive data when report settings would yield fewer than 10 students in a given group. Complementary groups may also be suppressed. In some cases, values less than 10 may be shown when there is no risk of identifying individual students. Secure users can log in to view unsuppressed data for their authorized location. Please see How CEPI Protects Education Data for more information.
Report Labels
See the glossary for additional terms and acronyms used on MI School Data.
