Mich. Districts Get Report Card From Wall St.

By Bess Keller

The Wall Street giant Standard & Poor's delivered a detailed, first-of-its-kind look at Michigan's public school districts last week, inviting anyone with an Internet hook-up to delve into troves of information, ranging from test scores to spending patterns to per-capita income.

The company, best known for gauging the financial health of businesses and governments, hopes Michigan will be the first of many states to contract with its new school- evaluation division. So far, Pennsylvania is the only one to follow suit, with its evaluation expected to be online by this coming fall. ( "New Service Will Help Compare Districts' Spending With Results," Feb. 16, 2000.)

In the days before the online Michigan evaluation was unveiled last Friday, many education leaders in the state were wary, even as they began to envision how they might use the information. The interactive report is a favored project of Gov. John Engler, a Republican who has often been at loggerheads with the state teachers' union and has vigorously promoted the independent public...