If you are having trouble accessing any portion of this publication,
go to http://www.edzone.net/~mascd/Source/source042309/source042309.html

Become a Michigan ASCD
member

View Archived Michigan ASCD Publications

April is National Poetry Month. 

Board Approvers Charter School Report
At it’s April meeting, the State Board of Education approved a report on charter schools.
 
The report compared the scores of charter schools not to school districts where they are located but to a cluster of urban districts where most charters are located.  The report indicated that charters score ahead of the urban districts where most charters are located but behind the state average. Officials also agreed to review the comparisons for next year to find a system that better accounts for the student makeup of charters, as well as for the special missions of some of the schools.

Stimulus Program
The department has focused its recent efforts on plans for the education stimulus money, sometimes putting aside existing work.  Most of education federal stimulus money is scheduled to go out to local districts based on federal formula.   For the rest, the Department of Education is expecting hundreds of grant applications.   And for all of it the department will be responsible for federal government oversight reports for all of the money.  The money is to be used for both preserve existing programs and to implement school reforms. However, the federal law does not provide the department with authority to control the programs for which the formula-based money is being used.  The accounting is even more stringent for Michigan because it is one of the states being audited by the U.S. General Accounting Office on its use of the stimulus money.
  
Deputy Superintendent Carol Wollenberg said the department is working with school groups to collect and disseminate some best practices to give districts ideas on the best uses of the funds.

Among the proposals, officials said, is to use the funding for professional development that would be one-time programs with long-term benefits.

Re-imagining Education
The department is hoping to apply for some of the Race to the Top money from the federal government.  The hope is that these funds can be attracted by an officially launched initiative that would develop up to 20 demonstration districts that could show new ways of providing education. The Board of Education approved the concept of the program, which is based on one of the board's priorities for the next two years.

The department is looking for districts to "re-imagine a system where the outcome is a meaningful diploma at the end of some period of time," Mr. Flanagan said.
Applicants would have to show that the changes they were proposing would result in "dramatically improved proficiency" as well as innovative programs and efficient and effective management.  In addition to potentially using some of the federal money available through federal formulas yet this spring, the ideas could draw some of the money available in the fall at the discretion of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The department is concentrating on reimagined districts and on Intermediate School Districts who want to work on a regional basis. The money available for Re-Imagine will not go to applications that will use the money to pick up anything lost in budget cuts.

Homeless Students Increase
The Michigan Department of Education recently reported more than 7,500 homeless, school-age children in the state last fall. Some experts fear that number could almost double by the end of this school year.

Blue Ribbon Schools Axed
The department has announced that it is terminating the Blue Ribbon Schools program due to lack of funding. “The current economic concerns in the state and across the nation have forced difficult decisions,” the department indicated in a written statement. “In light of no available staff and revenue, the Department of Education no longer can continue to support the program. It is a real distinction to be named a Blue Ribbon Exemplary School and the program deserves staff and resources dedicated to working with the advisory committee and schools to assure the integrity and quality of the program.”

The program, established in 1982, recognizes educational institutions that “demonstrate a strong commitment to educational excellence and significant academic improvement over five years,” according to the department.  Staffers at schools that pursued the designation completed a rigorous application process and received site visits from previous Blue Ribbon winners prior to being recommended for the award.

Discussion on Teacher Licensing Rules Change Begins
The department has begun preliminary discussions with a variety of stakeholders on how teachers get and keep their teaching license.  One possibility would be to shift away from assessing teacher quality by years of experience and course work, but opinion seems to vary on how to replace the current system.

Future Job Skills and the Schools
In a report issued by Michigan Future Incorporated, Lou Glazer, President and University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes stated that while millions of low-skills jobs have been eliminated in the national recession there has been growth in the number of jobs that require advanced education. While the number of jobs created is less than a tenth of those lost, 162,000 compared to 3.75 million lost, the report's authors said the results are clear: the future of economic growth in the United States will be concentrated in jobs that are knowledge-based.  The report said that since 1990 jobs in lower-skilled employment like manufacturing have increased by 16 percent, while jobs requiring higher skills and more advanced education have increased by 32 percent.  "Michigan has lagged in its support of the assets necessary to develop a knowledge economy at the needed scale. Building that economy is going to take a long time and require fundamental change. But we believe it is the only reliable path to regain high prosperity," Mr. Grimes said.

For the state to grow its economy, Mr. Glazer and Mr. Grimes said Michigan has to promote development of not just industry in new energy, biotechnology and information technology but in finance, insurance, professional and technical services, health care and education.

Michigan Future promotes the belief that until the state can attract a growing pool of educated workers who can attract new businesses, the state will lag the nation for years to come.  Glazer and Grimes note that in 2000, Michigan's per capita income was the 16th highest in the nation. Since then, it's dropped into the bottom half of all states.  "This decline is accelerating," Glazer said. "In 2000 we were 16th. By 2006, we were 26th and in 2007 we were 33rd."  Meanwhile, Michigan ranks 34th in the U.S. for the proportion of adults who hold at least a four-year college degree, a fact working against the state during this recession. Michigan has also fallen behind others in terms of funding for higher education and promoting higher skills employment.

The automotive industry will remain important to the state's economy, the two said, but the classic road to middle-class status the auto industry offered in terms of high-wage, low-skills employment is vanishing.  “Middle-class employment will now come from the growth of higher-educated, higher skills jobs,” Mr. Glazer said.

State MEAP Test Score Results are In
The 2008 Fall Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) results included scores in the areas of mathematics, reading, writing, science and social studies. Reading and writing are combined to produce an overall English language arts score.  
More than 75 percent of students in grades three to eight tested at "proficient or above" on the math tests given last fall according to a State Department of Education report.  The greatest improvement was for seventh graders, where 83 percent scored proficient or above, compared to 73 percent the year before.
The results in reading were mixed, showing small increases or small declines over the previous years. The greatest increase came in the 7th grade reading, where 79 percent of students scored proficient or above, compared to 72 percent the previous year.

In writing, a greater percentage of students scored proficient or above at every grade level except at fourth grade, which at 44 percent remained the same as in 2007. More than three-quarters of students attained the level of proficient or above in grades six (76 percent) and seven (78 percent).

In science, tested in grades five and eight, the percentage of students scoring at proficient or above remained relatively constant, compared to previous years.

Michigan Female Athletics Case Resolved.
According to the Associated Press, the Michigan High School Athletic Association agreed to pay the group Communities for Equity up to $6 million in legal fees after the group won a landmark case for girls' sports calendars in the state. The case began in 1998 when parents filed a lawsuit arguing that a girls' unusual sports schedule violated state and federal law. In December of 2001, a U.S. district court judge ruled the practice discriminated against girls in violation of Title IX, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and Michigan's Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act because, among other things, the current seasons were two to three weeks shorter than those of girls everywhere else in the country and of the boys' seasons. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take on the case of Communities for Equity vs. Michigan High School Athletic Association, forcing schools to comply with the new seasons agreed to in the district court.

Center for Educational Performance and Information Appeal goes to Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments that providing data to the Center for Educational Performance and Information is not an unfounded mandate because the state already provides funding to school districts sufficient to cover those reports through discretionary funds.

The order accepting the state's appeal (Adair v. Michigan (Supreme Court docket Nos. 137424 and 137453) asks the two sides to argue whether school districts would have to show that they have either spent additional money or shifted money from other programs to cover the mandate for it to qualify as unfunded under the Headlee Amendment.   The court will also consider whether the state should pay the legal expenses for the school districts involved in the lawsuit.

The Court of Appeals had decided in July 2008 that the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) requirement was a state mandate, so the state had to provide funds to cover the costs of complying.  

Criminal Conviction Teachers Might Have a Case
Michigan teachers who were incorrectly listed as having criminal convictions cannot make a case for intentional infliction of emotional harm. They might, however, be able to seek other damages from the state and their local districts, the Supreme Court said in an order issued Thursday. The court sent the Frohriep v. Flanagan case (SC docket No. 136636) back to the Ingham Circuit Court for additional action, partially reversing the Court of Appeals. The high court had held the case in abeyance to decide another case dealing with immunity for governmental employees. The court in that case (Odom v. Wayne County) had found that governmental immunity applies only where the employee acts within the scope of his or her job and with good faith and without malice.

There could be factual issues to address among the claims raised by the teachers.

Mark your calendars!

Watch for more information on the Michigan ASCD 2009 Differentiated Instruction Conference, tentatively being scheduled for two days, the week of August 10, 2009. As additional information becomes available it will be posted to the Michigan ASCD website, http://michiganascd.org.

Michigan ASCD
Professional Development Opportunities