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The Source
May 11, 2005 State Board of Education Meeting In an effort to incorporate many of the recommendations contained in the Michigan Cherry Commission Report on Higher Education, the Department of Education is creating the High School Initiative (MHSI) targeted at providing Michigan's high schools with technical assistance and support. The MHSI, under the direction of the Department of Education’s chief academic officer, will develop high school course curriculum content expectations, develop the Michigan Merit assessment exam and identify, promulgate and disseminate best practices to the state's school districts. The initiative will have six action teams responsible for Course Content Expectations; Professional Development; Best Practices; Assessment; Student Support and Intervention; and Outreach and Dissemination. There will also be an advisory
committee comprised of representatives from the Cherry Commission,
the State Board of Education and several education associations
and organizations. Potential Problem: Because recently passed legislation requirements that created the Michigan Merit assessment exam, the test will be available for the 2006-07 school year. This is before the high school course curriculum content expectations are fully developed. -- The Department of Education is seeking bids to replace the Michigan Educational Assessment Program High School Test in 2007. But officials were still hoping for another year to implement the test, giving them time to complete a rewrite of the state's high school standards in the format of course curriculum content expectations. Invitations to bid were sent out to a number of companies but the department expects bids back only from ACT and the College Board, which runs the SAT. The selected company would be running a combination of its own college entrance exam and some state-developed tests. The selected test would have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Education as being sufficient to test adequate yearly progress. -- In July, the board will begin drafting new policies regarding student expulsions. This follows a report which was received at the board meeting which indicated that many students currently being expelled are not receiving alternative services. The Department of Education plans to submit in the coming months its second annual report on charter schools to the Legislature. The last report was submitted in 1997. Board members, and speakers during public participation at the board meeting, raised concerns that the draft report presented to the board Tuesday did not meet all of the requirements of the School Code. As a result, the board has created a subcommittee to review the report to determine what additional information the board, the Legislature and the public needs from the report.Sue Carnell, the governor's representative on the board, also suggested that the information be broken down by charter authorizer and management company to determine which authorizers are having the best or lease success. -- The
board approved three recommended changes to the Revised
School Code relating to Public School Academies. The
changes would charge authorizers with overseeing responsible
wind-up of affairs of a Public School Academy and orderly dissolution
of the corporation created to receive the contractual charter;
specify that student records be maintained by the relevant Intermediate
School District (ISD) and that business records be maintained
for the required period of time by the authorizer; and conflict
of interest language currently applied to urban high school
academies by extended to apply as well to Public School Academies
and to Strict Discipline Academies. The board also recommended some changes in the charter school law to address the closing charter schools: The authorizer is responsible for overseeing dissolution of the corporation; and that the intermediate school district be given charge of the student records from the school. The board also asked that the conflict of interest language that is in place for the urban high school academies be applied to all charter schools. Tuesday, the board adopted an alternative proposal for determining adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The department had originally proposed a formula to apply confidence intervals to student scores that would allow particularly smaller schools some margin of error in measuring progress so that a one or two student change in participation or scoring would not affect the building or district overall. That initial formula was rejected by the U.S. Department of Education and, because an appeal was still in process when the board met, any action by the board would be delayed until the June meeting. This could mean late report cards to districts. Given the likelihood that the proposal would still be rejected, the board adopted a proposal that would apply two standard errors of measurement to each student's score, a proposal that has been approved for two other states. Under the raw scores, 1,558 schools would make AYP based on the fourth grade scores and 749 based on the seventh grade scores. The department's original proposal would have increased that to 1,869 based on fourth grade and 893 based on seventh. The new proposal would have 1,858 and 908 respectively. The board gave the go ahead for the Department of Education to commission a study of school organization and finance. The study, which would be paid through a combination of state funding and grants from private foundations, would look at the best organizations and services for local school districts and what the reasonable costs are for operating such an organization. The board heard from Elaine Madigan with the Office of School Finance and School Law that the number of school districts in deficit spending is growing. Ms. Madigan said the department has been working with the deficit districts to speed up their compilation of spending from the prior year and school count estimates to more quickly craft deficit reduction plans. Under statutory filing requirements, the state would not know until November that a school is truly in deficit spending. The State Board of Education narrowed to three, the number who will be interviewed for the State Superintendent of Public Instruction post that was left vacant when Tom WATKINS resigned under pressure in January. The finalists are: Nicholas A. FISCHER, assistant superintendent of the Fairfax County, Virginia Public Schools, the 12th largest school district in the United States with a 165,000 student enrollment and $1.8 billion district budget. Mike FLANAGAN, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators, former education advisor to Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM and her choice for the job. Dr. Thomas P. JANDRIS, chief executive officer of Chicago-based Progress Education Corporation and licensed psychologist. Dr. Jandris was one of five finalists when Watkins was chosen in 2001. Today,
the board voted to schedule a special meeting for Wednesday,
May 18 in the Board Room 4th floor, State Department of Education,
to conduct public interviews with the three finalists.
Kathleen Straus, President of the State Board of Education,
told reporters it was her hope to have a new superintendent
announced by the end of the month. |
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| Legislative News The House reported out a bill that would give the Governor the power to name the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Presently, that position is selected by the elected State Board of Education. The Senate version of this bill would give the selection of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to the Governor but not without the advice and consent of the Legislature. Senate
Bill 325 would amend the Revised School
Code to move up the date
by which a child must be five years old, from December
1 to September 1 by the 2007-08 school year, in
order to attend kindergarten. Senate Bill 328 would permit districts or intermediate school districts who receive payments from the Durant v State of Michigan settlement to use those funds for the Early Learning Success Program. Currently these funds must be used only for textbooks, electronic instructional materials, software, technology, infrastructure improvements, school busses, school security, training for technology, or the payment of debt service of voter-approved bonds. Senate
Bill 329 would allocate $1 million from the
State School Aid Fund for 2005-06 to the Department
of Education for 50 grants of $20,000 each
to districts to develop a five-year Early Learning
Success model for grades K-3. Senate Bill 326 would amend the Revised School Code to require a school district or public school academy to devote at least one professional day a year to training in pupil learning, if they had an above-average percentage of pupils receiving special education. Senate Bill 327 increases the number of credits that a teaching student needs in elementary level reading from six to nine. Also, future teachers would need to do field work at schools with above-average numbers of special education students and be trained in how to spot a child’s trouble in lieu of placing that child in special education. Senate Bill 205 would amend the Revised School Code to require that, by July 1, 2007, the board of a school district or a public school academy would require each person it employed as an interscholastic athletic coach to hold valid certification in sport safety training. A person could obtain this certification by completing a State Board of Education approved sport safety training course. The bill would take effect July 2005
Michigan
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development 1001 Centennial Way, Suite 300 Lansing, MI 48917-9279 517-327-9259 |
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