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New incoming State Superintendent, Board of Ed. share their strategic plans

Posted on 06/01/15 at 4:05pm

Incoming State Superintendent Brian Whiston shared his draft of a strategic plan to move Michigan to the top five states for education improvement within the next five years. The State Board has a similar draft plan and various education groups are expected to be adding their recommendations at upcoming board meetings.

Whiston is looking for a rapid turnaround for education in Michigan, and his plan targets eight key areas, among them special education, testing, developing a P-14 system, and school funding.

He would like to see model classrooms developed for each grade level which includes an emphasis on career and technical education. Another of Whiston’s proposals encourages adopting a system of dual enrollment that would provide all students with access to college credits since many school districts aren’t covered by a community college district.

In the area of school accountability, the new superintendent would like to see testing that drives instruction and informs parents. That means testing must be a reliable measure of accountability. His idea of a reliable measure is one that works for the state and for school districts and cuts down on the number of tests students take each year. 

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School Consolidation Grants awarded to six ISDs

Posted on 06/01/15 at 3:53pm

Six intermediate school districts (ISD) are sharing $2 million in state grants to help with their efforts to consolidate local districts and services. The funds come from the School Consolidation Grants. Districts had to apply for the money and the six were chosen from 21 applications.

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Sign up for tips from classroom teachers just like you

Posted on 06/01/15 at 3:52pm

NEA’s Works4ME is a weekly newsletter full of tips and ideas on a variety of topics from classroom teachers across the country.  Sign up is free and you’ll have it delivered right to your inbox. This week, the tips show how to end the school year on a positive note and what you can do now to get ready for the start of school in the fall.

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Webinar shows how to teach vocabulary without weekly word lists

Posted on 06/01/15 at 3:50pm

Register now for an Education Week webinar showing how to teach new words in context, rather than memorizing vocabulary word lists. The webinar will be held on Thursday, June 4, from 3 to 4 p.m. Literacy researchers from the University of Michigan and Michigan State’s schools of education will discuss their findings on vocabulary acquisition in the content areas. 

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There’s still room for you in the LPA!

Posted on 05/11/15 at 3:02pm

If you’re a local president looking for guidance and support, there’s still time to get the training you and your local need through the 2015-16 Local Presidents Academy (LPA). The deadline has been extended to June 15 and all local presidents—new, experienced, EA, ESP, higher ed, with or without release time—can benefit from the program at little or no cost to participants or to the local.

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Senate passes teacher evaluation bill with some improvements

Posted on 05/26/15 at 12:32pm

The Senate passed its version of a teacher and administration evaluation bill last week. SB 103 is very different from the 2014 House bills (HB 5223 and HB 5224) which received wide support, but those bills did not make it through the Senate Education Committee last year. 

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Failure rate for online courses is high

Posted on 05/26/15 at 12:45pm

Three out of 10 K-12 students failed all of their online courses last year and more than 50 percent failed at least one of their virtual classes, according to Michigan Virtual University (MVU). In the 2013-14 school year, 76,122 students took online classes. 

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