Chalkbeat

How this Detroit attendance agent connects with families to get kids in school

2023-09-01T12:00:00+00:00

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Effie Harris can’t walk down a hallway at Gompers Elementary-Middle School without having to stop several times for a hug, a high five, or a promise of a crayon drawing.

Her pauses have to be quick, though. She has places to go and students to see.

By 8:04 on a cold February morning, she had already been at school for an hour, greeting students at a side entrance for middle school latecomers. After a quick stop in her office to drop off her coat and sanitize her hands, she began her morning rounds.

First stop: Room A115.

“I was just checking to see if she was here,” Harris called out. The teacher inside knew who Harris was talking about: a struggling second-grader who was absent as often as present. On that day, the child was present.

The spot checks only begin to explain the expansive role Harris plays as Gompers’ attendance agent. Unlike the stereotypical truant officers of yore, who might round up troubled youth and drag them back to school, Harris must often serve as investigator to find out why children aren’t coming to school, visiting homes and keeping track of data on barriers to attendance. She is a counselor who listens to families and helps them find resources they need to get their kids to school.

She is the school’s spirit leader for good attendance, showing up in classrooms with prizes — pencil cases, Hot Wheels cars, bubbles — for students who make it two weeks without missing a day. She plans pizza parties for classes with the best attendance, and helps teachers plan fun activities that children won’t want to miss.

And sometimes, she must play bad cop, warning parents of children who are severely chronically absent that they could face legal or financial consequences.

Effie Harris, the attendance agent at Gompers Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, talks to students during her morning rounds when she visits classes.

After the stop in A115, Harris moved on toward another classroom, greeting everyone in the halls as she breezed past — by name if she knew it, or if she didn’t, with a “Mornin’, sunshine!” or a “Good morning, sweetie!” One elementary school child wrapped her arms around Harris’s legs, and soon she was surrounded by others who wanted her attention, too.

Harris’s goals that day were to check in with nearly two dozen middle school students who were approaching 18 absences, attend a school leadership meeting, call a few parents of chronically absent children, fill in for an absent teacher as a lunchroom monitor, and make a banner reminding kids to show up on Feb. 8 — one of two “count days” during the year when attendance is used to determine how much state funding a school gets.

She walked around the school with a large binder that she uses to track absences and excuses, and interactions with families. Every month, she must provide a report to the district.

“I’ve never been able to get through the volume of work that I’ve wanted to,” she said.

Why aren’t Brightmoor students getting to school?

When a parent shows up, Harris drops everything to listen.

A day earlier, she said, an exasperated mother showed up in her office to tearfully explain why her three children had each missed about 20 days.

“I said, ‘I’m going to get you a tissue, and I’m going to get me a box, because I might be crying, too, today.’”

Harris had reached out to the mother before and even tried to make home visits, but no one ever answered the door. This time was different.

“When she came in, she was at a breaking point,” Harris said. “It was a different conversation. It didn’t seem like she was on the defense. It seemed like she was open” to explaining her struggles and working on a plan.

“We want to find out the whys to offer solutions, to find out how can we help,” Harris said. “That’s the big thing. It’s not doing anybody any good just to stir things up and not to have a solution.”

A portrait of attendance agent Effie Harris at Samuel Gompers Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., on Friday, February 3, 2023. Emily Elconin for Chalkbeat

Gompers serves some of the neediest children in Detroit, a city challenged by high levels of poverty, homelessness, unemployment, and crime. Most live in Brightmoor, a 4-square-mile area that’s impoverished even by Detroit standards. It’s the kind of neighborhood where 1 out of 5 homes is abandoned, and a local diner has 3-inch bulletproof glass separating the serving counter from the dining room.

Some parents keep their children home from school for fear of what they may encounter on the way, especially in winter when it’s still dark out. School starts at 7:30 a.m.

“I can’t blame them,” Harris said. “Parents don’t want to walk them to bus stops in dangerous areas. … I tell the parents, you guys have to get them to the bus stop. This is just your reality. You’ve got to do that.”

About a third of Gompers’ 838 students come from other neighborhoods. Those students have their own attendance challenges. When the family car breaks down, they stop showing up.

Other students don’t come to school because they have to babysit younger siblings while parents work, or they live part-time with another parent in a different area. One mother last year kept her three children home because they were in hiding from her abusive partner.

Harris listens with an empathetic ear as parents explain the barriers standing between their child and the classroom — whether it’s homelessness, lack of clothing or transportation, bullying at school, inability to get up on time, or child care challenges.

Then she steps in. Sometimes she calls parents who’ve overslept to wake them up. Other times, she picks up children from their homes and drives them to school herself.

“We want to make sure we actually have practical solutions, and the other side of that is that parents have to be willing to follow those recommendations,” Harris said in an interview in her office.

A few minutes later she was on the phone with a parent whose three children hadn’t shown up to school.

The oldest child had a sore throat. She had a 9:15 a.m. doctors appointment, the mom said. But it was already 9:07, and they were still home. Harris began to wonder.

“Bring in documentation after she has her doctor visit, OK?” Harris asked.

The mother didn’t answer. She hung up on Harris.

It didn’t seem to bother her.

“Something more is going on,” Harris said, noting that she’d talk to the oldest child when she returned to school. “Elementary kids, I say, ‘OK, where were you?’ and then they’ll start to tell me.”

“It takes time to investigate, to find out what’s going on,” Harris told Chalkbeat in a later interview. “Sometimes it takes time for them to even warm up to you to talk about what’s going on.”

For now, there were other children to check up on.

Personal outreach to students: ‘I’m glad you’re here’

Harris headed upstairs and asked the teacher in Room A230 if she could have a word with a student. A few moments later, a boy emerged from the room.

“Good morning,” she said to him. “I’m glad you’re here. You doing OK?”

After a moment, she sent him back to class.

Next she headed to the classroom next door to check on his brother, who spoke quietly and rubbed his face on the sleeve of his hoodie.

Hours later, she was still thinking about him.

“He really looked tired,” she said, and the last time she saw the brothers they also looked exhausted. “But lately they have been here. They have been here, so that’s good.”

Before the start of last school year, Gompers Principal Akeya Murphy moved the attendance agent’s office into the main office, as a way to highlight the importance of student attendance to families as they walked into the building.

A sign that reads attendance matter behind the curtain in the lunchroom at Samuel Gompers Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., on Friday, February 3, 2023. Emily Elconin for Chalkbeat

Once the school day begins, though, Harris doesn’t spend much time in her office.

“I like moving around in the building, going to the kids,” she said. “I like seeing them. I like interacting with them.”

Her next stop took her to the other end of the building. On the way she ran into a middle school student and greeted her by name.

“How many times am I going to see you next week?” Harris asks.

“I really don’t know,” the girl says.

“What do you mean you don’t know? What’s wrong?” she asks. “I want to see you every day.”

“OK. All right,” the girl responded, as if she meant it.

Help is on the way from the district

Being an attendance officer is a tough job in a district where year after year, more than half the students are chronically absent.

Harris’ role got even more challenging during the pandemic, when Gompers and many schools nationwide experienced a surge in chronic absenteeism. There have been days over the years when the sheer number of students who needed to be reached has been overwhelming.

“I had to get past that,” Harris said. “So many need to be helped. You can’t do everything. You can’t make it to everybody.”

Attendance agent Effie Harris holds a binder with protocols for attendance intervention plans at Samuel Gompers Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., on Friday, February 3, 2023. Emily Elconin for Chalkbeat

Harris is getting more help this school year. A new district strategy involves assigning a second attendance agent to schools like Gompers with high rates of chronic absenteeism.

Harris empathizes with the families who are struggling. But she wants them to understand the consequences of their children not attending school.

“At the end of the day, this is who’s being hurt, and it’s your child. At the end of the day, this is who’s not being given the opportunity they deserve.”

Getting that message across successfully is one of the rewards of a tough job, she said. Take Gloria Vanhoosier, whose three children are “smart as a whip” but were absent for nearly half of the 2021-22 school year. After repeated calls home, Harris convinced Vanhoosier to come in for a talk about her struggles at home, and the importance of bringing the kids to school.

By the end of 2022-23, the children were doing much better with attendance. They still missed days, but not nearly as much as they had the year before. More importantly, they were doing better at school.

“Gloria is a fighter. And now we’re seeing the results. We’re seeing the benefits. She’s the one who sat in my office one time and said, ‘I tell my kids … it’s OK to struggle, but it’s not OK to give up.’ You are absolutely right. Because we all have struggles. We just don’t want to give up.”

Vanhoosier told Chalkbeat that talking to Harris was like talking to a therapist. Hearing that, Harris was full of emotion.

“Oh, I love it!” she said.

Tracie Mauriello covered state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. Reach the team at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

One Detroit school’s multilayered effort to get absent students back to school

2023-08-31T13:06:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.

After missing four days of classes last fall at Gompers Elementary-Middle School, Jay’Sean Hull was called into the cafeteria with 100 other students with similar attendance records.

The group was introduced to attendance agent Effie Harris, a key figure in the school’s efforts to improve on a dismal statistic. The previous school year, a staggering 82% of students in the northwest Detroit school were chronically absent, meaning they missed 18 or more days.

Harris explained that the students had been selected for a relatively new program pairing students at risk of becoming chronically absent with 20 adult mentors in the building.

Jay’Sean’s mentor: Harris herself. Over the next few weeks, she would greet the sixth-grader at a side entrance designated for middle schoolers, visit him in his classrooms on days that he arrived late, and regularly check in with his family.

This high-touch, relationship-based investment was part of a multipronged approach at Gompers last school year to tackle a problem with tragic consequences: Chronically absent students are more likely to become disengaged from school and more likely to drop out, research shows. Frequent absences also make it harder to get students on track academically, a pressing need coming off pandemic-fueled declines in academic achievement.

Gompers Principal Akeya Murphy, a veteran educator, tapped just about every staff member to help with the effort. Along with the mentorship program, the school dispatched staff to students’ homes to help families solve problems contributing to absenteeism, used data to track attendance patterns, and offered incentives ranging from field trips to the local movie theater for students to grocery store gift cards for parents.

Students eat lunch at Gompers Elementary-Middle School in Detroit. In 2021-22, a staggering 82% of the school’s students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 18 or more school days.

Murphy, Harris, and other leaders at Gompers set an ambitious goal for last school year: to shave 20 percentage points off the school’s chronic absenteeism rate.

To get there, they would need to reach students like 13-year-old Jay’Sean, and dozens of other students whose absences put them at risk of missing out on their education.

“By the time they’re 16, they’re already thinking about going to work or exiting out of the educational system, because it is rigorous,” Murphy said. “We know the curriculum is rigorous, and so we want to prepare them, and the way we do that is by them being at school every single day, so that they’re not missing anything.”

Attendance struggles reflect Brightmoor’s economic challenges

Across the Detroit Public Schools Community District, 77% of students were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year, when COVID-19 cases in Michigan reached their peak. But even before the pandemic caused a spike in absenteeism in school districts across the country, students in Detroit district and charter schools were missing school at crisis numbers.

The reasons for that vary, but they’re largely rooted in the economic challenges that accompany Detroit’s high poverty rates — transportation hurdles, health problems, family and housing instability.

Brightmoor, where Gompers is located, is one of the most economically challenged areas in the city, with a high concentration of housing instability, poverty, and transportation challenges. They contribute to a high level of transiency among the school’s student population, school officials say.

At Gompers, 91% of students come from low-income homes. The list of reasons for missed school days ranges widely at Gompers, from inflexible parent work schedules to student illnesses and bullying.

By January 2023, Haydin Griggs had missed about 50 days of the school year, primarily because her mother, Shetaya Griggs, had health problems that often prevented her from walking her daughter to school, and she didn’t want the sixth-grader walking to school on her own in their rough neighborhood.

Many parents “don’t have a bunch of money, they don’t have a whole bunch of resources,” said Harris, the attendance agent. “They’re thinking about just surviving.”

The Detroit school district’s strategies to reduce absenteeism have increasingly focused on these economic challenges. The district’s Family Resource Distribution Center regularly offers toiletries, dry goods, school supplies and winter coats.

The district is also set to launch 12 school-based health hubs in the next three years to provide medical resources and services that families would need to keep students attending school regularly.

Students wait in line in the main hallway at Gompers Elementary-Middle School in Detroit. The reasons for missed school days range widely at Gompers, from inflexible parent work schedules to student illnesses and bullying.

One issue that came up at Gompers ahead of the school year was how many parents were holding their children back from school because they did not have a uniform or clean clothes. Murphy said she sent out a back-to-school letter encouraging parents to send their kids to school regardless of what they had to wear.

“We would prefer them to be at school and just have them wear their regular clothes versus feeling like they can’t come to school because of a uniform,” she said.

When Murphy became principal at Gompers at the start of 2022-23, she made sure to move the attendance agent’s office into the main office, a decision she hoped would amplify the importance of student attendance to families as they walked into the building.

Harris spends a portion of her days reaching out by phone and in person to parents and caregivers, trying to help them make plans to get their kids to class. It can be difficult, she said, stressing to families how two absences a month can quickly add up to a student being chronically absent. Some are unaware of how significant the absences are, and many are weary of the pandemic’s impact on their health, jobs, and households.

“The dust is still settling,” Harris said in February, during a spike in absenteeism. “Families have been affected, loved ones have been lost. There have been readjustments, people have had to adapt to whatever their new normals are and a lot of shuffling.”

A student’s absence, whether excused or unexcused, still counts toward the total number of missed school days they accumulate in a given year.

Gloria Vanhoosier’s three elementary school-age children each accumulated over 80 absences (out of 180 days) during the 2021-22 school year.

In Vanhoosier’s case, a bedbug infestation that lasted more than a year was a contributing factor. She was often too exhausted to take her children to school after spending so much time trying to rid her home of the critters, while also doing her children’s laundry nightly so they didn’t bring the bugs to school. They also missed school because of multiple of COVID infections, because of car problems, and because the children sometimes overslept.

Alarmed by the absences, Harris reached out multiple times asking Vanhoosier to meet with her at the school.

“‘I’m not superwoman,’” Vanhoosier remembers telling Harris when they finally met. “‘I got too much on my plate. I’m trying to take care of my kids and trying to take care of my family.’”

“Once I opened up to her, it’s like her whole face changed,” Vanhoosier recalled. “Now I feel that she sees my struggle and is concerned for me.”

The conversation with Harris motivated Vanhoosier to rethink her attitude about her children’s absences and its impact on their grades. Seeing her daughters happy and thriving after they began attending school more regularly has also helped. The girls participated in volleyball step dance, and after-school tutoring programs.

“I’ve gotten a lot better,” Vanhoosier said in the spring. “We still miss days, but I’m open with her now.”

Absenteeism has ripple effects on students in the classroom

Brittany Parker, who has been teaching for 10 years, wrestles with what to do when her kindergartners don’t show up for class. Absences can create lasting turmoil in a child’s education — children who are chronically absent in early grades are less likely to read at grade level by the third grade.

They can also hamper the rest of the class. “The question for me is: Do I push ahead to the next lesson or do I wait for them to come back?” Parker said.

“As a district, they want us to keep going,” she said. “If it’s four kids out, I’m going to push ahead. Sometimes if it’s a larger number I’ll hold back. I’m also looking at: Are these kids who can catch up?”

An instructor works with students at Gompers Elementary-Middle School in Detroit. Children who are chronically absent in early grades are less likely to read at grade level by third grade.

By May, more than half of the 50 third-graders La’Dawn Peterson taught between her morning and afternoon math classes were chronically absent. An additional nine were severely chronically absent, meaning they had missed more than 36 days of school.

One of them missed more than 60 days during the year.

“He would be so good if he came to school,” Peterson said of the boy. When he did show up, he was able to grasp the material, but she worried whether he’d retain the information.

Despite her many attempts to communicate with his family, she said she’s not entirely clear why he was absent so much.

Peterson said she’s tried exhaustively to impress upon her students and their families the importance of daily attendance, and the harmful impact of missing school. It shows up in their academic performance, she said, and explains why some students can become classroom distractions.

One day in June, when extreme heat prompted the district to shorten the school day, just nine students showed up — about half as many as usual. One of them was the boy who had missed 60 days.

On that day, while other students quickly got to work on their online multiplication and fraction exercises, he was slow to get started. He rubbed his eyes with the sleeves of his black and white Adidas tracksuit, and rested his head on one hand as he clicked through the exercises.

About 10 minutes later, he raised his hand, and a classroom tutor walked over to his desk in the back corner of the room. With a little bit of support, he seemed to grasp the lesson and began to work through the exercises.

Teachers like Peterson are cramming in four to five lessons a week, and they depend on weekly small-group lessons to catch up absent or struggling students. But if kids miss those opportunities, the challenges multiply.

“They’re missing out on so much and then, most of the ones that are absent all the time … there’s no motivation at home,” Peterson said. “So they come to school, and they’re not motivated to do anything.”

Over 18 absences: ‘You can’t bounce back from that’

Eighteen days. Thirty-six days. Fifty days. Sixty days. Eighty days of missed school. How does a student’s attendance record ever get so bad?

That’s the question that haunted Murphy and her team at Gompers, and motivated them to work on curbing absenteeism long before it becomes chronic.

Third grade teacher DeAnna Weeden, far right, instructs a group of students during an English lesson at Gompers Elementary-Middle School. Teachers depend on weekly small-group lessons to catch up absent or struggling students.

“You want to, for lack of a better word, stop the bleeding,” with students just below chronic absenteeism, Murphy said in January. “We need (families) to know that they’re on their way to being over the 18 absences … you can’t bounce back from that.”

In Jay’Sean’s case, it was four missed days of school by the end of October, too many so early in the school year. Jay’Sean blamed inconsistent school bus service that prompted him to start walking to school.

That was enough to warrant an intervention from the new mentorship program for him and the other students at risk of becoming chronically absent. The school’s mentoring program is an offshoot of a national initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Education.

The program’s premise sounded easy enough to Jay’Sean. “I just had to keep coming to school,” he recalled.

In reality, it took more effort than that from Harris and others on the team to ensure that Jay’Sean stayed on track. But it worked.

“By the beginning of the new year … he was always coming,” Harris told Chalkbeat this summer. If Jay’Sean came in late some days, she’d stop by his classroom to check in.

“He always wants to go to school,” said Shamika Hull, Jay’Sean’s mom. “He’ll go stand outside, and it’ll be raining, and he’s out there waiting for the bus.”

Hull also has an 11-year-old son at Gompers who got the message on attendance.

“The only times they have been absent from school since (the program began) has been either they were having a doctor’s appointment, or I wasn’t able to wash their clothes.”

For those whose absences are already beyond the “chronic” threshold, Murphy said she and her staff “continue to work with the family. We continue to make those calls. We continue to try to remove barriers.”

Those efforts won’t help the school improve its chronic absenteeism rate, Harris said, “but it’s still going to help the kid.”

“I tell them, ‘OK, let’s just take it a week at a time. Just five days. Four more days. Just three more days,’” she said, adding: “It’s going to make a difference for the kids and their scores.”

Attendance incentives are a ‘means to an end’

The conference room at Gompers is testament to the school leaders’ determination to make a dent in absenteeism. On all four walls are dozens of easel paper sheets, with handwriting in bright pink, green and orange marker. Each sheet details strategies Gompers staff have employed to try to make kids come to school every day.

Posters hanging in the conference room at Gompers Elementary-Middle School highlight some of the school’s strategies to combat student absenteeism.

Field trips to the local movie theater and bowling alley. Gas and grocery store gift cards for parents. Arts and crafts activities in the gymnasium. A mobile video game truck. “Gator Bucks,” named after the school’s mascot, for students who complete classroom assignments and exhibit positive behavior.

“These are the kinds of things that we’re discussing, constantly thinking and trying to be innovative about,” Murphy said. “How can we entice kids and make sure that families are consistently bringing their children to school?”

“It’s a means to an end … initially to draw them in and then to get them into the habit” of going to school, said Harris, the attendance agent.

A line of plastic trophies sit on a shelf behind Harris’ desk. Every two weeks, the awards go to the classrooms that have the most students with perfect attendance.

Gompers deploys some of these incentive programs when students are more likely to be absent, such as before and after holiday breaks or crucial days such as Count Day or state testing periods.

But while incentives are a significant part of Murphy’s vision to encourage student attendance, relationship building remains the core tenet of the school’s efforts.

“Children need to know that you care for them, that they’re in a safe space, that they have a trusted adult that they can communicate with and someone that is building a relationship with them, because that’s going to open the pathway for learning,” she said.

When absences go unexplained

For all their efforts — and progress — the sense of crisis is never far away.

On a Friday morning in early February, a handful of master teachers and administrators gathered in that same conference room for a weekly meeting to discuss academic performance, attendance, and behavior.

It had been close to a month since students and staff returned from winter break. And yet, teachers were still reporting near-empty classrooms.

“It’s that two-week break, where a lot of our students are moving,” said Shannon Harper, a fourth grade master teacher. “They may have been (evicted from) their homes. They may be living now with a relative, and there’s some friction there. And cars break down in the winter, especially here with all the potholes.”

“I just had a student that was out for 10 days,” Harper told the group. “We don’t know why, and he doesn’t either.”

Despite a barrage of robocalls going home when a child is absent, many parents don’t send their children back to the building immediately. And even when students do return, some may not have notes or reasons explaining why they missed school.

“If you never say this is your issue, we can’t help you,” said Adrian Harrell, Gompers’ parent outreach coordinator. “We can’t see what our next solution is to help you. All we know now is they are absent.”

Gompers Elementary-Middle School in the Brightmoor neighborhood is one of the Detroit district’s newer buildings. But Brightmoor is one of the most economically challenged areas in the city.

After a year of effort, Detroit students and leaders reap the rewards

On the last day of school, the grin on Jay’Sean’s face was hard to conceal, even behind the black hoodie that shrouded his head.

He was one of nine students who won a new bike in an end-of year-raffle to reward students who showed up every day over the last weeks of school.

As he took a seat on his red and black Mongoose bicycle, Jay’Sean welcomed the compliments and cheers from his friends.

The whole school had something to cheer about, too. By the end of the year, the chronic absenteeism rate declined to 64% — just shy of the 20-point decline school officials were aiming for, but down significantly.

The district experienced a similar decline, from the peak of 77% in 2021-22 to 68% last year. District officials attribute some of that to the end of quarantining requirements that forced many students to miss school.

Encouraged by the progress last year, Gompers school staff plan to continue their strategies in the new school year that began this week.

The mentoring program will remain in place, along with the range of incentives the school experimented with. But most significant for Gompers will be the addition of a second attendance agent to work alongside Harris.

Superintendent Vitti announced earlier this year that the district would shuffle its 80 attendance agents to schools in areas with the highest concentration of chronically absent students and poverty.

The added resources provide validation that attendance agents with a coordinated, hands-on approach can make a difference.

Harris said she is proud of seeing her mentees like Jay’Sean avoid chronic absenteeism. He finished the year with 13 absences, five days below the threshold.

Under Harris’ guidance, he found an accountability system that worked for him. By the end of the winter break, for all the attempts he made to get to school on time and every day, he and other students earned snacks and mini-parties every month.

With a challenging sixth grade year behind him, Jay’Sean is ready to get back to school.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Tracie Mauriello covered state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. Reach the team at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

State board recommends against group’s effort to shield students from ‘rogue sex ed’

2023-02-15T15:00:00+00:00

The State Board of Education is pushing back against a coordinated campaign to shield children from school lessons and conversations about sex, sexuality, gender, and abortion.

Members voted Tuesday along party lines to ask local school boards to require parents to use existing methods if they want to exclude their children from sex education in Michigan public schools.

An opt-out form from Great Schools Initiative, a new Michigan nonprofit, is encouraging parents to have their children excluded from “rogue sex ed.”

But, the board, which has no enforcement authority, can only issue recommendations against the coordinated campaign.

The board recommended that local districts reject any third-party forms as “invalid, irrelevant, and inconsequential.”

Board President Pamela Pugh introduced the resolution in response to the opt-out campaign.

The Great Schools form includes a long list of topics the nonprofit says parents can exclude their children from. Those include information about abortion, “self-pleasure,” gender fluidity, explicit sex acts, family planning, condoms, gender-neutral bathrooms, and more. The form includes opt-outs to ensure teachers don’t display LGBTQ+ flags, provide access to library books about sexuality and gender, or discuss gender-neutral bathrooms.

The group is affiliated with the Thomas More Society, a conservative law firm that uses litigation to try to shape laws around social issues such as abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and prayer in schools.

Its effort appears to be an outgrowth of debates over parents’ rights that dominated school board meetings and political campaigns in Michigan and across the country last year.

The Detroit Free Press reported that some districts have been receiving Great Schools Initiative’s forms and have been redirecting parents to follow opt-out procedures already established locally.

Pugh said the group is trying to confuse parents, to overwhelm school districts with a barrage of opt-out forms, to threaten lawsuits to intimidate teachers, and to advance a discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay” agenda.

“They want to cause so much disruption that it’s going to cause our school districts to just halt everything, and where does that leave our children?” Pugh asked in an interview during a break in Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s a way to pit parents against educators, and to cause fear.”

State law already requires districts to notify parents before offering sex education and includes provisions for children to be excluded without penalty.

Great Schools Initiative did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Its website urges parents to opt out of “rogue sex ed” and “hyper-sexualization occurring in your child’s school today.” It includes a printable opt-out form for parents to submit to schools, an online form for reporting violations to Great Schools Initiative, and instructions for filing complaints against school districts.

“If the degree or quantity of such violations has become unacceptably egregious, legal action may be the remedy,” according to the website.

Republican board member Tom McMillin of Oakland Township, who voted against the resolution, said parents should be able to use any form they want so they can tailor their opt-out requests.

“People have different family values, different family circumstances,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting. He said it “goes against parental rights for government schools to decide what parents are allowed to do and not to do.”

Republican board member Nikki Snyder of Dexter, who also voted against the resolution, said the issue is broader than what form is used to exempt children out of sex education.

Parents “want their kids to go to school to learn the basics of education, and they want the right to opt out of certain topics that were never meant to be taught in school.”

Pugh’s resolution stipulates that “while the decisions of parents or legal guardians to remove their child from sex education classes must be respected, the established processes of school districts for opting out of classes must also be preserved for consistency, continuity, and accountability, solely through the use of a district’s legally drafted and legally binding forms.”

The Michigan Association of School Boards supports the resolution.

“I appreciate what GSI is trying to do but there’s already a process for parents to follow and a form that districts use,” MASB lobbyist Jennifer Smith said in a telephone interview after the board meeting. “The state board is trying to encourage districts to follow the law, and we would encourage the same. The tools are already there for parents that have a concern.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Whitmer taps surplus for 9% increase in Michigan school spending

2023-02-08T19:00:19+00:00

LANSING — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s new education budget proposal features a boost in per pupil funding for public schools, a new tutoring program, and a broad expansion of state-funded preschool.

The proposal would draw on $18 billion from the School Aid Fund, $74 million from the state’s general fund and $991 million in supplemental, one-time funding for fiscal year 2023. Altogether, it amounts to a 9% increase in state school aid spending over last year’s budget, which education leaders had hailed as a “generational” investment.

“This budget builds on the Get MI Kids Back on Track plan, which offers every student individual tutoring, after-school support, and other personalized learning supports,” Whitmer told reporters after she presented her budget to lawmakers. “There are resources geared toward improving classroom experiences, increasing compensation for educators, and investing in what kids need,” she added.

The governor’s spending request comes amid a record $9 billion state surplus, including $4 billion in the school aid fund.

It’s Whitmer’s fifth state budget, but the first she presented to a Legislature controlled by her own party.

Republican lawmakers said they generally support Whitmer’s most salient education proposals — tutoring and expanded preschool — but have questions about the details and concerns about whether her proposals would be sustainable in leaner times.

“I am a little surprised at how big the budget is, because it has grown tremendously,” said state Rep. Jaime Greene, Republican vice chair of the House Education Committee.

Per pupil funding would increase

Whitmer is proposing that the state raise the base per pupil funding for public schools to $9,608 from $9,150.

For students who receive special education, schools currently receive 75% of the per pupil allowance in addition to required cost reimbursements. Whitmer’s proposal would increase the rate to 87.5%, while keeping the cost reimbursement portion.

A funding decrease for online charter schools

Amid a general funding increase, Whitmer wants fully online charter schools to receive 20% less funding than brick-and-mortar schools.

Other states have similar policies, and the idea has been repeatedly proposed in Michigan, including by former Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican. GOP lawmakers have nixed the idea each year, but it now has a chance of passing.

Experts have long argued that online charter schools have lower costs, because they generally don’t transport students or maintain school buildings. This is harder to prove in Michigan, because many so-called cyber charters are operated by private, for-profit management companies that don’t have to disclose their spending.

“There is no way in the world that a cyber school should be getting full funding per pupil,” said Mike Addonizio, an emeritus professor of education policy at Wayne State University. “They don’t have brick-and-mortar schools to run.”

Charter school advocates criticized the proposal. Amy Dunlap, chairwoman of Public School Options’ Michigan chapter, said in a statement posted to Twitter that it is confounding that Whitmer’s budget “rightly” prioritizes the needs of students still struggling from the pandemic, but cut funding for cyber charter students.

“For thousands of children and their parents, as well as the public school teachers who teach there, these schools have provided a lifeline before, during, and after the pandemic,” Dunlap said.

State Budget Director Chris Harkins told reporters after the budget presentation that the cyber charter cut is “intended to reflect the lack of some of the infrastructure needs that some of our perhaps more traditional schools have.”

Charter schools have funding needs, too, Greene said.

“Cyber schools still have to pay their teachers, still have to purchase curriculum, still have to pay the administration,” she said in an interview on the House floor. “A lot of cyber schools also offer in-person opportunities for sports, and tutoring. … So why would they be punished when per-pupil funding still funds the same things for cyber schools? They’re essentially punishing them for being a cyber school.”

Budget calls for another preschool expansion

Whitmer wants to offer free preschool to every 4-year-old in Michigan within four years. Her budget takes a step in that direction, asking lawmakers to invest an additional $306 million in the state’s Great Start Readiness Program.

The money would allow thousands more children to enroll, expand the program from four to five days a week, and boost funding by 5%, to $9,608 per student, the same as K-12 funding. GSRP funding drew even with K-12 for the first time last year.

Republican state Rep. Nancy DeBoer of Holland agrees that free preschool should be available to more children but isn’t convinced the state should foot the bill for families who can afford it.

Currently, eligibility is based on family income and other factors such as homelessness and disability.

“I don’t think the state needs to pay for everybody at age 4,” said DeBoer, a former teacher and a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid. “I can understand if people are in difficult situations and don’t have a healthy place for their children, but otherwise, no.”

Greene said Whitmer’s preschool proposal leaves out parents who want to stay home with their children.

“Not all moms want to send their 4-year-olds to preschool. What about opportunities so they can work and also stay with their kids?” asked Greene, who homeschools her own children in Richmond. She suggested state support for job sharing and additional job security for working parents.

Greene also expressed concerns about the educator shortage, which could make it more difficult to staff preschool for all.

Recent expansions of the Great Start Readiness Program have been slowed by teacher shortages, exacerbated by disparities in pay. The $20,000 pay gap between teachers in Michigan’s state-funded preschool program and K-3 teachers is among the largest in the U.S.

“Right now it’s really hard to find staff,” said Amerra Macki, director of A & W Day Care Center, which operates four GSRP classrooms in Detroit. “I would love to see more money so we can hire more people.”

To draw more educators into early education, Whitmer is asking lawmakers for $50 million to assess the problem, expand training programs, and boost recruitment efforts.

Her preschool proposal also includes grants to help new GSRP classrooms open and to help existing programs expand.

Whitmer wants some of this funding to be approved quickly in a supplemental budget bill, rather than waiting for the state budgeting process, which likely won’t conclude for months. Among those proposals is $18 million to expand a pilot preschool program for 3-year-olds.

Budget offers $100 million for teacher recruitment and retention

Districts continue to struggle with a shortage of educators at all grade levels.

To alleviate that, Whitmer is calling for continued investment in the MI Future Educator program created last year. It provides scholarships of up to $10,000 per year for education majors and stipends of up to $9,600 per semester during student teaching. Whitmer budgeted $100 million for the program, up from the current $75 million.

Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards, said his organization supports the investment in teacher recruitment and retention.

“By ensuring that our schools have the funds and talent necessary for excellent learning environments and experiences, Michigan is investing in its future thought leaders and changemakers — our kids,” Wotruba said in a statement.

Whitmer revives tutoring plan to mitigate learning loss

Whitmer will try again to roll out a comprehensive statewide tutoring program. Last year, Republicans rebuffed her $280 million proposal for individualized tutoring but agreed to $52 million in grants that districts could use for tutoring.

Whitmer is resurrecting that proposal and requesting that the state pass a supplemental spending package before spring break that includes $300 million for tutoring.

She first proposed the program after a media collaborative including Chalkbeat, Bridge Michigan, and the Detroit Free Press reported that Michigan, unlike other states, had not provided funding or a structure for a coordinated tutoring program.

Republicans preferred to provide $1,000 per pupil in grants that parents could use for private tutoring and instruction, but Whitmer vetoed that plan in 2021. A different tutoring proposal led by Republicans did not pass out of the House last year.

Greene hopes there will be flexibility in Get MI Kids Back on Track for private tutoring and online programs from vendors.

“Parents should be able to use the funding toward programs like that when their kids need a little bit of a boost,” Greene said.

Literacy and mental health would get more resources

Whitmer’s budget proposal also includes several other spending items, including:

$42 million for literacy coaches at intermediate school districts
$1.2 million for 10 new regional early literacy hubs
$94 million for the Detroit Public Schools Community District for literacy programs; the dollar amount was part of the settlement of a literacy lawsuit that alleged the state denied Detroit students their right to a basic education.
$4 million to get students books and other literacy materials using the Dolly Parton Imagination Library
$300 million for literacy professional development
$300 million for school mental-health staffing and programming to be spent over two years.

Trina Tocco, executive director of the Michigan Education Justice Coalition, said Whitmer’s budget proposal “recognizes that our leaders in Lansing have chronically underfunded our schools for decades, depriving students of the education they deserve.”

But Tocco said the budget doesn’t fully meet the needs of the education system, and state leaders must dig deeper.

“It’s time that our leaders in Lansing start talking about where additional funds will come from, because our kids deserve the investment,” Tocco said.

Free meals for all

Whitmer also proposed to spend $160 million to provide free meals in school for all students and another $1 million to help districts forgive debts that accumulated because of families who couldn’t afford to pay for breakfast and lunch.

The Whitmer proposal comes after a federal program that guaranteed universal school meals for students during the COVID-19 pandemic expired in July.

“We know that kids struggle to learn when they are also struggling with hunger, and ensuring that not a single student in our state has to go to school and face that reality is one of the best investments we can possibly make,” said Robert McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, which represents 123 school districts in the state.

Currently, families must make below 185% of the federal poverty level to qualify for free and reduced priced meals at school. For example, a family of four must make $51,338 or less to qualify for reduced priced meals, and $36,075 or less a year to qualify for free meals.

In Michigan, 581 of the state’s 889 school districts and charter schools qualified for federal support to provide districtwide free school meals, but only 323 of them — or 55.6% of eligible districts — opted in for the school year 2021-22, The Detroit News reported.

Nancy Lindman, public policy and research director for the Michigan Association of United Ways, applauded the proposal on Wednesday as “a good start” to remove “barriers to learning and kids thriving.”

“That is a great investment across the board,” she said. “It’s been tested, it’s been tried in some communities. To take this next step to make sure that we’ve got this universally in place is going to make our state a better place for kids to get an education.”

The next fiscal year begins Oct. 1, but lawmakers typically try to pass the school aid budget by the end of June, because school district fiscal years begin on July 1.

Bridge Michigan reporter Yue Stella Yu contributed to this report.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Isabel Lohman covers education for Bridge Michigan. Reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Tutoring, literacy, and preschool: Whitmer K-12 budget centers on proposals with bipartisan support

2023-02-07T16:30:00+00:00

Literacy and tutoring are two things that Michigan Republicans and Democrats agree are important. And it’s probably no coincidence that they’re both near the top of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s education agenda.

Emerging details from the school aid budget that Whitmer will present Wednesday show that she is prioritizing areas nearly everyone supports, even if they can’t agree on the details.

That could help her conserve her political capital for partisan fights later.

Republicans are likely to push back hard against some of Whitmer’s non-budgetary priorities, including strengthening gun control, requiring more financial transparency from charter schools, codifying protections for LGBTQ people, and repealing the state’s right-to-work law.

With those fights on the horizon, Whitmer is being more cautious on the school budget, said Sarah Reckhow, associate professor of political science at Michigan State University.

“The proposals that have been coming out are not likely to raise a lot of pushback,” Reckhow said. “They would fall into the bread-and-butter categories. They’re programs that are pretty popular, things for kids that Democrats usually support and Republicans probably support, too.”

Still, Whitmer could face opposition, particularly over her tutoring program. Republicans and conservative education advocates are still angry about her 2021 veto of a GOP bill to provide state-funded scholarships for private tutoring.

State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh, a Democrat, said that she hasn’t yet seen the governor’s budget but that she supports proposals to offer universal preschool, provide one-on-one tutoring, and prepare parents to help children learn to read.

“We need to make sure the necessary budget is there for there to be healthy school learning environments,” she said.

Pugh said she would also like to see teacher retention bonuses like the ones Whitmer proposed last year, but Whitmer’s office said they won’t be part of this year’s budget.

Pugh said she hopes Whitmer’s budget will at least provide enough money for districts to provide their own teacher bonuses if they choose to, as some already do.

“They should be strongly encouraged” to provide bonuses to educators, she said.

The state board has no budgetary authority but can make spending recommendations.

Whitmer’s school funding priorities include the following, according to budget details shared with Chalkbeat Detroit, Bridge Michigan, the Detroit Free Press, and MLive:

Providing $300 million for individualized tutoring for all students.
Expanding the Great Start Readiness Program to offer free preschool to all 4-year-olds.
Creating regional literacy hubs and adopting the Parents as Teachers program so families have the tools to help children learn to read.
Training AmeriCorps volunteers to be literacy tutors.
Providing $160 million for free breakfast and lunch to all students. Children from low-income families already receive free or reduced-price lunch.
Funding college scholarships for education majors and stipends for student teachers.

The full school aid and general fund budgets are scheduled to be released at 11 a.m. Wednesday before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The budgets are expected to be posted online at about the same time.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Whitmer wants to extend help for future educators, but drops teacher retention bonus plan

2023-02-06T13:00:00+00:00

During her reelection campaign, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer promised to prioritize teacher recruitment and retention, but the budget she will unveil on Wednesday includes just $100 million for it — a small fraction of what she proposed last year.

Her proposal last February called for spending $1.5 billion on teacher retention bonuses over four years. Republicans wouldn’t support that. This year, Whitmer’s own party is in charge of the Legislature, but the bonuses are no longer a budget priority.

Instead, Whitmer’s education agenda is focused on tutoring and preschool. During her State of the State address last month, Whitmer said she would work to provide free preschool for all 4-year-olds and to provide one-on-one tutoring for all students who need it.

How much she intends to invest in those initiatives will become clear Wednesday during a budget presentation to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

Those measures are part of the school aid budget that Whitmer will present along with a broader general fund budget proposal to invest in everything from agriculture to workforce development.

The governor’s office provided an early peek at her plan to continue the MI Future Educator incentive program, which was created in last year’s budget to help attract teachers. It provides $50 million in stipends for student teachers and $25 million in scholarships for education majors. Her new budget proposal would maintain those spending levels and add $25 million to “ensure sustainability of the program,” spokesman Bobby Leddy said.

“This is everything on recruitment and retention” in the budget, Leddy added in a text message Sunday. He did not provide details on how the additional money would be spent.

“In the best of years, education is a tough job, but the last few years have been historically challenging,” Whitmer said Sunday in a written statement. “Let’s build on our work last year to establish education fellowships, pay student teachers, boost teacher recruitment, and create more paths to the profession so every classroom has a caring, qualified educator.”

MI Future Educator provides up to $9,600 per semester for student teachers and up to $10,000 per year in tuition for Michigan residents who are enrolled in eligible educator preparation programs and working toward their first certification.

Education advocates including Launch Michigan, which first proposed the MI Future Educator program, are glad Whitmer wants it to continue.

“It clearly indicates that the governor recognizes that the solution to (the teacher shortage) is of a long-term nature,” said Adam Zemke, who was president of Launch Michigan when the program was conceived. “These are recruitment strategies that work.”

The Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals supports the initiatives, too.

“We have a massive educator shortage in the state of Michigan, and we need to address that shortage,” said spokesman Bob Kefgen. “Helping people become teachers will certainly help.”

Leddy did not respond to questions about why retention bonuses aren’t part of Whitmer’s new budget.

Others say that the moment for them may have passed. Last year at this time, COVID cases were spiking, and teachers were struggling to manage student behavior as students readjusted to in-person learning.

When Whitmer proposed the $1.5 billion in bonuses last year, “that felt like a one-time thing,” said Bob McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, which represents school administrators in six counties. “It’s not sustainable, to be honest.”

And, McCann said, bonuses aren’t the only way to support teachers.

“What we should be doing to keep teachers invested in staying in school starts with investing in classrooms,” he said. That means “putting more money into reading coaches, social workers, and things that help teachers to do their jobs and be successful in the classroom. That’s what’s critical in retaining teachers.”

The budget request comes as the state considers what to do with a projected $9 billion budget surplus. Whitmer and fellow Democrats want to use some of that to distribute inflation-relief checks to all taxpayers.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Teacher unions back right-to-work repeal effort, even though it wouldn’t help them

2023-02-02T16:15:00+00:00

Michigan teachers unions are backing a Democratic plan that would help labor groups in the state generate more resources for their collective bargaining efforts, even though the plan wouldn’t involve public school educators or other government employees.

At issue is a 2012 state law that freed workers at unionized workplaces who decline to join the union from having to pay a portion of dues — known as “agency fees” — to support the work that unions do on their behalf, such as negotiating wages and benefits. The law, which supporters refer to as a “right to work” policy, sparked fierce debate and spirited protests that drew national attention when it was passed in a state that has long been a stronghold for organized labor.

Democrats and their allies in the labor movement have long opposed the law. And now that they control the state Legislature and the governor’s office, Democrats have put the issue at the top of their agenda, making repeal bills the first legislation introduced this legislative session: One has been introduced in the House, and another in the Senate.

But neither bill would apply to public school teachers and their labor unions. That’s because of a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says public employees who opt not to join a union cannot be required to pay agency fees.

Still, teachers unions are joining the fight against a law that opponents say strengthens private industry and employers at the expense of organized labor.

“Right to Work is an attack on working folk and all of organized labor,” said David Hecker, president of Michigan’s branch of the American Federation of Teachers.

Union leaders also want to be prepared if the Supreme Court reconsiders its 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which established the exception for public employees. Reversals are rare but not unprecedented. Just last year, the high court overturned its 1973 decision in the abortion case Roe v. Wade.

“It’s important to us that we already have state laws in place so if the Supreme Court does reconsider Janus down the road we have laws on the books (in Michigan) that allow workers to have their rights,” said Thomas Morgan, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.

“People who don’t join a union should still pay their fair share for the cost of representation,” he said. “Negotiating the contract and all the things unions do are not free.”

Conservatives warn that repealing the law would discourage employers from coming to Michigan or staying here.

The right-leaning Mackinac Center for Public Policy supports the right-to-work law and says there’s good reason for keeping the policy in place for government employees in particular.

Labor unions have political arms that influence public policies set by their members’ employers, said Patrick Wright, a labor attorney and vice president of legal affairs for the Mackinac Center, which advocates for free-market principles.

MEA spent $3.8 million on lobbying and political activities last year according to Department of Labor filings. That’s about 4.5% of its $84.2 million in revenue.

Those figures don’t tell the whole story, Wright said. Public-sector unions are intrinsically political, he said, and employees shouldn’t be required to support unions if they don’t want to.

“Maybe you disagree with what the union spends its money on. Maybe you don’t like their abortion stance, their gun stance, their whatever else stance,” he said. “There are so many things that unions get their fingers in.”

Michigan State University researcher Katharine Strunk, who has studied teachers’ unions and collective bargaining for decades, warned in 2018 that the Janus ruling would reduce union membership and revenue, and diminish bargaining power.

“When unions no longer have the ability to require people to pay union dues, it does seem to drastically reduce membership, because why would you pay for something you could free-ride on?” Strunk said in an interview this week. Her labor research is separate from her work as director of the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative.

In the 10 years since the right-to-work law took effect, MEA’s membership decreased from 151,771 to 117,994, according to U.S. Labor Department filings. Its revenue dropped from $122 million to $84.2 million over that period, filings show.

It’s not possible to know how much of that decline resulted directly from the law. MEA attributes some of the decline to declining enrollment and a shortage of teachers that was exacerbated by the pandemic.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Repeal of retention rule in 3rd-grade reading law advances in Michigan Senate

2023-01-31T22:54:36+00:00

The Michigan Senate took a big step toward undoing an unpopular GOP-backed rule requiring districts to flag poor readers in third grade to be held back for a year.

The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday voted 5-1 to advance legislation to repeal the retention rule in Michigan’s Read by Grade Three law. Earlier Tuesday the House Education Committee heard testimony on similar legislation and could vote it out of committee as soon as next week, putting one of Democrats’ top education priorities on the fast track to the House and Senate floors.

The legislation has broad support among Democrats, who control both chambers, but amendments are possible, particularly from lawmakers who might use the bill as a vehicle for bipartisan reforms in the way students are screened for dyslexia.

GOP opponents of the bill say repealing the retention rule would water down Michigan’s academic standards. But even some Republicans back the repeal effort, including state Sen. Ruth Johnson of Holly.

“There’s no skill as vital to success in life as reading but I don’t believe that a student should be held back in third grade just because they’re struggling to read,” Johnson said at Tuesday’s hearing. Instead, she said, they should be given tutoring and other help to succeed.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, the committee’s chairperson and sponsor of the bill, said that help will be available.

“All of the supports a student would have received repeating the third grade will now be extended to a student in their fourth grade year,” said Polehanki, a Democrat from Livonia and a former teacher.

Those supports include individualized reading improvement plans, progress monitoring, read-at-home plans, and daily small-group instruction. All of those provisions would remain in state law, along with requirements for literacy coaches and professional development for teachers, Polehanki said.

State Superintendent Michael Rice testified before both committees in favor of ending the retention rule.

“Let’s eliminate the punitive, and let’s start building on the more positive to support our children,” Rice told members of the House Education Committee.

Retention is ineffective, unpopular with teachers, and damaging to students’ self-efficacy, said education researcher Katharine Strunk, who testified before both the House and Senate committees. Strunk is executive director of Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, a research partner of the Michigan Department of Education.

The retention rule hasn’t had the effect lawmakers envisioned when they passed the reading law in 2016 as a way to identify struggling readers, provide individualized help, and hire literacy coaches. The law took effect gradually, and 2021-22 was the first year third-graders were retained because of it.

Because the law allows broad exemptions, fewer than 1% of students flagged for retention actually repeat third grade. Most of them are exempted from the requirement, because of their status as English language learners or special education students, or simply because their parents and school administrators agreed that it was in the students’ best interest to promote them to fourth grade, Strunk said.

The time spent working out such agreements would be better spent on actually improving students’ reading skills, Rice told the House committee.

The retention rule “is a well-intentioned reform but it does not, in fact, meet its mark,” he said. Repealing it “doesn’t preclude retention in those rare cases where it might be a good circumstance. It simply means that the default is no longer retention.”

Spokespeople for House Speaker Joe Tate of Detroit and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids did not immediately respond to questions about whether and when they might schedule floor votes on the repeal bill.

Johnson, who supports the bill, abstained from Tuesday’s vote, saying she intends to support the legislation if a provision is added to ensure that parents are notified about their children’s reading difficulties.

Republican Sen. John Damoose of Harbor Springs, who cast the lone no vote in the Senate committee, opposes the repeal, saying it would weaken educational standards and limit accountability.

In the House committee, too, Republican opponents of the bill said they see the retention rule as a useful tool.

State Rep. Brad Paquette, a Republican from Berrien Springs and a former teacher, said the threat of retention should remain in the law, because it could motivate students to work harder.

“I know when I was young and I had the specter of ‘Oh, you might get held back,’ that really was a good kick in the pants,” he said during the committee hearing.

Rep. Jaime Greene, vice chairperson of the House committee, said retention helps ensure that children have basic reading skills before they move on to fourth grade.

“We have one of the lowest reading levels in the country, so if we’re not going to retain them, what are we going to do?” asked Greene, a Republican from Richmond. “We’ve got to do something.”

Rice and Strunk said there’s a lot that can be done.

“More time in small groups or one-on-one with a qualified educator who is focused on literacy instruction is what we know to be the most impactful,” Strunk said.

In her State of the State address last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed a plan to provide individualized tutoring for students in all grades and all subjects. She is expected to lay out details when she presents her budget on Feb. 8.

She also proposed expanding the Great Start Readiness Program, Michigan’s public preschool, to all 4-year-olds.

“I do think we should weave preschool into the fabric of our public education system far more extensively than it is now,” Rice told the House committee Tuesday. Enrollment shouldn’t be mandatory, but it’s “enormously important” for every 4-year-old in Michigan to have access to preschool, he said.

He also asked lawmakers to provide more education funding that could be used to reduce class sizes in low-achieving districts with high poverty, to offer more professional development in reading instruction, to help students with dyslexia, and to provide programs after school and in the summer.

Democrats’ effort to repeal the retention rule could open the door to other reading reforms, including a renewed emphasis on phonics. That approach teaches children to sound out words and apply rules of spelling and pronunciation.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Whitmer’s fifth State of the State: Expanded preschool, tutoring top education agenda

2023-01-26T02:11:51+00:00

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, working with a friendly majority in the Legislature and a historically large budget surplus, used the first major speech of her second term to explain how she plans to use those advantages to shape Michigan’s education policy.

At the top of the wish list: providing free preschool for all Michigan 4-year-olds over the next four years and expanding one-on-one tutoring for older children.

“When a child gets a great start, and learns to read, and graduates high school … they are on track to land a good-paying job or pursue higher education,” the governor told a joint session of the Michigan Legislature in her State of the State address Wednesday. “Unfortunately, the last few years have disrupted regular learning patterns.”

In-class instruction alone isn’t enough for kids to catch up, Whitmer said.

It was the governor’s fifth State of the State speech, but the first delivered to a majority that shares her political ideology. Her first four were before Republican majorities that resisted her plans. Now the Democrats control both legislative chambers for the first time in 40 years.

That doesn’t mean her proposals will sail through without resistance. Republicans and school choice proponents already are pushing back.

Hours before the speech, the Great Lakes Education Project predicted that Whitmer’s plans would only spend more on an already broken system.

“Doubling down on the systems and bureaucracies that have already failed our kids won’t produce better results,” Executive Director Beth DeShone said in a written statement. GLEP is a nonprofit group founded by Betsy DeVos, a former U.S. education secretary and Michigan’s most vocal proponent of school choice.

DeShone said she prefers policies that give parents more control over their children’s education such as a program allowing tax credits for contributions to scholarships that parents could use for private school tuition, tutoring, or extracurricular activities.

DeShone and other Whitmer critics were quick to point out that test scores have been declining across Michigan, particularly in Detroit and other urban areas hit hardest by the pandemic.

Tutoring plan is broad in scope

Tutoring is at the center of Get MI Kids Back on Track, Whitmer’s plan to help struggling students rebound after two years of pandemic-related disruptions that set back learning.

Even if the Legislature agrees, it won’t be easy to staff the program. Already districts are having trouble finding enough tutors for existing local programs.

Whitmer did not say how much the program would cost. Those details will emerge later as she rolls out her 2024 budget over the coming weeks.

Whitmer proposed a similar tutoring plan last May, saying then that it would cost $280 million. The proposal came three weeks after Chalkbeat Detroit, Bridge Michigan, and the Detroit Free Press reported that Michigan wasn’t making the same kind of investments that other states had in the comprehensive statewide tutoring strategies that researchers say make a difference. Instead, Michigan districts have been left to develop their own tutoring programs to help children catch up after two years of pandemic-related disruptions.

Republicans, who then controlled the Legislature, largely dismissed her proposal but did provide $52 million for tutoring in this year’s school aid budget. Their own plan, a $155 million proposal to provide up to $1,000 per student for parents to hire private reading tutors for elementary children, was vetoed by Whitmer, as public school advocates said it would siphon money away from public schools.

Get MI Kids Back on Track is broader in scope than the GOP plan and would provide tutors for all grades and core subjects.

“Whether you’re a third grader learning about the solar system, a sixth grader focusing on fractions, or a junior sharpening persuasive writing skills, tutoring addresses your specific learning challenges,” Whitmer said in her speech.

Advocates from the K-12 Alliance of Michigan back the education priorities Whitmer outlined Wednesday.

“We know that providing students with one-on-one tutoring support is often one of the most important resources we can make available in our schools,” said Executive Director Bob McCann, whose group represents superintendents from Michigan’s most populous counties.

In his written statement, McCann added that universal pre-kindergarten will ensure that all families have access to programs to prepare their children for long term success in school.

Whitmer’s K-12 proposals aren’t new. She raised them during her reelection campaign against Republican challenger Tudor Dixon, who ran on a school choice and parents’ rights platform.

Still, the education agenda Whitmer put forth Wednesday was meatier than the plan in her 2022 State of the State address, which proposed investing more in education but introduced no specific new school programs.

Whitmer begins her second term with a $9.2 billion state budget surplus, including $4.1 billion in the school aid fund. Some lawmakers will be looking to reinvest that money in state programs, while others — Republicans and Democrats alike — are eyeing tax cuts.

Whitmer has both in mind. In her speech she reintroduced her plans to repeal a 2011 law that taxes retirees on their pensions and to expand the Working Families Tax Credit.

“Data shows boosting the Working Families Tax Credit also closes health and wealth gaps,” she told lawmakers Wednesday. “Children who grow up with this support have better test scores, graduation rates, and earnings as adults.”

Whitmer also used Wednesday’s speech to tout her first-term accomplishments. Those included creating a fellowship program for education majors, paying student teachers, and expanding school mental health programs.

“We made record investments in our children and schools by leading with our shared values,” she said. “We closed the funding gap between schools. We brought student investment to an all-time high four years in a row without raising taxes.”

Preschool plan would be open to all 4-year-olds

Whitmer’s ambitious early childhood proposal, which would be rolled out over four years, would lift current restrictions on eligibility for the Great Start Readiness Program, paving the way for every 4-year-old in the state to enroll.

“This investment will ensure children arrive at kindergarten ready to learn and saves their families upwards of $10,000 a year,” Whitmer said. “It helps parents, especially moms, go back to work. And it will launch hundreds more preschool classrooms across Michigan, supporting thousands of jobs.”

There are an estimated 116,000 4-year-olds in Michigan, and about 35,000 are enrolled in GSRP statewide. To qualify for the program today, a family of four must make less than $70,000 per year or face other barriers such as homelessness.

The proposal would add Michigan to a growing list of about a dozen states with universal preschool eligibility. Those states vary widely in the proportion of eligible 4-year-olds who are actually enrolled.

Some providers celebrated the idea, saying it would allow them to reduce paperwork and enroll more children.

“I would go for that,” said Princess Dobbins, who operates three child care centers with GSRP classrooms in the Detroit area. “The only reason we’ve got so much paperwork is the (enrollment) restrictions.”

Whitmer offered few details about how the program would work or how much it would cost. The GSRP budget is currently $418 million; a spokesman for her office said the expansion would be funded in the short-run using the state’s historic surplus. Advocates said they expect more information when the governor releases her budget recommendations in early February.

Key questions include how expansion plans would address chronic early educator shortages, how they would affect the rest of the early childhood landscape, and how much programming families of preschoolers would receive. GSRP programs offer care four days per week.

Educator shortages have hampered the most recent expansion effort. Whitmer tapped federal COVID aid for a large GSRP expansion in 2021, but the state has struggled to find teachers to staff the new classrooms necessary to reach her enrollment goals.

“We’re already lagging in terms of uptake, and we’ll continue to have that lag if we don’t address the talent issues,” said Denise Smith, implementation director for Hope Starts Here, a nonprofit early childhood initiative in Detroit. She suggested that the state could require GSRP programs to pay teachers a living wage as a condition of receiving the new funds.

Advocates also worry that expansion could cause problems for child care programs that enroll 4-year-olds and younger children. Four-year-olds are less expensive to care for than younger children because they require less supervision; drawing them away from community-based child care could make it harder for those programs to continue serving younger children.

“That’s the elephant in the room,” said Matt Gillard, president of Michigan’s Children, an advocacy group. He said his understanding is that the Whitmer administration plans to put together “a panel of experts to figure out how we can fashion this in a way that mitigates those impacts.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org. Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

State of the State: Whitmer pushing for 1:1 tutoring as Michigan students struggle

2023-01-23T11:00:00+00:00

If Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gets her way, Michigan children could start getting one-on-one tutoring in reading before spring break.

Tutoring is her top education priority as she prepares to deliver her fifth State of the State address Wednesday night in Lansing.

“Unfortunately, the last few years have disrupted learning patterns, and in-class instruction alone is not enough,” Whitmer said in a written statement to Chalkbeat and Bridge Michigan.

She is asking lawmakers to quickly fund her Get MI Kids Back on Track plan, a program she first asked for eight months ago to address learning challenges through tutoring and after-school programs and help the state’s long-term economic growth by better preparing students for the workforce, according to her office.

When Whitmer put forward the idea last May, she found little traction in a legislature controlled by Republicans reluctant to give her any policy wins during an election year.

The next budget year begins July 1, so starting the program before then would require a supplemental appropriation to this year’s budget.

Whitmer’s initial $280 million proposal came three weeks after a report by Chalkbeat Detroit, Bridge Michigan, and the Detroit Free Press found that a lack of state leadership on tutoring resulted in an uneven patchwork of programs.

Michigan has no statewide tutoring strategy, but individual districts including Detroit Public Schools Community District — the state’s largest — have their own programs. Many other states already had comprehensive statewide strategies to recruit teachers and dedicate funds to expand tutoring programs.

Enactment of MI Kids Back on Track is far more likely now that Democrats control the Legislature.

State Rep. Matt Koleszar, chairperson of the House Education Committee, declined to discuss the tutoring program ahead of the governor’s address, but indicated he is on board with her priorities.

“I’m excited to work hand-in-hand with the governor and to continue on our path of record funding for our schools, and provide for our students with proven and innovative methods,” a Democrat from Plymouth, said in a text message Sunday.

State Rep. Jaime Greene, Republican vice chairperson of the House Education Committee, said she supports efforts to compensate for learning loss during the pandemic but hopes there also is room for school choice in Whitmer’s K-12 agenda.

Pandemic-related school closures “have greatly affected students, and as a state we need to improve opportunities in many different areas to help students get back on track,” Greene of Richmond said in an email message Sunday.

“I hope the governor on Wednesday will also address the need for parents to have a greater role in their children’s education. Parents have the inherent right to help choose the manner and content of their child’s curriculum,” she said.

School choice is unlikely to be on Whitmer’s agenda. She has opposed proposals that would divert money from public schools. That includes a $155 million GOP tutoring proposal she vetoed in 2021. That plan would have provided publicly funded scholarships of up to $1,000 for elementary students to get private tutoring or reading instruction.

John Damoose of Harbor Springs, Republican vice chairperson of the Senate Education Committee, declined to comment on Get MI Kids Back on Track until after Whitmer’s speech, when he will know more about her plans.

Typically, State of the State addresses provide the broad framework of governors’ goals. Details such as cost emerge later in budget addresses and spending proposals.

Research shows that tutoring is a highly effective way to increase achievement, especially for students from lower income families. Those are the same families whose communities were hit hardest by the pandemic.

That’s born out in Michigan test scores. They sharply declined during the pandemic, particularly for students from economically disadvantaged families. Fourth graders recorded their lowest reading scores in three decades on the National Assessment of Education Progress.

Academic struggles were more pronounced among children in large urban districts with high poverty rates. Researchers from Harvard and Stanford universities found that students in Detroit, Saginaw, and Lansing lost the equivalent of about a year or more of learning during the pandemic.

“Right now, kids in Michigan need extra support to catch up and get on track for long-term success,” Tracey Troy, chairperson of the Michigan Parents’ Council, said in a written statement forwarded by the governor’s office.

Whitmer’s proposal “will expand tutoring, after-school programs, and other learning supports to get kids one-on-one time with a caring, qualified educator that they need to succeed,” said Troy, who also is past president of the Michigan PTA.

Education advocates have been calling for a concerted effort to bring individualized instruction to students who need it most. In a report this month, the advocacy group Education Trust-Midwest said intensive tutoring is key to post-pandemic academic recovery and called on lawmakers to invest in it.

But finding funding isn’t enough.

Districts also need to find people to staff tutoring programs as districts including DPSCD already are struggling to find enough staff for existing programs.

State Superintendent Michael Rice acknowledged the problem at this month’s State Board of Education meeting. He said he is looking to the Legislature to provide funding to hire and train enough tutors to work with the neediest children at least three times a week, either individually or in pairs.

“They need to be trained tutors, not simply Mikey from the curb who’s come in,” Rice said during the meeting. “Mikey can be trained, but Mikey needs training.”

Whitmer also is expected to address other education issues during her speech, including school funding and efforts to attract and retain teachers.

She also will discuss her broader goals for the state, such as making the state more competitive, bolstering manufacturing, and protecting fundamental rights.

The State of the State address is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday before a joint session of the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives. It is expected to be livestreamed and broadcast live on many local television stations.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Former teachers take the reins of education committees in Michigan Legislature

2023-01-13T21:21:10+00:00

Five years ago, Dayna Polehanki was the only K-12 educator on the state Senate Education Committee. It had been at least 10 years since a career educator served on the committee, Polehanki lamented at the time.

Now Polehanki, a Democrat and former English teacher from Livonia, leads the committee. Three other legislative panels that control education policy and spending also are newly under the leadership of former teachers, giving them unprecedented power in the Democratic-controlled Legislature over what Michigan children learn, how they are taught, and how schools are funded.

Teachers have held leadership posts in the Legislature before, but lawmakers and lobbyists said they can’t remember a time when so many former educators were in such powerful positions.

“To me, it sends a message about the priorities of the majority party,” said Bob Kefgen, lobbyist for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals. “It means the voices of educators will be driving the conversation in both education policy and budgeting.”

The appointments and committee assignments were announced Thursday by the Legislature’s new Democratic leaders: House Speaker Joe Tate of Detroit and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids.

The committee leaders will help advance a Democratic education agenda that includes more money for school facilities, a new school funding formula, bonuses for teachers, an end to the retention policy in the state’s third-grade reading law, and new financial transparency rules for charter schools. Those are priorities Democrats couldn’t get any traction on last session, when Republicans controlled the agenda.

Republican priorities have been centered around parents’ rights and curriculum transparency. Last session members debated how schools teach about race, whether to allow transgender athletes on school teams, and whether to require teachers to post lesson plans online so parents and activists can monitor what’s taught.

“The most important work of the Legislature happens in the humble committee meeting,” Brinks said in a press release. “It’s where problems are identified and people can participate in shaping policy solutions.”

State Rep. Matt Koleszar was tapped to lead the House Education Committee. He taught English and social studies for 12 years at Airport Community Schools in Monroe County. At least six of the committee’s other 12 members also have classroom experience, Koleszar said.

State Rep. Regina Weiss of Oak Park was named chairperson of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid and Education. She taught English and social studies in the Detroit Public Schools Community District for five years.

Sen. Darrin Camilleri of Trenton will lead the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on PreK-12. Camilleri taught at Consortium College Preparatory High School in Detroit.

Polehanki taught high school English and is a former district teacher of the year for New Haven Community Schools.

The appointments mean that teachers’ voices will be part of every meaningful discussion about education policy and funding in the Legislature for the next two years.

“These are committees that are going to be making huge influential decisions about the policies we set to make sure our kids are succeeding, to make sure our educators are respected, and that our schools are properly funded,” Weiss said. “This is the first time we’ve had educators completely leading this charge.”

That’s encouraging, said Thomas Morgan, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association, the large teachers union.

“So often you see lawmakers and bureaucrats getting together and deciding what the policies are going to be without bothering to go actually talk to teachers and support staff on the front lines who actually work in the schools,” Morgan said.

Polehanki, Koleszar, Camilleri, and Weiss “understand what it’s like to lead a classroom, they understand what it’s like to deal with all the stressors that educators face on a daily basis, and they are legitimately enthusiastic about helping to address the issues in our schools,” he said.

In separate interviews, the four emphasized their commitment to public schools.

That makes advocates for school choice wary that the former public school teachers will give short shrift to other education alternatives.

“Lawmakers should be working to ensure that students have access to the fullest range of educational opportunities,” said Holly Wetzel, spokesperson for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which has advocated for charter schools, online schools, and private school vouchers.

Several Republicans on the committees did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday, but they are likely to ensure that perspectives like Wetzel’s are heard.

For example, state Rep. Jaime Greene, the House Education Committee’s Republican vice chairperson, campaigned on a parents’ rights platform, saying that she supports families’ rights to choose where and how their children are taught. She promised on her campaign website to “stand up for parents having a vital role in education, no matter what form they choose.”

The previous chair of the House Education Committee was Republican Pamela Hornberger, who had been a teacher in Imlay City Community Schools. Hornberger, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate last year, is no longer in the Legislature. The Senate committee was led by Lana Theiss of Brighton, who does not have a teaching background.

Weiss said she ran for office in 2020 because she felt teachers didn’t have enough of a voice in Lansing.

“It seemed like a disconnect between the policymakers in Lansing and the people who were actually on the ground being affected by the policy changes,” she said. Lawmakers weren’t doing things that mattered — such as ensuring safe and secure school buildings, she said.

“Every district in Michigan is on their own when it comes to school funding so we have immense inequality,” said Weiss, who described teaching in Detroit classrooms that had rats, roaches, and leaky roofs.

She said her committee will prioritize developing a system to fund school infrastructure improvements.

That will be a Senate priority, too, Camilleri said.

“We need to make sure our school systems across the state can modernize their school buildings, whether that means pulling down more federal dollars or thinking about ways to spend our state dollars differently,” he said. “It’s time for us to invest infrastructure dollars.”

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Jaime Greene’s name, to clarify that Dayna Polehanki was the only K-12 educator when she first joined the Senate education committee, and to correct when Regina Weiss was elected to the legislature.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Pamela Pugh elected Michigan school board president

2023-01-11T13:30:00+00:00

Democrat Pamela Pugh, the new voice of the state school board, vowed to work closely with the Michigan Department of Education to accomplish a long list of legislative priorities that includes everything from gun control to free school lunches.

Pugh was elected president of the Board of Education Tuesday in a 6-0 vote, with the two Republicans on the panel voting “present” rather than opposing her. She takes office at a significant moment: Her party now controls the state House, Senate, and executive branch for the first time in nearly four decades.

The state board is responsible for the education of the state’s 1.3 million public school students, but it has little authority, other than to hire and fire the state superintendent and to approve standards that local districts use to set curriculums. In Michigan, most education policy decisions are the purview of the Legislature.

That means the board often exercises its power through the bully pulpit.

“The people who are on our board have mouths big enough and loud enough, and the majority have the right intentions as well as the right skill sets to influence and shape the agenda,” Pugh said in an interview. “I do think we’ll have influence, and we won’t be unaligned” with the Legislature.

Among her priorities are repealing the third-grade reading law’s retention rule, requiring more fiscal transparency from charter schools, adequately staffing schools, and funding schools more equitably.

State Superintendent Michael Rice shares those goals and has many more, which he presented to the board on Tuesday. Among them are:

Making it easier for retired school employees to return to work in schools.
Reducing barriers for counselors and teachers certified in other states to work in Michigan.
Strengthening gun control laws to address school violence.
Ensuring that children in foster care receive credit for courses they take while in congregate care facilities.
Implementing a weighted school funding system that ensures adequate resources for students with special needs.
Reviving a temporary provision that allowed school staff to substitute teach last school year even if they hadn’t been to college. The measure was meant to help alleviate a teacher shortage but few districts used it.
Providing teacher retention bonuses.
Streamlining teacher evaluations.
Accelerating teacher preparation programs to get pre-kindergarten teachers in classrooms faster and reduce the wait list for the state’s Great Start Readiness Program.
Requiring parents to register home-schooled children with the state.
Expanding Great Start Readiness to provide instruction five days per week and 38 weeks per year. Currently, it operates four days per week for 30 weeks.
Training tutors.
Creating family literacy centers throughout the state.
Ensuring funding continues for school mental health services.
Providing more funding for career and technical education programs.
Providing free school lunches to every student.

Many of those proposals were introduced during the last legislative session, when Republicans controlled both chambers, but were not brought to the floor for votes.

“We’ll get some traction this session,” said Marty Ackley, the Michigan Department of Education’s director of public and governmental affairs.

The two Republicans on the board — Tom McMillin of Oakland Township and Nikki Snyder of Dexter — said they oppose some of the agenda items, particularly registration requirements for home-schooled students.

“It might sound innocent at first, but it’s a first step toward control,” McMillin said.

The families who home-school their children exercised their constitutional rights to leave public schools because they weren’t the right choice for them, Snyder said, so it isn’t right to require them to register with the public school system.

Pugh expects the new Legislature will be more likely to advance the Department of Education’s proposals. Legislative leaders already have said they share some of those priorities.

“We really have an aligned vision,” Pugh said. “With the expertise we have (on the state board) and the relationships we have, we believe we can move quickly to support the Legislature to make decisions.”

Pugh, of Saginaw, is a public health expert and an environmental health consultant who works with urban communities. She was first elected to the board in 2014 and most recently served as vice president.

She comes from a family of educators. She said her mother was a paraprofessional, her father was a professor and administrator at Delta College, and her grandfather Millage Pugh built a one-room schoolhouse so Black children in Shubuta, Mississippi, could get an education.

Yvette White, president of the Michigan NAACP and a longtime friend, said Pugh will be a good advocate for children who need help the most.

“She’s always reaching out and speaking up on equity issues,” White said. “It’s important to always have someone at the table, to have a voice at the table, who is focused on the issues that are important to the community as a whole.”

Other officers also were elected Tuesday, all on 6-0 votes with Republicans again voting “present.” They are: co-vice presidents Ellen Cogen Lipton of Huntington Woods and Tiffany Tilley of West Bloomfield; Secretary Judith Pritchett of Washington Township, and Treasurer Marshall Bullock of Detroit. All are Democrats.

Bullock is the newest member of the board, having been appointed last month to fill Democrat Jason Strayhorn’s unexpired term. Strayhorn resigned in July and moved out of state.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

DeVos-funded campaign for school voucher-like plan withdraws petitions in a sign of defeat

2023-01-10T00:43:51+00:00

A Betsy DeVos-backed proposal to help Michigan families use taxpayer funds to cover private school tuition and other education-related expenses appears finished after organizers withdrew petitions they’d submitted to the Secretary of State.

The proposal — which critics have likened to private school vouchers — doesn’t have a clear political path after Democrats won full control of the state Legislature in November.

“This is an acknowledgement that it failed,” said Joshua Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University who has been critical of the proposal and of vouchers.

Let MI Kids Learn, the group behind the proposal, gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures and spent $11.4 million on its campaign, most of which was donated by former U.S. Secretary Betsy DeVos and her family.

Proposal would have created a tax credit

The initiative was part of a decades-long effort by the DeVos family to direct taxpayer dollars to private schools, in the face of a provision in the Michigan Constitution that broadly bars using public funds for private schools.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected a 2000 ballot proposal funded by DeVos to create a voucher system that allowed students to use public school funds for private school tuition.

Let MI Kids Learn took a different tack. It would have provided tax credits to individual taxpayers who funded scholarships for private schools or other educational services, such as tutoring. Each dollar contributed to the scholarship accounts would be credited back to donors on their state tax bill.

The proposal would have cost the state an estimated $500 million in the first year, of which roughly $50 million would come directly out of the state school aid fund.

Supporters of the proposal said kids would benefit from being enrolled in private school.

“Michigan students already suffered through two years of unnecessary COVID learning disruption, and as the most recent data show, the results have been devastating,” said Fred Wszolek, spokesman for Let MI Kids Learn.

Recent studies of voucher programs in other states show broadly negative academic results, especially in math. They also show that in many cases, students who benefit from the programs were already enrolled in private school. Some older studies tended to show neutral or modest positive effects of vouchers on academic performance.

Campaign hit snags on the way to November

The November election results weren’t the only bump in the road for Let MI Kids Learn. In May, signature gatherers for the campaign were found to be misleading Detroiters about the proposal. In June 2022, the campaign missed a deadline to submit signatures to the state, precluding the proposal from going before the Republican-controlled Legislature before new lawmakers took power in January.

While ballot initiatives generally go to a vote by the public in a general election, Let MI Kids Learn had aimed to have its proposal enacted directly by the Legislature through a provision in the Michigan Constitution that allows a ballot proposal to become law without the governor’s signature. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, vetoed a similar proposal in 2021.

But after the Let MI Kids Learn campaign missed the June signature filing deadline and Democrats won control of both chambers of the Legislature, the proposal’s prospects dimmed.

“With the new Legislature in place, I’m sure they felt it was going to be an undoable task to move things forward,” said Pamela Pugh, a Democrat on the State Board of Education.

In withdrawing the petitions, organizers of the proposal apparently decided against putting the issue to a statewide vote.

“If they thought voters were going to vote for this, they would have gone that route immediately,” Cowen said.

Wszolek, the Let MI Kids Learn spokesman, said “we’ll continue to join with the hundreds of thousands of Michiganders who signed these petitions to advocate for immediate help for students across the state.”

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

After Oxford, Michigan Democrats see gun control as part of school safety agenda

2023-01-06T13:30:00+00:00

A school safety task force formed in response to the deadly 2021 Oxford High School shooting didn’t include any gun control measures in its final recommendations to the Legislature. But that doesn’t mean they’re off the table.

After sweeping Michigan’s statewide races again and capturing a majority in the state House and Senate, Democrats have control over the legislative agenda that they haven’t had since the 1980s. One of their top priorities is gun control, and they’re looking to move quickly while they’re still in power and while memories of the Oxford shooting are still fresh.

“The political will is here to get (gun control) done, and we will not shy away from this issue,” said state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, the Democratic floor leader from Hamtramck.

“We appreciate the work the task force did in the last term,” Aiyash said. “They highlighted some important and necessary steps, but one of the obvious and necessary pieces that wasn’t addressed is responsible firearm policies.”

The bipartisan House School Safety Task Force issued initial recommendations in April 2022, and released its final report just before Christmas. Gun control measures came up repeatedly during the group’s meetings, but were not a focus, because the members — four Republicans and four Democrats — knew they couldn’t build consensus around them.

“We agreed from the get-go that we would proceed only on the things we could all get on board with, and there were members refusing to deal with guns,” said task force member Kelly Breen, a Democrat from Novi who represents a region south of Oxford. “It was incredibly frustrating.”

Republicans on the panel said they, too, gave up some of their priorities. “Frankly, I would like to see more adults in the schools with firearms, but that was not part of our report either,” said state Rep. Luke Meerman, the Coopersville Republican who led the task force along with state Rep. Scott VanSingel of Grant, who left office in December.

The task force members found agreement, though, around $486 million worth of recommendations that center around improving student mental health and fortifying school buildings against intruders.

Aiyash, who was not a member of the task force, said those steps aren’t enough.

“We can’t address all of those things and then ignore the fact that gun violence is what’s inflicting the deaths, and the murders, and the accidental injuries, and suicides, and homicides that happen,” he said. “Guns are the common denominator.”

Aiyash said he wants to protect the rights of responsible gun owners while restricting access for people who may commit violence with them, such as people who have been convicted of domestic violence. He knows that negotiating over gun control won’t be easy, especially with the Democrats’ slim 56-54 majority over Republicans, who largely oppose any restrictions on firearm ownership.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said she would prioritize gun control as she begins her second term.

Democrats haven’t introduced any bills yet, but their efforts are likely to revolve around safe storage, expanded background checks, and red-flag laws that permit courts to temporarily confiscate firearms from people believed to be an immediate threat to themselves or others.

Republicans largely oppose those efforts, “but we no longer hold the gavel,” Meerman said.

Then-House Speaker Jason Wentworth established the task force last year in response to the Oxford High School incident, in which a 15-year-old student shot and killed four other students with a gun his parents bought for him, and injured seven other people. Members were asked to identify ways to make schools safer and to improve student mental health.

They based their work around the Michigan State Police 2018 School Safety Task Force. In the preliminary recommendations they issued last April, they came to a consensus around 14 measures, but only a few made it into law — either as standalone bills or measures incorporated into the state budget. Those measures were working their way through the Legislature before the task force’s final report was issued.

One law requires school districts to provide local police accurate floor plans of school buildings, including room names, hallway designations, and locations of keys.

Another legalizes the use of temporary door barricades during school emergencies.

Meanwhile, the 2023 budget invests more than $200 million to increase mental health services in schools, which also was among the task force’s recommendations.

Meerman and Breen said they are disappointed that more of the task force’s April recommendations weren’t enacted, such as:

Establishing a grant program to support paid internships for graduate students working toward certification to become school psychologists, counselors, or social workers.
Requiring districts to update school safety plans every three years.
Requiring the Michigan State Police to help schools develop lockdown guidelines.
Requiring districts to print OK2SAY information on student identification cards. OK2SAY is Michigan’s confidential tip line for reporting threats to school safety.
Requiring additional school safety drills.
Installing cameras in classrooms.
Ensuring all doors have locks.
Providing window ladders for rooms on upper levels.

“I’m frustrated that we didn’t get those across the finish line last year,” Meerman said.

He and Breen expect those measures to be reintroduced this year. They expect the task force to continue its work with new members being appointed to replace the five no longer in office.

“Even if all of them pass, it doesn’t mean our schools are safe,” Meerman said. “It means they’re safer. It means we have to take the next steps. We live in an ever-changing world. For anybody to say, ‘Now we fixed it and let’s move on to the next thing’ is a fallacy, and it’s dangerous.”

Correction: January 9, 2022: This story as been updated to clarify that Rep. Kelly Breen’s district does not include Oxford.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

These are the big Michigan education issues we’re watching in 2023

2023-01-03T12:00:00+00:00

COVID may no longer be forcing schools to shut down, but its effects on students, teachers, parents, and administrators will linger into 2023.

Issues related to the pandemic figure in nearly every one of the top education issues for 2023. So do issues related to a power shift in Lansing, where Democrats will hold the governor’s office and control the Michigan Legislature for the first time in decades. This shift, thanks to a blue wave in the November general election in Michigan, could produce big changes on issues such as charter school transparency, the state’s third-grade retention law, and school funding.

“This is a legislature that could do a fair bit in a bipartisan fashion, because I think most of (what we need) is not partisan,” said state Superintendent Michael Rice, recently. “I think much of this is common sense.”

Here are the topics we’ll be closely following:

Chalkbeat Detroit bureau chief Lori Higgins contributed to this report.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan education leaders join push to help youth in foster care graduate on time

2022-12-16T22:01:36+00:00

Christian Randle expected to spend his senior year in a dual enrollment program that allows Michigan students to receive college credit while still in high school.

Instead, he’s working toward just a high school equivalency certificate.

He told the State Board of Education on Tuesday that he’s frustrated and feels like he’s starting high school over at age 17, because he’s been unable to get credit for schoolwork he did over the last five years while living in a series of foster homes and residential facilities.

Christian, who now lives in a group home in Farmington, addressed the board at its December meeting along with several other teenagers and young adults who were removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect. They’re asking the board to help ensure that others like them can graduate on time and with a solid education.

More than 10,000 children are in foster care in Michigan, according to the Children’s Defense Fund. About 40% of Michigan students in foster care graduate high school in four years, compared with 80% of all students.

That has to improve, State Board of Education members said Tuesday after hearing from the students and representatives of the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services.

“We want systemic change,” said board member Tiffany Tilley, a Democrat, who introduced a resolution asking the Legislature “to amend laws that will guarantee that vulnerable youth receive credit-bearing educational programming that will keep them on target to receive high school diplomas and allow them to access post-secondary opportunities.”

Board members unanimously approved the resolution but did not specify what legislative changes they want to see.

Foster youth and their advocates have a lot of ideas.

Above all, they want a law ensuring that foster children have access to accredited education programs.

Because of a shortage of traditional foster families, abused and neglected children are sometimes placed in group homes or in large residential facilities alongside children with mental health issues, drug addiction, or histories of juvenile delinquency, said Saba Gebrai, director of the Park West Foundation, which advocates for foster children. Students in these settings have restricted freedoms and often aren’t allowed to leave even for school, she said.

Instead, the facilities run classes themselves, and the programs might not be accredited, attorney Judith New of the Michigan Children’s Law Center said in a telephone interview. “These kids could be spending years of time in residential placement and then coming back to a regular school and having that school say, ‘You have no transferable credits at all. You have to start over in ninth grade.’”

Current law requires residential facilities to provide education services but does not require that the programs be accredited, which means their courses may not count toward state graduation requirements.

The Department of Health and Services, which contracts with residential facilities, did not immediately respond to questions about the lack of accreditation requirements.

Consequences for students can be dire

Tilley, the board of education member, learned about the systemic academic struggles of foster youth over the summer when she met a group of teenagers at a meeting convened by the Park West Foundation, which works with young people as they age out of the foster care system. Several believed they were earning high school credits during stays in residential care or juvenile justice facilities but left the programs years behind their peers, she said.

“My heart really went out to them,” Tilley said.

She wanted the rest of the state board to hear what she did, so she invited advocates and clients of Park West Foundation to December’s board meeting and introduced the resolution.

Consequences can be dire for children who are moved from place to place without consideration of their educational progress and continuity, Gebrai said in a telephone interview. Many drop out of school in frustration and live out their lives in poverty, because they don’t qualify for jobs that pay enough to support themselves, she said.

“They’ve already experienced so much trauma in separating from their families and from having experienced abuse, and this is another trauma of the same kind,” Gebrai said. “This is one more thing that’s going to exclude them from society.”

Gebrai wants courts and social workers to think about each child’s education plan before moving them to new foster homes or residential facilities. It’s not just about academics, she said.

“It’s having the same friends,” she said. “There’s dances, activities, sports, building memories and connectedness to a community.”

The Park West Foundation advocates only for foster care children — those removed from their homes for their own protection — but those placed in residential facilities for other reasons also would benefit from the changes advocates are requesting, Gebrai said.

NBC News previously reported on the state’s failure to provide a quality education to children in residential facilities.

How a student scrambled to make up credits

Bryanna Cook, now 21, was never in a residential facility, but she, too, fell behind her peers as she was raised in a series of foster homes starting at the age of 5. During high school alone, she changed schools more than 10 times, sometimes moving in the middle of a semester — too early to take final exams, but too late to receive credit in the new school, she said.

“It’s hard to get a footing anywhere or get the proper help or even know what school is about when you’re constantly moving,” she said in a phone interview Thursday.

As she entered senior year, Cook knew she wouldn’t have enough credits to graduate, so she enrolled in an online program on top of her regular classes at Lincoln High School in Warren. She took eight classes a day in person and five online to make up credits.

“My counselor told me she didn’t think it would be a good idea, that it would be too much, but I decided to do it anyway,” Cook said.

She remembers juggling “The Outsiders” for a 10th-grade English course while reading “Lord of the Flies” for 11th-grade English and practicing persuasive writing techniques for 12th-grade English.

“It was a lot,” she said.

That was three years ago, but the memory of that stressful time was fresh, she said, as she testified before the state school board.

“All foster children and youth in Michigan must have the same access and opportunities as everyone else to prepare for high school graduation, earn post-secondary credentials, and reach their full potential,” testified Cook, now a student at Macomb Community College.

Foster youth advocacy group outlines its proposals

Cook and other current and former foster youth presented a slate of legislative proposals they developed as members of Empowering Foster Youth Through Technology, an advocacy group supported by the Park West Foundation.

Among their proposals are laws that would:

Ensure that youth in residential placement have easy access to accurate transcripts.
Require foster parents to enroll foster children in school within one day of placement. (Current law allows five days.)
Ensure student transportation to school.
Require judicial oversight of student transfers between schools.
Increase stipends for foster parents to promote placement with families instead of residential facilities.
Provide support for children in foster care who are behind academically.

“A lot of that needs to happen,” Tilley said after the presentation.

State Superintendent Michael Rice agreed.

“First thing we need to do is get into the Legislature and make sure there’s no such thing as a non-credit-bearing course in Michigan public education, not for anybody,” he said. “Not acceptable.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan school board votes to seek financial transparency from charter schools

2022-12-14T22:28:58+00:00

Michigan’s 295 charter schools received $1.4 billion in state funding last year. But exactly how that money was spent, and how much of that went to for-profit management companies, remain unclear, because those companies aren’t subject to public disclosure laws.

The State Board of Education has been trying to change that, and members are hoping to get help from the newly elected state Legislature controlled by Democrats, who are less protective of the for-profit companies that operate many of the state’s charter schools.

At a meeting Tuesday, the board voted 5-1, along party lines, to ask the Legislature to require every charter management organization to post audit reports of its use of public funds, including information related to salaries, benefits, and contracts.

“To send this over now … will be really, really important in setting a priority for the new Legislature and the new legislators that will be starting” in January, said board member Ellen Cogen Lipton, a Democrat and former state representative.

Republican Tom McMillin, the lone no vote, called the resolution a partisan attempt to discourage charter school expansion and deprive parents of school choice. Nikki Snyder, the board’s only other Republican, was absent.

Eighty-two percent of Michigan’s charter schools contract with private management companies, according to the Michigan Department of Education. In many cases, the management company provides a full range of services, including curriculum, financial, staffing, and custodial. In other cases, charter schools manage the day-to-day operations, but contract with a company that provides one or more of those services.

Those management companies are not subject to public disclosure laws.

“Our laws are tremendously weak,” said State Board of Education President Casandra Ulbrich, who spearheaded an effort to obtain financial records from charter schools in five counties. She and Department of Education staff members filed Freedom of Information Act requests with 166 charter schools asking for information about leases and contracts for food service, custodial work, and more. Nearly all said they could not provide the information because their management companies hold the contracts.

The Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter school advocacy group, says its members meet their legal obligations to provide staff rosters, annual reports, board minutes, budgets, and management agreements to anyone who requests those records under the Freedom of Information Act.

The trouble, Democrats say, is that those management agreements often aggregate all expenditures into a single line item for “purchased services.” That means it’s impossible for taxpayers to know how much teachers are being paid, which company is mowing the lawn, or the price of textbooks, for example.

“What information is available is difficult to break down in any meaningful way,” Ulbrich said Tuesday. “As we learned from our FOIA attempts, it cannot be easily compared to the same information from traditional schools. For these reasons, I think it’s time for taxpayers to know how their tax dollars are being spent.”

She said she wants to ensure tax dollars are being used effectively and efficiently. She also wants to know how much charter management companies are keeping as profit.

McMillin said charter management companies are being singled out for scrutiny because Democrats oppose school choice. “There are plenty of other entities that get huge amounts of money from the state” and are not subject to public disclosure laws, he said.

State Superintendent Michael Rice said the debate is not about whether charter schools should exist, but about the need for transparency.

“We have the right to know what happens to taxpayer dollars,” he said. “They’re our dollars, and in some cases with respect to public school academies (charter schools), we lose oversight over them. That’s wrong. It’s unacceptable.”

In March, Democrats in the House and Senate introduced the School Freedom, Accountability and Transparency Act, which would have required more transparency from charter schools.

The legislation would have made charter management companies subject to the state Freedom of Information Act and would have required them to disclose audited financial statements, post student recruitment costs, and hold monthly public meetings.

Republicans, who then led both chambers, did not allow the bills to advance.

Correction: December 15, 2022: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of board member Nikki Snyder’s name.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Bipartisan dyslexia reforms fail again in Michigan Legislature. What’s next?

2022-12-13T22:34:12+00:00

Letters seem to move around on the page for Evan Kaganov, but thanks to assistive technology and extra support at school and at home, he now reads well enough to manage all A’s and B’s in eighth grade at Bach Elementary School in Ann Arbor.

Among students with dyslexia in Michigan, Evan is lucky. Many don’t get the same support. That’s one reason why the state’s fourth grade reading scores are among the worst nationwide — and why a bipartisan group of state lawmakers supported a package of bills this year to support students with dyslexia.

But the legislation failed to make it into law, dashing optimism among advocates for students with dyslexia that this was their year.

Now that lawmakers have adjourned the 2021-22 legislative session, it’s back to square one. Democrats could breathe new life into the bill when they take control of the Legislature in January, but the path forward may be complicated by other legislative priorities.

Dyslexia is a common learning disability that affects between 5% and 20% of all people.

Students with dyslexia often struggle to make the connection between letters and sounds, which is a fundamental component of reading. But with high-quality instruction, these students can learn to read effectively, research shows.

Most states have some system in place to promptly identify and support dyslexic students, but Michigan law hardly mentions dyslexia.

The effort to write a comprehensive state policy on dyslexia has moved in fits and starts over the last two years. In May, the bills passed the Senate nearly unanimously in a rare demonstration of broad bipartisanship. The House had seven months to follow suit, but the Education Committee never brought the bills forward.

As the end of the legislative session approached, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer negotiated with GOP leaders over what, if anything, the Legislature would pass during the lame duck session, but little came of it.

The dyslexia package wasn’t a priority in those talks, effectively ensuring that the bills didn’t have a chance to become law, said Rep. Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield Township, chair of the House Education Committee.

“I don’t think it was ever high on anyone’s radar,” she said. “It’s unfortunate. Hopefully it will pass in the next session.”

Proponents of the legislation say Hornberger was distracted by a tight race for state Senate, which she ultimately lost to Democrat Kevin Hertel. Hornberger said House leaders could have simply submitted it to a vote of the full chamber if they thought it had a chance of becoming law.

Advocates frustrated by stalled bills

Democratic state Sen. Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor and Republican state Rep. Jim Runestad of White Lake — two sponsors of the bills — weren’t ready to give up on their legislation until the legislative session ended last week.

“I’m intensely frustrated that it’s sitting right on the precipice of passing and it isn’t getting done,” Irwin told the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Council during a Zoom meeting last week.

Susan Schmidt, a retired special education teacher who now tutors children with dyslexia, is frustrated, too. She worked with Irwin and other stakeholders to draft the bill package.

“I’m extremely sad it didn’t pass, because there should be a sense of urgency in this state that we aren’t doing what we need to do to help kids learn to read,” said Schmidt, who recently was elected to the Ann Arbor Board of Education.

Schmidt sees the bills as a means to address more than dyslexia. They would change how reading is taught to all students, she said.

The bills spring out of fierce debates over the best way to teach children to read. In recent years, a consensus has developed among researchers and educators that phonics is an essential component of early literacy instruction, and that some curriculums and teacher training programs have given it short shrift.

Phonetic instruction systematically introduces children to letter sounds. It teaches them to recognize letter patterns, sound out words, and learn general rules such as: In many words ending with E — such as “make” or “pile” — usually the first vowel sound is long and the ending E is silent.

These concepts are particularly helpful to students with dyslexia, though advocates note that they are a fundamental component of literacy and helpful to all early readers.

There is no research on how much Michigan schools focus on phonics in literacy instruction, or what reading curriculums they use.

While many districts use effective curriculums that focus on phonics — notably the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which overhauled its literacy curriculum over the last five years — advocates say some districts are still using what’s called a “balanced literacy” approach.

That approach, which is also called “whole language,” relies on word repetition, teaches children to memorize “sight words,” and encourages them to figure out words based on context and images.

It didn’t work for Evan, said his mother, Caroline Kaganov.

“We shouldn’t be teaching kids how to guess. We should be teaching them how to use the English language, look at syllables, break down syllables … and figure out how vowels work together,” she said.

Schmidt also wants schools to return to phonics-based reading instruction.

“By teaching children how the English language is linguistically put together, you’re giving them the framework,” Schmidt said. “Forty percent, we know, are going to learn to read no matter what. For the 60% that need to … learn the code to read, this is very important to them.”

That’s especially true for children with dyslexia, Schmidt said.

Still some teachers are resistant, she said.

“Imagine you’ve done it one way for 20 years, and somebody comes along and says do something different,” she said. But, she said, “There’s also a whole lot of teachers that are like, ‘Oh, you have some ideas. I have some kids I don’t know how to reach,’ and they’re totally geeked.”

Dyslexia support: How interventions help readers

Evan was diagnosed with severe dyslexia in first grade, but only after his mother argued with district administrators, contacted a lawyer, and arranged for an independent evaluation so he could qualify for extra help. Now he gets a head start at home on in-class reading assignments, uses a computer program that reads along with him while highlighting words as it goes, and writes papers using a voice-to-text program.

Evan still reads much slower than his peers — 114 words per minute compared with the average of 153 for his grade level. But he now has the accommodations he needs to keep up in class.

Evan’s dyslexia was so severe that it was bound to be identified sooner or later, but children with less obvious signs of the condition might miss out on extra help they need, Kaganov said.

“My kid is severely dyslexic and I had to fight for intervention,” she said. “What about those kids who are just slightly dyslexic? They should have a right to attain literacy, too. I’m worried about those kids.”

Universal screening would ensure all children get the help they need, she said.

Here are key components of the legislation:

Requires districts to screen all K-3 students for dyslexia. Many would be able to use tests students already take.
Requires districts to provide specialized instruction to children who show signs of dyslexia.
Mandates training on dyslexia education for teachers working with young readers.
Requires teacher preparation programs to offer instruction specific to dyslexia. (Several programs previously told Chalkbeat they already meet this requirement.)

Some experts, including Rachael Gabriel, an education professor at the University of Connecticut, have cautioned that tests that screen for dyslexia aren’t reliable and that similar legislation in other states has been less effective than advocates hoped.

Other experts testified in favor of the bills, including Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and David Winters, head of the department of special education and communications sciences and disorders at Eastern Michigan University.

The bills could lead to higher costs for Michigan schools if they result in more students being identified for special education services. Schools are required to support students with disabilities, and financial analysts noted that the measures could save money in the long run if they decrease the number of people who need extra help in school and beyond because they struggle to read.

Bills face an uncertain path forward

After bipartisan shows of support for the bills, advocates believe they can pass a Legislature reconfigured by big wins for Democrats in November.

But while many Democrats support the dyslexia bills, they are more focused on a different reading reform. They want to repeal a portion of Michigan’s third grade reading law that requires districts to hold back third graders who are more than one grade level behind in reading.

While most struggling readers have been exempted from retention under the law, Black students are twice as likely to be retained. Democrats, including Whitmer, have made repealing it a priority.

Attaching the dyslexia bills to third grade reading reforms might help move the bills quickly through the legislature, or it might add a layer of complexity to already knotty debates over retention and literacy.

“Complication often leads to delay,” Irwin said. “I was hoping we could get (the dyslexia bills) moving and then have a separate discussion about how to right-size the Read by Grade 3 law.”

Despite bipartisan support for the dyslexia bills, some administrators have reservations. Notably, leaders of teachers colleges have argued that they already cover the basics of dyslexia with future teachers, and say they don’t need another mandate from Lansing.

Still, teachers unions — a key part of the Democratic coalition — support the bills.

“We think it would be great to have more training to recognize dyslexia in students so they can get the help they need,” said Thomas Morgan, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association.

Unions would like to see changes to the bills to ensure teachers are given the time to meet the demands of learning new teaching methods and providing extra support to poor readers.

“We’re already pretty overstretched,” said Janell Mansfield, political and legislative coordinator for the Michigan branch of the American Federation of Teachers.

But she added that a lot of teachers see phonics as an answer to Michigan’s sinking test scores.

“I definitely don’t think it’s too burdensome to ask teachers to do continuing education to learn how to support students with dyslexia,” she said.

Tracie Mauriello writes about state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan teacher shortage prompts superintendents to propose new certification route

2022-12-06T21:41:47+00:00

After scouring the state’s pipeline to find more certified teachers, a group of Michigan education leaders are now looking to create a pipeline of their own.

Regional superintendents across the state are banding together to develop an alternate route to certification that emphasizes early on-the-job training and income opportunities for prospective teachers.

The initiative, called Talent Together, is just the latest in a series of efforts by stakeholders across the state who are working to mitigate a looming shortage of teachers, especially in areas such as special education, math and science. The efforts include initiatives to provide stipends for student teachers, shorten teacher preparation programs, offer scholarships to education majors, create programs for high school students interested in the profession, and more.

Talent Together’s goal is to provide employment in schools for teacher candidates so they can be paid while fulfilling student teaching requirements.

“The current model is when you go to a university, it’s theory, theory, theory, then practice,” during a concentrated internship period, Eric Hoppstock, superintendent of the Berrien County Regional Educational Service Agency, said during a press conference Tuesday. “We’re really promoting practice, theory, practice, theory, practice, theory” under the supervision of an experienced teacher.

That sort of path allows people to earn a living while working toward certification, said Kevin Oxley, superintendent of Jackson County Intermediate School District.

“We don’t want people to quit their lives and have to go back to school,” Oxley said. “They can’t do that, so we are going to meet people where they are and remove barriers so they can become certified.”

The program would be similar to On the Rise Academy, an alternative route program offered by Detroit Public Schools Community District that pays candidates to work in support staff roles while working toward certification. Nine other alternative route providers are approved in Michigan for teacher certification.

Talent Together expects to start enrolling students next September, but it still needs three things: funding, approval from the Michigan Department of Education, and responses to requests for proposals from universities that would provide the coursework.

Elizabeth Moje, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education, said she has been approached by Talent Together organizers and is still trying to learn more about their plans.

Talent Together could not say how much the program would cost. Organizers plan to apply for a share of $175 million the Legislature budgeted for grow-your-own programs that provide free tuition for school staff members enrolled in teacher preparation programs.

The length of the program would depend on each candidate’s background, said Jack Elsey, founder of the nonprofit Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative, which is helping design the program. It might take a year for someone who already has a bachelor’s degree in another field, for example, or several years for someone who enters without any degree, he said.

The idea for Talent Together came out of a meeting of seven regional superintendents in October. Since then, the consortium has grown to 39 of the state’s 57 regional educational service agencies, and more are expected to join. The agencies, also known as intermediate school districts, provide consolidated support to local districts. For example, they provide teacher training and coordinate early childhood, vocational, and special education programs for the districts they serve.

“Together, we are asking for the opportunity to be utilized differently,” said Kyle Mayer, superintendent of Ottawa Intermediate School District. “Imagine if Michigan, as a state, were to have an ISD hub that works in partnership with higher education and has resources to expedite the certification process for high-quality teachers.”

The group expects its program will produce hundreds of teachers over the next five years.

The Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, is still learning about Talent Together and hopes its members will be asked to shape the program.

“It’s important that any efforts include frontline educators at the table,” said MEA spokesman Thomas Morgan.

“We are willing to work with anyone who is committed to ending the educator shortage,” he added.

At least one local superintendent is grateful for the consortium’s work.

“Ypsilanti Community Schools is facing the teacher shortage crisis,” Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross said.

“This is real for districts, urban and rural,” she said. “We’ve been creative. We’ve been doing our recruitment and retention strategies. Even though we can try to do this on our own, the solution is bigger than us at the local level.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan State condenses teacher preparation program from five years to four

2022-12-02T15:00:00+00:00

Michigan State University will shorten its teacher preparation program from five to four years, saving education majors $16,700 in tuition and awarding them a credential more quickly.

The change alleviates a financial burden on students and addresses an educator shortage by getting teachers in classrooms faster, said Tonya Bartell, MSU’s associate director of elementary programs.

Revamping the program is one of several efforts in Michigan to help produce more teachers, particularly in hard-hit areas such as math, special education, and world languages. The state and education officials also are providing alternative routes to certification, stipends for student teaching, scholarships, and more.

The program change takes full effect with students enrolling next fall.

MSU graduates about 300 certified teachers per year, more than any other university in the state, according to the Michigan Department of Education’s 2022 workforce data report.

The vast majority of teacher preparation programs are four years. MSU adopted a five-year model in the 1990s to provide a year of student teaching to build up students’ preparation and confidence to manage their own classrooms as first-year teachers.

“We recognized that having a five-year program put a financial burden on students who were going into a field that was not a high-paying field,” Bartell said in an interview Thursday. “We’re trying to continuously think about that balance between preparing high-quality beginning teachers and not having them bear too much of a cost in the process.”

That’s a consideration for Jecholiah Marriott, a senior at Detroit’s Cass Tech who plans to become a teacher. She already has been accepted to Michigan State and several other colleges. She isn’t yet sure where she’ll go.

She knew MSU was a five-year program when she applied. Now the condensed program makes the university even more appealing.

“College is extremely expensive, so the financials alone make it extremely easier and kind of like a weight lifted,” said Marriott, 17. But she also sees value in a full year of student teaching. “It’s a trade-off,” she said.

Under the revamped program, students will be able to earn 16 general education credits through education courses that cover required subjects through a teaching lens, Bartell said. That shift will free up credit hours for student teaching.

Requirements for student teaching will vary.

Elementary education majors will student teach for a full year. At least eight weeks will be full time. The rest of the time, they will student teach three days per week, leaving time for coursework or paid substitute teaching, Bartell said. Students also will spend time in schools earlier in their education — one half day per week as sophomores and two half days per week as juniors.

Secondary education majors will student teach one day per week during the fall semester of senior year and five days per week during the spring semester, said Kyle Greenwalt, associate director for teacher preparation.

That’s more than the 10 weeks the state requires for certification.

Student teaching time is important, said Jasmine Ramahi, who runs Educators Rising, a grow-your-own program for East Kentwood High School students who aim to become teachers.

“The thing that makes you the most confident taking over a classroom is your exposure of being in a classroom,” Ramahi said in a telephone interview. “So, as long as the program has a lot of clinical hours or field work hours, I think students will feel supported.”

She said the truncated program will be more accessible to students who are unable to afford the longer program.

“Student loan debt is a real concern for a lot of students, and an extra year of student loan debt is pretty hefty, so being able to minimize that as much as possible does create more equitable outcomes,” Ramahi said.

That was one of the goals, Bartell said.

“We are very much committed to diversifying the teaching workforce and we have a focus on justice and equity,” she said. “If we want to live up to those ideals we have to [serve more than] students who are privileged enough to go through the five-year model. That isn’t creating the workforce we want.”

Accessibility and inclusivity were at the forefront as College of Education leaders revamped the program’s timeline and curriculum, Greenwalt said.

“We wanted to identify and eliminate every barrier while maintaining the strength of our program,” he said.

A five-year program made sense in the 1990s when there was more interest in the field of teaching than jobs available, Greenwalt said, but times have changed. The restructured program is more responsive to current needs.

“Having that fifth year is a luxury,” he said. Graduates of the five-year program “probably entered their first year of teaching with more confidence than people who’ll do four years, but I think they’ll probably still be plenty good.”

Graduation requirements and state certification exams will ensure that, he said.

“We’re trying to balance needs here,” he said. “There are people who never even applied” because of the program length.

“When you have the imperative to increase the racial diversity of our teaching force, we can’t be creating these barriers,” he said.

Current freshmen and sophomores have the option of switching to the four-year model now.

“Some of our current juniors are a little upset because they felt like they had missed the boat, being right on the cusp,” Bartell said. “The tenor I get from them is, ‘We think it’s great you’re moving to four years. And, wow, I wish I could have.’”

Chalkbeat staff writer Ethan Bakuli contributed. Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan school turnaround program adds more districts

2022-12-01T21:55:29+00:00

Fifty-four school districts with 112 low-performing schools will get extra support through a Michigan turnaround program that has proven to be helpful to many districts. But each district’s share of the resources may be more limited than in the past.

That’s because state funding for the program remains at $6 million, the same as last year, when just 36 districts were in the program. Those districts entered the program between 2017 and 2019 in three separate cohorts. Districts move out of the program as their struggling schools meet performance goals or once they complete the three-year partnership program.

Some districts that completed the program will continue receiving support as other schools in those districts are flagged.

The increase in the number of so-called partnership districts is not a sign schools are performing worse, said Katharine Strunk, who studies the districts as director of the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University. Rather, she said, it means that the lowest performing schools across the state are less concentrated. For example, the Detroit Public Schools Community District previously had 39 qualifying schools, but now has 21.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said his schools have been improving despite disruptions related to the pandemic over the last three years. He said he expects more academic growth now that those challenges have been mitigated.

Michigan created the Partnership District program in 2017 to meet requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires states to identify and provide extra support to their lowest performing schools.

Districts become part of the program if any school within them has a four-year graduation rate of 67% or less, or scores in the bottom 5% on the state’s index accountability system, which rates districts on student performance, attendance, graduation rates, availability of career and college preparation courses, and more. (Vitti said he objects to the bottom-5% criterion for identifying low-performing schools, which will “always identify high-poverty schools”; he called for using lack of improvement as a standard instead.)

No districts entered the program in 2020 and 2021 because of pandemic-related disruptions to student testing used to identify districts that need help.

Partnership districts receive extra help from the Michigan Department of Education and from their local or regional educational service agencies. Liaisons from those agencies help districts set improvement goals and access resources to meet them.

Daveda Colbert, superintendent of the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency, said her staff will help local district administrators use data to identify root causes of academic needs and then will develop plans to address them.

“Working together with the focus on improving student outcomes will help our identified schools make the necessary improvements to achieve success,” Colbert said in an email message to Chalkbeat and Bridge.

But the program’s finite resources and funding pool — the Legislature set aside $6 million — will now be stretched across 50% more districts than last year. That may make it harder for MDE and educational service agencies to help, Strunk said.

“The challenge about 54 districts is that it’s 54 different organizations with which to work,” she said.

Principals in the partnership districts use the extra money to improve technology, staffing, and teacher training, but they’ve said it isn’t enough.

State Superintendent Michael Rice agrees with them.

“What we’re experiencing is the consequence of underfunding Michigan public school students, educators, and education for many years, the resultant teacher shortage, and a once-in-a-century pandemic,” he said in a press release.

Strunk and other researchers at EPIC found that students in partnership districts made academic gains before the pandemic. Later, progress stalled, but students in partnership district schools still tested as well as or better than students in demographically similar schools that were not in the program.

The lowest performing students, in particular, benefited the most from resources provided to partnership districts, Strunk said.

School choice advocates prefer a different solution. They are pressing for passage of the Let MI Kids Learn plan, which would give tax breaks to people who contribute to voucher-like scholarships for students to attend private schools or obtain other private education services.

“Michigan’s public school bureaucracy has failed our kids,” said Beth DeShone, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, an advocacy group that supports the scholarship plan.

But the proposal’s prospects are dimming.

Let MI Kids Learn submitted signatures on petitions for a ballot issue earlier this year, but they weren’t in time to make the November ballot, and supporters hoped to have the plan enacted instead through a vote by the GOP-controlled Legislature.

But Republicans will lose control of both houses of the Legislature after the current legislative session, and the Bureau of Elections is unlikely to certify the petitions by then. Democrats largely oppose the scholarship proposal.

Editor’s note: December 6, 2022: This story was updated to add comment from Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Chalkbeat Detroit staff writer Koby Levin contributed. Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

District	Schools	ISD	Charter Authorizer
Academy for Business and Technology (82921)	Academy for Business and Technology High School (08435)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Eastern Michigan University
Academy of Warren (50911)	Academy of Warren (09602)	Macomb ISD (50000)	Bay Mills Community College
American International Academy (82730)	American International Academy - Elementary (00899)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Lake Superior State University
American International Academy (82730)	American International Academy High School/Middle Schooll (03058)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Lake Superior State University
Arts Academy in the Woods (50905)	Arts Academy in the Woods (08884)	Macomb ISD (50000)	Macomb ISD
Barack Obama Leadership Academy (82933)	Barack Obama Leadership Academy (08572)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Detroit Public Schools Community District
Battle Creek Public Schools (13020)	Northwestern Middle School (02776)	Calhoun ISD (13000)	n/a
Beecher Community School District (25240)	Beecher High School (00253)	Genesee ISD (25000)	n/a
Beecher Community School District (25240)	Dailey Elementary School (00862)	Genesee ISD (25000)	n/a
Bellevue Community Schools (23010)	Bellevue Jr/Sr High School (00267)	Calhoun ISD (13000)	n/a
Benton Harbor Area Schools (11010)	Benton Harbor High School (00286)	Berrien RESA (11000)	n/a
Benton Harbor Area Schools (11010)	Career and Alternative Pathways to Education Center (09912)	Berrien RESA (11000)	n/a
Benton Harbor Area Schools (11010)	Fair Plain East Elementary (01629)	Berrien RESA (11000)	n/a
Benton Harbor Area Schools (11010)	Fair Plain Middle School (02068)	Berrien RESA (11000)	n/a
Benton Harbor Area Schools (11010)	Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary (03502)	Berrien RESA (11000)	n/a
Benton Harbor Charter School Academy (11903)	Benton Harbor Charter School Academy (08706)	Berrien RESA (11000)	Ferris State University
Bradford Academy (63917)	Bradford Academy (09292)	Oakland Schools (63000)	Bay Mills Community College
Comstock Public Schools (39030)	Comstock High School (00765)	Kalamazoo RESA (39000)	n/a
Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences (82929)	Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences (08489)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Oakland University
Detroit Community Schools (82925)	Detroit Community Schools - High School (08456)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Bay Mills Community College
Detroit Leadership Academy (82722)	Detroit Leadership Academy High School (02222)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Central Michigan University
Detroit Leadership Academy (82722)	Detroit Leadership Academy K-8 (00334)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Central Michigan University
Detroit Public Safety Academy (82704)	Detroit Public Safety Academy (02015)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Eastern Michigan University
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Brenda Scott Academy for Theatre Arts (09341)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Brewer Academy (09991)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Burns Elementary-Middle School (00456)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Central High School (00617)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Cody High School (00018)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Davis Aerospace Technical High School at Golightly (00029)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Denby High School (00902)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Detroit Lions Academy (08925)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	East English Village Preparatory Academy (01189)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Emerson Elementary-Middle School (01134)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Hamilton Academy (09994)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Henderson Academy (00004)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Henry Ford High School (01634)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	J. E. Clark Preparatory Academy (09992)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Mackenzie Elementary-Middle School (00853)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Mason Academy (02431)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Mumford High School (02644)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Nolan Elementary-Middle School (02708)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Northwestern High School (02778)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Palmer Park Preparatory Academy (01552)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Pershing High School (03015)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Southeastern High School (03540)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Wayne Elementary School (04406)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Public Schools Community District (82015)	Western International High School (04477)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Detroit Service Learning Academy (82953)	Oak Park Service Learning Academy (OPSLA) (03655)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Lake Superior State University
Eagle's Nest Academy (25916)	Eagle's Nest Academy (02434)	Genesee ISD (25000)	Grand Valley State University
Eastpointe Community Schools (50020)	Eastpointe High School (01003)	Macomb ISD (50000)	n/a
Eastpointe Community Schools (50020)	Pleasantview Elementary School (03074)	Macomb ISD (50000)	n/a
Faxon Academy (63926)	Faxon Academy (01364)	Oakland Schools (63000)	Saginaw Valley State University
FlexTech High School (47903)	FlexTech High School (00760)	Livingston ESA (47000)	Central Michigan University
Flint, School District of the City of (25010)	Brownell STEM Academy (01916)	Genesee ISD (25000)	n/a
Flint, School District of the City of (25010)	Eisenhower School (01098)	Genesee ISD (25000)	n/a
Flint, School District of the City of (25010)	Freeman School (01320)	Genesee ISD (25000)	n/a
Flint, School District of the City of (25010)	Neithercut Elementary School (02670)	Genesee ISD (25000)	n/a
Flint, School District of the City of (25010)	Pierce School (03033)	Genesee ISD (25000)	n/a
Flint, School District of the City of (25010)	Potter School (03108)	Genesee ISD (25000)	n/a
George Washington Carver Academy (82963)	George Washington Carver Elementary School (02484)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Bay Mills Community College
Grand Rapids Public Schools (41010)	Alger Middle School (02051)	Kent ISD (41000)	n/a
Grand Rapids Public Schools (41010)	Campus Elementary (02028)	Kent ISD (41000)	n/a
Grand Rapids Public Schools (41010)	Ottawa Hills High School (03197)	Kent ISD (41000)	n/a
Greater Heights Academy (25914)	Greater Heights Academy (01751)	Genesee ISD (25000)	Central Michigan University
Highland Park Public School Academy System (82749)	Barber Elementary School (03228)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Highland Park City Schools
Hope Academy (82942)	Hope Academy (08637)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Eastern Michigan University
Inkster Preparatory Academy (82762)	Inkster Preparatory Academy (03034)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Central Michigan University
International Academy of Saginaw (73912)	International Academy of Saginaw (09784)	Saginaw ISD (73000)	Bay Mills Community College
Jackson Public Schools (38170)	John R. Lewis Elementary (03921)	Jackson ISD (38000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	Attwood School (01273)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	Gardner International School (03382)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	Gier Park School (01400)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	J.W. Sexton High School (01865)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	Lyons School (02290)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	Mt. Hope School (01278)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	North School (06662)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	Reo School (03181)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Lansing Public School District (33020)	Wexford Montessori Magnet School (04650)	Ingham ISD (33000)	n/a
Macomb Montessori Academy (50914)	Macomb Montessori Academy (01738)	Macomb ISD (50000)	Lake Superior State University
Marvin L. Winans Academy of Performing Arts (82924)	Marvin L. Winans Academy - Elementary (09705)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Saginaw Valley State University
Mildred C. Wells Preparatory Academy (11904)	Mildred C. Wells Preparatory Academy (09608)	Berrien RESA (11000)	Bay Mills Community College
Mount Clemens Community School District (50160)	Mount Clemens High School (02624)	Macomb ISD (50000)	n/a
Multicultural Academy (81908)	Multicultural Academy (09446)	Washtenaw ISD (81000)	Bay Mills Community College
Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System (61905)	Dr. Martin Luther King Academy (02546)	Muskegon Area ISD (61000)	Muskegon Heights School District
Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System (61905)	Muskegon Heights Academy (02651)	Muskegon Area ISD (61000)	Muskegon Heights School District
New Paradigm Glazer-Loving Academy (82735)	New Paradigm Loving Academy (03725)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Grand Valley State University
Old Redford Academy (82956)	Old Redford Academy - High (09481)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Central Michigan University
Plymouth Educational Center Charter School (82904)	Plymouth Educational Center (08255)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Central Michigan University
Pontiac City School District (63030)	Herrington School (01652)	Oakland Schools (63000)	n/a
Pontiac City School District (63030)	Pontiac High School (02756)	Oakland Schools (63000)	n/a
Port Huron Area School District (74010)	STEAM Academy at Woodrow Wilson Elementary (04588)	St. Clair County RESA (74000)	n/a
River Rouge, School District of the City of (82120)	River Rouge High School (03208)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Romulus Community Schools (82130)	Romulus Senior High School (03260)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Romulus Community Schools (82130)	Romulus Virtual Learning Center (02874)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Saginaw Academy of Excellence (73901)	Saginaw Academy of Excellence (03407)	Saginaw ISD (73000)	Eastern Michigan University
Saginaw, School District of the City of (73010)	Arthur Eddy Academy (02446)	Saginaw ISD (73000)	n/a
Saginaw, School District of the City of (73010)	Herig School (01645)	Saginaw ISD (73000)	n/a
Saginaw, School District of the City of (73010)	Jessie Loomis School (01929)	Saginaw ISD (73000)	n/a
Saginaw, School District of the City of (73010)	Jessie Rouse School (01930)	Saginaw ISD (73000)	n/a
Saginaw, School District of the City of (73010)	Saginaw High School (03336)	Saginaw ISD (73000)	n/a
South Redford School District (82140)	SOAR Academic Institute (02347)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Taylor School District (82150)	Taylor Virtual Learning Academy (01381)	Wayne RESA (82000)	n/a
Van Dyke Public Schools (50220)	Lincoln High School (02201)	Macomb ISD (50000)	n/a
Washtenaw Technical Middle College (81903)	Washtenaw Technical Middle College (08483)	Washtenaw ISD (81000)	Washtenaw Community College
Westfield Charter Academy (82766)	Westfield Preparatory High School (03608)	Wayne RESA (82000)	Grand Valley State University
Ypsilanti Community Schools (81020)	ACCE (03000)	Washtenaw ISD (81000)	n/a

2022 Michigan partnership districts and schools

Michigan Department of Education

After a bruising Michigan election, what’s next for Betsy DeVos and her education agenda?

2022-11-28T23:00:00+00:00

Over a decade of Republican dominance in Michigan, perhaps no individual shaped school policy as much as Betsy DeVos.

Michigan has some of the nation’s highest concentrations of charter schools run by for-profit companies, and key aspects of their financial operations, such as teacher salaries, are shielded from public scrutiny. In Detroit, schools can open and close anywhere in the city at any time without input from local authorities. Teachers unions in the state are limited by so-called right-to-work laws and limitations on tenure and bargaining.

All of that is thanks, in large part, to DeVos and her billionaire family’s political influence.

Seeking to expand on those wins, DeVos and her family members spent at least $11 million to support various political causes in the 2022 election cycle, including the Let MI Kids Learn ballot proposal to create voucher-like scholarship accounts for private school, and the gubernatorial campaign of Tudor Dixon, who ran on a pro-school-choice platform.

But the November election turned out to be the most striking public repudiation of DeVos’ agenda since 2000, when Michigan voters overwhelmingly rejected a school-voucher proposal she funded. Dixon lost by double digits to Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, who made reproductive freedom the center of her campaign. And the Let MI Kids Learn proposal, which DeVos’ team failed to get on the November ballot, appears to have little chance of becoming law anytime soon.

Democrats won full control of the Legislature for the first time in 38 years and are now in position to undo some of DeVos’ signature education policies of the past decade.

Two of their top priorities are requiring charter schools to disclose more detailed financial records and rolling back a DeVos-backed law requiring third-graders to be held back if they are more than a grade level behind in reading.

So does that mean DeVos’ influence over education in Michigan is waning?

It depends on whom you ask.

The Michigan Education Association would like to think so. MEA is the state’s largest teachers union and a longtime opponent of DeVos’ voucher initiatives.

“The far right don’t like her because she didn’t stand up for Donald Trump” after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, said MEA spokesman Thomas Morgan. “And the left and middle have never liked her here in Michigan because of her repeated attempts to destroy public education.”

But few others are convinced that the election setbacks will halt the family’s decades long pursuit of a school-choice agenda.

“It’s a loss, and all losses sting,” said Bill Nowling, former spokesman for the Republican Party of Michigan and a longtime campaign consultant. “Are these fatal moments (for DeVos’ agenda)? I don’t think so … . It’s something they believe strongly in, and they’re going to keep trying.”

DeVos was not available to comment for this article, a spokesperson said.

Supporters of her school-choice agenda say the change in control of the Legislature doesn’t diminish the urgency of their cause.

Let MI Kids Learn would provide a path for students to catch up academically, said Beth DeShone, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by DeVos.

“Doing what’s best for our children shouldn’t be political,” DeShone said.

Debates play out on a field DeVos helped build

Before she was education secretary, DeVos was chairperson of the Michigan GOP, a prominent member of the state’s richest family of political donors, and a driving force behind a wave of reforms that redefined the state’s school landscape.

Many DeVos-backed policies are now deeply embedded in the state’s education system and would be hard to undo.

Consider the cap on the number of charter schools statewide that can be opened statewide, which DeVos and her political allies successfully fought to eliminate in 2011.

Teachers unions and other education groups fiercely opposed that move, but reinstating the previous cap would mean closing schools — never an easy political task, and one that would have the most impact in Detroit and Flint, which have large concentrations of both charter schools and Democratic voters. Any new cap without school closures wouldn’t have much effect on the charter school movement, because charter school growth has slowed.

Even the language that defines debates over teachers unions and vouchers bears DeVos’ influence.

“Vouchers were considered very, very radical in the ’80s and ’90s,” said Ellen Cogen Lipton, a state Board of Education member and former Democratic state representative from Huntington Woods. “Now they call them ‘education scholarships’ or ‘opportunity scholarships,’ and the terms they’re using have enabled them to change the conversation. They talk about rescuing kids from failing schools.”

So-called right-to-work legislation — which unions have blamed in part for declining membership — is another example of the way DeVos and her allies have established the terms of the debate. The phrase is widely used now to describe policies in Michigan and other states that free workers from requirements to pay union dues if they are covered by a union contract. Opponents of the policy say the phrase is implicitly partisan.

Money still counts in politics

Michigan Democrats appear to have enough votes to roll back some of DeVos’ favored policies, no matter how vigorous the opposition. But even slight delays could make a difference: Democrats have a long list of priorities and a narrow majority that they’ll be forced to defend in just two years.

DeVos’ personal wealth allows her to be a forceful advocate of some of the policies that Democrats seek to undo, said Joshua Cowen, a professor of education at Michigan State University.

“She’s still a billionaire,” said Cowen, a fierce critic of DeVos. “She could outspend the public education community for the (equivalent) of what it costs you and me to go to the grocery store.”

DeVos is already a major funder of state advocacy groups that support her agenda, including the Great Lakes Education Project and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. And she could support an additional public campaign against the changes Democrats propose, such as a requirement that charter schools disclose more financial information, including about teacher salaries, Cowen said. Such changes have been fiercely opposed by the charter sector, particularly by large for-profit school operators such as National Heritage Academies.

Meanwhile, spokespeople for Let MI Kids Learn have signaled that they’ll keep fighting for the tax-favored scholarship proposal, even though it likely won’t be certified until next year, when the Democratic-led Legislature would be able to vote it down.

If they succeed in putting the proposal on the 2024 ballot, that would also mark a major milestone for DeVos and her agenda. Michigan voters would be able to weigh in directly on a DeVos-backed education issue for the first time since 2002, while the battle for control of the reconfigured state legislature would determine whether Democrats get more than two years to try to undo her education policy legacy.

And DeVos’ influence is likely to endure in electoral politics. It’s hard to win a Republican primary in Michigan without DeVos’ support, Nowling said. She has been strategic in contributing to PACs and candidates who will advance vouchers and school choice, he said.

The family gave a combined $50,000 directly to Dixon’s campaign. But they gave $6.3 million to Let MI Kids Learn and millions more to other conservative PACs that support private school choice, such as the Great Lakes Education Project.

They also gave $270,000 to the state GOP and contributed to dozens of individual Republican candidates’ campaigns.

Supporters of public school choice say their investment in their cause will pay off in the long run.

“We’re trying to make a groundbreaking change, so it’s certainly not wasted,” said Fred Wszolek, spokesman for Let MI Kids Learn. “We’re not convinced there’s not voters who don’t see this need for alternatives” to the public school system.

Even by DeVos standards, the 2022 contributions in Michigan were a big investment – $11 million this election cycle, not counting contributions that won’t be reported until the Dec. 2 filing deadline. In each of the last two midterm election cycles, they contributed just $3 million to Republican campaigns.

Given that push, the homestate setback has to sting, said Lipton, a longtime critic of DeVos.

“She has funded voucher movements in other states, and I think it’s really been a personal affront that in her home state, she hasn’t been able to get something that is really, really important to her,” Lipton said.

But DeVos has deep enough pockets to keep trying even when voters resist, Lipton said.

“People like the DeVos family, their fortunes are so vast,” Lipton said. “I don’t know that they ever have the self-reflection (to say), ‘Gee, maybe what we want is not what the people want.’”

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Correction: Nov. 29, 2022: A previous version of this story said that Betsy DeVos backed a ballot initiative to create private school vouchers in 2002. The initiative was voted down in 2000.

Little action expected on education issues as Michigan lawmakers wind down term

2022-11-22T14:00:00+00:00

After the last midterm election, Michigan lawmakers voted on 300 bills and ended the term with an exhausting 21-hour day as Republicans looked to push through controversial legislation before Democrat Gretchen Whitmer took office.

Don’t expect the next few weeks to look anything like that.

Lawmakers may gather during the lame-duck period before their terms end Dec. 31, but the departing GOP majority isn’t likely to use its waning days to try passing anything that Whitmer would veto.

“I hear rumors we might not even be doing lame duck,” said state Rep. John Damoose, R-Harbor Springs. “I’m frustrated, because I have some bills I’d like to see passed.”

Currently, the House is scheduled to meet for six days — Dec. 6-8 and 13-15 — but some of those session days could be canceled, and others will likely be filled with departing lawmakers’ farewell speeches rather than legislative deliberations.

House Republican spokesperson Gideon D’Assandro said leaders haven’t yet confirmed a schedule for the lame duck period. Senate GOP spokesperson Matt Sweeney did not respond to questions about lame duck plans.

“Lame duck is likely to be a tame duck,” said state Sen. Jeff Irwin, an Ann Arbor Democrat. “There’s not going to be a flurry of crazed action, as is sometimes the case, which is unsurprising. What happened during the election doesn’t create a ton of incentive for anyone to do that.”

In 2018, Democratic lawmakers accused the Republican majority of overreaching in the weeks before Whitmer took power.

Among the lame-duck laws passed then was an unpopular GOP-backed law requiring the Michigan Department of Education to grade schools on an A to F scale so that parents could better gauge performance.

Starting Jan. 1, Democrats will control both houses of the Legislature. Even so, there would be no reason now for Republicans to ram through something partisan just to have Whitmer veto it, said Ellen Lipton, chairperson of the Michigan State Board of Education Legislative Committee and a former Democratic legislator.

Rather than picking fights, Lipton said, lawmakers will be looking for easy wins on issues where there’s general agreement and on bills that have already passed one of the two chambers.

One package of bills that fits those criteria would provide help for students with dyslexia, a learning disorder that can affect word recognition and reading ability.

The bills would require schools to screen for dyslexia, provide extra support for struggling students, and ensure that all students receive phonics-based reading instruction. They passed the Senate unanimously in May but stalled in the House Education Committee.

The departing committee chairperson, Pamela Hornberger of Chesterfield Township, who lost a tight state Senate race, has not said why the bills haven’t been scheduled for a hearing.

Irwin, who has been shepherding the bills through the Legislature, said there’s still time.

“It’s one of those few (packages) that is completely bipartisan,” he said. “It promotes literacy. It will help thousands and thousands of kids. Employers support it. And it’s gotten a tremendous amount of support.” And, he said, declining reading proficiency underscores the urgency of passing the bills.

“If we pass these bills and bring phonetic awareness back into the classroom we’re going to help thousands of kids learn to read earlier and better,” Irwin said.

A couple of other bills have also passed one chamber and could be taken up by the other during the lame duck session.

Programming could count as a language credit

One bill would allow computer programming courses to replace world language credits required for high school graduation. It passed the House 59-49 in May and is now teed up for a vote in the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness.

Committee Chairperson Lana Theis, a Brighton Republican, has not said publicly whether she plans to schedule a vote.

The Republican bill had some crossover support from Democrats in the House. It has the backing of the business community, which says computer programming is a skill relevant to future jobs.

The Michigan Department of Education opposes the bill.

Whitmer has not taken a public position.

WorkKeys test could be optional

The House in July 2021 overwhelmingly passed a bill that would eliminate a requirement for high school juniors to take the WorkKeys career readiness test.

Districts or individual students could still opt in, and the state would cover the cost of the test, under the legislation.

Michigan juniors have been taking the test since 2007, when it became part of the Michigan Merit Exam. The state spends about $4.4 million a year for about 105,000 students to take the test.

Proponents of the legislation say that money could be better spent on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams most test-takers now pay for themselves.

Opponents say the WorkKeys tests help employers evaluate workers and help students discover career pathways.

The Senate education committee held hearings on the bill earlier this year and recommended passage. It now awaits action on the Senate floor.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Democrats won the Michigan Legislature and governor’s office. What does that mean for schools?

2022-11-10T22:50:20+00:00

In the days after Democrats swept the Michigan governor’s office and the state Legislature, a reality began to set in for public school advocates: Newfound power means they’ll be able to accomplish key initiatives that have stalled during decades of Republican control.

Democrats now have a chance to follow through on their promises to overhaul school funding, repeal a law requiring struggling readers to be held back in third grade, require charter school financial transparency, expand early childhood education, provide teacher bonuses, and more.

The last time Democrats controlled both chambers along with the governor’s office, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was 13 years old.

Since then – and particularly during the Snyder administration, when Republicans held a trifecta – Democrats have struggled to advance their own legislation and were unable to block GOP education reforms that lifted the cap on charter schools and created the third grade reading law.

Now Whitmer has the power and support to make her mark on Michigan schools.

A lot of things are on the table that didn’t seem possible on Tuesday.

“There are all kinds of discussions I don’t think anybody was expecting to have this morning until some of these election results started coming in,” Bob McCann said on Wednesday. McCann is executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, which represents the school districts in the state’s most populous five counties.

“We’re thinking boldly now about where we need to go in terms of actually helping teachers and schools, and the first step has got to be taking a look at some of the policies that are proving to be harmful,” such as the third grade reading retention law, he said.

Teachers expect to have a greater role in developing education policy.

“We are going to be able to have a seat at the table when they’re discussing policies that affect public school employees and students – and that will mean everything to educators across this state,” said Paula Herbart, president of the Michigan Education Association.

Administrators are encouraged, too.

“With the change in leadership, it’s time for big bold ideas that we haven’t been able to completely move forward,” said Daveda Colbert, superintendent of the Wayne County Regional Service Agency.

Here are some things that could happen:

School funding formula could change

The school aid budget is likely to grow and the formula for funding schools could change in Whitmer’s second term.

Advocates want more state funding for students who are more expensive to educate, such as those with disabilities or who are English language learners.

“We have to find ways to fix Michigan’s funding system to make sure schools have the resources they need to meet actual costs,” McCann said. “That’s a big lift, but it’s something that has to get fixed.”

Detroit Public Schools Community District superintendent Nikolai Vitti is hopeful.

It’s important “to ensure sustained and recurring funding equity through a weighted student formula to fully fund special education,” he told Chalkbeat and Bridge in an email message Wednesday.

Detroit could get literacy settlement payments

Two and a half years ago, Whitmer reached a $94.4 million settlement with Detroit families who said Michigan failed to provide their children with a basic education. She promised only to attempt to get the money from the Legislature every year for as long as she was governor.

She included the line item in three budget proposals but it never survived budget negotiations.

It could be different with a Democratic legislature.

DPSCD Superintendent Vitti hopes so.

The money is owed to the district “to address the tragedy of emergency management,” he said in an email. The literacy deficits occurred when Detroit schools were being operated by state-appointed emergency managers.

Early childhood program may see expansion

Early childhood education has been a bipartisan priority, but Republicans haven’t been able to see eye-to-eye with Whitmer on how much to spend on it or how it should be delivered.

Whitmer slowly expanded the program during her first term and said in an interview last month that she would work to do more if reelected.

This year, Whitmer proposed expanding the state’s free Great Start Readiness Program by allowing it to operate in smaller home-based settings instead of in classrooms of 16 children. Advocates said doing so would allow providers to use state funds while providing more access to high-quality preschool programs.

Senate Republicans refused to include the $5 million in their budget.

Whitmer could try again in the next budget cycle.

The program currently serves 4-year-olds from families who meet income eligibility requirements. Some program proponents want to remove eligibility requirements to provide the program to all children.

“That’s another conversation we’d be happy to have,” McCann said. GSRP “is one of those things that is front and center in terms of student achievement. Getting them that early-on support gets them ready.”

Colbert agrees, but said expansion should be gradual to account for staffing shortages.

“We can continue to make early childhood seats available, but if teachers and staff aren’t there to cover the classrooms, our efforts will fall flat.”

Third grade reading rule could disappear

Whitmer has never been a fan of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s law that requires third graders to be held back if they are more than one grade level behind in reading. Although the law has such a large loophole that few students have ever been retained, Democrats, state Superintendent Michael Rice, and most teachers see retention as harmful.

“We would certainly be happy to see a discussion about repealing that and instead making sure third graders who aren’t reading get the help they need,” McCann said.

That’s a top priority for Dayna Polehanki, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Education Committee who could be named committee chairperson today.

“I personally am going to oversee the repeal of the retention piece, which would flunk third graders based on one test that they take,” Polehanki said in an interview. “Research shows that retention doesn’t work. It doesn’t help kids to read.”

Tudor Dixon, Whitmer’s Republican challenger, had promised to more strictly enforce the reading law and close loopholes that had allowed superintendents to waive the retention rule for the vast majority of students eligible for retention.

Teachers bonuses are possible

Earlier this year, Whitmer proposed giving teachers $1.5 billion in bonuses over four years. The annual bonuses would start at $2,000 and grow to $4,000 by 2025. Her aim was to mitigate staffing troubles.

Republicans blocked the proposal, and even some proponents of retention bonuses questioned whether they should go to all teachers or be targeted on educators in shortage areas.

The proposal appears to have new life with Democrats in charge, said Bob Kefgen, lobbyist for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals.

Polehanki said she also expects to reintroduce a wider strategy to address the educator shortage. It includes measures to fund professional development, to reimburse student teachers for childcare, to provide three years of mentorship for new teachers, and more.

“We worked really hard on that package that was unfortunately ignored by the then-Republican majority, and we really look forward to giving some of those bills a hearing,” Polehanki said.

Colbert hopes the Legislature will pass those bills and other measures that will make it easier for administrators in Wayne County and elsewhere to attract and retain Michigan teachers.

“In order to do this, we know that we need to look at incentives such as signing bonuses, possibly relocation stipends, and other ways in which to supplement salaries, and to make the field of education attractive in Michigan,” she said.

Charter financial transparency rules may tighten

Democrats have been frustrated by the lack of financial transparency from charter schools run by for-profit management companies that are not subject to public disclosure laws.

Those schools typically aggregate most of their expenditures into a single line item for “purchased services,” making it impossible to know how much teachers are being paid, how much supplies costs, or which vendors are providing services.

“We’re going to require charter schools – especially the for-profit charter schools – to open their books and show us what the taxpayer money has been going for,” Polehanki said.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Governor’s election: Michigan voters give Gretchen Whitmer a second term

2022-11-09T15:07:54+00:00

Tudor Dixon worked to make the election about parents’ rights and school choice, but in the end, Michigan voters chose Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who ran on her record rather than an ambitious education plan for sweeping change.

The incumbent Democrat touted her accomplishments, including closing the school funding gap and tripling the number of school literacy coaches, but she faced criticism over decisions she made in 2020 around pandemic-related school closures and mask mandates.

When the Associated Press called the race for Whitmer at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday, she was leading with nearly 52% of the vote.

Later in the morning, Whitmer said “Michigan’s future is bright and we are about to step on the accelerator,” during a speech to supporters and media.

Whitmer said that over the next four years, she wants to build a Michigan “where every person is treated with dignity, can enjoy their personal freedoms, and chart their own path toward prosperity. I promise to be a governor for all of Michigan. I promise to work with anyone who wants to get things done and compete and win against anyone. We’re going to move this state forward. And I am excited about the work we will continue to do together.”

Jenna Bednar, professor of political science and public policy at the University of Michigan, said that though there was frustration during the pandemic, “voters appreciated how hard she worked to increase the funding available for public schools.”

“She didn’t run on a major transformation of the education system” like Dixon did, Bednar said. “She didn’t run saying we need to revamp the curriculum, or ban books, or keep certain ideas out of the classroom. Voters responded to that. They said, ‘Yeah, we don’t need to go there.’”

Whitmer’s win is evidence that voters want a more traditional set of education policies and platforms, said Sarah Reckhow, associate professor of political science at Michigan State University.

Throughout the campaign, Whitmer and Dixon offered vastly differing views on school safety, private school choice, curriculum, Michigan’s third-grade reading retention law, and more.

Reckhow said it’s possible that Dixon’s plan for private school choice didn’t resonate with voters because they have been satisfied with their local public schools even through the pandemic.

She also noted that Whitmer’s campaign focused on traditional Democratic educational values such as increasing school funding and providing more early childhood programs.

A second term gives Whitmer, 51, another chance to advance her agenda of paying teachers retention bonuses and piloting a home-based version of the Great Start Readiness preschool program. She included those items in her 2022-23 school aid budget proposal but was unable to get them through the Republican-controlled Legislature.

She now has the ability to push through these priorities, and others, now that Democrats gained control of both the Michigan House and Senate. It’s the first time in 40 years Democrats will control the governor’s office and the Legislature, according to Bridge Michigan. Their successes are due in part to redistricting.

A Democratic Legislature would mean support for even more school funding, particularly for the neediest districts, said Michael Montgomery, a political scientist and consultant who was chief analyst on the 1989-91 Citizens Education Committee to Improve Public Education in Detroit.

“Mostly, I think she’ll stay the course, making more progress if she has a Democratic Legislature and not making progress with a Republican Legislature,” Montgomery said. “She’s going to keep working.”

Tracie Mauriello covers education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

True or false? Checking 5 education claims from Mich. gubernatorial candidates

2022-11-04T18:20:00+00:00

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says her challenger, Republican Tudor Dixon, downplayed the seriousness of children getting COVID and joked about guns around the time of the deadly Oxford school shooting.

Tudor says Whitmer kept children out of school longer than other governors and that Michigan children are failing in reading under her watch.

As Election Day approaches, Chalkbeat Detroit fact-checked these claims and others related to education. Here’s what we found:

Dixon’s claim: “The truth is (Whitmer) changed over to the Department of Health and Human Services and forced them to close down schools … She had all the power in the state to say no, we’re not going to have our schools shut down, we’re going to make sure that our students are back in person learning, just like other states.”

Dixon’s claim is misleading. Whitmer ordered classroom closures early in the pandemic, but the majority of remote learning was ordered by local school boards based on local COVID conditions, parent preferences, and other factors largely outside of Whitmer’s control.

In March 2020, state leaders across the country, including Whitmer, shuttered classrooms in response to COVID — a highly infectious, deadly illness without any treatments at the time. That summer, Whitmer struck a deal with Republican legislators to allow local school boards to choose between in-person and virtual learning in the fall.

In November 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services closed high schools statewide for about a month in response to a surge in new COVID cases, forcing districts to shift to remote instruction.

That was the last time school closures were required by Whitmer or the Department of Health and Human Services. In January of 2021, Whitmer called on districts to return to in-person learning by March.

Districts’ reopening timelines varied widely. Some kept classrooms open through much of 2020-21, while others — notably in urban areas — stuck with remote learning for the whole year or saw most parents opt for remote learning. School boards based their reopening decisions on parent preferences, local COVID conditions, and the stances of teachers unions, among other factors.

By May 2021, roughly half of Michigan students were learning fully in person, and most of the remainder were enrolled in a hybrid model that included some remote instruction. With the exception of a few remote days in some urban districts during COVID surges, the vast majority of Michigan students attended school fully in person throughout the 2021-22 school year.

Dixon has attacked Whitmer for saying that “kids were out for three months” on her watch. Many students learned remotely for much longer than that. Whitmer later said she was referring only to closures mandated by her administration, which did in fact last about three months.

Dixon’s claim: “What are you going to do to get these kids back on track? We got our reading scores back from the spring, nearly 60% of our third graders failed.”

Dixon ignores Whitmer’s record on education, but her reference to Michigan’s test results is roughly correct.

Students who take Michigan’s statewide exam are categorized as advanced, proficient, partially proficient, or not proficient. On state exams given in the spring, 58% of third graders were not deemed at least proficient.

With help from federal COVID funds, Whitmer signed a record school budget this year, including investments in mental health and teacher recruitment that will help students recover from the pandemic. While Whitmer’s administration was slow to prioritize tutoring as a learning recovery tool, she has since for a $280 million tutoring program.

Whitmer’s claim: “In the same month that the Oxford shooting happened (Dixon) posted a picture of herself with a gun with a caption saying, ‘Gun control means using both hands.’”

Dixon did post the photo and caption on Twitter, but the tweet appeared on Nov. 1, 2021, 29 days before the shooting at Oxford High School, where four students were killed, and six others and a teacher were injured.

Whitmer’s claim: Dixon is “bankrolled by Betsy DeVos. She has endorsed Betsy DeVos’s plan to drain half a billion from our public schools.”

Campaign finance reports show no direct contributions to Dixon’s campaign from Betsy DeVos, the former U.S. secretary of education, or her husband, former Amway CEO Dick DeVos.

But the pro-voucher DeVos family has contributed heavily to political action committees that support Dixon and her top education initiatives, making the DeVoses indirectly among her top financial supporters.

The DeVoses contributed $2.6 million to Michigan Families United, a super PAC that has spent most of the $7.6 million it raised on television commercials supporting Dixon.

The DeVos family also contributed $7.9 million to Let MI Kids Learn, the super PAC behind a voucher-like tax credit proposal that has been a centerpiece of Dixon’s education platform.

DeVos was the creator of that plan, which is structured to circumvent the state’s constitutional ban on using tax dollars to fund private schools.

Under the proposal, donors would get tax breaks equal to the amount of their scholarship donations. Private school families who meet income qualifications could receive up to $7,830 per child to offset tuition. Other families could receive up to $500 in scholarships for tutoring, books, speech therapy, or other help to supplement public school education.

The scholarships are estimated to cost $500 million a year in money that would otherwise be collected as tax revenue that goes toward state services including public safety, transportation, corrections, public schools, and health and human services.

It isn’t clear whether all of that $500 million would otherwise go into the school aid budget, but it is likely that public schools would be affected by decreased state revenue.

Whitmer’s claim: “Mrs. Dixon … said kids couldn’t get COVID.”

Dixon has repeatedly denied she said that, but her statements were captured on video.

On America’s Voice Live, a conservative talk show she hosted, Dixon downplayed the risks of children getting and spreading COVID.

On one 2020 episode, she said, “A lot of people would say that there is no evidence that shows that kids can transmit the virus, and so now they’re wondering, should kids have even been taken out of school because they’re not transmitting the virus.”

On another, she said that “this is not a virus that affects the young students.”

In fact, children are susceptible to COVID, although typically their symptoms are less severe. Nearly 14.9 million children are reported to have tested positive, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. That’s 18.3% of all cases.

And researchers found that children can transmit COVID, more likely to adults than to other children.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Tracie Mauriello covers statewide education policy for Bridge Michigan and Chalkbeat Detroit. Contact Tracie at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

GOP’s Tarver leads fundraising in Michigan state school board race

2022-11-01T21:53:46+00:00

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct fundraising totals for candidates who filed amended campaign finance reports. Some donations were counted multiple times. It also updates contribution and expenditure information for candidate Tamara Carlone, whose latest report was not previously available.

Linda Lee Tarver started her state Board of Education campaign with $5,000 of her own money.

Over the last year, that has ballooned to $105,000, more than all seven of her competitors combined, according to campaign finance disclosures.

The Republican raised much of that money several thousand dollars at a time from conservative coalitions and wealthy donors, including several in the real estate industry.

Tarver has been spending it on billboards, advertisements, website designers, a $961 stay at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and club where she had a private meeting with the former president, and $7,585 listed as meeting expenses at a soup spot in Lansing that has become her de facto office.

Just today she launched a 30-second television spot on streaming services including Hulu and Amazon Prime. That expenditure – about $10,000 – will be included in an upcoming campaign finance report, Tarver said.

Eight candidates are running for two seats on the state school board, which currently comprises five Democrats and two Republicans. An eighth board member is expected to be appointed soon by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to fill the unexpired term of Jason Strayhorn, who resigned in July.

Board members serve eight-year terms setting educational priorities and overseeing public education in the state, but their powers are limited in a state where education policy and budgets are set by the state Legislature. The board’s most significant power is to hire and fire the state superintendent.

Learn more about the candidates’ positions here.

Democrat Mitchell Robinson raised $19,800. Democrat Pamela Pugh, the only incumbent, raised $6,300.

Fellow Republican Tamara Carlone raised $50,400, some of which was left over from her 2020 attempt to win a seat on the board.

The race’s four minor party candidates are exempt from filing campaign finance reports because they have raised less than $1,000. They are: Donna Gundle-Krieg and Bill Hall of the Libertarian Party; Mary Anne Kering of the Working Class Party, and Ethan Hobson of the U.S. Taxpayers Party.

That brings total spending on the race to $181,000 so far, up from $90,000 in total spending in the last election cycle. That’s more than most school board election cycles, but still well below the $401,000 candidates spent in 2006 and the $368,000 spent in 2016.

Tarver’s contributions are high for a state Board of Education race, but not unprecedented.

Former Republican state Board of Education member Eileen Weiser raised $296,300 for her 2006 campaign.

Still, six-figure fundraising for state board seats is unusual, said Simon Schuster, senior political reporter at MLive and former executive director of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

The high fundraising isn’t surprising in a year when education issues are at the forefront of top-of-ticket races, Schuster said.

“Education and what should be taught in schools is so close to the forefront that I think this is the most prominent state Board of Education election that we’ve had in a number of cycles,” Schuster said.

Tarver’s campaign coffers are large enough to get her name and image in front of a lot of voters. That could make a difference to voters who may not be paying attention to down-ballot races, said Rebecca Jacobsen, professor of education policy and politics at Michigan State University.

Money enables candidates to get their names and their campaign messages in front of more voters and in more professional ways.

“When you don’t know a lot about the issues but a name starts to sound familiar, you think, ‘Yeah, that sounds great,’” said Jacobsen, who has been studying money in local school board races for more than a decade.

There’s also a downside to having strong funding, she said.

“We found in our research talking to school board candidates at the district level is that money brought with it demands for very strong personal stances on some very politicized issues, so candidates felt like there was not room to compromise,” Jacobsen said. Candidates felt like they had to profess more extreme views than they may have personally held, and that increased politicization on boards after they were elected, she said.

That has left little room for moderate candidates with pragmatic beliefs to advance causes that weren’t part of the national political agenda, she said.

Here’s a summary of the candidates’ major contributions and expenditures, according to campaign finance records candidates filed with the Department of State:

Linda Lee Tarver

Tarver’s biggest contributors are Weiser, the former state Board of Education member, and her husband Ron, an Ann Arbor real estate investor, member of the University of Michigan Board of Regents, and chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party. They gave her $9,650 combined.

The Weisers also are major Republican campaign financiers. They contributed $3 million to the state Republican Party this election cycle, plus nearly $400,000 more to candidates for statewide office and $100,000 to a political action committee backing tax breaks for voucher-like scholarships. They also contributed more than $4 million to federal campaigns and political action committees.

Other top Tarver campaign contributors are: Terri Lynn Land of Byron Center, a member of the Wayne State University Board of Governors and former secretary of state; Terry Applegate of Ivins, Utah; Dan Hibma, a real estate partner in Wyoming, Michigan; Bobby Schostak, a real estate developer in Livonia; and America’s Conservative Caucus in Collinsville, Illinois Each gave $7,150, the maximum allowable individual contribution.

Mitchell Robinson

Robinson’s biggest contributors were the Michigan Education Association Political Action Committee ($5,000), the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters PAC ($2,500), and the American Federation of Teachers PAC ($2,000).

His biggest expenditures have been $2,500 to the state Democratic Party, $2,300 for postcards, and $1,272 for yard signs.

Pamela Pugh

Pugh’s biggest contributor is her father, John Pugh, retired Delta College Professor, who gave $6,821. State law exempts immediate family members from campaign contribution limits.

Pugh also contributed $2,000 to her own campaign.

Other top contributors were the Michigan Education Association PAC ($5,200), the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters PAC ($2,500), and the American Federation of Teachers PAC ($2,000).

The biggest expenditures she reported are $3,360 for yard signs, $2,500 to the state Democratic Party, $1,800 for a campaign coordinator, and $1,665 for campaign literature.

Tamara Carlone

Carlone’s top contributors are retiree Valarie Applegate of Ivins, Utah ($7,150), Jon Sorber of Spring Lake, co-owner of Two Men and a Truck International Inc. ($2,500); the 11th Congressional District Republican Party ($2,000); the Wayne 12th Congressional District Republican Committee ($1,850), retiree Deborah Debacker of Troy ($1,250); the Wayne County Republican Party ($1,000), and Jennifer Conely of Brighton, owner of Conley Auto ($1,000).

The biggest expenditures she reported are $9,000 for billboards, $4,764 for campaign literature, and $2,418 for T-shirts.

Election day is Nov. 8.

Chalkbeat Senior Data Editor Thomas Wilburn contributed.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan.

New scholarships aim to make college more attainable in Michigan

2022-10-28T12:00:00+00:00

Grace Fawcett is intent on becoming a radiology technician.

She’s been looking into colleges that have radiography programs and recently settled on Jackson College. Now all she needs is $7,080 a year for in-state tuition and fees.

The new Michigan Achievement Scholarship will take care of a third of it if she qualifies, and that’s a big relief to Fawcett, a senior at Niles High School in West Michigan.

The program was introduced by Republican state Sen. Kim LaSata of Hagar Township in Berrien County and was signed into law this month. Income restrictions are low enough that 94% of community college students and more than 75% of students at Michigan’s four-year schools will be eligible.

“This is an absolute game changer for kids who are on the fence because they’re not sure about their financial status in terms of paying for college,” said Stiles Simmons, superintendent of Westwood Community Schools in Dearborn Heights.

Starting with the class of 2023, eligible high school graduates can receive between $2,750 and $5,500 per year.

The funding is guaranteed for students who have lived in the state for at least a year, will attend a Michigan college full time, and whose family contribution to college expenses is expected to be less than $25,000 per year based on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA.

That’s much higher than the threshold for other kinds of aid such as federal Pell Grants, which are available to students whose expected family contribution is less than $5,846.

The higher contribution limit for the new Achievement Scholarship will capture a lot of middle-income students who wouldn’t qualify for other aid, LaSata said.

“This gets up into the middle class, and that was a priority for me to be able to get scholarships into the hands of as many students as possible,” she said. “I want to help as many students as possible in getting a degree.”

The scholarship program is estimated to cost $169 million in the 2023-24 school year and to grow to $562 million in four years.

Students who complete the FAFSA automatically will be considered for the Michigan Achievement Scholarship. Fifty-two percent of Michigan seniors already fill out the FAFSA to be eligible for federal loans and other grants.

“It’s nice that it notifies people without them really having to apply,” said Fawcett, 19. Many of her friends probably don’t know about the new scholarships and wouldn’t know to apply if they had to do it separately from the FAFSA, she said.

She expects to be eligible for $2,750 a year for up to three years, the amount designated for community college students. Students who attend an in-state private college or university can receive $4,000 per year for up to five years, and those attending one of Michigan’s 15 public universities can receive $5,500 for up to five years.

The new law also creates the Michigan Achievement Scholarship Private Training Program to provide up to $2,000 per year for two years for students to attend trade schools or receive other occupational training. To qualify, applicants must have lived in Michigan for a year, apply for all other available aid, and not have previously earned a college degree.

“Is it a cure-all that’s going to fix everything? No,” said Onjila Odeneal, Michigan director of policy and advocacy for the Institute for College Access and Success. “Is it going to encourage some students who otherwise wouldn’t have gone (to college) because of the cost? Yes.”

A state university student going to school for five years could wind up receiving $27,500, noted Dan Hurley, CEO of the Michigan Association for State Universities.

That’s significant, he said.

“This is supplanting monies that would be paid for out of family savings or student loans, and it may reduce the amount of hours that students have to work, whether during the school year or during the summer,” Hurley said.

It could be enough of an incentive for students to spend their post-secondary years in Michigan, and to stay after graduation to join the workforce, Hurley said.

“It’s a remarkably smart investment on the part of state lawmakers,” Hurley said. “It’s synergistic in terms of retaining young, degreed adults in the state as well as sending a strong message to employers and prospective future employers that we are a state that’s serious about building out a more talented workforce.”

Fawcett’s classmate Melody Palafox is considering both in-state and out-of-state schools. The scholarship is one more factor to weigh as she makes her decision. Choosing an out-of-state school would make her ineligible.

“For me personally, any amount of money is helpful,” said Palafox, 17, who will be the first person in her family to attend college.

In-state tuition at the state’s four-year public universities ranges from $10,800 at Saginaw Valley to $17,296 at Michigan Tech. Simmons said a $5,500 scholarship could make a difference, especially when combined with federal aid and other scholarships and grants students may receive.

For some, it could be the last chunk they need to be able to go to school, he said.

“At the center of this is hope,” Simmons said, “especially for low-income students or students who are the first to attend college in their families. This is hope. This reduces the financial barrier to college that so many of our families face.”

Fewer than 50% of Westwood students go on to college or a post-secondary job certification program, Simmons said. Michigan Achievement Scholarships could increase that, he said.

“I’m really over the moon about this because, in my mind, it places my students in a very advantageous situation regarding their post-secondary options,” he said. “It provides meaningful post-secondary opportunities.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Sparks fly over test scores, books, school safety in second Michigan debate

2022-10-26T13:50:53+00:00

Tudor Dixon and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer traded barbs over books, guns, and test scores Tuesday during an acerbic debate at Oakland University.

Dixon, the Republican challenger from Norton Shores, accused the incumbent Democratic governor of driving down test scores by keeping schools closed too long during the pandemic.

Whitmer accused Dixon of promoting a plan that would divert money from public schools to for-profit private ones.

It was the second and last debate before the Nov. 8 election. Whitmer is leading in the polls, but Dixon has begun to close the gap, according to Real Clear Politics.

The hour-long debate came a day after National Assessment of Education Progress test scores showed Michigan students declined in every grade level since the last round of tests in 2019 before the pandemic. Declines in fourth-grade reading were particularly steep.

The National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, was given to a representative sample of students across the country between January and March to test reading and math proficiency. Known as “the nation’s report card,” NAEP allows state-to-state comparisons.

Dixon blamed the decline on school closures Whitmer ordered to prevent the spread of COVID.

“We are not a Top 10 state,” Dixon said. “We’re not even close. We are actually a bottom 10 state.”

Michigan fourth graders ranked 40th nationally in reading and 35th in math on the NAEP exam. Eighth graders were 23rd in reading and 25th in math. But the rankings can be misleading, since scaled scores in 27 other states were very similar to Michigan.

Test scores are horrible, Dixon said, and Michigan has been slower than other states to implement comprehensive tutoring programs that would help. She has proposed hiring back retired teachers to provide every student 25 hours of tutoring next school year.

She said the state needs to help students get back on track after they were forced to learn online during the pandemic.

Whitmer defended school closures.

“The reason kids were out of school during the pandemic was because we were working off of knowledge from 1918, when kids died from the last global pandemic,” she said. “As a mom, I was thinking about saving the lives of our kids.”

She said the closures lasted three months, which Dixon disputed.

“I think I just heard an audible gasp around town” when she said that, Dixon said. “This is shocking to me that she thinks that schools were only closed for three months — or maybe she thinks she can convince you that schools were only closed for three months, but you know better because your students are the ones that are so desperately behind.”

Whitmer ordered schools closed from mid-March 2020 until the end of that school year. In November of that year, the state ordered high schools closed for nearly a month. Some schools in the state were closed for in-person instruction much longer than the state ordered, but those were individual decisions by local elected school boards.

Whitmer said an unprecedented boost in this year’s school aid budget will provide for tutoring, smaller class sizes, mental health counseling, and literacy coaches that will improve education.

Whitmer also said public schools would suffer under Dixon.

“The problem is, if Mrs. Dixon is elected, she and her biggest funder, Betsy DeVos, will be writing the education budget,” Whitmer said. “And their plan is to take half a billion dollars out of our public school system. If you want to get kids to Top 10 in literacy, draining the school aid fund is not going to get us there.”

The candidates also shared vastly different plans for keeping schools safe from violence. The back-and-forth came a day after the teenager accused in last year’s Oxford High School shooting pleaded guilty to killing four and wounding seven.

Whitmer said she supports background checks, secure storage requirements, and red flag laws that would allow police to temporarily seize guns of people believed to be a present danger to themselves or others.

Dixon wants schools to have armed guards, single points of entry, and training to help educators identify children struggling with mental illness.

“I want to make sure that kids are safe, and I don’t want kids in a sitting-duck zone where the only person that has a weapon is the shooter that is going in to take their lives,” Dixon said.

She also wants the state to implement recommendations from a 2018 School Safety Task Force that called for incentives for school counselors, standardized floor plan maps for schools, more thoughtful active-shooter drills, more training for school resources officers, and more.

Whitmer responded pointedly.

“There was a school shooting in Missouri yesterday in a district that had exactly what she just described: one point of entry, armed guards in the school, and people are dead,” Whitmer said.

She circled back to guns later in the debate, accusing Dixon of worrying more about books in schools than weapons in them.

“Do you really think books are more dangerous than guns?” Whitmer asked her. “Do you really think that books pose a greater danger to our kids than gun violence does?”

Dixon has made book banning a campaign issue, calling sexually explicit material in some school libraries pornographic.

“These are books that are describing to children how to have sex, and parents are outraged about it across the state,” she said. “I stand with those parents that want to make sure we go back to the basics of reading, writing, and math in our schools.”

Whitmer said parents have the right to tell teachers they don’t want their children to have access to particular lessons or materials. She said Dixon is using the local issue as a distraction from more important issues.

They also offered differing perspectives on abortion, inflation, tax plans, balanced budgets, energy costs, the opioid epidemic, and state infrastructure.

Whitmer and Dixon’s first debate was Oct. 13 in Grand Rapids. The two also responded separately to questions, but did not debate, last week at the Detroit Economic Club.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

New Michigan law requires school districts to post parents’ rights

2022-10-24T20:00:00+00:00

It’s been 45 years since Michigan lawmakers passed a law guaranteeing parents the right to direct the education of their children.

Now lawmakers want to make sure parents know about it.

A new law enacted last week requires school districts and the Michigan Department of Education to prominently post excerpts of the 1976 law in school offices and rooms where boards of education meet. They also will be required to post an excerpt from the Michigan Constitution affirming the importance of religion and morality as a premise for encouraging education.

“This will serve as a visible and valuable reminder that parents have a fundamental right to direct the education of their children,” said Republican state Rep. Annette Glenn of Midland who sponsored the bill.

The law comes against a backdrop of volatile and politically charged school board meetings in Michigan and around the country, as conservative groups and community members challenge officials over what books are available in schools, how racism is taught, and whether districts should limit transgender girls’ participation in school sports.

The law requires that the following language be posted:

From the Michigan Constitution: “Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
From the school code: “It is the natural, fundamental right of parents and legal guardians to determine and direct the care, teaching, and education of their children. The public schools of this state serve the needs of the pupils by cooperating with the pupil’s parents and legal guardians to develop the pupil’s intellectual capabilities and vocational skills in a safe and positive environment.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the bill into law last week. Education officials have until Jan. 1 to post the notices in rooms where school boards conduct their meetings, in school offices and administrative buildings, in the principal’s office or chief administrator’s office in every school, in every building operated by the Michigan Department of Education, and in the state board meeting room. in rooms where school boards conduct their meetings, in school offices and administrative buildings, in the principal’s office or chief administrator’s office in every school, in every building operated by the Michigan Department of Education, and in the state board meeting room.

The law doesn’t specify the size or format of the required notice.

The language also must appear in training materials provided to employees of the Michigan Department of Education and state Board of Education.

The House and Senate passed the legislation 84-20 and 28-5, respectively, on Sept. 28, the Legislature’s last scheduled voting day before the general election. In each chamber, all Republicans and some Democrats voted yes.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki voted no.

“I’m not buying into these efforts to elevate falsehoods that schools aren’t cooperating with parents,” said Polehanki, a Livonia Democrat and former Michigan teacher of the year. “To say schools aren’t cooperating with parents and then to insert some blurb from the constitution about religion and morality, that’s just a pure political game.”

She said it’s a distraction from more important issues.

“This doesn’t raise test scores,” she said. “It doesn’t do anything to promote academic achievement. It’s just a purely political thing introduced at the last minute to fire up their base before the election.”

Glenn introduced her bill in February. She renewed her call for passage late last month after a Michigan Department of Education teacher training video surfaced and enraged many conservatives. In the video, a trainer suggests that teachers can talk with parents about a child’s suicidal thoughts without revealing that gender identity may be a source of the student’s distress.

Republicans including gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon criticized the video as suggesting that teachers keep secrets from parents.

State Supt. Michael Rice defended the video, saying it’s ordinarily the preference of schools to work closely with parents. But under longstanding education policy, schools may be cautious about sharing a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity when a “student is concerned about abuse, neglect, or homelessness if parents are told.” Schools, he said, “have a responsibility not to put children in harm’s way, even inadvertently.”

“Regrettably, public schools have become Ground Zero for the culture wars,” said Marshall Grate, a Grand Rapids-based attorney from the firm Clark Hill who represents many Michigan school districts.

Schools already fulfill their obligation to let parents and others have their say at public meetings and to work with parents to meet individual students’ academic needs, Grate said.

“The clients I work with value parental engagement,” he said in a telephone interview. “There needs to be dialogue going back and forth.”

Posting notices in schools board meeting rooms won’t change anything, said Bob McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance for Michigan, which advocates for schools in the state’s five most populous counties.

“We’re acting as if this is some stand we have to take for parental rights,” McCann said. “Everybody agrees that parents need to play an active role in the decisions being made in their schools, so I’m unclear why this bill is necessary.”

In Niles Community Schools, Superintendent Dan Applegate said he’s glad to post the notices in district buildings.

“I think everybody should be informed of the rights they have,” Applegate said in an interview. “Putting that information up on the wall for when parents walk through, I think it’s a good idea. They may see it and say, ‘I didn’t know about my rights.’”

Applegate said teachers and administrators communicate regularly with parents about both district policy and specific opportunities and challenges for their children. Most of the time, he said, a phone call can alleviate concerns that have triggered volatile school board meetings in other places.

For example, he said, parents have raised concerns over how the district plans to teach about reproductive health. Some have said they want their children to opt out of those lessons, which the district allows.

“They’ll come in and say, ‘I hear you guys are teaching this or that,’” Applegate said. “We’ll say, ‘No. Let’s show you the lesson plan.’ Once they see how we’re doing it, they’re like, ‘That’s fine. We understand that.’”

Most of the time, objections to curriculum are based on misinformation, he said.

“There’s a lot of fearmongering,” he said.

Parents just want to know what’s going on in their schools, and they want to feel heard, Applegate said.

He suspects some of their frustration is that the structure of most school board meetings doesn’t allow for a back-and-forth discussion.

The state Board of Education, for example, has a policy of not responding to public speakers other than to thank them for their comment. As a result, Applegate said, “they feel the school board is not listening.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan state school board race features 8 candidates for 2 seats

2022-10-20T13:41:04+00:00

One is a public health expert. Two have taught college. Two work in real estate. Another is an organizational psychologist. One is an accountant. And all of them want to be members of Michigan’s State Board of Education.

Eight candidates are running for two seats on the board, whose most significant duty is hiring and firing the state superintendent. Most education policy decisions in Michigan are the responsibility of the Legislature and local school districts.

Seven of the candidates responded to a Chalkbeat questionnaire ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Their responses show stark differences in ideologies and priorities. They offered divergent opinions on how students should learn about racism, whether schools should limit access to controversial books, and whether the state should give tax breaks for vouchers that can be used for private school tuition.

Candidates also weighed in on state Superintendent Michael Rice’s performance. Responses ranged from high praise to a call for his resignation. Read more below in Chalkbeat’s voter guide.

The candidates include two Democrats, two Republicans, two Libertarians, one member of the Working Class Party, and one member of the U.S. Taxpayers Party.

The current board comprises two Republicans and five Democrats, including two whose eight-year terms are ending: incumbent Pamela Pugh and Casandra Ulbrich, the board’s president, who is not standing for re-election.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, is expected to soon appoint an eighth member to replace Democrat Jason Strayhorn, who resigned in July with 5½ years left in his term.

Biographical responses were edited for length and clarity.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan students making slow progress after pandemic disruptions

2022-10-17T18:53:24+00:00

Michigan students are making academic progress, but it’s not fast enough to fully make up for losses over the past two years.

Students who learned remotely in 2020-21 because of the pandemic continued to learn more slowly than their peers in 2021-22 even after they were back in classrooms. And the school districts where students improved the most last year were the ones that provided students with highly individualized instruction.

These are among the findings in a pair of reports released this morning by the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University. The results are important for understanding where education resources need to go in the aftermath of the pandemic, the EPIC researchers said.

“Everyone thought we’d continue to accelerate learning in 2021-22 and kids would be back on track,” said Katharine Strunk, director of EPIC. “We’re just not seeing that. They’re not close to being back to where they need to be achievement-wise.”

The findings aren’t unique to Michigan, Strunk said.

Neither were district administrators’ struggles to balance health concerns against academic needs as they decided whether to offer in-person instruction during months when COVID was spreading rapidly.

“I don’t know that our focus was any different than anybody else’s globally,” one district administrator told EPIC researchers. “For us, it was definitely safety, and really safety of our staff, our students, and our community members. … I think it’s safe to say nobody had ever felt that level of fear.”

The good news, Strunk said, is that researchers were able to identify strategies that make a difference. They interviewed school leaders and teachers in five districts where test scores grew at higher rates than other districts with similar demographics and modes of instruction during the pandemic. EPIC did not identify the districts studied.

One thing they had in common was individualized support for students, including after-school tutoring and individualized learning plans based on specific academic needs identified on diagnostic tests.

That held true whether students were learning online, in person, or a combination, according to EPIC’s research partners at the University of Pittsburgh and the research arm of NWEA, the nonprofit that developed the math and reading tests given twice a year to assess the academic growth of students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

The districts also set aside time during the school day for students working on the same learning standard to receive small-group instruction.

“These were districts that were able to continue the work of teaching and learning under very challenging circumstances,” said Ayesha K. Hashim, of NWEA.

Some districts created learning labs to address students’ specific learning deficits, researchers said. Others created spreadsheets to track student engagement so teachers could intervene when patterns emerged.

Teachers “worked in grade-level teams to know what students specifically needed and made sure every person working with that student was on the same page,” Strunk said. “They made sure every student received the instruction that particular student needed. That is a big lift for teachers to do, especially in the middle of a pandemic when everything is hectic and they’re switching modalities.”

They also focused on teaching core skills students would need to succeed in the next grade level.

“If you just try to jam two years of curriculum into one year, you can’t,” Strunk said. “It’s just not possible.”

Instead, she said, teachers in the five districts identified building-block skills and focused on those.

Among other characteristics the five districts had in common were readiness to navigate crises, two-way communication with families, and prioritization of social-emotional learning.

Although COVID-related school closures are in the past, the findings remain instructive, researchers said.

“The things we identified are helpful for student learning even if you aren’t in a crisis period,” Hashim said. “These are practices that work.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Tutoring and teacher retention top Whitmer’s education agenda as she seeks second term

2022-10-13T20:10:21+00:00

Tripling the number of school literacy coaches. Closing the school funding gap. Creating a college scholarship program for education majors.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer counts these among her accomplishments in education. But the incumbent Democrat has more she wants to do if she is reelected.

That includes checking things off her first-term to-do list that got derailed by the pandemic or the Republican-controlled Legislature. It also includes dealing with the effects of the pandemic, such as academic and mental-health setbacks from extended periods of online instruction, and teacher burnout that has led to shortages in districts across the state.

In many ways, Whitmer’s record has been defined by her response to the pandemic. In March 2020, within days of the first confirmed COVID case in the state, she ordered all K-12 public schools closed as a health precaution, and went on to exercise broad emergency powers until the courts and the Legislature reined her in.

The following school year, while other governors pushed for schools to reopen classrooms and get back to normal — some went so far as to ban districts from requiring face masks and threaten to withhold funding — Whitmer remained a prominent advocate of keeping COVID prevention steps in place.

That record has drawn attacks from Republican challenger Tudor Dixon, who has accused Whitmer of “robbing students of their education” by ordering schools closed in 2020 and letting local school officials decide whether and when to resume in-person instruction.

Some of those closures persisted well into 2021, dealing a blow to student learning and mental health.

Whitmer says that helping them on both fronts is a priority heading into 2023. And she has taken advantage of Michigan’s strong economic recovery and federal relief funds to spearhead — in tandem with Republican leaders in the Legislature — unprecedented investment in education and mental health resources for children.

“We’ve got to do everything for our kids to ensure that there are better outcomes for our kids academically,” she said.

More money in school aid budget

Whitmer, 51, was a longtime state legislator from East Lansing before she was elected governor in 2018. Her mother and grandmother were teachers. Her grandfather was superintendent of the Pontiac School District. Both she and her children attended Michigan public schools.

“That’s why the work I’ve done has been centered around public education — protecting it and making greater investment,” she said.

On her watch, and following negotiations with the GOP-controlled legislature, the state’s school aid budget has grown from $14.8 billion to $19 billion, with a big boost in the latest budget for special education, mental health services, and teacher retention programs.

Meanwhile, she stymied efforts by conservatives to steer public dollars toward private schools, vetoing a voucher-like program for reading scholarships.

Going forward, Whitmer said she wants to provide a tutor for every child and create individualized learning plans.

Yet Michigan under Whitmer was slower to propose a comprehensive tutoring plan than other states that had big academic losses from the pandemic. While many other states were investing federal COVID relief money in statewide tutoring programs, and Michigan voters identified tutoring as a top priority, Whitmer didn’t make it a key part of her initial plan for the federal money. Months later, she proposed a $280 million tutoring plan, but only $52 million made it into the state school aid budget.

Whitmer’s campaign didn’t explain why she didn’t embrace tutoring sooner.

Spokeswoman Maeve Coyle noted that Whitmer has made historic investments in education resources, including stronger individualized instruction and more reading coaches. Those coaches are specially trained to help classroom teachers improve reading methods. The $24 million Whitmer negotiated into the school aid budget was enough to increase the number of coaches from 92 to 279 across the state.

Whitmer also increased the state’s investment in school-based mental health services to help students recovering from trauma so they are ready to learn. She wants to do more next year if reelected.

Teacher retention is a priority

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses supporters at a campaign event outside the Trenton Cultural Center.

A second term would mean a second chance to persuade the Legislature to provide retention bonuses for teachers and to pilot a home-based version of the Great Start Readiness preschool program — two of her priorities that Republicans shot down in budget negotiations. Democrats are hoping to not only beat Dixon, but also strengthen Whitmer’s hand by winning control of the Legislature.

Whitmer has portrayed Dixon as an agent of Betsy DeVos, the Trump administration education secretary and longtime proponent of private-school vouchers and other initiatives that would steer taxpayer dollars to private schools to promote school choice.

DeVos — who helped bankroll a campaign for a ballot initiative to allow people to claim tax credits for contributions to scholarship accounts for private schools and education services — was a major financial backer of Dixon’s campaign. .

“She and Betsy DeVos are arm-in-arm, and this is DeVos’ agenda to starve public schools of resources, to divert them to for-profit charters or parochial schools,” Whitmer said in a recent interview. “This is a dangerous strategy for Michigan and it will leave a lot of kids behind.”

Education advocates project the plan could reduce tax revenue by as much as $500 million.

“That would be devastating, and that’s why I think that public education is very much on this ballot,” Whitmer said.

Supporters at a recent campaign rally in Trenton, downriver from Detroit, said they appreciate Whitmer’s focus on teacher recruitment and retention at a time of worsening staff shortages and declining interest in teacher preparation programs.

“She’s being very intentional about empowering teachers and getting them what they need,” said Velma Jean Overman, 67, of Inkster, who attended the rally with her 6-year-old granddaughter.

Whitmer’s four-year plan to offer teachers annual retention bonuses of up to $4,000 was another casualty of battles with the Legislature, but it will likely be back on the table if she is reelected.

“If we ask people to go into this critical work, they’ve got to be able to make a good living, and be treated with respect, and have the support to be successful,” Whitmer said.

She said she hopes that in November, voters will elect moderate senators and representatives who will be more receptive to retention bonuses and her other education initiatives.

“We can’t look at one another as the enemy,” she said. “We’ve got to be partners. When we’re successful in public education, it helps every child no matter what household they live in or what the politics of the community are.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Dixon focuses on parents’ rights in final weeks of gubernatorial campaign

2022-10-13T20:00:00+00:00

Tudor Dixon said she is trying to motivate the “silent Republicans” who quietly support her campaign for governor, but it’s the bold and boisterous who have been turning up at her campaign rallies.

Their shouts of “Amen!” and “That’s right!” punctuated her speech to a packed dining room last week at Marlena’s Bistro and Pizzeria in Holland, Michigan.

It was the fourth stop on her “Michigan is Open for Business” tour meant to highlight entrepreneurs who, like restaurant owner Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, were punished for failing to heed emergency closure orders as a public health precaution during the early months of the COVID pandemic.

But Dixon spent nearly a third of her 22-minute speech talking about education policy and the distrust of the public school system that she says sparked her campaign for governor.

Dixon, 45, of Norton Shores, left her family’s steel foundry five years ago to found the right-leaning Lumen Student News to counter what she has called an “anti-American vibe” in schools around the country. That effort led to her role as a conservative media commentator and, now, a candidate for governor.

“The beginning of me moving into the political world was seeing that we need to bring back American pride and make sure kids understand that we need to defend our freedoms,” Dixon said in an interview this week. “It’s about making sure our kids understand our government system, how it is the best form of government, and why.”

Dixon’s primary run was propelled by endorsements and financial contributions from the DeVos family: former Amway CEO and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and former Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The billionaire Grand Rapids couple has been a driving force behind initiatives around the country to steer public money to private schools.

Dixon was an early proponent of the latest DeVos-backed proposal to sidestep Michigan’s constitutional ban on using public money for private schools. The voucher-like plan would allow Michiganders to contribute to scholarship accounts that could be used for private school tuition or extra educational support such as tutoring. They would then receive an equivalent tax credit.

“The state should allow educational freedom that would allow parents to not be stuck and not be beholden to a broken system,” she said, noting that Michigan’s test scores are lower than other states and falling. “We need to start funding the students, not funding the system.”

Dixon focuses agenda on parents’ rights

Since securing the GOP nomination in August, Dixon has been talking less about school choice and more about other educational culture-war issues that have flared across the country.

She has backed conservative parents’ mission to restrict students’ access to books with sexual content. She has proposed a bill to prohibit transgender students from playing on girls’ sports teams, and another to bar teachers from talking about gender identity or sexual orientation with students under fourth grade. And she has called for state Superintendent Michael Rice’s resignation over a state training video for teachers dealing with LGBTQ students who may be suicidal.

In the video, which Rice later defended, a trainer tells teachers that they can talk to parents about a student’s suicidal thoughts without revealing that gender identity is a source of their distress if the student is not ready to share that information with family. MDE has said the training acknowledges that coming out to parents may expose some children to more harm.

But to Dixon, it all comes down to parents’ rights.

“Parents want to know exactly what’s happening in the classroom,” she told reporters after a recent campaign event. “When you see the Department of Ed has come out and said we’re going to keep secrets from parents, that’s where the distrust starts.”

Dixon’s four daughters no longer attend public schools. They enrolled in private school in fall 2020 because Dixon said she and her husband wanted them to be in classrooms, not learn remotely. By that time, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency executive order closing public schools was no longer in effect, but many local districts were choosing to stick with teaching remotely as a health precaution. Dixon said her children remain in private school now because of the quality of education, particularly around civics.

She wants public school students to have that kind of instruction, too. That’s why she wants to require an elementary civics curriculum that focuses on the U.S Constitution and the roles and responsibilities of government envisioned by America’s founding fathers.

Michigan law already requires civics classes at the high school level, but it also requires that instruction “shall begin not later than the opening of the eighth grade.” Dixon wants to ensure students receive that instruction in earlier grades.

She has said she wants to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory, a college-level framework that focuses on the enduring effects of systemic racism.

Critical race theory is not typically taught in K-12 schools. But Dixon’s opposition to it still resonates with supporters like Robin Mulder, 61, a grandmother of seven who attended Dixon’s rally at Marlena’s.

“They’re teaching these kids to hate one another,” Mulder said in the parking lot where she waited more than an hour for a glimpse of Dixon. She arrived too late to get inside the restaurant but caught a shortened version of Dixon’s stump speech outside.

Mulder supported Republican Garrett Soldano in the primary but now stands firmly behind Dixon.

“Anyone who is going to protect the rights of classroom children to learn … and protect the rights of parents to be involved in education” has her vote, Mulder said.

Dixon would subject curriculum to parental review

In an interview this week, Dixon said parents’ rights and student achievement are her top education priorities.

That’s why she wants to require teachers to post curricula, assignments, lesson plans, and books online for parents to review before the start of school each year. Many already do. A similar proposal was introduced in the Republican-led state House in February but has not moved through committee.

Dixon also wants to close loopholes in the state’s controversial read-by-grade-three law, which calls for students to be held back from fourth grade if they are more than a grade level behind in reading skills. The law provides for broad exemptions and gives superintendents enough leeway that hardly any students are actually held back. Dixon wants far fewer exceptions, so that children don’t advance to fourth grade unless they are competent readers.

Opponents of the law note that research shows retention has negative long-term effects on mental health, self esteem, and high school graduation rates. In one Harvard study, though, third-graders in Florida who were left back made significant short-term gains in reading and math and were better prepared for high school.

To resolve the state’s literacy problem and to help students recover from learning loss during the pandemic, Dixon proposes to provide 25 hours of tutoring to every student over the course of next school year, even though school districts already are having trouble finding enough tutors for existing programs.

Dixon said she would provide incentives to encourage retired teachers to return as tutors, but has not provided any details.

She also wants to provide merit pay to help retain high-quality classroom teachers.

“At the end of the day, we want more money flowing into teachers’ pocketbooks and classrooms, and less into buildings and bureaucracy,” she said.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

As mask battles fade, Michigan school boards face a new wave of culture war debates

2022-10-12T12:00:00+00:00

Two years ago, while COVID was raging through Michigan, so were the battles at local school board meetings. Across the state, volunteer board members who typically pored over budgets and contracts struggled to contend with a vocal public sharply divided over mask mandates and online learning.

Those particular battles have subsided, but the political passions they ignited haven’t. On the contrary, the groups that rallied community support around defending or fighting COVID health precautions are now gearing up to engage their local school boards on a broader range of contentious culture war issues, such as history curriculum, book bans and the rights of transgender students.

Just Monday, the Dearborn fire marshal shut down a school board meeting there after hundreds of protesters showed up to demonstrate against LGBTQ books. The meeting devolved into chaos and was adjourned before members got through the agenda that included approving contracts for classroom projectors, adult education services, high school security guards, and asbestos removal. The board had also expected to have approved 43 new hires, discussed cell phone policies, and voted on the superintendent’s annual goals. The board is scheduled to reconvene on Thursday at Fordson High School, which can accommodate a larger crowd.

With elections weeks away, some experts are worried that Michigan school boards could become paralyzed if they again become stages for a fractious national discourse driven by partisan or ideological politics.

Already, these contests are attracting a new, more activist wave of candidates pledging to govern school districts in the name of parents’ rights. They’ve found a champion in GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, a conservative TV commentator who has put cultural issues at the center of her education agenda. They’ve been met, in turn, by slates of activist candidates on the progressive side.

Meanwhile, some board members are walking away from their positions or choosing not to run for reelection, saying they’re frustrated by political disputes diverting them from the job they thought they signed up for: helping children learn.

That job has become significantly more urgent. After two years of disruptions due to the pandemic, school boards must contend with falling test scores, student mental-health issues, teacher burnout and the task of allocating billions of dollars of relief money from the federal government to deal with those problems. But protracted gridlock over social issues could make it harder for them to address the urgent challenges facing Michigan’s 1.4 million public schoolchildren.

Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards, warns that an “arms race” between progressives and conservatives in school board elections would mean “nothing gets done.”

“When we have agenda-focused individuals, it does disrupt the progress of the school board, because they spend an inordinate amount of time” on issues unrelated to student achievement, Wotruba said. “While they’re doing that, it’s not a productive, high-functioning school board.”

PAC endorses candidates advocating ‘parental choice’

Where some see the potential for gridlock, others see a mark of democratic vitality in Michigan.

“These organizations are spontaneous grass-roots organizations that self-organize and push for a change, and that’s the beauty of American democracy,” said Jeff Shaeper, who is running for school board in the Troy School District with the support of the conservative Get Kids Back to School PAC. The PAC’s mission has grown from fighting school mask and vaccine mandates to opposing what it calls “the erosion of traditional curriculum” and “wokeness.” It’s now helping dozens of candidates across Michigan run for school board on a platform of “parental choice.”

Schaeper, who questions the well-established efficacy of the COVID vaccine in reducing the severity of illness, said he would “break the groupthink” on the Troy school board while supporting civil discourse.

“I can disagree, but I can keep it cordial,” he said. “You know, I don’t call them scum-sucking bottom feeders, which I’ve been called. I keep calm.”

Matthew Wilk, who runs the Get Kids Back to School PAC, is a former Northville school board member and a veteran of the fiery debates over COVID that dominated board discussions in the first year of the pandemic. After he wrote in a social media post that COVID “only exists in falsified statistics,” the school board voted to remove him as president.

Wilk said his PAC is not donating money to candidates, but he has shown candidates how to file paperwork and helped them craft their messages.

Wilk says he wants his candidates to move away from political hot-button issues and push districts to improve student achievement.

“Now that we’ve seen the erosion of test scores, I’d like to see the discussion turn almost exclusively to that topic,” he said.

Yet platforms published by some of the candidates his PAC endorsed show that they are largely focused on ideological education battles over mask mandates and critical race theory, which is generally not even part of K-12 education. Dixon, whose campaign has focused on these issues, spoke at an event hosted by the PAC last month.

Wilk’s group alienated even some candidates who were pushing for reopening school buildings amid the pandemic. After Wilk endorsed four candidates for the Bloomfield Hills school board, three of them asked to have their names removed from the PAC’s website.

“I interpreted certain things (on the PAC website) as being part of one party,” said Paul Kolin, a Bloomfield Hills school board member who is running for reelection. Kolin, who pushed for in-person instruction in his district, was also removed as president of the board last year after he called the police about a list of anti-mask parents that was circulating among district families.

“School boards have become very political, but hopefully when we come out of (the pandemic), this is a nonpartisan position.”

Pandemic focused spotlight on school boards

Traditionally, school board candidates are drawn from PTOs and athletic booster clubs, said Michael Montgomery, a political scientist and education consultant who lectures at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. They usually bring positive and pragmatic agendas to their board service, he said.

“The growing importance of culture war issues to America’s right, however, has brought out large numbers of a different kind of parent activist across the entire country – people who are against this or that and will take every opportunity, every public comment period, every local election, to push their agenda,” Montgomery said.

Bree Moeggenberg, a local education activist in Isabella County, now runs the local branch of Moms for Liberty, a self-described parents’ rights group that started in Florida last year and since has spread quickly throughout the country.

Such groups grew in response to school board decisions during the pandemic — about online learning, mask requirements, vaccines and other health precautions — that suddenly became extremely disruptive for parents. At the same time, online classrooms gave many families an unusually intimate look at their children’s learning process.

As attention to board meetings increased, so did acrimony. In some cases, the divisiveness led to confrontations, threats, lawsuits, and even physical assaults. It also led to school board resignations in Grand Haven, Rice Lake, and elsewhere in Michigan and across the country.

Moeggenberg was a force behind an effort last year to recall Mount Pleasant school board members who had supported masks and vaccines as a precaution against the spread of COVID, and teaching children about the effects of systemic racism.

The recall effort was unsuccessful, but one of the targeted members later resigned. Twelve people now are vying for that seat. Because of the timing of the vacancy it will be filled by board appointment rather than general election.

Six other candidates are running in November for two full-term seats on the board.

The Michigan Secretary of State does not track numbers of candidates or vacancies in school board races, but both appear to have ticked up in some pockets across Michigan, particularly Republican leaning districts.

In Lowell Area Schools in Kent County, for example, eight candidates are running for three seats. Last election cycle, five people ran for four seats.

Ten candidates are running for three seats for full six-year terms on the Huron Valley Board of Education in Oakland County. Another two candidates are running to fill an unexpired vacancy. In 2020, a more typical school board election year, six candidates ran for five seats.

Meanwhile, frustrated board members in some districts are finishing out their terms but choosing not to run for reelection.

“I was disillusioned by how much time my school board service was spent not talking about student achievement,” said one board member from Oakland County who is stepping down when her term ends in December. She asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak with the media about her board service as required by the board’s policies.

“Every minute we’re spending responding to angry constituent emails about masks is a minute we’re not spending on students’ academic and emotional well-being,” she said.

State Rep. Darrin Camilleri, the ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee who is now running for state Senate, decries the political climate that focused vitriol on school board members. “Think about the example that our students are seeing from adults who are creating chaos at their local school district,” he said.

Conservatives say they’re focused on education

That characterization is unfair to parents who attended board meetings to express concerns — in a civil way — about district mask policies, said state Sen. Jim Runestad, a Republican on the Education Committee who is running for reelection. He said conservative parents have every right to raise concerns about schools’ instruction on social issues, and he applauded those who are running for office after feeling that their perspectives weren’t being taken into account.

“It’s a battle between the ‘educrats’ who say we need more social engineering and the parents who say, ‘No, let us do that, you need to focus on the basics of education to make sure that kids are learning the arithmetic and reading that they need to know,’” he said.

Moeggenberg and other members of her Moms for Liberty chapter have been knocking on doors and distributing yard signs to support conservatives in Isabella County school board races.

Candidates she’s talked to are motivated by the sense that schools are leaving parents out of important decisions about their children’s education and exposing students to controversial ideologies.

“So many people are passionate about what’s taking place,” Moeggenberg said. “It’s about making sure that before topics are discussed about sexuality, gender, and critical race theory, that we’re made aware. I would like to be alerted so I can discuss that with my child and help them walk through that.”

Culture war issues resonate with voters because they make for great campaign talking points, said Ronald Rapoport, a political scientist and professor emeritus at the College of William and Mary. The real policy work of school board members is more complicated to communicate, so it’s harder to get voters interested in them, he said.

“One is the easy issue of, ‘I don’t want Drag Queen Story Hour,’” because it’s easy to imagine even if it isn’t actually occurring, said Rapoport. “If you want to solve the problems of school absenteeism and teachers leaving, that’s much harder.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Yom Kippur conflicts with student count day in Michigan schools

2022-09-26T12:00:00+00:00

Superintendents will be counting Michigan students Oct. 5, but many children will be out of school observing a major Jewish holiday.

It’s a crucial day for Michigan school districts trying to maximize state funding, but this year it coincides with Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year when the observant fast, pray, and abstain from work and school.

By law, state education funding to Michigan public schools is based largely on student attendance on the first Wednesday of October. At stake is at least $9,150 per student, the base funding provided for in the state school aid budget.

Districts with large Jewish populations including West Bloomfield and Walled Lake close on Yom Kippur. State law allows those districts to apply for waivers, and the Michigan Department of Education has granted five of them, allowing those districts to use Thursday Oct. 6 as count day instead.

But it’s more complicated for schools that are in session that day but have students who observe Yom Kippur.

“There is no provision in current state law that permits the state superintendent to provide a waiver for a local school district that is in session on count day,” state Assistant Superintendent Kyle Guerrant wrote last week in a memo to superintendents.

Those districts can count missing students if their absences are excused and if they return to school within 30 days and attend all scheduled classes. Absences for religious observances are considered excused.

That’s helpful but it isn’t fair, said Jeanice Swift, superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools, which will be in session on Yom Kippur. She wants the same flexibility as districts that aren’t in session – to move count day to a date that isn’t a religious holiday.

Having a high-stakes school day on a religious holiday conflicts with her district’s core value of respecting different faiths, Swift said.

More than a decade ago, the district convened a group of community faith leaders to create a calendar of religious holidays and to rank the observances by significance. They designated Yom Kippur a three-star holiday, the highest category. The district prohibits major exams, reviews for major exams, standardized tests, sports and arts tryouts, and major events like proms on three-star days. Other three-star holidays are Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Christmas, Epiphany, Passover, Holy Friday, Palm Sunday, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha.

“It’s a model that has been emulated across the country because it really is a community coming together to observe and respect each others’ holiest days,” Swift said. “It’s about providing sensitivity to sacred days across the most practiced religions in our community.”

Guerrant said he understands that argument, but state law doesn’t allow waivers for districts that remain in session on the holiday.

“This is a very important day to the Jewish community and having this overlap with count day feels disrespectful,” Guerrant said in a telephone interview. “We understand and appreciate those concerns but we’re in a bind in the sense that we don’t have the ability to provide a waiver because of the way the law is structured right now.”

Swift said she has spoken with lawmakers about amending the law but legislation has not yet been introduced.

For now, MDE will work with districts to ensure every student is counted, Guerrant said.

“We want to make sure a district is not penalized financially,” he said. “We want to make sure they don’t miss a student.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

LGBT training video for Michigan teachers rankles Republicans

2022-09-20T22:40:32+00:00

Bryce was 14 when he came out to his father. He was 12 when he came out to his mother. But he was just 10 when he came out in elementary school.

“In school, being trans is very awful,” said Bryce, now 19. “It is horrible.”

But for him, he said, it would have been worse at home.

When he finally did come out, he said, his parents ridiculed him. His father refused to call him “son,” he said, and his stepmother locked him outside in a rage.

“They were very aggressive and immature and emotionally abusive,” said Bryce, who lives in a rural area in the Lower Peninsula. He asked Chalkbeat to withhold his last name and town out of fear for his safety.

Bryce said being able to be himself at school saved him. He would bind his chest with an Ace bandage every morning in the middle school locker room to hide the shape of his body beneath a loose hoodie.

“I don’t think I’d even be alive now, to be honest,” he said. “I’m very lucky to be here today.”

Now he worries about other trans schoolchildren in light of a controversy that erupted last week over teacher training around the care of LGBTQ+ students. The training, from the Michigan Department of Education, exposed a gap between teachers’ obligation to inform parents about potential mental health issues and their responsibility to shield children from potential harm.

The controversy emerged last Wednesday after conservative activist Christopher Rufo tweeted a 43-second video clip excerpted from a nine-hour professional development series offered by the MDE.

In the clip, which was later criticized by both Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her Republican opponent, Tudor Dixon, a trainer suggests that teachers can talk with parents about a student expressing suicidal thoughts, without having to reveal that gender identity or sexual orientation is a cause of their distress.

Rufo tweeted that the clip proves MDE instructed teachers how to “facilitate” transgender students’ transitions and keep their chosen names and pronouns “secret from parents, even if the child is suicidal.” (Rufo is also one of the activists behind the conservative outcry over the teaching of critical race theory in America’s K-12 schools.)

The video, Rufo told Fox News last week, is an example of a way schools nationwide are radicalizing children, and he warned that parents need to be on guard.

MDE calls those accusations “patently false” and said the training helps schools create inclusive environments for vulnerable students who are more likely than classmates to be bullied and to attempt suicide. State superintendent Michael Rice has defended the training as important for teachers to better understand vulnerable students and help them feel safe and accepted in school.

Dixon, who has staked out conservative positions on a range of LGBTQ issues in schools, seized on the video Tuesday to call for Rice’s resignation. “Someone who has such contempt for parents as to instruct staff to hide information from them about their struggling child is unfit to oversee our education system,” she said at a press conference in Lansing, during which she criticized Whitmer for not taking a stronger stand.

Whitmer’s administration has itself raised concerns about the training. On Friday, the state’s chief operating officer, Tricia Foster, sent Rice a letter saying the training video goes outside the scope of his department’s responsibilities and asked him to ensure that trainings “comply with all applicable regulations, maintain department guidelines, and are reflective of best practices.”

Foster’s letter did not specify which regulations, guidelines, and practices she meant, and the governor’s office did not respond to questions.

The guidance in the video is consistent with MDE policy that has been in place since 2016, when the state board adopted guidance for schools around LGBTQ issues.

“The unique needs and concerns of each student should be addressed on a case-by-case basis, with a student-centered approach that includes the ongoing engagement” of the student, relevant school personnel, and parents “except in situations where educators are aware parental knowledge might threaten the student’s safety and/or welfare,” the policy says.

Whitmer campaign spokeswoman Maeve Coyle said that the governor “knows parents are crucial and should be involved in decisions about their children’s education” and that’s why she created the Michigan Parents Council to advise her.

Along with Dixon, the GOP-controlled Michigan Senate also condemned the professional development program in a resolution that passed on party lines. The resolution reaffirms “the fundamental right of parents to direct the education of their children.”

On Friday, the two Republicans on the eight-member state Board of Education also called for Rice’s resignation. Nikki Snyder of Dexter called the videos a “fundamental betrayal” and Tom McMillin of Oakland Township said they were evidence that “the assault on parents and parental rights has ramped up.”

Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University, said the training could have been better but that conservatives are making political hay out of almost nothing.

“There is a silliness to this outrage by the right,” he said. “Some of this is just about scaring parents into thinking they have no agency or oversight of their children. We don’t live in that world.”

But he said MDE made missteps when it provided this training directly to teachers instead of guiding school districts to set up their own policies, ideally calling for consultations with trained mental health providers.

“My experience with MDE is that professional development they develop isn’t entirely based on evidence or rigor,” he said.

Rufo did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

For Bryce, school was the safest place to come out as transgender, and he wouldn’t have done so if he thought his teachers were obligated to tell his parents he had started using a different name and pronouns at school.

He wants it to be safe for other young people to be themselves at school, too.

“There are reasons why people don’t come out to parents, whether it’s safety or their parents aren’t going to accept them,” Bryce said. “I lost my family. That’s why I waited so long.”

He said he understands the view among conservatives like Rufo and Dixon that parents should direct their children’s education and that they need information to do that.

“We aren’t trying to silence the voices of our parents,” he said. “We just want to be in a safe and loving environment while we learn and grow as human beings.”

Siblings Cloud and Seassun Rosenfeld, who have a supportive family, said they didn’t have those kinds of worries for themselves when they came out — but they have friends who are frightened to tell parents they are struggling with gender identity issues.

“If there’s a policy that teachers have to or should tell parents, then kids who live in fear of their parents knowing wouldn’t tell anyone,” said Cloud, a seventh-grader in Ann Arbor who identifies as gender queer.

Cloud put their concerns bluntly: “If a teacher is obligated to tell that a child’s suicidal thoughts are around gender issues, that could result in the child actually committing suicide.”

Their father, Dave Rosenfeld, shares the concern.

“Not all LGBT kids, trans kids, get the support they need at home. That makes it even more important that they get the support they need at school,” he said. “LGBT kids who are not supported, who do not get the support they need, are at a massive risk of bad outcomes” such as running away, homelessness, drug addiction, suicide, and dropping out of school.

As a father, he understands the need for parents to be informed, but he said schools’ first obligation is to protect children from harm.

It’s a tough line for educators to walk, he acknowledged.

“Schools should work together with parents to educate the child, but if there’s any potential danger to the child, you have to respect the child’s choices,” he said. “Have some faith in the competence of children to know if it’s something they’re ready for their parents to know about.”

The uproar over the training videos demonstrates the need for more training around LGBT issues, not less, he said.

“The backlash against that type of professional development is born out of religious fanaticism,” he said. “I find it disgusting, because what they are advocating for … will really cause harm to kids who haven’t done anything wrong at all. All they want to do is get an education like all the other kids.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

New report spotlights unique needs of rural schools in Michigan

2022-09-19T20:31:46+00:00

Tom McKee was an 11th grader in rural Michigan when a “grow your own” teacher training program sold him on a career in education.

Even so, McKee might have not imagined that he would one day go on to work as a superintendent, athletic director, and bus driver in rural Michigan — much less that he would hold those jobs simultaneously, as he did in his former job at Whitefish Township Community Schools.

McKee, now superintendent of Rudyard Area Schools in the Upper Peninsula, says he loves rural education for the tight-knit schools and the chance to make an impact on kids in his own community. But he says districts like his face challenges that haven’t been taken seriously enough by the state.

“Wearing those multiple hats is not appropriate,” he said. “But we do that in our rural communities because we have to to survive.”

Dozens of rural superintendents echoed that sentiment in recent years in interviews with researchers at Michigan State University. Rural schools face a unique set of challenges linked to their geography, district leaders told the authors of a new report, titled “Educational Opportunities and Community Development in Rural Michigan: A Roadmap for State Policy.”

The research team studied districts that the National Center for Education Statistics defines as “rural” or “town.” These districts cover most of Michigan’s land area, but they are sparsely populated: There are 8 students per square mile in the average rural district, compared with 137 per square mile in nonrural districts.

Large, sparsely populated districts make for long, expensive bus routes. Attracting teachers to isolated locales can be difficult. Access to medical services, mental health providers, and high-speed internet can be hard to come by.

Meeting those challenges come with a price tag. But Michigan spends only a small amount to specifically support isolated rural schools through a $9 million program that the report calls “a very low, poorly calibrated, and inadequate recognition of the cost disadvantages experienced by rural schools.”

“There’s nothing approximating a rural policy agenda in this state, and that’s going to have to change,” said lead researcher David Arsen, professor of education policy and K-12 administration. “The whole policy debate has been heavily urban focused,” he added.

State officials tout the latest education budget, which included funding increases for all schools and specific boosts for student mental health and for isolated districts. A federal infrastructure bill passed in 2021 will send at least $100 million to Michigan to connect 398,000 residents to the internet, about a quarter of those estimated to be without a connection.

The new state budget includes funding to help school districts consolidate, which some say would help reduce costs for small, rural districts in particular. Some communities view school consolidations as a threat to local identity.

Despite the new investments, many superintendents said they need more funds in particular for transportation, especially given the current price of fuel, which is down from its peak in June, but well above last year’s prices.

Rural districts spend on average $200 more per pupil on transportation than nonrural districts, and the 25 rural districts with the highest transportation spending averaged $2,170 per pupil, or nearly a quarter of their base funding.

Rural districts in Michigan are generally represented by Republican lawmakers, many of whom have fought for additional funding for their schools. Still, the Michigan GOP, which has controlled the legislature for a decade, has largely focused its education agenda on school choice policies that mostly affect urban areas.

“I think school choice is good,” Arsen said. “It’s not particularly effective in areas where you have a low density of schools like rural Michigan.”

Steve Yoder, the GOP chairman for Michigan’s first congressional district, which covers the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula, said his party ought to put more emphasis on supporting rural education.

“Typically a lot of Republicans like to be on the conservative side and be fiscally responsible, but in a lot of these underserved communities, Republicans need to get the message out that we are here to put money into those communities to recruit teachers and get those grades up,” he said. “That’s something that we need to work on.”

Growing up in several school districts in rural Maine, Jessica Drescher, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University who studies rural educational opportunity, saw firsthand the constraints facing isolated districts.

In a national study of rural districts, Drescher found that rural students overall performed slightly below their nonrural counterparts on standardized tests. But she found that the differences were much more stark when she made comparisons within racial groups: Rural white students fared significantly worse than nonrural white students, and so on within most racial categories.

Rural students experience poverty at similar rates to urban students in Michigan, putting them at a significant disadvantage compared with their suburban peers. Poverty is correlated with various negative academic outcomes.

Policymakers have to look more narrowly at the needs of rural areas if they want to make a difference for students there, the report argues.

Allen Pratt, executive director of the National Rural Education Association, agrees.

“You don’t want a cookie cutter that’s designed for Brooklyn when you work in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” he said.

Arsen and his team of four researchers spent four years interviewing 25 rural superintendents. Their districts cover 88% of Michigan’s total land area but enroll fewer than a third of the state’s students. Their schools are smaller, their staffs are harder to recruit, and their students are more spread out. While some rural districts share resources through countywide partnerships, many superintendents told researchers that they struggle to offer specialized programs, such as AP courses, because of the high cost of running a classroom with only a handful of students.

Despite their low enrollments, rural schools are inextricably linked to their communities, the report found. They are key drivers of local economies and often serve as central gathering places and sometimes even locations for funeral services, according to the report.

“If the power went out, we had our school open, because we had a generator, and people came and slept,” McKee said of his former district in Whitefish Township, which enrolls 53 students.

His current employer, Rudyard Area Schools, is larger, with roughly 650 students, and is a critical resource for the surrounding community. The district hosts dental clinics and is one of only a few districts in the Upper Peninsula with a school-based health center, which offers routine checkups and mental health care.

McKee often finds himself doing double-duty because attracting and retaining staff is so difficult. The district’s average teacher salary is $41,000, in the bottom third of the state. Paying teachers more is hard, he said, given the district’s transportation spending of roughly $1,000 per pupil, which is in the top 3% statewide. And it’s tough to persuade prospective employees to move to a remote area. McKee says more than two-thirds of his employees graduated from Rudyard or a district nearby.

Arsen said lawmakers can help by prioritizing equity, efficiency, and local control when making policy decisions.

Among the report’s recommendations to the Legislature are to:

Pay for a study of the costs of isolated education, then cover those costs.
Encourage cooperation among rural communities to pool resources needed to bring broadband to the region and make it more affordable and accessible to rural residents.
Enact place-based education policies that specifically address the needs of rural communities.
Ensure education policies are integrated with broader community development strategies.

“These rural schools are the heart of communities,” he said. “They are places where people really care for the kids. We were impressed by that, but we were also impressed that it’s tough, and they need additional help to serve the kids well. … With changes in policy that are within reach, we could make a lot of progress.”

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan school board hears prayers and explicit passages as book wars flare

2022-09-16T18:27:05+00:00

Part prayer service, part sexually explicit read-aloud.

That’s what Michigan Board of Education meetings sound like lately as they’ve become a battlefield for the latest culture war issue: restricting student access to books with sexual content.

Parents have been bringing their concerns to the board during public comment sessions that sometimes last more than two hours. Their pleas are passionate, but they’re also misplaced.

The state Board of Education has no jurisdiction over local school libraries and no power to legislate. That hasn’t stopped parents and conservative activists from queuing up online and in person to have their say at the board’s monthly meetings in Lansing.

“Local superintendents and local school boards look up to the state board to see what their recommendations are, so if the state Board of Education can just affirm what we feel,” that would be helpful, said Bree Moeggenberg, a mother of three and chair of the Isabella County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative nonprofit that has fought school mask mandates and lessons about LGBT rights and critical race theory.

Activists also have been taking their concerns to local school boards, where they’ve met some success, and to public libraries, seeking to defund them over objections to materials in their collections. Just this week, Dearborn Public Schools responded to parent complaints by removing seven library books that depict homosexuality, abuse, and rape.

Advocates for free expression worry that complaints about sexually explicit material might be just the start for conservatives who may ultimately try to restrict access to other kinds of content that they deem objectionable.

Book banning has a long history. In the 17th century, Puritans were burning copies of William Pynchon’s “The Meritorious Price of our Redemption.” Classics like “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Catcher in the Rye” often appear on banned-book lists because of racial slurs, foul language, violence, and references to drug use.

But banning activity has surged in recent months amid a growing conservative movement to control students’ exposure to lessons about racism, sexism, sexual orientation, and other sensitive topics in public schools. Data collected by PEN America, a group that advocates for free expression in literature, show that school districts across the country banned 1,145 books just between July 2021 and April 2022 — numbers not seen in decades.

In Michigan, growing numbers of parents and activists are showing up to state Board of Education meetings to advocate for stricter regulation of books. Some pray before their testimony. Others warn board members they will go to hell for not working to ban what they see as objectionable books from school libraries. Many dive right in, reading as quickly as they can from the most sexually explicit passages they’ve found in school library books before their three minutes run out and state board Executive Marilyn Schneider cuts them off.

“Dear Lord, I come to you this afternoon to ask you to protect these parents that speak today and are trying to protect their children against the devil that is hard at work,” one caller from Wayne County began on Tuesday. Twelve seconds later the caller, who identified herself only as Billie from Wayne County, read aloud an explicit passage about oral sex from “On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God,” which Publishers Weekly classifies as a children’s book.

Board members listened to her and more than 30 other speakers Tuesday but did not respond. They typically refrain from responding during public comment sessions.

Lately, most public comment sessions have been dominated by callers like Billie, but at Tuesday’s meeting, several people offered an alternative perspective. They said many of the books being challenged help readers see themselves in stories so they feel less alone in the world.

“They contain important messages,” Kat Draeger of Fenton, a fifth-year student at Michigan State University, testified on Tuesday. “They help people look at the world through a different lens.”

Reading about bullying, sexuality, and suicide, for example, can help students cope with circumstances they may find themselves in, she said.

She mentioned “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe — both among the books conservative activists are targeting because of their depictions of sexual assault and gender dysphoria.

“Young people need to learn social skills to understand the world around them and how they fit into it,” Draeger said. “Developing good citizens and healthy people is the job of both Michigan educators and this board. Taking away the ability of young people to better understand the world and themselves should not be this board’s right or responsibility.”

Parents like Moeggenberg say it’s up to parents, not schools, to decide what books are appropriate for their children.

“Some of these books might benefit some students,” she said in a telephone interview Thursday. “Who am I to say what works for somebody else? I would be a hypocrite if I said you had to do what I want and not what works for you.”

Moeggenberg said she would be satisfied if schools were required to notify parents before their children try to access books with sexually explicit content.

Other activists want to keep objectionable books out of schools entirely, though they still bristle at the word “ban.”

“No one is asking for books to be banned,” Jayme McElvany of Monroe told board members at Tuesday’s meeting. “That’s simply a way for you to ignore the fact that you are pushing sexually explicit material on children,” she said before reading book excerpts about anal sex, rape, and incest.

Lisa Querijero, a parent in Ann Arbor, says she trusts a school’s trained librarians to decide what books are appropriate for students.

“I’m here to counter and call out the small vocal minority that are attempting to compromise the integrity of our public schools and our democracy,” Querijero testified in Lansing on Tuesday. “Singling out and censoring books and curriculum is detrimental to creating critical thinkers. It is detrimental to teacher morale and the morale of the state of our public schools in general.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

State board wants to know how Michigan charter schools spend money

2022-09-14T21:57:00+00:00

Michigan charter schools received $1.4 billion in state funding last year. How they spent most of it is a mystery, even to state officials overseeing the education of children who attend them.

The state Board of Education has been trying to find out, but its efforts have been stymied.

Eighty-one percent of Michigan’s 295 charter schools have contracts with private education management companies that are not subject to public disclosure laws. That allows them to skirt disclosure laws by, for example, saying they don’t have payroll records because they don’t employ teachers directly, but rather through a contractor.

MDE filed Freedom of Information Act requests for financial information from 166 charter schools in Genesee, Kent, Oakland, Saginaw, and Wayne counties. Twelve did not respond or declined to provide information even after three requests for information.

Of those responding, 92% contract with private educational management companies, which then provide or subcontract to other vendors. Because they are private companies, the individual expenditures and contracts are considered proprietary and not subject to public disclosure.

Board member Ellen Cogen Lipton, a Democrat, said the rules allow “a magical conversion of taxpayer dollars to be swept into private hands.” Democrats in the Legislature are pushing for stricter disclosure requirements.

Dan Quisenberry, president of the charter school advocacy group Michigan Association of Public School Academies, says charter school operators provide everything the law requires including budgets, audits, staff rosters, annual reports, board minutes, parent satisfaction survey results, contracts, and more.

State Board of Education members say those documents include so few details that it’s often impossible to know how much tax money is going toward education expenses and how much companies keep as profit.

That’s a problem, said board President Casandra Ulbrich.

“All of these schools that we’re talking about here are public schools. Every one of them is using our tax dollars,” said Ulbrich, a Democrat.

The management agreements and budget often aggregate all of those costs into a single line item for purchased services. Those agreements are known as sweep contracts, because they sweep all costs together.

“What you get is a lump sum,” state Superintendent Michael Rice said at a state board meeting on Tuesday. “What the management company does with that lump is what it thinks it needs to do to provide that range of services. We don’t have access to the individual line items.”

Quisenberry said the structure of management agreements is up to the board of each charter school academy.

Sweep contracts are one arrangement, he said. “Boards can and do make changes in those contracts based on their determination of what’s best for the students in their care.”

And, Quisenberry said, they are doing it well.

Board member Tom McMillan said there’s no reason to think charter schools aren’t using the money wisely.

“If they’re able to contract out for some of their administrative staff in order to put more in the classroom for teaching … it seems to me that would be a good thing,” said McMillan, a Republican. “You couldn’t get to find out how much that company is paying its administrators. Nevertheless, the end result might be that the kids are getting better instruction.”

Most charter school boards, though, were unable to provide information MDE requested, including copies of leases and contracts for food service, custodial service, and lawn and grounds service.

“One of them responded that ‘We aren’t providing this to you because we’re not privy to that contract. We don’t hold that contract,’” Alisande Shrewsbury, a special assistant to the superintendent, told board members on Tuesday. “That’s a legal denial of the FOIA, because they don’t hold the contract.” Rather, the private management companies hold them.

Achieve Charter Academy, for example, provided copies of its management agreement with National Heritage Academies, and its lease — just over $1 million a year for a building also owned by National Heritage Academies. But the school denied the board’s request for food service, custodial, and lawn service contracts. National Heritage is the largest charter school operator in Michigan and one of the largest in the country.

“The academy contracts for the above services through a third-party management company by way of an education management agreement and, thus, the academy is not a party to the service contracts,” National Heritage FOIA officer Shane Wilson wrote in response to the information request.

Other charter schools responded similarly.

The lack of information is concerning, said Gary Miron, a professor at Western Michigan University who has been studying the charter school industry for 25 years. It makes it impossible for the public to know how much taxpayer money is being spent on students and how much is going to private management companies.

“You can get a vague general idea of the budget, but we don’t know if that corresponds with reality, because we don’t see the details,” Miron said in a telephone interview.

State Board of Education members are powerless to change the rules regarding disclosure requirements for private companies. That’s why Ulbrich intends to turn to the Legislature for help.

“The next thing to do is a little bit of a deeper dive into the responses we received and come up with some legislative recommendations,” she said.

Some proposals already are in the pipeline. In the spring, Democrats from both chambers introduced the School Freedom, Accountability, and Transparency Act to require more transparency. Their legislation would subject all educational management organizations to the state Freedom of Information Act, which would require disclosure of most documents related to the operation of public institutions and expenditures of tax dollars.

The proposed law would require audits of charter schools, guard against conflicts of interest, and create a process to suspend charter school authorizers that don’t provide proper oversight.

The bills stand little chance of passing this legislative session while both the state House and Senate are under control of Republicans, who largely support looser charter school regulation. There’s a chance that Democrats could regain control of one or both chambers in the November election, and that could make a difference, Miron said.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

End call: Proposed law could prohibit student cellphone use in school

2022-09-12T13:00:00+00:00

Freshman Jude Mys listens to music in the hallways to clear his head between classes at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor.

Junior Jeffrey James texts throughout the day to check in with his girlfriend, senior Mahli Madrid, and confirm after-school plans.

Senior Aniya Kidd uses her phone during the school day to keep track of assignments her teachers post online.

None of that would be permitted under a Michigan House bill that would require school districts to prohibit the use of personal cellular devices during the school day.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Gary Eisen, a Republican from St. Clair Township, reflects growing concern among Michigan lawmakers and educators about digital distractions in school. As they confront lingering academic and mental-health crises, some districts have cracked down on cellphone use at school, while others have issued stern warnings to parents about the negative effects social media can have on student learning and socialization.

Those who support restrictions on cellphones and social media say stricter rules are likely to help students get back on track after the pandemic pushed many into distraction-ridden online classrooms.

But the bill raises concerns for parents like Symone Wilkes who want their children to be able to reach them in case of emergency.

“You’ve got to think about what’s going on in the world today,” said Wilkes, who has a kindergartener at MacDowell Preparatory Academy in Detroit and a niece at River Rouge High School whom she helps take care of. “There might be another mass shooting. How is a kid going to be able to call the police? They have to wait until the shooting stops to go to the principal’s office to make the call?”

Students say they rely on their phones for day-to-day tasks such as arranging rides home, texting parents, communicating with teachers, and checking online assignments. Some even take notes on mental health triggers that they later share with a therapist, one Pioneer student said.

They also admit to using phones to play games and scroll through social media when they don’t feel like paying attention in class.

“Sometimes it is a distraction, like when you’re just bored so you’re on it,” said Madrid, 16.

Several Pioneer students waiting at a city bus stop after school — most with phones in hand — said they understood banning phones during class time, but not during free time between periods or at lunch.

Those rules should be up to teachers and principals, not state lawmakers, they said.

“For certain students, phones could be a distraction, and if it becomes an issue, that’s between the teacher and that class,” said Kidd, 17.

Jametta Lilly, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, said she trusts district leaders and charter school operators to put the right rules in place for the communities they serve.

“I’m comfortable with the state requiring school districts to come up with a policy, but I’m uncomfortable with an automatic, flat prohibition,” said Lilly, whose group advocates for quality education for Detroit children.

The two-sentence bill, which is now before the House Education Committee, does not provide for any exceptions. Eisen, the bill sponsor, could not be reached for comment Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

Currently, cellphone policies are set by local school officials.

A new policy at MacDonald Middle School in East Lansing, for example, requires students to keep their cellphones off and stored during the school day. It also implores parents to keep their children off social networks such as Snapchat and Instagram, calling the sites a “scourge to their childhood, devastating their mental health, sense of safety, and self worth.”

When conflicts arise among students on social platforms, the policy says, school officials will ask parents to deal with the issue in most cases.

“Gone are the days where a child can escape a difficult situation after the school day,” John Atkinson, assistant principal at the school, said in an email. “Now, students endure unimaginable social or emotional distress because they cannot escape it. It’s not just the mean post or picture, it’s all of the ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ that are equally painful… . Can you imagine how painful that would be for a 12-year-old?”

Rylie McClean, a recent graduate of East Lansing High School, said she understands the thinking behind the policy. “My senior year of high school, I was harassed online and in school,” she said in a text message. “The threats got so intense and my mental health got so bad that I ended up missing school.”

But she added that she would struggle without access to her phone during the day, and that she ultimately views social media as a helpful way to meet new people and talk with her friends.

In Reeths-Puffer schools near Muskegon, students may use phones before and after school, at lunch, and during passing time between classes. They are not allowed during class time unless a teacher allows them for an educational purpose.

In the Forest Hills district near Grand Rapids, though, cellphone use is strictly prohibited during the school day.

In Saline Area Schools near Ann Arbor, students are prohibited from using cellphones during the school day unless they have been authorized to use them for a specific purpose.

Sarah Giddings, whose daughters attend Heritage Elementary and Saline Middle School, says that as a parent, she’s OK with that policy. But as an alternative high school teacher and adviser in another district, she isn’t so sure it would work.

Giddings texts with students daily during the school day at Washtenaw Alliance for Virtual Education, which customizes education plans and class schedules to meet the needs of students who aren’t well served in traditional high schools. Instruction is offered both in person and remotely.

Giddings said students feel safer with cellphones nearby, particularly after the shooting a year ago at Oxford High School in neighboring Oakland County.

“I think a lot of high school students are feeling really raw and want to be able to contact their parents in the middle of the day,” she said. “They want their phones nearby and accessible.”

More than 100 students called police from cellphones at Oxford High School on Nov. 30 as a 15-year-old gunman killed four students and wounded many more. Others called and texted loved ones from behind barricaded classroom doors. At least one recorded the chaos in a cellphone video that later went viral on social media.

Wilkes, the Detroit parent, said her 5-year-old son, Dyson, is too young for a cellphone, but he wears a wristwatch that can be used to make video calls. “If it’s an emergency, he knows how to press my picture and call me,” Wilkes said.

Eisen’s bill wouldn’t prevent students from carrying phones — just using them. But Giddings said a strict policy could contribute to students’ anxiety.

Still, she said, a few rules around cellphone use could be helpful.

“Are teenagers making the smartest decisions about cellphones? No they’re not,” she said. “They’re using it as a distraction device like adults do. The difference is they don’t have the self-control to say, ‘This is affecting my work. I need to put it down,’ like an adult would.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan’s ‘partnership’ school turnaround program eased pandemic’s impact, researchers say

2022-09-07T14:36:00+00:00

Michigan’s lowest performing schools struggled last school year, even as pandemic-related challenges such as quarantines lessened, but their problems might have been worse without the extra resources and support provided under a state turnaround program.

Those were among the findings of Michigan State University researchers studying the efficacy of the partnership model, the state program developed to help improve schools with the lowest test scores, attendance, and graduation rates.

In a report released Wednesday, researchers from MSU’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative found that the program may have mitigated some of the pandemic’s effects on student learning.

The report comes as the Michigan Department of Education prepares to designate another cohort of partnership schools that qualify for extra support based on a new round of standardized test results that showed widespread declines. Those declines mirrored student performance around the country.

“Because of the pandemic and remote learning, almost all the gains that many of our districts/schools had made were erased or almost erased,” the Michigan Department of Education wrote in its response to the report.

EPIC’s study highlights the disproportionate impact the COVID pandemic had on high-poverty areas and communities of color, where partnership schools are concentrated. Researchers hope policymakers use the data to target resources to schools and students who need them most.

MDE said it plans to intensify efforts to address student and teacher absenteeism and to help partnership districts attract and retain certified educators.

“One of the greatest challenges facing partnership districts is human capital,” MDE wrote.

Program assigns goals and resources to schools

Michigan launched the Partnership District Model in 2017 to help improve the state’s lowest performing schools and to meet requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, an Obama-era law that requires states to identify their lowest performing schools and provide comprehensive support to them.

Progress in partnership districts stalled during the pandemic and hasn’t yet recovered, EPIC found.

Yet, students in partnership schools performed comparably to — and in some cases better than — counterparts in demographically and academically similar districts that are not in the partnership program.

“If my child is enrolled in one of these schools, they’re getting extra support, and so I’d rather my child be in this school than one that barely missed the cutoff” for being designated a partnership school, said Katharine Strunk, director of EPIC.

Partnership districts are assigned liaisons who help them develop goals and access resources from the Michigan Department of Education and other agencies and stakeholders. They also receive a share of about $6 million a year in additional state funding — roughly $61,000 for each of the 978 current partnership schools.

Principals say they use that money to improve access to technology, hire more staff, and offer professional development, but told EPIC it hasn’t been enough.

But the ranks of partnership schools are likely to grow, based on recent standardized test results, Strunk says. That means each school’s share of the funding pool will decrease, unless more money is appropriated.

“These districts are the same districts that have been hit hardest by the pandemic, and what they’re going to need is more funding to support their strategies for improving student outcomes,” Strunk said.

How partnership schools addressed pandemic’s effects

Although tutoring is widely seen as an important strategy to address learning loss caused by the switch to online learning and other disruptions, principals of partnership schools told researchers it hasn’t been a priority in their districts.

That doesn’t surprise Strunk.

Successful tutoring programs are hard to implement, and they rely on being able to hire enough staff. Many districts already have trouble filling vacancies, she said. Enrollment in tutoring programs is another obstacle, Strunk said.

“Not just in Michigan but across the country, parents just did not opt in, especially for programs after school or during vacation time,” she said. “It might be because of transportation problems, or it might be because they think their kids have been through enough.”

Instead, partnership districts continued to use strategies already in place before the pandemic. New programs have largely prioritized students’ mental health and behavioral needs, which also grew during the pandemic.

Educators in partnership districts told EPIC researchers in surveys and interviews that their students continue to struggle with emotional challenges of the pandemic, which disproportionately affected their communities.

Sixty-two percent said they believed mental health was a major challenge for their students, and many pointed to inadequate resources to address them.

“We have a high population of students who have experienced trauma, but no one to help them with it, because the social worker is in a classroom substituting,” one teacher told researchers.

Attendance was another substantial challenge researchers identified in partnership districts. Educators told EPIC that student absenteeism was one of the biggest impediments to academic progress.

Updated report card expected in the fall

The state makes partnership designations based on school-level data, not district data. Districts that have at least one partnership school in them are considered partnership districts.

“The theory is that when a school is identified as really struggling, it often is reflective of district systems that have not supported the school,” Strunk said. “If a middle school is failing or struggling, there’s no way the high school and elementary school are doing just fine.”

The goal of the Partnership Model is to raise achievement, reduce dropout rates, and improve attendance and behavior.

Currently, there are 978 partnership schools in 26 partnership districts. Each of them has worked with the Department of Education on a set of goals that will qualify them to exit the program.

The department is expected to release a report in late fall announcing which have met their goals and which additional schools will enter the partnership model this year.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@gmail.com.

Michigan test scores down sharply from pre-pandemic

2022-09-01T21:59:42+00:00

Student scores on Michigan’s standardized test are sharply down from before the pandemic, underlining the severe academic toll of virtual learning and other COVID-related disruptions and traumas.

Last spring, 41.5% of third-graders statewide scored at least proficient in math on the exam, known as the M-STEP. That’s a decline of 5.2 percentage points from 2019, the last time the test was given before COVID-19 shuttered classrooms.

In English language arts, 41.6% of third-graders scored proficient or higher, a decline of 3.5 points from 2019.

With participation in the test returning to normal this spring, the results are among the strongest evidence available of the academic fallout from the pandemic.

“This year’s results indicate that Michigan students are still performing below pre-pandemic levels — with persistent and troubling opportunity gaps for our most underserved students,” Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, a nonprofit education advocacy group, said in a statement. She noted that Michigan has been “behind our peers across the nation for far too long, and long before the pandemic.”

The scores have high stakes for the lowest-scoring students and schools. About 6% of third-graders will be recommended for retention under Michigan’s Read by Grade Three law based on their English language arts skills, though fewer than half of students targeted for retention have been made to repeat third grade in years past.

The scores also play a major role in teacher evaluations and in the letter grades that the state gives to each school. The most academically troubled districts will be put under increased state scrutiny, known as a partnership agreement, that can lead to a takeover or closure if scores don’t improve.

The results also underscore research showing Michigan students learned less in virtual settings during the pandemic. Though many districts that rarely or never resorted to remote classes saw declines, districts that offered the most remote instruction saw some of the biggest drops in scores.

In districts with at least 50 third graders, 127 districts saw the percentage of students scoring proficient or above in English language arts fall by 10 percentage points or more compared with 2018-19. Of those, 22% — or 28 districts — were fully remote for four months or more during the 2020-21 school year, while 54% were fully remote for just one month or none. Of the 37 districts to record gains of 10 percentage points or more, just two were remote for four months, or 5%. Far more — 70%, or 26 districts — were remote just one month or not at all.

Scores are down in most grades and subject areas across the state. For example:

30% of high schoolers who took the SAT surpassed the benchmark college-readiness score in math, down from 36.3% in 2019.
28.4% of sixth graders scored proficient or better on the math M-STEP exam, down from 35.1% in 2019.
43.4% of fourth graders scored at least proficient on the English language arts test, down from 45.8% in 2019.

Amid growing concerns about students’ well-being, Michigan schools are spending billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief to address the academic and emotional impacts of the pandemic. Many educators say the toll would be much worse if not for that additional federal funding, which expires in 2024. This year, they’ll be further aided by a record state education budget that includes extra funding for low-income students and for teacher recruitment and retention.

Schools were required to give the M-STEP in 2020-21, but parents worried about COVID-19 were allowed to opt out. Many did so, and just 70% of students took the test compared with 95% this year, a figure in line with the historical average. Experts noted that comparing statewide results year-to-year doesn’t work when participation rates differ so widely.

Nationally, students are also suffering significant academic losses. The National Center for Education Statistics released nationwide results Thursday of reading and math scores on the NAEP, a test often referred to as the “the nation’s report card.” Reading scores dropped more than they have in over 30 years, and math scores dropped for the first time since the test first began in the early 1970s.

A call for new investments in proven policies

Students who skipped the test last year typically belonged to groups that faced the greatest challenges during the pandemic, including students who had spent the year learning online, students of color, students from low-income families and English language learners, state Superintendent Michael Rice said. The inclusion of those historically lower-scoring students this year may partly explain why statewide scores fell in most grade and content areas compared with last year.

Responding to the new test data, Rice said new investments are needed in evidence-based policies such as smaller class sizes, in-depth professional development, tutoring, and small-group instruction.

“Each of these things has a disproportionately greater benefit for those who need than for those who don’t,” he told Chalkbeat. “They have a disproportionately favorable impact on at-risk children than middle-class children.”

In the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Michigan’s largest, officials have set aside a portion of COVID dollars for small-group and one-on-one literacy tutoring for students several grades or more below reading level. The district’s scores remain well behind pre-pandemic levels, suggesting a long road ahead. Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti pointed to the various COVID-related disruptions of student learning during the 2021-22 school year as well as chronic absenteeism as significant factors in last spring’s test scores.

The trauma of the pandemic, combined with dark headlines about climate change and school shootings, offer one explanation for falling scores, said Elizabeth Moje, dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan.

“They’re looking around and going, ‘Gosh, the world is crumbling around us.’ There’s all this violence. How about school shootings? These are young people who are trying to make sense of their place in the world and asking ‘Where do I fit?’ and they’re being asked to learn abstract things that they don’t understand the purpose for learning. That in itself is stress-inducing.”

How to use the testing data

Testing experts cautioned against using the exam scores to draw conclusions about how schools performed during the pandemic given how much classroom time students missed.

“The word I would use is ‘grace,’” said Ed Roeber, assessment director for the Michigan Assessment Consortium, a nonpartisan education group. “There were a whole lot of people putting in 110% effort in getting kids taught.”

He said schools have the tools to accelerate student learning now that children are back at school. They can reduce class sizes, for example, or double check that every student is taught all the key concepts that show up on the test.

“Every child who’s tested can achieve proficiency,” he said. Schools can help them do so “not by practicing the test items but by looking at their instructional program and saying, ‘What kinds of skills do kids need to have?’”

At Westwood Community School District in Dearborn Heights, Superintendent Stiles Simmons said helping students recover includes both academic support and social-emotional support. His district is expanding a mentorship program it started last year for middle school students. He credits pandemic relief money for his being able to hire a districtwide social-emotional learning coordinator, who he said “has been a godsend.”

He said the M-STEP data can serve as a “baseline” and can be a “good exercise for maybe research purposes, but it doesn’t necessarily help us long term.“

“We need to really look at where we are now because that’s where our kids are,” he said.

In the Reeths-Puffer School District near Muskegon, 2021 scores dipped but have now returned to pre-pandemic levels for most grade levels for English language arts and in elementary grades for math. The district enrolls about 3,500 students, more than half of whom are considered economically disadvantaged by the state.

“I would say we’ve stayed relatively consistent through the pandemic,” Superintendent Steve Edwards said. “If you didn’t regress during the pandemic, I guess you can count that as a small win.”

He said he believes two factors contributed to that: the district’s decision to remain in-person for all of 2020-21, and its $500,000 investment in summer acceleration programming over the last two years. That funding came from federal COVID relief money that will run out in September 2024.

The pandemic funds provided “an immediate shot in the arm, but it could be detrimental to build systems and supports that people come to rely on, that then are no longer funded,” he said. “In the short term it’s great, but in the long term it makes me nervous.”

Brooke Brawley, director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment at Niles Community Schools, said the testing information is helpful in determining what extra supports students need. But she said it’s important to remember these scores are only one data point among many that inform teachers on students’ academic levels.

She said one area for growth would be looking at math scores and seeing how to use multi-tier systems to help students improve. A multi-tier system includes curriculum for all students and additional supports for students who need them.

Simmons, of Westwood, agreed. He said his district tends to focus more attention on benchmark tests that are administered three times a year, since they provide more real-time data of where students stand.

He expects to receive a comprehensive report from one of his employees Friday about how the district did. From there, he wants to analyze how the district compares with similar districts in size and demographics.

The district used benchmark scores last school year to determine who should receive high dosage tutoring. Simmons said students who regularly attended tutoring sessions had better grades and better benchmark test scores. He said the district is considering working with companies that have strong after school tutoring programs as well.

Frances Vicioso, a parent of a Kalamazoo Public Schools graduate, said the district’s results are very “concerning” but “absolutely what I expected.”

She wants more equitable school funding, more accessible information for parents about the school district’s budget, and more understanding from others about the limitations of standardized testing.

One-third of Kalamazoo Public Schools third grade students were proficient or higher in English language arts while 30.7% of third grade students were proficient or higher in math.

Kalamazoo’s third grade English language scores remained lower than the state average and had nearly the same size declines as the state from 2018-19 to 2021-22. In third grade math, however, the district’s proficiency rates fell nearly 7 percentage points, from 37.5% to 30.7%, compared with the 5 percentage point drop statewide (from 46.7% to 41.5%).

The district was fully remote for nine months during the 2020-2021 school year.

Vicioso, a former middle school teacher, said students’ achievement can be measured in other ways, including verbal reflections, class participation, and projects.

Vicioso is the co-director of Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Kalamazoo, an initiative that works to provide accurate historical narratives, build strong relationships and advocate for systemic change. She said she is concerned about many local students including students from low-income families and students of color..

“It tracks that the lack of services and lack of support would be reflected in these M-STEP scores,” she said.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Isabel Lohman covers education for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Reading skills gap grows in Michigan

2022-09-01T19:30:16+00:00

Researchers found alarming increases in the proportion of Michigan third graders reading significantly below grade level and widening gaps in performance between Black and white students, and between students from low-income families and peers from wealthier families.

The performance disparities provide more evidence of the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on at-risk children.

“This should be a clarion call to us,” said Katharine Strunk, director of the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University. “What are we doing to help these particular students?”

EPIC on Thursday released its annual data report on the number of students eligible for retention under a controversial Michigan law that says third graders can be held back if they score at least a year behind grade level on the reading portion of the Michigan Student Test of Education Progress, or M-STEP. The report is based on results of reading tests given this spring.

The results are important because they help policymakers and schools target resources. They’re also a gauge of the effects of the pandemic on young children during crucial years when most children learn to read. Some researchers say reading by third grade is “a make or break benchmark” correlated to later academic success.

Nearly 5,700 of last year’s third-graders scored low enough to be eligible for retention. That’s 5.8% of all third-graders, up from 4.8% the previous year. The Michigan Department of Education hasn’t yet collected data on how many of them are actually repeating third grade this year.

More than half would have been eligible for automatic exemptions based on, for example, their status as English learners or special education students, according to EPIC’s report. In the past, the vast majority of others were exempted too, because administrators and parents agreed that retention was not in the child’s best interest.

It rarely is, said Elizabeth Birr Moje, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education.

“Everything we know from research tells us that retention at a young age has negative consequences across the board,” including on dropout rates, future earning potential, and incarceration rates.

That’s one reason why the Reeths-Puffer School District near Muskegon promoted all third graders to fourth grade, even though 10 of them had reading scores that made them eligible for retention. Instead, those students will get extra help with reading this year, Superintendent Steve Edwards said.

“You’d struggle to find much evidence anywhere of the long-term benefit” of retention, he said.

Academics are more focused on what the M-STEP data reveal about learning disparities between demographic groups than on the retention component of the third-grade reading law.

“The hope with the retention law was not so much that we would actually be retaining children but that it would motivate people — whether families, or teachers, or school leaders — to do early intervention, to engage kids (in reading) very early,” Moje said.

The retention law also provides an accountability benchmark to let parents and community members know how well their schools are educating children in early literacy. And it helps schools focus resources on students who need the most help.

Advocacy groups like Education Trust-Midwest are concerned by the results.

“While it’s not surprising that so many children have fallen so far behind, we are now seeing the evidence of the impact of the pandemic, especially for underserved students,” said Executive Director Amber Arellano.

Michigan’s declines mirror results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress also released Thursday. NAEP scores show sharp declines across the country in math and reading during the pandemic. Among 9-year-olds who took the national test, reading scores dropped more sharply than they have in more than 30 years.

Remote learning and pandemic-related disruptions emerged as clear factors in student performance on the M-STEP.

Of Michigan third graders who spent all or most of second grade learning remotely, 10.6% were eligible for retention, twice the rate for those who learned in person all or most of their second-grade year.

In Reeths-Puffer schools, where students attended in person for all of 2020-21, 34% of students scored at or above the proficient level, down from 38% in the last two test cycles. It might have been worse if Reeths-Puffer schools had closed to in-person learning that year, as 16% of Michigan districts did for at least part of the year. Another 16% used hybrid models, teaching partly online and partly in classrooms.

“Most students learn best in a face-to-face environment,” said Edwards, the superintendent. “From a social-emotional and academic perspective, being face-to-face as much as we were at least mitigated what was a very difficult situation” during the pandemic.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that remote learning alone caused sinking scores, Strunk said.

Black students and those from low-income families, who historically underperform white and wealthier peers, were more likely to be in districts that used remote instruction during the pandemic.

Fifteen percent of Black third-graders scored low enough to be eligible for retention. That’s grown from 13% in 2020-21, and 10.9% in 2018-19, before the retention law took effect. Students were not tested in 2019-20 because of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the percentage of white third-graders eligible for retention grew from 2.3% in 2018-19 to 3.3% last school year.

“That’s a very large gap between Black students and everyone else, so we have to ask what’s happening there,” Strunk said.

The performance of students from low-income families is concerning, too, she said. Nine percent of third-graders from low-income families last year scored low enough to be eligible for retention, compared with 6.3% before the pandemic.

Among more affluent students, 2% were eligible for retention last school year, compared with 1.3% before the pandemic.

The state’s lowest performing schools also saw big declines in third-grade reading scores. Those buildings have been designated by the state as partnership schools based on factors including low graduation rates, attendance, and test scores. Those schools — including many in Detroit — have been in a turnaround program for the last three years and had shown progress before the pandemic.

A quarter of third-graders in partnership schools were eligible for retention based on 2022 scores, up from 22.3% last year, and 19.1% in 2018-19.

“Partnership districts have really been through it over the last couple of years,” Strunk said. “The communities in which partnership districts and schools exist faced the most dire economic and health consequences of the pandemic. We need to be working as hard as we can to support those communities and schools so they can help students recover from an unbelievably challenging time.”

Policymakers, administrators, and teachers need to target resources to districts and students struggling the most, Strunk said.

“I’d be doubling down on training our teachers to help them teach kids who may be very, very far behind grade level,” she said. “I don’t think we can assume they will catch up without targeted intervention and support.”

Schools in Michigan and across the country received federal COVID relief dollars that can be used, in part, to provide tutors to improve reading skills, but districts are having trouble finding enough tutors to meet their needs.

Arellano said those interventions should include specialized support for students with dyslexia. That’s an area the state Senate has begun to prioritize with legislation that advanced in May, although the state House hasn’t yet taken it up.

Schools seem to be working with parents to help struggling readers instead of holding them back from fourth grade, said Mike Testa, a member of the Michigan PTA Advocacy Committee and parent of four Livonia Public Schools students.

“Districts have done a good job working with parents to see what is actually best for that specific student,” he said. “They’re coming up with a course of action and a plan, not just putting a kid in fourth grade with no support but actually doing something to get that child caught up.”

That’s the kind of approach Moje advocates.

“Reading is a very complex endeavor” that requires an understanding of phonics, an ability to understand clues from syntax, an understanding of how sentences are put together, and a comprehension of meaning, she said.

“You have to assess where children are, why they’re there, and then intervene appropriately,” she said. “The sheer volume of children makes that difficult.”

She is hopeful that schools will be able to help struggling readers catch up to their peers.

“The idea that if you can’t read proficiently by third grade you’re doomed is a fallacy,” Moje said. “Somebody has to be intervening to help you make progress, but it’s not actually the case that you stop learning to read at third grade.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan to infuse curriculum with Native American history

2022-08-31T12:00:00+00:00

Starting in the 1800s, generations of Native American children across the country were taken from their homes and brought to federally funded boarding schools that banned their native languages, clothing and traditions.

Now Michigan is ensuring public school students learn the history of abuse at those boarding schools that once tried to erase Indigenous culture. They’ll also learn about the 12 federally recognized tribes in Michigan, tribal governance, economies of early civilizations, the Trail of Tears, causes of the Mexican-American War, and more.

Lawmakers infused the 2022-23 school aid budget with $750,000 to update state social studies standards and add modules about Indigenous tribal history for students in grades 8 through 12.

Michigan is among a number of states, including Idaho, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, that are beginning to bolster their curricula to include more lessons about Indigenous history that tribes say have been lacking.

The movement has grown stronger this year after the U.S. Interior Department reported that thousands of children died in the custody of Indian boarding schools that abused them, exploited their labor, and took their families’ land. That report came after the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada.

In Michigan, the new curriculum will shift away from historical attempts to erase Indigenous histories and to perpetuate the invisibility of tribal communities in the public education system, said Jordan Shananaquet, eniigaangidoong (chairperson) of the Confederation of Michigan Tribal Education Departments.

CMTED, which includes leaders of the education departments of the state’s 12 federally recognized tribes, is partnering with the Michigan Department of Education to develop the curriculum and prepare educators to teach it.

The standards will ensure middle and high school students learn about the history, culture, and contributions of tribal nations, state Superintendent Michael Rice said.

The Michigan Department of Education has been prioritizing Indigenous education by, for example, launching an Indigenous Education Initiative, highlighting the work of Indigenous educators, and offering professional development on teaching about First Peoples.

That’s refreshing to April Lindala, a professor in Northern Michigan University’s Center for Native American Studies, where she teaches a course on the history of Indian boarding schools.

Students are graduating from Michigan high schools knowing surprisingly little about Indigenous history, particularly the boarding schools, five of which were in Michigan, she said.

“There are some who know nothing at all, or what they do know is so limited that they don’t understand the consequence of what was happening at the time or the intergenerational consequences of how that past affects communities today,” Lindala said.

Schools across the country have been moving toward more complete versions of history. In some places, the shift has given rise to pushback from parents and others who argue that “woke” educators are indoctrinating students with anti-American attitudes by, for instance, teaching that racism was baked into the nation’s founding documents, or that Christopher Columbus should be shunned as a colonizer rather than celebrated as a discoverer.

“We’re just talking about what actually happened to people,” said Shananaquet, of the tribal education group. “We have to sit with the not-so-great aspects of our history and understand that, because it influences the present, too. We’re trying to teach the multitude of histories and stop painting a historical narrative that is only happy and good. That’s not real.”

Understanding history also helps people understand the present, she said.

Native Americans “are not trapped in amber,” Shananaquet said. “We are living, breathing, evolving people. This is who we were, this is what happened to us, and this is who we are now. … We are a thriving people who have our own culture, our own languages, our own histories that were tried to be destroyed, and we’re still here.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

5 policy changes affecting Michigan classrooms, cafeterias, and school buses

2022-08-25T12:30:00+00:00

A new school year comes with education policy changes for Michigan’s 1.4 million schoolchildren.

Those changes affect who’s teaching them, what’s served in their cafeterias, who can step onto their school buses, and more.

Here are five changes taking effect this year.

More retired educators returning to schools

A new state law is making it easier for retirees to return to work at any school in any position while continuing to collect their full pensions. To qualify, they must wait nine months after retirement.

Previously, unless they were filling a critical shortage area, retirees had to wait a full year and had to forfeit pensions and benefits for every month their pay exceeded one-third of their former compensation. Those limitations had been meant to protect the state’s pension liability from people who might retire early with an understanding that their principal would immediately hire them back, allowing them to simultaneously collect pensions and regular compensation.

The new law protects against double dipping by stipulating that retirees must completely sever their employment relationship and must not expect a reemployment offer from any district.

Michigan superintendents pushed for the change because of difficulties hiring enough teachers, substitutes, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and other school personnel. Returning retirees could fill any of those positions.

Education advocacy groups are encouraging retired educators to return to work under the new law.

“They could help fill the gap and help our schools continue to thrive as they do important work, while still earning a full pension and additional paycheck,” said Wendy Zdeb, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals.

A return to college-credit requirements for subs

Education requirements are back in effect for substitute teachers.

To alleviate a shortage of subs, lawmakers in December passed a law allowing school support staff to substitute teach as long as they had finished high school or had a graduate equivalency diploma. The temporary measure expired at the end of last school year.

That means substitutes once again have to have an associate degree, 60 college credits, or, in the case of career and technical teachers, subject-matter expertise.

“For students, that’s going to mean you’re going to have a qualified individual stepping in on an emergency basis to make sure there are not gaps in the learning,” said state Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit.

A return to paying for lunch

This school year marks the end of free lunches for all students regardless of income, a benefit that was in place since 2020.

That could be a big change, particularly for parents of second-graders who have never had to pay for school lunch and who may not know they need to apply for free or reduced-price lunches this year. Most families will have to pay roughly $3 to $5 per meal, depending on prices set by local school boards.

Free and reduced-price lunches will remain available for those who meet income guidelines, but in most districts, parents will have to apply. Income limits vary by family size. Children in a family of four, for example, would qualify for reduced-price meals (30-cent breakfasts and 40-cent lunches) if their family income is no more than $51,338, or for free meals with an income below $36,075.

In some districts, including Detroit Public Schools Community District, meals will remain free for all students, as they were before the pandemic. That’s because those districts qualified for federal community eligibility for free lunches for all students based on overall community participation in other federal programs for needy families.

School lunches might taste a little different this year, too.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued three changes in school nutrition standards. One allows districts to increase the limit on sodium content in school meals. Another allows districts to offer flavored milks with 1% fat content instead of requiring them to be fat-free. The third waives a rule requiring school cafeterias to serve only whole grains. Now 20% of grains served may be refined.

The changes are intended to provide flexibility as school food service programs recover from pandemic-related challenges including unreliable supply chains.

Indeed, one thing that hasn’t changed much is the struggle many school cafeteria managers are having getting enough supplies and labor to meet the demands of serving more than a million meals a year.

“Students will continue to see our cafeterias struggle to get all of the products that they need,” said Diane Golzynski, director of the Office of Health and Nutrition Services for the Michigan Department of Education. “Our supply chain isn’t in its pre-pandemic state yet. We’re still struggling to get bread. We’ve been going to every store we can find, and we can’t find canned pumpkin anywhere.”

Pay for student teachers

A new state law guarantees pay for Michigan’s student teachers, alleviating the financial strain during their mandatory internships.

Student teachers, who teach full-time while paying college tuition, will now be paid $9,600 per semester they teach under a provision in the new state budget. Most Michigan education programs require one semester of student teaching, but some including Michigan State University require a full year.

The provision was prompted by a shrinking teacher pipeline that wasn’t producing enough educators to fill Michigan’s needs.

Supporters of the stipends say the money will make it easier for prospective educators to complete their internship requirements without having to work weekend jobs to pay the bills. That means student teachers will be able to focus more fully on their students, they said.

Safer bus transportation

New laws went into effect over the last year that are meant to keep children safer on school buses.

One law prohibits unauthorized people from getting on a school bus without the driver’s permission and prohibits impeding the operation of a school bus by, for example, blocking its path. Violators could be fined up to $500.

Another new law makes it easier for police to issue tickets to drivers who illegally pass a stopped school bus. The Michigan Vehicle Code requires drivers to stop their cars 20 feet from a stopped school bus that is displaying its flashing red lights and to remain stopped until the bus resumes motion with those lights off.

Previously, an officer had to witness the traffic violation to issue a ticket. The new law allows police to ticket drivers later if the violation is captured on a school bus’s camera system, said Carter, the law’s sponsor and a retired lieutenant in the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.

“You can’t have a police officer everywhere,” he said, but cameras can help. “My goal is to make sure no child gets hit.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chakbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Whitmer seeks replacement for embattled Michigan school board member

2022-08-19T12:00:00+00:00

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is working to fill a Michigan State Board of Education vacancy created by the abrupt resignation of embattled businessman Jason Strayhorn.

Strayhorn quit on July 29, citing a need to relocate so his children could pursue academic and athletic opportunities in Florida and California.

The resignation came several weeks after a lawsuit against Strayhorn, accusations of financial impropriety at his property management company, and a falling out with his business partner.

A pair of real estate investors filed suit in May against Maven Property Management, Strayhorn, and his business partner Alysa Kowalsky, seeking to recover a $50,000 deposit on renovations they say were never completed and $30,000 in COVID Emergency Rental Assistance funds Maven allegedly collected on behalf of delinquent renters but did not remit to the investors. The resignation was reported in the Detroit News on July 29 and the lawsuit was reported in the Lansing State Journal on Aug. 2.

Strayhorn denies any wrongdoing, and his resignation and move out of Michigan are unrelated to the allegations, said his attorney, Alec Torigian.

Strayhorn, a Democrat, was elected to the state Board of Education in 2020. His eight-year term was to have expired on Dec. 31, 2028.

State board President Casandra Ulbrich said his resignation was sudden but not surprising.

“He and his wife were commuting between multiple different places because of their kids’ athletic opportunities, and I think it got to be a bit too much,” she said. “I know he was trying to juggle a lot of different things.”

Strayhorn’s resignation means there will be at least two new members on the eight-person board by January. Strayhorn’s replacement would begin as soon as Whitmer announces her appointment. Meanwhile, two Democrats on the board — Ulbrich and Pamela Pugh — have terms expiring this December. Pugh is running for re-election, but Ulbrich, now in her 15th year on the board, is not.

Michigan law empowers the governor to appoint members to fill unexpired terms, so it will be up to Whitmer to fill Strayhorn’s seat.

Her decision is unlikely to change the partisan balance on the board, which now has five Democrats and two Republicans. Both Strayhorn and Whitmer are Democrats.

Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy said the governor intends to appoint “someone who will put students and parents first in every decision, while also supporting teachers with the resources they need to deliver a phenomenal education.”

The state has posted the opening online and is inviting applications.

In Michigan, most education policy decisions are the responsibility of the state Legislature and local school districts. The state Board of Education’s most significant power is the hiring and firing of the state superintendent.

“You have to be someone who has a background to be able to understand the value of that power,” Ulbrich said.

She said Whitmer could add geographic diversity to the board by appointing someone from the Upper Peninsula.

“I would also hope that whoever is appointed values public education and also understands the nuances of public policy,” including decisions around school funding and school choice, she added. “They should have a value system to really support and improve public education.”

Strayhorn, a former captain of the Michigan State University football team, also is a sportscaster with Playfly Sports, which hires announcers for MSU games. He is expected to continue working as a color commentator for his former team, said MSU spokesman Dan Olsen.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan governor proposes sales tax break on school supplies

2022-08-16T21:42:14+00:00

Crayons, notebooks, computers, and other back-to-school supplies could be a little more affordable this year under a tax-break proposal from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but Republicans say it’s too little and too late.

Whitmer’s plan would suspend Michigan’s 6% sales tax on school supplies, and is similar to tax holidays recently enacted by other states including Illinois, Florida, and Virginia,

“Getting this done would lower costs for parents, teachers, and students right now, and ensure that they have the resources needed,” Whitmer said Tuesday, when she announced the proposal.

It’s unlikely to pass before the start of school.

Wednesday is the Legislature’s only scheduled session day this month. No votes are expected, and Republican leaders aren’t motivated to support the incumbent Democrat’s election-year proposals.

Republicans dismissed the proposal as election-year pandering.

House Speaker Jason Wentworth of Farwell called the proposal a publicity stunt. He noted that Whitmer vetoed three Republican bills that would have cut other taxes.

Whitmer’s November opponent, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, reacted to the proposal on Twitter.

“School supply lists came out a month ago,” she tweeted. “Shopping is done, many shelves are bare. Too little too late from the most out of touch Governor in the nation!”

Most schools open after Labor Day in accordance with a 2005 state law, but many districts apply for waivers that allow them to start sooner. Detroit Public Schools Community District, the state’s largest, opens Aug. 29. Some, including in Flint and Holt, already are back in session.

Whitmer’s proposal comes amid reports of rising costs for school supplies. Last month, the auditing firm Deloitte estimated that families will spend about $661 per child on back-to-school clothes and supplies this year, 8% more than last year.

A Michigan family spending that much would save about $40 in sales tax under Whitmer’s proposal.

“Families are dealing with a lot of pressures right now,” Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy said. “We’re seeing things move in the right direction with gas prices going down and employment going up, but families do need help especially at this stressful time of the school year. Any help we can provide them through a suspension of the sales tax as they’re preparing to send their kids to school will make a big difference.”

Leddy said legislative leaders can add session days to the calendar and pass the tax suspension before most students return to school. The proposal should have wide bipartisan support, he said, because it would help families in every legislative district.

It would be up to the Legislature to specify what items are subject to the sales tax holiday and whether there are caps.

One proposal was introduced in the House in 2019 but never advanced. It would have suspended taxes on clothing priced at less than $100 per item, computers costing less than $1,000, computer accessories costing less than $500, and other school supplies costing less than $20.

Supporters of the idea say they wish Whitmer had proposed it sooner so the Legislature had time to act.

The tax break could be enough to sway parents who are on the fence about buying school supplies like new backpacks and lunchboxes, said state Board of Education member Ellen Cogen Lipton.

“It’s about more than the actual products themselves,” Lipton said. “It’s the whole back-to-school tone that (having new school supplies) sets. It creates such excitement in students.”

Tracie Mauriello covers Michigan education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan’s student safety hotline saw 67% spike in tips last year

2022-08-16T17:23:34+00:00

One student had been hiding self-harm scars under long sleeves. Another was suffering abuse at home. A third was sexually assaulted at school. A fourth threatened to kill a classmate.

All four got the help they needed after classmates alerted Michigan State Police using its confidential OK2SAY tipline, which logged a record 6,255 tips last year, up 67% from the year before. More than half of those tips arrived the month following the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School that killed four students and wounded seven.

“Within days of the Oxford tragedy, school threats emerged throughout Michigan, requiring schools and law enforcement to work around the clock to address each incident,” according to the OK2SAY annual report released Friday. Dozens of people, mostly juveniles, have been charged in connection with those threats, police said.

In total, 1,786 tips last school year related to planned school attacks, and dozens of them led to temporary school closures. That’s up from just 52 such threats reported the previous school year.

Policy said copycat threats are common after school shootings, but they aren’t bothered by reports of them.

“If it’s an honest concern, you don’t have to worry” about whether to report it, Fossati said. Just call it in, he said.

It’s impossible to know whether any of the copycat threats would have been carried out if not for the tipline, but police believe OK2SAY has helped avert suicides, assaults, and vandalism. They have not said whether OK2SAY received any warnings ahead of the Oxford shooting.

Created in 2014, the tipline program provides an anonymous way for students, parents, and others to report threats, bullying, abuse, drug use, and other concerns to technicians trained to evaluate them and refer them to appropriate authorities, whether police, school principals, or community resources.

The goal is to identify struggling students and provide help before troubles become tragedies.

In addition to the 1,786 tips related to threats to attack schools, 722 related to threats to harm specific individuals rather than school buildings. There were 533 tips related to bullying, 500 related to suicide threats, and 632 related to anxiety, depression, stress, and harassment.

Thirty-four tips resulted in the confiscation of weapons, and 86 resulted in the seizure of drugs or alcohol, police said.

Most tips came in by text message rather than voice call, said state police Sgt. Carlos Fossati, team lead for the OK2SAY program, which operates under the Michigan State Police Office of School Safety.

He encourages students to call in any concerns, even if they aren’t sure the information they have is credible or comprehensive.

Each tip is “a finite piece of the puzzle,” Fossati said, “but somebody we’re going to share that information with might have a larger picture and is just missing that little bit of information.”

OK2SAY technicians protect the identity of tipsters, Fossati said. They don’t provide that information even to responding officers or school personnel, he said.

Col. Joe Gasper, director of the Michigan State Police, said the program provides a much-needed safety net that prevents individual and community crises.

More than half of the public middle and high schools nationally have access to tiplines, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report. Researchers found that the most successful have trained teams like Michigan’s that answer calls around the clock and coordinate responses with both law enforcement and school personnel.

OK2SAY costs about $1.1 million per year to operate.

It was modeled after Colorado’s Safe2Tell program created in response to the 1999 massacre that killed 15 students and wounded dozens more at Columbine High School.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan programs provide route for second-career teachers. Are they rigorous enough?

2022-08-12T20:30:49+00:00

Smitha Ramani leaned over a folding table to whisper encouragement to a student about to give a presentation on her summer school invention: a device that smashes pretend guns and transforms them into pretend cotton candy.

Ramani, a student teacher in the Michigan Alternative Route to Certification program, had been helping summer school students write presentations, create posters, and fill out mock patent applications.

“It’s very difficult for children to articulate what they want to say, so the best way to help them is to ask a lot of questions,” Ramani explained after the Parade of Inventions in the hallways of Willow Run Middle School in Washtenaw County last month.

Three weeks earlier, Ramani’s day looked much different. She was behind the pharmacy counter in a Livonia Rite Aid, juggling phone calls from doctors’ offices, answering patient questions about drug interactions, and filling prescriptions for azithromycin, Adderall and all sorts of other medications.

She’s giving up her career in pharmacy to do something she believes will be more rewarding: teaching.

Smitha Ramani is transitioning from a career in pharmacy to teaching through M-ARC.

Ramani is among 39 students in a new Initial Certification Pathway, an expansion of the Alternative Route to Certification program at the University of Michigan that previously prepared teachers only in the Detroit metropolitan area. The new pathway serves prospective teachers from all areas of the state. It’s one of a growing number of programs in Michigan to help people with bachelor’s degrees in other fields quickly become certified educators.

Alternative certification programs are becoming more common nationwide partly as a response to concerns about a potential teacher shortage. In Michigan, two new programs opened last year, bringing the total number of state-approved programs to 10.

The number of prospective educators enrolling in these programs is growing, too. There were 1,935 students enrolled in Michigan programs in 2019-20, according to the most recent data available. Five years earlier there were just 95 enrollees.

The programs provide expedited routes to certification, sometimes in as little as six weeks.

Program completion, along with passage of the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification, qualifies participants for interim teaching certificates, which carry the same rights and responsibilities as standard certificates. After three years, during which the teachers receive additional mentoring and professional development, they can be fully certified.

In the Michigan Alternative Route to Certification, known as M-ARC, candidates spend five months in online courses and two weeks student teaching under the watch of field instructors, who provide daily feedback.

That’s a fraction of the time required to complete a four-year education degree. At $9,000, it’s also a fraction of the cost.

“We’re opening access to teacher certification to people for whom a traditional pathway isn’t accessible, either for geographic reasons, for financial reasons, or for time reasons,” said Jean Mrachko, the M-ARC program’s associate director. “It allows people to be working in the field while they are completing the program. That really opens access.”

Alternative teacher certification programs have grown in recent years. Proponents view them as a way to mitigate difficulties principals have in hiring enough teachers.

Critics wonder if expedited programs shortchange teachers and the children they will later serve. They worry that such programs compromise standards and dilute teacher preparation curricula.

“Are they looking to make it easier and quicker to become a teacher?” asked Thomas Morgan, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association. “If that’s the case, it’s not rigorous enough. … We believe there needs to be a hill to climb to become a teacher.”

The National Council on Teacher Quality does, too.

“We should not be lowering the bar for getting into teaching right now,” said NCTQ President Heather Peske. “Given the data we’re seeing on learning loss during the pandemic, we need the most skilled, the most qualified, the most committed teachers entering schools right now.”

Proponents including state Superintendent Michael Rice see alternative route programs as a key part of the solution to the shortage of teachers plaguing many districts across the state as they work to make up for lost learning opportunities during the pandemic.

“I view it as responding to the moment,” Rice said. “If the question is whether we have a teacher that is certified through (an alternative route) or have Mikey from the curb teaching a child — a person who has no experience whatsoever and is simply an adult substituting in a classroom for a long period of time because there isn’t a math teacher, there isn’t a social studies teacher, there isn’t a science teacher — the teacher that is developed through an alternative route program or expedited program is going to be preferable.”

That’s not to say they are preferable to someone with a four-year teaching degree, he added.

“People have to have ways to break into the profession” that don’t require four years, Rice said. “There have to be multiple onramps to the profession based on multiple sets of experiences, competencies, and knowledge bases.”

Providers say their training programs are comprehensive.

“We are not sacrificing the quality of the preparation. We’re doing it on a different timeline and at a different price point,” Mrachko said.

She said students said course content is comparable to traditional education classes at the University of Michigan, but M-ARC participants are relieved from taking courses in content areas because they already have bachelor’s degrees and have demonstrated competency on Michigan Test for Teacher Certification subject-area tests. Many also have work experience in the fields they want to teach.

“There are benefits to doing four years of an education program and then becoming a teacher, but why would you think that people like me won’t be successful?” Ramani asked. “We are coming into the profession with not a lot of school experience but with other experiences, life lessons, and passion most of all.”

M-ARC administrators know Ramani and her classmates will need intensive ongoing support during the three years they will work under interim certificates.

“We don’t just drop them off at a school door and wish them luck,” Mrachko said. “We hold their hands and walk in beside them.”

Students undergo six classroom observations a year, continue to attend twice monthly M-ARC seminars, create teaching portfolios, and complete assignments that ask them to reflect on their teaching, Mrachko said. They also have experienced colleagues in their school buildings who serve as mentors.

Academics like Brent Maddin acknowledge the tension between resolving the teacher shortage and maintaining standards.

“It’s really complicated because at this moment in American history — world history — we need to ensure that all students have access to the best educators they’ve probably ever needed,” said Maddin, a professor and director of Next Education Workforce at Arizona State University.

Sarah DePriest, a student teacher in the University of Michigan’s Alternative Route to Certification program, works with summer school students at Washtenaw International High School and Middle Academy in Ypsilanti.

Sarah DePriest, 46, of Willis in Washtenaw County has felt that tension.

While working a part-time job in the office at Lincoln Consolidated School District near Ann Arbor, she saw how desperate administrators were to staff classrooms. So she pitched in as a long-term substitute teacher. She soon realized she could contribute more as a full-time teacher, but only if she could find a certification program that would prepare her quickly enough to help but also well enough for her to feel confident leading her own classroom.

M-ARC seemed to fit the bill, although she still wonders if two weeks of student teaching would have been enough if she hadn’t already had experience as a sub.

“It was a great experience, but it wasn’t like having your own class,” said DePriest, who previously worked in restaurant management and as associate director of a nonprofit humanitarian organization, MOST Ministries. “Being in a classroom is different than any job I’ve ever had.”

She and other M-ARC participants said they wish they’d had more practice teaching students, managing classrooms, and writing lesson plans. Even during their student teaching, practice was limited. They worked in teams of three or four with a certified teacher and a field instructor from the university who critiqued their teaching and offered suggestions for improvement.

Mark Smith had careers in sales, marketing, and mental health before enrolling in the University of Michigan’s Alternative Route to Certification program.

Critics of alternative route programs say students deserve teachers who’ve had more practice than that.

“I would absolutely acknowledge that as a valid point,” said M-ARC student Mark Smith, of Grand Rapids. “On the other hand, I have experienced so many different areas of life, that I have a lot more reference points to connect with students” than most traditionally prepared teachers, he said.

Before enrolling in M-ARC, he spent decades working in sales, finance, marketing, SAT tutoring, and most recently as a behavioral health technician in a mental health program for teens.

Classmate Edgar Watson, 53, of Ann Arbor, knew from a young age that he wanted to be a teacher like his father, but his dad and other teachers he knew dissuaded him. They said the job is stressful and not well paid.

So he stayed away from teaching. Instead he earned a degree in computer engineering and then took a series of jobs leading his church’s music ministry, photographing weddings, and working as a chemical operator in an ink plant.

When he learned that districts near him were struggling to staff schools after last year’s return to in-person learning, he signed up as a substitute. He spent his days following lesson plans other people had written, and doing his best to manage a different class of students at a different school every day.

“It got me thinking,” Watson said. “I said, ‘I wonder what would be different if I were the real teacher in this room? I wonder what the dynamic would be if I had access to the grades, and the parents, and the union for that matter — everything. What could I really do?’”

That’s what led him to M-ARC.

Edgar Watson grew up wanting to teach, but was dissuaded by people in the profession. He was drawn back as nearby schools struggled through staff shortages.

His classmates have worked in construction, food service, journalism, library science, and more. Eleven have master’s degrees and one is a step away from having a Ph.D. Their average age is 39.

“It’s courageous, what they’re doing, especially people who have previously been near the top of their field or have been in leadership positions,” Mrachko said. “To step back and be the new guy who doesn’t know as much as the (colleagues) who are much younger, it’s a potential challenge, and it’s humbling. It takes a particular mindset.

Ramani, 43 of Ann Arbor, said she and her M-ARC classmates have that mindset.

“We know what we’re getting into,” she said. “We’re getting into it because of a passion for the idea of inspiring someone — building the next generation of humans.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan school mental health program on track to expand with $50 million funding boost

2022-08-09T11:00:00+00:00

The last time administrator Kristina Hansen intervened in a school fight, she didn’t have to say much.

One of the students already knew what he should have done differently.

“That would have been a perfect time to practice my breathing, but I didn’t,” the student told her after a brief shoving match with another boy in the cafeteria at Bark River-Harris Junior High School in the Upper Peninsula. “I blew my lid.”

He had forgotten to use the tools he learned in TRAILS, a program his school adopted last year to help students manage emotions and make good decisions. With more exposure to the program and more practice using its techniques, he’ll be able to calm himself before his behavior escalates, said Hansen, who was hired last year as the Bark River-Harris School District’s student success coordinator. She runs programs to support students academically and behaviorally including TRAILS, which stands for Transforming Research Into Action to Improve the Lives of Students.

Developed a decade ago at the University of Michigan, the program now is in about 700 schools and could soon be in a lot more thanks to a nearly tenfold boost in state funding.

The state school aid budget signed into law last month provides for $50 million in funding over the next four years. That’s a big jump from last year’s overlapping state appropriation of $5.4 million over three years.

“The beautiful thing about the last two years’ worth of budgets is that the state has acknowledged that not only are children’s mental health challenges profound in the state, in the country, but that the Legislature has to be a part of the solution,” state Superintendent Michael Rice said.

The additional funding comes as schools struggle to find enough resources to help students recover from grief, loss, social isolation, trauma, and other mental health effects of the pandemic. School leaders across the country are reporting more classroom disruptions, student fights, and physical attacks that they attribute to lingering effects of the pandemic. Misbehavior was a defining characteristic that complicated efforts to get children back on track academically after two years of disjointed learning.

The boost for TRAILS is just one way the state Legislature is trying to address the problem in Michigan. The 2022-23 budget also creates a new $150 million program for mental health grants and provides $25 million for school-based health centers — up from $11 million last year. Many school districts also are tapping federal COVID relief funds to bring mental health programs to their students.

Elizabeth Koschmann, TRAILS founder and executive director, said the new funding will make a big difference in the number of students the program reaches over the next four years.

She couldn’t provide a total operating budget because TRAILS is funded on a project-by-project basis from numerous sources, including federal grants, private donations, and Medicaid reimbursements for its work in high-poverty areas.

TRAILS provides resources, training, and consulting to school staff members at all levels, from support staff through administrators. In some schools, only one or two teachers have gone through the training, but the program works best when everyone participates.

“What’s important is that we not delegate mental health to a single individual or a couple individuals in a school,” Rice said.

At Bark River-Harris, every staff member and all 725 students in the district have been exposed to the program’s first tier, which provides 15 hours’ worth of lessons teachers can deliver to their classes to introduce them to mindfulness and self-care practices.

Other tiers of the TRAILS program offer training in suicide risk management and facilitating small group sessions for students who need extra support.

Hansen said all of her teachers find ways to make time for the TRAILS curriculum, even if it takes time from academics. That’s true in other districts, too.

“We’re not hearing from (teachers) that it’s interfering with academic content delivery, because they need this content, too,” Koschmann said. “They’re saying their kids, almost across the board, are one to two years behind socially and developmentally from where they should be. … They’re saying they need an anchoring program to bolster basic skills.”

Nationally, spending on such social and emotional learning programs grew almost 50% between 2019 and 2021, according to one report.

While teachers are on board, some parents are skeptical of TRAILS’s focus on social and emotional learning, Koschmann said. Some conservatives say they believe SEL programs indoctrinate children with liberal ideas about gender identity and the lingering effects of slavery on modern institutions, neither of which is part of TRAILS or other programs. Others say schools should focus on academics, not social and emotional learning, which they believe to be parents’ job.

“They don’t want a classroom teacher teaching values to a child because that’s a family’s personal decision and they want to have control over that,” Koschmann said of the critics. “We don’t want to be teaching values to your child either. We want to equip your child with the tools that will help them manage really difficult emotions like disappointment, rejection, anxiety, worry, sadness, and fear so they can engage more fully in their classroom and can become better citizens in terms of how they handle feeling dysregulated, upset, or worried.”

None of that is political, she said.

“If a kid is showing a behavioral difficulty in a classroom but really wants to be behaving in a compliant way, our curriculum equips them with tools to help them manage their behavior more effectively,” Koschmann said.

That’s what Hansen saw happen in the Bark River-Harris cafeteria when the student realized he could have used a breathing technique to calm himself.

“You could almost see the lightbulb go off,” Hansen remembers.

Another student had a different kind of breakthrough that Hansen also attributes to TRAILS. A withdrawn high school student who wasn’t participating in class or socializing with friends suddenly became more engaged three-quarters of the way through the school year. He told her that listening to classmates talk during TRAILS lessons made him realize that he wasn’t the only one struggling with anxiety.

“Here was a kid floating along under the radar, and just by having it be a more acceptable practice to talk about feelings and struggles,” he was able to feel a greater sense of belonging that allowed him to participate more, Hansen said.

Hansen said a common lexicon is essential to the program’s success at Bark River-Harris. Everyone in the district speaks the same language and knows the same behavioral strategies.

When a child closes their eyes for a few moments in class, other students understand that they’re trying to calm their anxiety using a visualization tool, deep breathing, or another TRAILS strategy, Hansen said. If a food services worker asks a distressed student to name and rate the intensity of the emotion they’re feeling, they know how to do it because they’ve practiced using a feelings thermometer, she said.

Koschmann wants every school to be like that, and says the additional state funding will help a lot. Her team is still discussing the best ways to use it.

“We’re going to have to be really smart to make sure we can adequately staff our team to provide services at a high level but don’t set ourselves up for a fiscal cliff at the end of the funding period,” she said. “We can’t just hire, hire, hire and not have a long-term plan.”

Still, she said, there’s an urgency to train more teachers quickly.

“Schools need the support immediately,” she said. “They can’t wait. The demand for student mental health services, training for staff, materials for staff, and consultations is unbelievable.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

School choice is a key education issue in Michigan governor’s race

2022-08-05T19:30:00+00:00

When Michigan voters fill out their ballots for governor in November, they’ll pick between a school choice advocate who wants to strictly enforce the state’s third-grade retention law and an incumbent with a record of increasing school spending without raising taxes.

Tudor Dixon, a former conservative commentator and businesswoman in the steel industry, topped a field of five in Tuesday’s Republican primary. In November, she faces Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Whitmer has prioritized early childhood education, teacher recruitment, and school-based health centers. She counts among her accomplishments closing the school funding gap and tripling the number of school literacy coaches, but she faced criticism over decisions she made in 2020 around pandemic-related school closures and mask mandates.

A second term would give her another chance to advance her agenda of paying teachers retention bonuses, funding onboarding programs for new teachers, and piloting a home-based version of the Great Start Readiness preschool program. She included those items in her 2022-23 school aid budget proposal but was unable to get them through the Republican-controlled Legislature.

In an interview last month with Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan, Dixon said her top education priority is ensuring “money follows the student.” She says that isn’t the same as vouchers, which she hasn’t taken a public position on.

Rather, she supports an Opportunity Scholarship program that Whitmer vetoed last year. Strongly backed by Betsy DeVos, who was U.S. education secretary in President Donald Trump’s administration, the proposal would allow Michigan residents to contribute money to scholarships in lieu of state taxes. Families could then use the scholarships for private-school tuition or to supplement public-school education with, for example, tutoring, books, speech therapy, or extracurricular programs.

DeVos and her family were among Dixon’s top campaign contributors and fundraisers. Dixon’s primary challengers seized on that connection in campaign ads that called DeVos a turncoat for her criticism of Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. (DeVos resigned within days of the riot.)

Dixon is a political newcomer who is relatively unknown around the state. With the GOP primary over, she now has a chance to define herself for general election voters, who may not have been paying attention during primary season.

Whitmer is a former county prosecutor and legislative leader with progressive bona fides, and an agenda that stood little chance to succeed under a Republican-controlled Legislature. She won her 2018 election against Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette by nearly 10 percentage points.

There is a chance that either or both chambers of the Legislature could flip in November. That could embolden Whitmer to lay out a more progressive agenda than she has in the past, and that would likely include bigger increases in education spending.

For now, her campaign hasn’t put forward a slate of new education priorities, but instead has been touting her first-term accomplishments. Those include increasing school funding four years in a row without raising taxes, ensuring every district has the same baseline funding, and budgeting $500 million for school construction and renovation. Whitmer also negotiated and signed a school reopening plan that leveraged federal funds to offset expenses related to the pandemic.

Her supporters credit her with creating a scholarship program for college education majors, investing in teacher recruitment, expanding child care programs, and establishing grow-your-own programs that help districts recruit and train members of their school communities to become teachers.

Whitmer, who didn’t face a primary challenger, “isn’t talking a ton” about her education agenda so far, “in part because she’s achieved substantial gains in underlying education funding already because of the burgeoning state budget,” said Matt Grossmann, professor of political science at Michigan State University and director of its Institute for Public Policy and Research.

She can’t take all the credit for the economy, he said.

“A lot of states went through the same thing Michigan did” last year, he said. “They revised their economic projections dramatically upward, and they benefited from very large transfers from the federal government, which also underestimated the resilience of state budgets.”

Political scientists expect Dixon to make education a cornerstone of her general election campaign.

“The Republican primary race was a hot mess with candidate disqualifications and one candidate’s involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection,” said Jenna Bednar, professor of political science at the University of Michigan. “Now clear of those distractions, Tudor Dixon can focus on her core message: conservative values and a concern for K-12 education.”

Among her priorities are $1,000 scholarships for families to pay for private reading tutoring for their children. She criticized Whitmer for her veto last summer of a $155 million program that would have provided them. Opponents said the scholarships were similar to vouchers and would have siphoned needed money from public schools.

Instead, Whitmer proposed her own tutoring plan: MI Kids Back on Track, a $280 million initiative to help students catch up after two years of learning disruptions during the pandemic.

Whitmer isn’t the only obstacle to the kinds of scholarships Dixon wants. Enactment of the Opportunity Scholarship plan would almost certainly trigger legal challenges over the state’s constitutional ban on using public funds for private schools.

Dixon said her proposals would help hold public schools accountable to the families. If parents start to make other choices for their children, that will be a sign that public schools need to do better, she said.

“I don’t think we should ever abandon our public school system. I think we need to make sure our public school system is working for the kids,” said Dixon, whose four children attend private school.

Whitmer’s two daughters attended East Lansing public schools and now go to the University of Michigan.

One way to ensure public schools are effective, Dixon said, is to require students to repeat third grade if they are unable to read well enough. State law requires districts to identify children for possible retention if they are more than a grade level behind in reading at the end of third grade. The law provides administrators wide latitude for exemptions, and few children actually repeat the grade.

Ensuring children read well before entering fourth grade is key, Dixon said, because that’s when children move from learning to read, to reading to learn.

Whitmer has spoken out against the law, which passed before she was elected and was signed into law by her Republican predecessor, Gov. Rick Snyder.

Among Dixon’s other education priorities are requiring teachers to put all curriculum and teaching materials online for parents to review, banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams, and criminalizing taking minors to drag shows. The last was her reaction to a speech in which Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel joked that “drag queens make everything better” and suggested that there should be one in every school.

Having a Republican in the governor’s office could embolden conservative legislators to push harder for votes on culture-war issues like those, Grossmann said.

“A lot could happen,” he said. “We could see a lot of critical race theory discussion extended to other issues, restricting teaching about what conservatives view as politicized issues in school,” such as sexuality.

Political scientists predict Dixon will also look to the recent past when she campaigns on education issues.

“She’ll remind voters of their frustration during the first year of the pandemic, with schools closing and children learning remotely,” Bednar said. “She’ll remind them of the annoyance of masking.”

Whitmer ordered schools closed only during the early months of the pandemic, and generally followed the recommendations of public-health officials in pushing for closures and masking during surges in COVID-19 cases. Nonetheless, in the state and nationwide, she became the public face for more aggressive policies to contain the virus — not just in schools — during that period.

That’s a vulnerability for Whitmer, Grossmann said, even though the policies aren’t being debated anymore.

“Parents were mad about overreach on education policies in school, and I think there’s a continued belief that it’s a winning issue (for Republicans) if it’s brought forward again,” Grossmann said. “But the reality is there’s no one making these decisions right now.”

The most recent gubernatorial poll shows Whitmer with a lead of 11 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup against Dixon. But that was a month ago, before Trump endorsed Dixon. His backing could be a factor in November, attracting anti-establishment independents to Dixon while repelling moderate swing voters.

Tracie Mauriello covers statewide education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Here is where Michigan Republican governor candidates stand on education

2022-07-29T12:00:00+00:00

One is a school choice activist who worked in the steel industry. One is a chiropractor who led protests against the pandemic lockdown. Another is a business executive whose campaign is largely self-financed .

Each hopes to challenge incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmer in the November gubernatorial election, but first will face each other and two other candidates in the Aug. 2 primary that pollsters are calling a “complete tossup.”

Here is where Republicans Tudor Dixon, Kevin Rinke, and Garrett Soldano stand on key education issues. Soldano provided written responses while Dixon and Rinke responded by phone. Some of their responses have been trimmed for length.

Ryan D. Kelley declined to be interviewed or to provide written responses to questions. Ralph Rebandt, who is trailing far behind the other candidates in recent polls, did not respond to inquiries from Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan.

Click here to view the guide if it doesn’t appear on your device.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

More money may not mean more disability services in Michigan schools

2022-07-14T23:18:10+00:00

Michigan’s new school aid budget includes $246 million more to serve students with disabilities, but that won’t necessarily translate into more money for those services. Instead, the funding boost likely means the money will no longer come out of the general education pot.

The funding is part of the $19.6 billion school aid budget that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Thursday at Mott Community College in Flint. The budget increases spending by 12% over last year’s budget and increases base funding for students by $450 per pupil, bringing it to $9,150. The budget also increases spending on mental health, school safety, and teacher recruitment.

“Every kid in every district deserves to feel safe and supported in school,” Whitmer said Thursday. “I am proud today to sign a historic, bipartisan education bill that will make game-changing investments to improve every student’s in-class experience.”

The state has long underfunded services for students with disabilities – by $700 million a year, according to one report commissioned in 2017 by then-Lt. Gov. Brian Calley. School districts have had to dip into their general education budgets to make up the difference.

The additional funding is a big step forward but it doesn’t finish the job, Calley and other advocates for students with disabilities said. It brings the total state funding for those services up to $1.9 billion.

“Just funding the current practices better will not give our most disadvantaged kids what they need,” Calley said. “The scope of services must change with this money.”

The new $246 million won’t provide for more services for students with disabilities. Instead, it will relieve stress on general education budgets, providing more money for all students, not just those with disabilities, said John Andrejack, financial manager of the Michigan Department of Education Office of Special Education.

Districts are required to provide whatever services students with disabilities need, regardless of cost. Each student’s needs are identified by a team of educators and caregivers in individualized education programs, or IEPs, a legally binding document that outlines services the district must provide.

Those students will “continue to receive what they should be receiving based on their unique needs,” said Rebecca McIntyre, the MDE’s interim assistant director of special education. “This money really should not significantly impact students with IEPs.”

Parents won’t start seeing widespread new investments until the state fully funds the services it is federally required to provide for students with disabilities, said Craig Thiel, director of Citizens Research Council, a public affairs research group.

“Until then, any money they put into the system for special education doesn’t really go into buying new programs,” he said.

Still, the change fundamentally shifts how Michigan will fund services for students with disabilities going forward, said state Rep. Tom Albert, the Lowell Republican who shepherded the increase through the budget process last month. The formula change will result in the $246 million increase this fiscal year.

The current funding system reimburses school districts either for 100% of the state’s per pupil foundation or for 28.6% of the total cost of educating a student with disabilities, whichever is greater. Superintendents say that system vastly underfunds services for those students and requires them to make up the difference with general education dollars.

Under the system adopted in the new budget, districts will receive both the 28.6% reimbursement rate plus 75% of the per pupil foundation. In nearly every case, that will result in more money for each student, Albert said.

The change sets the stage to do more in the school aid budget next year, when superintendents hope the state Legislature will agree to provide 100% of the foundation allowance plus 28.6% of costs of services for students with disabilities.

“Special education has been underfunded for years, and we’ve known it, but this is an additional step that goes in the right direction,” said John VanWagoner, superintendent of Traverse City Area Public Schools. “The reality is that we have provided strong special education services; it’s just that we’ve done it at a deficit to provide stuff to all students.”

He said the change will help ensure all students have the resources they need.

Nearly 204,000 of Michigan’s 1.5 million students receive special education services for at least a portion of the school day.

Parents like Mike Testa hope some of the additional money is directed toward helping those students by, for example, offering services in more locations in a district. His freshman daughter, who has cognitive impairments, will have to be bused across Livonia to Franklin High School, which has programs not offered at Adlai Stevenson High School, closer to her home.

He knows, though, that $246 million is meant to replenish the general fund, not add programming.

“It’s still more money,” Testa, who is a member of the Livonia PTSA Council and the Michigan PTA Advocacy Committee. “How they choose to use that money is up to the school district.”

He hopes some of the money is used to make it easier for students with less severe disabilities to receive services.

“My daughter’s needs are very clear but I know parents that have had to fight to justify additional services,” Testa said. “Sometimes students are borderline and there are financial reasons districts try to go one path versus the other.”

IEP teams are not supposed to consider the cost of required services but they sometimes do anyway, said Michelle Driscoll, policy coordinator for the Michigan Alliance for Families, which advocates for students with disabilities.

That rings true for Sharon Kelso, guardian to her two nephews who receive services through Detroit Public Schools Community District’s virtual academy. She now helps parents of other children with disabilities get needed services.

“The excuse is always they don’t have that funding,” Kelso says of many of the schools where she advocates.

Too often, she said, students are grouped in study skills classes where they don’t get the individual attention they need to meet their specific educational goals.

There is more than one way to meet a need, and financial concerns might influence which accommodations and supports are put in place for a student, said Driscoll, with the Michigan Alliance for Families. She said the additional funding might free districts to choose between more options.

Still, advocates expect little of the new money to enhance offerings, since districts already are required to provide necessary services to students with disabilities.

“Essentially, what they’re gonna do, they’re gonna help the general ed kids,” Kelso said, “and the special ed kids will be in the same predicament.”

Chalkbeat intern Grace Tucker contributed. Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

6 Michigan education proposals that lawmakers punted to the fall

2022-07-08T22:22:57+00:00

New state laws will provide more funding to public schools, require students to take financial literacy courses to graduate, and allow retirees to return to work in public schools while collecting full pensions.

Those are the biggest education policy changes the Michigan Legislature made in the first half of 2022.

But lawmakers left a lot on the table when they departed Lansing for their summer break.

Republicans, who control both chambers of the Legislature, began the year with an ambitious education agenda but were unable to send several impactful proposals through to the governor. Some of those measures — such as providing stipends to student teachers and increasing support for students with dyslexia — have widespread support. Others are more politically charged, partisan efforts: for example, measures that would ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports, restrict how students are taught about race, and threaten funding to districts that require masks and vaccines.

“It’s open season on the various culture-war education issues to be brought up in the fall,” said Matt Grossman, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University.

Those issues will be competing for attention from lawmakers along with the pressures of campaign season and efforts to regulate abortion in Michigan after the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Lawmakers are campaigning hard after redistricting made races more competitive, putting Republicans in jeopardy of losing control of the Legislature. That could leave less time for lawmaking before Dec. 31, the end of the legislative session.

“Even people in safe districts are going to be spending a lot of time in the district because they all have new voters,” Grossman said.

Still, education policy will be a priority when lawmakers return in September, especially as schools struggle to ease the effects of learning losses during the pandemic, said Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, a Republican from Clarklake.

Here are some of the measures pending in the Legislature.

Teacher reciprocity

A bill introduced in the Senate would allow experienced teachers from other states to teach in Michigan without taking the state’s licensure exam.

Proponents expected a hearing in the Senate last month, but the Education and Career Readiness Committee paused its weekly meetings as lawmakers turned their attention to school aid budget negotiations.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Ed McBroom of Vulcan, wants to reduce barriers to full certification. That’s important as the state works to mitigate a worsening teacher shortage. But teachers union officials worry about watering down certification standards for teachers.

Teaching about racism

A deeply divided House passed a bill restricting lessons about race and prohibiting educators from teaching that “individuals bear collective guilt for historical wrongs committed by their race or gender.”

Knowing they were outnumbered by Republican supporters of the bill, Democrats refused to vote.

Theis has not brought the bill to a vote in her committee. She has her own bill that more strictly bans the teaching of critical race theory, a framework mostly used in higher education that explores the lingering effects of slavery and centuries of racism. It also prohibits “anti-American” ideas about race, or material from the 1619 Project, a New York Times project and curriculum that ties the growth of the United States to slavery and oppression of Black Americans. Schools that violate the prohibition would lose 5% of their state funding.

The bill passed out of committee in June but has not made it to a vote of the full Senate.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has not taken a public position on the legislation but is likely to veto it if it reaches her desk.

Computer programming as a world language credit

A bill to allow computer programming courses to replace language requirements for graduation passed the House in May, with most Republicans voting in favor and most Democrats opposing. Now it’s teed up for a vote in the Senate.

The bill has the backing of business leaders who say the change would give students the flexibility to explore a skill relevant to future jobs.

The Michigan Language Association opposes the bill, saying that computer coding is a valuable skill but learning it shouldn’t come at the expense of learning a world language.

Changes to SAT requirement

A pair of bills de-emphasizing the SAT sailed through the Michigan House in March but have not been brought to the floor in the Senate.

One bill would eliminate the essay portion of the standardized test given to high school juniors. The other would end a requirement for schools to include SAT scores on transcripts sent to colleges. Proponents say the multiple-choice “writing and language” portion of the SAT sufficiently addresses writing ability.

States across the country are moving away from the SAT as fewer colleges are considering standardized test scores in their admission decisions.

Help for students with dyslexia

The Senate passed a package of bills requiring schools to screen children for dyslexia and provide extra reading instruction to those who struggle to an unusual degree with tasks such as sounding out written words.

The bills are still awaiting action by the House Education Committee. Chair Pamela Hornberger, a Republican from Chesterfield Township, did not respond to questions about when she might call up the bill. The dyslexia bills are sponsored by Sen. Jeff Irwin, an Ann Arbor Democrat, but they have widespread bipartisan support.

Transgender athletes

Republicans have been working on two fronts to restrict transgender athletes’ access to school sports.

Most recently, they inserted language into the House-passed school aid budget that would have required schools to prohibit what the measure refers to as “boys” from participating in girls’ or women’s scholastic athletics. The provision did not make it into the final budget that was negotiated with the governor’s office and passed by both legislative chambers.

Theis introduced a similar bill as standalone legislation in the Senate 16 months ago but it has gained no traction. The bill was referred to the Senate education committee, but Theis has not brought it up for discussion.

Democrats say the proposals are cruel, discriminatory, and harmful to districts’ most vulnerable students.

Republicans say it’s an issue of fairness: They say cisgender females should not have to compete against transgender girls who they say have biological advantages.

Whitmer, who favors strengthening protections for transgender people, is unlikely to sign the bill if it reaches her desk.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education issues for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan summer school is going big — again. Here’s what parents need to know.

2022-06-22T20:55:52+00:00

Michigan students looking to have fun and catch up on missed learning this summer have many more choices than usual.

Districts have once again beefed up their summer programming, from credit recovery to camps focused on robotics and sports.

Fueled by federal COVID relief aid, the expanded summer school options come at the right time for students struggling with the academic impact of the pandemic. Many parents and students are looking for extra study time and opportunities to make up credits.

School districts planned to spend $179 million in COVID aid on summer programming over several years, according to budget proposals filed with the state in December. That’s on top of the smaller summer programs that most Michigan districts were offering before the pandemic.

What can parents expect from their districts this year?

In many cases, districts plan to keep the expanded summer programs they began offering last year, when most of the COVID relief dollars became available.

Many districts are still accepting registrations, and some will allow students to sign up after programming has started. Attendance generally isn’t mandatory, and most programs — with the exception of some enrichment camps — are free.

Here are examples of how some Michigan school districts are using their federal COVID funds for summer programming:

The Detroit Public Schools Community District will again offer its robust Summer Learning Experiences program this year.

Summer school in Detroit will run from July 11 to Aug. 4. It includes academic enrichment classes, STEM courses and recreational activities for students. The program will be conducted in person for most students, while students who currently attend DPSCD Virtual School will be allowed to take their classes online.

Some districts are using their share of COVID relief dollars to move away from summer programs that look like school, and offering extra learning time to as many students as possible.

Ypsilanti Public Schools rebranded its summer offerings Grizzly Learning Camp, rather than summer school. The camp features robotics and sports instruction, as well as credit recovery classes for students who need them. The district planned to spend $1.5 million in federal funds on the camp, which runs through August.

Grand Rapids Public Schools has more than 3,100 signed up for summer programs — about 20% of its total enrollment. That’s about the same number as last summer, but 2-1/2 times as many as pre-pandemic summers. The district is spending about $2.5 million on summer school, thanks to an influx of federal COVID relief money, compared with just under $1 million before the pandemic.

Fun is part of the curriculum. Students might, for example, play educational games on PlayStations, record podcasts about community heroes, or practice photojournalism, said Mel Atkins, district director of community and student affairs.

“We’re trying to disguise learning, so it doesn’t look like the school year,” Atkins said. “We’re not advocating for desks in rows. We’re looking for hands-on activities out in the community.”

The district is also offering online learning programs for children in kindergarten through 8th grade.

Other districts are narrowing their focus on students who need the most academic help.

Kalamazoo Public Schools’ summer school enrollment shrank from 2,500 last summer to 800 this year. That was by design, said Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri, who wanted to focus on children identified by teachers as struggling the most.

“Last summer everyone needed extra support, because everyone was transitioning back into brick-and-mortar schools after being virtual for 18 months,” Raichoudhuri said. “The need was higher, and we needed the summer months to ease the transition. We were really glad we made that decision.”

Many smaller school communities are also offering more summer programming. Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe Academy, a charter school in the Upper Peninsula with an emphasis on Anishinaabe culture and tradition, is enrolling more than one-third of its 630 students in an expanded academic summer school. The program will include field trips and two free meals a day. Activities will focus on environmental science and indigenous games and crafts, among other subjects. All students are eligible to participate.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Financial literacy requirement becomes law for Michigan students

2022-06-16T22:30:00+00:00

Soon every high school graduate in Michigan will be taught how to write a check, budget their money, invest their savings, and manage their credit.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday signed a bill into law requiring students to take a half-credit personal finance class to graduate high school. The requirement begins with students entering eighth grade in the fall.

“As a mom, I want every kid who graduates in Michigan to enter the world with a diverse set of skills and knowledge, and that must include financial literacy,” Whitmer said in a written statement.

At the discretion of local school boards, the course could fulfill a half-credit in math, world language, or the arts. Currently, the Michigan Merit Curriculum requires four credits in math, two in a language other than English, and one in visual, performing, or applied arts.

The personal finance requirement also could be fulfilled through a career and technical education program that aligns with personal finance content standards. For example, CTE students studying finance already encounter coursework on personal financial goals, investment strategies, check writing, reconciling bank statements, and understanding credit and debit cards.

The Legislature also is considering a separate bill allowing computer programming to count for world language credit. Both measures have strong backing from business groups that say they’re interested in a more skilled workforce.

“As an industry, we see the value and impact knowledge of personal finance basics can have on a future borrower and consumer,” said Patty Corkery, president and CEO of Michigan Credit Union and Affiliates.

The curriculum requirement will prepare students for success in both careers and life, said Rick Baker, president and CEO of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce.

“Too many young adults are unprepared when it comes to making major life decisions,” he said. “This legislation will give students the opportunity to learn and develop these skills early.”

Others, though, worry that the bills will reduce local control of curriculum and further crowd out humanities instruction in favor of more technical education.

The Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals said financial literacy is important. Still, the group lobbied against the law on the grounds that it doesn’t give districts enough flexibility to decide how to deliver instruction. For example, personal finance lessons could be incorporated into existing courses, lobbyist Bob Kefgen said.

State Superintendent Michael Rice said that he supports financial literacy instruction, but that it shouldn’t replace other course requirements that he considers important. Adding new requirements should be up to school districts, which can — and often do — add local graduation standards beyond the baseline requirements of the Michigan Merit Curriculum, he said.

“I think there’s value to taking a half-credit of personal finance,” Rice said. “I’m not convinced that we should have to choose between personal finance and one of these other courses. I think it can be both.”

The bill passed the state Senate last month on a 35-2 vote and the House last week on a 94-13 vote.

Personal finance education means Michigan high school graduates “won’t get caught off guard by the financial decisions that await them,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Diana Farrington of Utica.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, a Democrat from Livonia, supported the measure.

Polehanki said that when she was a high school English teacher, she would ask her seniors at the end of the school year what life skills they wanted to know about. They most often asked about two things, she said: how to change a tire and how to write a check. Often, they also asked about credit scores, mortgages, and the difference between credit and debit cards.

“These kids are begging for these types of skills,” Polehanki said.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan student teachers could get paid for their classroom time

2022-06-15T21:15:00+00:00

Lindsey Wiseman was supposed to student teach in Elk Rapids last semester but couldn’t afford gas for the 76-mile round trip from her home in Lake Leelanau near Traverse City. So she asked to be reassigned to Suttons Bay Elementary School, 8 miles away.

The shorter commute was more manageable, but Wiseman still finished each day exhausted and resentful of friends in other fields who had paid internships while she worked, unpaid, to help manage a classroom full of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.

“It was so much to be doing for free,” said Wiseman, 25, who was also paying tuition for her student teaching credits. “I felt mad about it.”

State lawmakers are trying to help. The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would provide student teachers a stipend of $90 per day. Experienced teachers who serve as their mentors would receive $1,000, under the bill introduced by Pamela Hornberger, the Chesterfield Township Republican who heads the House Education Committee.

Student teaching is required for certification in Michigan, but in most districts it is unpaid. That makes it challenging for the state to attract new people to the teaching field, at a time when it’s trying to mitigate a growing teacher shortage.

The teacher shortage already has led to temporary school closures, larger class sizes, and the assignment of underqualified educators assigned to courses they feel unprepared to teach. The problem is expected to get worse because of a sharp decline in the number of students in Michigan’s teacher preparation programs.

So policymakers are under pressure to make it more affordable for college students to earn education degrees and to pay living expenses during student teaching, which can last from a semester to a full year.

The Hornberger bill passed overwhelmingly and without debate. Four members opposed it: Steve Carra of Three Rivers, Steven Johnson of Wayland, Matt Maddock of Milford, and John Reilly of Oakland, all Republicans. The legislation now heads to the Senate.

The Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals supports the measure.

“In order to increase the pool of teacher candidates and build a diverse educator workforce, people have to be able to afford to go into education,” Executive Director Wendy Zdeb said.

Student teachers work 8.5 hours a day, five days a week, not including lesson planning, grading, after-school meetings, and tutoring sessions with students who need extra help, Zdeb said.

“These hard-working future teachers shouldn’t also have to hold down night and weekend jobs just to pay the bills,” she said.

Alie Little said a $90-a-day stipend proposed in the bill would have helped a lot after she gave up her part-time nannying job to student teach at Cherry Knoll Elementary School in Traverse City Areas Public Schools last semester.

“Anything would have helped,” she said. “I love the idea of paying the mentor, too. They’re doing extra work. They’re feeding and pouring knowledge into you. It’s a lot to take on a younger teacher and put in extra work to help them.”

Like Wiseman, Little recently graduated from Central Michigan University. To get by during student teaching, both relied on support from fiancés and from odd jobs: dog walking, babysitting, and photographing a high school hockey team.

State Superintendent Michael Rice said the financial strain can be even greater for education majors leaving full-time jobs to student teach.

“What we need the Legislature to do is provide funds for those people who are in the midst of a career, people who need to make up for lost revenue during that period,” Rice said.

Rice has been working with lawmakers on other solutions to the teacher shortage. One proposal moving through the Legislature would get new hires in classrooms faster by waiving certification tests for experienced out-of-state educators. Another would support grow-your-own programs that introduce high school students to the profession.

Rice is also asking the Legislature to help ease the tuition burden for education majors.

One plan he backs for that was proposed by Launch Michigan, a coalition of business and philanthropic leaders working to improve schools. The governor and Legislature included the plan in disparate budget proposals, but haven’t agreed on details, which are being worked out in negotiations this month.

Launch Michigan wants the state to pay partial tuition for education majors who agree to teach in Michigan public schools after graduation. The state’s contribution could be as much as half of tuition, and the new educator’s commitment to teaching in Michigan could be as long as eight years, depending on which version of the proposal lawmakers adopt in the school aid budget.

“It needs to be significant,” said Launch Michigan President Adam Zemke. “The cash should be significant, and the required years of service should be significant.”

Recipients who leave Michigan or leave the profession before the end of their commitment would have to repay a portion of their scholarships, Zemke said, and participating universities would have to cap tuition hikes and provide ongoing resources to graduates during their early teaching years.

“If the state pays for half the tuition, universities have to be there for new teachers at their most vulnerable times,” Zemke said.

If the program had been in place when Camryn Booms was applying to teacher preparation programs, she’s sure she would have stayed in Michigan.

Instead, Booms, 23, of Harbor Beach, avoided student loan debt by going to the University of Wisconsin, where a state program called Wisconsin Teacher Pledge provided her free tuition as long as she promised to teach in the state for three years.

“I really love my home state” and didn’t want to leave, she said. “I’m like an outsider in Wisconsin, and it’s nine hours away. I was sad.”

Launch Michigan’s proposal is “a brilliant strategy,” said Joe Lubig, associate dean of the School of Education at Northern Michigan University. “Look at what it says: As a society, we’re going to invest in the people developing our children and young adults.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan may waive test for veteran teachers certified in other states

2022-06-10T12:30:00+00:00

Experienced educators from other states could soon teach in Michigan without having to pass the state certification exam.

Under proposed reciprocity legislation, people with three years’ experience elsewhere would no longer have to take the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification in order to start teaching in the state. And once they start, they would have a year to fulfill other state licensure requirements, including becoming certified in CPR, and, for some, completing additional coursework in reading diagnostics.

The idea is to reduce barriers and get experienced teachers in the classroom faster, said state Sen. Ed McBroom, a Republican from Vulcan, who is sponsoring the bill.

That’s important as the state tries to mitigate a longstanding teacher shortage in many districts that worsened during the pandemic. Class sizes are growing, principals are assigning educators to classes they don’t feel qualified to teach, and staff morale is down. Students, meanwhile, need good teachers more than ever as they try to make up for lost learning time during the pandemic.

Most other states already waive testing requirements for new hires who have experience in other states, said Phillip Rogers, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification. And some states are relaxing their testing rules even for less experienced teachers, he said.

State Superintendent Michael Rice supports McBroom’s bill, saying it could be very helpful and would cost the state nothing.

“It’s all upside, no downside,” he said.

The Michigan Education Association hasn’t taken an official position on the bill but supports its concept as long as its provisions are temporary.

“We do want to maintain the longtime, rigorous standards for being a teacher in Michigan, because our kids deserve the best and the brightest,” said Thomas Morgan, spokesman for the labor union. The certification test ensures teaching candidates meet those standards, Morgan said.

“But we do understand there is a crisis in our schools — a shortage of educators — and whatever we can do to get good teachers into our state and into our classrooms while we help them get on the path to meeting Michigan’s rigorous standards, we’re willing to do that,” he said.

About a third of teachers hired last year in Michigan were initially certified in other states. Rice believes the state could have hired more if experienced candidates from other states didn’t have to first meet the testing, CPR and reading course requirements set by the Legislature.

Those hurdles aren’t insurmountable, but they may be inconvenient enough to dissuade prospective hires at a time when they’re most needed, Rice said.

Principals say the legislation would be helpful.

“This would allow us to recruit and bring in new teachers without requiring them to take an assessment to prove abilities” they have already demonstrated by passing another state’s test, said Paul Liabenow, executive director of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association.

The change could make a big difference in Traverse City, home to a U.S. Coast Guard Air Station whose personnel sometimes arrive with spouses who are teachers looking for work.

Scheduling and taking the certification test can be enough of a barrier to persuade some of them to seek other kinds of jobs when they’re both qualified and needed in schools, said Traverse City Public Schools Superintendent John VanWagoner.

“I definitely want people that are strong, know their content, and are able to teach our kids at a high level, but I don’t know that that specific standardized test is the only measure,” VanWagoner said. “If we as an education entity believe they know their content and we feel good enough to put them in front of our kids, we should have the local autonomy to be able to do so.”

The Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness is expected to take up the bill later this month.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

More Michigan third graders could be held back under reading law

2022-05-27T22:52:46+00:00

Parents of nearly 5,700 Michigan students are getting some unwelcome news: Their third graders could be held back from moving on to the fourth grade because of low reading scores.

That’s up 60 percent from the number of students who were eligible to be retained last year.

The Michigan Department of Education attributes the increase to a larger number of students taking the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress this year. Ninety-eight percent of students took the third grade English language arts M-STEP exam, up from 71 percent last spring. Scores on the reading portion of that test determine eligibility for retention under the state’s controversial “read by grade three” law.

But that only partially explains the increase. Scores declined, too.

This year, 5.8% of those who took the test scored at least one grade level behind, making them eligible for retention. That’s up from 4.8% last year.

It is unclear how many of those students will actually be held back under the law, which provides wide latitude for parents to request exemptions. Administrators granted them liberally last year, holding back only 0.3% of those eligible for retention.

Administrators might not be as lenient in a school year with fewer school closures, quarantines, and other pandemic-related disruptions.

“Last year, there was a general acceptance of the fact that kids didn’t have an opportunity to learn to the extent they would normally,” said Katharine Strunk, director of the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University. “It’s unclear to me how districts will respond now that there’s been more of a return to normalcy,” she said.

State Superintendent Michael Rice said a single test score should not determine whether a student repeats third grade.

“Retention decisions should be on a student-by-student basis, in consultation among parents, teachers, and administrators,” he said. “In general, however, the idea that a given score on a state assessment should generate retention makes no sense. Student performance in multiple ways should be considered before a decision to retain a student.”

The state Center for Educational Progress and Information began mailing letters to parents on May 18.

The K-12 Alliance of Michigan, which opposed the law from the outset, hopes few students are retained.

“Holding a child back can be extraordinarily harmful to their academic success,” said Bob McCann, executive director of the alliance. Individualized instruction, tutoring, and reading coaching are better solutions, and schools are already offering them, he said.

Rice agreed, adding that smaller class sizes, strong teacher training, and summer school are also more helpful than retention, as are well-trained school librarians, specialized help for students with dyslexia, and a longer school year.

Across all grade levels tested, 96% of students took state assessments this year, up from 70% last year. The MDE is expected to release results of those tests in early fall.

“It’s great to see higher participation rates this year — one more indication that higher percentages of parents, students, and staff are comfortable in schools,” Rice said.

Fewer students took standardized tests last year because they must be given in person, and many students were learning remotely.

“It’s a positive sign to see more children in school on a regular basis, where they are able to interact with one another and their teachers to help them grow, learn, and thrive in a wide range of ways.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Short on teachers, Michigan schools try to grow their own

2022-05-25T14:00:00+00:00

Logan Welch, 18, sat in the back of a high school English class typing on his laptop, but he wasn’t taking notes on the poem like everyone else.

Instead, he recorded observations of the teacher, noting the way she quieted a disruptive boy, used sarcasm to relate to students, and engaged students by asking them to rank poems.

And he gained new perspective on what it might be like for him to be at the front of that classroom someday — as a teacher, with his own group of high school English students.

“When you’re in school it seems like teachers just give a lesson, but there’s so much that goes into it, so much thinking they have to do about different learning styles,” said Welch, a senior at East Kentwood High School in the suburbs of Grand Rapids.

Welch is one of 20 students in Educators Rising, a national program offered as an elective for high school juniors and seniors considering careers as teachers. The hope is that some of them go on to study education in college, then return to teach in East Kentwood.

State Superintendent Michael Rice sees such grow-your-own recruitment programs as an important part of his multi-pronged strategy to expand the teaching pool in Michigan. The state faces a teacher shortage at a most inopportune time: when students need more educational resources to catch up academically after two years of pandemic-related disruptions.

Although Michigan’s teaching force is larger than it was a decade ago, and the student population is smaller, administrators struggle to get fully certified teachers in classrooms where they’re most needed, especially in disciplines such as special education and world languages.

Another challenge: Diversifying the pool of future teachers so it’s more representative of the student population.

The grow-your-own strategy can help with that, too, Rice said in an interview Tuesday.

“Our student body is more diverse than our teaching staff, so not only does this help in terms of recruitment, it provides the opportunity to diversify the workforce as well,” he said.

Senior Rodnika Dickens, left, talks with Educators Rising teacher Jasmine Ramahi after returning from observing a freshman English class at East Kentwood High School. Dickens is among 20 students in a course for students exploring careers in education.

Helping students see themselves as teachers

Jasmine Ramahi has been teaching East Kentwood’s Educators Rising course for two years. She believes more people would enter the education field if they could picture themselves as teachers. Sometimes, she said, someone else has to see them that way first.

What makes a good teacher is not just about academic achievement, she said. “Teaching is about: Do you understand empathy? Do you like to be around people? Do you like to empower people?”

For senior Shawn White, the answers were yes, yes and yes.

Ramahi, who had been White’s Spanish teacher, saw promise in him. She encouraged him to sign up for the Educators Rising course.

“When she told me this class revolved around teaching, I didn’t really see myself in that field,” he said, adding: “I didn’t think I would have the nerve” to teach.

That was a year ago.

Two weeks ago, he was teaching a lesson about common grammar mistakes to a high school class of English language learners. It was the culmination of a year of observing other teachers and studying learning styles during Ramahi’s course.

Now White can envision himself leading class discussions, crafting lesson plans, and building relationships with students.

“This class opened another door, another opportunity,” White said. “Teaching is something I could see myself going into.”

As graduation approaches, White has been thinking a lot about the teachers he’s had over the years. Only one looked like him: male and Black.

That thought makes the idea of going into teaching — particularly at a diverse school like East Kentwood — feel even more impactful.

Senior Shawn White, foreground, tells classmates what he learned from observing a freshman English class. Behind him, left to right, Xander Schall, Olivia Martell, and Logan Welch listen. The students are in East Kentwood High School’s Educators Rising class for students considering teaching careers.

“Being able to see someone like me, the students might get a deeper connection,” White said. “If they have that trust, if they have that relationship, it motivates them to learn more and really enjoy the class.”

Equity, diversity, and representation are topics that come up often in Ramahi’s class.

“We talk very openly about the need for our teaching staff to look like our hallways,” Ramahi said. “We talk about the power it has to have students who look like you.”

Statewide, 17.7% of students are Black, but only 6.6% of teachers.

Rice, the state superintendent, wants to do better.

Programs like Educators Rising could help. Nationally, 52% of students in Educators Rising courses are people of color.

The growth of Educators Rising

The grow-your-own concept isn’t new, but programs have proliferated over the last few years as a response to the teacher shortage.

Eighty-five years ago, Future Teachers of America chapters began cropping up in high schools to help inspire promising students to become teachers. The group morphed into the Future Educators Association in 1994 when the professional organization Phi Delta Kappa International took it over from the National Education Association.

Seven years ago, Phi Delta Kappa relaunched the program under the name Educators Rising. Seventeen schools used the curriculum that first year. Now, 11,180 high schools across the country use it. Thirty-one of them, including East Kentwood, are in Michigan.

Participating districts pay $6,500 for each classroom using the curriculum.

In addition to the classroom observations, the curriculum includes lessons on professionalism, bias and equity, small group instruction, classroom management, lesson sequencing, culturally responsive teaching, and assessing learning.

About half of Educators Rising’s students have always had teaching on their minds — the kinds of kid s who used to line up their stuffed animals and play school, said Joshua Starr, executive director of Phi Delta Kappa and former superintendent in Maryland and Connecticut. The other half are teenagers who didn’t consider the profession until they learned their school was offering a course on it.

So far, 103,000 students have completed Educators Rising courses. It’s unclear how many of them enrolled in college education programs or have become certified teachers. Starr said it has been difficult to track students once they’ve graduated high school, but Phi Delta Kappa is hoping to work with states to collect data.

Sixty percent of teachers already end up working within 20 miles of where they went to high school, according to Educators Rising.

Starr urges districts to reaffirm the grow-your-own philosophy by guaranteeing jobs to their Educators Rising students who become certified teachers. “We’d like to have signing days with graduates signing letters of intent to come back,” he said.

His organization also is working to connect graduates of the program once they arrive on college campuses. About three dozen chapters of Educators Rising Collegiate have cropped up in the last year as student organizations, Starr said.

“We offer some programming and support, but it’s really student-driven,” he said. “It started because our kids actually asked us after they graduated. They said, ‘Hey, we’re in college now, and we’d love to network.’”

Other grow-your-own programs take root in Michigan

The Michigan Department of Education last year awarded $10,000 grants to help 44 schools develop opportunities for students to explore careers in education.

And more support could be coming.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget recommendation included $150 million to support district grow-your-own programs for support staff who want to become teachers. The House budget proposal added $74 million and added eligibility for programs aimed at high school students. The final budget is subject to negotiations between Whitmer and legislative leaders.

Separately, state Rep. Sarah Anthony, a Lansing Democrat, has introduced legislation that would require the MDE to develop or adopt a model “teacher cadet” program that districts could choose to offer to students.

Many schools already are using other curricula or developing their own.

Educators Rising teacher Jasmine Ramahi, right, talks with students KeAvion Buggs, Rodika Dickens, and Abigail Best, left to right. The students, all seniors at East Kentwood High School, are exploring careers in education.

This fall, Detroit Public Schools Community District will launch its Rise to Teach initiative to encourage students to pursue careers in education. The district plans to develop the initiative into a formal pathway to teacher preparation programs. Rise to Teach students who go on to become certified teachers will be guaranteed jobs in the district, said Assistant Superintendent Ben Jackson.

Wyoming High School near Grand Rapids started offering an exploratory class this school year to 17 students who expressed an interest in teaching.

And Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District plans to launch its Future Educator Academy in September. Teacher Erin Luckhardt’s goal is to help students in Charlevoix and Emmet counties determine early on whether the educator profession is a fit for them, to provide them opportunities to observe high-quality teachers in their own districts, and to encourage those who go on to receive education degrees to return to teach in the area.

Luckhardt is working with districts within the ISD to guarantee job interviews for students who take her class and go on to become certified teachers.

Not all graduates of the program will wind up pursuing teaching, and that’s OK with Luckhardt.

Starr agreed.

“The ideal is that every student who goes through the program is inspired and says, ‘Yes, I’m going to be an educator,’ but the reality is some of them will say this isn’t for them,” he said.

The curriculum is designed to give prospective teachers an idea of what the profession would be like — “warts and all” — Starr said. “We try to make sure their eyes are wide open.”

In East Kentwood and Wyoming high schools, that has meant frank classroom discussions and opportunities to interact with guest speakers who include experienced teachers, principals and superintendents.

East Kentwood High School senior Lisa Ha, center, talks with freshman Tyson Johnson while observing a special education class. Ha is a student in Educators Rising, a class for juniors and seniors exploring teaching careers.

What students noticed when they observed teachers

But a big part of the curriculum is delivered through observation.

One afternoon in April, each of Ramahi’s 20 prospective teachers observed a different freshman class. They took note of the way teachers managed behavior, built relationships, developed lessons that incorporated different cultures, and used alternative instructional methods to reach students with different learning styles.

Welch visited a class tasked with identifying imagery in slam poet George Masao Yamazawa’s piece about growing up as a child of immigrants. Students worked at their desks while their teacher, Jessica Baker, circulated and spoke with them individually.

Welch zeroed in on one such interaction.

“There was a student who kept interrupting and giving answers that were obvious,” Welch recalled. “Instead of telling him to be quiet, she acknowledged him and then moved on.”

It worked, Welch said, because the teacher had already established a rapport with the student earlier in the school year. That’s something he might not have realized before taking Educators Rising, he said.

“I see now that there’s so much that goes into being a teacher and just how heavy the responsibility is for teachers,” he said. “My eyes have definitely been opened to that.”

Another student, Lisa Ha, who is considering a career in special education, visited a class of students who have developmental disabilities. She held freshman Tyson Johnson’s hand to reassure him during an occupational skills activity.

In the band room, Abigail Best noticed how a music teacher sat next to students to be at eye level during one-on-one conversations.

Rodnika Dickens observed an English class full of well behaved freshmen reading at their desks while quiet nature sounds played on a speaker in the background. She attributed their behavior to classroom management skills.

“It wasn’t like the teacher was strict, but they knew when they came in the classroom what they were supposed to do,” Dickens said the next day in a small group discussion with Educators Rising classmates. “They knew the routine.”

Ramahi said her class’s learning objectives are so closely aligned with introductory college education courses that some universities in Michigan are considering granting college credit for the East Kentwood course.

Senior Logan Welch observes a freshman English class at East Kentwood High School. Welch, who hopes to become a high school teacher, is one of 20 students in the school’s Educators Rising course.

Most of the students in her program still haven’t decided for sure what their majors will be, but Welch has made up his mind.

He’s headed to Michigan State University to begin training to be a high school English teacher.

Educators Rising has prepared him well, he said.

“I’m glad for this class,” Welch said, adding: “There aren’t always a lot of classes where you actually get to do something that you’re passionate about and that could help you in the future.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Coding, financial literacy stressed over languages in Michigan bills

2022-05-19T14:00:09+00:00

Courses in Python, HTML, and SQL soon could replace Spanish, French, and German on Michigan high school students’ schedules.

Students who study computer programming languages or take other coding courses would get credit toward their world-language graduation requirement under a bill working its way through the state Legislature.

Supporters say it would give students greater flexibility to explore a skill that could help prepare them for future jobs.

Nate Henschel, director of government affairs for the Grand Rapids Chamber, said he hopes giving students a coding option will spark interest in the science, technology, engineering, math fields and potentially lead to high paying jobs.

“It’s what the economy needs,” he said. “We’re seeing a growing demand for jobs in this field. It just gives kids the option.”

Separate legislation also could chip away at the state’s language requirement. It would require high school students to take a half-credit financial literacy course. Credit for that course could be used toward fulfilling world language, math, or art requirements.

Both bills have support from business groups that say they’re interested in a better skilled workforce. But in an example of the ongoing STEM-versus-humanities debate in education, they’re running into resistance from critics who worry that the bills will reduce local flexibility over curriculum and further crowd out cultural understanding in favor of more technical education.

“Personal finance has nothing to do with world language,” said Julie Foss, public liaison for the Michigan World Language Association, which opposes the bills on coding and personal finance. “It’s not that we think that either of those things isn’t valuable, but they have no place replacing world languages.”

She said if Michigan determines that students need to learn computer coding, it makes more sense for the course to fulfill a math or science requirement.

Michigan students already can opt out of one of their two required foreign language credits if they take a career and technical education class or if they earn more than two visual and performing arts credits. It’s unclear how many students use CTE or arts classes to fulfill the world language requirement, but 103,000 students were enrolled in career and technical education programs last school year.

Students also can fulfill world language requirements before high school. For example, a district could offer a K-8 language program for all children that results in proficiency equivalent to two years of high school course work.

The Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals supports financial literacy but opposes the bill because it doesn’t give districts enough flexibility to decide how to deliver instruction. For example, districts should have the option to embed financial literacy content into existing courses, MASSP lobbyist Bob Kefgen said.

The Michigan Department of Education opposes both bills. Legislative liaison Sheryl Kennedy said the department supports the teaching of coding and financial literacy but opposes any bill that substitutes credit from one area of the Michigan Merit Curriculum for another.

“Foreign language isn’t just about learning to speak the language,” she said. “It is learning about a culture different from ours. Coding does not do that.”

Foss, who also is a French professor, said people often think of world language courses as having a lot of memorization of vocabulary and grammar rules. But these courses have an “immersive environment” where “culture is at the center,” she said, and students learn communication skills that employers are looking for.

Others say coding is a communication skill, too, and that programming languages are as important as spoken ones.

The Grand Rapids Chamber supports both bills and has been working on the computer coding component for years, according to Henschel.

On the personal finance bill, Henschel said “so many young adults are unprepared when it comes to reviewing loans, credit cards, and other significant financial decisions” and that the bill will hopefully lead to “better financial well-being for years to come.”

Some students are already taking financial literacy courses.

In Grand Rapids, Forest Hills High School’s personal finance course is a popular elective. Students say it teaches them how to budget money from their minimum-wage jobs, understand pay stubs, open savings accounts, and invest in stocks.

“It’s one of the only classes in school where I can truly see how it will help me in the future,” junior Clare Hilary testified last week before the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness.

Classmate Jacquelinn Festian told senators she didn’t know the difference between a debit card and a credit card before she started the class. Now she knows “it’s super easy to go into debt with your credit card.”

She said every student in Michigan should have the chance to learn that and other financial lessons before they graduate.

Both measures could be voted on by the full Senate in the coming days or weeks. Both were previously approved by the House. The Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness made small technical changes to the bills, so the House would have to vote again if the Senate approves the amended bills.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has not said whether she would sign the bills if they reach her desk. She will review the bills as they move through the legislative process, spokesman Bobby Leddy said Wednesday.

Sixteen years ago, Michigan had only one statewide graduation requirement for high schools: that students take one civics course. Otherwise, districts were free to set their own requirements.

In 2006 the state adopted the Michigan Merit Curriculum, which mandates a minimum of 18 credits in specified subjects. Local school districts can add to those requirements, and many do.

Ten Michigan districts require personal finance courses, according to NextGen Personal Finance, a nonprofit advocacy group pushing states to require them for all students. Banks and credit unions across the country also have been working to draw attention to the need for financial literacy.

Their efforts have been successful in Florida, Nebraska, Ohio, and Rhode Island, which recently passed laws requiring high school students to take personal finance courses. Including Michigan, 18 other states are considering similar laws.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Isabel Lohman covers education for Bridge Michigan. Reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com.

Michigan’s teacher shortage: What’s causing it, how serious is it, and what can be done?

2022-05-13T12:00:00+00:00

At a state school board meeting earlier this year, a Muskegon teacher told a story that underscored why education leaders, lawmakers, and the governor are pushing hard to address Michigan’s teacher shortage problem.

Danielle Groendyk, an English language arts teacher at Oakridge High School who is in her third year of teaching, told members of the Michigan Board of Education that when she graduated from a teacher prep program just a few years ago, she was part of a cohort of 10 people.

Today, only three of them are teaching.

Others left, “to pursue careers in other fields where they’re better compensated for positions that have a better work-life balance,” Groendyk told board members in March.

There are many more stories like this across Michigan.

Beginning long before the pandemic started, school administrators have struggled to hire and retain teachers, for a vast number of reasons. The number of people entering teacher preparation programs, which was slightly up over the last two years for which data is available, is still well below levels from a decade ago. Teacher turnover is high. Morale is low. And retirements are up.

There’s a lot at stake for Michigan schools, and there are signs the shortage could get even worse. Shortages used to be largely focused on areas such as math and science, but state officials say they’re now seeing shortages in areas that used to be flush with applicants, such as elementary school and social studies. Meanwhile, the bulk of Michigan’s teaching workforce is over the age of 40, meaning retirements could drive up job openings.

The pandemic, which has upended education since 2020, has worsened years of poor academic outcomes for Michigan students, and brought renewed attention to the social and emotional needs of students that have made learning more difficult and increased the demands on teachers.

“The challenges of being an educator these days are different than they were 10 or 15 years ago,” Michael Behrmann, superintendent of the Harbor Springs Public Schools district, said in an interview. “Students bring more complexities to the school and more issues than ever before.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and lawmakers are searching for solutions. State Superintendent Michael Rice has urged the state to invest as much as $500 million in strategies to address shortages. And the state board of education has taken a particular interest in the issue, discussing it at nearly every meeting in the last six months.

How bad is Michigan’s teacher shortage?

The number of public K-12 teachers has grown by 2% over the last decade while the student population has shrunk 9%, state data shows.

But those numbers don’t tell the whole story about the difficulties districts are having filling teaching positions.

The statistics are more nuanced than they appear, said Leah Breen, director of the Michigan Department of Education’s Office of Educator Excellence.

For example, the numbers don’t differentiate between certified educators and uncertified substitutes working under full-year temporary permits, and they don’t account for difficulties in hiring for specific positions such as special education, or in remote districts that have more trouble attracting candidates.

Just ask superintendents like Alan Tulppo of Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District in the westernmost part of the Upper Peninsula. It’s been harder than ever to hire there, he told the state Board of Education during a November meeting. Principals have had to rely on their last-resort solution, hiring uncertified educators who have temporary waivers, he said.

Even districts that used to get a lot of applications are having trouble finding teachers now.

“Fifteen years ago we’d get hundreds of applications for an elementary position,” Behrmann said. “Now we’re lucky if we get three or four.”

Administrators often find themselves hiring from neighboring districts, creating new problems in other places. That’s what Superintendent Chuck North did when a few openings cropped up in the middle of this school year in Reading Community Schools just north of the Ohio border.

“There are no new teacher candidates out there,” North said. “School districts basically have to try to steal from each other.”

Craig Thiel, director of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, a public affairs research group, said he doesn’t perceive a statewide crisis the way Rice and other state officials do. But he acknowledged that shortages represent a pressing problem for many communities.

“Any time a student is sitting in front of a teacher that doesn’t have the credential to teach the class, that’s concerning,” Thiel said. “And if that’s happening more often, it is a growing concern that requires public attention.”

Nationwide, there were 386,000 teacher vacancies in February 2022, according to the latest data available from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. A decade earlier there were 108,000 openings.

The bureau doesn’t report vacancies by state, and Michigan doesn’t track them in real time. Breen said the department follows state law, which requires it to collect personnel data from school districts twice a year.

Researchers at the Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, known as EPIC, say that’s too infrequent to capture rapidly changing conditions within districts. They also say the data isn’t detailed enough to be useful. They recommend a new law requiring more frequent reporting of data that captures new hires, terminations, reassignments, job openings, and start and end dates of each vacancy.

Other researchers find the data lacking, too.

“We did a report to try to suss this out in 2019,” Thiel said, and the main finding was that in Michigan, “we’re doing a very bad job of trying to get our arms around the nature of this problem. If there’s a problem, what are the nuances of it?”

What is causing Michigan’s teacher shortage problems?

For many Michigan districts, a teacher shortage crisis has been brewing for years, beginning with the Great Recession of 2008-09, which left many schools reeling financially and caused widespread job uncertainty for staff. It continued as lawmakers enacted laws unpopular with educators that made it easier for school districts to fire teachers, weakened teacher tenure laws, and made test scores an important part of teacher evaluations.

Meanwhile, fewer people were choosing the profession to begin with. Suddenly Michigan, which used to be a state that overproduced teachers, was seeing big holes in its pipeline. In 2014-15, there were 14,749 people enrolled in teacher preparation programs. In 2018-19, the latest year the data is available, the number was 10,168.

Although average teacher salaries in Michigan are around $64,000 a year, the pay for new teachers is low. Beginning teachers average $37,320 annually, according to the Michigan Education Association. It can take years for a new teacher to reach the top of the pay scale, and those who have in-demand skills in areas such as math and science can command much higher salaries in the private sector.

Factor in an aging workforce — 62% of teachers in Michigan are over age 40 — and the challenges become more clear.

The pandemic has only exacerbated this problem. Teachers are working longer hours, often filling in for colleagues who’ve become ill with COVID. Online teaching has been difficult, as have the challenges of dealing with learning loss, mental health concerns, and inconsistent modes of learning over the years. Some teachers have had enough and are considering leaving the profession.

“Teachers are exhausted,” Leah Porter, a Holt teacher who was named Michigan’s Teacher of the Year in 2021, said during a recent meeting of the Michigan Board of Education. “The stakes have never been higher on teachers, and they feel that pressure. They are just burned out beyond belief.”

The pandemic has often put teachers on the front lines of conflicts over whether schools should be in person or remote. A raging debate about curriculum, including how topics such as Black history and racism are taught, hasn’t helped.

The MEA, the state’s largest teacher’s union with affiliates across Michigan, earlier this year released the results of a survey that show 1 in 5 Michigan teachers who responded expect to change careers in the next two to three years, while 14% said they plan to retire. That doesn’t mean they’ll all leave, and national data show that similar survey responses haven’t resulted in a huge exodus, but it is concerning for local and state education officials.

Where is the shortage worst?

It’s difficult for researchers to say which districts are struggling the most to hire teachers. The answer isn’t captured clearly in the data the state collects, said Katharine Strunk, director of the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University.

Districts in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula, for example, have the highest ratio of teachers to students. Yet teachers in those districts are the least likely to have permanent certificates in the grade or subject they are teaching.

Turnover is highest in urban districts with the highest poverty and the most Black students, according to EPIC. That means some of the state’s most disadvantaged students have the least experienced teachers. A Chalkbeat analysis last year shed light on the disproportionate effect of teacher turnover on students of color and students from low-income families.

“This kind of teacher churn can have substantial deleterious effects on students, and on schools’ and districts’ abilities to operate effectively and efficiently,” EPIC researchers said in a 2021 report.

How have the shortage areas changed?

Michigan, like many other states, has long had trouble finding enough teachers certified to teach special education, math, world languages, the sciences, English as a second language, and career and technical education courses.

Recently, hiring difficulties reached elementary schools, where principals at one time had their pick of hundreds of applicants for each open position. In 2018, elementary teachers appeared on the U.S. Department of Education’s critical shortage area list for Michigan.

That’s startling in a state that once produced so many teachers that the State Board of Education in 2005 stopped authorizing new college and university teacher preparation programs.

There are currently 26 disciplines on Michigan’s critical shortage list, twice as many as a decade ago. Recently added disciplines include physical education, art, music, elementary education, language arts, psychology, and social studies.

How does the struggle to hire qualified teachers affect students?

Students are in larger classes and are sometimes being taught by uncertified long-term substitutes or educators teaching outside the grade levels and subject areas they trained for. Other students are being taught by educators who are stressed from the burden of covering for absent colleagues because of a troubling shortage of substitute teachers, Breen said.

Despite staffing challenges, most Michigan schools are finding ways to still offer electives and advanced courses, Breen said. Doing that sometimes requires assigning teachers who don’t feel prepared to teach in those content areas or who haven’t taught those courses in 12 or more years, Breen said.

Will there be money in next year’s state school aid budget to help?

The governor, House and Senate agree there’s a problem, but they have vastly different ideas for how to address it and how much to spend on it. They have until July 1 — when school districts’ fiscal years begin — to hammer out the differences in their disparate spending plans.

Whitmer’s plan is the most expensive, most complicated, and most controversial.

Her proposed budget calls for $1.5 billion to cover bonuses for teachers who remain in their districts or transfer to high-poverty schools. The bonuses would gradually increase from $2,000 to $4,000 over four school years.

Teachers unions support the plan, but government watchdogs like Thiel say the bonuses should be more targeted.

“Rather than sprinkle the infield, maybe we should provide greater retention bonuses to those who are in special education classrooms or middle school science classrooms,” Thiel said. “If these are the classrooms where we’re having a problem with retention, where we’re seeing teachers leaving, let’s tailor the retention bonuses to those classrooms and those districts.”

Whitmer also wants to invest $150 million in scholarships, tuition reimbursement, and mentorship programs for new teachers.

Teacher recruitment and retention are a much lower priority for Michigan senators who budgeted just $25 million for it in the spending plan they passed last week. That money would be used to provide scholarships to student teachers.

House lawmakers want to invest much more. They budgeted $529 million for recruitment and retention efforts including scholarships, compensation for student teachers, and support for programs that offer pathways for school support staff and high school students to become educators.

That’s in line with what Rice, the state superintendent, has said it will cost to alleviate the state’s teacher hiring problem. He has been calling for a variety of changes including raising teacher pay, forgiving teachers’ student loans, paying child care costs for parents enrolled in education programs, and providing stipends to defray student teachers’ living costs.

Won’t federal COVID relief money help?

Michigan schools received a $6 billion windfall as part of the federal government’s COVID relief package. Districts are using it for tutoring programs, summer school, computers, ventilation systems, and much more.

Superintendents are reluctant to use it to hire staff because they would have to maintain the salaries for new hires after the three years of federal COVID money runs out.

What is the Michigan Department of Education doing to mitigate the problem?

Last summer, the MDE launched the Welcome Back Proud Michigan Educators Campaign to help former teachers with lapsed credentials return to the profession. The program also provides the necessary professional development to open pathways to Michigan education majors who completed their programs but never became teachers.

Last year, Rice approved new alternative-route teacher certification programs created by New Paradigm for Education, a charter school network, and the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Alternative-route programs are an important part of the solution but not a replacement for college and university programs, Breen said. Alternative-route candidates need to already have bachelor’s degrees before they enroll, she said. Much of the recent growth in enrollment in teacher preparation programs was fueled by alternative programs.

Rice is also using his bully pulpit to encourage local school districts to boost teacher salaries, and to press the Legislature to fund recruitment strategies and — especially — retention efforts such as Whitmer’s proposed bonuses.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. Reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan House votes to boost school funding, ban transgender athletes

2022-05-06T21:07:29+00:00

The Michigan House and Senate approved separate school spending plans this week, setting in motion negotiations over whether to reduce debt or invest in new teacher recruitment and mental health efforts.

House lawmakers on Thursday passed a $19.9 billion school aid budget that increases spending by 15%, pays down pension debt, and prohibits transgender girls from playing on girls’ scholastic sports teams.

The vote was 65-38 with most Republicans in favor and most Democrats opposed.

The Senate passed its own $17.9 billion school aid budget on Wednesday on a 20-15 vote, without any support from Democrats.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had proposed an $18.4 billion education budget that invests heavily in teacher recruitment and retention, a lesser priority for both the House and Senate.

Now it’s up to a bipartisan conference committee to reconcile the disparate plans.

What is clear is that any deal will boost education spending above the current $17 billion budget. With a recovering economy, a revenue surplus, and billions in federal COVID relief, lawmakers see opportunities to cut taxes and pay down debt, while still having enough to invest in new programs.

Sen. Dale Zorn, a Republican from Onsted, said in a written statement that it’s important to provide tax relief for families dealing with inflation.

Rosemary Bayer, the Senate’s assistant Democratic whip, wants the state to make up for years of insufficient investment in schools.

“There are real uses for the money, but there is a group of Republicans who don’t want to spend it,” said Bayer, of Keego Harbor near Pontiac.

Senate Democrats had sought to decrease funding for online charter school students, increase funding for traditional public school students, and provide $1.5 billion for a teacher-retention bonus program Whitmer proposed. Republicans voted down those efforts but allowed one amendment that would provide $6 million for mental health support, security, and structural repairs to Oxford High School, where a student with a gun killed four and injured seven last year.

The House budget would increase per-pupil base funding by $300, bringing it to $9,000. The Senate version calls for $9,150 per student. The governor’s proposal falls in between at $9,135 but exempts online schools from the increase.

The House bill also adds a $1.7 billion payment to reduce the state’s $33.7 billion unfunded pension liability in the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System.

Democrats prefer to direct that money toward investments in special education, teacher recruitment, and funding for at-risk students such as English learners and economically disadvantaged children.

The House budget “simply does not provide the support Michigan children, Michigan teachers, Michigan schools, and Michigan’s future needs,” Rep. Regina Weiss of Oak Park argued on the House floor Thursday.

“When we fall short of funding our public school system, we all suffer,” she added.

Earlier, House Republicans rebuffed her attempt to remove language requiring public school districts to prohibit transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams. Weiss said that requirement would force schools to discriminate, shame, and single out students in ways that encourage bullying.

Republicans say it’s a matter of fairness and opportunities for cisgender females.

State Rep. Brad Paquette, a Republican from Niles who sponsored the school budget bill, phrased the argument in religious terms. “An individual that God made as a boy has distinct physical advantages over an individual that God made as a girl,” he said. Paquette is vice chair of the House Education Committee and chair of the School Aid and Michigan Department of Education Budget Subcommittee.

The school aid budget is part of a larger spending package the House and Senate passed this week to fund state agencies over the state’s next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

Administrators hope for agreement on the school aid budget much sooner so they have certainty before July 1, the start of the fiscal year for school districts.

Many changes are expected before the final version reaches Whitmer’s desk.

“A budget is a statement of priorities — and this budget plan prioritizes educating children, improving our economy, and supporting families struggling with increasing costs,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Jim Stamas, a Republican from Midland.

At a news conference in Grand Rapids Thursday, state Superintendent Michael Rice told reporters he is hoping for a compromise that will increase funding for English language learners and economically disadvantaged students, whose educational needs are greater than other students’. He also wants the Legislature to fund the governor’s proposals for retention bonuses and for infrastructure improvements.

Note: This story has been updated to correct Sen. Dale Zorn’s town of residence.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chakbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Governor's Proposal	House Budget	Senate Budget
Increases the state's base funding, known as the foundation allowance, from $8,700 per pupil to $9,135 per student but excludes cyber schools from the increase.	Increases the foundation allowance to $9,000 per student.	Increases the foundation allowance to $9,150 per student.
Provides $150 million to intermediate districts partnering with the TRAILS program (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students), which helps students with mental health. The current budget appropriates $5.4 million.	Does not fund TRAILS.	Provides $10 million for TRAILS.
Provides $171 million in state support for local districts’ infrastructure and capital projects.	Does not include.	Does not include.
Increases funding for Great Start Readiness Program by $435 per student for a total of $9,135 per student.	Retains current spending of $8,700 per student.	Retains current spending of $8,700 per student.
Increases the amount the state reimburses districts for special education costs from 31% to 36%.	Increases the special education reimbursement rate to 38%	Does not increase reimbursement rate.
Invests $1.5 billion in retention bonuses for teachers and staff members who stay in their jobs. Also invests $150 million in scholarships, tuition reimbursement and mentorship programs for new teachers.	Invests $529 million in teacher recruitment and retention efforts including scholarships for education majors, compensation for student teachers, and support for grow-your-own programs that offer pathways for support staff and high school students to become educators.	Provides $25 million in scholarships for education majors.

Comparison of Michigan budget plans

Michigan GOP lawmakers push for transgender athlete ban

2022-04-28T02:06:13+00:00

Republican lawmakers in Michigan are stepping back into the national debate over the right of transgender athletes to participate in scholastic sports.

After a Senate effort to limit opportunities for transgender athletes stalled last year, state Republicans found a new vehicle: the state budget.

The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee advanced a K-12 school aid budget late Wednesday that includes language requiring school districts and intermediate school districts to prohibit what the measure refers to as “boys” from competing on girls’ or women’s teams.

Although the language doesn’t include the word “transgender,” it’s clear who it is meant to apply to, said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan’s LGBT Project.

“Boys don’t play on girls’ sports teams,” he said. “We don’t see that in high school. This is about transgender girls.”

State Rep. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said at the hearing that the measure is about fairness and isn’t meant to be cruel or to marginalize anyone.

“There are advantages that men have biologically that gives them an advantage when it comes to competitive sports,” Albert said. “Just physically, we’re stronger. We’re faster, and I just don’t think it’s fair for girls. I think it puts them at a competitive disadvantage.”

He added: “I just want my daughters to have the same opportunities as my sons.”

Before the Appropriations Committee considered it, the bill was discussed Tuesday in the House Subcommittee on School Aid and Department of Education. The seven Republicans on that panel voted to recommend the bill while three Democrats voted no and one passed on the vote.

Regina Weiss, D-Oak Park, a member of the Appropriations Committee and minority vice chair of the subcommittee, tried to strip the language at the committee meeting, but her amendment failed on a party-line vote.

Weiss called the measure’s language “needlessly cruel” and said it didn’t belong in a budget bill.

“Being a kid is hard enough, especially in today’s world,” Weiss said. “When kids are growing up and figuring out who they are, the last thing they need is a bunch of adults trying to shame them, segregate, and marginalize them.”

Studies show transgender and gender nonconforming youth and teens have far higher rates of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.

Hazel Park Schools superintendent Amy Kruppe told Bridge Michigan she isn’t surprised by the budget proposal. She said public schools are under increased scrutiny amid debates over book bans, curriculum transparency, and teaching critical race theory. Kruppe said the conversation should instead focus on making students feel safe and acknowledged.

In Hazel Park, a district of about 3,000 students, the sports measure would affect fewer than three students, she said.

“I don’t think it’ll go through, but I do think there will be a lot of conversation about it,” she said.

Albert argued at the hearing that it’s important that cisgender girls not lose out on scholarship opportunities. But Weiss pushed back, asking if there was evidence of that in Michigan. Albert said it’s a growing trend nationally.

About 1.8% of high school students identify as transgender, according to a population survey conducted in 2017 across 10 states, including Michigan, and nine urban school districts including Detroit in 2017.

Kaplan, the ACLU attorney, said the number of transgender girls playing high school sports in Michigan is “infinitesimally small” and that proponents of the ban are politically motivated.

“They’ve made a calculation that this helps them firm up their political base to get out the vote, and it helps them fundraise, but the impact is to further marginalize transgender kids,” he said. “These politicians have decided that their own political power is more important than the well-being of transgender youth.”

At least 13 other states have enacted laws governing the participation of transgender athletes on school teams. An Alabama law, for example, says a public school “may never allow a biological male to participate on a female team.” In Arizona, eligibility is determined by a committee that considers the student’s “gender story” along with input from administrators and doctors.

The issue bubbled up last week in Kansas when Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill requiring students’ participation in school activities to align with their “biological sex.” The state’s Senate voted to override her veto Tuesday.

University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas made news in March when she became the first known transgender athlete to win an NCAA swimming championship. The Guardian reported that the NCAA decided not to follow the USA Swmming policy where transgender athletes must undergo three years of hormone replacement therapy before competing. Thomas had six months to go before meeting that requirement. Her participation has sparked fierce debate between those who say she has the right to compete and those who say her participation is hurting women’s sports.

In the Michigan Senate, a school aid fund proposal that advanced in the Appropriations Committee on Wednesday did not include language about students’ gender and athletics.

If the athletics provision makes it into the final budget passed by both chambers, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer can intervene. The governor can declare measures within budget proposals unconstitutional or unenforceable as Whitmer did last year with provisions related to mask and vaccine orders. Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.

With both legislative chambers controlled by Republicans, “the governor remains the firewall to make sure this doesn’t happen in Michigan, that Michigan is not a state that would harm its most vulnerable population,” the ACLU’s Kaplan said.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association has a policy adopted in 2012 that determines post-season tournament eligibility for transgender athletes on a case-by-case basis, Bridge reported last year.

At the time, association spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly told Bridge the group had received and approved 10 applications in the past five years. On Wednesday, Kimmerly said its policy has not changed in the year since and that it “works for our schools, and it’s been followed without issue.”

He said no one in the Legislature contacted the organization about this language before the budget proposal was presented.

The issue also did not come up among local school superintendents at a meeting Wednesday morning, according to Ingham Intermediate School District Superintendent Jason Mellema.

“I would have a strong assumption or a personal belief that this would not affect any ISDs in the state, because ISDs don’t directly support interscholastic programs.”

While adding the language to the budget bill is a new tactic, it’s not the first time GOP lawmakers raised the issue.

State Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, proposed a bill last year that would have required student athletes to compete on teams that aligned with their “biological sex.” Theis’ bill defined “biological sex” as “the physical condition of being male or female as determined by an individual’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth.”

The House appropriations bill debated Wednesday does not refer to “biological sex” or define the terms “boys” or “girls.”

Theis also has proposed legislation that would ban critical race theory.

Isabel Lohman covers education for Bridge Michigan. Reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com. Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan bills would de-emphasize test scores to account for pandemic disruptions

2022-04-27T17:04:09+00:00

Standardized test scores wouldn’t be a factor this year in educator evaluations or decisions about whether third-graders can move up to fourth grade, under proposed legislation to loosen state education requirements to account for disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The proposals introduced last week recognize the pandemic’s effect on instruction over the past two years, and the stresses of switching between remote and in-person learning as waves of COVID infections forced building closures and quarantines. Those disruptions are becoming less frequent, but the effects of the chaotic 2020-21 school year are lasting, said state Rep. Lori Stone, and students and educators shouldn’t be punished for them.

“Students didn’t get to choose the circumstances of their education for the last couple of years. Teachers and administrators didn’t get to choose those circumstances, either,” said Stone, a Warren Democrat who is shepherding a package of bills that would waive what she views as punitive measures. “We need to show grace around education.”

Under current law, results of standardized tests have important consequences. For teachers and administrators, student scores weigh heavily in teacher evaluations, which are used in decisions about tenure, staff reductions, reassignments, and promotions. For students, they influence whether they receive extra help or, in the case of Michigan third-graders, whether they have to repeat a grade.

The bills have several Democratic co-sponsors. Only one Republican, Rep. Bronna Kahle of Adrian, is on board, and only for the legislation waiving test scores as a factor in teacher evaluations. She is the primary sponsor of that measure.

Sponsors will need more GOP support for the legislation to advance in the Republican-controlled House. They say they’re optimistic it will come.

“We’re not all the way there yet, but I think we can make some headway,” said state Rep. Brenda Carter, a Pontiac Democrat. “The pandemic hit every child. It caused mental anguish throughout the whole education community.”

The proposals reflect concerns that holding teachers accountable for test scores after a tumultuous two years adds a layer of stress for teachers already feeling burned out by the challenges of the pandemic.

“It seems shortsighted to enact punitive measures for our third-graders, for our teachers, and for our administrators when we know instructional practices didn’t necessarily follow typical expectations,” Stone said. “They had to adjust on the fly in [difficult] conditions and we want to hold them to the same expectations?” Stone asked.

Ben DeGrow, director of education policy at the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said he opposes the bills, calling test scores an important, objective accountability measure.

Standards might not be the same in a pandemic year than a typical one, DeGrow said, but people can view the scores in the context of the pandemic and make their judgements accordingly.

Five bills are under consideration:

House Bill 5991 would exempt this year’s third-graders from the Read by Grade Three law, which says children cannot advance to fourth grade unless they read on at least a second-grade level or receive an exemption from their superintendent.
House Bills 5992, 5993, and 5051 would temporarily waive a requirement that districts consider student test scores in end-of-year evaluations of teachers and administrators. Normally, at least 40% of a teacher’s evaluation must be based on academic growth students demonstrate on standardized tests. Under the bill, evaluations would be based on other criteria such as performance goals, instructional improvement, and classroom observations.
A fifth bill in the package would temporarily waive a requirement that the Michigan Department of Education assign schools annual letter grades, from A to F, to help identify and improve struggling schools. A controversial 2018 law calls for letter grades based on student proficiency, academic growth, graduation rates, progress of English language learners, and performance compared with schools with similar demographics.

Michigan wouldn’t be the first state to loosen testing requirements this year. Florida, for example, waived a graduation requirement that high school seniors pass standardized tests in English and math.

MDE spokesman Bill DiSessa said the department has no official position on the five bills, but state Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice, in general, said he agrees with the premise of giving a grace year.

The American Federation of Teachers Michigan supports the legislation.

“Given COVID, while we are getting back to usual operations, we have not been there for the full year,” union spokesman David Hecker said in an email message. “Educators have gone above and beyond during the COVID years.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan coalition: Don’t neglect recess

2022-04-19T21:53:32+00:00

Reading, writing, and ’rithmetic are important, but one group of Michigan educators and business leaders wants to make sure schools don’t forget about a fourth R: recess.

Roughly one in five elementary school students gets less than 20 minutes of recess time each day, according to a new survey of school administrators conducted by the Coalition for Michigan Schoolchildren’s Right to Play.

In some districts, children get little more than a few minutes of playtime in the gymnasium after lunch, said Paul Liabenow, a member of the coalition and executive director of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association.

The survey comes after two years of disrupted learning when quarantines and school closures forced children into virtual learning without opportunities for free play or in-person interaction with classmates during school.

That loss contributed to changes in children’s physical and mental health, said Rebecca Hasson, associate professor of kinesiology and director of InPACT, a University of Michigan project to promote physical activity in schools.

Children need recess now more than ever, Hasson said Monday in a telephone interview.

“It isn’t just fun, but there are actually many mental, emotional, and physical benefits that come with free time,” she said.

The Right to Play coalition, which formed last year, does not have comparative data over time, but Liabenow said he believes recess time has been shrinking as districts struggle to provide enough equipment and staff to supervise unstructured play.

Hasson attributes the contraction to many factors.

“You need equipment. You need staffing. You need to make sure there are precautions in place so children don’t get hurt. You need training on how to effectively monitor recess so it will be a positive experience,” she said.

In some small schools, the biggest obstacle is scheduling playtime around physical education classes that occur in the same spaces as recess, Liabenow said.

The pressure to improve test scores could be a factor, too, coalition members said.

That’s particularly true in districts where administrators are unaware of research showing that recess is associated with higher academic achievement, Liabenow said. He wasn’t when he was a principal in Cadillac Area Public Schools.

“For the first 20 years of my career, I would say we need to double down on instruction and set aside playtime, but research doesn’t support that idea,” he said.

Recess is not required by law in Michigan, although the state Board of Education in 2012 recommended that all public schools offer at least 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity outside of physical education classes, including at least 20 minutes of recess.

That’s in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations and with laws in several other states.

Coalition members have been talking with lawmakers about the importance of recess, but have focused on educating administrators to increase recess time without a state mandate.

“Our hope is we can [encourage schools to prioritize recess] simply by virtue of informing and offering ideas for how to make it work with schedules and staffing,” Liabenow said.

In Leelanau County, in the northwestern Lower Peninsula, Principal Ryan Schrock needs no convincing. His students at Glen Lake Elementary School get at least 50 minutes of recess per day spread across three breaks.

“That’s not negotiable. It’s important time for kids,” Schrock said. And it doesn’t mean they aren’t learning just because they’re playing, he said.

“When they’re engaging with each other, they’re using language in really meaningful ways, so giving them that time to be outside at recess” can lead to academic improvement as well, Schrock said — especially if certified teachers are monitoring recess and engaging with them.

Survey respondents included 964 educators and school board members from all areas of the state.

Six percent of respondents said their elementary school students had an hour or more of recess per day; 10% said 45-60 minutes; 29% said 30-44 minutes; and 26% said 20-29 minutes. Six percent were unsure, and 5% did not provide an answer.

Eighty-four percent of respondents said they would support a statewide policy requiring elementary schools to provide 20 minutes of outdoor recess per day; 4% said they oppose; 6% said they neither support nor oppose; and 6% did not provide an answer.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Along with its survey results, the Coalition for Michigan Schoolchildren’s Right to Play issued guidance to schools:

Access to recess should not be taken away as a form of discipline.
Beyond recess, schools should offer at least 40 minutes of play per day.
There should be at least one adult on the playground for every 18 children.
Students should be made aware of clear playground rules and community norms.
Recess should be held even in inclement weather. It could be moved indoors if necessary.
Adult monitors should be actively engaged with children during recess.
Children should be given the autonomy and leadership to lead peers and select from a variety of games that are inclusive and fair.

The coalition was convened by Playworks Michigan, a nonprofit group that advocates for improving children’s health and well-being.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan strives to boost social studies instruction

2022-04-15T13:00:00+00:00

Screaming, beatings, train whistles, and tearful goodbyes in Yiddish as officers split families apart.

Those were the sounds of the Holocaust remembered by survivor Ellis Lewin. He was 7 when Nazis took him to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Lewin died last year but his story lives on in a video that Michigan social studies teachers watched Wednesday during a webinar called “Remembering the Holocaust: Never Forget to Never Repeat.”

The webinar kicked off a professional development series that state Superintendent Michael Rice hopes will help fill the gaps in social studies education that he believes resulted from harmful federal policies beginning in 2002. That’s when the government rolled out President George W. Bush’s signature education law, the No Child Left Behind Act.

NCLB aimed to establish high standards, measure progress through standardized testing, and improve student performance in reading and math, and use harsh penalties to hold school accountable for student performance.

Reading and math scores did rise, particularly among students of color. But Rice and other critics of the law say that improvement came at the expense of a well-rounded curriculum.

Rice wants to recover some of that lost ground, beginning with social studies, and that starts with providing teachers guidance and access to solid teaching materials that have been vetted by historians like Anne Piontkowski and Rick Schaffner of the Zekelman Holocaust Center, who led Wednesday’s seminar.

Their aim is to provide tools for teachers to lead robust classroom discussions that put historical events into context.

Those conversations are “crucial and critical to further learning, not only about the Holocaust, but other aspects of social studies that we want our young people to know about as they move into the adult world as part of an active part of society,” Piontkowski told the 115 webinar participants — mostly middle and high school teachers.

The webinar series continues in June with a presentation on a guide from the Confederation of Michigan Tribal Education Departments for teaching about the history and contributions of indigenous people. Future seminar topics include the Civil Rights movement, Asian immigration, and citizenship. All sessions will sharply focus on Michigan social studies standards, organizers said.

The professional development effort is just one piece of a plan that also includes an effort to diversify reading material across disciplines so students can see themselves represented in books, Rice said.

“I see these as related: diversity in literature and comprehensive history instruction,” Rice said. “We’re preparing our young people to enter a diverse world, to navigate a diverse world.”

The renewed effort comes against a backdrop of a vigorous national debate over how schools teach about racism. The conflict has led to Republican calls to ban books, prescribe how the history of slavery is taught, and require teachers to publicly post lesson plans.

The debate has also flared in Michigan, where members of the state Board of Education argued at a meeting Tuesday over whether white supremacy still exists and how students should be taught about it.

These conflicts were not the impetus for the webinar series, but organizers say they kept them in mind during planning sessions.

“We’re teaching kids what really happened,” said Nick Orlowski, president of the Michigan Council for History Education and director of school leadership for the charter school management company CS Partners. “That means that kids are going to learn about sexism, and racism, and ableism. We’re trying to raise empathetic, understanding, caring believers in democracy.”

He said the training and support are welcome at a time when history teachers around the country feel under attack and many states are restricting how race and gender topics are taught.

Rice said educators “have the responsibility to teach this full breadth of history, including about race, racism, xenophobia, sexism, and other difficult and challenging subjects.”

Professional development on the Holocaust and attempts to erase indigenous culture can translate to teaching about racism and other fraught topics, too, said Bob Kefgen, spokesman for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals.

“If teachers are better prepared and better equipped to have crucial conversations with students it can defuse some of the concerns being raised,” he said. Rice hopes the webinar series will deepen teachers’ understanding of issues, invigorate their lesson planning, and help them connect historical moments in ways that resonate deeply with students.

He wants teachers to move away from chronological teaching of history and toward a holistic approach.

Instead of grouping together major historical events of the 1920s — passage of the 19th Amendment, the opening of King Tut’s tomb, Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic, and the start of the Great Depression — lessons could be taught thematically, Rice said.

For example, teachers could design lesson plans around the women’s suffrage movement, including its beginnings in the 1840s, disagreements over whether suffragettes also should fight Black disenfranchisement, and ways the movement changed democracy.

“It will help students understand multiple perspectives of history and be able to explore those perspectives,” said Rebecca Bush, president of the Michigan Council for the Social Studies, which helped design the webinar series.

Teachers can register now for the June 29 webinar, “Maawndoonganan: Using the Indigenous-Developed Social Studies Resource Guide to Teach To and About First Peoples.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Parents: Here are 9 things to know about standardized tests in Michigan

2022-04-07T14:13:47+00:00

Monday begins Michigan’s annual six-week testing season that will help determine how successfully public schools have educated children this school year. The results of the various assessments can influence college admissions, teacher evaluations, and whether third-graders are promoted.

Here are some answers to questions parents may have about the assessments.

Which children will be tested, and when?

Grades three through seven will take English, math, science and social studies M-STEP assessments.

Students in eighth through 10th grades take the PSAT. Eighth graders also must take M-STEP science and social studies exams.

High school juniors take the Michigan Merit Exam, which comprises four tests: the SAT, the ACT WorkKeys test of job skills, and the M-STEP science and social studies assessment.

For juniors, that amounts to about nine hours of testing, but that could change for future 11th graders, who could get a reprieve from two parts of the merit exam. The Michigan House passed separate bills ending requirements for juniors to take WorkKeys and the essay portion of the SAT. The bills await action by the Senate. Approval and the governor’s signature would reduce test time by more than three hours.

M-STEP exam dates vary by district. The state testing schedule requires them to be administered by May 20, except third grade English, which must be given by May 6. Check school district websites for local testing dates.

The SAT and PSAT are to be administered to all students on the same day: Wednesday, April 13. That’s a switch from previous years when those tests were administered on a Tuesday. The state made the change to give schools extra preparation time after spring break.

The change bumps ACT WorkKeys, an 11th grade test of job skills, to Thursday, April 14.

Does my child need a No. 2 pencil?

M-STEP exams are computer-based. That means students in grades seven and below can leave their pencils at home.

For now, those in grades eight and nine still need No. 2 pencils for the PSAT, and 11th graders need them for the SAT. The College Board is transitioning to computerized testing starting next year, with tests administered abroad. Students in the U.S. can expect to take computer-based tests beginning in 2024.

What about a calculator?

Calculators are not required or allowed for most tests.

They are allowed for portions of the sixth and seventh grade math tests and are embedded in the software and appear alongside test questions so student’s needn’t bring physical devices.

Calculators are optional for fifth and eighth grade science M-STEPs. Fifth graders are permitted to use basic four-function calculators while eighth graders may use scientific calculators. Some districts provide them. Local schools can provide guidance on whether fifth and eighth graders should bring their own.

What are the stakes?

The stakes are particularly high for third graders. Under a controversial state law that went into effect during the 2019-20 school year, third graders whose test results show that they are more than one grade level behind in reading can be forced to repeat the grade. The law gives superintendents wide discretion to make exceptions for individual students, and many have.

For high school juniors and seniors, results of the SAT could be a factor in college admissions, although fewer colleges require them for applicants. And the PSAT serves as both practice for the SAT and as a qualifier for the National Merit Scholarship competition, which awards scholarships to college-bound seniors.

The stakes can also be high for teachers and administrators.

Test scores are among the factors used in annual teacher evaluations that guide staffing decisions, professional development plans, and compensation in districts that give merit raises.

This year’s test results will also guide decisions about the next cohort of partnership districts under the state’s turnaround program for low-performing schools. Partnership schools, selected every three years, get extra resources from the state but they’re also subject to extra scrutiny.

What about students who attend school online?

All tests must be taken in person. Public online charter schools set up physical testing centers around the state and use schedules similar to traditional public schools’.

Students temporarily learning at home because of COVID diagnoses or quarantines can make up the tests at school later in the testing window.

How can I help my children prepare?

A good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast will help. So will talking to children about what to expect on test day and asking teachers to suggest activities you can do at home to reinforce skills that will be tested.

Should I worry if my child says the M-STEP was too hard?

No. Software adjusts the difficulty level based on previous responses. Questions get progressively harder for students who answer correctly and easier for those struggling.

Researchers say such computer-adaptive testing provides precise results using fewer test items. It challenges high achievers without discouraging low performers, and both groups try harder on adaptive tests than on traditional ones, researchers say.

When will I get results?

Parents can expect to receive individual student scores at the end of August. It takes several months for auditors to ensure reliability and validity, and for reports to be printed and distributed.

What if I have more questions?

Your child’s teacher is the best source of information on tests and helping your child prepare for them. You can also view the Michigan Department of Education’s tip sheet for parents, its Guide to State Assessments, or its guidance on the Michigan Merit Exam, which comprises the 11th grade SAT, ACT WorkKeys, and M-STEP tests.

This report was based on interviews and information provided by the Michigan Department of Education, the Michigan Assessment Consortium, the Michigan Council for Social Studies, the Michigan Council for History Education, the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, Michigan Connections Academy charter school, and the West Michigan Talent Triangle, an advocacy consortium representing Kent, Muskegon, and Ottawa schools.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan school safety task force prioritizes mental health, building security

2022-04-01T13:30:00+00:00

Four months after the deadly shooting at Oxford High School, state lawmakers are reviving a 4-year-old plan to make schools safer.

The bipartisan House School Safety Task Force created after the Oxford rampage recently issued its initial recommendations, and more are expected in the coming weeks.

Four Republicans and four Democrats who’ve met more than a dozen times want the state to commission an independent threat assessment for all schools in Michigan. They suggest the state provide grants to address shortfalls that the analysis identifies.

Another priority is to provide state funding for school-based health centers that address both physical and mental health needs.

Mental health has become a priority of lawmakers and educators, not just because mental illness is a factor in school violence but because students need extra support after trauma and isolation during the pandemic.

The group also wants schools to remove immediate threats to classrooms sooner – such as those considered factors in the November Oxford shooting that killed four and injured seven people.

Other recommendations include:

Asking schools to keep lockdown kits on hand. Each kit might include, for example, food, water pouches, a radio, a flashlight, a safety whistle, hand sanitizer, and a bucket that doubles as a portable toilet.
Improving communication among schools, local law enforcement, and the state’s OK2Say tip line.
Adding OK2Say contact information on student IDs.
Providing incentives for people to become school counselors.
Refining requirements for active-shooter drills.
Standardizing floor plan maps for schools.
Adopting common definitions across school districts for terms including “lock down,” “shelter in place,” and “room clear.”
Requiring ongoing safety training for school resource officers and other school staff.
Adding a staff member in each district to oversee mental health services, security, and threat assessment.

Many of the recommendations are based on earlier work by a previous School Safety Task Force created by former Gov. Rick Snyder. That task force morphed into the School Safety Commission, which receives staff support from the Michigan State Police’s Office of School Safety.

“One frustration of mine when we started looking at the 2018 task force was that somebody’s already done a good deal of work, and why were these recommendations not acted upon?” said state Rep. Scott VanSingel, co-chair of the new legislative task force.

A few of the task force’s recommendations were implemented, said Nancy Becker Bennett, who supervises the state police Office of School Safety. Those include updating OK2SAY tip line technology, better defining roles of school safety personnel, and regularly reviewing administrative rules to allow school personnel to receive professional development credit for safety courses.

Twenty other recommendations have not been implemented. Those largely align with the new legislative task force’s recommendations.

VanSingel and the task force’s co-chair, state Rep. Luke Meerman, said they’re confident in making progress under new circumstances.

First, the earlier report was issued just before the pandemic began and policymakers’ priorities shifted. Second, the Oxford shooting created a sense of urgency. Third, the new task force comprises lawmakers themselves, people with the power to introduce bills and the political capital to get colleagues to approve them.

“Our recommendations will actually be introduced as bills. That’s a big step compared to what the 2018 task force was able to do,” said Meerman, a Republican from Coopersville in Ottaway County.

Lawmakers already are drafting bills, and they could be enacted by July.

The task force expects to release its full report in May. It may include more controversial measures that, unlike the initial recommendations, not all task force members agree on.

Discussions topics have ranged from arming teachers to allowing courts to confiscate guns of people deemed to be at risk of hurting themselves or others. Most of those topics were raised by members of the public who submitted comments and suggestions.

Mostly, though, the group has spent its time on substantive debate about moderate measures most people agree on.

“We’ve tried so hard not to politicize this issue, and we’ve worked extremely well together,” said VanSingel, a Republican from Grant in Newaygo County. “We didn’t completely ignore conversations about [gun control] but that hasn’t been the focus of our group. We’re looking at what we can get done together.”

Proponents of the task force’s work want to see reforms that will make a difference without overburdening teachers and administrators.

“Schools are swamped with requirements dealing with academics so to put a whole separate group of requirements on them with school safety is a lot, but it’s important, and they know that,” Becker Bennett said.

Task force leaders say their work is grounded in practical solutions to a real problem — one they heard described in stark and disturbing detail during a private meeting with former Oxford Superintendent Tim Throne.

“As we talked about different topics we compared them to what’s happened. Would this have worked in Oxford? Would this have worked in Parkland?” VanSingel said. “We quickly came to the conclusion that there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. The more layers of security in place, the less likely these things are going to happen.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan students who are homeless more likely to be disciplined

2022-03-30T14:00:49+00:00

Students who are homeless face suspension and expulsion at much higher rates than do their peers in Michigan schools.

Statewide, 17% of students who have experienced homelessness were suspended or expelled in 2017-18 compared with 8% of all students in Michigan’s district-run public schools. The rates are especially high in Wayne and Macomb counties, researchers found.

Those are among figures highlighted in an interactive map recently created by the Poverty Solutions Center at the University of Michigan based on its earlier analysis of data from that school year.

For example, the discipline rates for students who have been homeless are 38%, 37% and 36% in Hamtramck, Eastpoint, and Westwood school districts, respectively.

Benton Harbor Area Schools (41%), Atlanta Community Schools (41%) and Flint Community School District (41%) have the state’s highest discipline rates for students who have been homeless.

Superintendents of those districts did not respond to requests for comment. Many districts are on spring break this week.

The numbers are troubling and could be even higher, said Poverty Solution Center senior researcher Jennifer Erb-Downward, who suspects many districts underreport discipline.

“If you have a student that doesn’t have a fixed living space, school may be the only stable place they have. To expel them from that place can be devastating,” Erb-Downward said. “It’s pushing them out of a system we want them to be able to engage with.”

The percentages are similar in other states.. Other studies have shown that students experiencing homelessness in Texas, Indiana, and Washington, for example, are at least twice as likely to be suspended as their peers.

Researchers want administrators to consider the reasons behind student misbehavior.

School administrators “need to step back from that moment when something is happening in the classroom and hallway and think about how to diffuse that situation when there is something underlying the behavior that is more than just a discipline issue,” Erb-Downward said.

Suspension and expulsion seldom lead to the desired behavior change, according to studies by Johns Hopkins University and American Institutes for Research. Instead, they likely make students feel more disconnected from school and more likely to drop out, Erb-Downward said.

Researchers hope their work will spark conversations about school discipline and changes that de-emphasize punishment and lean toward connecting traumatized students with resources.

The Student Advocacy Center of Michigan wants to be part of those conversations. The center works to ensure children stay in school and understand their rights to a quality public education.

The center is asking districts with the highest discipline rates to revisit their policies.

“A different policy choice could mean we’re going to find another way to educate young people who’ve made a mistake,” said Peri Stone-Palmquist, the center’s executive director.

Among her recommendations are:

· Convene discipline policy committees that include teachers, students, principals, community mental health providers, and the district’s homeless liaison.

· Require districts to consider traumatic experiences in students’ background before punishing them.

· Allow students to appeal discipline to county, regional, or state-level arbiters.

· Consider alternatives to suspension and expulsion that can be more effective and less likely to lead to dropping out.

· Add homelessness as a factor schools must consider before removing a student from school.

· Hold suspension and expulsion hearings within 10 days of removal from school so students and their families have a chance to be heard sooner.

· Invest federal COVID-relief dollars in mental health initiatives.

Michigan has been moving away from automatically suspending or expelling students who bring items to school that can be used as weapons. A 2018 state law requires districts to consider seven factors including age, disability, and disciplinary history before suspending or expelling. That doesn’t always happen.

Democratic state Senators Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor, Erika Geiss of Taylor, and Adam Hollier of Detroit have introduced bills to change school discipline policies, but they haven’t yet come to a vote.

One of the bills would establish an appeals process and would require districts to disclose data about suspended students including race, gender, ethnicity, disability status, and whether they are homeless.

Another bill would require independent decision-makers to authorize expulsions or suspensions of more than 10 days. It also would require districts to develop individualized education plans for students who are removed from school.

A third bill would require districts to determine whether behavior leading to potential discipline is related to homelessness, whether removal from school would create a barrier to enrollment and retention of the child, and whether a behavior plan would better address the violation.

Erb-Downward’s research shows that nearly 1 out of 10 Michigan children will experience homelessness at some point before they graduate high school. According to the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 2.7% of Michigan’s public school students were homeless in 2014-15, slightly above the national average of 2.5%.

“That really is a large number of students who are having housing instability that we know has long-term impacts,” Erb-Downward said. “That’s why we have to get out in front of this.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan House: End essay test and bar SAT scores from transcripts

2022-03-23T23:34:37+00:00

Michigan juniors will get a reprieve from a high-stakes essay and would no longer have to worry about test-optional colleges seeing low SAT scores if two bills headed to the Senate become law.

The Michigan House voted Wednesday to nix the essay portion of the SAT and remove standardized test scores from public school transcripts. Both bills passed the House 104-1 and now head to the Senate.

Passage of the two bills follows a national shift away from standardized pre-college skills tests. More than 1,800 colleges no longer require SAT scores for admission. Removing scores from transcripts aligns with recommendations from the College Board, which creates and administers SATs and other standardized tests.

Currently, SAT scores automatically appear on Michigan students’ official transcript even if they’re applying to a college that doesn’t require the scores for admission. That puts Michigan students at a disadvantage when other students can choose whether to submit their scores, according to bill sponsor David Martin, a Republican from Davison.

The College Board eliminated the SAT essay from its tests last year, except in states including Michigan that still use it to meet federally required testing rules.

Eliminating the essay test in Michigan would require approval from the U.S. Department of Education.

Supporters of Martin’s bill say the multiple-choice “writing and language” portion of the SAT, which would continue to be administered in Michigan, sufficiently assesses writing ability. It asks students to read passages and identify grammatical mistakes, fix usage errors, and improve the substance and quality of the writing.

Wednesday’s nearly unanimous House vote exposes a sharp division between lawmakers and the Michigan Department of Education, which opposed both bills.

“We believe that student writing needs to be assessed,” department spokesperson Marty Ackley said in an email message.

Removing SAT scores from transcripts also would help Michigan schools comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Including test scores on transcripts used to save families money because the College Board charges to send them to colleges separately. The current charge is $12 per report after the first four, which are free.

But more and more colleges aren’t requiring test scores with good reason, said Bob Schaefer, executive director of FairTest, a nonprofit advocacy group that opposes misuse and overuse of standardized testing.

“Colleges and universities that have waived or eliminated test-score requirements typically find they get more applicants, they get better academically qualified applicants in terms of grades and course rigor, and they get more diversity,” he said.

The SAT is part of the Michigan Merit Exam given to high school juniors. The exam also includes the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP) science and social studies assessments and WorkKeys, which tests job skills in applied math, graphic literacy, and workplace documents. The Michigan House last year voted to eliminate the WorkKeys portion of the test, but the Senate has not taken up the bill.

State Rep. Cynthia Johnson was the only House member to oppose the bills.

“An indicator of progress in any culture is the percentage of people who can read and write,” the Detroit Democrat said after the vote. “It’s very sad that we are accepting to not encourage the practice of writing — at least that’s how I’m seeing this.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Bills could make it easier for retired Michigan teachers to substitute

2022-03-22T18:15:13+00:00

While culture wars fuel sharp partisan divisions on everything from how racism is discussed in schools to whether curricula should be posted online, Michigan lawmakers can agree on one thing: There is a critical shortage of substitute teachers that needs to be addressed immediately.

The House and Senate education committees are trying. They have advanced separate bills that could move to each chamber’s floor this week.

The House panel on Tuesday voted unanimously to recommend passage of a bill allowing retired education system employees to go back to work in schools after 12 months without losing any retirement benefits. They could return in any capacity, for example, as substitutes, full-time teachers, bus drivers, library aides, or food service workers.

Last week, the Senate committee unanimously advanced a narrower bill that would reduce the wait period to four months for retired school employees who return to substitute teach.

Under current law, retirees must wait a full year before returning to work and forfeit pensions and health benefits for every month their pay exceeds one-third of their former compensation.

Michigan superintendents say the proposed legislation would be helpful as they grapple with a nationwide labor shortage that has prompted some districts to temporarily close for lack of teachers and some states to loosen qualification requirements in an all-hands-on-deck approach to get teachers in classrooms. Michigan, for example, has resorted to allowing school staff members to substitute teach even if they have never been to college.

The substitute shortage is a symptom of a bigger concern — a critical teacher shortage — that Michigan Superintendent Michael Rice wants to resolve through a mixture of fixes that could cost $300 million to $500 million over the next five years.

For now, the Legislature’s focus is on the substitute shortage.

The Michigan Department of Education doesn’t track substitute teacher openings but is aware there is a shortage across the state, spokesman Bill DiSessa said.

A 2019 study by the Institute for Public Policy Research at Michigan State University showed that 64% of districts were unable to find enough teachers to meet their day-to-day needs. The problem is widely believed to have worsened during the pandemic.

Superintendent Steve Patchin said he hopes the Legislature will give him flexibility to hire recent retirees to substitute in Hancock Public Schools, a 650-student district in the northernmost region of the Upper Peninsula.

“It would help extremely because we have a lot of teachers that retired and want to come back and help us,” he said.

State Rep. Lori Stone said she isn’t yet familiar with the Senate bill but strongly supports the House proposal. Although it would apply to all school staff positions, it is largely aimed at alleviating the substitute teacher shortage, the Warren Democrat said in an interview in her Lansing office.

“We need to lower barriers that might prevent retirees from coming back,” she said. They want to help, and they “have a skill set that uniquely positions them to be prepared to walk into a classroom and to pick up and carry on instruction,” said Stone, who taught for three years at Mound Park Elementary School in Fitzgerald.

The state Office of Retirement Services supports both bills.

The 12-month waiting period retained in the House bill is intended to protect the state’s pension liability from people who might retire early with the understanding that their principal would immediately hire them back, allowing them to simultaneously collect retirement benefits and regular compensation, said Allison Wardlaw, the office’s director of plan development and compliance.

To protect against that, the House bill stipulates that eligible retirees must have “completely severed the employee-employer relationship” with the school district and that before leaving they must not “intend or expect to have an offer or contingency to become employed” at any school district.

As an additional safeguard, Stone introduced a companion bill requiring the Office of Retirement Service to track the number of retirees returning to school employment and report back to the Legislature.

Tracie Mauriello covers Michigan K-12 education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

New Michigan law allows school support staff to sub, but few are doing it

2022-03-17T20:00:07+00:00

A new law that allows school districts to use support staff as substitute teachers drew ire from many who envisioned bus drivers and cafeteria workers suddenly taking on a role for which they had no preparation.

But three months after the law was enacted, those fears don’t appear to have been realized.

Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan reached out to dozens of superintendents around the state. Only two districts – Paw Paw and West Bloomfield – regularly take advantage of the new law that temporarily allows school staff members to cover classrooms even if they wouldn’t otherwise be qualified to substitute teach.

Both are using paraprofessionals, who assist teachers and already are familiar with students and with classroom routines.

Passed in December, the new law expires at the end of this school year. It temporarily allows school staff members to sub even if they don’t have a single college credit. They need only a high school diploma or equivalency certificate.

Ordinarily, substitute teachers must have an associate degree, 60 college credits, or, in the case of career and technical courses, subject-matter expertise. Substitutes who are not school staff members still have to meet those requirements.

The struggle to find subs is not new, but it worsened during the pandemic when teacher retirements spiked and coronavirus exposure forced staff to quarantine. The nationwide problem prompted some districts to temporarily close and others to increase substitutes’ pay. Legislatively, many states joined Michigan in loosening qualification requirements for subs.

West Bloomfield superintendent Gerald Hill said Michigan’s new law has provided flexibility that’s especially needed now, when other would-be subs are hesitant to enter school buildings for fear of getting COVID from unvaccinated children.

He prefers to use substitutes with at least 60 college credits, but a few times recently when there weren’t enough he has turned to less-educated paraprofessionals on staff in his 4,500-student district north of Detroit.

West of Kalamazoo, Paw Paw Public Schools Superintendent Rick Reo said the new law is helpful but isn’t enough to make a big difference when shortages of both teachers and subs are so severe.

“We’re just putting a Band-Aid on a really big wound. We’ve got a big issue here that we need to get solved,” Reo said.

Lawmakers appear to be trying. On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness advanced a bill that would allow former school employees to begin substitute teaching four months after retirement. The bill also would remove financial penalties for returning retirees who earn too much. Under current law, they must wait a year and forfeit pensions and health care benefits for every month their substitute pay exceeds one-third of their former compensation.

Superintendents hope the measure passes the full Senate and House.

“That would be wonderful,” Reo said. “I have retired teachers who are like, ‘What can I do? How can I help?’ but they have to wait.”

Since the new law passed, Hancock Public Schools, a 650-student district in the northernmost region of the Upper Peninsula, has been using paraprofessionals to substitute rarely and, even then, only for one or two class periods at a time, said Superintendent Steve Patchin. Most of the time, those paraprofessionals have enough college credits to qualify as substitutes even without the new law, Patchin said.

Administrators of the Au Gres-Sims School District on the shore of Lake Huron don’t plan to use staff members as subs, but might in a true emergency when there are no other options. “Even then,” superintendent Chris Ming said, “the conditions to do so will need to be right.”

Other superintendents said they have no plans to use otherwise unqualified staff to substitute teach.

“While I believe we have many support staff who are more than capable of managing a group of students, it is disingenuous to expect that they provide a day of instruction in accordance with what the state expects every other day of the school year from highly qualified, certified teachers,” said Robert D. Livernois, superintendent of Warren Consolidated Schools just north of Detroit.

Detroit Public Schools Community District, the state’s largest, also has no plans to use otherwise unqualified school staff to sub.

It would have been a better use of legislators’ time to pass laws that school administrators want, said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, an Ann Arbor-based nonpartisan think tank focused on education’s role in bolstering the state economy.

“It sounds like they just passed a bill that no one is really using,” he said.

Glazer said policy makers, school administrators, and state education officials should come together to develop a set of legislation solutions that will truly alleviate the substitute shortage.

The state Department of Education opposed the law in December along with most Democratic lawmakers. Some said, in impassioned floor speeches, that it would diminish the quality of education and pull staff from cafeterias, bus garages, and school libraries that are already stretched thin.

The latter is a particular concern, said Paul T. Shoup, Superintendent of Mason County Eastern Schools, a 400-student district on the western part of the Lower Peninsula. Shoup hasn’t used support staff to substitute teach. If he had it would have created a void in other areas where they are needed, he said.

Beaver Island Community School, a remote one-building district with just 58 students, has occasionally called on the school secretary to fill in. She is a retired school nurse with a bachelor’s degree, so she would have qualified without the new law.

Still, the law is a helpful backstop, said Wilfred Cwikiel, Beaver Island’s superintendent and principal. It ensures learning continues even when traditional substitutes aren’t available, he said.

“It helps knowing that if I need to, I could ask our cook, the person who runs the kitchen, to stay on a couple hours to handle a classroom,” Cwikiel said. “When we have to cover a classroom, it’s wonderful to have the flexibility.”

Michigan to release funds for school COVID tests and more

2022-02-10T23:05:44+00:00

The House and Senate voted to disperse $1.2 billion in federal pandemic relief funds including $150.8 million for COVID-19 tests for schools.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday praised the bill’s near-unanimous passage in both chambers. She said the funding would deliver on Democrats’ and Republicans’ shared goals of keeping students learning in school, and recruiting and retaining health care workers.

The bulk of the funding — $667 million – is earmarked for the Department of Health and Human Services to expand laboratory testing capacity and to invest in recruitment, retention, and training of health care workers.

Those measures will keep communities healthier, which makes it safer for students to be in school, bill sponsor Julie Calley said Thursday.

“We’ve seen very clearly that statistically our kids learn better when they are in person, so we want to ensure that opportunity,” said Calley, a Portland Republican. “We don’t want to see any further learning loss.”

Keeping students in classrooms has been a priority for Republican lawmakers including House Education Chairperson Pamela Hornberger, who blasted Flint and Detroit administrators after December’s omicron surge prompted temporary shifts to virtual learning.

Whitmer, a Democrat, agreed during her annual address to the Legislature last month, that districts should return to in-person learning.

Many school districts already have their own COVID testing programs but some have struggled to source enough rapid tests. Detroit Public Schools Community District has been testing employees and students weekly since last spring. Detroit uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which require at least 24 hours for results but are more accurate than the rapid tests Calley’s bill would provide.

“Right now, the issue of access is not funding but supply. To sustain any long-term ‘test-to-stay’ program we need access to rapid tests. This is critical to keeping our students in school and removing COVID as the barrier to improved student attendance and learning,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said Thursday.

Test-to-stay programs are some districts’ alternative to sending students home if they were exposed to someone at school who tested positive for COVID.

Calley’s bill provides districts options. They can receive tests directly through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which Calley says has priority access to the supply chain. Or, if distribution gets backed up, districts can buy tests on their own and file for state reimbursement.

The test shortage was exacerbated by the Biden administration’s promise to mail 500 million free tests to Americans who requested them. Manufacturers have begun stepping up production in an attempt to meet the demand.

The state previously distributed 175,000 free antigen tests to parents, students and staff through the MI Backpack Home Test Program.

Additionally, schools are slated to receive other funds from the appropriation including:

· $50 million to support school-based COVID testing, contact tracing, vaccine distribution, and mitigation efforts. These funds can also be used to purchase and distribute at-home test kits to staff and students.

· $14.9 million to administer COVID tests to students and staff at both public and private schools.

· $250,000 to expand work-based programs or health service academies for high schoolers interested in medical careers.

The supplemental funding is part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which was intended to support public health and economic recovery after the pandemic.

Whitmer budget proposes teacher bonuses, K-12 and preschool increases, and student mental health funds

2022-02-07T22:05:45+00:00

Michigan would spend millions to get more mental health professionals in K-12 schools. Teachers and other school workers would get thousands in bonuses. And the state’s flagship free preschool program would get a big expansion.

That’s the vision Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will take to lawmakers Wednesday when she lays out a spending plan that is heavy on helping schools overcome the struggles of the pandemic, address teacher shortages that have crippled schools during COVID, and help retain and recruit school staff. Her proposal comes weeks after economists predicted a $5.8 billion state surplus.

Whitmer is expected to call for $18.4 billion in education spending as part of the 2022-23 state budget, according to a summary of education spending provided by her office. That would be a 7.6% increase over the current fiscal year’s education budget.

The big winners, under Whitmer’s plans:

School workers, who would receive bonuses of $2,000 this year, with even more in subsequent years.
Mental health. The governor would invest heavily in mental health professionals to staff school health clinics, and would expand a mental health program for schools.
Students from low-income homes, and students with special education needs. Whitmer would invest millions more to help schools better serve their needs.
Prospective teachers. The governor would create a $250 million fund to create scholarships for individuals pursuing teacher certification in grades pre-K-12, plus $50 million in scholarships for graduate programs for school leaders and mental health professionals. Scholarship recipients would have to give two years of service in schools for each year of scholarship.
The state’s youngest students. Whitmer would further expand free state preschool to serve more students.

While the surplus puts the state in a good financial position, it doesn’t mean the Republican-controlled Legislature is likely to go along with the Democratic governor’s election-year budget goals. Their support will be key to Whitmer’s proposals moving forward.

“We’ve got to be very careful about inserting things into the budget that could lead to ongoing expenses,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told WTVB Monday morning. He promised a “rigorous give and take” during budget negotiations in the coming weeks.

Pieces of Whitmer’s proposal likely will spark bipartisan agreements, said Jonathan Hanson, a lecturer at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

But the surplus, coupled with billions of dollars in federal COVID relief money for schools, sets up an interesting political dynamic, Hanson said.

“It creates this temporary flexibility in the budget and the parties want to do different things with that. The Republicans are eager to bring in some tax cuts for corporations and for individuals that certainly right now are easily manageable, but would be risky down the road,” Hanson said.

Democrats are interested in spending on “education and other areas to make some investments that might not fit within the budget constraints of a typical year. That’s the main divide.”

Meanwhile, with Whitmer up for reelection this year, Hanson said Republicans likely aren’t willing to give her a big political win.

Whitmer’s budget would provide base funding of $9,135 for every student in the state, a 5% increase. Additionally, it would provide $222 million more to support economically disadvantaged students and $150 million more for special education.

“It really shows a recognition that the kids that need the extra assistance the most are getting some prioritization here, while at the same time recognizing that districts as a whole need funding,” said Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards.

Whitmer also has budgeted $30.8 million for vocational education and career and technical education, and $5.3 million for intermediate districts.

Her spending plan includes $2.3 billion over four years on teacher recruitment and retention. That includes providing $2,000 retention bonuses to every school staff member this fall, and another $2,000 in fall of 2023. Teachers and certified staff would get an additional $3,000 in 2024 and $4,000 in 2025, according to Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy.

Whitmer also plans to propose stipends for student teachers, who currently aren’t guaranteed pay, grants to help districts hire and train staff, and college fellowships for those pursuing education careers.

She also proposes increasing spending for the Great Start Readiness Program, Michigan’s free, high-quality preschool program for 4-year-olds from low-income families.

Funding for the program increased by 67% last year thanks to federal COVID relief funds, helping to open 84 classrooms in Detroit alone.

But those federal dollars are set to run out within two years. Advocates said Whitmer’s proposal would use state funds to help make the recent expansion permanent.

“The expansion is really propped up by federal funds, and we want to make sure we’re not getting a couple of years down the road here and having to look at budget cuts,” said Michael Latvis, senior executive director of legislative affairs for Wayne RESA, an education agency that distributes state preschool funding in Wayne County, which includes Detroit.

The state has expanded preschool for decades with bipartisan support. Experts rank it among the best preschool programs in the country because of its strict training requirements for staff and long track record of preparing students for kindergarten.

Whitmer’s preschool proposal also includes $30 million to help open new classrooms and $5 million to pilot a home-based preschool program.

Whitmer also has budgeted $50 million for before- and after-school programs that provide extracurricular activities and accelerate learning.

She proposes investing $361 million in student mental health, including hiring hundreds more school mental health professionals, building on the 720 nurses, counselors, and social workers hired with new money in the current budget, according to her office. In part, they would staff 40 new school-based clinics serving the needs of 20,000 students.

The spending plan also calls for an expansion of the Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students (TRAILS) program. Run by the University of Michigan in partnership with schools, the program uses mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy to address symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Michigan’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1, but the Legislature normally aims to pass the education part of the budget before July 1, the start of the fiscal year for school districts.

Bridge Michigan writer Isabel Lohman and Chalkbeat staff writers Koby Levin and Lori Higgins contributed.

Betsy DeVos pushes voucher-like tax credit plan in Michigan

2022-02-03T20:11:54+00:00

Backed by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a group of school choice advocates has launched a petition drive to bypass Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s veto of a voucher-like scholarship program.

Critics of the Opportunity Scholarship program say it would siphon needed dollars from public schools and violate a state constitutional ban on using public dollars, including tax credits, for private school education.

But DeVos and the choice proponents behind the new group Let MI Kids Learn say the tax credit program would help families access a wider range of educational opportunities at a time when they’re most needed.

“This is a chance to help students in every corner of Michigan access the very best educational options for them,” DeVos said during a Facebook Live event Wednesday. “We can send the resounding message that parents are interested in being dismissed or treated badly any longer when it comes to raising their children.”

If the group collects 340,000 signatures — 8% of the voter turnout from the last gubernatorial election — and the GOP-controlled House and Senate approve, the Opportunity Scholarship program becomes law without Whitmer’s signature.

The law would authorize tax credits equal to the amount of contributions to the proposed Opportunity Scholarship program.

“I, as an individual taxpayer, would make a choice to designate a portion of my Michigan tax bill to benefit children who are not my own,” DeVos explained to reporters after Wednesday’s public Facebook Live event. “This is a mechanism for individuals to redirect a portion of their tax bill, whether individual or corporate, to directly help students that need the help the most.”

Eligible private school students could receive up to $7,830 per year — 90% of the foundation allowance the state provides to educate each public school student. Public school students in special education programs could receive up to $1,100 per year, and other public school students could receive up to $500.

To receive the scholarships, family income would need to be less than double the eligibility limits for free and reduced price lunch programs. For example, a family of four earning less than $98,000 would be eligible.

Recipients could use the scholarships for private school tuition or to supplement public school education with things such as tutoring, books, speech therapy, or transportation to extracurricular activities.

“There’s a lot of sneakers you can customize. If you can customize sneakers, why couldn’t and shouldn’t you be able to customize your child’s education?” DeVos said.

Opponents estimate the tax credits would divert $50 million a year in taxes that would otherwise go to public schools, and that would violate a 1970 amendment to the Michigan constitution that prohibits public funding of private schools.

Such provisions appear in 37 state constitutions. DeVos and other voucher call proponents call them “Blaine amendments,” referring to 19th Century laws that Maine statesman James Gillespie Blaine promoted to stop public funding of religious schools, particularly Catholic ones. Michigan’s constitution prohibits public funding of all private schools, not just parochial ones.

Besides, DeVos said Wednesday, the scholarship money never moves through the state’s hands anyway.

“They are individual contributions made. They are given to entities that are third party entities,” DeVos said. “There is a very, very arm’s-length multistep transaction that takes place.”

Critics say the scholarship program is a thinly veiled voucher program and a dangerous step toward privatization of education.

DeVos is a longtime leader of the national school choice movement who backs pro-voucher politicians across the country. Her family bankrolled a voucher proposal in Michigan that voters resoundingly rejected in 2000.

DeVos and family members have contributed $400,000 to the petition drive, which has received more than $1.7 million in contributions. The other major donors are two political groups that don’t have to disclose where their money comes from. The State Government Leadership Foundation gave $475,000 and Get Families Back to Work gave $800,000.

As DeVos spoke, viewers flooded a chat window with comments both for and against the group’s effort.

“The DeVos family has spent millions trying to ruin public schools and this is another attempt at that,” one wrote.

Another wrote that she signed the petition to help all parents have the options that will help their children overcome learning loss during the pandemic.

“DeVos has been one of the nation’s leading proponents for redirecting tax dollars away from public schools,” said Emily Mellits, a Macomb County parent and member of Michigan Parent Alliance for Safe Schools, which opposes vouchers.

Katie Deck, a MiPASS member from Livingston County said, “Now is not the time to be siphoning money from community schools and giving it to for-profit charters, and that is exactly what the DeVos initiative will do.”

Editor’s note: April 15, 2022: An earlier version of this story included a suggestion by DeVos that Michigan’s prohibition on providing funds to could become unenforceable if the U.S. Supreme Court finds that a similar law in Maine is unconstitutional. The amendments have key differences, and Michigan’s constitution likely won’t be affected by Carson v. Makin.

Chalkbeat reporter Koby Levin contributed to this report.

Michigan GOP bill: Schools must post curriculum, books, assignments

2022-02-02T23:56:27+00:00

Michigan’s public schools would be required to publicly list all curriculum, books, literature, writing assignments, and planned field trips before the school year begins under a bill introduced by Republican members of the Michigan House of Representatives Wednesday.

House Bill 5722 is similar to school curriculum transparency bills introduced in other states. Such bills have proliferated among conservative lawmakers in the wake of objections by some parents and politicians that schools were teaching critical race theory, an academic framework that examines the lingering effects of slavery and ingrained culture of racism. Critical race theory is generally a college-level framework, and it is not taught in Michigan schools.

In recent months, CRT concerns have morphed into broader objections to discussions of race or diversity in the classroom, with campaigns in some school districts and states to remove books from library shelves and class reading lists.

The Michigan bill is sponsored by 11 GOP House members, including Matt Maddock of Milford, the husband of state Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, and Pamela Hornberger of Chesterfield Township, the chair of the House Education Committee. The bill was referred to the House Education Committee.

Hornberger told Bridge Michigan Wednesday that the bill focuses on school transparency, particularly around curriculum. But some school leaders reached by Bridge initially expressed puzzlement over the need for the bill when much of the information is already available to parents.

The bill, less than 200 words long, would mandate that school districts, by the first day of school, must make public:

Curriculum approved by the district for each school operated by the district.
Each class offered to pupils of the district as part of the curriculum.
Textbooks, literature, research projects, writing assignments, and field trips that are part of the curriculum.
Extracurricular activities being implemented during designated school hours or under the authority of the school.
A list of each certificated teacher or other individual authorized under state law to teach in this state who is charged with implementing the curriculum.
School districts that don’t comply would lose 5% of state funding.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much of the required information is already available publicly, on district websites, or in class syllabi.

In a number of other states including Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio, lawmakers have introduced or enacted similar proposals.

Wednesday’s bill introduction follows earlier GOP efforts to limit the teaching of racism in Michigan schools. One bill introduced last year sought to ban schools from teaching that racism and sexism are inherent. That bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate.

Hornberger said she has heard from parents who have struggled to get information on curriculum, textbooks, and classroom assignments from school districts. Some, she said, had filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain information, and faced large bills from schools for copying and labor.

“Parents want more information, and a lot of districts are pushing back,” said Hornberger, a former art teacher in the East China School District in St. Clair County. “I think there should be as much transparency as possible in education. It makes people comfortable (when they) get their questions answered.”

Democrats on the House Education Committee declined to comment Wednesday, saying through a caucus spokesperson they needed time to review the newly introduced legislation. The Michigan Department of Education also declined comment.

Robert McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, a school advocacy group, said he didn’t believe the proposed law is necessary.

“These are all policies and communications planned and agreed upon by administrators, elected school boards, and their communities,” McCann said. “It’s a process that’s worked well for generations in Michigan and I’m unclear why creating mandates at the state level would either be needed or helpful.”

Hornberger acknowledged that some parents may want to use the proposed law to “find gotcha moments” in curriculum that show schools are teaching something those parents may find offensive.

Some individual teachers may “go rogue” and offer a lesson that is objectionable, Hornberger said, but that’s unlikely to show up in district-approved curriculum or textbooks.

“It’s not always easy to explain to parents that … some rogue class lesson they saw on Facebook isn’t curriculum,” Hornberger said.

The former educator said more transparency may allow parents to see that “most curriculum is non-controversial.”

Casandra Ulbrich, a Democrat who is president of the state Board of Education, was cautious in her initial perspective of the bill.

“Generally, I do not support fining schools,” Ulbrich said upon learning of the GOP proposal. “I am assuming that the introduction of this bill is to start a conversation, and I look forward to hearing more.”

Board Vice President Pamela Pugh, also a Democrat, said she is concerned that the bill will lead to censorship of curricula, intimidation of teachers, and watering down of education.

“There’s more than meets the eye at the root of these divisive, manufactured, chaotic bills that are being proposed” across the country as part of a national playbook, Pugh said. “It’s scare tactics and intimidation meant to cause mass chaos, mass confusion, and disruption to our education system.”

Ingrid Fournier, a fifth-grade teacher in Ludington Public Schools, said she was “frightened” by the bill. “My initial gut reaction is that it’s more hoops to jump through,” she told Bridge.

“We’ve been trained. Our best interest is your child’s success. We’re not the enemy,” Fournier said.

“Where is the trust? Just trust us.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Meshawn Maddock’s name.

Uncertified education majors could soon teach in Michigan

2022-02-01T23:14:07+00:00

Uncertified college students soon could find themselves leading Michigan classrooms and in charge of students’ academic progress for a full year.

The state House Education Committee is considering a bill allowing districts to hire not-yet-certified education majors as paid teachers with their own classrooms for up to one year. The bill aims to alleviate a severe teaching shortage that has crippled schools in Michigan and across the country, but some say it could do more harm than good.

“This is not a reasonable solution,” said Gail Richmond, director of teacher preparation programs at Michigan State University. “As a parent, I want to know that the teacher of my children has been through a program that has a particular set of expectations, offers a certain set of learning opportunities, and has a set of standards that they’ve met,” she said.

Education majors need that kind of structure too, Richmond said, calling the legislation a “lose-lose situation.”

Bill Sponsor Pamela Hornberger, who leads the committee, said her legislation provides one more tool in a toolbox that now also includes legislative authority for bus drivers, library aides, and other support staff to substitute teach with only a high school diploma. She acknowledged that hiring education majors may not work for every district, and it would be optional.

“We’re at the point where we’re voting to put anyone with a pulse and breathing in a classroom to sub,” the Chester Township Republican said during a committee hearing Tuesday. “We need to do something.”

The bill does not specify how far along students must be in teacher preparation programs to participate, but during testimony Tuesday Hornberger suggested that they would have had at least some teaching experience during their college coursework.

The Michigan Department of Education opposes the bill. Department spokesman Martin Ackley would not elaborate.

Rep. Lori Stone, a Democrat and former Macomb County teacher, said she feels “some hesitancy” about college students leading a classroom without real-time support and feedback from a certified teacher. Still, she said, the legislation could alleviate financial hardships for education majors, whose student teaching assignments are usually unpaid.

Hornberger said teacher preparation programs could restructure their programs to ensure education majors are prepared sooner to lead their own classrooms, and districts could establish mentorship programs to guide them.

None of that is specified in the bill, and that’s a problem, Richmond said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.

“I can imagine some version of this might work if it were carefully crafted, carefully designed, carefully assessed, and carefully overseen, but not if it doesn’t identify the kinds of necessary and powerful supports that developing educators need,” she said. That should include regular real-time feedback, co-teaching experiences, and day-to-day support of an experienced mentor, Richmond said, describing the support students typically receive during unpaid student teaching assignments.

Hornberger said during the hearing that she’s open to amending the legislation. If districts and universities work together, they can craft a model that provides good experience to student teachers while solving local teacher shortages for districts in crisis, she said. Universities might have to restructure their model for how student teaching is delivered, she said.

From South Carolina to Colorado, school systems are increasingly relying on uncertified instructors.

Petoskey Superintendent Chris Parker said he wouldn’t choose to have education majors act as teachers in his district, but said it could be an option for districts with a more severe teacher shortage.

“It’s nice to see the Legislature trying to help solve the current crisis,” he said, but “would you want a surgeon taking out your appendix who’s on a temporary certification but has binge watched the ‘ER’ television series and took a couple biology classes?’

Rep. Darrin Camilleri, Democrat from Brownstown Township, said the legislation could be impactful.

“This is a much bigger step than filling a teacher shortage. It’s re-evaluating what the concept of teacher education is,” Camilleri said.

The legislation could add administrative costs for the Michigan Department of Education, according to a House fiscal analysis. Those costs would likely be absorbed using existing staff, analysts said.

Education advocate Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, said it isn’t ideal to have uncertified instructors in charge of classrooms, but it’s a reasonable option during a severe teacher shortage. Michigan Future is a nonpartisan think tank focused on education’s role in bolstering the economy.

“There’s more demand for teachers than there is supply. There’s a real problem, and given this environment, we’re going to have to find alternatives,” Glazer said. He said a student in an education school program “sure seems a hell of a lot better” than a bus driver without any college credits.

State Superintendent Michael Rice has proposed a menu of other options to alleviate the teacher shortage. So far, the Legislature hasn’t considered them. They could cost between $300 million and $500 million over five years, he told lawmakers in a November letter.

Rice’s proposals include offering scholarships to education majors, extending loan forgiveness to current teachers, and better mentoring of new educators. He also wants support to ease restrictions on accepting teacher licenses from other states, to create grow-your-own programs that train support staff to become teachers, and to revive teacher preparation programs in the Upper Peninsula and lower Northern Peninsula.

Bridge Michigan staff writer Isabel Lohman contributed.

Michigan districts are running out of snow days. What happens now?

2022-01-28T20:43:17+00:00

It’s been a mild winter so far in southern Michigan, but already Reading Community Schools near the Ohio border is nearly out of snow days.

The district isn’t alone.

It’s not yet February, and many districts are nearing state caps on the number of days they are allowed to close for emergencies. In addition to snow days, there have been pandemic-related closures, attendance challenges and threats of school violence. Administrators want more flexibility, but the state Legislature doesn’t appear willing to grant it.

That jeopardizes school funding and districts’ ability to end the year on time in early June when many teachers and families have plans to start vacations and summer camps.

Michigan’s pupil accounting rules allow six school closures per year, known as “forgiven days.” They’re most often used for snow, but this is an unusual school year of staff shortages, COVID outbreaks, and copycat threats that followed the deadly November shooting at Oxford High School. Those factors are forcing school closures that are rapidly draining districts’ pool of forgiven days.

The 750-student Reading school district has had to close three times because of threats of school violence, once because of a citywide problem with water pressure, and once because of icy roads.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District has used all six of its forgiven days for health and safety reasons, administrators said.

On the snowier west side of the state, Newaygo Public Schools, about 35 miles north of Grand Rapids, already exceeded nine days. The district used five days for weather-related closings, plus 4½ more for “a variety of reasons” including staff shortages, Superintendent Jeff Wright said.

Administrators around the state have been asking the Legislature for more flexibility but so far their efforts have gained less traction than a school bus on an icy hill.

Fewer days versus long year

The closures come at a time schools already are trying to make up for lost learning time earlier in the pandemic when many schools closed or moved hastily to remote learning before teachers and students had the resources to get online. That has sparked some pushback to the notion of allowing fewer days of schooling, as opposed to extending the school year a few days or weeks into June.

“So many kids for the past couple of years have gotten nowhere near the [state-required] 180 days of learning so it’s even more important now to make sure they get as much as possible. We’ve got a two-year deficit we keep adding onto,” said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, an Ann Arbor-based nonpartisan think tank focused on education’s role in bolstering the state economy.

Districts that deplete their six forgiven days can ask the Michigan Department of Education for three more, but some administrators are concerned even that won’t be enough to cover unforeseen challenges in the months ahead.

“With so many disruptions this year, I don’t know if three days is going to make that much of a difference,” Reading Superintendent Chuck North said.

Unless the Legislature acts, districts will have to cut short spring breaks or extend school calendars by the number of days they’ve closed beyond their allotment of forgiven days.

So far, only three districts — Ludington, Muskegon and Newaygo — have applied for additional forgiven days, but it’s still early in the year, said MDE spokesman Martin Ackley. More applications are expected. The department is likely to approve them, but can only allow three additional days (for a total of nine) unless the Legislature provides more flexibility.

Cedar Springs Public Schools, 20 miles north of Grand Rapids, hasn’t applied for additional forgiven days although the district has used all six allowed days — two days each for bad weather, power outages and high teacher and student absences. Superintendent Scott Smith said he will extend the school year if necessary to meet the state-required 180 days and 1,098 hours of instruction.

“This does not keep me up at night. We’ve got provisions and we’ve got a plan … so to me this is really not a big challenge,” Smith said.

“It can be a little bit of a bump for some families who’ve scheduled vacation or some staff who’ve scheduled vacation, but you figure it out and make it work,” he said. “It’s a human business. You’ve got to be flexible.”

Extending the school year has a price

Extending the year could be costly and would require districts to renegotiate with local labor unions.

But money shouldn’t stop schools from doing what’s best for kids, especially in a year of historic school funding, Glazer said.

“If the only reason not to extend the school year is that it costs too much, then they ought to be able to figure that out,” he said.

For superintendents in northern Michigan, that isn’t the only reason. They face extra pressure from the tourism industry, in which businesses would suffer if school calendars are lengthened. They depend on long summers when families can visit and teenage workers can staff their shops and restaurants.

There’s another option, Glazer said. If it’s too unsafe to open school buildings, classes could be moved online, he said.

“It’s not perfect. A lot of homes have trouble getting Internet, but we’re far better off today than we were two years ago,” he said.

That could be a tough sell for lawmakers like Rep. Pamela Hornberger, who has staked out a firm position against remote learning. As chairperson of the Education Committee, the Chester Township Republican controls the House education agenda.

The worst thing the Legislature could do, Glazer said, is hand out extra forgiven days that would stop formal learning entirely.

“With all the disruption in kids’ lives because of COVID, why take additional school days away from them?” he asked. “We really need to figure out how to get as many learning days as possible. That’s particularly important for non-affluent children.”

Unprecedented disruptions caused by the pandemic have put districts in a vise.

There are financial penalties when district attendance falls below 75%. The amount is determined by a complex formula. For example, a district with 2,000 students and a state funding level of $600,000 per day would lose $56,000 on a day attendance fell to 68%, according to the formula.

In essence, schools stand to lose state funding if they open classrooms with attendance under 75%, while school costs (gas for buses, heating bills, and staff salaries) remain the same on those days.

“These penalties end up harming the very students we strive to educate and support. A loss of funding clearly takes away much-needed resources for students,” said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit school system.

Attendance rules challenge district

Superintendents face a difficult choice when surging COVID cases portend high absences. Some open school doors anyway and take the funding hit. Others close and use a forgiven day, hoping they won’t run out and later have to extend the school year further into June.

Attendance rules are less stringent when school years are extended, requiring only 60% attendance for districts to receive full funding on days after the originally scheduled end of the year.

Superintendents like Smith in Cedar Springs are willing to sacrifice funding to provide consistency for students who are able to attend.

“Let’s say we have only 68% in attendance. We’ll lose a fraction of the funding for that day but at least we can have a meaningful day for 68% of the students. It’s about what you can do, not what you can’t do,” he said from his 3,500-student district. “Let’s do what we can for those who are there, and catch the others up later.”

Petoskey Superintendent Chris Parker is similarly minded.

“To the degree schools are open, it’s better for kids,” Parker said. “If only 70% attend, at least that 70% gets the in-person instruction, social interaction, access to guidance counselors, and nutritious school lunches they need … but it’s going to reach a point where you can’t afford to do that,” he said.

“It’s great to say you’ll give up the money, but if you’re running a district without your full foundation allowance, the (local) board of education isn’t going to be fond of that.”

It isn’t clear whether school districts can make up for those funding losses using federal COVID-relief funds. Some superintendents said it’s possible but others believe that money must be spent in accordance with grant applications they already submitted.

Lowering the 75% threshold would be a big help, said Jennifer Smith, head of government affairs for the Michigan Association of School Boards, but so far the state House of Representatives has been unwilling to consider it. Other groups, including the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, also are asking the Legislature for relief from attendance requirements during the pandemic. So far, the Senate has taken a step in that direction but the House Education Committee has not budged.

The Senate bill would prevent districts from being penalized in limited circumstances when low attendance is caused by pandemic-related quarantines.

The school board association says that bill isn’t enough, but the House hasn’t been willing to go even that far.

Hornberger, the House education chair, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Other House Republicans, though, have resisted attempts to provide any flexibility they believe could encourage districts to return to remote learning or could make it easier for school buildings to close.

“I don’t understand that argument. The insinuation is that superintendents don’t want what’s best for their kids,” said Kevin Polston, superintendent of Kentwood Public Schools, a 9,500-student district south of Grand Rapids. “We know in-person instruction is what’s best for most kids, and the districts across the state have been committed to offering that for our students and families, but safety is always going to be first for us.”

Kentwood used two forgiven days so far this year on consecutive days because of snow, Polston said. When school resumed that Friday, only 71% of students showed up so the district won’t get its full share of state funding for that day unless the Legislature agrees to a rule change.

“Schools that are in person for every kid and doing the best they can shouldn’t be penalized during a pandemic,” Polston said.

The free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which has staunchly advocated for in-person learning, hasn’t taken an official position on the Senate bill but encourages the Legislature to reconsider attendance rules for quarantined students. The organization wants to discourage districts from temporarily switching entirely to remote instruction, as schools in Detroit and Ann Arbor recently did.

“Schools should be given greater flexibility not to excuse them from filling their responsibility, but to better equip them to provide students with effective instruction. That means guaranteeing all students access to an in-person option, as well as giving schools latitude,” said Ben DeGrow, the center’s director of education policy.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is working with Republican legislative leaders on ways to encourage in-person learning and is expected to offer proposals in her budget proposal next month. Bobby Leddy, spokesperson for the Democratic governor, would not say whether those solutions include flexibility on attendance rules and forgiven days.

“Right now 98% of districts have their classrooms open, and we are working to get that to 100% at soon as possible,” Leddy said.

Detroit superintendent proposes solutions.

Schools that have temporarily moved online are in a bind, Vitti said from Detroit, where students have been remote since December. Attendance is challenging on remote days when younger students might not have enough support at home, and older ones might have too many distractions.

On four days in January, Detroit’s attendance dipped below 75%, including once as low as 59%. The highest attendance in January was 78%.

Before going remote in December, Detroit schools closed several times because of building and city infrastructure problems, threats of school violence, and increases in COVID positivity rates. When schools reopen to in-class learning, Vitti said he expects to add five minutes to the school day to help meet the 1,098-hour school year requirement.

“We have felt the impact more than other districts regarding COVID because of the infection rate and because of low vaccination rates,” Vitti said. “I know other districts are in a similar situation, which is why we need some flexibility moving forward.”

Vitti suggests lowering attendance minimums to 60% and eliminating or reducing financial penalties in certain circumstances, such as during extreme weather, high COVID transmission rates, or critical infrastructure failure. The Legislature also could allow districts to close in response to threats of violence without using a forgiven day, he said.

Jennifer Smith of the state school board association said parents can do their part to pressure lawmakers to take action now so districts can plan for the spring, but she isn’t optimistic that they will.

“I don’t think parents will fully understand until we start talking about having to go to school in June,” she said.

“There needs to be an understanding from the Legislature that this is affecting their constituents, and something needs to be done. It doesn’t have to be drastic. It needs to be flexible,” she said.

These are the big Michigan education issues we’re watching in 2022

2022-01-10T23:08:12+00:00

With COVID surging and a growing number of schools shifting to virtual learning, the first seven days of 2022 have provided an unsettling preview of what’s to come in education this year, when the continued struggle to recover from the pandemic will dominate.

COVID, and its effects on schools, is by far the top education issue of 2022. It permeates every aspect of how students learn, teachers teach, and schools operate.

So far this year, more than a dozen Michigan school districts have temporarily shifted to online learning as the more contagious omicron variant has fueled big increases in positive cases. While most districts returned to in-person learning as scheduled after the break, there is growing uncertainty about whether they’ll be forced online in the near future. And, the surge is refueling debates about policies making the wearing of masks optional or required in school buildings.

Chalkbeat talked to Michigan education policy experts, educators, and researchers to help identify the top education issues of 2022. Here are topics we’ll be closely following.

Anything missing? Tell us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Can students rebound?

As we head into the second half of the school year, the biggest question is: Will the current surge slow or stall efforts to help students recover from the previous school year, when some students spent much of the time learning online, and many others bounced between virtual and in-person learning?

Michigan reduces school quarantine and isolation guidelines

Michigan school employees and students who test positive or are exposed to a positive person will only have to isolate or quarantine for five days under most circumstances.

That’s according to new recommendations from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which aligns with new federal guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week.

Here’s an overview of the new state recommendations officials are urging schools to adopt:

Students and employees who test positive and/or display COVID symptoms must isolate for five days, regardless of their vaccination status. If symptoms improve or disappear, they can return to school as long as they wear a well-fitted mask. Those unwilling or unable to wear a mask must stay home for days 6-10.
Anyone who is in close contact with someone who tests positive won’t need to quarantine if they had COVID in the previous 90 days, or if they are up to date on all recommended COVID vaccinations. They must wear a mask in school for 10 days.
Anyone who is a close contact of someone who tests positive, but isn’t fully vaccinated and hasn’t had COVID in the last 90 days must quarantine for five days or “test to stay” to return to school. Test to stay means they must be tested every other day for six days following the exposure.Those who opt to quarantine can return to school after five days and must wear a mask for days 6-10. They must quarantine for the entire 10 days if they are unwilling or unable to wear a mask.

Pandemic learning has been particularly difficult for some groups of students, including those with disabilities who didn’t receive all the services they require to learn, and students from low-income homes, who were more likely to learn online. Research has found students who learned online, including those from low-income homes, didn’t learn as much as those who were in person.

A key test will be whether educators are able to help students get back on track who fell behind.

“The stakes are high,” and include “the future of each and every student’s job opportunities and life outcomes, as well as states’ economic futures and talent workforce,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, an education research and advocacy organization based in Royal Oak.

Just as much is at stake in addressing the mental health and social challenges students have experienced while living through the pandemic. Students have spent so much time separated from their friends, experienced loss, and most recently, dealt with the threat of school violence that emerged after the deadly shooting at Oxford High School in November.

“If we don’t help kids to recover socially and emotionally in our schools, they’re not going to get those services elsewhere, at least not equitably,” said Katharine Strunk, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University. “Families who can afford help will get it, but those who can’t, won’t, and that will exacerbate inequities.”

It’s a “huge, defining moment,” said Strunk, because “if we don’t help kids to feel safe again, we could really be seeing long-term problems, not just for these kids, but for society.”

Will COVID relief money help?

Another big test of the year will be whether district leaders are able to use $6.1 billion in federal COVID relief money to help students catch up academically, address the mental health challenges, and confront a number of issues related to students and staff.

Many are using the money to hire teachers and pay them more in order to retain them. Others are investing in heating, air-conditioning, and ventilation systems. A lot are expanding summer school and after-school programs and investing in tutoring, technology, and counselors to help students with the pandemic’s social and emotional effects.

Reporters from Chalkbeat and the Detroit Free Press have teamed up to track how Michigan school districts are spending the money. In December, we reported that many districts haven’t clearly and publicly articulated their plans. That is concerning to education experts who say transparency, accountability, and community engagement are paramount.

“It was a mistake for the [U.S.] Department of Education not to build in a way to simplify the tracking of the monies being spent and make it available so the public can understand,” Strunk said. “The department had the opportunity to do it, and they didn’t.”

Although that spending is largely controlled by school districts, the governor has some role in steering it, and people will be watching, said Sarah Reckhow, a Michigan State University assistant professor of political science who specializes in education politics.

“(Gov. Gretchen) Whitmer can be proactive in her bully-pulpit role in pointing out examples of districts that spend recovery dollars wisely,” Reckhow said. “She can get guidance out to school districts to encourage them” to spend it on her priorities.

Equitable school funding

How well schools spend federal money, and how transparent they are, could impact perennial efforts to address Michigan’s school funding system. Several high-profile reports in recent years have concluded that the way the state funds schools isn’t adequate, and creates inequities between wealthy and poor districts. Whitmer has pushed for a more weighted funding system that would give additional state funds to the most vulnerable students. But a full-scale reform hasn’t happened. Could this be the year?

Arellano said that before the pandemic, national research showed Michigan ranked as one of the worst states in the country for gaps in funding equity.

“Fair funding is one of the most important enabling conditions for districts to create high-caliber, rigorous pathways of opportunity to learn at high levels,” she said. “As a state, we have failed tragically at creating these conditions for all children.”

Staffing woes continue to be a factor

Schools across Michigan have been strained by labor shortages - from teachers to support staff. Substitute teacher shortages, a problem before the pandemic, worsened so much this school year that lawmakers enacted new rules that make it easier for support staff such as bus drivers and school secretaries to cover classes. Meanwhile, school nutrition officials report shortages are making it tough to ensure students have access to quality meals on a regular basis.

The current COVID surge will only worsen the problems, because staff who are exposed to the virus or who contract it must be out of school buildings for at least five days or more.

The overall shortages are “going to plague us for at least four to five years and perhaps longer if the teacher incentives being proposed by a number of groups are not moved forward,” said Wendy Zdeb, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals.

“With wages rising in many other industries, along with better benefits and flexible working conditions, schools just can’t compete for workers,” Zdeb said. “This is going to cause serious staffing issues and it will require schools to function differently in the future.”

Education in the governor’s race

It’s unclear how big an issue education will be in the Michigan governor’s race. It wasn’t expected to factor heavily in the Virginia governor’s race last year but it ended up being key to Republican Glenn Youngkin’s win after a long campaign centered on energy, economy, and public safety. In the end, Youngkin rode a wave of conservative frustration over school mask mandates, delayed return to in-person learning, and instruction about race.

“If we read the tea leaves from Virginia, there are reasons to expect that education will be prominent” in the Michigan governor’s race as well, Reckhow said.

Whitmer, the incumbent Democrat, will likely take heat from Republicans who blame her for widespread school shifts to virtual instruction in the wake of the pandemic, even though she has only twice ordered schools shut down - at the start of the pandemic, and in the fall of 2020, when she ordered high schools closed for in-person instruction because of surges in positive cases. She and lawmakers negotiated in 2020 to give districts the flexibility to move learning online.

She is likely to tout her record of investment in schools including a massive expansion of the Great Start Readiness Program, the state’s free preschool program that now serves far more students thanks to federal COVID relief money.

Republicans, though, are likely to attack her veto of a plan to give tax breaks to reimburse donors for contributions to Opportunity Scholarships for private school tuition. Democrats oppose the scholarships, saying the scholarships open the door to school vouchers and circumvent a state ban on using public funds for private schools.

With voters frustrated over pandemic-related school closures, Whitmer’s veto provides a point of attack for James Craig, the former Detroit police chief and current frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Reckhow said.

“Republicans’ answer for a long time has been choice – choice in terms of vouchers, choice in terms of charters, choice in terms of home school,” she said. “The Opportunity Scholarship debate is a particular opening for Craig to advocate for more choice.”

Other key issues

Here are a few more issues we’ll be paying attention to this year:

Mask mandates may continue to be a controversial political issue, as some school districts relax their mandates now that vaccines are available for children over 5. In districts that don’t have a mask mandate, we expect to see some parents push for a requirement in the wake of the COVID surge.
Lawmakers likely will continue trying to push legislation that would ban critical race theory in the state’s K-12 schools. The theory is a college-level academic framework that explores the lingering effects of centuries of white supremacy and racist policies that disadvantage people of color. Though there is little evidence it is being taught in K-12 schools, Republican lawmakers in Michigan and in many other states across the country have made banning it a priority.
The surging omicron variant will likely bring more discussions about whether schools should try more aggressive ways to keep buildings open. Already, there is more regular testing of students and staff in schools. Some districts have instituted test-to-stay programs, which require students be tested for COVID in order to remain in the classroom. One such new initiative goes into effect in Detroit on Jan. 31. There also will likely be debate about whether schools can require students to be vaccinated. In the Detroit district, staff are required to be vaccinated by Feb. 18 and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti wants to extend that mandate to students. He told Chalkbeat last week that if state lawmakers won’t require vaccines, then they should “get out of the way” of districts that want to implement such policies on their own. “Don’t put us in a straitjacket to do what we need to do to allow school to move forward with greater consistency.”

Michigan students forced online by COVID learned less than those in schools

2022-01-10T15:01:49+00:00

Michigan students who learned remotely for all or most of last school year learned less than those who were in classrooms, according to an analysis of student-level test data released today.

In a challenging school year when all groups learned less than normal, remote learners fared worse than peers who attended schools in person, as did those from marginalized groups who were already struggling academically.

The report serves as confirmation of what many educators had feared during the 2020-21 school year, when students in many districts lurched between in-person and online learning because of the pandemic.

“The learning gaps got bigger, and this is a major equity problem,” said Katharine Strunk, director of Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaboration, which released the 350-page data-rich analysis on Monday.

Strunk said the report’s data could serve as a guide for school officials and policymakers weighing whether to close schools during COVID outbreaks or future pandemics.

While average test scores increased from fall to spring regardless of how instruction was delivered, the growth was consistently larger in districts that offered in-person instruction all year than in schools that were remote all or part of the year. As a result, gaps between average test scores widened over the course of the year, Strunk said.

And those gaps could be even wider than the data show. Remote students took the tests at home, so it’s impossible to know whether they were helped by caregivers, EPIC researchers said in their report.

Superintendents must consider tradeoffs between learning loss and COVID safety, Strunk said. The availability of vaccines should make it easier for them to choose to keep students in classrooms, she said.

“Teachers and schools aren’t set up to run remotely, and students aren’t set up to learn remotely on average,” she said. “We need to work very hard to keep students in school buildings. The longer you are out of a school building, the worse you’re doing academically.”

The analysis is based on results of the Michigan Student Test of Education Progress (M-STEP) and benchmark exams selected or created by individual districts to measure student achievement.

The report also found that Black, Latino, and economically disadvantaged students began last school year behind their peers academically and ended it even further behind, according to the report. Those students also were more likely to attend districts that provided remote instruction for all or part of last school year.

“This data makes clear what we feared: The children whose learning was most impacted by the pandemic are the students who are often the most underserved, including Black and economically disadvantaged students,” said Jennifer Mrozowski, director of communications for the Education Trust-Midwest, a Royal Oak-based nonprofit education advocacy group.

Half of Black fourth graders, for example, started last school year significantly below grade level on state benchmark math exams. By the end of the year, two-thirds of them were significantly behind.

For Latino students, 35% were significantly behind in the fall and 43% in the spring. Of all fourth graders, 27% started the year significantly behind and 33% ended it significantly behind.

Results are similar across other grade levels and subject areas.

EPIC’s research adds to growing evidence that students missed important learning opportunities during the pandemic and that students who were already struggling were especially harmed.

“Certain groups of kids were impacted more by the pandemic than other kids, and in ways that increase achievement gaps between marginalized groups,” Strunk said.

“When we think about how to recover from the pandemic, it can’t be business as usual. We have to be paying attention to students who felt greater impacts from the pandemic,” Strunk said. “I’m hopeful this report can be used by policymakers to provide more funds and other kinds of resources to the kind of kids we now see are more academically impacted by the pandemic.”

School tiplines have prevented suicides, assaults, vandalism, police say

2021-12-22T18:29:44+00:00

A Michigan student threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend at school. Another posted on social media that he planned to vandalize cars at the prom and would shoot any “snitches.”

Police intervened in both cases before harm was done, thanks to the state’s confidential OK2SAY tipline, which logged 3,742 calls, texts, and emails reporting school threats last year and nearly as many in the three weeks since the deadly shooting at Oxford High School.

It’s impossible to say how many of those threats would have been carried out if not for the tipline, but state police believe OK2SAY has stopped suicides, assaults, vandalism, and worse.

School safety experts say anonymous tiplines are among the most effective tools for preventing school violence, including mass shootings like the one that took four lives and injured seven last month at Oxford High School.

Just over half of the public middle and high schools in the U.S. have tiplines, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The most successful ones have coordinated, trained, expert teams prepared to respond quickly and appropriately, the department said in an April report.

“I absolutely believe if we did not have the OK2SAY tipline we would have had a school tragedy like Oxford a long time ago” in MIchigan, said Lt. Colonel Chris Kelenske, deputy director of state police who supervises the Office of School Safety.

OK2SAY is Michigan’s only statewide tipline. School districts do not sign up to participate but some are better than others at promoting it. Anyone can call. A few school districts have their own local tiplines, Kelenske said, but those aren’t staffed 24 hours a day by trained responders like OK2SAY.

Citing the ongoing investigation, Kelenske declined to say whether OK2SAY received any tips about Oxford in the days and hours before the shooting.

But in the 18 hours after, OK2SAY received a record number of more than 2,000 tips, Kelenske said. About 1,000 more have rolled in since then. Calls typically escalate after shootings — even when the violence happens in other states — because people are on high alert as news reports inspire copycat threats, he said. Copycat threats have caused more than 100 school closures in Michigan this month.

Threats are continuing, and law enforcement is taking them seriously.

For example, a 15-year-old was arrested this month, ordered not to return to school, and outfitted with a GPS monitoring device after police investigated an OK2SAY tip that the student had threatened violence at Bloomfield Hills High School.

Another 15-year-old was arrested in Oakland County after an OK2SAY tipster reported that the boy had said he would “shoot up” Lake Orion High School if he could get a gun.

Ninety percent of school shooters displayed warning signs, said Michael Planty, director of the Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention at the Research Triangle Institute, a North Carolina-based research institute whose scientists study technology’s role in solving critical problems.

“They revealed information about their plans days or weeks before carrying out the actual attacks. People knew, whether siblings or other students,” said Planty, a former Department of Justice researcher who studies victimization, crime prevention, and school safety.

OK2SAY is monitored around the clock by technicians trained to assess the urgency of calls and route tips to responders best equipped to handle them. Last year, OK2SAY routed 1,004 tips to school officials; 460 to local law enforcement; 379 to online resources, counseling or crisis lines; 95 to Child Protective Services; and one to mental health services.

OK2SAY was established by the state Legislature as a tool for anonymous reporting of tips about school-related crimes, or potential harm to safety of students, teachers, and staff. Since then, more than 29,000 tips have rolled in via phone, text and email. The program initially was housed in the Department of the Attorney General but now is managed by the Michigan State Police.

According to the program’s 2020 annual report, half of the cumulative tips have related to suicide and bullying, while 1,046 related to planned school attacks. The report does not include calls made after the Oxford shooting.

Students shouldn’t hesitate to call if they hear something concerning, Kelenske said.

“Saving your friend’s life is not betraying your friend,” Kelenske said. “If they did not say anything and something happened, how would that make them feel knowing they could have potentially done something.”

Anything concerning is worth reporting when it comes to school safety, said Brian Gard, founder of School Safety Associates, a national consulting firm based in west Michigan.

“If there’s any doubt, if there’s any hesitation” that it might not be a credible threat, report it anyway, he said. “It might be one pice of a puzzle, and somebody else might just make a tip that is another piece of the puzzle, and the person investigating might put these two things together” and be able to avert a threat to safety.

A tipline is only as effective as its marketing, Planty said. Students need to be aware of the tipline, and they need to know how to use it so they provide sufficient information for schools and law enforcement to follow up, he said. Students also need a school culture that supports reporting threats and concerns about safety, he said.

“The problem is that school culture often doesn’t allow students to provide this information. It comes across as snitching that will get them or someone else into trouble,” he said. “They need a school climate that’s there for them to feel safe, and they need to know that when they put in a tip it will be acted upon.”

That means tiplines need to be properly staffed, especially at times of high call volume, such as after a high profile attack like the Oxford shooting.

“When there’s a shock to the system people become hyper vigilant” and call in more tips, Planty said. “People feel more compelled and empowered to report.”

Door security, window locks, visitor screening, and well rehearsed lockdown drills also help. Gard also recommends that every classroom have an emergency backpack with a first aid kit, a whistle, high-visibility vests to identify teachers, and name tags to help with reunification of young children after an evacuation.

“It’s really important to focus on prevention and identification of threats, but if things do happen, schools need to be prepared,” Planty said.

OK2SAY costs about $1.1 million a year to operate. It is modeled after Colorado’s Safe2Tell program created after the Columbine High School shooting, where 15 people were killed and dozens were injured. According to the Colorado program’s website, the aim was to penetrate the “code of silence” that keeps students in fear of being labeled a “snitch” or of being targeted by the person they report.

(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the title for Michael Planty, the director of the Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention at the Research Triangle Institute.)

Michigan lawmakers create a pathway for school support staff to substitute teach

2021-12-15T02:45:07+00:00

School bus drivers and cafeteria workers soon could be in front of classrooms instead of behind steering wheels and serving counters.

Lawmakers passed a bill late Tuesday temporarily allowing school support staff to substitute teach even if they don’t have a single college credit.

The Republican-sponsored bill passed on near party lines. It’s unclear if Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, will sign it into law. Her spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

If she signs, school staff members who want to substitute teach this school year need only a high school diploma or equivalency certificate. That’s a temporary reprieve from the requirement that substitute teachers have an associate degree, 60 college credits, or, in the case of career and technical courses, subject-matter expertise. Substitutes who are not school staff members would still have to meet those requirements.

Districts have long struggled to find enough substitute teachers, but the problem worsened during the pandemic when many teachers retired and those who remain are sometimes forced to quarantine because of coronavirus exposure. The nationwide problem has forced temporary school closures and prompted pay hikes to attract substitutes. Before the pandemic, substitute teachers in Michigan were typically paid $80 to $85 a day but some districts are now offering much more.

Under the legislation, staff members who earn more than the daily substitute rate would be paid their normal hourly rate. Those who normally earn less than substitutes would receive the higher rate.

The state Department of Education opposes the bill.

So do Democrats on the Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee, who expressed concerns that the change would diminish the quality of education and would exacerbate staffing shortages in other areas.

“It’s a staffing shell game. It also has no guarantee that the substitute will be teaching our kids the content that they’re there to learn,” Democratic Sen. Erika Geiss of Taylor said during a floor speech Tuesday evening.

“Staff members who are not educators are wonderful people,” said Geiss, a former teacher. “They are valued, hardworking members of our school communities, but for the most part, especially when we have a situation where a long-term substitute might be needed, they aren’t the ones who should be substitute teaching.”

Whitehall District Schools Superintendent Jerry McDowell said bus drivers could teach in between their morning and afternoon routes. His district serves 2,000 students north of Muskegon.

The Senate voted 23-13. Republicans Ed McBroom of Vulcan and Wayne Schmidt of Traverse City voted no along with most Democrats. Democrats Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids, Curtis Hertel Jr. of East Lansing, Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor, and Sylvia Santana of Detroit crossed party lines to vote yes.

The House, which already approved a different version of the bill in July, had to vote again because of a technical change made last week in the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness. The House voted 55-48. Jewell Jones of Inkster was the only Democrat joining Republicans in voting yes.

Michigan bill would reduce qualifications needed for some to substitute teach

2021-12-13T22:16:04+00:00

Secretaries, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers soon could teach classes in Michigan K-12 schools even if they don’t have a single college credit.

The state Senate is considering a bill temporarily allowing school support staff to substitute teach as long as they graduated high school or have equivalency certificates. That’s a switch from the current policy that requires an associate degree, 60 college credits, or, in the case of career and technical courses, subject-matter expertise. Substitute teachers who are not staff members would still have to meet those requirements.

The legislation passed the House in July on partisan voting lines and could come to a vote Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness. The state Department of Education opposes the legislation, spokesman Bill DiSessa said. A spokesman for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer did not respond to a question about whether she would sign the legislation if it passes.

Sponsored by Republican state Reps. Brad Paquette of Niles and John Damoose of Harbor Springs, the effort is meant to alleviate pandemic-related strain on school districts through the end of this school year.

“What I think is most important for someone in the classroom is to know the kid’s name, to know the school, to care about the school, and have a reputation in the community,” Paquette testified last week before the Senate committee. “Staff who are already in the school system have already proven that they care about kids. They want to be around kids, and they have that passion for kids.”

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said the proposal might help the substitute shortage but would put pressure on other understaffed areas such as cafeterias, transportation departments, and paraprofessional staff that help students with disabilities.

“You’re just kind of playing musical chairs with critical school system employees. I’m wondering if that’s even workable,” said Polehanki of Livonia.

Currently, Whitehall District Schools typically needs six to eight substitutes per day but usually has only two to four available, Superintendent Jerry McDowell said. When there aren’t enough, principals, guidance counselors and other certified educators usually rotate in and out of a classroom throughout the day, magnifying the disruption and inhibiting consistency for children in the 2,000-student district north of Muskegon.

Several bus drivers and library assistants are willing to step in if the Legislature allows, McDowell said in a telephone interview.

“They’ve spent most of their lives working for Whitehall District Schools’ children and staff members,” he said. “They already have a relationship with them. They know our emergency routines, they know how to respond if things go a little astray, and they know the principal and school secretary by first name.”

Sen. Erica Geiss, a Taylor Democrat, agrees it makes sense to hire substitutes that already have a rapport with students and a knowledge of the school but has concerns about the quality of education they might provide.

“Is this envisioned as being basically babysitting or child-sitting for a class of 30 or 36 students when the focus is really supposed to be doing the education that we as parents send our kids to school to receive?” she asked.

“My concern is that we’ve already had a year of learning loss for a variety of reasons related to the pandemic,” said Geiss, who is a former educator. “Yes, we need to shore up the holes in our substitute teaching force, but how are we ensuring that the students are getting the information they need in order to continue moving forward in their various classes and coursework?”

Paquette, a former public school educator, said the quality would depend more on the classroom teacher’s preparation than on whether the substitute had college coursework.

It’s mostly a matter of “how much the teacher is willing to put in for their sub plans to make learning happen that day,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but it comes down to how much that teacher is going to be invested, and how much they know that substitute teacher and what they’re capable of.”

There’s nothing to stop principals from choosing substitutes who have more education than the bill requires, Paquette said. “If they have an option of choosing someone better, that’s something they’re going to do,” he said.

Education advocacy groups are divided over the legislation.

It’s not ideal, but it’s a solution that can be implemented quickly, testified Chris Glass of the Education Associates of West Michigan, which represents 43 school districts.

School employees in non-teaching positions see the strain on educators who are giving up preparatory periods or taking on additional students to cover for co-workers’ absences, Glass said. They want to help alleviate it, and this bill will help, he said.

Other proponents of the bill include other Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators and the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter school advocacy group.

“We desperately need a solution — an immediate one — to the challenges that we are facing,” Glass told the Senate committee last week.

Opponents — including the state’s largest teachers’ unions— agree on that, but they say they don’t want unqualified people teaching students.

The Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals opposes the legislation and has a plan of its own to help when teachers are quarantined at home. The association wants the state to allow adults who are not certified teachers to manage classroom behavior while the quarantined classroom teacher provides remote instruction from home.

“Such an arrangement would provide much-needed relief. It would also clearly differentiate between someone who’s leading instruction and someone who is just facilitating the classroom environment,” said Bob Kefgen, the association’s lobbyist.

Geiss weighed the urgent need for substitutes against the need for higher quality instruction by substitutes with college experience. She bristled when Paquette, a former public school teacher, called the 60-credit requirement arbitrary and unnecessary.

“We need to figure out a way to ensure we are addressing this critical need but also not sacrificing our kids’ education at the same time,” Geiss said.

Michigan schools struggle to feed students because of supply chain issues and worker shortages

2021-12-08T20:22:21+00:00

It sounded like a losing game of Go Fish.

“I need deli turkey,” Caroline Dylewski said.

“I do not have any sliced turkey,” came the response over the phone.

“Unsliced that I can slice myself? Anything. I just need plain deli turkey,” Dylewski said from her office at Warren Consolidated Schools north of Detroit, where a sign above her cluttered desk reads “chaos coordinator.”

“I didn’t have any yesterday. I’ll have to look,” said Brian Jakubison, the sales representative on the phone from Gordon Food Service.

Salami? Cheese sticks? Chicken drumsticks? Garlic bread seasoning?

No, no, no, and no.

Dylewski isn’t the only food service director struggling to source enough products for school cafeterias in the face of shortages of food to serve, workers to heat it, plates to serve it on, and refrigerators to store it in. The problem is compounded by increases in student demand in many districts since Congress, in response to the pandemic, made breakfast and lunch free for all students this year.

Manufacturers, distributors and shippers are feeling the pinch, too.

“Manufacturers don’t always have enough people to produce the product. If they do, they may not have enough drivers to get it to the distributor, and then the distributor might not have enough people to pick the order or enough drivers to get it to the school,” said Carolyn Thomas, Macomb County schools’ child nutrition consultant.

There’s a problem in every link of the supply chain, said Diane Golzynski, director of health and nutrition for the Michigan Department of Education. “It’s not one single thing. It’s everything all wrapped together,” she said.

Food service worker Marilyn Grys prepared lunches for Warren County Intermediate School District students.

In a July survey, 97% of school food service directors across the country said they are concerned about supply chain disruptions and 90% said they were concerned about staffing shortages.

“The frustration is real. I’m worried about the burnout. I’m worried about directors being able to get through this really, really difficult time,” said Lori Adkins, child nutrition consultant for Oakland County schools and president elect of the national School Nutrition Association, which conducted the survey.

Distributors say they’re doing their best to operate amid the challenges.

“Throughout the pandemic, we’ve focused on working closely with customers to address these issues, including identifying appropriate product alternatives or helping redesign elements of the menu,” said Mark Schurman, spokesman for Gordon Food Service, one of the four major suppliers to Michigan school cafeterias. “We’re also searching for additional qualified suppliers and expanding alternative solutions whenever possible,” he said.

Amid worsening staffing and supply-chain problems, schools across the country are struggling to feed students, some of whom rely on cafeterias for most — or sometimes all — of their daily nutrition, and unnourished children have trouble learning.

“When you’re hungry, it’s the only problem you have. Not school, not home, not friends. It’s the only problem,” Golzynski said. “Children who are hungry lose concentration in school and therefore lose out on precious learning time, have lower academic performance, and a lower ability to calm themselves.”

They also have higher rates of illness, depression, suicide, anxiety, and social isolation, she said.

School cafeterias must meet nutritional content requirements to be eligible for federal reimbursement — $4.31 for lunch and $2.26 for breakfast. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently waived many of those requirements if pandemic-related supply-chain problems prevent districts from meeting them, but districts still must strive to meet nutrition goals.

Schools are sourcing food wherever they can find it. Some are ordering from local bakeries and pizza chains. Others are buying cases of paper cups and carts full of hamburger buns at retail stores. Those with enough staff and kitchen equipment are making meals like macaroni and cheese from scratch.

All of that strains food service budgets. The cost of food has risen 4.6% over the last year and has soared even higher – 10.5% for meat, fish and eggs.

School districts in Michigan have formed buying consortia that give them bulk purchasing power from distributors selected through competitive bidding. Until the pandemic, those distributors almost always had the stock to deliver what districts needed, but now many are forced to buy on the open market, where prices are higher.

“If you’re a district with 600 kids but you’re in a consortium with 600 districts and now there are 700,000 kids you’re going to get much better prices,” Golzynski said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced it would provide $1.5 billion in extra food assistance to schools, daycare centers, adult care centers, and emergency shelters. That program is under development. A department spokesperson said it could include direct payments to districts or the USDA purchasing food to distribute to schools.

School food service directors hope it will be enough to balance their budgets.

Supervisor of Nutrition Services Wen Guo, left, and Director of Nutrition Services Caroline Dylewski work on orders for Warren Consolidated School District. Wen orders for the district’s elementary schools and Dylewski orders for middle and high schools.

‘The food we want just isn’t there.’

Apple danish, potatoes, and sausage.

That was among the meals Jamie Phelan’s children were served in the cafeterias at Webster and Roosevelt elementary schools in Livonia.

“I was hearing from the kids that one group would come in for first lunch and they would run out of whatever entree. The kids that were after would get whatever [cafeteria workers] could piece together,” Phelan said.

That’s when she decided to pack backup nonperishable lunches for her children to keep in their classrooms in case they couldn’t find something appetizing in the cafeteria line.

“They had been coming home hungry, which for my kids isn’t a horrible thing because we’re lucky enough to have food in our home. But they do have a few friends who have issues getting food at home” because parents are out of work and struggling to afford groceries that have gotten more expensive during the pandemic, Phelan said. “For some kids the only real meals they have are at school.”

Food service directors are aware of those struggles. That’s why they say they feel extra pressure to do their best. Sometimes that means working late to get food orders in or driving on weekends to grocery stores and food wholesalers in other towns to see what they can find.

“Families have been struggling,” said Jennifer Mattison, director of food and nutrition services for Dexter Community Schools. “There’s need at every socioeconomic level.”

That’s one reason food service directors are grateful for the federal mandate requiring free meals for every student through the end of this school year, even though it means more work for staffs already stretched thin.

“Our goal is to make sure kids are fueled and ready to learn. We want everybody to be on the same playing field and that they’re not having to worry about being hungry,” Mattison said. “Nobody ever has to wonder, ‘Can I get lunch today?’”

They do have to wonder, though, what that lunch might be. Lately, there’s a good chance it won’t be what’s on menus districts distribute weeks in advance.

“Oftentimes, we prepare a menu based on what we ordered,” Livonia’s director of operations Phillip Francis told the board of education at a recent meeting. “We lay that menu out, post it, and then, lo and behold, items aren’t on the delivery.”

Sometimes that means unexpected and unappetizing offerings children won’t eat.

Older students are finding fewer choices than they’re used to in their cafeterias.

Detroit high school students, for example, used to have several entree choices each day but now might have only four, said Carl Williams, director of nutrition for Detroit Public Schools Community District.

“I can’t get all the food that I want, and not being able to give my students that variety of food makes me emotional. I think I’ve cried about two or three times when I left the school and I just don’t see that variety anymore,” he said during a recent conference of the School Nutrition Association of Michigan. “The challenge hurts me.”

‘I’ve never seen this product before.’

Districts with the space stock up on canned vegetables, shelf-stable milk, cases of cereal, and as much ground beef as they can fit in their freezers, but storage space is often limited.

Shortages of mainstays also means a learning curve for cafeteria workers who have to prepare unfamiliar products, said Alison Powers, a Midwest regional sales representative from G.T.M. foods during a presentation to food service workers last month at the School Nutrition Association of Michigan’s annual conference.

“You guys are getting stuff on your trucks that you’re like, ‘I’ve never seen this product before. What in the world do I do with it?’” Powers said. “It’s more work. It’s a lot more work, I know.”

Alison Powers, Midwest regional sales manager for J.T.M. Food Group, speaks to food service workers in Lansing in November during the Schoon Nutrition Association of Michigan’s annual conference.

That’s why distributors like JTM Food Group are providing recipes and suggestions for using one ingredient multiple ways. Mixing taco meat with macaroni and cheese, for example, creates a whole different menu item, she said. Adding tomato paste and seasoning turns the same meat into spaghetti sauce or chili.

That means extra work for cafeteria staff.

One recent week neither of Warren’s usual suppliers had the individually wrapped cheese sticks or cheese cubes ordered for elementary schools.

“There’s nothing. No cheese cubes. No string cheese. No cheese sticks,” Wen Guo, supervisor of nutrition services, told Dylewski.

She had to order blocks of cheese instead.

That would mean cafeteria workers would have to cut it into cubes and wrap them individually so students could serve themselves without handling other food. The plastic wrap they use is in short supply,, but Dylewski had stocked up a few weeks earlier when she was able to find some.

Bowls, plates, trays, forks, cups, and spoons are hard to find, too.

At a recent lunch meeting of school food service directors, one desperate attendee made the rounds to collect unused utensils to take back to her school.

“One of the biggest challenges for us this year is trays. We have to have something to put the food on, and we can’t get our normal school lunch tray that’s disposable,” Mattison said. “Every school district is struggling.”

Those with dishwashers have started using hard plastic trays or paper-lined baskets that delis sometimes use for sandwiches and fries. That means an extra strain on staff too because someone has to wash them.

And if equipment breaks, repairs could take weeks or even months.

“Equipment is getting used more, so it’s wearing out faster and breaking down more, and you can’t get the parts to fix it,” said Joe Plume of Town Center HVAC-R, a Howell, Mich. company whose customers include school districts. “We don’t have parts in stock, the manufacturers don’t have any, and they don’t know when they’re going to get them.”

Caroline Dylewski, director of nutrition services, pulls a crate of milk from Warren Consolidated School District’s central warehouse to deliver to a school that was running low on a recent Tuesday.

“Quick … before it disappears.”

Every solution seems to create another problem, food service directors said.

Jakubison tries to help with food supply issues by alerting the districts he services when a hard-to-get item they usually order becomes available, but they have to act fast when it’s in Gordon Food Service’s online ordering system. Otherwise another district will snatch it up.

“I’m telling you right now, this stuff is posted and within minutes it’s gone. I’ve never seen anything like what is happening. It’s incredible. And no one’s hoarding. That’s the crazy part, too,” he told Dylewski on a recent order day after he helped her find small plastic cups to serve yogurt parfaits.

“It’s like a game, Dylewski said.

“Hey, quick, what about this salami before it disappears?” she asked Jakubison as she skimmed an email he sent her earlier listing in-stock items she might want to order.

“There’s two good sliced ones there,” he told her, then gave her the product numbers so she could check the price and nutrition content online.

Sandy Hook mom seeks answers 9 years, scores of shootings later

2021-12-08T00:29:34+00:00

It’s been nine years since a gunman murdered first-grader Jesse Lewis, 19 of his schoolmates, and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Jesse would be 15 now, the same age as some of the students at Oxford High School, where a shooting last week took the lives of 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 16-year-old Tate Myre, 17-year-old Justin Shilling, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin.

Both of those shootings could have been prevented, said Scarlett Lewis, Jesse’s mother, who is on a mission to stop them through Jesse Lewis Choose Love, one of several nonprofits created by Sandy Hook families.

Lewis spoke with Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan about her efforts, her frustrations, and her advice for helping the Oxford community as it heals. Her responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

There have been scores of school shootings since Sandy Hook, 30 this year alone. What needs to change to stop them?

We need to shift our focus from the problem to the cause of these school shootings: loneliness, disconnection, isolation, and the lack of emotional management that negatively impact the mental health and well-being of our children. There are essential life skills that must be taught in order to most effectively deal with the challenges we face.

I have learned through my experience that every one of us needs to step up and take responsibility for what is causing these children to perpetrate these horrific events. We are in this together and change is needed.

After school shootings people tend to separate themselves into two camps. One wants to strengthen gun laws by expanding background checks and outlawing certain kinds of weapons. The other wants to focus on mental health. Which is the right approach?

The first approach hasn’t worked. In fact, it seems that it has actually amplified the issue. We continue to implement school safety in a physical sense, for example, by locking doors and arming school resource officers. We aren’t addressing the real cause of the problem: the mental health and well-being of our children.

We need to shift our focus to teaching children how to manage the difficulties in their lives, how to cope with challenges, and how to have healthy relationships and connections. Creating a connected, compassionate, and loving home and school culture can prevent grievances from escalating into attacks. Society is failing in keeping our children safe. We need to re-focus on the needs of our children.

How is your organization, the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement, helping?

I stood up at my son Jesse’s funeral and asked the congregation to choose a loving thought over an angry thought. I said the Sandy Hook tragedy started with an angry thought and a thought can be changed. We have to work on what we can control, and this starts with our thoughts. This is something everyone can do right now to do their part to create a safe, more peaceful, and loving world.

I’m trying to do that through the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement. It’s a free program that teaches how to thoughtfully respond with love in any situation. It started as a school-based program but has expanded into communities, workplaces, and even correctional institutions.

As you detail in your book, Jesse left a guiding message behind. How are you carrying forward his message of “nurturing healing love?”

Scarlett Lewis reaches out to catch her son Jesse as he jumps in a pool in the summer of 2012. That December Jesse would be murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn.

“Nurturing healing love” (or, in Jesse’s first-grade spelling: ‘Norurting Helinn Love’) are the three insightful words Jesse wrote on our kitchen chalkboard before his death. They are actually included in the definition of “compassion” across all cultures. Nurturing means loving kindness and gratitude, healing means forgiveness, and love is compassion in action

I realized after seeing Jesse’s chalkboard message that if the Sandy Hook shooter had been able to give and receive ‘nurturing healing love’ the tragedy would never have happened. I set out to bring this message to as many people as possible and to let them know they could choose love over anger. I began with children.

How did you find compassion for the shooter who murdered your son?

People are astounded that I forgave the young man who murdered Jesse, but I know that hurt people hurt people. I realized that love, connection, and belonging are universal wants and needs that connect all of humanity, and that if the shooter had received more of it in his life, the tragedy might never have happened. In fact, the Sandy Hook shooter was denied essential services from kindergarten onward. There were stories I read, such as when he was in first grade and came to school with a backpack filled with birthday invitations and no one came to the party. Learning about his history you see the isolation, disconnection, and loneliness that plagued him.

There are only two kinds of people in the world: good people and good people in pain. Perhaps it will take a while for us to understand this as it feels easier to assign blame. In order to stop school shootings it will require that we address the cause and it starts with putting the spotlight on the continued mental health and well-being of these children.

What can the community do in the weeks and months ahead to help survivors of the Oxford High School shooting and families of victims?

The victims’ families and communities are in shock right now. We see school shootings happening across the country but never think it will happen to us. Families are writing obituaries and making funeral arrangements, struggling to comprehend how they will continue to live life without their beloved children.

It’s important to offer techniques and treatment related to trauma and make it available to everyone in the community, even those who are not intimately impacted as these events can cause others to experience trauma. The focus on mental health and well-being must be on-going.

Neighbors, friends, and the surrounding community need to open their hearts to all and offer acts of kindness and extended caring and concern for each other. It’s a beautiful thing that happens after a tragedy takes place as people come together in love and compassion.

I don’t want another parent to have to go through what I went through, and what parents in Oxford are going through right now. We can honor those lost by committing ourselves to shining a national spotlight on the need for mental health services for our children, and ourselves.

Parents of Oxford High School shooting suspect charged

2021-12-03T20:08:39+00:00

An internet search for ammunition during class. A chilling drawing of a pistol and a gunshot victim with blood everywhere. The words, “The thoughts won’t stop,” “The world is dead,” and “My life is useless.”

The signs were there, but Ethan Crumbley’s parents did nothing, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.

That’s why James and Jennifer Crumbley are now charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after the shooting rampage that killed four students and wounded six others and one teacher at Oxford High School.

McDonald announced the charges Friday. She would not say whether Jennifer and James Crumbley are in custody.

Their son, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, was charged Wednesday with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder, and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He is being prosecuted as an adult.

New details emerged Friday about the failures leading up to the shooting that took the lives of 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana; 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin; and 15-year-old Justin Shilling.

There were many opportunities to prevent the shooting, McDonald said, acknowledging the community’s anger at the school for not doing more.

When asked whether school personnel bear criminal responsibility, McDonald said only that the investigation is continuing.

She offered this timeline of events during a news conference on Friday:

Four days before the shooting: The teenager posted a photo of the Sig Saur SP2022 semi-automatic handgun on social media, calling it “my new beauty.”
Three days before the shooting: Jennifer Crumbley posted on social media, “Mom and son day testing out his new Christmas present.”
One day before: The school left voicemail and email messages notifying Jennifer Crumbley that a teacher saw him searching on his phone for ammunition. She did not respond to the messages but instead texted her son saying, “LOL. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.”
Several hours before the shooting: A teacher noticed and photographed an alarming note on the teenager’s desk that included a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun, a bullet, a bleeding figure with two gunshot wounds, and several quotes including “The world is dead.” A school counselor escorted him to the school office with the drawing, which had since been altered to scratch out the violent scene and some of the words including, “My life is useless.” The school summoned the Crumbleys.
Three hours before the shooting: The parents arrived for a meeting where they declined to take their son home with them and failed to ask him where the gun was.
At 1:22 p.m. Jennifer Crumbley texted her son saying, “Ethan, don’t do it.”

By then, 11 people had been shot and her son was in custody.

As news of the shooting spread, James Crumbley looked for the gun, McDonald told reporters Friday. When he couldn’t find it, he called 911 to say he believed his son might be the shooter, she said.

“The notion that a parent could read those words (on the drawing) and also know that their son had access to a deadly weapon that they gave him is unconscionable, and I think it’s criminal,” McDonald said. “It is criminal.”

Criminal charges against parents of school shooters are unusual but not unprecedented.

“I am by no means saying that an active shooter situation should always result in a criminal prosecution against parents, but the facts in this case are so egregious,” McDonald said. “I expect parents — and everyone — to have humanity, and to step in and stop potential tragedy.”

She said the investigation is continuing and intimated that Michigan gun laws insufficiently address criminal responsibility.

“We should take a very hard look at what gun owners are required to do,” she said. “It’s your duty to make sure you don’t give access to this deadly weapon to somebody that you have reason to believe is going to harm someone.

“Looking at that drawing it’s impossible not to conclude that there was a reason to believe that he was going to hurt somebody.”

Michigan has no laws requiring gun owners to secure weapons when children are in the home.

County prosecutors have been asking the Legislature to change that but partisan gridlock has prevented any movement to tighten gun laws. Proponents of the provision envisioned it stopping accidental shootings, not purposeful ones. Under it, adults who fail to properly secure firearms could be charged with a felony if a child under 12 uses the weapon to kill or injure.

In some cases, prosecutors have been able to file charges under existing law. For example, prosecutors charged parents of two young children after unrelated gun incidents in Detroit. In one case, a boy shot himself in the arm. In the other a 10-year-old shot his cousin. Both survived.

And in 2000, Jamelle James was charged with involuntary manslaughter after his 6-year-old found his handgun and shot 6-year-old classmate Kayla Rolland in Mount Morris Township.

Oxford is about 45 miles north of Detroit. The shooting is the 23rd incident involving gunfire on Michigan K-12 and college school grounds since 2013, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.

Nationwide, there have been 28 shootings this year, according to the publication Education Week. Twenty of them have occurred since August.

Michigan schools seek options as staff shortages and COVID cases converge

2021-11-19T14:00:00+00:00

The first domino fell at 8:30 a.m.

School had just started on Nov. 3 when two bus drivers called to say they couldn’t make their afternoon routes because their kids tested positive for COVID. A half hour later, another driver tested positive, and a fourth had to go home to care for a sick parent. That left four drivers – half the usual number — to get 350 children home from Johannesburg-Lewiston schools.

Superintendent Katy Xenakis-Makowski had until 2:47 p.m. to get buses to the schools. She decided to dismiss some students early to give drivers enough time to do two routes each, covering the 300 square miles spanning the northern Lower Peninsula school district.

Crisis averted, but the dominoes kept tumbling and Xenakis-Makowski wound up shutting her schools for a full week. Johannesburg-Lewiston schools aren’t alone. Schools in Michigan and across the country are closing, sometimes abruptly, as COVID infections and staff shortages converge into crises.

Now Michigan superintendents are worried about meeting the required 180 days and 1,098 hours of instruction required for their full allocations of state funding. Johannesburg-Lewiston’s week off meant losing five of the six “forgiven” days that districts typically use during snow storms. If Xenakis-Makowski has to close again for more than a day she will have to extend the school year or lose funding she needs to heat buildings and pay teachers.

Superintendents across the state are feeling the same pressure as COVID cases rise and more students are forced to quarantine.

Some districts are switching temporarily to remote learning. The Detroit Public Schools Community District, for instance, is switching to remote learning on three Fridays in December. In announcing the decision, Detroit superintendent Nikolai Vitti cited rising COVID cases, mental health stresses, and the need to thoroughly sanitize buildings.

It’s like a rolling brownout meant to stave off a blackout, said Wendy Zdeb, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals Association.

“It’s better in the long term to relieve some of the system’s stress so it doesn’t build up to a critical point,” she said.

Although pupil accounting rules don’t provide clear guidance for remote learning, some superintendents believe it’s allowable as long as students and teachers are online together during regular class meeting times, interacting in real time as if they were in a classroom together.

But that isn’t practical for rural districts like Johannesburg-Lewiston, where a recent district survey showed that 40% of students don’t have strong enough internet connections to support remote learning, particularly in families with multiple children who need to be online at the same time. The district has hotspots it can distribute, but they don’t work in some parts of the district that lack an adequate internet infrastructure.

“If I say we’re going to remote learn but it’s not accessible for all I’m increasing gaps so we’re really in a predicament,” Xenakis-Makowski said.

On top of that, she said, it’s too much to ask young elementary students to sit in front of a computer for seven hours a day.

Superintendents say they need the Legislature to provide more flexibility to let students learn independently without jeopardizing funding as it did during the first year of the pandemic when districts pivoted between in-person and at-home learning. Then, districts could count remote learners toward daily attendance as long as teachers could document interactions about school work.

Districts need and deserve flexibility, said Bob Kefgen, a lobbyist for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Administrators. Asynchronous learning — where students learn at their own pace — should be an option for districts that need it, he said.

“We can’t assume that when kids aren’t in the classroom they can’t learn. We want schools delivering education to students where they are and when they’re ready to get the information,” Kefgen said.

The state Senate passed a bill in October that would allow schools to count virtual learners if teachers document interactions and if absences are directly related to coronavirus transmission, exposure, or a quarantine ordered by a local health department.

The House has not acted. Rep. Pamela Hornberger, the Chesterfield Township Republican who leads the House Education Committee, did not respond to requests for comment.

“We’re all hoping the Legislature is willing to step up and provide some relief,” said Rob Dickinson, executive director of the Michigan Pupil Accounting and Attendance Association, which represents 870 pupil accounting managers and intermediate school district auditors. “I think everybody is just holding their breath. If COVID gets worse over the winter the legislature is going to have to do something.”

Leaders of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy envisions districts asking the Legislature for extra forgiven days like they did in 2019 when schools ran out of snow days.

That would be wrong, said Jarrett Skorup, communications director of the policy center, which advocates free-market principles and limited government.

“Taxpayers are paying for 180 days. If they can’t do that, that’s a tough situation for the school board and the superintendent,” Skorup said, “but I don’t think taxpayers should be paying for schooling days if kids are not in school.”

Some Republicans have been reluctant to provide flexibility for remote learning because they want to encourage in-person learning.

“Trying to get the Legislature to allow for remote learning is going to be an uphill battle because they heard loud and clear from parents: ‘We’ve got to go to work,’” Zdeb said.

State Rep. John Damoose, for one, wants to help.

“While I will not support massive closures like we’ve seen over the last two years, I am open to bringing people together to hear ideas on how we can help with short-term challenges,” said Damoose, a Harbor Springs Republican on the House Education Committee.

“It’s time to come back together as a community, recognize that the default should always be ‘open with no restrictions,’ but understand that as thinking people there are times when it just makes sense to adapt to temporary solutions,” Damoose said.

Administrators say they need lawmakers to trust them to make the right decisions for their districts.

“No one wants to not have school. We want to have kids here. The best days are the days kids are here. I would hope that people trust my colleagues to only close school when we absolutely can’t come up with another plan,” Xenakis-Makowski said.

For days like November 3.

After the drivers called out of work that morning, Xenakis-Makowski got a text from the bus garage. This time it was the school nurse who was conducting drive-through COVID testing there for symptomatic students. Half of the tests were coming back positive.

By 10 a.m. school attendance reports had rolled in showing a 24% absence rate. At 25%, districts lose a portion of their state funding for the day.

Now people were lining up outside the superintendent’s office.

The teachers union president wanted to know the plan and was demanding answers Xenakis-Makowski didn’t have.

The transportation director was back, saying it would be a week before he would have enough drivers to operate his department.

Two principals appeared. They were short four substitutes, teachers were at their breaking point covering for each other, and re-teaching lessons to students who’d been absent.

Just then, another attendance report came in. Some students had gone home sick. The absence rate reached 26%.

“If it was only one of those things we would have gotten it covered but when you have a COVID flare up, a staffing shortage and then not enough bus drivers,” there was no solution but to shut down, Xenakis-Makowski said.

“We had zero intention of closing school this year for anything but there was just no way we could sort out how we could get classrooms covered, get transportation to take place for everyone who needs it, and make learning cohesive for kids,” Xenakis-Makowski said.

Michigan superintendent pushes reforms to get more teachers in classrooms

2021-11-09T22:21:02+00:00

James Rautiola, an Upper Peninsula superintendent, has lost a lot of sleep stressing about how he would get certified teachers to lead classrooms in the Copper Country Intermediate School District.

“We’re not the only industry suffering with trying to find employees, but we have a great opportunity in front of us to make it right for kids,” he told the Michigan Board of Education at a meeting Tuesday. “The time is right for us to explore some options.”

State superintendent Michael Rice has some ideas to mitigate the state’s teacher shortage. He presented them to the board Tuesday, saying it could take a state investment of $300 million to $500 million over the next five years to effectively address the problem. That’s a fraction of the $17.1 billion annually the state currently spends on schools.

“The fact of the matter is that this is a major issue across the state,” Rice said.

Numerous districts have temporarily closed schools or shifted them to remote learning because of teacher shortages exacerbated by faculty illnesses and quarantines.

And the problem isn’t just in Michigan.

Unprecedented teacher shortages throughout the country have resulted in students learning in larger classes, from teachers who aren’t always certified, or without the extra help districts had hoped to provide to help children catch up from last year’s learning losses.

Increasing teacher pay, especially for entry-level educators, is a major part of the solution, Rice said. Some beginning teachers in Michigan earn less than $40,000 a year, he said, and colleges have seen a large decline in students who want to enter the teaching profession.

“I’m going to keep beating this drum. We need to boost teacher compensation, and we need to particularly do it with early career teachers,” he said.

He offered the state board Tuesday a menu of other mitigation options, many of which would require legislative action and funding. They include:

Offering tuition reimbursement for college students in education programs.
Forgiving current teachers’ student loans.
Awarding scholarships to promising high school seniors entering teacher training programs.
Reviving teacher preparation programs in colleges in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula
Easing restrictions on accepting teacher licenses from other states.
Simplifying the employment pathway for people who graduated from teacher preparation programs but did not complete all requirements for certification.
Expanding eligibility for child care reimbursement for students enrolled in teacher preparatory programs.
Providing tuition reimbursement for teachers who complete reading courses required for a professional teaching certificate.
Offering stipends to defray living costs during student teaching.
Funding district efforts to recruit and retain teachers.

“We need to look at teacher supply. We need to look at quantity, quality, and diversity. They are all important,” Rice said.

He cautioned districts against relying too heavily on the recent infusion of federal COVID relief dollars because that money will run out in three years.

“We do have an opportunity with new funding but we have to be very, very careful with that funding,” he said. “You ought to be very, very careful not to put recurring expenditures on nonrecurring revenue.”

Existing “grow-your-own” programs that help members of school support staff become certified teachers are helping on all three fronts, Rice said. So are efforts to encourage high school students to enter the profession, he said.

Both the K-12 student population and the support staff ranks are more diverse than the state’s teaching pool.

“To actively inspire, interest, engage, and recruit from these two groups is to work not simply on quantity and quality, but also on diversity,” Rice said.

A number of factors contributed to increases in teacher vacancies during the pandemic. Some educators burned out from the increased pressure of moving between remote and in-person teaching. Others left because they were afraid of contracting COVID in their schools or because they didn’t want to comply with staff vaccination policies some states have adopted.

No matter the cause, the problem has left districts with more vacancies than ever.

Rice didn’t quantify the vacancies and Michigan Department of Education spokesperson Martin Ackley said the department doesn’t collect that data.

District administrators say they are filling the gaps by increasing class size, bringing in substitutes, shifting staff to classes they may not have the subject-matter expertise to teach, and hiring job candidates they might not have hired before.

The problem is urgent, said Michigan Teacher of the Year Leah Porter.

“The stakes have never been higher on teachers, and they feel that pressure. They are just burned out beyond belief,” said Porter, who teaches third grade at Wilcox Elementary School in Ingham County’s Holt School District. “If we’re not changing some of these things quickly, we’re going to continue to see teachers leaving the profession.”

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the estimated cost of the proposed initiatives.

Kindergarten catchup: How teachers are helping young learners

2021-11-08T16:01:13+00:00

He. Me. An. With. Is.

A hand shot up as soon as the words appeared on the first-grade classroom overhead projector at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in the Detroit suburb of River Rouge.

“Jorell, you might know these words but we still have to sound them out. Can you do that with us?” teacher Christina Ogle asked.

“Everybody knows those words,” Jorell blurted.

The truth was that some of his classmates couldn’t even name the letters in them.

While Jorrell attended kindergarten last year, some of his classmates did not. And while schools are relieved that enrollment in early grades has bounced back after last year’s steep drop, first grade teachers in Michigan and across the country are now confronting big differences in their students’ readiness — and working with the children who missed instruction during a critical year for their development.

Kindergarten enrollment was down 11.3% across Michigan last year as parents chose to keep their students home rather than face the COVID health risk. In River Rouge it was down 37.2%. In some places — Flint, Benton Harbor, Chandler Park Academy, and Old Redford — fewer than half of last year’s would-be public school kindergarteners showed up.

Now, teachers across Michigan — one of 31 states where kindergarten is optional — are working to help them catch up to their peers.

As they entered school this year, parents and administrators had to decide where to place 5-year-olds who didn’t go to kindergarten last year.

Teachers have always had to adapt lessons to meet children’s different needs. But kindergarten and first-grade teachers said this year’s challenges have been more pronounced because some children moved directly into first grade with their peer group while others enrolled in kindergarten a year late.

Teacher Naja Moore uses a smart board to read to her kindergarten class at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in River Rouge.

Overall, 13,593 fewer kindergarten students registered for public traditional and charter schools in Michigan last year compared with 2019-20. Enrollment figures for the current school year aren’t yet available.

Last year’s kindergarten enrollment was particularly low in communities with more Black, Latino, and low-income families, putting already disadvantaged students a year behind their peers.

“Historically, schools have not done a great job of serving minority kids and families, so any time schools are additionally burdened they’re likely to do even less of a good job,” said Amy Parks, professor of early childhood education at Michigan State University.

State enrollment shows students who did not enroll in public school kindergarten weren’t flocking to private schools, either. Private school enrollment increased by less than 1%.

Some children may have been taught at home but it’s impossible to know how many because Michigan doesn’t require homeschool registration.

Thousands, though, were unaccounted for last year.

Parents kept their children home last year for a variety of reasons including health concerns and logistic challenges exacerbated by additional burdens families faced during the pandemic, said Walter Cook, a researcher with the Detroit Education Research Partnership at Wayne State University. Researchers there have been analyzing kindergarten enrollment data with The Skillman Foundation, a Detroit philanthropy group whose grantees include Chalkbeat.

Job constraints, lack of childcare, and inadequate internet access were additional obstacles that prevented some parents from providing the time and attention young children need to participate in virtual learning, he said.

‘It’s not play time, nap time, coloring.’

Kindergarten has become more academic, with its increased focus on reading and math readiness. It’s also a grade where children develop interpersonal skills and social behaviors.

“It’s not play time, nap time, coloring. We’re really pushing academics,” said Naja Moore, who teaches kindergarten at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy, the River Rouge school. “The hope is for kindergarteners to be able to read by the end of the year but even if they don’t reach that goal at the end of the year they still get that exposure.”

“If they go to first grade without any kindergarten experience they’re really behind because they’re expected to already know their numbers, already know how to write their name,” Moore said. “If they just go right to first grade they miss that educational foundation.”

For those students, the goal this year is academic growth, not necessarily proficiency, said Nichole German, the Ann Visger principal.

Missing kindergarten could have lasting effects, Cook said.

Detroit Public Schools Community District saw a 25% drop in kindergarten enrollment with 3,145 enrolling last year —1,039 fewer students than the year before, pre-pandemic. Kindergarten enrollment in Detroit charter schools was down 20.5%.

Most DPSCD students who skipped kindergarten last year went directly to first grade, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. Smaller class sizes, expanded after-school programming, and literacy intervention for individuals and small groups will help them catch up, Vitti said.

In Ingham County, Holt schools are extending school days, offering extra instruction during scheduled school breaks, and having kindergarten students begin school with a “soft start” that allows teachers to get to know students before assigning them to classrooms, Superintendent David Hornak said.

“Everything is really hard for her.”

At Ann Visger Academy, Ogle uses a variety of approaches to meet the needs of students who skipped kindergarten. For example, she created two different sets of worksheets for her students.

Most students’ worksheets are geared toward beginner readers. They show, for example, a picture of a mouth and ask children to choose which is correct: “lip” or “lop.” or a picture of a police officer with the words “cop” and “cap.”

Students who missed kindergarten have easier worksheets that ask them, for example, to trace letters.

A first-grader struggles with a worksheet at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in River Rough. The girl, who skipped kindergarten during the pandemic, was unable to match identical words and color them the same.

During independent reading time on a recent Monday, a boy who’d had a full kindergarten year sailed through three books, moving his lips as he read fluently, “It was Friday, and school was out. Froggy flopped home from the school bus — flop flop flop — singing ‘Hurray! Hurray! It’s Friday! Friday!”

Across the room, a classmate put her head on her pile of picture books and cried. It was her third meltdown of the morning. She stayed home last year and isn’t used to being away from her mother, Ogle explained.

Ogle persuaded her to flip through a picture book.

“As of now, that’s what she can do. One of the ways to start reading is to look at the pictures,” Ogle said. “Everything is really hard for her.” She doesn’t have the social, emotional and academic skills of a child who has been through kindergarten, Ogle said.

The differences might have been more pronounced if the children who did attend kindergarten last year had had a normal year, teachers from across the state said in interviews. Instead, they were in and out of school as the severity of the pandemic waxed and waned. Those who attended virtual kindergarten spent the year touching and clicking tablets instead of writing and coloring with pencils and crayons.

“When I introduced an activity that required scissors, my jaw hit the floor watching these kids try to cut,” said Chip Bennett, who teaches first grade at Perry Early Learning Center in Ypsilanti. “They’re holding scissors like they’ve never held a set of scissors in their life, and they might not have.”

Ogle noticed that in River Rouge, too. To sharpen fine motor skills she’s introducing more crafts than in a typical year.

She’s also spending more time than usual on phonics. A typical year begins with a review, but this year, some of her students have had no exposure to letters and their sounds. It’s been difficult, she said, to teach beginning concepts to children who are new to school while keeping more advanced students like Jorell engaged.

“It’s constantly adjusting so they’re not bored. I have to keep that in mind all the time,” she said. “I try to give them something extra to do.”

Parents shouldn’t worry too much, Parks said.

Older children enrolled in kindergarten will have developmental advantages that will carry through their schooling, she said, and those who skip kindergarten have plenty of time to catch up.

Still, she said, districts have to be more flexible in their academic expectations this year.

“First-grade teachers are going to have to spend a little more time on ‘How do we find the bathroom in the classroom?’and ‘What do we do when we want someone’s attention?’ and ‘What does a line mean?’ And it means other things might not happen, and that’s ok,” she said. For example, learning about greater-than and less-than may have to wait for second grade, she said.

“If both educators and families are looking at what kids need, I think we’ll be fine coming out of this,” Parks said.

Michigan House passes bill Democrats say would whitewash Black history

2021-11-03T00:18:53+00:00

The Michigan House dove into the national debate over critical race theory on Tuesday when the GOP forced through a bill sharply restricting school lessons that promote race or gender stereotyping.

The bill passed 55-0 Tuesday with Democrats refusing to vote after Republican Rep. Brad Paquette of Niles, who chaired the contentious session, cut off debate while opponents of the bill still wanted to speak.

It now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate. If the Senate approves the bill, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to veto it.

The bill doesn’t specifically mention critical race theory, a college-level academic framework that explores the lingering effects of centuries of white supremacy and racist policies that disadvantage people of color, but its intent is clear to both opponents and to the bill’s sponsor, Port Huron Republican Andrew Beeler. Beeler said he was careful not to invoke the term that conservatives across the country have used to condemn curricula they deem too liberal.

“The reason I don’t use that language in this bill is because it means too many different things to too many different people,” he said.

CRT isn’t taught in Michigan schools, but Rep. John Damoose of Harbor Springs said constituents have told him their children have been given assignments asking them to write about “how to become less white.”

Beeler said his legislation would prohibit public schools from teaching “anything that could be understood as race or gender stereotyping.” It prescribes no penalties. The bill would specifically prohibit teaching the following:

That all members of a racial, ethnic, or gender group have the same qualities and beliefs.
That actions and beliefs are caused by racial or gender identity.
That people are born racist or sexist “by accident of their race or gender.”
That people bear collective guilt for historical wrongs committed by their race or gender.
That norms and practices of a racial, ethnic, or gender group are flawed.
That racism or sexism are inherent in people from particular racial, ethnic, or gender groups.
That a racial, ethnic, or gender group is in need of “deconstruction, elimination, or criticism.”
That actions of an individual serve as an indictment against the person’s race or gender.

Contentious debate over critical race theory has been spreading throughout the country and widening a political divide over whether racism is embedded in American society.

Michigan Republicans suggest that critical race theory teaches white children that they are inherently oppressors and that children of color are oppressed.

The Michigan Senate is considering separate legislation more directly targeting critical race theory. Under its bill, schools would lose 5% of their funding if educators teach critical race theory, “anti-American” ideas about race, or material from “The 1619 Project,” a New York Times Magazine initiative that ties the growth of the United States to the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans.

Academics are concerned about the increase in anti-CRT legislation and predict it could have a chilling effect on educators.

“Teachers will be wary to venture into any topic that hasn’t been approved or isn’t exactly on a scripted curriculum. This makes lessons less engaging and relevant, and certainly isn’t the type of teaching that fosters inquiry and deep discussion and examination from multiple perspectives,” said Rebecca Jacobsen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University.

She said teachers might shy away from discussing race relations or the ways the legacy of racism continues to affect people. That would make social studies seem divorced from current events and students’ daily lives, she said.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly said the bill would prohibit teaching that a race, gender or ethnic group is in need of destruction.

Michigan voucher proponents plan petition to circumvent veto

2021-11-01T21:42:56+00:00

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is poised to veto Republican legislation she and others say would crack open the door to school vouchers in Michigan. But a new group of school choice advocates is working to bypass her and enact a system that would give tax breaks for private school education.

Advocates on Monday launched Let MI Kids Learn, a group funding an initiative petition drive. With enough signatures, the controversial Opportunity Scholarship program can become law over Whitmer’s objections.

If the group collects 340,000 signatures — 8% of the voter turnout in the last gubernatorial election — and the GOP-controlled House and Senate approve the legislation, it automatically becomes law, evading a Whitmer veto on efforts similar to those previously rejected by state voters.

Let MI Kids Learn said it expects to collect the signatures by next summer, setting the stage for the Legislature to take up the bills again before the 2022 fall midterm elections.

The legislation would authorize tax credits for people who contribute to new Opportunity Scholarships that can be used for private school tuition or for services that supplement public education such as tutoring, books, band instruments, speech therapy, and transportation to extra-curricular activities.

Eligible private school students could receive up to $7,830 per year — 90% of the foundation allowance for public school students. Eligible public school students in special education programs could receive up to $1,100 and others could be eligible for up to $500.

Eligibility is limited to students whose family income falls below 200% of the eligibility limits for free and reduced-priced government lunch programs. That would make a family of four earning less than $98,000 eligible. Students in foster care or who receive special education services could receive the scholarships regardless of income.

Opponents say the tax credits will decrease state revenue by $50 million a year — money that would otherwise go to public schools. They also question whether the legislation violates the Michigan Constitution, which prohibits public funds including tax benefits from going to private or religious schools.

Fred Wszokek, a political operative representing Let MI Kids Learn, said the legislation was carefully written to avoid a constitutional prohibition. No money directly changes hands from public coffers to private schools. Rather, the tax benefit goes to scholarship contributors.

Democrats view tax credits for scholarships as vouchers that siphon money from public schools and send it to private and religious schools.

Wszokek declined to identify other members of his group or to say how it is being financed, although funders will be disclosed in quarterly campaign finance filings.

Voucher opponents immediately pointed fingers at Betsy DeVos, the former Trump education secretary, and her husband Dick DeVos. The wealthy power couple are longtime leaders of the school choice movement and have financed pro-voucher candidates across the country.

“Michigan voters have resoundingly opposed attempts by mega-donors like Betsy DeVos to enact voucher schemes in our state. We value neighborhood public schools and know that funneling money to private schools does nothing to provide equal opportunity for Michigan,” said Paula Herbart, president of the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.

Herbart and other opponents called the petition drive a partisan game that mocks the state Constitution and ignores the will of voters who previously rejected vouchers.

“They’ve said no, and here comes another attempt to find another loophole, another pathway to do what Michigan voters have already said no to,” said House Democratic Leader Donna Lasinski of Ann Arbor.

It’s no grassroots effort, she said. Rather, it’s part of a highly financed effort backed by some of the same people who funded Unlock Michigan, a successful ballot initiative that blocked the executive orders Whitmer issued in response to the pandemic.

“These are monied interests using paid signature collectors as a way for the party that does not hold the governor’s office to bypass this branch of government,” Lasinski said. “We have this path where people who have $10-$12 million can pay to get signatures and bypass the governor the people of Michigan chose.”

Let MI Kids Learn on Monday submitted its ballot initiative language to the Board of Canvassers for approval. If petition language is approved, petitioners have six months to collect the requisite number of approved signatures of voters. If enough valid signatures are collected the Republican-led Legislature has 40 days to vote on the legislation. If approved, it automatically becomes law without the governor’s signature. Approval is likely because the Legislature already approved similar bills that are now subject to likely Whitmer vetoes.

The process could take a year or more.

“Michigan’s constitution gives voters a recourse, and our petition drive will allow voters to expand opportunities for children, even if Whitmer won’t,” said state Republican Rep. Bryan Posthumus, of Cannon Township.

Wszokek said it isn’t just private school students who will benefit.

“Given everything everyone has been through (during the pandemic) we need to pull out all the stops to give parents the tools to get kids back on track,” he said.

“This isn’t just a fight over a cartoon character version of vouchers that the teachers’ union likes to yell about. This is about giving parents a bit of a toolbox to help kids overcome the learning loss last year.”

Michigan’s GOP Senate votes to restrict school mask and vaccine rules

2021-10-26T20:11:21+00:00

Mandates for masks, vaccinations, and COVID testing would be restricted under Republican legislation the Michigan Senate approved Tuesday as it seeks to sharply limit school coronavirus prevention protocols.

The bills passed 19-15 on party lines. They now head to the Republican-controlled House but stand little chance of being signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Passage came on the same day Whitmer ordered her administration to expedite the acquisition and distribution of Pfizer BioNTech pediatric coronavirus vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday began deliberating whether to authorize the vaccine for children 5 to 11, with federal approval expected as soon as next week.

“This is a game-changer for our kids that will protect them as they continue to learn in-person in the classroom this school year, participate in extracurricular activities, or see friends and family this holiday season,” Whitmer said in a written statement. “Parents should sign up to protect their kids.”

Whitmer, who previously blocked a separate effort to restrict mask and vaccine rules, is likely to veto the Senate bills if they reach her desk. Her spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Republicans say vaccines, masks, and testing are fine for parents who want them for their children but schools shouldn’t require them.

“We have seen time and time again parents stepping up on behalf of their own children to make their own decisions on behalf of their kids and see nothing but the government intrude on them and stand in their way,” said Sen. Tom Barrett, a Potterville Republican who was among the sponsors of the legislation.

One of the bills would prohibit schools from requiring vaccines approved with emergency use authorizations, a designation the Federal Drug Administration gives to provide access to critical medical products. Currently, no COVID vaccine is fully approved for children under 15. The Pfizer vaccine is fully approved for people over 15 and has emergency use authorization for administration to children ages 12-15.

Another bill would require schools with mask mandates to allow parents and students to opt out of wearing them. It also would prohibit mandatory testing of asymptomatic students. The Detroit Public Schools Community District is testing asymptomatic students weekly. Detroit parents can opt their children out, and about half have, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has said.

The third and fourth bills would prohibit state and local health officials from enforcing rules that require face masks, emergency-use vaccines, or COVID testing of asymptomatic students as a condition of attending class or participating in school functions.

The Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators opposes the legislation.

“Tying the hands of school district and health officials with statewide policy is not productive or what we need at this time,” said Executive Director Tina Kerr. “What we need is to focus on ensuring that district leaders have the ability to make decisions in consultation with health experts that are in the best interest of the health and safety of their staff and students.”

Republican Sen. Lana Theis of Brighton, who leads the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness, spoke in favor of the bills and accused Democrats of creating division.

“Forcing vaccines and mask mandates upon our citizens has driven us further apart,” she said in a speech on the Senate floor. Such mandates, she said, “ignore natural immunity, ignore religious and conscientious objections, and fail to account for individual health concerns.”

Democrats said parents already can opt out of COVID protocols for those reasons.

But Theis said the legislation goes beyond allowing exemptions. It also prevents schools from treating students differently based on vaccination status or mask use, she said.

Democrats criticized the bills but didn’t have the votes to defeat them.

“We’re almost two years into this pandemic caused by this deadly virus. There is much we still don’t know, but we do know this: Vaccines and masks slow the spread of COVID,” said Sen. Rosemary Bayer of Beverly Hills.

“We’re talking about real people suffering,” she said. “Stop perpetuating this crisis. Stop. People are believing what you’re telling them. People are drinking your Kool-Aid. These bills are dangerous.”

Although the bills are unlikely to be signed into law, it’s a mistake to ignore Republicans’ effort to downplay the seriousness of COVID, said Sen. Kevin Hertel, a St. Clair Shores Democrat.

“It’s easy to dismiss these bills as just political rhetoric and nonsense, and just ignore it and let it go. … We have reached a point well beyond that, where this body is actually putting Michigan citizens in danger,” Hertel said in a floor speech. “This body — the official record of the Michigan Senate — is being used to espouse things that are absolutely false and dangerous.”

Sixty-seven percent of Michigan residents 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.

School voucher advocates face opposition as they try to gain momentum

2021-10-21T22:16:33+00:00

Supporters of school choice are battling on two fronts to open the door to school vouchers in Michigan. They’ve taken their fight to both the courts and the state Legislature in a renewed push.

First, they’ve asked a federal court to strike down a provision in Michigan’s constitution that prohibits spending public funds on private school tuition.

Second, they crafted legislation providing tax credits for scholarships for private school tuition, or for tutoring and other services that supplement public education. On votes that followed party lines, the House and Senate this week passed separate bills, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer threatened to veto. Each bill still has to be approved by the opposite chamber. Votes could be taken next week.

With a Republican state Legislature, a conservative U.S. Supreme Court, and a pandemic that has highlighted the need for educational options, proponents of school choice believe the time is right to advance their agenda.

“There is a moment of opportunity here to make a case that Michigan students and families deserve the same kind of range of education opportunities that other states are offering,” said Ben DeGrow, director of education policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The center has asked a federal court to strike down a provision in the state constitution that prohibits tax incentives for private and religious school tuition.

At issue are provisions in the legislation allowing funds from tax-free scholarship programs to go toward tuition for private or religious schools. Eligible private school students could receive up to $7,830 per year or 90% of the foundation allowance for public school students.

“The shutdown and disruption of many public schools since the spring of 2020 shows just how important it is that families across Michigan can have the flexibility of using their education funds to provide their children with the best opportunity to succeed,” DeGrow said.

Democrats and advocates for public schools say people don’t want public funds to go to private schools. They point to a 2000 failed ballot initiative that would have enshrined a right to vouchers in the Michigan constitution. Sixty-nine percent of voters opposed.

That ballot measure was heavily backed by Betsy DeVos, the Trump administration’s education secretary, and her husband, Dick DeVos. They are longtime leaders of the school choice movement who have financed pro-voucher candidates across the country. They have also been among Mackinac Center’s major financial backers.

“This proposal is even more expensive and more detrimental to our public schools and the families that attend them,” said Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards.

DeGrow’s conservative research institute has been pressing for school choice for years. Its legal foundation is representing five families suing the state over restrictions on the Michigan Education Savings Program. The families want to use money in the tax-free savings program to pay for private school tuition, but the state constitution prohibits direct and indirect aid to nonpublic schools.

That prohibition, both sides agree, would also apply to the bills passed this week, rendering parts of them unconstitutional without court intervention. The Mackinac Center is prepared for a protracted legal battle.

Degrow said portions of the legislation that don’t pertain to private schools could be implemented meanwhile.

The biggest obstacle is Michigan’s 1970 constitutional amendment which prohibits public funding of private schools. Courts have already struck down similar restrictions in 31 of the other 37 states that have them. Such provisions in state constitutions have become known as Blaine amendments, named after Maine lawmaker James Gillespie Blaine, who pressed for restrictions on public spending on religious institutions in the 1870s.

Last year in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional Montana’s prohibition on using a state education program for private school tuition. The program is similar to the one the Michigan House and Senate approved this week in separate bills.

The court’s rationale was that Montana was violating First Amendment religious freedoms by restricting payments to parochial schools.

The Michigan Supreme Court, which comprises four Democrats and three Republicans, already has made a step toward allowing public funds to supplement private schools. In a split decision last year, the court upheld a lower court ruling allowing the state to reimburse private schools for the cost of complying with state mandates such as recordkeeping and background checks for teachers.

Republican state Rep. Bryan Posthumus of Cannon Township, sponsor of one of the bills, is optimistic that the federal court system will rule for the plaintiffs in the Mackinac lawsuit.

“I don’t think the Blaine amendment will hold up to federal court scrutiny,” he said during a House Education Committee hearing this week.

In anticipation of that, his bill set the stage for scholarship donors to get tax credits for private school scholarships. The legislation also includes scholarships for public school students.

Under the legislation, eligible public school students could receive $500 scholarships – or $1,100 for those in special education programs. That money could be used in a variety of ways, for example, for tutoring, extracurricular activities, books, computer hardware, summer programs, speech therapy, or transportation to eligible activities.

Eligibility is limited to students whose family income falls below 200% of the limits for free and reduced lunch programs. That would make a family of four earning less than $98,000 eligible. Students in foster care or who receive special education services would be eligible regardless of income.

The program is estimated to provide tax credits worth $500 million, money that opponents say public schools need for general education.

Any tax credits claimed by scholarship donors would reduce general fund revenue, said Rep. Lori Stone, a Democrat from Warren.

“That could have a significant impact to the school aid fund,” she said during a committee hearing this week. “Isn’t it more important that we are adequately and equitably funding our public schools?”

Wotruba thinks so.

“We will not have successful public schools if we allow over half a billion dollars to be transferred to private entities,” he said.

House Democratic Leader Donna Lasinski of Scio Township blasted the bills.

“It is confounding that my Republican colleagues are now taking tax dollars out of the school aid fund and giving them to private organizations and their wealthy donors under the guise of helping schools and their students recover from the pandemic,” she said. These bills “serve a naked partisan agenda on behalf of the billionaire DeVoses to test Republican legislators’ allegiance to their radical privatization agenda.”

Proponents like parent Traci Lambert of Traverse City say Michigan public schools already get a lot of money, including a $6 billion infusion of COVID relief funds. Lambert testified this week before both the House and Senate education committees, saying she’s already spent more than $20,000 on tutoring, therapy and other services after public schools failed to provide appropriate services to her 16-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome.

Jessie Bagos, who is one of the plaintiffs in the Mackinac Center lawsuit, also testified. Bagos said her twin first graders suffered last year when Royal Oak schools switched to virtual learning.

“They went from happy little guys who liked school and learning” to boys who cried in front of computer screens while friends whose families could afford private school enjoyed in-person learning, she said.

“I never want to be in that position again,” she testified.

“If Michigan had a program like this before, our boys would not have had to suffer so much,” she said. “It would have given them a kindergarten year that was a positive experience.”

Few third graders held back by Michigan’s read-or-flunk law

2021-10-18T23:10:22+00:00

Michigan schools cut the “flunk” out of the state’s controversial “read or flunk” law, holding back fewer than 7% of students eligible for retention because of poor reading scores.

A report released Monday by researchers at Michigan State University found that Michigan schools planned to retain just 229 Michigan third graders out of 3,477 students who scored poorly on the reading portion of the state’s standardized test, the M-STEP.

The analysis is based on reports provided to the Michigan Department of Education by school districts this summer that detailed retention plans for individual students.

Michigan law allows for wide exemptions, and schools and parents used them liberally, promoting more than 93.4% of students who were a grade or more behind in reading in last spring’s test.

That means just 0.2% of all third-graders were held back last year because of the Read By Grade Three law, during an academic year that was interrupted repeatedly statewide by the pandemic and virtual learning.

While complete data won’t be tallied for months, it likely means that third-grade retention levels won’t be dramatically different from previous years despite fears that thousands would be held back.

In 2019-20, the most recent school year unaffected by the pandemic, 0.65% of third graders were held back.

The 2020-21 school year was the first year the retention part of the law was in effect. A number of education leaders, including State Superintendent Michael Rice and members of the Michigan Board of Education, urged lawmakers to pause the retention rule this year, citing the ongoing pandemic. Many school leaders said they did not intend to hold back students.

Even though few students overall were retained because of reading scores, the MSU report found that Black students were more than twice as likely to be retained as white students.

Students eligible for retention who were in poverty also were more than twice as likely to be held back as their higher income peers who also were flagged for retention.

“We have evidence of the inequitable implementation by local school districts of the Read by Grade Three law in Michigan,” Katharine Strunk, director of MSU’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, which conducted the analysis, said in a statement.

“Even when we account for which groups of students were eligible for retention to begin with, Black and lower income students and students in districts that were lower achieving before the pandemic were more likely to be retained at the end of the 2020-21 school year,” Strunk said.

Experts view third grade reading skills as a key to improving Michigan’s schools, which rank in the middle of the pack among the states in academic achievement.

Michigan ranks 34th in the percent of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Former Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, and current Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer both advocated for increasing the percent of adults with post high school credentials to help boost Michigan’s economy.

In 2016, the Michigan Legislature passed the law that requires students who are more than a grade level behind in reading by the end of third grade to be retained. At least 15 states have similar laws.

According to the MSU analysis, more than 75% percent of districts with at least one student eligible for third grade retention intended to promote them all. More than half of all reported exemptions were based on parent requests.

“Educators understand that holding kids back doesn’t change their ability to read or get them in a better position to succeed,” said Bob McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, a school advocacy organization.

Retention increases the likelihood students will drop out, said Paul Liabenow, executive director of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association.

“There are times when it can be effective to hold students back, but as a regular practice it tends not to work,” he said. “The social and emotional impact is fairly dramatic.”

Whitmer and Rice are longtime critics of the read-or-flunk law. Education department spokesperson Marty Ackley said Monday that the agency “respects the decisions made by local school leaders and parents on a student-by-student basis.”

More Michigan schools could open before Labor Day under House bill

2021-10-15T19:39:56+00:00

Mission Point Resort is a bustling Mackinac Island retreat where families swim, golf, play croquet, sip lavender lemonade and dine on seared walleye all summer.

Come September, business falls off sharply as vacation season ends and children start school.

That drop could happen sooner if state lawmakers repeal a law prohibiting schools from opening before Labor Day unless they hold public hearings and get permission from the state Department of Education.

The House education committee recently advanced a bill to repeal the 2005 law, driven by the tourism industry. The committee voted 9-2 at the hearing Oct. 5.

The perennial debate pits education leaders who want to build more flexibility into their school year calendar against tourism and economic development interests eager to protect summer profits by ensuring families can book vacations through the Labor Day holiday.

It isn’t hard for districts to get waivers to begin classes in August. The education department typically works with districts to help them meet criteria for approval, said department spokesman Bill DiSessa. Waivers are good for three years.

Waiver applications have been on the rise. For 2019-21, 29 intermediate school districts and 121 local districts and public charter schools received waivers to open before Labor Day. For 2022-24, 48 intermediate districts and 142 local districts and public charter schools have already been granted waivers.

Intermediate school waivers allow any school district within the intermediate district’s service area to start before Labor Day.

But school districts need more predictability than a temporary waiver provides, said Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards. They don’t feel confident investing in plans to extend the school year if they have to get permission again every three years, he said.

Tourism leaders like the waiver process because they believe the administrative hassle deters some districts from applying.

But education advocates say they shouldn’t have to apply in the first place.

“We believe districts should have the flexibility on their own without the Department of Education deciding yes or no,” Wotruba said. “Districts need the flexibility to decide what makes sense for them.”

That’s one reason Chesterfield Township Republican Pamela Hornberger said she introduced the bill to repeal the ban on pre-Labor Day school schedules.

Another reason is that many school activities — such as football and other fall sports — begin practice in early August, leaving many families already unable to travel as Labor Day approaches, said Hornberger, who leads the education committee.

School start dates vary throughout the country. Just 22 percent of districts across the U.S. opened after Labor Day in 2019, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. Start dates that year ranged from July 23 in suburban Phoenix to Sept. 9 in Trenton, N.J.

Virginia had a law similar to Michigan’s but amended it in 2019 to allow schools to start in mid-August as long as they give students a four-day weekend for Labor Day. Michigan already prohibits schools from being in session on the Friday before Labor Day.

Districts just want flexibility to do what’s right for their communities, said Bob Kefgen, lobbyist for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals.

“Plenty of schools want to get started in August to minimize the potential summer learning loss and maximize the amount of learning time before breaks,” Kefgen said. Such concerns have multiplied since the coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted in-school learning and left schools with enormous challenges in getting students caught up.

Opponents of the Hornberger bill say classrooms aren’t the only place to learn. They say kids learn a lot about history, geography and the environment in places like northern Michigan that rely on tourist dollars.

“If your only goal is strict academic education and you don’t believe in the value of other forms of education, then you might support this, but I believe there’s” more to education than classroom learning, said Republican state Rep. John Damoose of Harbor Springs, who voted no in committee.

The only other no vote came from another northern Michigan Republican, Jack O’Malley whose district includes Benzie, Leelanau, Manistee and Mason, four northwest counties that hug the beaches of Lake Michigan.

Earlier school starts could particularly harm businesses that rely on teenage employees through the summer, O’Malley said during a recent committee meeting.

Golden Shoes in Traverse City is among them, said owner Bill Golden, who has been especially reliant on teenagers through the pandemic when older workers were unwilling to work at the shoe store.

“It’s not just Traverse City,” Golden said. “It’s Holland. It’s Grand Haven. These are all tourist areas that really depend on those kids because we just don’t have enough workers.”

The Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association is concerned about the workforce and the customer base.

“Hospitality has been hit incredibly hard because of COVID, so the timing of this could not be worse,” the association’s lobbyist, John McNamara.

Mackinac Island businesses like Mission Point Resort are open only six months a year. To chip away at the customer base during the height of tourist season would hurt, said Liz Ware, its vice president of sales and marketing. Seventy percent of hotel guests are from Michigan, so it’s important that families from other parts of the state are able to travel through Labor Day, she said

“The peak months of June, July and August are when we have to make enough money to have a successful year. Reducing that 90-day window because people are going back to school? That would hurt,” Ware said.

“This is a real existential threat to us in northern Michigan,” she said. “The hospitality community supports so much of the economy in this region. We should be doing everything we can to support travel and tourism as opposed to making it harder.”

That sounds shortsighted to education advocates.

“Tourism is important but, at the same time, we don’t believe the education side should be sacrificed,” Wotruba said. “Districts need the permanent ability to make decisions that fit their communities.”

The bill now awaits action by the full House. A vote has not yet been scheduled.

Empathy and equity are key to Michigan Teacher of the Year’s success

2021-10-14T21:41:48+00:00

Leah Porter didn’t expect to become a kindergarten teacher, but 16 years later she was honored as one of the best – becoming Michigan’s Teacher of the Year.

“It’s a lot to wrap my head around,” said Porter, who transitioned this year to teaching third grade at Wilcox Elementary School in Holt. Even the nomination took her aback.

Porter might be the only one surprised that among the state’s 275 nominees, she came out on top, said Holt Superintendent David Hornak.

“What makes Leah special is she has a passion for supporting the underrepresented and going the extra mile to make a difference each day,” Hornak said.

As Michigan’s Teacher of the Year, she’ll meet with and speak to lawmakers and others shaping education policy. She now serves as a non-voting member of the state Board of Education and is a contender for the National Teacher of the Year award.

Porter recently spoke with Chalkbeat Detroit.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You taught kindergarten for 15 years, almost your whole career. Why kindergarten?

I really wanted to teach fifth grade, but there was a teacher surplus in 2005. I went a year without a teaching job, and then the next summer I taught summer school for Holt and met Principal Tracy Heuhs. She wanted to hire me for the school year, but there was only one position open at Wilcox: kindergarten.

It was terrifying because it was so far away from what I thought I wanted to do, teaching those littlest learners is such a great responsibility, and one I unexpectedly fell in love with. It’s about helping kids foster a love of learning, hooking them into literature, building relationships with families, and really wanting to set them on a trajectory for success.

So, why the switch to third grade?

I wanted the challenge of a new grade, and felt I could support students that continued to struggle as readers. The rigor of the curriculum in third grade increases tremendously, and I wanted to help support students in that transition.

It’s a chance to help kids see themselves as learners. Kids walk in the first couple days and say, “I’m not good at reading,” or “I can’t read,” and I show them they can. They don’t see themselves as being able to do it, and they need that vision for themselves to build efficacy for themselves.

Last year, did you teach mostly in person or mostly virtually? And how was that for you?

We were remote until the middle of March. After that, I had part of my class in person and I was still teaching the rest of the class remotely. It was eye-opening.

I had always been good at building relationships with families but in the situation with remote learning the parents and I had to be co-partners on the learning journey.

I felt like I knew kids like I never knew them before. I was in their houses, I got to see their bedrooms, I got to see their backyards, I got to know siblings when they would help them with something, I got to know their family routines. I knew so many pieces of their lives that I never would have known. There was so much beauty and so much hardship last year. From knowing families deeply, I worked hard to show empathy and understanding for the experiences and provide supports as needed.

How are your students adjusting to being back in school?

Academically, the challenges are great but I see that kids are working so hard to readjust. Kids left in the middle of first grade and returned as third graders. That’s a huge transition. Think about the learning they might have missed, the learning they weren’t engaged in, and now all the rigor coming from their grade level this year.

Are you doing anything differently this year to account for what so many families have been going through?

My co-teacher, Lynne Cobb, and I have been really thoughtful and mindful about making sure students feel a sense of community and that we’re in this together.

We have all of our faces on magnets and we do a morning meeting each day. If someone is missing, we move them into a heart at the center of the board so even if they’re not with us we’re thinking of them and wishing them well. Since we’re a mask-mandated school it’s nice to have the pictures of our actual (unmasked) faces as well.

We’ve also been working on calming skills. We do a lot of breaking exercises as part of our morning meeting and we do connection activities where kids will engage each day around a commitment statement about what we’re going to achieve that day, sometimes as a class and sometimes individually.

We’re taking the time for kids to know that we see them, that we know they’re humans. In the classroom we get bogged down in everything we have to do and we sometimes forget to take that pause and see each child as a human being.

Being Teacher of the Year gives you a platform. How will you use it?

I’m seeing such inequity in opportunities for kids, particularly children of color. I’m focused on equity in terms of how we’re going to elevate all of our students. That’s what’s on the forefront of all the work I’m doing.

I’ve been working on building character and leadership lessons that use a library of texts that are representative of all the students. Are kids seeing themselves in the books we’re reading? Are we representing all of our students?

Who was your most influential teacher?

I found my second grade teacher at North Elementary in Lansing to be magical. She had a calm demeanor that elevated you and made you feel like you were really seen by her. Her impact on me continued long after I was out of her classroom.

In third grade my uncle was sent to Iraq to fight in the Persian Gulf War.. The night the war started my mom picked up the phone, and it was Mrs. Henderson calling to check on us because she knew my uncle was there. I wasn’t even in her class anymore.

It was the first time I had this realization that the impact of a teacher wasn’t just within the walls of a school, the first time I understood that it wasn’t just about the education. It was about connecting with the people that were in front of you and really seeing them.

Michigan schools worry about funding loss as student Count Day looms

2021-10-06T00:13:00+00:00

Count Day stands to look different than it did in the spring, as Michigan school district leaders worry they will lose funding for students who are in quarantine.

The state determines funding based largely on the student count. Schools may also add students who attend within a certain period after Count Day if specific requirements are met.

The event is observed twice a year across public schools in Michigan, as districts tally the number of students attending their schools. Wednesday is the first of two count days, one in October, the other in February, for more than 800 Michigan districts and charter schools.

Principals are concerned they will lose funding for students unable to come to school on Count Day because they have COVID, have symptoms, or are in quarantine because they’ve been exposed to the coronavirus. At stake is at least $8,700 per student.

In addition, student enrollment has been complicated by parents intervening in the ongoing mask mandate debate. Some parents have moved their students out of their home districts and placed them in districts that have a mask policy or don’t.

Last school year the state was more flexible with school attendance counts as many districts pivoted to partial or full remote learning. Districts could count virtual learners as long as teachers could prove their participation by documenting enough meaningful interactions about school work.

Some lawmakers have been reluctant to provide that kind of flexibility this year because they want to encourage in-person learning. But lawmakers may have found a compromise that keeps students in school as much as possible but doesn’t penalize schools for health crises they can’t control.

The Senate education committee on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill allowing in-person schools to count virtual learners under limited circumstances.

They must participate remotely, their teachers must document interactions, and the absences must be directly related to coronavirus transmission, exposure or a quarantine ordered by a local health department.

That flexibility would apply both to Count Day and to daily attendance. Normally, districts are ineligible for state funding on days more than 25% of students are absent.

The bill now heads to the Senate floor. The bill has not been introduced in the House.

If passed, the legislation would be retroactive to the start of the school year. That’s why the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals recommends its members log two-way interactions with quarantined remote learners now.

“The challenge with this bill is that until it becomes law no one knows what the rules are going to be,” association lobbyist Bob Kefgen said. “The best thing principals can do is … start moving in that direction.”

Principals have been asking for flexibility and clarity on pupil accounting rules.

“Schools want to make sure every student they educate over the course of the year is appropriately counted so they’re getting funding to educate that kid,” Kefgen said.

Michigan schools look to incentivize student attendance

The state’s largest school district, Detroit Public Schools Community District, is pursuing its own “October Attendance Challenge’’ to encourage students to attend class. Any student is eligible to receive a free ticket to watch the Detroit Pistons or their minor league affiliate, the Motor City Cruise, play if they attend all of their classes on Count Day.

Other incentives, such as winning a tablet, wireless headphones, or gift cards, are being raffled for students who attend school every day over a 10-day period.

In recent years, Detroit’s home visit program has sent school employees door-knocking to track down students who haven’t attended school. Detroit’s district enrollment is currently hovering around its spring 2021 numbers, which were about 49,000. Before the pandemic, the district had nearly 51,000 students enrolled.

Dearborn Public Schools, the third-largest district in the state, has roughly 21,000 students mostly back to in-person learning, with about 600 students attending the district’s separate virtual school. The district is set to have solid attendance numbers on Count Day, district spokesperson David Mustonen said.

“We’ve done some social media push, we’ve also had all of our schools make sure not to schedule events and certain things on Count Day.”

Senate approves bill regulating mental health training for Michigan educators

2021-09-30T20:07:37+00:00

Help could soon be on the way for Michigan teachers who want to identify signs of students’ mental health problems before they grow into crises.

The state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill requiring the Michigan Department of Education to develop standards for educators for recognizing mental health needs and referring students for help.

“It’s so our teachers can say, ‘See that little Johnny is having an issue today. Maybe he needs to go to see the social worker, go to the school counselor, or talk to someone,’ ” said bill sponsor Sylvia Santana, a Detroit Democrat. “It would be great for them to have these tools in their toolbox.”

The measure now heads to the House, which passed similar legislation in 2018. That bill stalled in the Senate. Santana said the measure has more traction now because mental health effects of the pandemic are on the forefront of educators’ minds.

Mental health needs grew globally during the pandemic as families faced illness, death, joblessness, school closures, isolation and financial insecurity. One study suggests that cases of depression in the U.S. tripled during the pandemic, and children’s hospitals are overrun with suicidal patients.

The training in the Senate bill would count toward required training time for teachers, Santana said in an interview off the Senate floor this week. It would be available to all school staff, not just teachers, she said.

The Education Department would coordinate development with the Department of Health and Human Services, community mental health providers, and state associations representing mental health professionals.

Parents should be more comfortable sending their children to school knowing faculty will be better trained to recognize signs of mental health problems, Santana said.

The Education Department supports the bill, said spokesperson Bill DiSessa.

So do teachers.

“It’s particularly important post-pandemic to address the social and emotional needs of students,” said Doug Pratt, director of government affairs for the Michigan Education Association, which represents 120,000 educators. “Ensuring educators have training to identify issues is a good thing.”

However, he said, more mental health support staff also would help, he said.

Lawmakers appear to be trying to help. The $17.1 billion school budget they approved in June includes $240 million for additional psychologists, social workers, counselors, and nurses.

The Legislature has taken other recent measures to support mental health in schools, too. A year ago lawmakers approved legislation requiring schools that issue identification cards to print a suicide prevention hotline on them.

“During this time mental health has been a huge issue for our state, but more importantly, it has been an issue for our school children,” particularly those returning to school after learning remotely, Santana said in a floor speech Wednesday.

She said her legislation will better enable schools to provide mental health services that will help ensure student success.

Enactment would have a minimal fiscal impact, according to bill analysts.