The new majority enacted record funding for public K-12 schools and reversed GOP initiatives on reading, testing, and collective bargaining rights. Critics say they undermined accountability.

Some observers say they wish Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had gone further in shaking up Michigan’s education system.

With initiatives targeted at specific schools, neighborhoods, or family needs, they’re chipping away at a problem that has long undermined efforts to improve student achievement.

The teachers sneaked into the shuttered school before it was to be demolished. Now the piece is on display in a museum.

Two other district staffers also lost their jobs: One for bringing a loaded gun on district property, and the other for assaulting a student.

Members of the board said they felt the resolution needed more research and input from officials.

DPSCD officials will share final recommendations with the school board by next year.

“The students would get more attention,” said a Benton Harbor fifth grader.

Democrats in the Legislature respond to calls for more transparency on how charter schools spend public money.

Jamarria Hall remains engaged in the fight to improve schools: ‘​​I want to change education,’ he says. ‘If you look at the last century, education has not changed at all.’

Districts would have more power, and test scores would not be a factor.

The event was invitation-only, and a video will be available at a later date.

Officials say the proposal is meant to ease the disruption that results when families switch schools midyear.

Some advocates call for a larger overhaul of the system for determining who is eligible for special education.

Anna Mayotte, a fifth grade English teacher at Gardner Elementary School, shares how she improves and promotes literacy in her classroom.

One board member who voted no had previously questioned why a Black-owned contractor wasn’t considered for the demolition work.

State funding helped expand the rolls of social workers, counselors, nurses, and psychologists serving students.

Nearly a third of students missed too much school in the latest school year.

A Foch graduate from the 1960s recalls the cooking and sewing classes, and young love.

A national report predicts more than 56,000 Michigan children will lose child care services, though some experts are less pessimistic.

Some districts used pandemic aid to shore up their budgets amid enrollment declines. They’ll no longer have that option late next year.

The report cites key health indicators for parents and children, as well as policy changes. But the state still lags the national average in some areas.

Detroit and suburban charter schools that enroll large numbers of city students have overall seen a bigger enrollment drop than Detroit district schools.

Lawmakers advanced a proposal that would let retirees take public school jobs immediately without giving up their pensions.

Vitti is already looking ahead to next year’s contract and the need to retain mid-career teachers.

Attendance rate slips, too, due in part to heat-related dismissals. ‘This week will give a better indicator,’ Superintendent Vitti says.

Detroit Public Schools Community District focused on one-time items that would help students get back in the classroom, and address infrastructure needs.

‘When students who have untreated behavioral health issues do not receive support and intervention, they find other ways of dealing with those feelings,’ said Alycia Meriweather, deputy superintendent for the Detroit school district.

Results are beginning to climb back above pre-pandemic levels.

A particular area of concern is students who were in kindergarten in 2020 when the pandemic hit. Their third-grade reading results were well below pre-pandemic levels.