Quick News for MASSP Members

A member shared this story with MASSP. It has been seen by the Governor, State Superintendent, and the Legislature. Do you have a similar story? Would you please share it with us?
-----
Jim,

I wanted you to get a little feedback from the “trenches” after year-three of the transition to the Michigan Merit Curriculum and Exam. As you know Croswell-Lexington High School is average. Average size - 800, average family income, and most importantly our students performance … average. I have seen an incredible transformation over the last three years in our students’ success and more importantly their aspirations. Quite frankly the bar was raised and my kids jumped it. Here are just a few antidotal stories to paint a picture of what the MMC has meant to my students.

Dear Representative Bauer and Committee Members:

Today, Michigan Legislators are facing many difficult, unpopular
decisions. As high school principals who are put between ‘a rock and a hard place’ each day, we empathize with what you are going through.

In 1999, MASSP provided testimony to the Senate as to the critical need for an award system that would provide an incentive for students to take the HS MEAP. MASSP has not wavered in our support of the

Last spring MASSP members were asked, "If you were King/Queen for a day, what would you do with the MME and MEAP?" This information was shared with Senators Swialski and Jelinek. They must have been impressed by what they learned. There is a significant section in the Senate version of the School Aid Act dealing with assessment.

MASSP members took action last week explaining to legislators why EXPLORE is important for all students entering high school. Their work was successful!

The Senate embraced member support with the following in the Senate version of HB 4447:

"MEAP and Merit Exam Changes. The Senate added language prohibiting exam funding to be spent on an expanded social studies exam, pattern scoring, or any assessments developed by the Department for the purposes of Sections 1278a and 1278b of the Revised School Code. Intent language also was added that the Department replace its current MEAP for grades 3-8 with the Iowa Test or a similar exam, and the allocation was included for the "Explore" exam in grades 8 or 9. (Sec. 104 and 104b))"

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan today released a comprehensive report entitled "Reclaiming Michigan’s Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School-to-Prison Pipeline," which documents a trend amongst school districts to enforce severe disciplinary policies and practices that push children permanently out of the classroom without regard for the long-term impact. The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the national trend of criminalizing, rather than educating, our children.

2009-10 School Aid Budget Gets Senate Committee Nod
Significant Cuts Across the Board
[MI Association of School Boards - Capitol News]

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed House Bill 4447 to the Senate floor with $410 million in cuts to schools for this fall. These cuts include a $110 per pupil cut for all districts in the state amounting to $174 million for 2009-10. The additional cuts are coming from categorical funding with a complete elimination of early childhood funding. Here are most of the categorical cuts:

- Michigan School Readiness grants $103.5 million
- ISD special ed and voc ed equalization $45.9 million
- Declining enrollment $30.6 million
- At-risk funding for Dearborn $5.9 million

Thursday, June 18, 2009
Detroit News, Commentary: Lansing
Two-diploma plan demeans Michigan's technical students
Patricia Cantu

Some in Michigan insist that high school students in career and technical programs don't need to meet the state's new graduation requirements. This idea not only demeans the students, but puts their futures at risk.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) has evolved into something vastly different from the wood shop or metal shop classes of the past. Yet, no matter what the name is, or how we've improved the standards, the perception of "vocational" education is that it is still for "those" kids who can't make it in regular high school.

Thursday, June 18, 2009
Editorial: Save the scholarships
Governor, lawmakers must find budget cuts elsewhere to preserve state college scholarships
The Detroit News

Not so long ago, it would have seemed odd to hear so much talk about education at a summit devoted to reviving America's industrial might.

But speaker after speaker at the National Summit on the economy in Detroit emphasized the fact that a strong manufacturing base depends on a highly skilled work force.

Chip McClure, chief executive officer of auto parts maker Arvin Meritor, said his factories require workers with at least a high school diploma and often a two-year college degree.

The letter below was sent to the Michigan Legislature on June 17, 2009. In addition to the letter a fact sheet was enclosed (click here to download the fact sheet (DOC). The association notified association members of an ACTION ELERT on June 16th. Members were given sample letters and asked to send to their legislators.

-------

Dear Senator

We must do everything in our power to help Michigan students succeed in the real world.

Education Secretary Says a Focus on Middle and High Schools is “Hugely Important to Us”

Earlier this year, President Obama released a broad outline of his Fiscal Year (FY Y) 2010 budget proposal for the U.S. Department of Education. The three-page document, released on February 26, offered a summary of the president’s educational priorities but contained relatively little in terms of actual dollar figures. On May 7, Obama made it t clear that significant reform around the nation’s middle and high schools will be a big issue in 2009 when he made public his detailed funding proposals, which included new investments in adolescent literacy, a high school graduation initiative, and a focus on turning a around low-performing middle and high schools.

May 19, 2009

In FY 2006 – 2007, the Department issued guidance to pupil accounting contacts at both local and intermediate districts regarding the counting of time when some teachers are proctoring the Michigan Merit Exam (MME) while at the same time other teachers are engaged in professional development towards the 1,098 instructional hour requirement. At that time, we advised that for FY 2006 – 2007, FY 2007 – 2008, and FY 2008 – 2009 districts could count the time towards the 1,098 instructional hour requirement when the only high school pupils in session are the 11th grade pupils and the high school teachers are either proctoring the MME or engaged in qualified professional development.

On May 8, 2009, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) released updated guidance documents to assist intermediate and local school districts in the implementation of the personal curriculum, as outlined in section 380.1278b of the Revised School Code. The updated guidance includes guidelines, frequently asked questions, parent guides, and supporting documents. These documents can be downloaded and printed for local use at www.michigan.gov/highschool.

In order to transform the processes associated with the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC) Personal Curriculum (PC) into clear, consistent, accurate step-by-step procedures for stakeholders to follow, MDE has partnered with TransACT Communications, Inc., to develop an automated, self-service decision-tree application.

Switching Michigan public school employees from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution retirement system, such as the system all state employees hired after March 31, 1997 participate in, could actually prove to be more expensive to the state and local school districts, at least initially, a paper published by the Senate Fiscal Agency said.

However, switching to such a system could provide greater long-term stability to local schools because they would not be required to pay more to make up a system's unfunded accrued actuarial liability in years pension system investments declined in value. That is because, the paper said, under a defined contribution system (essentially a 401k system) the liability for lower earnings is borne by the employee and not the system.

If this Bill passes the fifth bullet may impact you!  You may want your district spokesperson to contact your Senator!

CONTENT

Senate Bill 365 would amend the Revised School Code to do the following: 

The House labor committee today began taking testimony on legislation that would allow school employee unions to negotiate over any outsourcing a district may or may not undertake in the realm of non-instructional employees.

HB 4219, sponsored by Rep. Fred MILLER (D-Mt. Clemens) is identical to legislation adopted by the House last year which died in the Senate. The legislation amends Public Act 112 of 1994 that removed the outsourcing of services from the subjects which can be collectively bargained.

Specifically, the existing act includes the following prohibited subject:

COMMITTEE APPROVES MORE GYM CLASSES

Michigan students would have to take more physical and health education throughout their school career under legislation reported by the Senate Health Policy Committee. But the bills now move to the Senate Appropriations Committee because of the School Aid Act implications.

There was no testimony Wednesday opposing the bills (SB 365, SB 366) that would set minimum times for physical and health education for elementary and middle school (high school requirements are already set in the state graduation requirements). Schools not providing the required time would risk losing state aid.

But as reported the bills would allow parents to exempt their children from the classes without explanation.

The State Board of Education is expected to approve a new accreditation system for schools that is little different from the version unveiled late last year.

Officials did make a few clarifications to the system based on public comments, but said the responses showed the department had gotten the cut scores between the different accreditation levels about right.

To be accredited, a school would have to have 60 percent of its students proficient in all of its core subject areas as well as have certain school improvement programs in place. Schools would be interim accredited if they have no more than two subjects below 60 percent and none below 35 percent or if they are not making adequate yearly progress under the federal regulations.

Colleagues:
 
Michigan educators, along with educators from several other states, have been challenged in recent months to implement some of the highest high school graduation requirements in the nation. These standards are tied to credits aligned with a nationally vetted set of content expectations. Although this is a fitting challenge for our times, this transition from course titles and seat time to credit tied to content expectations has introduced a new way of thinking about how to develop, align, and deliver the Michigan Merit Curriculum.
 

School officials and district residents will now be able to see how their school stacks up to the rest of the state and whether their students are college ready under a new feature on the Department of Education website.

The goal of the new site, How Does YOUR School Measure Up?, is to allow officials to target the use of federal stimulus money expected for the coming school year, said Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan.

Colleges are moderately effective at letting high school officials know what their students need to know to move up, but the colleges could do more, said an audit released Tuesday by Auditor General Thomas McTavish.

The performance audit of Developmental Education at Michigan

Public Community Colleges, for the period August 2005 through May 2007, showed that 26 percent of incoming freshmen during the audit period had to take developmental courses to come up to minimum college standards. And auditors said some of the reason for that was that only 14 of the 28 community colleges had provided high school officials with their college readiness standards.

The Michigan Education Association agrees with the call to improve the state's lowest performing schools, said spokesperson Doug Pratt, but the state needs to provide those schools with a picture of what is going wrong and some ideas for fixing those problems before removing the staff or closing the building.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires audits of a school's program to assess its needs, but Mr. Pratt said information the MEA has collected shows of 48 schools that appear to qualify as failing under bills under consideration in the House (see related story), 39 have not had such an audit.

And he argued the audits the Department of Education is now using because of staffing shortages do not provide the information schools would need to improve.

Michigan should award licenses, not certificates, based on ability to teach
Deborah Loewenberg Ball

Michigan is considering making teachers' professional skill the basis for licensure. This would be a big step.

Nowhere in this country do we award teaching licenses based on an individual's ability to teach ---- for example, to communicate content clearly to students, hold students to high standards, support them explicitly in how to do complex work, establish a productive classroom climate, interpret and evaluate students' work and build effective relationships with families.

Instead we certify people to teach children if they complete an approved program. In some schools, we forgo licensure and allow people to teach who have no demonstrated professional capability.

Transmission (Spread) of Influenza:
Influenza viruses are spread when a person who has influenza coughs, sneezes, or speaks, releasing viruses into the air and other people inhale the viruses. When these viruses enter the nose, throat, or lungs of a person, they begin to multiply, causing disease. The viruses can also be spread when a person touches a surface with flu viruses on it (for example, a door handle) and then touches his or her nose or mouth.

A person who has the flu can spread viruses - that means they are contagious. Adults may be contagious from 1 day before feeling sick to up to 7 days after getting sick. Children can be contagious for longer than 7 days.

Preventing Influenza:

April 29, 09 - From the Alabama High School site:

AHSAA Shuts Down Events Immediately!

Steve Savarese, Executive Director of the Alabama High School Athletic Association, said Wednesday night that all AHSAA athletic events would be shut down immediately due to probable cases of swine flu that have shut down three school systems in the Huntsville area.

“Right now, we are being advised by our Medical Advisory Committee to shut down all activities until further notice,” Savarese said. “We hope to be able to resume activities by next Tuesday, but right now we must study the situation and take it one day at a time.”

Failing Schools Legislation

Discussions are ongoing on a package of legislation that will address chronically underperforming schools. As these bills are a work in progress, details aren't readily available. The current version of House Bill (HB) 4787 includes the creation of a state Reform and Redesign Officer (RRO) to work on reforming "failing schools." There are many components to this legislation and MASB continues to work with legislative leaders on crafting this bill into something that has real potential in creating a positive learning environment for the children in these schools. Again, stay tuned for further details or see the April 20 issue of Headlines.