Quick News for MASSP Members

The continuing debate between Governor Granholm and legislative leaders over her plan to create smaller high schools to address rising drop-out rates proved to be the stumbling block keeping the Legislature from completing its work on the School Aid budget. During almost constant deliberations during the Legislature’s final session day, Ms.

The continuing debate between Governor Granholm and legislative leaders over her plan to create smaller high schools to address rising drop-out rates proved to be the stumbling block keeping the Legislature from completing its work on the School Aid budget. During almost constant deliberations during the Legislature’s final session day, Ms.

Attached is the July installment of the NASSP Advocacy Update. This quarterly update includes information on legislative activities in the following areas:

No Child Left Behind
Striving Readers Act
Success in the Middle Act
FY 2009 Education Funding
Higher Education Act Reauthorization
School Construction
School Safety
News from the U.S. Department of Education
NASSP Board Position Statements
NASSP Federal Grassroots Network

Amanda N. Karhuse
Director of Government and Public Relations
National Association of Secondary School Principals
1904 Association Drive

Roughly half of the state's 782 traditional and charter schools could receive as much as $110 more per pupil in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 under the proposal House and Senate leadership is currently working on for the School Aid Fund.

Warning that the situation could change, House K-12 Appropriations Committee Chair Matt GILLARD (D-Alpena) said the current plan with the Senate is to continue using the "2x-x" funding formula of last year, in which school districts that receive the minimum state grant of $7,204 per student will receive $110 more per student.

Shaved heads for sports teams: Do they promote unity or are they hazing?; Debate continues in Goodrich, Michigan
by RoNeisha Mullen | The Flint Journal

Tuesday July 01, 2008, 6:30 AM

GOODRICH, Michigan -- What started as a simple complaint about an unauthorized haircut at football camp has turned into a raging debate that's put one mom against dozens of area residents and coaches.

But one national expert says the mom is right: Football-camp haircuts are a kind of hazing.

Don't give up on plan for higher grades
Legislators should give new tougher standards a chance to work

June 29, 2008
Detroit Free Press Editorial

There's just no point in jettisoning a life preserver before you know whether it'll float.
Advertisement

Yet the very policy that promises, long term, to lift up generations of Michigan high school students is in jeopardy of being picked apart before it's had a chance to pay off.

The standards are just now going into full effect.

It's time to change Michigan's education curriculum; State Representative Joel Sheltrown has a plan
by Joel Sheltrown | Flint Journal guest columnist
Monday June 30, 2008, 1:43 AM

Joel Sheltrown
• Flint Journal
guest columnist
Editor's note: This is a guest column by State Rep. Joel Sheltrown, D-West Branch. Under the name "If You Ask Me," each week The Flint Journal runs a guest column on a topic of interest. Read more by guest columnists.

Change system for sake of students
BY MIKE FLANAGAN • June 29, 2008
Narrow thinkers wanting to water down the new high school graduation requirements have wrongly bleated that the new Michigan Merit Curriculum is "cookie cutter," because it expects that all kids will learn the same rigorous academic content.
Well, it is not the curriculum that is cookie cutter; it's the current educational system, which wants all kids to fit in that box we call a classroom, when some just won't. We don't need to change the new requirements. We need to change the system.

Students can miss class but still pass
Attendance to affect grades less
BY LORI HIGGINS • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • JUNE 25, 2008
School districts across Michigan are increasingly altering long-standing rules that tie students' grades to how often they come to class.
The changes are prompted by a state policy that now allows students to test out of a class. But critics say the relaxed attendance policies risk sending the message to impressionable teens that getting to class isn't important.

Mr. Zollie Stevenson, Jr.
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Room 3W230
Washington, DC 20202-6132

Re: Docket ID ED-2008-OESE-0003

June 20, 2008

Dear Mr. Stevenson,

On behalf of the 31,000 members of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), I would like to submit the attached comments regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued April 23, 2008.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Amanda Karhuse, NASSP Director of Government Relations, at 703-860-7241 or karhusea@principals.org.

After hearing testimony Thursday from people supportive of the state's stricter high school graduation requirements and those who believe the curriculum should be changed so students have the option to take more career and technical training, it appears the House Education High School Alternatives Subcommittee will take its show on the road and gather more information over the summer on the topic.

They are making noises over in the House about changing the Algebra II requirement in the newly enacted high school graduation standards, but if such a measure gets into the hands of Sen. Wayne KUIPERS (R-Holland), he's inclined to do nothing about it.

"I don't think it would be wise to change it," the chair of the Senate Education Committee argued.

Achieve, Inc., and Dana Center Offer New Online Resource to Strengthen Mathematics Education

New Website Provides Resources for Educators to Prepare All Students for College and Career

HOUSE PASSES SCHOOL RETIREE WORK EXPANSION

People who retire from public schools in Michigan and come back to work for those entities during an emergency would get more time to do so under legislation that passed the House on Thursday.

HB 4593 (105-1) extends the number of years a retiree can work in a school facing a "critical shortage" or "emergency situation" from six to eight. The legislation also removes the July 1, 2011 sunset for that provision.

Small-schools push tied to grad rates

State funding would require districts to graduate 80% of students within 3 years. Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- School districts hoping to use state money to downsize their high schools may face a new ultimatum: Improve your graduation rates, or else.

LITERACY SKILLS TRAINING S.B. 842 (S-4): FLOOR SUMMARY

Senate Bill 842 (Substitute S-4 as reported by the Committee of the Whole)
Sponsor: Senator Wayne Kuipers
Committee: Education

CONTENT
The bill would amend the Revised School Code to do the following:

Michigan House approves K-12 education spending
Posted by The Associated Press June 11, 2008 03:15AM
Categories: State budget, Statewide News
LANSING -- The Michigan House has voted to give K-12 public schools $55 to $110 more per student in the budget year that starts in October.

Now lawmakers will have to work out a compromise.

The K-12 spending plan approved 61-48 Tuesday would provide increases dependent on how well a school district is now funded. Districts that get the per-student minimum of $7,204 would get the biggest increases.

Grand Rapids policy criticized, but more schools say attendance not essential
by Dave Murray | The Grand Rapids Press
Wednesday June 04, 2008, 7:40 AM

GRAND RAPIDS -- Deon Sperling says she knows students who miss school because they are taking care of younger siblings or even parents and grandparents.

"When they're taking care of family needs to that extent, you can't expect them to be in class every day," said Sperling, a teacher-consultant assigned to two Grand Rapids Public Schools high schools and five alternative schools.

Give students relevant choices on classes
BY JOEL SHELTROWN • JUNE 11, 2008

With the Michigan Merit Curriculum now affecting students throughout the state, many parents and teachers have come forward with serious concerns. They question whether this cookie-cutter approach is the best way to give our students the opportunities and options they need.

From the Battle Creek Inquirer

By REBECCA ROCHO • June 11, 2008

From a Member:
Please take our short (only 4 questions!) survey on the establishment of cut scores in your district. (Click on the link below)

Survey Link

You can also review the results here:

The Michigan Education Special Services Association (MESSA) is complying with the new state law requiring it to release group health insurance data to school districts. But so far that data isn't all that those who supported the new law hoped it would be.

"MESSA is complying with the law," Senate Education Committee Chair Wayne KUIPERS (R-Holland) told MIRS today. "Are they going back as far as I had hoped - no, they're not. But they are giving the information to the school districts and we'll have to wait and see how it can be used."