jim's blog

On Monday I was with some association directors and the conversation was centered on lack of state dollars. A higher education person shared the Promise Scholarship for the Class of 2009 could be shifting to a needs based program thereby reducing the amount of available scholarship dollars and, the program would likely come to an end after this year.

So, today (Thurs., June 11th) I scheduled a meeting with the Chair of the House Higher Education appropriations committee so to get the facts on the demise of the Promise Award and share this news with our members in an article that is due.

Want to know what is happening in the federal discussion about national curriculum standards. Here's the best insight you'll find. It's an email to me from Matt Gandal, VP, of Achieve.

Dear ADP State Leader:

As we have previously communicated to ADP Network states, Achieve is working with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and National Governors Association (NGA) on an important effort to create common core standards that can be adopted by states across the country. Over the last several weeks, this initiative has taken on a much more public profile, and leaders in ADP states have reached out to Achieve with a variety of questions about the process and our role in it. This update is designed to answer those questions.

Common Standards Development Process

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 State Superintendent’s memo regarding the use of power standards you received in the past few days is the result of a lot of work by MASSP. The memo vindicates what we’ve been saying to you ever since the passage of the MMC -- there is a lot more flexibility in the standards than believed.

MASSP put considerable effort into getting this memo written to your advantage, the building principal. I hope you will now put it to your use.

mymassp.com/powerstandards

We have not yet taken a position in regard to House Bill 4410 (The Sheltrown bill). None of the statewide associations with whom we work have either. The superintendent association has not. The ISD superintendent association has not. The school board's association has not. The MEA has not. The Department of Education has not. The MI Chamber has not. And, no legislative caucus has as well. Yet, MASSP is threatened by some from the CTE community to support the bill or lose their membership.

MASSP is in the doghouse with the Department of Education. Two reasons: Trying to shift the money spent on the 9th grade social studies exam to EXPLORE, and our public statement about the proposed MI-SAS accreditation program.

When polled, 97% of our membership doesn’t see value in the 9th grade social studies exam. Our governor in her state-of-the-state speech called on us to find ways to reduce wasted state costs without hurting its citizens. So we proposed legislation to shift this money to something 60% of schools do value. We feel it is a matter of equality.

I’ve written before of how I enjoy driving to visit with members within their own local area. I do about twenty of these trips a year. It's great travel time through Michigan and a chance to visit with some really nice people and make new friends. I’ve been making these trips for a number of years. Today was the first time I dreaded one of these drives.

I remember the first time I ever met Dr. Emeral Crosby. I was new in my position as a high school principal and attending the MASSP convention in Grand Rapids. There was this principal from Detroit that was going to speak during the NCA session on the new report entitled “A Nation At Risk.” I learned that Dr. Crosby had been selected by President Regan to be on the committee that drafted the report. I sat in the back row so I could sneak out, and instead got sucked in.

Dr. Crosby was an amazing presenter. Man, could he get you fired up! And, he knew his stuff!

I’ve just returned from a joint meeting with the two leading Senators of the Senate Appropriation Committee. There I asked on behalf of the association legislation to fund the EXPLORE test for every school in the state.

They were extremely receptive to our request. In fact, they wanted to go much further than what we requested. In light of the pending funding reductions, they asked that I ask our members for suggestions to reduce our state assessment costs so as not take money from school operations. I agreed to seek member input. You’ll be seeing a request via our MASSP Communication system.

Here’s our formal request in regard to EXPLORE.

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction recently hosted a meeting that he calls, “Moving from the Model T.” He wants to take the delivery of education for Michigan’s children to a new place. He, or we, don’t know what that place is but it’s not where we are now. This started from a group of schools in Southeast Michigan putting on a full court press to have the state fund an adequacy study for the current system. According to the Superintendent, that would be a waste of time and resources because the way we’re delivering education now isn’t working.

So, we have met a few times to listen to different ideas. The most recent was from Dr. Mark Tucker from the National Center on Education and the Economy.