Certification

April 24, 2008

Holding back students who cannot read at grade level is out. But in its place is a proposal to require that all districts have programs in place to identify and help those students who are struggling with reading and that all teachers and administrators be trained in reading instruction.

The Senate Education Committee unveiled the new version of SB 842 and the newly-introduced SB 1275 on Thursday and committee Chair Sen. Wayne Kuipers (R-Holland) said he would like to have the issues resolved and report the bills in the next couple of weeks.

Colleagues,

The Office of Professional Preparation Services requests that you review the newest proposed changes to the Entry Level Standards for Michigan Teachers (ELSMT) available at this url:

http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-6530_5683_6368-33926--,00.html

You will find that the proposed changes to the ELSMT include a name change, and a Profile of Knowledge and Skills that begins with preparation of teachers and has descriptive language that can be used across the teacher's career. Please use the response form to provide your comments.

Elementary teachers would have a more limited choice of courses and would face a longer test to be certified under a proposal Tuesday to the State Board of Education.

The proposal would represent the first time the state had set standards for education programs for teachers, as opposed to leaving those programs to universities, officials said.

AN ACT to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled “An act to provide a system of public instruction and elementary and
secondary schools; to revise, consolidate, and clarify the laws relating to elementary and secondary education; to provide
for the organization, regulation, and maintenance of schools, school districts, public school academies, intermediate school
districts, and other public school entities; to prescribe rights, powers, duties, and privileges of schools, school districts,

For what?
For the first Basic Administrator Certificate issued by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) since Governor Granholm signed Public Act 335 of 2006. Framed and hanging outside my office door at Saginaw Valley for all to see -- I am so proud of it.

Why?

See Attachment for Original Document

STATE OF MICHIGAN
93RD LEGISLATURE
REGULAR SESSION OF 2006
Introduced by Senator Kuipers
ENROLLED SENATE BILL No. 1327
AN ACT to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled “An act to provide a system of
public instruction and elementary and secondary schools; to revise,
consolidate, and clarify the laws relating to elementary and secondary
education; to provide for the organization, regulation, and maintenance
of schools, school districts, public school academies, intermediate
school districts, and other public school entities; to prescribe rights,

Teachers and the colleges that prepare them currently face an array of standards depending on a teacher’s specialty and other factors. The State Board of Education asked the Professional Standards Commission for Teachers to boil all those standards into a single coherent document as one of the first steps for coming changes to teacher preparation program approval.

The board also supported plans by the Department of Education to ditch its current periodic review of teacher education programs in favor of requiring the programs to receive national accreditation.

Administrator Certification for School Administrators