Thursday, January 31, 2013
The head of the Michigan Department of Education asserts that higher wages would encourage more people to become teachers.
The key to getting more qualified math and science teachers into Michigan schools is simple, according to state Superintendent Mike Flanagan: pay them more. Flanagan, who heads up the Michigan Department of Education, said Monday at an assembly of scientists at Michigan State University that Michigan schools need more math and science teachers. The problem, he said, is that most scientists and mathematicians don't consider teaching in public schools to be a viable career option. “We can do all we want with content standards, but the elephant in the room is that it won’t do much good if we don’t have enough math and science teachers in our schools,” Flanagan said while discussing science standards in K-12 shools, according to a release from…
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Because Adequate Yearly Progress now has more stringent requirements for a school district to pass, Brighton failed to meet the mark, even though a majority of its schools did.
Today the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) released its school report cards, which includes the list of schools meeting state standards through Adequate Yearly Progress. And among the most successful are Spencer Elementary and Hilton Elementary in Brighton. Both are listed as "reward schools" - a new designation from the state - meaning they are in the top five percent of schools in Michigan and have made significant gains in academic progress during recent years. “We applaud the hard work and achievement of the educators and students in our Reward Schools because they are zeroed in on improving learning,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan in a press release. “We need to instill that goal in so many more …
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Changes will take place during the 2014-2015 school year.
Paper and pencil for statewide tests will soon be a thing of the past for Michigan students as they prepare to take a new online assessment detailed during a roundtable Monday by the Michigan Department of Education. The exam will replace the standardized MEAP and MME assessments in math, reading and writing, beginning during the 2014-2015 school year. The MEAP and MME assessments will still be given in science and social studies. But unlike the tests students are used to, the new statewide exam will not have a common set of questions. Subsequent questions will be determined based on how a student answers the previous one. A correct answer yields a harder one. An incorrect responce yields an easier question. The goal is to have students …
The new online assessment will replace the MEAP and MME tests in math, reading and writing beginning during the 2014-15 school year.
Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, students throughout Michigan will be given an online exam to test their knowledge of core subjects. The test replaces the Michigan Merit Exam (MME) and the Michigan Educational Assessment Progam (MEAP) in all subjects except social science and science. Called Smarter Balanced, the exam was produced by The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a state-led effort to provide consistent and comparable standards, aligned to the Common Core State Standards, in English language arts, literacy and mathematics. Smarter Balanced recently released a Technology Readiness Tool for districts to measure readiness to move to an online assessment program. Martineau said only about 6 percent of districts have taken …
Sarah O'Brien
12:14 pm on Wednesday, February 13, 2013
It would be great if the district actually used the scores to improve education, but they don't seem to. Everyone seems content with the status quo of overtesting. Our students are not learning better or given more enrichment. It is test after test. more ›