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Category Archives: K-16 Education
Education tips for middle school parents — promising hints from Kalamazoo
Five years ago, many of the brightest minds in Michigan business and education proclaimed Michigan needed to double its number of college graduates. Since then, state education policy has been characterized largely by funding cuts, tuition increases, and an ever-growing amount of student loans.
The pressure is on like never before for parents working to both [...]
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CAMPUS REPORT CARD: Michigan universities beat national average on tuition increases this year
As students struggle with mid-terms, it’s report card time for Michigan universities. That’s because Grand Valley State this month issued its annual accountability report to its community.
The GVSU report card, based on well-documented and impartial state data, is a very good and easy to use consumer resource for any Michigan parent or student trying to [...]
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The fight continues for sensible long-term preschool investment
Imagine a business that could offer a four times return on investment. What shareholder wouldn’t want a piece of that action?
Too bad Michigan decision makers have been unable to make such a calculation as it relates to the value of preschool programs.
A four times return. That’s what Upjohn Institute economist Tim Bartik estimates society [...]
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More angst over shrinking school years
Last week we outlined how Michigan legislators steadily eroded their own plans to hammer down on hundreds of Michigan school districts that have short-changed students (and the future of Michigan’s workforce) by steadily dropping weeks from their annual instructional calendars.
The numerous reader responses included these from education leaders in the know…
FORMER STATE SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT TOM [...]
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School Daze Update: Budget fight shrinks school year reforms
Here’s a prime example of how a well-intentioned reform gets watered down in Lansing…
In March, the Center published “School Daze: Michigan’s Shrinking School Year.” The study used comprehensive state data to illustrate that nearly every school district in the state had fallen below the informal national standard of 180 days of student instruction per year. [...]
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Low educations and low incomes
Ten years ago, as Michigan’s auto factories and suppliers were full of workers and prosperous suburban sprawl pushed further and further into the farm fields, it was almost inconceivable to see how far the state’s fate could fall in a single dark decade.
Yet even then some economists and education experts were whispering that Michigan’s last [...]
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Michigan schools try merit pay
By Chris Andrews
In Michigan, the rural school district of Oscoda is a trailblazer when it comes to merit pay for teachers.
Teachers in the northern Michigan community earned across the board $250 bonuses after the 2007-08 school year — $10 for each of 25 categories in which students met achievement goals on state tests. Soon, the [...]
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More on merit pay
Other considerations of teacher merit pay:
PRESIDENT OBAMA BACKED THE CONCEPT EARLIER THIS YEAR: “Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom,” the president said in March.
TRANSFORMING TEACHER COMPENSATION: Two years ago, a [...]
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Math Corps launches careers for at-risk students
By Shirley Bolden
DETROIT – Several years ago, Joseph Ratcliff joined the Wayne State University Math Corps as a middle school student receiving tutoring in math. Now, as a college graduate, he’s on the teaching end, helping younger students strengthen skills that will prepare them for the future.
Math Corps is a 6-week summer math enrichment program [...]
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Putting two and two together
State Rep. Fred Durhal, whose Detroit district includes lots of people without the means to pay college tuition, announced a big idea this week to cover college costs for any college-bound student who’s lived here five years.
Call it the Durhal Promise — sort of like the Kalamazoo Promise. Durhal’s high-minded plan would raise $1.7 billion [...]
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