Amber Arellano

Michigan is already far behind leading states. So why is the state considering measures that reduce accountability and funding while making it harder for parents to get honest information on school performance?

The state must hold charter school authorizers accountable when their schools persistently underperform, a responsibility that leading education states take more seriously

Michigan’s African-American and white students are performing dismally compared with their demographic peers across the country. We must adopt bold strategies that are working in leading states.

The Michigan Department of Education is being pressured to avoid using achievement gap data in its state rankings of schools. If we are to improve academic success for our most vulnerable students, the state must resist such pressure.

It makes little sense to expect that Michigan students will meet more rigorous college- and career-ready standards without supporting teachers in implementing them and measuring whether students get there.

Sarah Lenhoff is director of policy and research at Education Trust-Midwest in Royal Oak.   Michigan’s students have lost substantial ground over the last decade. Michigan has among the worst achievement gaps in the nation, and our state is not keeping up with the rest of the country – in achievement or improvement – according […]

[An earlier version contained a summary of this column that was placed below the bylines, inadvertently making it appear as if that summary was written by the authors. The summary was in fact written by Bridge.] As Michigan education leaders who work in very different sectors, we often see education reform from different points of […]

Amber Arellano is the executive director of The Education Trust-Midwest Last week I had the pleasure of catching up with dear old friends during a trip up north. As their daughters geared up to return to school, my friend Marsha shared an observation about why her daughter’s public school does such a fine job. “The […]