Kindergarten classes in Escanaba and Dearborn are quite similar, with 5-year-olds wiggling in their chairs and brightly-colored artwork lining the walls. But when children walked out of those classrooms in the spring of 2011, they faced different futures. In Escanaba Area Public Schools, almost 40 percent of the children were told they weren’t moving on […]
Ron French
Ron French is the senior enterprise reporter at Bridge Michigan, covering a wide range of topics including rural communities, federal policy impacts, education and public health. Born and raised in Indiana, Ron came to Bridge in 2011 from The Detroit News, where he was a project reporter, and previously reported for newspapers across Indiana. He graduated from Purdue University.
Rooted in Okemos, Ron has become a true Michigander — complete with a family cabin Up North.
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Report shows Michigan high for higher ed cuts as legislative panel targets U-M, Wayne St. funds
Michigan’s premier public universities have no problem attracting students, but they’re having a harder time appealing to legislators. And while decreases in state funding are common across the country today, the percentage of cuts in Michigan is higher than in most states. Wayne State University could lose 15 percent of its state funding (about $27 […]
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Pursuit of money, learning mix
Do the profit motive and learning mix? In Michigan, the answer, so far, is – yes. Students at Michigan charter schools operated by for-profit companies perform the same or better academically as their peers at charters run by nonprofits, according to a Bridge Magazine analysis. While they perform the same, they don’t always perform well. […]
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Remedial classes aren’t helping thousands of Michigan college students
More than a third of Michigan students enrolling in state colleges take high school-level courses that may not be doing any good. That’s the conclusion of three separate national studies examining the level and the impact of college remedial classes. Those studies conclude that many of the 23,000 Michigan students taking remedial courses don’t need […]
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Is a student from China taking my kid's college slot?
As state funding for public universities drops, do the chances of your son or daughter getting in the University of Michigan also drop? That’s the question parents are asking, as U-M and Michigan State University increase the shares of their incoming classes that are made up of out-of-state and international students. Bridge uses the charts below to tell […]
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Preschool expansion popular with public
Nobody needs to convince Kelly Hart of the importance of early childhood education. The Flushing woman is the mother of five children who’ve gone through the Great Start Readiness Program, the state-funded preschool for 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. “I’ve always loved the program,” Hart said. “We’ve been lucky to have our kids in […]
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Public wants to help teachers improve
The best way to improve schools is to improve the skills of the person standing in the front of Michigan classrooms. Teaching teachers to do their jobs better is the education reform Michigan residents believe will most improve our schools, according to the largest effort ever to collect and analyze public opinion on K-12 education […]
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Message sent: Fix schools, send us the bill
Michigan residents want better schools — and they think the state will have to spend more to get them. That’s among the findings of the largest effort ever to collect and analyze public opinion on K-12 education in Michigan. More than 7,500 people voiced their views on the state’s public education system, over the course […]
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Preschool expansion popular with public
Nobody needs to convince Kelly Hart of the importance of early childhood education. The Flushing woman is the mother of five children who’ve gone through the Great Start Readiness Program, the state-funded preschool for 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. “I’ve always loved the program,” Hart said. “We’ve been lucky to have our kids in […]
Posted inMichigan Education Watch
Public wants to help teachers improve
The best way to improve schools is to improve the skills of the person standing in the front of Michigan classrooms. Teaching teachers to do their jobs better is the education reform Michigan residents believe will most improve our schools, according to the largest effort ever to collect and analyze public opinion on K-12 education […]
