NEW LOOK, COURSE: The Ypsilanti and Willow Run school districts merged July 1 to form Ypsilanti Community Schools, a new district that’s embarking on a variety of operational reforms, including a longer school day and longer school year. (courtesy image/Ypsilanti Community Schools) Two Washtenaw County communities are taking a marriage born out of necessity […]
Talent & Education
To prosper, Michigan must be a more educated place. Bridge will explore the challenges in education and identify policies and initiatives that address them.
Posted inTalent & Education
Mix school choice, state incentives and you get a $400,000 high-schooler
In Birmingham, the school district got $440,000 for one out-of-town high-schooler. In nearby Novi, the schools received $320,000 for an empty desk. That’s what you get when you mix a governor’s reform agenda with schools threading the needle between school choice and protesting parents. The two districts in Oakland County had long opted out of […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Schoolchildren shuttle across SE Michigan, raising questions about funding, community identity
Oak Park Schools might want to rebrand itself as Grand Central Station. Each morning in the school year that just ended, 2,121 students from outside Oak Park traveled into the district for their education, filling 48 percent of the desks. Each morning, 1,004 young Oak Park residents — about a third of the community’s home-grown […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Fortress Grosse Pointe: In world of school choice, community says ‘stay out’
GROSSE POINTE — When Dan Roeske was running for the Grosse Pointe Public Schools board in 2011, he found himself addressing a PTO group at Poupard Elementary, one of the district’s 13 schools. A woman asked bluntly about one of the district’s perennial issues. “Where do you stand on open enrollment?” she asked. Roeske took […]
Posted inTalent & Education
County-by-county searchable database on child abuse, neglect
Use Bridge’s searchable database to check the child abuse/neglect rate for your home county. (The rate reflects the number of reported cases per 1,000 residents age 0 to 17.) County Cases per thousand 2011 ALCONA 11.3 ALGER 6.1 ALLEGAN 17.7 ALPENA 25.9 ANTRIM 25.2 ARENAC 25.0 BARAGA 20.6 BARRY 19.0 BAY 13.0 BENZIE 18.8 BERRIEN […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Thousands of low-income, minority students missing out on college-prep classes
(courtesy photo) Only 3 percent of low-income and African-American high school students in Michigan are enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) classes that help them get a toehold in college. That’s one of the lowest rates in the nation, according to a study conducted by Education Trust. The AP gap puts an estimated 12,000 poor and […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Grand Rapids races ahead of state on teacher evaluations
(courtesy image/used under Creative Commons license) The old system of evaluating a teacher’s performance – a principal observing in a classroom – was not particularly effective, school administrators and teacher union leaders agree. The challenge is in coming up with a better system. A committee of education experts – the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness […]
Posted inTalent & Education
On horizon for preschools: More public-private partnerships
MACKINAC ISLAND — Legislators had barely made it to Mackinac Island after passing an historic increase in funding for early childhood education before discussion turned to what happens next. A panel today predicted more public-private partnerships in pre-K for 4-year-olds and investment in brain development at even earlier ages could be on the horizon if […]
Posted inTalent & Education
State adopts ‘nation’s largest’ expansion of early childhood funding
Ten thousand additional Michigan 4-year-olds will be in classrooms next school year, after Republican and Democratic legislators Wednesday passed the largest expansion in early childhood education in the nation. (Bridge illustration/A.J. Jones) The $65 million expansion for the 2013-14 budget year is a major victory for business leaders, educators and children advocates, as well […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan moves into national forefront of preschool funding
Michigan will move from middle of the pack to top of the heap when Gov. Rick Snyder signs off on a massive expansion of state-funded early childhood education in coming days. REASON TO CELEBRATE: Great Start preschool student Shelby Tomshani, left, plays with Head Start preschool student Zoey Stock in September 2012 at Lakeland Elementary […]