With coronavirus cases surging, some Michigan schools are temporarily moving back to online learning. There’s no sign of a statewide school shutdown, though.
Michigan K-12 schools
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan GOP: Cancel standardized tests and 3rd grade reading law this year
With just one month before students are to take the state M-STEP, it’s uncertain what test they’ll take, or whether Michigan’s read-or-flunk law for third graders makes sense during a pandemic.
Posted inGuest Commentary
Opinion | For Alice’s sake, stop playing politics with school COVID money
Republicans in Lansing have decided to use the $2.1 billion meant for students as a bargaining chip to use against the Whitmer administration. That’s not helping me, my wife, or our kindergarten daughter.
Posted inGuest Commentary
Opinion | We shouldn’t add M-STEP testing to an already brutal school year
Michigan’s state school superintendent and president of the state school board argue that students shouldn’t take the typical standardized test, the M-STEP, and instead use benchmark tests that give teachers faster results.
Posted inMichigan Government
Michigan GOP: No transgender athletes in girls’ sports. Critics: Shame on you.
Michigan is among 20 states mulling bills that would bar transgender athletes from competing on girls’ school teams. Critics call the measures a “disgusting” attack.
Posted inGuest Commentary
Opinion | Let’s not flunk third-graders for low reading scores in a pandemic
Tests are fine. But making kids worry they may be held back in third grade for poor reading skills in the middle of a pandemic is nuts.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan’s game-changing preschool program ‘untenable’ without more funding
The Great Start Readiness Program offers state-funded preschool for 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. But funding hasn’t been boosted since 2014, leaving school districts to make up the difference.
Posted inTalent & Education
Whitmer: Nearly all Michigan schools to open amid COVID. Ann Arbor, too.
A growing percentage of Michigan students have the option of learning in classrooms at least part of the week, as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations decline and vaccinations rise.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan students to take standardized tests, but which one is unclear
The U.S. is requiring standardized tests this year amid COVID. Ordinarily, that would mean the statewide M-STEP, but state Superintendent Michael Rice wants districts to choose among assessments, leaving the issue in limbo.
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan students must take M-STEP, despite COVID, Biden administration says
Michigan school officials didn’t want to make students take standardized tests this spring because of the disruptions due to the pandemic. Federal officials aren’t giving them a choice.