Supreme Court Grants Leave to Appeal in ORS Lawsuit
The Michigan Supreme Court has granted MASA's motion to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeals in Batista v. ORS and will hear the appeal on an expedited schedule. The Court is scheduling oral arguments for April and we are hopeful that the expedited timeline will mean principals and other school administrators get some resolution sooner rather than later. While the Michigan Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, they denied MASA's motion…
Clarification on Administrator Certification Renewal
At MASSP's AP Summit this past week, attendees got the advice that they try to align the renewals of their teacher and administrator certificates so that they can count the same education-related professional learning toward renewing both certificates. That prompted some calls to MDE, some confusion when callers were told alignment wasn't necessary, and some deeper digging by MASSP. Bottom line: holding a valid professional teaching certificate satisfies the continuing education requirements…
State of the State’s Education Focus is Mostly Outside K-12
On Wednesday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer delivered her sixth State of the State address. While education did feature prominently in her remarks, the focus was on expanding the scope of public education beyond K-12 to include preschool and community college. As she has for the last several years, the Governor touted the state's increased investment in public education, particularly noting a 22% increase in per-pupil funding over the past five years. Here are…
Michigan Population Council Releases Final Report
The Growing Michigan Together Council, which was convened earlier this year by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and charged with recommending how to reverse 40 years of population stagnation, released its final recommendations. The report emphasized the need for K-12 schools, community colleges and four-year universities to create a seamless path for students as they reach their 20s. The group’s recommendations fall into three main categories: The final report groups its recommendations into three…
Update on ORS Lawsuit, FAQ, Webinar Recording
Just before the holiday break, MASSP and MEMSPA hosted a joint webinar for principals on the implications of the ongoing lawsuit known as Batista v. ORS and its implications for the retirement of building leaders. In the intervening three weeks, we have compiled the questions from that webinar into an FAQ. We also, earlier, made the webinar recording available to people who registered for the webinar. Finally, this last week, MASSP together…
Reviewing MDE Permit & Placement Flexibilities & Options
In the last month, MDE has put out a whole series of memos regarding new permit and placement flexibilities. These are in addition to some flexibility that MDE has had in place for a while now. All of this comes in response to Michigan's educator shortage and can provide principals with some welcome options, but it can be tough to keep track of it all. So let's review six different flexibilities currently…
National Civics Bee Coming to Michigan for Middle Level Students
The National Civics Bee is coming to Michigan and is open to 6th, 7th and 8th grade students across the state. The event, which is being hosted by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with six local chambers of commerce around Michigan, is an excellent opportunity for middle school students to flex their civics knowledge for a chance to win recognition and cash prizes. The competition aligns with the Michigan Social…
Legislature Sends Educator Evaluation Reform to Gov’s Desk
The Michigan Legislature has passed SB 395-96, a pair of bills that make significant improvements to Michigan’s decade old educator evaluation law, including reducing the percentage of evaluations based on student growth, restructuring the rating categories, and potentially reducing evaluation frequency. The bills also add some additional process and protections for Principals like mid-year reviews, a process for appealing bad evaluations, and mentoring for new principals. The bills saw some important improvements from…
Michigan School Index System Reports and Accountability Student Datafiles Coming Soon
Later this fall, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) will be making Michigan School Index System reports and accountability student datafiles available for 2022-23 school year results. The Michigan School Index System is the accountability system in Michigan’s federally approved consolidated state plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In this system, schools will receive an overall school index value ranging from 0-100 that indicates performance across subgroups in multiple data…