Talent & Education— 29 January 2013
MAKING HIS CASE: Sen. Roger Kahn (far left) discusses the need to vastly increase funding for early childhood programs during a panel at the Center for Michigan’s “Future of Education” summit in Lansing Tuesday. “If the governor’s budget falls short, I’ll push for $140 million,” Kahn said. (Bridge photo/Lon Horwedel)
By Nancy Derringer/Bridge Magazine
Oakland Schools Superintendent Vickie Markavitch and gubernatorial adviser Bill Rustem sat next to one another at a panel to discuss education issues Tuesday, but their views on education reform are still far apart – a distance that could play out in upcoming debates at the State Capitol over school legislation.
A testy exchange over the Educational Achievement Authority district in Detroit at “The Future of Education” summit sponsored by the Center for Michigan illustrated the different viewpoints held by Michigan’s education establishment and the policy-makers who would revamp its operations.
The summit, attended by nearly 500, was held to analyze the findings of the Center’s new report, “The Public’s Agenda for Public Education,” which presented the results of a year-long community engagement effort.
Rustem had just finished detailing the state’s efforts to help 15 “consistently low-achieving” schools in the Detroit Public Schools via the EAA, an interlocal agreement between Eastern Michigan University and the DPS. Those 15 had been “on the lowest-performing list for a decade,” and the strategy to help them improve was clear and open, based on a model adopted in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina disrupted the city.
“Those who argue this is a conspiracy to take over public schools aren’t telling the truth,” Rustem said. “Tell me an alternative, and we’ll deal with it. We can continue to write those kids off, or we can do something about it.”
Markavitch agreed Michigan residents “have to do something about the worst schools. But I don’t know if the EAA is the model that will work.”
From there, the two points of view, between educators and reformers, continued to assert themselves, and diverge.
Markavitch and John Austin, president of the state Board of Education, spoke in favor of better funding, more support and a careful approach to increasing school choice. Rustem, along with Lansing attorney Peter Ruddell and Jamey Fitzpatrick, president of Michigan Virtual University, advocated for reforms debated in the Legislature last year and which are expected to come up again soon.
The EAA bill died in last year’s lame-duck legislative session. Rustem complained that even with clear-cut goals and a top limit of 50 schools in the EAA district, it still faced opposition from educational interests. Markavitch countered that the original bill was far more wide-reaching when it was introduced, and the pushback was to be expected.
What’s next
The Center for Michigan is hosting another summit, this one in Kalamazoo on Feb. 7. For more details and to reserve a space at the free event, click here.
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“The EAA should not be controversial,” said Austin. “My hopes are that it will work.”
After that early skirmish, the two sides moved on to the idea of increasing school choice, with Fitzpatrick and Ruddell advocating new funding models and more places for students to spend their per-pupil dollars, while Markavitch and Austin pleaded for a go-slow approach.
“Public education is changing and will continue to change at a very rapid pace,” said Fitzpatrick. “Would we be proactive or reactive?”
Ruddell made the same argument in favor of unbundling school funding to meet Gov. Rick Snyder’s policy guidance that education be “any time, any place, any way, any pace.”
“How do we change the financing structure to make sure each student gets the best education on their individual path?” Ruddell asked. “Education isn’t a place or a destination, it’s a service. That’s part of the paradigm shift we’re trying to employ.”
Boost to early childhood discussed
Other panels dealt with the need for more early-childhood education and support for teachers, two areas receiving strong support from participants in more than 250 community meetings held by the Center, along with large-sample polls, which together involved more than 7,500 diverse Michigan residents.
Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, said he was advocating for at least $130 million in increased funding for the state’s Great Start Readiness Program, preschool classes for children from low- and moderate-income families. Gov. Rick Snyder and House Speaker Jase Bolger also have pledged support for an increase.
Susan Broman, director of the state’s Office of Great Start, said the money would go to free up more preschool slots in individual school districts, as well as other improvements to the program. She said longitudinal studies show that children who go to preschool are more likely to graduate on time and enjoy more academic success in general.
“If I were building a house, would I skimp on the foundation?” she said.
Paul Hillegonds, senior vice president at DTE Energy, echoed the case for early investment in education.
“The reality is, one of the most important investments we can make in the state, in terms of economic development, is early childhood education,” he said. “If we’re going to attract and retain talent, we must make this investment.”
The third panel was on teacher preparation, support and accountability. Deborah Ball, dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan and chair of the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness, said the United States lags behind other countries in how it trains and supports its 3.5 million teachers.
In the U.S., we’ve developed a myth that “the way to learn to teach is figuring it out on your own,” she said. “Imagine if surgeons or airplane pilots learned on their own. And these are our children.”
Staff Writer Nancy Nall Derringer has been a writer, editor and teacher in Metro Detroit for seven years, and was a co-founder and editor of GrossePointeToday.com, an early experiment in hyperlocal journalism. Before that, she worked for 20 years in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she won numerous state and national awards for her work as a columnist for The News-Sentinel.
Talent & Education— 29 January 2013
SCHOOL INFO: Kathy Ellison, an educator from Midland, reads through “The Public's Agenda For Public Education” report during a statewide forum put on by the Center for Michigan Tuesday in Lansing (Bridge photo/Lon Horwedel)
By bridgemi/Bridge staff
Nearly 500 people convened in Lansing Tuesday to listen to and question education leaders and experts about the findings in the Center for Michigan’s new report, “The Public’s Agenda for Public Education.”
While audience members had plenty of information to chew on from the three panels – on early childhood, teacher preparation and accountability and current issues — convened for the “Future of Education” summit, the discussions spilled over into the audience and hallways, too:
Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, expressed a dogged determination to get at least $130 million in additional funding for the state’s early childhood program for low- and moderate-income 4-year-olds. The state now spends slightly over $100 million on the Great Start Readiness Program. Nearly 30,000 children who qualify for the program are not in classrooms, partly because the state doesn’t provide enough funding.
Roger Kahn
“If the governor’s budget (to be released Feb. 7) falls short of that, I will advocate for more in the Legislature (where the final version of the state budget will be passed),” Kahn said. “If that falls short, there is the May revenue enhancement. If not then, there are budget supplementals. If we fall short to some degree, we have next year.
“I believe we’re going to get this done,” Kahn said. “It’s long overdue.”
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“We had no idea there was even a program to take her in” – parent Veronica Wolftalking about her family’s experience with the Great Start Readiness Program.
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Susan Broman
“The slot (payment) rate is woefully inadequate. There’s been no increase since 2007 and we are losing GSRP providers because of it” —Susan Broman of the Office of Great Start, discussing where new early childhood dollars could be spent.
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“We’ve known for a very long time that this is the right investment” — Washtenaw Intermediate Superintendent Scott Menzel, referring to early childhood programs.
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A $3 million investment in summer learning helped “several hundred children” not only avoid the dreaded summer loss of academic progress, but helped them actually get ahead in the classroom, said Mary Sutton of the Michigan After-School Partnership during a break in the proceedings. Sutton noted, however, that funding for after-school initiatives is limited: “Michigan, as a whole, gets $35 million,” she said.
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“We need to do an incredible amount on health. Our infant mortality rate is a disgrace” – Susan Broman.
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Nancy Sells of the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District said she liked what she heard during the early childhood presentation, but expressed a measure of frustration:
“In our ISD, we have lots of parents who can’t access services. We have 6-year-olds who have never been in school who have developmental delays. So, I want to know how we are going to implement all this? I want to make this happen. This is all great, but when will it begin.”
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“You don’t help kids by slashing education budgets” — David Hecker of the American Federation of Teachers.
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Deborah Ball
“Medical students don’t start practicing on real bodies” – Deborah Ball, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education, referring to the need to reform teacher training programs.
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Less than half of community conversation and poll participants in the Center for Michigan’s report considered an expansion of online learning to be crucial or important. But to Jamey Fitzpatrick, president of Michigan Virtual University, those numbers were encouraging. “If you asked that five years ago, it would have been in single digits,” Fitzpatrick said. “Last year, one in five college student took an on-line course. It’s going to happen. Are we going to be proactive and get ahead of it?”
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Brit Satchwell
“The ‘F’-word – Finland. We do the opposite of them on everything” – Brit Satchwell, Ann Arbor teacher.
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“Imagine if pilots learned how to fly on their own?” – Deborah Ball, on the prospects for new teachers in the classroom.
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“We have no agreed standard on letting (teachers) ‘fly’ a class of kids” – Deborah Ball.
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“The problem is that people see early childhood as a monolith, all the same. It isn’t” — Michael Van Beek, education policy director of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, responding to the discussion during the early childhood panel.
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Dave Campbell, superintendent of the Livingston Educational Service Agency, ducked out of the presentation room to deal with one of those pesky non-academic matters: the weather.
He was getting reports on bus routes and arrivals during Tuesday’s odd – and dangerous – weather. Campbell reported all in his district made it to class safely.
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Vickie Markavitch
“And it’s not as if the EAA is the only thing being done” — Oakland Schools Superintendent Vickie Markavitch, referring to the debate over the Educational Achievement Authority bill to govern low-performing school buildings.
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We’ve all had day dreams about how we’d spend the money if we win the lottery. Tuesday, Susan Broman, director of the Office of Great Start in the Michigan Department of Education, laid out her wish list for how her office would suggest using an additional $130 million on early childhood education.
Thousands more children would be in classrooms around the state. The per-child allotment would be increased to a level that more close matches the actual cost of the program. The current $3,400 per child is “woefully inadequate,” Broman said. “In some communities, we are losing GSRP providers because they can’t afford to lose money on the program.”
Money would be allocated for an aggressive outreach program to let families know about the program; transportation would be provided for some children; there would be greater collaboration between GSRP and Head Start; and there would be additional community-based non-profits offering GSRP classrooms.
“This gives us the opportunity to challenge communities to think about how we can serve more children,” Broman said.
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“The question that I hear most often is where is the money going to come from? One of the things that we would like to advocate for is some dedicated stream of funding for a couple of reasons. One even if you could find $130 million for this year’s budget, this is not a one-time solution. This is not a one-time fix. It’s an ongoing cost in order to ensure every child in Michigan has an opportunity to be successful when they enter kindergarten so that’s part of it. I think if we reframe our conversation from looking at this as just an early childhood component” —Scott Menzel, superintendent of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District.
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“We want every child to enter kindergarten ready to succeed. And so many are coming to the starting line and they’re 50 or 100 yards back when the gun goes off for kindergarten. Catching up is very difficult. So schools spend a lot of time and energy trying to bring them up to speed. If we invest on the front end and they are ready to succeed when they come in for kindergarten, we save those costs down the road” – Paul Hillegonds, senior vice president for corporate affairs for DTE Energy.
Bridge staffers Nancy Derringer, Ron French, Derek Melot and Bridge journalism fellow Taylor Trammell contributed to this report.
Phil's Column— 31 January 2013
Phil Power is founder and chairman of the Center for Michigan.
By Phil Power/Bridge Magazine
In my experience, there are two basic types of conferences:
* The rehash, where you see/meet new people but don’t learn much new.
* The eye-opener, where you hear something quite new that shoves your thinking in new directions.
Tuesday’s gathering in Lansing, sponsored by the Center for Michigan to consider expert response to the report,“The Public’s Agenda for Public Education”, was one of the latter sort.
Here’s a quick run-down of some comments that forced rethinking on how best to train and evaluate teachers and why increased support for early childhood education programs is so important.
* “We don’t let medical students practice surgery on live patients before they’ve been carefully trained. … Imagine if pilots learned to fly on their own” – Deborah Ball, dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Education and chairwoman of the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness.
Ball, whose much-anticipated report on teacher evaluation is due later this spring, is a passionate advocate for much more intensive and much more individualized training for teachers. Schools today are entirely different than they were when most teachers were initially certified: “Classrooms are now half students of color and one quarter do not speak English as their first language,” Ball explained. This requires an enormous change in the ways teachers are trained, yet the work they do is simply essential to the workings of our society, she added.
* “Teacher evaluation is, at heart, a civil rights issue” — Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest.
The people who need great teaching the most – poor people, minorities, those at the bottom of the social heap – are the ones who all too often don’t get it, she pointed out. An evaluation system that encourages great teaching and discourages bad teachers is a fundamental way to provide the full rights of citizenship for those most in need of it.
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE
* Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a powerful force in budget policy decisions, signaled his long-term dedication to sharply increasing state support for early childhood programs.
Last year, Kahn proposed spending $140 million more on the state’s pre-K program for low- and moderate-income four-year-olds, the Great Start Readiness Program. The state now spends a little more than $100 million annually to support GSRP, which leaves 30,000 eligible children out in the cold, for lack of slots.
Kahn promised, “If the governor’s budget (which will be released on Feb. 7) falls short of that, I will advocate for more in the Legislature. If that falls short, there is the May revenue enhancement (which could come if state tax collections increase more than predicted). If not then, there are budget supplementals. If we fall short to some degree, we have next year.”
* “We’ve been talking about early childhood ever since 1972, nearly 40 years,” said Vickie Markavitch, superintendent of Oakland County Schools.
Until this year, we’re not much farther down the road to serious early childhood programs in Michigan.
* Paul Hillegonds, senior vice president for corporate affairs at DTE Energy, pointed to enormous returns gained from investments in early childhood: “We want every child to enter kindergarten ready to succeed. And so many are coming to the starting line and they’re 50 or 100 yards back when the gun goes off for kindergarten. Catching up is very difficult.
“So schools spend a lot of time and energy trying to bring them up to speed. If we invest on the front end and they are ready to succeed when they come in for kindergarten, we save those costs down the road.”
In addition to being thought-expanding, the conference provided an unusual and valuable experience for those used to the standard high-conflict discussions about education in Michigan: An adult conversation, conducted by people who actually know something.
Nearly 500 people attended Tuesday’s conference in Lansing. The 147 current members of the Legislature could have walked just a few hundred yards down Michigan Avenue to the Lansing Center and had many eyes opened.
Editor’s note: Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics. He is also the founder and chairman of the Center for Michigan, a nonprofit, bipartisan centrist think–and–do tank, designed to cure Michigan’s dysfunctional political culture; the Center also publishes Bridge Magazine. The opinions expressed here are Power’s own and do not represent the official views of the Center. He welcomes your comments via email.
FeaturedTalent & Education— 31 January 2013
LITTLE RED … KITCHEN TABLE? Allison Ruiz is a full-time teacher at Croswell-Lexington High School, but she often works from her Ft. Gratiot home, while her 2-year-old son Johnathan, does a little work of his own. Ruiz teaches online classes only at Croswell, part of a growing trend in Michigan and elsewhere. (Bridge photo/Lon Horwedel)
By Jo Mathis/Bridge Magazine contributor
Allison Ruiz was attending the Thanksgiving parade in downtown Detroit two months ago when she got a call from a student with a homework question.
Nothing unusual for a teacher whose classes are 100 percent online — and whose students hit the keyboards whenever and wherever the mood strikes.
“I was a little leery about not seeing them in class every day,” said Ruiz, a social studies teacher at Croswell-Lexington High School in the Thumb. “But I think it’s been really successful and the kids are really enjoying it.”
Most Michigan school districts offer some kind of virtual learning opportunities, whether it’s a blend of online/in-class work, or classes offered strictly online. But Croswell-Lexington High School prides itself on expanding education to include real-time, real-world experiences.
Each of the 800 students is issued an iPad, allowing them to Skype with students in Taiwan or click into any corner of the globe with Google Earth.
Soshould every class be restricted to an actual room at a specific time?
Last September, Ruiz became the school’s first full-time teacher whose 120 students are enrolled in classes solely accessed via the Web.
She and three part-time virtual teachers have 175 students enrolled in at least one virtual class, including algebra, introduction to physics, English, civics, U.S. history, economics and world studies.
“Students are wired differently than they were even 20 years ago — they learn differently,” said Principal Theo A. Kerhoulas. “They are multi-taskers and very efficient. Many take advantage of the flexibility of virtual learning. They can learn in small chunks throughout the day, speed through things they know, slow down and repeat things they struggle with, stop and research from multiple sources, and prove their knowledge through multiple media. It’s a game-changer.”
Michigan at forefront on online ed
Michigan was the first state to require online learning as a requirement for high school graduation. The Michigan Merit High School Graduation Requirement in 2006 required all high school students participate in an online course or learning experience.
Since then, four other states – Alabama, Idaho, Florida and Virginia – have adopted similar requirements.
“Teacher-supported online learning provides many students with a flexible and meaningful alternative learning option to earn high school or college credit,” says Mike Flanagan, who was state superintendent of public schools when the requirement was adopted – and who continues in that role today.
 The online debate
A new report from the nonpartisan Center for Michigan on public attitudes on K-12 reforms shows Michigan residents have “mixed and inconsistent” views about expanding online learning opportunities.
Expanded online learning did not receive nearly as much support as other reform concepts, such as expanding early childhood programs, enhancing teacher preparation and imposing greater accountability on educators.
Jamey Fitzpatrick of the Michigan Virtual School said he was still impressed with the numbers, considering that online learning is still so new in Michigan.
Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Snyder wants to expand online learning and says every student who needs or wants up to two hours of daily online education should receive it.
The Legislature is expected to debate revamps of the state’s school code and school financing law to broaden the use of online coursework.
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The benefits of online learning will continue to be debated, said Jamey Fitzpatrick president and CEO of Michigan Virtual University, which, since 2000, has offered 120,000 online courses to middle and high school students in the state.
“But at the end of the day, life as we know it has changed,” he said, noting that last year in the United States, one of every five college students took an online course. “Online learning gives middle and high school students the chance to gain the skill sets they need in higher education and the world of work.”
Fitzpatrick said online learning is particularly beneficial to students in rural communities, such as those served by Croswell-Lexington.
“It’s an incredible equity lever that makes available curricular offerings that historically were only accessible by students in wealthy suburban schools with 3,000 kids,” he said.
Croswell-Lexington Superintendent Kevin D. Miller believes educators need to offer multiple modes of learning to reach students, whether that’s online learning, blended learning, face-to-face, collaborative, or project-based.
“It’s important to meet the learner where he or she is, and provide learning opportunities for all,” he said.
On the first day of class at C-L, Ruiz meets in person with all students to make sure they understand how the class will run, how to log in, etc. After that, they can log on to their classwork anytime, anywhere. If the course is scheduled first or fifth hour, the student can come to school an hour late or leave school an hour early. Some choose to work on a computer in the school library or Wi-Fi hall during that class time, logging on to class discussion boards to connect with other students in the class.
Every student has Ruiz’s cell phone number, so she frequently gets texts and calls.
“So I’m still in contact with the kids; it’s just that I don’t see them every day,” she said. “And any time someone needs to meet with me, I’m happy to do that, too.”
The success of virtual learning comes in many ways, said Principal Kerhoulas, citing GPA, student demand, standardized test scores and graduation rates. But most revealing are the anecdotal stories of a few at-risk students who have earned their diploma due to the virtual program, he said.
One of those recent graduates is Asha Maxfield, 18, the student who called Ruiz on Thanksgiving morning.
“Online classes are definitely a good idea,” said Maxfield, 18, who eagerly chose the option of virtual learning for the two classes she needed to graduate. “You can work at your own pace, and get done what you need to do when it’s convenient for you.”
Allison Ruiz
Maxfield said she appreciated that Ruiz was so available to her.
To Kerhoulas, that proves that virtual learning is not students learning from computers but rather students learning from teachers through computers.
“We should never underestimate the power of the teacher-student relationship, he said. “Even virtually.”
Jo Collins Mathis is a veteran journalist who has written for numerous publications in Washtenaw and Wayne counties. She was an award-winning reporter and columnist with the Ann Arbor News for 15 years, and a features page editor and columnist at the Ypsilanti Press.
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