Michigan NAEP Scores (Update)

Michigan

   STATEWIDE

   Michigan students lag national average on math and reading skills tests

   The results of a national exam given every two years measuring math and reading skills show that Michigan’s students are stalling while other states are seeing slight improvements.

   Michigan’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, commonly known as the Nation’s Report Card, lagged behind the national average in fourth-grade reading and math as well as eighth-grade math, according to results released Thursday.

   Michigan was one of 11 states where the percentage of students in both fourth and eighth grades who scored at or above proficient in math were below the national average. Michigan was the only state where the percentage of students in fourth grade who scored at or above proficient in reading was lower than the national average.

   The Education Trust-Midwest, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization, noted that Michigan now ranks in the bottom third of all states in fourth-grade reading, fourth-grade math and eighth-grade math.

   “Today’s release shows the profound need for Michigan state leaders, education leaders, teachers, parents and communities to think deeply about what we are doing as a state to raise all of our students’ learning, and what we can learn from other states,” said Sarah Lenhoff, director of policy and research at the Education Trust-Midwest. See the results athttp://on.freep.com/1ho4j3d  .

College's Measure of Creativity (Update: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten)

November 2, 2013

Robots or Aliens as Parents? Colleges Gauge Applicants’ Creativity

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

As legions of high school seniors polish their college applications, plowing through predictable essay topics about their lives and goals, they might also run across something like this: “Tell us your favorite joke and try to explain the joke without ruining it.”

A small but growing number of select colleges have turned to off-kilter questions like that one, part of this year’s application to the University of Chicago, or like this one, from Brandeis University: “You are required to spend the next year of your life in either the past or the future. What year would you travel to and why?” This year’s most-discussed question, from Tufts University, was about the meaning of “YOLO,” an acronym for “you only live once,” popularized by the rapper Drake.

And even those are tame compared with some choices from the last few years, like “If you could choose to be raised by robots, dinosaurs or aliens, who would you pick?” (Brandeis), or “What does Play-Doh have to do with Plato?” (Chicago).

For the colleges, such questions set them apart, though the applications invariably give a choice of subjects, including some that are closer to traditional. And at a time when some elite colleges worry that high school students are more likely to be high achievers than independent thinkers, oddball essay questions offer a way to determine which of the A-student, high-test-score, multi-extracurricular applicants can also show a spark of originality.

Most elite colleges use the Common Application, which contains fairly standard essay questions, and require their own supplemental applications, with more writing exercises.

“In the day of the Common App, there’s such a sense of sameness in applying to the different schools, so we’re trying to communicate what’s distinctive about us and determine what’s distinctive about our applicants,” said Andrew Flagel, the senior vice president for students and enrollment at Brandeis.

A quirky essay subject can seem like a burden to students who, already stressed out by the application process, find that being diligent and brilliant is not enough — that colleges also want them to be whimsical and creative. Teenagers pepper social media with complaints about the questions, though they do not want to be interviewed, for fear of alienating their colleges of choice.

But others embrace the chance to express themselves, seeing it as a welcome relief from the ordinary applications.

“Usually, the essay prompts are boring,” said Sam Endicott, a high school senior from Edmond, Okla., who said he chose the University of Chicago’s topic on explaining a joke. “They don’t inspire a whole lot of creativity. I like the ones that allow more free rein to be a little different.”

Looking at the same application, Matt Bliss, a senior from Portage, Ind., seized on the invitation to make up his own topic. Recalling that one of the University of Chicago’s essay choices last year was “So where is Waldo, really?” he wrote his essay on “Can Waldo find himself?”

“I see it as a way to really show the college, ‘This is me,’ to establish your voice as a writer and show that you’re willing to take a risk,” he said.

Most students prefer — and are better off — avoiding the unusual questions, said John B. Boshoven, a counselor at Community High School in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“There are the kids who find it just invigorating, but they are not the majority,” he said. “The linear, sequential, mechanical kids of the world usually don’t want to play that game, no matter how smart they are.”

Counselors and private admission consultants say quirkier questions are more of a challenge for students getting a late start and feeling the pressure of an application deadline — usually November for early admissions or January for regular admissions — and for overseas students.

“In the next few days, I’m going to be seeing stressed-out seniors trying to bang these things out and wondering why they’re bothering,” said Don McMillan, a consultant based in Boston. “And we’ve got kids from Brazil or Nicaragua who are going to have trouble even getting the joke, much less know how to answer it.”

The University of Chicago, well known for its off-the-wall questions, began asking them in the 1980s and invites current students and recent alumni to submit ideas. The results have become more unorthodox over the years, producing applications in the last decade that have offered topics like “Destroy a question with your answer” and, in reference to the industrial-size products at some big-box retailers, “Write an essay somehow inspired by super-huge mustard.”

When asked whether the past question “How did you get caught?” exposed unsavory behavior or whether this year’s query about a joke elicited anything obscene, John W. Boyer, the dean of the undergraduate college, said, “As long as it doesn’t violate the criminal laws of the State of Illinois, it’s fine with me.”

In recent years, unusual questions have appeared on applications for other colleges, including Tufts, Brandeis, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania and Hamilton College (which once asked, “If you were reduced to living on a flat plane, what would be your greatest problems? Opportunities?”). But some of those institutions have reverted to more traditional essay topics, and the unorthodox approach remains limited to a relative handful of elite universities.

Dr. Boyer said the questions had helped build the University of Chicago’s identity; years after graduation, alumni often remember their essay topic.

“It requires a little bit of wit and more than a little bit of imagination,” he said. “We want to give students an opportunity to be unconventional in a pushing-the-boundary sense and see what they can do.”

 Listen

Michigan Common Core Legislation (Update)

Common Core spending gets approval from state House

By Kathleen Gray Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

   LANSING — Without discussion, debate or a roll-call vote, the Michigan House of Representatives agreed Tuesday to changes made in legislation allowing the state’s Department of Education to begin spending money on implementing Common Core standards.

   Common Core standards are a national set of expectations of what students need to know in order to be career-and college-ready when they leave high school. The standards were developed by the National Governors’ Association and have been adopted by 45 states.

   The standards have been controversial in Michigan and some other states where some, including a very vocal contingent of tea party activists, feared a federal takeover of education and the loss of local control over K-12 schools.

   Hours of hearings were held this fall. The House passed the legislation with wide bipartisan support two weeks ago. And the Senate passed a slightly different version last week.

   The final action Tuesday, gaveled through without a roll-call vote, means the Department of Education can begin implementing the standards.

   “I think this is all a good discussion. Whenever there is a focus on what your child and schools are doing that’s all good for all of us,” said state Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, a supporter of the standards. “I think there will be innumerable discussions that follow this.”

   Since the vote came in the form of a resolution instead of an actual bill, it does not need to go to Gov. Rick Snyder for his signature.

Common Core (Update: Michigan Legislature)

October 24, 2013 11:24 PM

Michigan Senate OKs Common Core education standards, waits on tests

LANSING — Efforts to continue putting in place more rigorous and uniform national education standards in Michigan cleared a key hurdle Thursday when the Senate chose to let the state spend money on the benchmarks again.

Left until later, though, is a legislative decision on what new standardized tests should accompany the contentious Common Core State Standards in the 2014-15 school year.

Since Oct. 1, the state has been unable to spend money to help implement the math and reading standards in K-12 schools because of a provision in the budget pausing the work until the Legislature says it is OK to proceed. The standards won approval from the state education board with little fanfare three years ago but have since divided conservatives, despite winning broad support in the business and education communities and from Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

Reflecting the tension among Republicans, the GOP-led Senate approved a resolution, which is not a bill and does not go to the governor, on a voice vote instead of taking a recorded roll call vote. The Republican-controlled House passed a similar measure last month and is expected to OK Senate changes next week. The state Education Department immediately resumed Common Core-related activities on Thursday.

"To help all our students succeed, our collective work needs to be focused on having rigorous standards; effective and valuable assessments aligned to those standards; and high quality and effective educators," Superintendent Mike Flanagan said in a written statement.

The Common Core standards adopted by 45 states demand critical thinking and problem solving that backers say will give students an education that's competitive with other countries. But critics question the benchmarks and associated tests, calling them a national intrusion into local control of public schools.

"It's a national standard that will be increasingly referenced by our federal government as a tool to influence state education policies," said Sen. Patrick Colbeck, a Republican from Canton Township.

The U.S. government also encouraged states to adopt the standards to compete for "Race to the Top" grants and seek waivers around some unpopular proficiency requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Like the House, the Senate balked at allowing companion "Smarter Balanced" standardized tests to move forward and instead asked the state to report back by Dec. 1 on testing options. The resolution does not commit Michigan to a specific assessment, but it asks that assessments be given on computers, provide "real-time results" and be taken twice a year.

"We don't want to be told by some bigger organization what our assessment program looks like," said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe.

A criticism of the existing Michigan Education Assessment Program tests and Michigan Merit Exam is that results do not come in time to help individual students. The resolution requires the state to competitively bid for the new tests. The Legislature plans to evaluate and fund assessment options when crafting a new budget next year.

The Common Core standards spell out, grade by grade, the reading and math skills that students should have as they go from kindergarten through high school. The resolution says the standards cannot dictate curriculum and lets local school boards adopt different standards.

Flanagan's move to immediately restart Common Core-related work drew scrutiny because the House has yet to give final approval to the measure.

"The Department of Education should not proceed with Common Core until action is completed by the Legislature," said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall.

But Education Department spokesman Martin Ackley said all that was needed was an "affirmative action" by both the House and Senate, which has occurred.

URGENCY of the EDUCATION EMERGENCY (Update: DEEP DIVE the COMMENTS for a TREATISE on the Subject Matter)

new york times EDITORIAL

The United States, Falling Behind

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Published: October 22, 2013 760 Comments

Researchers have been warning for more than a decade that the United States was losing ground to its economic competitors abroad and would eventually fall behind them unless it provided more of its citizens with the high-level math, science and literacy skills necessary for the new economy.

Naysayers dismissed this as alarmist. But recent data showing American students and adults lagging behind their peers abroad in terms of important skills suggest that the long-predicted peril has arrived.

A particularly alarming report on working-age adults was published earlier this month by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a coalition of mainly developed nations. The research focused on people ages 16 to 65 in 24 countries. It dealt with three crucial areas: literacy — the ability to understand and respond to written material; numeracy — the ability to use numerical and mathematical concepts; and problem solving — the ability to interpret and analyze information using computers.

Americans were comparatively weak-to-poor in all three areas. In literacy, for example, about 12 percent of American adults scored at the highest levels, a smaller proportion than in Finland and Japan (about 22 percent). In addition, one in six Americans scored near the bottom in literacy, compared with 1 in 20 adults who scored at that level in Japan.

American numeracy skills were termed “very poor.” The United States outperformed only two comparison countries: Italy and Spain. Nearly one in three Americans scored near the bottom in numeracy. That Americans were slightly below average in problem solving using computers was especially discouraging.

Some countries are making progress from generation to generation. But in the United States, as in Britain, the literacy and numeracy skills of young people coming into the labor market are no better than those who are about to retire. Americans who are 55 to 65 perform about average in literacy skills, but young Americans rank the lowest among their peers in the countries surveyed. The problem is not so much that the United States has gotten worse, but that it stood still on indicators like high school graduation rates while its foreign competitors rushed forward. Beginning in the 1970s, other developed nations recognized that the new economy would produce few jobs for workers with mediocre skills.

Those countries, most notably Finland, broadened access to education, improved teacher training and took other steps as well. Other countries take these international comparisons very seriously; some use the O.E.C.D. data to set policy goals and to gauge the pace of educational progress. The United States, by contrast, has yet to take on a sense of urgency about this issue. If that does not happen soon, the country will pay a long-term price.

OECD Skills Test 2013 (Update: Survey of U.S. Adults)

OECD Skills Test: U.S. Adults Lag In Practical Workplace Skills

Posted: 10/08/2013 5:01 am EDT  |  Updated: 10/08/2013 5:12 pm EDT

The scores for what's billed as the world's most comprehensive adult skills exam are out -- and it's bad news for Americans.

Americans performed below the international average on math, reading and problem-solving on the exam, known as the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. U.S. math skills lagged far behind top performers, including Japan and Finland. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, based in Paris, released the results early Tuesday.

"These findings should concern us all. They show our education system hasn't done enough to help Americans compete -- or position our country to lead -- in a global economy that demands increasingly higher skills," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement. "While the PIAAC study places our highest-skilled adults on par with those in other leading nations, the findings shine a spotlight on a segment of our population that has been overlooked and underserved:  the large number of adults with very low basic skills, most of whom are working."

The test is designed to gauge literacy and other skills necessary in the global economy. Statisticians have called it the richest international comparison in cognitive skills and human capital. PIAAC comes from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Andreas Schleicher. Schleichler created the Program for International Student Assessment, one of the most influential tests of 15-year-old students across the globe.

The new test gauges people ages 16 to 65 on how practical skills are used at home and at work. The test surveyed 157,000 adults in 24 countries and regions. Most participants took the test at home, and could use computers to help with answers.

The median hourly wage of those who scored in the top two tiers in literacy was found to be 60 percent higher than those who scored at the lowest rung. Low scorers had a higher rate of unemployment and were more likely to report poor health and civic disengagement.

Americans scored 270 in literacy on average, compared with 296 in Japan. In numeracy, or math, the U.S. scored 253, below the international average, and far behind Japan's 288.

The oldest U.S. adults were close to the international average, but American adults in every other age group performed far worse than the world average. In a technology-based problem-solving skills, Poland performed the worst, with an average score of 274, compared with the U.S. average of 277 and Japan's 294.

Poland, which received attention for rapidly rising scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, and Korea, also a high performer, had lower literacy skills than the U.S. on the new test. Poland and Korea had numeracy scores similar to the U.S.

Younger U.S. students were found to have far fewer skills than adults ages 50 to 65 -- a group whose high skills are aging out of the workforce. In Korea and Poland, the gap went the other way -- older students had fewer skills than younger students, a sign that those countries' economies stand to be invigorated by workers who are savvier than their predecessors.

"Younger people in Poland, age 16 to 24, have significantly higher basic skills than their older peers," said Amanada Ripley, a journalist whose book, "The Smartest Kids In The World," investigates educational differences between the U.S., Finland, Poland and Korea. "That perfectly encapsulates how the U.S. hasn't gotten much worse or much better, but that's not what's happened around the world. "Other countries have changed a lot while we have stood still. That's the effect of more of these kids going to stronger education."

That may foreshadow a weakening economy, some said. "The implication for these countries is that the stock of skills available to them is bound to decline over the next decades unless action is taken both to improve skills proficiency among young people," the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development wrote, referring to the U.S. and England.

Paul Peterson, a Harvard University professor, took a similar view. "Our younger population should be doing better than our older population," he said. "The older population is better educated. And the younger population is entering the workforce."

The U.S. Education Department released a report that analyzed the information. A third report on the policy implications of the results was held up by the federal government shutdown.

Mark Schneider, a vice president at the American Institutes of Research who formerly oversaw statistics at the U.S. Education Department, said he was skeptical of the results. "Japan is the leader, but the fact is its economy has been in the toilet for 40 years," he said. "What are the lessons here?"

OECD Skills Test 2013 (PDF) http://skills.oecd.org/OECD_Skills_Outlook_2013.pdf

@MSU NSF Grants (Boost STEM Learning?)

“Students answering questions in their own words is the most meaningful way for instructors to identify learning obstacles,” said Mark Urban-Lurain, principle investigator for the $5 million grant and co-director of MSU’s Center for Engineering Education Research. “The realities of typical large-enrollment undergraduate classes, however, restrict the options that facultymembers have for evaluating students’ writing.”

$5.7 Million NSF Grant To MSU To Boost STEM Learning

October 1, 2013 12:50 PM

EAST LANSING (WWJ) – Michigan State University has received two National Science Foundation grants totaling $5.7 million, fundsthat will be used to look for ways to use computer software to analyze student writing in science and engineering classes.

The goal is to help retain more students who are enrolled in the so-called STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The two grants include $5 million for five years, funds that will be used to develop a website where student exam answers can be analyzed; and an additional three-year, $718,000 grant that will be used to assist instructors in the use of the software.

In typical, large-enrollment STEM courses, faculty usually use multiple-choice exams because they are easily scored by computers. But a lot of information is hidden from view with multiple-choice exams.

A team of MSU researchers will use the grants to aid in the development of computerized tools that will analyze students’ written responses to homework, quiz and test questions to predict how they would be assessed by experts.

“When students express what they know in their own words, it is deeper and a more rich view of what students know and have learned,” said John Merrill, PI of the $718,000 grant and director of MSU’s Biological Science Program. “When students write something that is untrue, now you know the challenge you need to be correcting in class. It’s a more interactive form of learning and teaching.”

The computer software is based on programs that are used in the business world to analyze surveys. It selects words and phrases written by the students that provide insight into how they understand the course material. It has the ability to analyze several sentences.

A major part of the funding is targeted for completion and public rollout of a fully automated website where instructors around the world can have their students’ open-response answers analyzed automatically.

Other collaborators on the project include faculty members at theUniversity of Colorado at Boulder, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of Maine at Orono, the University of Georgia, the University of South Florida and Western Michigan University.

Merrill said improvements to the current constructed response assessments would reveal more about student misconceptions, allowing faculty members to make small corrections throughout the semester.

“The software can analyze text and determine correctness,” he said. “But we have to train the computer to do that.”

U.S. FIRST Robitics (Update)

Robotics: The only high school sport where every kid can go pro

Nicholas Knoch from Lake Fenton High School tightens the bolts of his team's robot at the FIRST Robotics Competition in Connie and Jim John Recreation Center on the campus of Kettering University. His team is the Lake Fenton Hazmat

 FLINT - On the same day Michigan State University did battle in football with the University of Notre Dame, another game was unfolding at Kettering University in Flint.

With the focus of a quarterback at the line, senior Ben Slade of International Technical Academy in Pontiac hoped that a complex play would go as designed. The challenge: Construct a self-guided robot using designated gears, software and assorted framework that would accurately fling Frisbees into netted target slots. He and his high school teammates already had logged thousands of hours over six weeks as they applied principles of math, engineering and computer programming to the task.

Slade, 17, said it is easy to forget in the heat of competition just how much he is learning.

“This is actually loads of fun. I get up at five in the morning on Saturdays to do this,” he said.

He looked over at the somewhat battered team robot, noting with pride: “I wrote the code for that.”

Called FIRST Robotics, the all-day event on Sept. 21 convened 42 teams of Michigan high school students in a boisterous, intense, celebration of all things nerd. Later that day, a three-team alliance whooped with pride as it was named the winner.

But those behind the program say there is more at stake here than trophies or medals or even the result of a major college football game.

“We are in trouble as a nation,” said Bob Nichols, Kettering's director of alumni engagement. He was speaking to oft-cited evidence that Michigan and the United States lag behind many countries in science, technology, engineering and math – the cluster of subjects known as STEM.

Thomas Lombardi, 17, from Grosse Pointe North and South High School, is tinkering with his team’s robot at the FIRST Robotics Competition in Connie and Jim John Recreation Center on the campus of Kettering University. His team is the Gear Heads

 “We just don't have enough students going into STEM careers.”

In 2010 rankings from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, 15-year-old U.S. students scored 17th in science achievement and 25th in math out of 34 countries. A 2009 report from National Assessment of Education Progress found that just 1 percent of U.S. fourth grade and 12th grade students and 2 percent of eighth grade students scored in the highest level of proficiency in science.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called those findings “an absolute wake-up call for America.”

FIRST Robotics, Nichols believes, is one good way to begin to answer that call.

“I don't just think that it's true. I have proof of it. I have seen the transformation so many times,” Nichols said.

Since 1999, Kettering has awarded scholarships totaling $3.5 million to FIRST participants. Many have gone on distinguish themselves in fields like engineering and science, Nichols said.

News and Analysis from The Center for Michigan

 A 2005 study by Brandeis University underlined its promise.

In an analysis of 173 FIRST Robotics participants from New York City and Detroit area high schools, it found that 99 percent had graduated from high school and 89 percent went on to college. Nearly 90 percent took at least one college math course and 78 percent took at least one science course. About half took at least one engineering course.

Nearly 60 percent reported they had at least one science or technology-related work experience, while 13 percent received grants or scholarships related to science or engineering. Of those reporting a major, 41 percent selected engineering, compared to a national average of 6 percent.

Founded in 1989 by New Hampshire inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, FIRST grew by 2011 to more than 2,000 teams from around the world. Competitions challenge teams, with the help of volunteer professional mentors, to solve a common problem in a six-week time frame using a standard parts kit and shared set of rules.

Aaron Stewart, 23, competed on a high school FIRST Robotics squad in southern Michigan in 2008 and 2009. He graduated from Notre Dame University in May with a degree in mechanical engineering and was recently hired as an engineer for Whirlpool.

“I definitely learned a lot,” Stewart said of his FIRST Robotics experience. He is now a mentor for the same team that sparked his interest in engineering.

“It's hands-on. You have a real-world problem to solve. You actually go through the details of working out a problem from start to finish.”

That kind of connection is more than coincidence, in the view of another FIRST Robotics advocate.

“We have a saying, 'We are the only varsity sport where everyone on the team can turn pro,'” said Gail Alpert, president of FIRST in Michigan, a nonprofit organization that aims to see FIRST Robotics teams at every high school in Michigan.

“If can we can make FIRST Robotics a sport that gives the prestige of football, then we are significantly changing the culture in the United States.”

Ellen Green, 17, from Notre Dame Preparatory School, makes sure her team’s robot is ready for battle at the FIRST robotics Competition in Connie and Jim John Recreation Center on the campus of Kettering University.

 Given that he campaigned as “one tough nerd,” it is no surprise Gov. Rick Snyder backed his enthusiasm for this endeavor with $3 million in the 2014 school aid budget to expand FIRST Robotics in Michigan. About one-fourth of Michigan high schools have FIRST Robotics teams, a portion expected to rise in 2014.

Bryan Coburn, 23, earned his FIRST Robotics stripes a few years back while a student at Schwartz Creek High School. The experience taught him about electrical engineering, how to design and build a prototype – and how to attack a problem.

“Before that, I really had no experience with engineering,” he recalled.

He earned a scholarship to Kettering University, where he was student body president. Following his graduation in March, he was hired as a structural engineer for American Airlines.

Coburn doubts he would be where he is today had he not competed in FIRST Robotics.

“With FIRST, you are given a problem at the beginning and you have to develop some sort of way to approach that problem. It showed me how much I enjoyed that process.

“It showed me where my passion was,” he said.

Governor Snyder to proclaim October STEM Awareness Month (Update: Michigan STEM Partnership)

Gov. Rick Snyder to visit SVSU to proclaim October STEM Awareness Month

Gov. Rick Snyder

KOCHVILLE TOWNSHIP, MI — Gov. Rick Snyder will visit Saginaw Valley State University Friday Oct. 4 to promote science, technology, engineering and math education and jobs in Michigan.

The governor will formally name October STEM Awareness Month in Michigan at the Igniting STEM Excellence Summit at SVSU.

The summit is 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday. Registration is required.

Other speakers include John Calabrese, vice president of global vehicle engineering for General Motors Co.

There is a projected shortfall of nearly 274,000 STEM professionals by 2018 in Michigan, according to the Michigan STEM Partnership, a public-private, business and education collaboration focused on addressing STEM needs.

The demand for STEM-educated professionals is high while the supply is low, the partnership states.

“Not only do we need to make students aware of the significance of STEM, we need to keep students interested in STEM throughout their schooling,” said Barbara Bolin, the partnership's executive director. “Out of every 100 students in ninth grade, only six graduate college in a STEM field. This is perhaps the single greatest threat to our economic competitiveness in the global market, but one that we can and must overcome.”

Michigan STEM Partnership, nonprofit organizations, universities and employers are hosting events such as the “STEM & Me Contest” for students to show how they are making STEM education part of their lives.

Common Core (Update: Legislation)

State House advances Common Core standards for schools

By Lori Higgins Detroit Free Press Education Writer

   The Michigan House easily approved a resolution Thursday that allows the state to move forward with implementing the controversial Common Core State Standards, but the future of an exam that would assess those standards remains iffy.

   The resolution passed on an 85-21 vote. It now moves to the Senate.

   Missing from the final version was language added earlier in the day that would have required lawmakers, the governor, the state schools superintendent, local superintendents, principals and members of school boards to take state exams. It required the results to be published in the news media.

   The language was added during a morning meeting of the House Education Committee. It was removed on the House floor, said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall.

   “Requiring thousands of adults to take this test would have had a significant cost, and we believe the money would be better spent on educating children,” Adler said in an e-mail.

   Further, he said, requiring the news media to print the results “would likely be considered unconstitutional.”

   The resolution vote capped months of debate about the standards, a set of expectations of what students should learn in English language arts and math that will prepare them for college or work. The State Board of Education adopted them in 2010 — making Michigan among 45 states that have adopted the standards.

   The standards are backed by a wide range of groups and individuals in Michigan, who argue that the standards are rigorous, will prepare students for life after high school and will help them compete internationally. But critics question the overall rigor of the standards and say it takes local decisions about standards out of the hands of teachers and parents.

   Lawmakers earlier this year barred the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) from spending any money to continue implementation of the Common Core or the Smarter Balanced Assessment, an exam that the MDE is planning to move to in the next two years that would be based on the core standards. The resolution approved Thursday would allow MDE to begin spending money on the standards and test if the Senate also approves it.

   The resolution to move forward with the Common Core standards came after a summer in which a subcommittee chaired by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, heard 17 hours of testimony about the standards. “I think we addressed most if not all concerns as far as what can and cannot be done with Common Core,” Kelly said.

   The resolution came with conditions — such as allowing local districts to opt out of adopting the standards. Michigan also must be able to add or remove standards as it sees fit, the standards can’t dictate curriculum and local districts must be able to maintain control over curriculum, textbooks, education materials and instructional methods.

   A key condition, though, is one requiring the MDE and the State Board of Education to issue a report to the Legislature by Dec. 1 that includes a review of all available student assessment tools, information about how they would be used, and how much they would cost to implement. That could set the stage for the state to back out of its membership in a consortium of nearly two dozen states that have signed on to administer the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

   Lawmakers on the committee expressed strong misgivings about the test.

   “There’s a lot of red flags” with the exam, Kelly said. “We’re looking for alternatives.”

   Contact Lori Higgins: 313-222-6651, lhiggins@freepress.com   or via

   Twitter @LoriAHiggins

Thomas Highers hugs attorney Gabi Silver after the judge said that he and his brother, Raymond, were cleared of murder charges and free to leave.

FEMA Think Tank Session @ Oak Ridge: Cultivating Innovation in the White Spaces - LIVE - 1:00 - 2:30pm

When is the next FEMA Think Tank Session?

The next FEMA Think Tank Session is Wednesday, September 25 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm Eastern Time (10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Date: Wednesday, September 25

Time: 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time (10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time)

Location: Zach Wamp Auditorium of the New Hope Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee   

Call in Number: 1-800-776-0853

Passcode: 1576066

Captioning: At the start of the event, please click here for access to live captioning.

We encourage you to Tweet during the call using #femathinktank.

The September 25 Think Tank session will focus on how to cultivate innovation in the “white spaces” of emergency management.

The white space can be defined as the space between the boxes in an organization chart—mostly unoccupied territory where rules are vague, authority is fuzzy, budgets are nonexistent, and strategy is unclear. This is often where innovative activities that help reinvent and renew an organization most often take place.

During the call, panelists will share their stories about how they cultivated innovation in the white spaces of their organizations. Participants in the room and on the phone will have an opportunity to share their stories and comment on others.

Live - Time Higher Ed Summit - Reinvention & Research

LIVE STREAM: TIME Summit on Higher Education

By TIME StaffSept. 19, 2013Add a Comment

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Leaders in education, government, philanthropy and business gather to discuss the future of the American university. Watch it here live:  Sept. 19, 7-9pm and Sept. 20, 8am-4:30pm.  See the detailed live stream schedule and session descriptions below. (You can find the full agenda and briefing materials here

The TIME Summit on Higher Education, September 19 and 20, 2013, Time Warner Center, New York City

Co-Sponsored by The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Thursday, September 19

7:00 PM                   DINNER AND KEYNOTE CONVERSATION

WELCOME
Nancy Gibbs, Deputy Managing Editor, TIME

KEYNOTE
Are we losing the knowledge wars?
Fareed Zakaria, Host, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS; Editor-at-Large, TIME; Columnist, The Washington Post
KEYNOTE PANEL
The knowledge wars and the role of the research university
Norm Augustine, Retired Chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin Corp.
The Hon. Mitch Daniels, President, Purdue University; Former Governor, State of Indiana; Director, OMB under President George W. Bush
The Hon. John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Co-chair, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
The Hon. Condoleezza Rice, 66th U.S. Secretary of State; Professor and Former Provost, Stanford University; Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy, Hoover Institution
Moderator: Fareed Zakaria

9:15 PM                   PROGRAM CLOSE
Nancy Gibbs, TIME

Friday, September 20th

8:00 AM                                     WELCOME
Ralph Cicerone, President, National Academy of Sciences; Chair, National Research Council
Introduction: Nancy Gibbs, Deputy Managing Editor, TIME

8:05 AM                                     ONE ON TWO
James Duderstadt, President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
Charles “Chad” Holliday, Chairman, Bank of America
Authors, National Research Council Report: Research Universities and the Future of America
Interviewer: Judy Woodruff, Co-anchor and Managing Editor, PBS NewsHour

8:30 AM                   PANEL 1: Basic and Applied Research
Major challenges, new needs, and recommendations
Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor Emeritus, Professor of Physics, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, Institute for Advanced Study
Susan Hockfield, President Emerita and Professor of Neuroscience, MIT
Robert Tjian, President, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Harold Varmus, Director, National Cancer Institute; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; Former Co-chair, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
Moderator: Subra Suresh, President, Carnegie Mellon University; Former Director, National Science Foundation

9:10 AM                   PANEL 2: The Cost of Excellence
Can research universities continue to afford the highest quality in research and in teaching?
The Hon. David Boren, President, University of Oklahoma; Former Senator and Governor, State of Oklahoma
Michael McPherson, President, Spencer Foundation; President Emeritus, Macalester College; Economist
Don Randel, Chair, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; President Emeritus, University of Chicago and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
David Skorton, President, Cornell University
Shirley Tilghman, President Emerita, Professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University
Moderator: The Hon. Thomas Kean, President Emeritus, Drew University; Former Governor, State of New Jersey; Chair, Board of Trustees, Carnegie Corporation of New York

9:50 AM                   BREAK

10:10 AM                ONE ON ONE
Gen. Colin Powell, 65th U.S. Secretary of State; Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Interviewer: Joe Klein, Political Columnist, TIME

10:30 AM                PANEL 3: The View From Outside Academe
The impact of basic research on national security, global competitiveness, and training the next generation of scientists and thought leaders
Eli Broad, Founder, The Broad Foundations
The Hon. Mary Fallin, Governor, State of Oklahoma
The Hon. James Hunt, Former Governor, State of North Carolina
Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin, President, National Defense University
Gen. Colin Powell
Roy Vagelos, Chairman, Regeneron; Former Chairman and CEO, Merck & Co., Inc.
Moderator: Amy Gutmann, President, University of Pennsylvania

11:10 AM                ONE ON THREE: Governance
There is enormous pressure for change on the part of higher education. Boards want to change more rapidly; faculty members don’t want them to change at all. What is the current state of board/regent university governance and the future of shared governance? How effective is it? How might it be improved? Should a university be run more like a business?
Henry Rosovsky, Dean Emeritus, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Geyser University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
John Sexton, President, New York University
Mark Yudof, President Emeritus, University of California; Former Chancellor, University of Texas System; Former President, University of Minnesota
Moderator: Lawrence Bacow, President Emeritus, Tufts University

11:40 AM                BREAK

12:30 PM                LUNCH DISCUSSION

REPORT BACK FROM CONCURRENT PANEL DISCUSSIONS
John DeGioia
Peter McPherson
Hunter Rawlings III
Moderator: Rana Foroohar, Assistant Managing Editor, TIME

KEYNOTE SPEECH, INTERVIEW, AND Q&A
The Hon. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education
Interviewer: Jon Meacham, Contributor, TIME; Executive Editor, Random House; Pulitzer Prize–winning Author, American Lion

2:15-3:00 PM                   PANEL 4: Reinvention
Is the modern American university able to change? How can it be transformed to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the 21st century?
Jonathan Cole, John Mitchell Mason Professor, Former Provost and Dean of Faculties, Columbia University; Author, The Great American University
Michael Crow, President, Arizona State University
Mark Kamlet, Provost and Executive Vice President, Carnegie Mellon University
Steven Mintz, Executive Director, Institute for Transformational Learning, University of Texas System; Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin
Scott Stern, School of Management Distinguished Professor and Chair, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management Group, Sloan School of Management, MIT
Moderator: Nick Lemann, Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Dean Emeritus and Professor of Journalism, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

3:00 PM                   BREAK

3:45 PM                   REPORT BACK AND WRAP UP
Rapporteur: Arthur Levine, President, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation; Former President and Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

4:00 PM                   KEYNOTE
Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, City of New York

4:20 PM                   CLOSING REMARKS
Vartan Gregorian, President, Carnegie Corporation of New York
Introduction: Nancy Gibbs, TIME

4:30 PM                   PROGRAM CLOSE

Read more: http://nation.time.com/2013/09/19/live-stream-time-summit-on-higher-education/#ixzz2fRphUoqn