HeadlinesA News Report for Michigan Education Leaders

Happy Holidays from the board and staff at MASB. We hope you have a safe and merry holiday season. Headlines will return to its regular publishing schedule next year, with

the first issue on January 7, 2014.

MASB has heard that the Senate could vote this week on HB

4369, which would codify and expand the new Education Achievement Authority (EAA). We urge you to contact your State Senator to oppose this “one-size-fits-all” reform.

As you know from previous MASB updates, the EAA bill introduced this session is an improvement over last year’s version, but still creates a one-size-fits-all approach with which we

have concerns. MASB continues to advocate for a system that would help all traditional districts with schools in the lowest five percent, not just those in the experimental EAA.

While the changes made by the House this spring were a step in the right direction, MASB remains opposed to this legislation. It’s impor-tant to ensure our schools have the support and structure necessary to be successful. We need a model that will

December 10, 2013

inside this issue:

Download a Smartphone app to scan the QR code and learn more about MASB.

Contact Your Senator, Possible EAA Vote This Week

Letter Grades for Schools in the Near Future? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Potential Pitfalls of Superintendent Search . . .4

Common Core State Standards Move Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Register Now for the First 2014 CBA Weekend, February 7 – 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Long-Term Financial Projections Yield Long-Term Financial Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Michigan Needs a Smart, Statewide System to Measure Student Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

State Superintendent Retiring at End of Contract in 2015

help all of our students, not just the few currently in the unproven model that is the EAA.

We urge each of you to contact your State Senator and tell them to vote NO on HB 4369 unless they create an equal playing field for all students and schools, not just those in the EAA experiment.

State Superintendent Mike Fla-nagan will retire from his post

on July 1, 2015, at the end of his cur-rent contract, Michigan Department of Education officials confirmed on Friday. Flanagan was appointed to his current position by the Michigan State Board of Education in May 2005. His responsibilities include directing MDE; chairing the State Board of Education; and advising the State Board of Education, the Gover-nor and the state Legislature regard-ing public education in Michigan.

Prior to joining MDE, Flanagan served as superintendent of Wayne RESA for seven years and as super-intendent for the Farmington/Farmington Hills School District

for five years. He also served as executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators and the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, as well as past chair-person of the Education Alliance of Michigan, a nonprofit coalition of leading parent, business and education associations and past president of the National County Superintendents Association.

He recently was recognized by the National Association of State Boards of Education with the group’s “Distinguished Service Award,” becoming the first state superinten-dent to receive the award.

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 20132

LEARN LEADS E M I N A R S E R I E S

2013 LOCATIONS

OCTOBER 15: Kalamazoo RESA 1819 E Milham Ave Portage, MI 49002 OCTOBER 29: Marquette-Alger RESA 321 E Ohio St Marquette, MI 49855 *Teleconferencing Available NOVEMBER 6: University Center at Gaylord 80 Livingston Blvd Gaylord, MI 49735 NOVEMBER 13: Oakland Schools 2111 Pontiac Lake Rd Waterford Township, MI 48328 NOVEMBER 19: Lansing Community College, West Campus 5708 Cornerstone Dr Lansing, MI 48917 DECEMBER 3: Mecosta-Osceola ISD, Career Center 15830 190th Ave (GPS Location: 15830 S Bronson) Big Rapids, MI 49307 DECEMBER 10: Tuscola ISD 1401 Cleaver Rd Caro, MI 48723 DECEMBER 17: Kent ISD 2930 Knapp St NE Grand Rapids, MI 49525

Join SET SEG Employee Benefits experts as we focus on the most up-to-date information available on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and what it means for your district. Understand what you need to be preparing for today and the true impact

of recent penalty delays. This seminar will help you evaluate upcoming costs and potential penalties related to the ACA, what action you should be taking now at your district, and how to help your employees assess their options.

TOPICS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Affordable Care Act Practical Points for Implementing Health Care Reform at Your School District

9:00 a.m. – noon; lunch to follow immediately.

This seminar is FREE OF CHARGE. State Continuing Education Clock Hours (SCECH) will be available for $25.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:Superintendents, Business Managers, Human Resources representatives, and other Benefits professionals.

TO REGISTER:Click here.

For questions or to register your remote location to attend the Marquette-Alger RESA seminar via teleconference, contact Moranda Gowell at mgowell@setseg.org or 800.292.5421, ext. 626.

• WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW ACA Recap

• WHAT TO BE AWARE OF NOW New Considerations with Current Regulations

• WHAT IS COMING NEXT Assessing Future ACA Implications

P R E S E N T E D B Y T H E S C H O O L I N S U R A N C E S P E C I A L I S T S415 W. Kalamazoo Street Lansing, MI 48933 | 1-800-292-5421 | www.setseg.org

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 2013 3

Last week, the House Educa-tion Committee passed House

Bill 5112, which would create a letter grading system for individual school buildings and for school districts. During committee debate, a transpar-ency dashboard component was add-ed to the bill to try and assuage com-mittee member concerns about too much emphasis being placed on just a few metrics with the largest piece be-ing standardized test results.

The bill now requires the Michigan Department of Education to establish a school transparency dashboard for every school in the state by July 1, 2016. The items to be listed on the dashboard would include:

• Student proficiency in reading and mathematics in the two most recent school years

• Student growth in reading and mathematics in the two most recent school years

• Average ratio of students to teachers

• Number and percentage of high school students enrolled in at least one course for college credit

• Composite ACT score for the students enrolled

• Graduation and dropout rates for the school

The bill also allows the school to include three additional metrics of their selection to be placed on the dashboard. Additional metrics that would be allowed are:

1. Accreditation status 2. Number of college level

equivalent courses offered and student participation rates

3. Number and percentage of highly qualified teachers and administrators

4. Average daily attendance5. Percentage of graduates who

entered college within two years of high school

6. Another metric selected by the board

The whole concept of the dash-board was originally offered as a standalone amendment to be used as a replacement for letter grades. The dashboard would include all of the same items that are required in let-ter grading, but with additional items that parents could investigate and use to decide the success of a school dis-trict or building.

The letter grading portion of the bill remains largely as reported earlier. For elementary school buildings, let-ter grades are based on proficiency and growth on a single standardized test. At the high school level, gradua-tion rate is added as a component of the letter grade. A key problem is that the current state standardized test does not measure growth, so legisla-tors and schools are being asked to support a system tied to a test that no one has seen at this point.

Additional consequences for schools that are considered failing have also been added to this bill. Under current law, a school is assigned to the state reform/redesign officer if they are in the bottom five percent and must adopt a redesign plan. If the plan is not adequate or successful, the state reform officer has the ability to move that building into the state reform district. This bill would add that any

school that receives an F grade for two or more years in a three-year period could be closed or turned over to the state reform district.

A positive piece included in the legislation would require MDE to establish a system for waiving regula-tory or statutory reports and other school code requirements for a school that consistently maintained an A or B grade.

Clearly this bill has numerous problems as it is currently written and the school community is work-ing hard to find an alternative that creates additional accountability for parents and the public, but does not just label a school or district based on very narrow metrics. MASB and others have supported HB 5112 (h-6), which would require the dashboard of information to be published on each school district’s website each year. Our belief is that this is a much broader measure of school success and does not mistakenly lead people to believe that a test score is what

Legislative UpdateLetter Grades for Schools in the Near Future?

Letter Grade, continued on Page 6

Image courtesy of the Better Business Bureau

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 20134

Potential Pitfalls of Superintendent Search

If you participated in professional development, advocacy or leader-

ship activities outside of MASB classes and events in 2013, please complete a tally sheet to ensure we record your education credits for the Board Mem-ber Awards program.

MASB records your attendance at MASB conferences, workshops, semi-

nars and CBA courses. We also record your attendance at NSBA’s Annual Conference, the FRN Conference/Advocacy Institute and your service as a local or county board officer. All other activities must be recorded on a tally sheet and submitted no later than December 31.

All activities must have occurred

between January 1 and December 31 to count toward 2013 certification. Whole-day programs earn you 10 education credits and half-day partici-pation gets you five education credits.

Tally sheets can be submitted here. For questions, contact Mary McCarthy, at mmccarthy@masb.org or 517.327.5918.

Get Credit for Your Advocacy, Leadership; Tally Sheets Due December 31

Nearly one in four superintendencies

become vacant each year (AASA, 2010). Should your district be facing a vacancy in the near future, now is a good time to begin consider-ing the options available to support your board through-out the search process. While many alternatives may be presented, MASB recom-mends boards of education engage the services of a reputable search firm in nearly all cir-cumstances.

As you weigh your options, con-sider a few of the potential search process pitfalls MASB has taken note of during its years of serving school districts:

The time involved in planning, coordinating and supporting a super-intendent search is a major commit-ment. Most board and staff members have relatively full schedules in their regular work and personal lives. The various tasks involved in a search combine to create a formidable responsibility that is usually beyond the discretionary time available to board or staff members.

The balance of knowledge and

power on a board may be thrown off if one or two board members are singled out to coordinate the search. The selection of a superintendent is best viewed as a corporate decision, one that should be made by the entire board of directors together.

The involvement of local or inter-mediate district staff members in the search process may contribute to an impression that some individu-als are closer to the new leader or, worse, that those individuals may have undue influence over the new leader. A newly hired superintendent should be able to assume the position as an impartial, objective leader and manager.

The search process is fraught with potential legal wrong turns.

In addition to following state and federal employment laws, boards must also comply with Michigan’s Open Meetings Act. All too many boards have had to deal with the consequences of legal misinterpretations made by well-intentioned ‘helpers.’ In addition to being costly, such situations can cast a shadow on what should otherwise be an exciting new beginning.

Contracting the services of a qualified, professional search

firm prior to seeking a new superin-tendent can help boards avoid these pitfalls. Stay tuned—a future edi-tion of Headlines will highlight the qualities boards should seek in search firms and provide access to a sample Request for Proposal.

Should your district need to seek a new superintendent, we encourage you to consider MASB’s Executive Search Services. We’ve been repre-senting the unique needs of boards of education for more than 60 years. Call 517.327.5923 or email us today at doser@masb.org for more informa-tion, or visit www.masb.org.

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 2013 5

Common Core State Standards Move AheadAs legislative action for 2013 comes to

a close and both the Michigan House and Senate have approved moving forward with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, attention now turns to assessment measures that correspond to and integrate with these standards.

“To help all of our students succeed, our collective work needs to be focused on hav-ing rigorous standards; effective and valu-able assessments aligned to those standards; and high quality and effective educators,” noted State Superintendent Mike Flanagan.

The Common Core Standards, adopted by the Michigan State Board of Education in 2010 and approved by 45 states, provide a set of clear expectations for all grades, K-12, concentrating in the areas of mathe-matics, reading, writing, speaking, listening and language. The CCSS provide a frame-work around the knowledge and skills our students need to succeed in college and the workforce, and are the result of many years of work and input from teachers, adminis-

trators, state educational officials, business leaders, governors, parents, content area experts and researchers.

The standards will establish what stu-dents need to learn, but will not dictate how teachers should teach. Teachers will be able to work collaboratively with other colleagues across the district, state or the nation. Likewise, they will be able to design lesson plans that incorporate an appropri-ate mix of digital media, more traditional teaching and learning resources, and prov-en instructional methods to meet the indi-vidual needs of their students.

Just as the CCSS provide a framework for instruction, they also provide a plat-form for assessment that aligns with the standards. But that does not mean CCSS requires more testing. Currently, No Child Left Behind requires annual assessments in mathematics and English language arts in grades 3-8, and once in high school. Michigan law also requires testing science and social studies once in elementary, once

in middle school and once in high school. Although there is no current commitment to a long-term assessment tool for CCSS’ math/English language arts, the Legislature is calling for statewide assessments to be competitively bid and in place for all dis-tricts by the spring of 2015.

For more information about the Common Core State Standards, visit www.commoncoremichigan.org.

National PTA Releases New CCSS Webinar

The first in a four-part webinar series designed to educate par-ents on the Common Core State Standards and empower them to support the transition at school and at home was released by the National PTA.

Watch the video here.

Education Excellence

Are You the Nerve?Does your district have a program that could be an example of best practices to others?

Coming in January 2014 you’ll receive an

Invitation to InnovationAn opportunity to share your best programs with others across the state

MASB’s Education Excellence program turns 20 in 2014. We’re excited to kick-o� this newly revised program celebrating excellence in public education. Look in your mailboxes next month for more information.

Sponsored by:

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 20136

As an active participant in the Michigan Public Schools Part-

nership effort, MASB supports the initiatives new website, www.stand-ingstrongforpublicschools.org, which launched last month. The site pro-motes the value of public education in Michigan through news, information, data and resources that school dis-tricts, communities, the general pub-lic and the media can use to explore education-related topics and learn

about great things happening in public schools across the state.

Organizations (including MASB), schools, parents, students and com-munity members have shared many of these great things through the website, but in order to continue populating the archive, please send your positive experiences/examples to stories@4fortyfourconcepts.com. Following is an excerpt from one of these stories:

defines a school.As this is just the end of the calen-

dar year and not a lame duck session, the bill does not go away in January and will be on the House floor until it is passed or the session ends next

year. As long as the school community continues to raise valid concerns and has an alternative like the dashboard to support, the bill should remain in the House. If it does in fact pass, we will have an opportunity to work on

this bill in the Senate in the beginning of 2014. Make your voice heard by contacting your state representative.

Letter Grade, continued from Page 3

Share Your Positive Examples of Michigan Public Education

Efforts of Staff and Volunteer Faculty Result in 80% of Owosso Class of 2014 Submitting College Applications

Owosso High School was pleased to participate in the Michigan College Application Week event November 4 – 8, 2013. This national initiative’s goal is provide every graduating high school senior with the opportunity to apply to college.

During this week, OHS seniors were given time to investigate academic opportunities and explore the institu-tions providing training or education in the student’s interest area. We are happy to report that a total of 166 (80 percent) students in the OHS Class of 2014 have applied to a college and 50 students submitted their applications on November 6 thanks to the College Application Week (CAW) efforts led by the staff and volunteer faculty at Owosso High School.

The Owosso High School Student Service Center and counselors, Mrs. Comrie, Mrs. Gazley, and Ms. Kurtz,

begin working with students as freshman to develop a plan for post-secondary education or training. This fall, 20 colleges/universities and voca-tional programs made presentations to seniors about their academic program-ming, student life, financial aid, etc. The counselors also provide college planning and financial aid workshops, coordinate tours of colleges/universi-ties in mid-Michigan, assist with schol-arships, and the application process.

During CAW, all OHS staff wore a t-shirt highlighting their college alma mater. Faculty and staff volunteers assisted students with completing their college application in the Career Center. Participating seniors com-pleted at least one application and cre-ated online accounts that are vital to financial aid, scholarship information, and tuition incentive programs. The next step in the process will be to meet

with the AmeriCorps volunteer Lauren Furey to go through the materials seniors need to submit their FAFSA Form for financial aid consideration.

“The OHS team is committed to supporting students in their quest for success and I would like to thank all of the people who supported this endeav-or by working with our students,” said Ms. Kurtz. “We will continue assisting our students in their post-secondary education or training and look forward to watching OHS graduates accom-plish amazing things in their futures.”

OHS Counselor Mrs. Gazley and Principal Phillips assist senior Ryan Weaver with his college application in the Career Center during College Application Week.

Source: Standing Strong for Public Schools website.

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 2013 7

The Michigan Blues offer a wide range of health plans for school districts,

backed by the strongest state and national provider network.

Your options range from our PPO and HMO plans, to consumer-directed SM plans compatible with health savings accounts, to MyBlueSM

individual coverage. Our first-to-market group wellness product, Healthy Blue

LivingSM HMO, rewards you and your employees with lower costs for a greater

commitment to healthy behaviors.

And you have Blue DentalSM and vision coverage options, too. All from a

company that accepts everyone for coverage regardless of medical history,

with nearly 70 years of nonprofit heritage and an unrivaled commitment to the

future of Michigan.

For information on Blues plans available to MASB members, call 517-327-5900.

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A variety of health plan solutions.A promise to cover everyone.

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Register Now for the First 2014 CBA Weekend, February 7 – 8Whether you’re a newer board

member looking to get a jump start on certification or a veteran board member looking for something new, you can now register for the first CBA Week-end event of 2014, February 7 – 8 at the Hyatt Place in Novi.

In its last study on the importance of school board training MASB found that 66 percent of responding Michigan voters believed school board training should be mandatory. “Trained school boards can actually save districts money by making informed decisions regarding personnel issues, legal matters, negotiations and contractual obligations,” noted Kathy Hayes, MASB executive director.

Sessions being offered during the two-day event include:

• Board President Workshop on Friday

• Advanced Workshop for Board

Presidents on SaturdayThese workshops are not just for board

presidents, but for any board member who is interested in gaining a better understanding of this role. Details about each workshop are available on the MASB website.

Additionally, 23 CBAs will take place between Friday and Saturday, including three new sessions on:Dealing With Board Member Turnover (CBA 335)

With the number of changes on school boards, this class will focus on helping boards identify potential reasons for high board turnover, develop necessary tools for improved communication for reten-tion, as well as help develop communica-tion plans, orientation and processes for success.

Collaborative Conversations for Effective Decisionmaking (CBA 365)

Effective decisionmaking requires deliberation, but have you ever won-dered what that really means or how do we know if we are effective? This highly interactive session will provide you and your governance team members with practical tools for effective decisionmak-ing.Board Leadership: A Case Study Approach (CBA 375)

This case study experience serves not only as an effective strategy to sharpen your problem-solving skills and enhance your judgment, but is intended to provide school leaders skillsets on how to antici-pate problems before they arise and work through them as a team.

Don’t miss out—register today on the MASB website or contact the Leadership Services Department with questions.

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 20138

Does your district’s business office prepare an annual long-

term projection for school board discussion? If not, a “futuring” tool developed by Don Sovey, president and CEO of School and Municipal Advisory Services, could pay big dividends and help your district achieve a greater sense of fiscal stability.

According to Mr. Sovey, boards and superintendents could avoid many unanticipated financial sur-prises by reviewing financial data that goes back two years and forward three. This annual review enables boards to move beyond just the pres-ent financial data and allows them to anticipate new financial challenges by developing a projection format and updating it regularly.

Mr. Sovey has prepared a PowerPoint® presentation that pro-vides big picture, long-term finan-cial projections of actual Michigan school districts. It includes 16 rea-sons why long-term financial plan-ning is important, and two case stud-ies with sample figures for enroll-ment projections, budget shortfalls, revenues vs. expenses, structural shortfalls, fund balance as percent of expenditures, fund balance trend vs. minimum recommendations, origi-nal and amended budgets, and more. His presentation can be downloaded here.

He believes board members and superintendents would benefit from advance knowledge and vision and, armed with this data, may avoid becoming a deficit district down

the road. Further resource and con-tact information is available in the PowerPoint.

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Long-Term Financial Projections Yield Long-Term Financial Health

Slide example from Don Sovey’s financial projections presentation.

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 2013 9

Michigan Needs a Smart, Statewide System to Measure Student Growth

As Michigan education leaders who work in very different sec-

tors, we often see education reform from different points of view. It’s rare for all of our organizations to agree on complex policy changes, but there are times when a public problem and so-lution make so much common sense, it brings us together.

Michigan’s lack of reliable and accurate student growth data is one of these issues. Our state’s education data infrastructure is among the bot-tom third in the country, according to Education Week and many national observers.

One of the central problems: Michigan education data do not take into account the vast differ-ences in students’ socioeconomic backgrounds. Widespread national research tells us that low-income chil-dren come to school with far greater deficits compared to their more afflu-ent middle-class peers. Students living in poverty, on average, start their K-12 academic careers far behind their wealthier peers, even by the time they start first grade. For example, accord-ing to Grand Rapids Public Schools, 83 percent of students who begin kin-dergarten in the district are already one to two years behind in reading.

Yet our K-12 education data system doesn’t take into account these dif-ferences nor does it provide reliable student growth data for any district in the state. That needs to change.

In the coming months, there’s an opportunity to do just that. Presently policymakers are debating Michigan’s proposed statewide educator evalu-ation and support system. One very important tool in this system is a statewide student growth tool that will generate comparable – and

far more reliable – student growth data, to be used as one of multiple measures in educator evaluations in Michigan.

If it’s done right, a new growth tool will use data from a new state assess-ment aligned to college- and career-ready standards, and provide more accurate data on student learning. Done right, this data system will be aligned with Pre-K data systems now being built, as well as a longitudinal K-16 data system that has been in development for a few years.

We support the state’s develop-ment and support of this tool. Today, Michigan parents and educators have no idea whether their schools’ teach-ing quality and classroom learning levels are better than other schools’, or if a district simply set a low bar for quality. That’s because there is now a patchwork of ways in which our state’s school districts and charter operators measure student learning — and each one is left to define what a year of stu-dent growth should be.

Ed Trust-Midwest’s research has found many local student growth models in our state actually under-estimate teachers’ impact on student learning. That’s neither sound nor fair to educators and students. That’s why it’s important that the state provides high-caliber, reliable, comparable growth data for all districts to adopt — and use as at least one measure in their local evaluation systems.

As a state, we also need to make sure this new student growth model is reliable, thoughtful, technically sound and fair to educators and students, including those in high-poverty and working-class communities. In other words, it should be smart.

To reach that goal, the state’s

growth model should account for pre-vious student achievement and other variables, such as poverty — and pro-vide a measure of individual teacher effectiveness, averaged over multiple years, for use in educator evaluations.

Why is this so important? Student growth measures that are not such so-called value-added models risk penalizing educators for teaching in high-poverty schools — and may vastly underestimate student growth in urban, rural and even many sub-urban communities. This makes it even more difficult for such schools to attract and retain effective teachers and school leaders.

We know how fundamentally important teachers are. Research shows the most important in-school predictor of a student’s achievement is teaching quality.

Indeed, we need to support our teachers not only with fair data and evaluations, but with smart data that actually helps them inform their instruction. Such smart growth tools—especially when generated based on a high-caliber assessment— can provide valuable diagnostic infor-mation about students.

This tool could be truly transfor-mative for our schools. Educators in leading states not only receive such data on their students’ learning gains, but they also use individual student “projection reports” that sig-nal whether a student is on track to graduate from high school and even how ready he or she is for college and career entrance exams — as early as elementary school.

Such data would allow Michigan educators to intervene earlier in students’ academic careers, tailor

Guest Commentary from Bridge Magazine, December 4, 2013, by Amber Arellano, Teresa Weatherall Neal, Audrey Spalding, Michael Rice, Ray Telman, Jon Felske and Harrison Blackmond

Student Growth, continued on Page 12

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 201310

West Michigan Teachers Receive Mental Health First Aid Training

West Michigan educators were certified in Mental Health First Aid last week after completing an eight-hour seminar with the Mental Health Foundation. Partnering with Kent Intermediate School District, the Foundation trained 25 educators from Byron Center, Caledonia, Comstock Park, Grandville, Kentwood, Lowell, Sparta, and Kent and Allegan ISDs.

“The hope and desire is that many people get trained so that they can rec-ognize signs and symptoms earlier and respond sooner to a possible crisis,” said Christy Buck, executive director of the Mental Health Foundation. “This is a national movement we’re joining.”

The seminar taught educators a five-step action plan that assesses the situation, helps them select and imple-ment the right intervention, and secures appropriate care for the individual. In its first year, the program was picked up by almost 20 states and over 40 commu-nities nationwide.

In addition to the five-step action plan, the seminar also introduced par-ticipants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, built understanding of their impact and pro-vided overviews of common treatments.

“It [the seminar] really helps people understand the shroud of fear and misjudgment facing individuals and families who experience mental illness and addiction, Buck said. “It will help rid this community of the associated stigma and move more people toward recovery.”

There will be two other training sessions at KISD in March and June 2014. For more information or to par-ticipate in a Mental Health First Aid

training in West Michigan, visit the Foundation’s website or call the office at 616.965.8300.

Source: MLive, December 3, 2013.

Paw Paw Students Learn About Fish Development in an Interactive Way

Sixth graders at Paw Paw Middle School will learn about fish develop-ment this year by becoming “salmon parents.”

The sixth graders are cultivating 228 Chinook salmon eggs until they are ready to be released into the Paw Paw River in late April or early May of next year. The Salmon in the Classroom program is prepared by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

“This is one of our favorite projects of the year,” said teacher Jane Larson, who participated in the project last year. “It’s such a great learning experi-ence for the students to observe and care for salmon through all stages of development. “

Larson explained that students are responsible for the fish starting at the “eyed” egg stage, which is when two black eyes are visible inside the eggs up until the fingerling stage, which is when they will be released into Michigan waters.

“Nurturing the next generation of stewards and anglers is a big part of the program as well as increasing aware-ness through this unique classroom experience,” Larson said.

Source: The Detroit News, Decem-ber 4, 2013.

Harper Woods Offers Dropout Recovery Program

Following approval from its school board, Harper Woods Schools has

begun organizing a dropout recovery program focused on helping students who don’t fit the traditional K-12 mold.

Partnered with ATS Educational Consulting Services, this is one of sev-eral alternative education programs HWS offers to ensure a quality educa-tion for everyone.

“I think that we would all agree that a student who has not earned his or her high school diploma could have a difficult road out there in the world as we know it today,” Superintendent Todd Biederwolf said. “This is a new program that’s been authorized across the state of Michigan. . . to recover students who have dropped out.”

Officially named the Dropout Recovery Program by the state, the program strays away from traditional practices for education. It operates on a year-round basis as opposed to the traditional nine-month school year and is also cyberschool-focused.

Funding for the program will be provided by the state following veri-fication that students have completed the curriculum.

Source: Candgnews.com, December 4, 2013.

Michigan eLibrary Adds Early Literacy Resources

The Michigan eLibrary (MeL.org) has added several new resources designed to help children become more proficient readers by the time they enter the third grade.

“Reading proficiency by third grade is a critical predictor of high school graduation and college career readi-ness,” said State Superintendent Mike

Education NewsAround the State

Education News, continued on Page 11

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 2013 11

Flanagan. “These easy-to-use resourc-es will help us achieve our goal of reading proficiency in children by the end of third grade.”

By partnering with Scholastic, World Book and EBSCO, the Michigan eLibrary allows the new resources to be available to Michigan residents and libraries at no cost.

Some of the new resources include BookFlix—an online literacy resource that links classic video storybooks to related nonfiction books to help build a love of reading and learning; World Book Kids—a general refer-ence website developed especially for children offering simple navigation, easy-to-read articles, multimedia, and a wealth of engaging games, interac-tive tools and activities; Early World of Learning—an online resource for preschoolers and children in early grades designed for easy integra-tion into the classroom curriculum encompassing three interactive learning environments; Enciclopedia Estudantil Hallazgos—a Spanish-language, reference work designed with younger readers in mind; eBook K-8 Collection—designed for K-8 stu-

dents and the educators who work with them containing more than 6,000 titles chosen to support a qual-ity learning experience across all sub-jects areas taught in elementary and middle schools, and content aligns with Common Core State Standards; and the NoveList K-8 Plus—a read-ing recommendation list of fiction and nonfiction literature for kids in grades K-8.

“The Library of Michigan actively participates in Governor Snyder’s and MDE’s priority to have students reading at grade level by the end of third grade,” State Librarian Nancy Robertson said. “We are excited to have relatively new state funding to be able to add additional online resources to MeL that will engage early learners and those working on literacy attainment in libraries, schools and at home.”

To take a look at the new resources yourself or for more information, Visit www.mel.org/kids.

Source: Michigan Department of Education Press Release, December 5, 2013.

A publication of the Michigan Association of School Boards

Contact MASB800 .968 .4627 • www .masb .org 517 .327 .5900 • sbogard@masb .org

MASB DatebookBoard Leadership Development

Opinions and sponsorships expressed in Headlines don’t neces-sarily reflect the position of MASB.

HeadlinesA News Report for Michigan Education Leaders

Mission StatementTo provide quality educational leadership services for all Michigan boards of education, and to advocate for student achievement and public education.

2013-2014 MASB Board OfficersPresident: Ruth Coppens President-Elect: Donald Hubler Vice President: Darryle Buchanan Past President: Steve Zinger

Executive Director Kathy Hayes

Assistant Director of Communications, PR and MarketingStacy Bogard, CAE

December 12, 2013• Board President Workshop• Creating Agenda Packets With

BoardBookJanuary 17, 2014• MASB Board of Directors Meeting @

MASBJanuary 21, 2014• CBA 252 @ Kent ISDFebruary 2 - 4, 2014• NSBA Advocacy Institute (formerly

FRN Conference) @ Washington, D .C .

View Complete Calendar

Education News, continued from Page 10

January is School Board Recog-nition Month and the materi-

als for 2014 are now available for download on the MASB website. This is your opportunity to build community awareness and under-standing about the crucial role an elected board of trustees assumes in a representative democracy.

The materials include everything you need to launch a successful School Board Recognition Month

campaign, including a checklist, sample posters and certificates, logos, sample press releases, letter-to-the-editor, education quotes and more. January is truly a special time for locally elected school trustees in Michigan. Help honor your school board members during National School Board Recognition Month! Visit the School Board Recognition Month page for complete details.

School Board Recognition Month Materials Now Available

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 201312

MASA, MSBO and MASB are pleased to announce Nego-

tiating on Shifting Sand (or Snow), a labor relations conference designed for administrators and school board members to be held February 13 and 14, 2014, in East Lansing.

Why Attend? So much has changed over the past five years in school negotiations—the law, the economics of education funding, and the impor-tance of policies and procedures out-side of your contract. With these and other factors in a continual state of evolution and flux, it is more impor-tant than ever to be prepared going into negotiations.

When and Where? The conference will be held on Thursday, February 13 at the Eagle Eye Conference Center and on Friday, February 14 at the Kellogg Center, both in East Lansing.

What? Thursday will consist of two in-depth sessions held from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., focused on turnkey data

and preparation materials for your district and The Bargaining Toolkit. New this year, the presentations will be customized to your dis-trict with materials prepared in advance based on your provided data. The materials will include:

• A 10-year trend of your district’s revenue and expenditure patterns;

• a one-year snapshot of the most recent Bulletin 1014 data showing your district’s expenditures and where you rank compared to others in the state;

• and a salary schedule comparison showing how your district compares with others in your county and state averages.

On Friday, the full-day confer-ence begins at 8:30 a.m. on “Law and Practice in a New Age,” covering the following topics:

• The State of the State of Michi-gan’s Economy

• The Evolution of Labor Law in Michigan

• Projecting and Presenting Your Budget

• Legislative Update• Multi-Year Formulas• Strategic Considerations in Ne-

gotiations• Evaluation and Layoff/Recall In-

side and Outside of Negotiations • The Affordable Care Act• Making Your Case With Data• Keeping Your Board Policy Re-

garding Personnel Up-to-DateRegistration will open soon on the

MASB website.

instruction and improve teaching strategies. Most states make student projection reports available to parents upon request, too.

Imagine what parents, teachers and school leaders could do, together, if they knew a fourth-grader is already off track to be college- and career-ready. The potential for helping our students is enormous.

Educators also can use such data to help low achievers who are progress-ing slowly by providing earlier, target-ed intensive support. Educators also can provide more challenging instruc-tion to high-achieving students who are insufficiently challenged in school.

Some might say, “Sounds nice, but wouldn’t such data set lower expecta-tions for low-income or lower-achiev-

ing students?”The answer: Michigan already has a

rigorous, high-stakes school account-ability system that expects Michigan students to be proficient at the same high levels. And this measure also would be just one measure among multiple measures of performance in any comprehensive educator evalua-tion and support system.

If properly designed, Michigan’s new student growth data would provide a vastly more accurate way to measure student performance — and ensure that school professional development, staffing decisions and student placements and interventions are made much more thoughtfully, strategically and smartly.

We need a Michigan smart student

growth model. In the coming months, we need to take that opportunity.

Reprinted with permission from Bridge Magazine. Amber Arellano is executive director of the Education Trust–Midwest; Teresa Weatherall Neal is superintendent of the Grand Rapids Public Schools; Audrey Spalding is director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy; Michael Rice is superintendent of the Kalamazoo Public Schools; Ray Telman is executive director of the Middle Cities Education Association; Jon Felske is superintendent of the Muskegon Public Schools; and Harrison Blackmond is State Director, Democrats for Education Reform Michigan.

Mark Your Calendars: Labor Conference Scheduled for February 13 – 14

Student Growth, continued from Page 9

www.masb.org • MASB Headlines • December 10, 2013 13

Worth Repeating

Worth Repeating doesn’t necessarily reflect the views or positions of MASB. It’s intended to spark dialogue and inform readers about what’s being said about public education around the state and nation.

7 Reasons I Don’t Care About the PISA ResultsArticle From December 4, 2013 Education Week. Written by Rick Hess.

Yesterday, the triennial PISA results were announced, prompting a

paroxysm of spastic pontificating. Hands were wrung, familiar talking points were rehashed, and PISA Overlord Andreas Schleicher once again took the results as his cue to lecture American educators and policymakers on the wonders of com-mon standards and the perniciousness of school choice. (Not that Schleicher has ever seemed an especially strategic operator; I’m curious whether the cheer-leading of this international bureaucrat will really help the cause of the Common Core.) Anyway, the funny thing is that all this gnashing of teeth is, quite literally, for nothing. There are at least seven reasons I don’t give a fig about the PISA results. What are they?

One, international test score comparisons suffer from the same banal problems that bedevil simple NCLB-style comparisons. PISA results say nothing about the value schools are adding; they merely provide sim-ple cross-sectional snapshots of achievement.

Two, Shanghai was tops in the rank-ings—which ought to prompt a whole lot of questions. Brookings’s Tom Loveless, as usual, has been out there waving the red flags. Nearly two months ago, Loveless explained: “Shanghai’s population of 23-24 million people makes it about 1.7 percent of China’s estimated 1.35 billion people... About 84 percent of Shanghai high school graduates go to college, compared to 24 percent nationally. . . And Shanghai’s parents invest heavily in their children’s education outside of school. . .At the high school level, the total expenses for tutor-ing and weekend activities in Shanghai exceed what the average Chinese worker makes in a year. Further, Shanghai does

not allow the children of migrants to attend its high schools.” Comparing U.S. performance to that of Shanghai isn’t apples and oranges; it’s applesauce and Agent Orange. By the way, it’s worth perusing Loveless’s broader critique of international comparisons in his 2012 Brown Center report.

Three, one of the amusing touches of schadenfreude this time around was Finland’s ratings plunge—from its peren-nial first-place perch to 12th in math, fifth in science, and sixth in reading. Now, don’t get me wrong. I dig Finland. But I’ve been exhausted by the fad-chasers who’ve been peddling the line that Finland had cracked the code of educational excel-lence. Truth is, I never believed that or that Finland’s successes could be readily imitated elsewhere, and I’m skeptical that its schools fell apart between 2009 and 2012. All of which means, again, I just don’t find these results that useful.

Four, there are questions about the sta-bility and validity of results. Heck, let’s set aside questions of test administration or how much confidence we have that tests are being administered even-handedly and with fidelity in dozens of different nations. The OECD has already acknowledged that “large variation in single (country) ranking positions is likely” in the PISA results. Statistician Svend Kreiner, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said that an inappropriate model is used to calculate the PISA rankings. He has argued that country scores fluctuate sig-nificantly depending on which test ques-tions are used in the analysis. In the 2006 reading rankings, for instance, he writes, depending on how scores were compiled, Canada could have been finished any-

where from second to 25th and Japan any-where from eighth to 40th.

Five, the whole things provides a depress-ing excuse for the usual suspects use PISA as an excuse to shill their usual wares. Common Core boosters cheered for that. Dennis van Roekel said it’s all about poverty. Arne Duncan touted the need to embrace Obama administration reforms. Yawn.

Six, we know these folks are doing noth-ing more than rehashing talking points because there’s no earthly way to tell what explains the performance of one nation or another. The problem is what we call an “overspecified” model. The PISA universe only includes 65 “economies” (nations, states, cities, and such). Meanwhile, there are tens of thousands ways in which these places vary. They have different lifestyles, cultures, economies, political regimes, religious traditions, health care systems, diets, norms, school calendars, school facilities, educational resources, teach-ing populations, and so forth. Trying to imagine that one can tell which one or two variables are responsible for how well fifteen-year-olds read or do math reflects a breathtaking hubris.

Seven, using PISA results to judge school quality poses the exact same problem as using NCLB-style tests to conclude that schools in a bucolic, leafy suburb are “better” than those in a chaotic city rife with broken families. There’s a lot of stuff going on, and only the foolhardy would insist that any dif-ferences are necessarily due to educational strategies rather than non-school factors.

You can keep the PISA scores. I find the whole thing a triennial exercise in kabuki theater. I suppose there’s no great harm done, but that seems an awfully low bar given all the hullabaloo.