From the New State Superintendent of Public Instruction

by Michael P. Flanagan, State Superintendent of Public Instruction

As Michigan’s new State Superintendent of Public Instruction, I welcome the opportunity to introduce myself and share my thoughts about highly qualified educators. I am excited to share in the excellent work being carried out by Michigan’s Department of Education. I am impressed with the many efforts underway to ensure that Michigan meets the rigorous federal requirements, without forgetting the individual needs of our students. I look forward to working with Michigan educators, students, and educational stakeholders in the coming school year; I believe strongly in the power of collaboration.

These are exciting times in education. High standards and new technologies cause us to rethink the very way we deliver education to children. My new colleagues Chief Academic Officer/Deputy Superintendent Jeremy Hughes, Deputy Superintendent Carol Wolenberg, Director of the Office of School Improvement Yvonne Caamal Canul, and Education Secretary to the Governor Sue Carnell attended the Worldwide Schools of the Future Summit last summer. Sponsored by the Microsoft Corporation, the summit focused on the essential elements of learning environments in the technology- rich 21st century. My colleagues agree, the future demands new learning models for our teachers. In addition to meeting the mandated highly qualified standards, teachers must meet the challenge of keeping pace with this exciting technology era.

One of my primary concerns is to ensure that today’s teachers can effectively use technology in the classroom to improve achievement for all students. I plan to meet soon with deans of teacher preparation schools to reinforce my belief in the importance of improving this aspect of teacher education. I want to meet with these officials to discuss making teacher training more modern and practical by coordinating current research and needs of schools with the programs being offered to train teachers.

We have some of the best education schools in the country, but graduates often come out not knowing how to integrate technology. We are not fully integrating technology in the classroom.

We must recognize the ways kids learn today and modify many of our current methods to meet this key challenge.

On a related matter, we must rethink the methods we use to educate kids to include a greater focus on early childhood education and provide more assistance to our disadvantaged children. Helping students catch up is much easier if they start out ready to learn. It will take some time before we see the benefits of our efforts, but I guarantee, with effort, they will emerge.

By working together, we can guarantee that teachers have the skills and support they need to educate in a highly qualified manner to produce highly qualified, successful students in Michigan.

Michael Flanagan served as Executive Director of Michigan Association of School Administrators from 2001 to 2005, is a former superintendent of the Wayne County Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) and Farmington-Farmington Hills schools, and served as Governor Granholm’s education adviser early in her administration.

Contact Information: Michael P. Flanagan, Superintendent of Public Instruction, P.O. Box 30008, Lansing, MI 48909, (517) 373-9235, (517) 335-4565 fax, MDE-Supt@michigan.gov.