From the State Board of Education

by Kathleen N. Straus, President, State Board of Education

To raise highly educated children in Michigan, it is essential to have highly trained teachers. It is only with highly trained teachers that our students will be prepared with the most sophisticated and up-to-date knowledge to compete in the expanding global economies.

To this end, we need visionary leadership at the state and local levels to look beyond today’s educational needs and forward to the knowledge our students must possess when they emerge into their adult lives. Our teachers must instill in our students a desire for life-long learning, as well as the knowledge and skills to continue learning and to adapt to a continually changing world.

I am excited to welcome our new State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan to the Michigan Department of Education (MDE). He has been an educator for over 30 years and demonstrated outstanding educational leadership the past 16 years as a local and intermediate school superintendent and as the executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators. Mike has a passion for public education, and he is committed to having the most highly trained educators in our schools.

I look forward to the State Board of Education doing great things with Mike to help improve our already good education system in Michigan. Yet, as the economy evolves, so must our educational systems. The State Board is exercising more leadership in working with teacher preparation institutions and providing professional development opportunities for current teachers and principals. The systems that prepared our students for the agricultural and industrial economies of the past century are not suited for the 21st century economies.

Three new professional development resources launched by MDE work together to ensure quality teachers in Michigan classrooms and support new teachers. These resources are:

• State standards for teacher preparation and practice.
• The ASSIST teacher mentoring program.
• Michigan’s Code of Ethics for educators.

All three resources were developed with input from professional educators and college and university teacher preparation programs personnel.

The State Board of Education also is in the midst of examining other parts of our educational systems—in particular, high schools. We will be reviewing the findings of the Department of Education’s year-long study on redesigning high schools; the recommendations of the Lt. Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth; as well as data from high schools from around the state, nation, and the world.

Dr. Yong Zhao, a University Distinguished Professor from Michigan State University, said at a recent State Board meeting that we must reshape our individualized educational system to meet the academic growth of the centralized education systems of other nations. The State Board then was shown the success of several innovative high school programs to improve academic achievement, including: Detroit Technology High School, Battle Creek High School, Mott Middle College in Flint, the Virtual Academy in Dearborn, the International Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Career Pathway System at Berrien County Intermediate School District, the Henry Ford Learning Institute in Dearborn, and Coalition of Essential Schools model at Covert High School.

Our goal is to provide the highest quality educational system with the highest quality educators for our children—both key components in raising highly educated children and developing an educated citizenry.

We want our high school graduates to be prepared for college or other post-secondary training. Equally important, we want them to be prepared to become well-informed active citizens who will work in order to keep our democracy strong.