From: Whipple, Deb (GOV)
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010
4:05 PM
Subject: What the Governor is talking about today
What the Governor’s Talking about
Today
Monday, January 4, 2010
Governor Signs Education Reform
Legislation; State Readying Application for Race to the Top
Funds
Today the governor signed a five-bill legislative
package that reforms Michigan’s education system and allows the state to compete
for up to $400 million in federal Recovery Act funds through President Obama’s
Race to the Top initiative. The state is finalizing its Race to the Top
application which is due to the U.S. Department of Education by January
19.
The education reforms:
•
Allow the state to intervene in the lowest-performing schools
• Permit
new high-quality charter schools to open if they meet certain standards, and
permit the closure of low-performing charter schools
• Require
administrators to be certified
• Require an annual evaluation of
teachers and administrators using data on student growth
• Create
alternative routes to teacher certification to help bring the best and brightest
into our classrooms
• Raise the dropout age from 16 to 18, effective
for the high school class of 2016
The bills signed by the governor today are House
Bill 4787, sponsored by State Representative Tim Melton (D-Auburn Hills); House
Bill 4788, sponsored by State Representative Bert Johnson (D-Highland Park);
House Bill 5596, sponsored by State Representative Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair
Township); Senate Bill 926, sponsored by State Senator Buzz Thomas (D-Detroit);
and Senate Bill 981, sponsored by State Senator Wayne Kuipers
(R-Holland).
Key messages:
• These reforms make it clear that improving
student achievement will be the driving force in Michigan’s education
system. We will make student academic growth a key part of how we evaluate
teachers, principals and schools, and in the process, enable Michigan to
successfully compete for federal Race to the Top funds.
• Every single person in our education system
now will be focused on whether children are growing academically, and will be
held accountable for children’s progress. Also, we now have a system to
measure academic growth.
• These education reforms will help Michigan
attain one of the governor’s goals which is doubling the number of college
graduates in the state.
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