COVID cases among Michigan’s youngest residents have more than quadrupled in just over a month. A vaccine can’t arrive quick enough, health experts say.
Michigan’s standardized test is a few weeks away, and schools are preparing to administer it. But it still could be canceled because of COVID-19, and officials aren’t sure which students will be required to take it.
Michigan school leaders are arguing against giving the M-STEP to students this year because of the pandemic. But COVID makes it even more important to know what schools and which students are suffering.
The number of Michigan teachers who are leaving classrooms is up 40 percent this school year compared to typical years, as the stress of pandemic teaching drives some to retire or resign.
With coronavirus cases surging, some Michigan schools are temporarily moving back to online learning. There’s no sign of a statewide school shutdown, though.
With just one month before students are to take the state M-STEP, it’s uncertain what test they’ll take, or whether Michigan’s read-or-flunk law for third graders makes sense during a pandemic.
Republicans in Lansing have decided to use the $2.1 billion meant for students as a bargaining chip to use against the Whitmer administration. That’s not helping me, my wife, or our kindergarten daughter.
Michigan’s state school superintendent and president of the state school board argue that students shouldn’t take the typical standardized test, the M-STEP, and instead use benchmark tests that give teachers faster results.
Michigan is among 20 states mulling bills that would bar transgender athletes from competing on girls’ school teams. Critics call the measures a “disgusting” attack.
The Great Start Readiness Program offers state-funded preschool for 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. But funding hasn’t been boosted since 2014, leaving school districts to make up the difference.
A growing percentage of Michigan students have the option of learning in classrooms at least part of the week, as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations decline and vaccinations rise.
The U.S. is requiring standardized tests this year amid COVID. Ordinarily, that would mean the statewide M-STEP, but state Superintendent Michael Rice wants districts to choose among assessments, leaving the issue in limbo.
Michigan school officials didn’t want to make students take standardized tests this spring because of the disruptions due to the pandemic. Federal officials aren’t giving them a choice.
With billions at stake, Michigan school groups are pushing to have the COVID relief formula changed to shrink the funding advantage being given to poor districts under federal relief bills. Some impoverished districts would get 100 times more funds under the U.S. formula.
Bridge Michigan misapplied Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on school safety. As a result, an article published Tuesday vastly overstated the number of Michigan counties the CDC considered safe for in-person classroom learning.
Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo and Lansing have yet to decide whether to reopen to in-person classes, despite declining COVID-19 cases and the urging of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that schools find ways to safely reopen.
