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Tagged: Stateside

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Education
6:27 pm
Tue February 12, 2013

Stateside: A conversation about improving education in Michigan

Credit user alkruse24 / Flickr

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

Last month, The Center for Michigan, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank, released its major report on K-12 public education in our state.

It was the largest effort ever to collect and analyze what the public thinks about Michigan schools and teachers.

As we heard here on Stateside, that report was based on hundreds of meetings with people all over the state.

And emerging from those discussions was a clear theme: the best way to improve Michigan schools is to improve the skills of the person standing at the front of the classroom.

Two-thirds of Michiganders say we need to hold teachers more accountable.

Four out of every five say they want teachers to be better prepared for the classroom.

Cyndy spoke with a high school principal, an education expert and a professor of teacher education to make sense of these statistics.

Education
6:04 pm
Tue February 12, 2013

Stateside: Uncertified teachers at Muskegon Heights charter school system

Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio
The Muskegon Heights emergency manager and representatives of Mosaica Education.

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

Lester Graham is filling in for Cynthia Canty on today's Stateside.

In her recent report, Michigan Radio's Lindsey Smith found that teachers in the new charter school system in Muskegon Heights were hired without teacher certification.

The entire public school system in Muskegon Heights was recently turned over to a private company.

While there are teachers who do have certification, there are others who do not.

The question is, what will happen with those teachers that have not been certified?

We sat down with reporter Lindsey Smith, who joined us from Grand Rapids.

She told us how it became evident that there were uncertified teachers working in the school system. She also tells us what it was like speaking to the parents in Muskegon Heights and their reactions.

Politics & Culture
5:51 pm
Tue February 12, 2013

Stateside for Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Stateside for Tuesday, February 13th, 2013.

On today's show, Michigan Radio's Lester Graham fills in for Cyndy.

We talk with Lindsey Smith who filed an investigative report today for Michigan Radio. She found some teachers in one already troubled school district are not certified to teach in Michigan.

And speaking of teachers, two-thirds of people in Michigan believe we need to hold teachers more accountable. That's according to a new report from the Center for Michigan. We'll talk to education leaders about that report.

And supply, demand, and distribution of medical marijuana in Michigan. The courts, the legislature, and the patients who rely on the relief are all debating recent developments.

Transportation
5:21 pm
Mon February 11, 2013

Stateside: Why aren't people buying electric vehicles?

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

The auto industry seems to be coming back to life, but there does not seem to be much buzz surrounding alternative energy vehicles, and that's being reflected in sales.

January figures were anemic at best for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

The Obama Administration predicted a million electric cars would be on our highways by 2015.

Today there are barely 30,000.

Just why aren't these vehicles catching on with the public?

And is there anything the automakers can do to make those EVs and plug-ins more appealing?

Cindy talked with Sean McAlinden, Executive VP of Research and Chief Economist at the Center for Auto Research, and David Shepardson, the Washington Bureau Chief for the Detroit News.

Education
5:04 pm
Mon February 11, 2013

Stateside: Use your words

Tanya Wright, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University
Credit Michigan State University
Tanya Wright is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University.

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

According to a new study published in Elementary School Journal, the vocabulary lessons our children are getting in grade school fall woefully short of giving students the range and scope of words they need to become good, effective readers throughout their lives. 

Tanya Wright is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University.  She spoke with Cindy about the study and what it could cost our kids to be saddled with a deficient vocabulary.

Politics & Culture
4:42 pm
Mon February 11, 2013

Stateside for Monday, February 11th, 2013

Stateside for Monday, February 11th, 2013.

On today's show, we look at sales of alternative energy vehicles in this country. As much as the government wants to get us into electric vehicles and other alternative energy vehicles, the American consumer isn't warming up to them.

What keeps us from embracing the electric car?

And we talk about our special series of reports exploring the schools and the educational opportunities in Stockbridge, Michigan. It's part of Michigan Radio's State of Opportunity project.

But first, Detroit's Mayor will be delivering his State of the City address this coming Wednesday night, but even as Dave Bing prepares his speech the time may near for Governor Snyder to lower the proverbial boom and announce the appointment of an emergency manager for Michigan's biggest city.

Detroit News editorial writer Nolan Finley joined us to talk about his Sunday column that points to action from Lansing sooner rather than later. We asked him about the latest he's hearing from Lansing.

There are two ways you can podcast "Stateside with Cynthia Canty"

Environment & Science
2:49 pm
Thu February 7, 2013

Stateside: Solving the data needs of non-profit groups

Credit a2datadive.org / A2DataDive
Volunteers sharing skills at the 2012 data dive

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

When it comes to data and knowing just what to do with it, it seems there are two camps in this world. 

Those who can plunge into mining, parsing, analyzing and figuring out how to really use data, and those who are fairly clueless when it comes to crunching data.
 
Luckily for some non-profit groups in the Ann Arbor/ Detroit area, those types aren’t just smart, they are nice, and willing to help.
 
Thanks to some hard-working grad students at the U-M School of Information. The A2 Data Dive is coming up this weekend on the Central Campus of the University of Michigan.
 
Co-founders, Claire Barco and  Nikki Roda tell us more about the A2 Data Dive.

Arts & Culture
6:21 pm
Wed February 6, 2013

Stateside: A conversation with Bill Ryan, a leading light on the new music scene

Credit Facebook
Music educator Bill Ryan.

The following is a summary of a previously recorded interview. To hear the complete segment, click the audio above.

Bill Ryan is one of the leading lights on the new music scene.

Ryan leads 'Billband' and is also a music educator at Grand Valley State University.

It has been nine years since the last CD release from Billband, but Ryan continues to make his mark on contemporary music with his teaching at GVSU, and with the GVSU New Music Ensemble.

He's put Grand Valley on the map for those who follow and love contemporary music.

And now, after nine years, Billband has a new release. It's called Towards Daybreak with emotive, postminimalist  new music.
 
Bill Ryan joined us from Allendale and Grand Valley State.

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