Education

A new report maps out which neighboring Michigan school districts are the most segregated by race, poverty, and revenue. It comes 45 years after the U.S. Supreme Court told white families in Michigan (and by extension, the nation) if they wanted to avoid mandatory school integration, all they had to do was move to a whiter district.

“As if quarantining students of color, we have forced them into racially dense and underfunded systems, and then built walls around them,” reads the report from EdBuild, an activist group aimed at disrupting “the status quo of illogical and inequitable school funding.”

If Michigan’s Read by Grade 3 retention law went into effect for this fall, nearly 5,000 third graders would repeat the third grade, according to Michigan State University researchers.

School board members in Benton Harbor say they’ll try again to reach an agreement with the governor’s office to turn the district around.

The administration of Governor Whitmer announced a tentative agreement with the school board earlier this month, but board members said there was no agreement.

At a meeting Saturday, board members said they’re working on a new proposal

Meanwhile, interim superintendent Patricia Robinson says some teachers and parents have already decided to leave the district because of the uncertainty.

Benton Harbor High School could stay open for the next year, if the school board votes on Tuesday night to approve an agreement with the state.

State officials had proposed closing the high school because the district is more than $18 million in debt and students are struggling academically. That created a community outcry to keep the school open.

Teachers from a closing Detroit charter school are relieved to find out they will be paid, after being told there wasn’t enough money for their final paychecks.  

Hamilton Academy is run by Education Partnerships Incorporated, a charter school company that took it over from Detroit Public Schools because of the school’s low performance.

Grand Valley State University is one of nine universities and colleges across the country that are receiving recognition for serving Latino students' needs.

Excelencia in Education is a non-profit organization dedicated to Latino students' success. GVSU is part of the organization's first-year recipients of the Seal of Excelencia.

To earn the seal, universities and colleges must show evidence of success in practices pertaining to Excelencia in Education’s standards.

Ann Arbor Public Schools has released more information about lead found in the drinking water at local public schools. The district tested 1,426 drinking water sources at 32 different schools, and found that 91.6% met or exceeded AAPS standards.

The district standard for lead in drinking water is 5 parts per billion, and the federal standard is 15 parts per billion. The district standard was raised in October 2018 after parents expressed concerns.

The fight for Benton Harbor High School is still alive.

The Benton Harbor school board rejected the state’s plan to close the high school.

The Michigan Board of Education approved controversial new social studies curriculum standards Tuesday.

Chanting “Save our school,” Benton Harbor parents, students and elected leaders brought their campaign to keep the city’s high school open to the governor’s office Tuesday.

The state is proposing shutting down Benton Harbor’s high school as part of plan to eliminate the district’s multi-million dollar debt.

Members of the school board for Benton Harbor Area Schools say they plan to submit a plan to Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday to try to save the city’s high school.

The governor’s office says the district is $18.4 million in debt. She says closing the high school will save money and keep the entire district from dissolving. 

This week, the Michigan Board of Education is scheduled to consider new social studies curriculum standards. 

The path these revised social studies standards have taken could be a civics lesson in itself.

Back in 2018, educators and liberal groups rallied against a proposal drafted with strong input from conservative groups. The proposal called for dropping references to “gay rights,”  "Roe vs Wade” and "climate change.” It also called for replacing the phrase “democratic values” with “core values.”

Under pressure, the Michigan Department of Education pulled the proposal.  

A new culinary school opened its doors in downtown Flint today.

It’s part of the effort to revitalize the city.

Mott Community College’s Culinary Arts Institute is located in the heart of Flint’s downtown. The 36,000 square foot space is the former Woolworths building.  

Governor Whitmer is expected in Benton Harbor this afternoon for a town hall meeting about the city’s school district. Whitmer’s administration says Benton Harbor High School must shut down to keep the district out of financial insolvency.

Hundreds gathered in the city last night to oppose that plan.

Some drove in from around the state where schools have closed in the past.

A bill has been introduced in the state House that would require schools to post public notices about their students' vaccination rates.

The bill would require schools with vaccination waiver rates over five percent to post signs and post the information online.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration is proposing to close Benton Harbor High School in fall 2020 and send students elsewhere in the corner of southwestern Michigan.

State Treasurer Rachael Eubanks says, "Sitting back and doing nothing is not an option."

Students, parents and faculty of a K-8 Detroit charter school learned Tuesday that their school is being shut down.

Southwest Detroit Community Schools and the landlord of the building couldn’t reach a leasing agreement, meaning school administrators couldn’t cover the cost of the lease. So the landlord, Turner Impact Capital, decided to evict the school.

Michigan is not on track to be a top ten state in K-12 education by 2030, according to a report from the Education Trust-Midwest found.

The annual report Opportunity For All says that Michigan is currently 35th in the nation in fourth grade reading and 33rd in eighth grade math.

Michigan’s Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II kicked off a media campaign to convince more Michiganders to obtain college degrees or professional certifications.

The “Going Pro” campaign is aimed at increasing the percentage of Michiganders with post-secondary credentials.

Gilchrist says Michigan will need to fill more than a half million skilled trades jobs between now and 2026.