Education

The ACLU of Michigan claims Paw Paw Public Schools is maintaining a hostile environment that is hurting minority students. The group has filed a discrimination complaint against the district with the U.S. Department of Education.

Grand Valley State University has named its next president. Philomena Mantella will be the fifth president to serve the university in its nearly 60-year history. And she’ll be the first woman in that role.

Mantella comes to GVSU from Northeastern University in Boston, where she’s the senior vice president and chief executive officer of the Lifelong Learning Network.

State Education officials are using a $5 million federal grant to improve early childhood programs for Michigan children under five.

Scott Koenigsknecht is a Deputy Superintendent in the Michigan Department of Education.

He says Michigan has a variety of early childhood education programs for kids from birth to five years old.

For those of you concerned that you’ve become something of a slugabed when it comes to your use of the English language, and wish to exhibit a more trenchant style, Wayne State University has a few suggestions.

Wayne State University is out with its latest list of expressive, though neglected, words in the English language.

Catch up on the most read stories about Michigan’s education system.

Report: State took $4.5 billion from K-12 funds to plug budget holes

It was supposed to be paid back. The bill included language requiring funds to be repaid to the School Aid Fund to the General Fund between fiscal years 2011/12 and 2015/16. But the legislature never paid it back.

Michigan’s third graders will need to meet a new reading standard in 2019.

But there is concern the state’s educational system isn’t ready.

Under the Read by Third Grade law, a student’s performance on the state English language arts assessment will help determine if they will be promoted to fourth grade.

A bill that modifies the funding structure for the School Aid Fund is headed for the governor’s desk

The bill would lower the amount of money schools get from the state income tax. That money would go toward environmental and transportation initiatives championed by Governor Rick Snyder.

Wayne State University has the lowest graduation rate for public universities in Michigan, but federal data shows it's improving in that area faster than any public university in the country.

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System shows that Wayne State’s graduation numbers went from 26 percent in 2011 to 47 percent in 2017.

14,000 students have dropped out of Eastern Michigan University over the past ten years without completing their degrees, primarily because they couldn't afford to keep attending classes.

It's a big problem for universities across the nation, especially universities like Eastern Michigan, which count many first-generation and working people among their student body.

Public school advocates and the ACLU of Michigan want the Michigan Supreme Court to take their case. They want the court to reverse a decision that lets the state give public money to private schools in certain cases.

The Board of  Trustees of Muskegon Community College voted unanimously on Wednesday to continue its tradition of an invocation at graduation, but just to the extent permitted by the law governing church and state.

The vote was in response to a complaint sent to MCC by the Michigan Association of Civil Rights Activists (MACRA) about the 2018 graduation prayer led by MCC trustee Ann Oakes who is also a minister. Her invocation included a reference to Jesus, as well as multiple references to God and the Lord.

Kalamazoo Public Schools wants every student to see someone who looks like them in a book. That's why it's adding books to school classrooms to reflect the diversity of its student body.

It launched the initiative Tuesday at Woodward School for Technology and Research, where school and district officials hope the effort will engage more students in reading.

KPS is starting with just second and third grade classes for now.

A school district in southwestern Michigan is being released from an agreement with the state put in place in 2014 to help improve its finances.

The University of Michigan has seen sexual misconduct complaints against faculty, staff and third parties shoot up 161% in one year, according to a new university report.

The report covers complaints made from July 2017 through June 2018. U of M policy defines sexual misconduct as a range of behaviors, ranging from inappropriate comments to sexual assault and stalking.

Michigan’s public schools lost in court today. Multiple public school organizations and the ACLU sued the state over a multi-million dollar budget item.

The lawsuit is over public money going to non-public schools for state mandates; things like safety drills and health requirements. In its opinion, the Michigan Court of Appeals said:

Michigan faces a looming education and economic crisis if it does not address systemic racism affecting children of color in K-12 schools. That’s according to a new report from the Michigan League for Public Policy.

At a conference in Flint Thursday, officials and national experts are discussing how to reduce health hazards found in schools.

The conference comes the day before a U.S. Conference of Mayors summit in Flint on water issues.

"Human-influenced global climate change is the defining scientific and social problem of our age,"  University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel told a gathering of U of M leaders Thursday. "And a significant component of this growing crisis is due to the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy."

State lawmakers are moving to keep the percentage of school administrator evaluations based on student growth right where it is now.

The percentage is supposed to increase to 40% this year.  But on a 14 to 1 vote, the House Education Reform committee Thursday endorsed keeping it at 25%.

A group of Detroit students walked out of class in protest on Wednesday, the same day the state uses student attendance numbers to decide how much per-pupil funding school districts receive.

The students say they did it to draw attention to water contamination in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The district cut off drinking fountains and other drinking water sources before the school year started, after tests found high levels of lead and copper in some schools.

Currently, there aren’t enough qualified teachers to fill the need in Michigan schools. One way to quickly get aspiring teachers into classrooms is something called “alternative certification.” These training programs don’t require any in-classroom teaching. But is this the answer?