Editor’s Note: MEA member Rick Joseph, Michigan’s 2015-16 Teacher of the Year, recently joined with dozens of educators from across the country to call attention to the U.S. government’s prolonged confinement of immigrant children in crowded detention facilities. MEA helped to sponsor Joseph’s participation in the event. Here he reflects on the event’s meaning and importance. […]
A bill to reduce the weight of student test scores in teacher evaluations has been reintroduced in the Michigan Legislature, along with a few other evaluation-related measures that failed to pass in the last legislative session. HB 4221, introduced by Rep. Julie Alexander (R-Hanover), would return the percentage of an educator’s annual evaluation that is […]
Michigan’s high school juniors would have one less standardized test to take each spring, under legislation that passed out of the House Education Committee on Tuesday. HB 4162 would eliminate the ACT WorkKeys career readiness test from the Michigan Merit Examination required of juniors, which also includes the SAT and the M-STEP science and social studies […]
With districts across the state at – or well beyond – the allowed number of snow days, lawmakers are beginning to debate allowing additional days, especially given the historic “polar vortex” that hit the Lower Peninsula last month. Rep. Ben Frederick (R-Owosso) has introduced HB 4206, which aims to permanently waive days when schools are closed […]
By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor MEA member Brian Taylor moved to Michigan with his wife 20 years ago having never visited the state, and he became a teacher in West Ottawa 16 years ago having never graduated from high school nor earned an equivalency degree. As a teenager in Oregon, Taylor was “a non-conformist […]
In the light of current national events, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recently made a call for strengthening civics education. She made the statement as she announced her struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and planned withdrawal from public life. “It is my great hope that our nation will commit to educating our youth […]
“We don’t have to wait any longer. We know what we’re doing isn’t working.” That’s a quote from David Arsen, MSU education policy professor and lead author of a new report on education funding in Michigan. This research drives the point home: “Michigan schools face nation’s worst decline in state education funding,” read the headline […]
In this issue: SPECIAL REPORT: Putting a Spotlight on Student Mental Health Above and Beyond Members Bring Mindfulness to Schools Breaking the Silence Delta College Faculty Unionize How to Build School Funding A Clarion Call Retirees Lead on National Level Member Spotlight: Chad Downs
MEA member Chad Downs almost left the field of education before he started. During his pre-student teaching at Eastern Michigan University, Downs said he couldn’t find a school or program that fit with his beliefs about education and creativity. Then an EMU advisor intervened and introduced him to Ann Arbor Open School, and the rest […]
Every other Wednesday a group of silver-haired men sit around some pushed-together tables in a Brighton diner for breakfast and companionship, and their talk inevitably turns to the state of public education. They can’t help themselves. This gathering of more than a dozen regulars typically includes six former presidents of the Huron Valley Education Association […]
