Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on October 24, 2007, to require school principles, teachers and administrators to have additional training in "the diagnosis and remediation of reading disabilities and differentiated instruction" as specified in the bill; and require the Department of Education to develop a model summer remedial reading program for first through fourth graders, and a model early intervention program for students who need help in reading

The vote was 38 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 not voting

(Senate Roll Call 395 at Senate Journal 58)

Click here to view bill details.

"THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OR PUBLIC SCHOOL ACADEMY IN WHICH THE PUPIL IS ENROLLED SHALL NOT PROMOTE THE PUPIL TO GRADE 4 UNLESS THE PUPIL'S LITERACY DEFICIENCY IS DETERMINED BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OR PUBLIC SCHOOL ACADEMY TO BE DUE TO A DISABILITY OTHER THAN A LEARNING DISABILITY THAT IS BASED SOLELY ON READING DIFFICULTIES." So, according to this, the school can promote students with cognitive impairments, hearing impairments, speech and language impairments, etc. who struggle with reading but can't promote learning disabled student who struggles with reading. That makes no sense. Also, where is the provision for the students who are showing growth over time and responding to the interventions the staff have put into place? Use some common sense here. My district has a lot of transient students. If a student comes to us at the beginning of 3rd grade reading at a pre-kindergarten level, it is impossible to get them reading at a beginning 4th grade level by the end of the year. That is too much ground to make up in a year. However, we can see significant gains in the child's reading skills over that time period. It is the child's progress over time that should be examined. Finally, did you even bother to look at the research regarding retention prior to proposing this legislation?

All these bills designed to "fix" the schools are just more tape trying to hold together a broken system. We must get the government out of the education business. If they insist on paying for k-12 education then at least let the money follow the student and let the market fix the problems.

So, in your market based system will the student be a product or an employee of the school? If a product - what type of quality control will your "business" have on the materials that go into making the product? Right now public schools (and others!) take whatever families send them. If students are the employees - expected to produce a product (test scores) will we fire them if they don't meet standards? When will folks stop trying to apply business models to all aspects of education??

I agree with the educator's comments. As a side comment, metrics should be used to measure the schools performance for that district (but not to punish the district for non-performers preventing 100% compliance). Even though a statistical number of students will not perform or care about performance due to upbringing, circumstances, medical conditions, etc., It should not be the state's concern to ensure every single student "passes". There will always be some students outside the curve. The state is responsible to it's taxpayers to fund education and supervise at the macro level, not the micro level. What gives Lansing the chutzpah to think they can manage outcomes for our kids when they can't even manage to balance their own budgets?

One of the major concerns I have about this bill is that it does not indicate in any specific way what type of person will provide the instruction to students who are struggling. In many districts, such as mine, teacher positions intended to focus on bringing up the reading levels of struggling students (Title 1 funded) are staffed by either "friends and family" or union favorites, not individuals who are highly qualified. I am a Reading Specialist with a Ph.D. in Literacy and have applied for such positions - yet such positions have generally gone to individuals who do not possess advanced training in literacy. This is one reason, I believe, that the Detroit Public Schools will be refunding some monies to the federal government - they have been assigning unqualified individuals to such positions. As this bill moves forward, great care should be taken to ensure that ALL districts prove that they are using highly qualified professionals (that would mean BR endorsed (Reading Specialists)) to provide instruction. Otherwise, this is just another means of allowing districts/unions to cherry pick jobs for relatives and friends rather than relying on the expertise of those who chose to follow the more difficult endorsement path. Signed, Sad person who just wanted to help kids read