Michigan Administrators’ ESSA-Aligned Guide to Planning for the New School Year
Michigan Administrators’ ESSA-Aligned Guide to Planning for the New School Year
With one year of ESSA implementation down, Michigan educators are hard at work planning and adjusting for the upcoming school year. Summertime is here, but district and school administrators continue working hard planning for the upcoming school year. To support you in this process (and save you a bit of time to enjoy the rest of your summer!), we’ve assembled a curated list of our best resources aligned to goals outlined by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) ESSA plan.
But, before we dig in, first a little background. Michigan’s accountability system is based around the state’s Top 10 in 10 Initiative, and outlines the following weighted indicators:
Boost Michigan Standards Mastery and M-STEP Achievement
Michigan is placing significant emphasis on both proficiency and growth to ensure students are making progress towards the skills needed to perform successfully on the M-STEP and beyond. Utilize the following guides to take a fresh approach to your instructional programs or streamline your current practices.
Frequent, standards-based formative assessments are a critical piece of effective data-driven instruction. Our formative assessment workbook provides a framework for implementing formative assessments throughout the lesson cycle. Its planning forms and data-tracking worksheets can be used across multiple subjects and grade levels.
Michigan has put forth a plan that emphasizes career readiness beginning in the earliest grades. And, a strong foundation in literacy is key to that future success. This workbook evaluates the many facets of structuring an effective, research-based reading and language arts block and helps you select the appropriate technology tools to support your approach.
How Michigan Educators Can Use Lexile Measures to Support Early Literacy Instruction
Michigan administrators and teachers recognize the need for classroom data to be accurate, actionable, and prompt. That’s why a growing number of educators are turning to digital classroom tools like the Lexile® Framework for Reading from MetaMetrics® to bring meaningful measures to classroom data so that teachers and literacy specialists can spend more time personalizing learning and tailoring instruction to their students.
Bring the best parts of online learning and traditional instruction together in a blended learning program. Blended learning programs come in many forms and enable scalable personalized learning. Use this workbook to get your district’s or school's blended learning program started.
Address Achievement Gaps and Support English Language Learners and Special Education Students
Michigan is showing its commitment to closing achievement gaps with the long-term goal of raising statewide proficiency averages across all subgroups in English language arts and mathematics to meet the 2016-17 baseline rates at the 75th percentile by the end of the 2024-25 school year. This coincides with targets outlined in Michigan’s broader Top 10 in 10 initiative. The following resources provide strategies for meeting the needs of special student populations.
Special Populations Program Planning Worksheet
Use this worksheet to plan programs to address the needs of special populations of students.
Personalized Learning Workbook
Personalized learning allows educators to meet the varying needs of all learners, improving learning outcomes. This workbook takes the guesswork out of personalized learning by providing a step-by-step plan from development to implementation.
Supporting Michigan ELs with WIDA-Correlated Programs
In Michigan, the EL population represents 5.8 percent of students, and as such, it is crucial that Michigan educators reach this expanding group. The WIDA ACCESS for ELLs 2.0 is an important tool for Michigan educators to identify and support these students’ unique learning needs.
[NWEA in Michigan] What to Do Next with Your MAP Growth Assessment Data
When it comes to addressing achievement gaps, measuring student growth is critical. This blog post offers helpful tips to put your data to effective use.
This collection of blog posts addresses topics like back-to-school strategies to support ELLs, ways to prepare ELLs for high-stakes assessments, and more.
Special Education Blog Collection
This collection of blog posts addresses topics like dyslexia, ways to navigate IEP meetings, ADHD, and trends in special education.
Support Graduation Rates
Michigan has set ambitious standards for graduation expectations with a long-term goal of 95% of students graduating within 4 years, and 97% graduating within 6 years, by the 2024-25 school year. Make sure that your school has a credit recovery program in place so that all students who fall behind can catch up and graduate on time.
Our credit recovery worksheet will show you how to set up a new program or enhance your current credit recovery offering.
Resources for Michigan Educators to Support Effective Credit Recovery Programs
For Michigan educators to successfully achieve graduation rate goals, creating effective and flexible credit recovery programs will become even more critical. Leveraging online programs for these varied initiatives can help Michigan educators view data faster, manage students and courses more efficiently, and save valuable time.
Ensure College and Career Readiness
The transition between secondary education into the workforce is a pivotal one and Michigan’s Office of Career and Technical Education urges schools to provide students with opportunities to explore career clusters and earn college credit. The following resources will help you open the door to several options in support of this initiative.
CTE programs have been shown to increase engagement and improve outcomes for enrolled students. Use our CTE workbook to plan a new program or utilize it as a guide to augment your current one.
Online curriculum can open up a world of college- and career-focused courses to students that their schools may not otherwise be able to offer, including Advanced Placement®, CTE, SAT®, ACT®, or WorkKeys® assessment preparation. Our online curriculum guide discusses several different ways that online curriculum can be used, and it even includes a worksheet to guide the process of identifying a provider that meets your needs.
A virtual implementation may help your school or district offer more flexible and expansive course options to serve populations in need. Use this workbook to evaluate if a virtual implementation is the best option for your school and get guidance on developing a program and selecting a digital provider.
Reduce Chronic Absenteeism
The impact of students being chronically absent is staggering. As a result, Michigan is using this metric as one of its school quality indicators required by ESSA. Check out the following resources for more helpful information and suggestions for improvement.
How Chronic Absenteeism Affects Student Achievement
This blog post looks at the impacts of chronic absence and includes information on initiatives that aim to move the needle on this growing problem.
5 Ways Districts Are Fighting Chronic Absenteeism
In Michigan, a student who misses 10 percent or more of the time they are enrolled is considered chronically absent. This blog post highlights some ways that educators can fight against chronic absenteeism and support students based on what is working for other schools and districts.
The Consequences of Suspension and What Schools Can Do Instead
When it comes to chronic absenteeism, suspension is a big offender in hiking up that rate. As you consider how to keep students in the classroom, taking a hard look at suspension policies is an important step.
Looking for online programs to help your school or district improve outcomes for all students? Check out Edmentum's suite of K–12 evidence-based assessments and digital curriculum, and see why over 8,000 districts in the nation partner with us.
This blog post was originally published on July 23, 2018.
