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One of Michigan’s Children’s top priorities is to ensure that all Michigan children are ready for post-secondary education, work and life.
Each year:
- Nearly 25,000 young people drop out of Michigan high schools, and many do not return to complete their credential.
- Over 75 percent of all ninth graders graduate four-years later in Michigan’s majority white districts. In school districts where minority students are in the majority, fewer than 45 percent graduate on time.
- Nearly 13,000 young women, ages 15-19 become parents. This was not the first birth for one in five. Only one-third of all teen moms complete high school.
- One in six births in Michigan is to a woman who has not completed high school. While this includes births to teenagers, the largest share are to women in their early 20s.
Michigan’s Children works with policymakers, advocacy partners, community leaders and parents to advance public policies and programs that promote educational success in children and their parents, including minimizing suspensions and expulsions, improving support services for young people, and improving educational, employment and other services to young people who have left school before graduation.
EDUCATION ISSUES
Early Education
Scientists have demonstrated that 85 percent of the emotional and intellectual wiring of the brain is formed during the first three years of life. Children are born ready to learn and actually crave the positive stimulation that lets them do so. Michigan's Children works with policymakers and partner groups to fight for the funding and policies needed to ensure children start off on the right foot.
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Dropout Recovery & Retention
With funding from the C.S. Mott Foundation, Michigan’s Children works with policymakers, communities and youths to identify and remove barriers to education through a variety of means, including youth forums connecting policy makers with youths struggling in school and the programs that are helping them, summits joining interested parties to develop solutions and partnerships, issue papers and fact sheets, work with media, and direct contact with legislators and other policymakers at the local, state and national levels.
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Ready Kids Ready Schools Ready Communities
On January 22,
2010 Michigan's Children in partnership with the Early Childhood
Investment Corporation, Calhoun County Community and Early
Childhood Services, and eight additional statewide organizations to
provide a technical assistance meeting.
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EDUCATION EVENTS
Education Town Hall A Success!
The Center for Michigan in cooperation with Public Sector Consultants hosted another successful public policy town hall on March 10, 2010 at the Eagle Eye Golf Club in East Lansing.
More than 300 people attended the forum, which was designed to get citizens more involved in statewide issues, mingle with decision makers, and help set a solutions-oriented policy agenda.
The event featured The Center's interactive "clicker" voting technology and focused audience members on the kinds of long-term education policy choices 10,000 people have deliberated in nearly 500 statewide Community Conversations since fall 2007, including:
Performance: What is the return for Michigan's investments in pre-school, K-12, and higher education?
Funding & Affordability: How much should Michigan invest in pre-school, K-12, and higher education programs? What more can be done to assure affordable access to all levels of education?
Innovation: What additional innovative steps can Michigan take to best prepare students to participate in Michigan's transforming economy?
Michigan's Children President & CEO Jack Kresnak was among a distinguished lineup of speakers, including Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan, Kalamazoo Valley Community College President Marilyn Schlack, American Federation of Teachers-Michigan President David Hecker, State Rep. Tim Melton (Chair of the House Education Committee), VP of Government Relations for the University of Michigan Cynthia Wilbanks, and Early Childhood Investment Corp. President Judy Samelson.
NEW - View video of the forum at www.youtube.com/michiganschildren.
For more information, go to www.thecenterformichigan.net
EDUCATION PUBLICATIONS
Help secure funding for foster care youth pursuing post-secondary education! (5-21-08) - An Issues for Michigan's Children publication is available online, highlighting what the ETV program is and what's at stake.
High School Diploma Completion Initiative, a joint collaboration of Lansing Community College (LCC) and the Ingham Intermediate School District (ISD) - A Focus on Michigan's Communities publication can be reviewed online, highlighting a best practice technique to reduce high school drop out rates and encourage enrollment in post-secondary education.
Education Project for Foster Youth in Transition, a project of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District - A Focus on Michigan's Communities publication that highlights what one community is doing to reduce homelessness and increase access to education for youth in the foster care system.
Creating Equal Opportunities for High School Graduation (4/24/08) - An Issues for Michigan's Children publication is available online, highlighting why equal opportunity is important, barriers to equal opportunity, the consequences of unequal opportunity, and strategies to promote equal opportunities for educational success.
Michigan’s Integrated Behavior and Learning Support Initiative (MiBLSi) - Almost five years ago, Michigan’s Integrated Behavior and Learning Support Initiative (MiBLSi) was created as a way to improve student behavior and literacy in Michigan’s schools. MiBLSi is a Mandated Activities Project funded through Michigan Department of Education (MDE) Office of Special Education and Early Intervention Services (OSE-EIS). Each year the federal allocation to Michigan includes state set-aside administrative funds for mandated and authorized activities to meet requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (IDEA).
Young Detroit Builders - A program of YouthBuild, operate as a charter school, alternative school, or GED program that engages unemployed young men and women, most of whom have dropped out of high school and all of whom come from low-income families. This program provides some promising practices that enable at-risk youth to serve their communities by building affordable housing and assists them in transforming their own lives and roles in society.
"Truancy: A Serious Problem for Students, Schools and Society" - Reducing school absences are a top priority for Michigan's Children and Michigan schools. Students who are not at school can not receive instruction, and therefore, can not perform well academically. Excessive school absence is a precursor of school dropout and is related to juvenile delinquency.
Intervention and Incentive AE, a program of Vicksburg School District in Kalamazoo County - Vicksburg Schools believe that the number one reason for dropping out is failing classes and the unwillingness of those students to complete their required coursework. Intervention AE is a drop out prevention model based on the “Pyramid of Interventions” model. The key principle of the model operates under the theory that to improve outcomes for at-risk youth, education staff need to be working in collaboration and not in isolation with the youth they serve.
“What is a High School Diploma Worth in Michigan?” - A two-page issue paper on the costs of high school dropouts with background information and key data.
EDUCATION LINKS
Connect to our key advocacy partners in education
Michigan’s Children works with policymakers, advocacy partners and community leaders to advance public policies and programs that seek to improve the educational needs of children and youth.
To connect to our key advocacy partners in education, click on their names below:
Bridges 4 Kids
Community Assessment, Referral and Education
Comprehensive School Health Coordinators Association
Michigan Association of Community and Adult Education
Michigan Association of School Administrators
Michigan Association of School Boards
Michigan Education Association
Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services
School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan's Children
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