LANSING – The State Board of Education has established April 8, 2005 as the deadline for applications from candidates interested in becoming Michigan’s next State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The selection criteria and application details are available on the Michigan Department of Education website: www.michigan.gov/mde under the “Superintendent Search Information” link at the top of the Department’s homepage.
Applications will be shared with all State Board members and Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, an ex-officio member of the State Board. The Governor also will forward her candidate nominations to the State Board for consideration.
“This is an open process. Open for everyone,” State Board President Kathleen N. Straus said. “We have laid out what we are looking for in the next State Superintendent and we anticipate a quality pool of applicants from which we will select.”
A bi-partisan subcommittee of State Board members met with Granholm earlier this month to establish common selection criteria. “We welcome the Governor’s participation in this process,” Straus said. “We look forward to working closely with her to select the next person to lead the Department of Education.”
Applicants can request confidentiality until the finalists are announced by the State Board. The Board will interview the finalists at an open meeting and the public is invited to comment on the selection of a new Superintendent through the Department’s website.
In other Action by the State Board: The Board approved recommended changes to the state’s plan on implementing the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. The U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), after review of a state’s plan and after possible revisions, approves the plan that then becomes the state’s blueprint for implementation of the federal law.
The recommended modifications to Michigan’s plan, unanimously approved by the State Board, must be submitted to the USDOE by April 1.
The Board is recommending that a statistical “reliability formula” be implemented to determine a school and district’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status. This formula, similar to those used by 27 other states, will account for statistical and measurement variances in school assessment scores based upon a margin of error.
The Board also is recommending that a school district’s minimum number for racial, ethnic, and socio-economic subgroups size to be counted toward AYP calculation be amended to 30 students for districts up to an enrollment of 3,000 students and one percent of enrollment for districts with 3,000 or more students, with a maximum cap subgroup number of 200. Currently, the state’s plan has a cap of 30 students in a subgroup for both school buildings and the entire district. The Board believed that the 30 number did not reflect upon larger school districts fairly and that a one percent measurement was more equitable.
The State Board also will request a waiver to increase the one percent cap on the inclusion of alternative assessment scores by students with disabilities for a school and district’s AYP calculation. NCLB allows each state to count no more than one percent of students as proficient when tested on alternate assessments, based on state standards. The Michigan Department of Education was directed by the Board to prepare a proposal to the U.S. Secretary of Education for guidance on this issue so states can provide appropriate assessments for every child, and ask for the USDOE to provide guidance on the apparent conflict between the provisions of NCLB and the recently enacted federal law on educating individuals with disabilities.
Michigan Department of Education
www.michigan.gov/mde
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