Project ReImagine Districts Announced to Help Lead Education Reform Efforts in Michigan

November 13, 2009
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan announced today the selection of 14 Project ReImagine demonstration districts to begin innovative strategies using public and private partnerships to help change the way education is delivered to Michigan school children.

Flanagan issued a challenge to Michigan's public schools this summer to boldly and dramatically reimagine their systems to ensure all students learn and achieve at high levels. Four of the 14 proposals are intermediate school districts (ISDs), which brings the total number of districts involved in Project ReImagine to 65. A total of 71 proposals were submitted to the Michigan Department of Education.

"We are excited that so many districts worked collaboratively with community partners to reimagine education and propose system-wide reform," Flanagan said. "These are incubators of reform that push the current limits and eventually can be replicated in schools across Michigan."

Flanagan explained that these districts now are eligible to be included in Michigan's Race to the Top application, providing them with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use federal economic recovery funds to support dramatic change to prepare Michigan's children for college and the 21st Century global economy.

Flanagan encourages all of the districts that submitted proposals to be committed to going forward with their Project ReImagine plans regardless of the additional federal funding. "Getting Race to the Top will be icing on the cake," he added.

The demonstration districts are: Armada, Battle Creek Lakeview, Comstock, Detroit, Farwell, Grand Rapids, N.I.C.E. Community Schools in Ishpeming, Oxford, Utica, University Preparatory Academy in Detroit, Ingham ISD, Mason-Lake ISD, Saginaw ISD, and Traverse Bay Area ISD.

"Project ReImagine is driving grass-roots education reform in Michigan," said State Board of Education President Kathleen N. Straus. "These are ideas that have been developed at the local school level and reflect a real cross-section of school districts and student populations ? urban, rural, and suburban."

Key initiatives in the proposals include: language immersion at the elementary level; reforming teacher assignment processes and compensation packages; project-based learning; early/middle college; from seat time to performance; flexible calendar and flexible grouping of students; multiple pathways to a diploma; early childhood; and regionalizing food service, business, transportation, operations and maintenance, human resources, and administrative services.