One of the State Board of Education’s top priority goal is to “Re-Imagine the pre-K-12 educational system in Michigan that will lead to the State Board’s expectations for student achievement.”

The Michigan Department of Education is in the process of developing over the next nine months a plan to ReImagine Michigan’s educational system to meet the needs and challenges of this 21st Century global knowledge economy.

“We must set our goals high and challenge every student to surpass them,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan said. “We have to get out of this old way of thinking and create a ‘New Normal’.”

President Obama expressed in his Inaugural Address: “The ground is shifted beneath us… and we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.”

Superintendent Flanagan invites you to join the Michigan Department of Education’s efforts to ReImagine that transformation, and in nine months have Demonstration Districts ready to go with the new ReImagined system.

To begin, we provide below some key premises on ReImagining education in Michigan, and some questions to ponder in which to offer feedback to the Michigan Department of Education.

Based upon feedback and input this process receives, we may elaborate on these issues to help provide clarity in the future, or add, or modify. This site will be updated with new and helpful ideas and strategies as the Michigan Department goes forward.

To offer input and feedback on the questions below, please send MDE an email.

• The primary objective the ReImagining Michigan schools is to improve student achievement for ALL kids and develop a culture of achievement within school districts to sustain it.
• With the current fiscal challenges, we can expect that schools will either receive cost of living increases or no additional dollars in state funding for the next 5-10 years.
• We need to focus on ways to produce higher achievement with equal or lower cost than the present system.
• We need to ReImagine and restructure how education is delivered, both in terms of teaching and learning and how schools districts are managed. We should be engaging in demonstration projects using innovative strategies that go beyond the old, static ways public education has operated over the past 60 years.
• We need to do a better job of taking what we know works, and implementing it in our schools and classrooms.

• What could we be doing better now? 1) in terms of achievement; and 2) in terms of managing our resources (i.e. how can we become more efficient at managing our financial resources?)
• In what ways can we re-structure and improve the delivery of instruction, in terms of where, when, and how?
• Are there ways we can make better use of technology to enhance teaching and learning while reducing costs?
• What "one-time" investments would help us to take student achievement to the next level?
• What are successful schools doing that we can learn from? What practices have been demonstrated as successful in schools that we can expand upon and help bring to other districts?
• Where can we find other additional financial resources other than the state?
• Are we making proper use of school data to help improve achievement?
• What are our major obstacles to improving student achievement?
• What strategies can we implement to overcome them?