Information on Michigan academic standards and instructional resources.
Learn more about the MDE office responsible for providing leadership in curriculum and instruction that provides students with greater choices to prepare for success.
Resources for educator certification, recognition programs, evaluation, and workforce research.
The Equitable Services Ombudsman helps ensure equitable services for private school children, teachers, and other educational personnel.
Resources related to financial and pupil accounting and auditing.
Options available for Michigan students that provide unique learning opportunities.
Food & Nutrition Programs
This MDE office provides resources and technical assistance in physical education, sex education, health education, behavioral, emotional, mental, and social education as well as safety, discipline, and transportation.
Resources for programs and initiatives that support school improvement efforts.
Resources for supporting special education in Michigan.
Michigan has an innovative and comprehensive system of assessments to measure student achievement in learning our state content standards.
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
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The research is clear that there is a positive correlation between increased student achievement and having access to school counseling programs staffed by fully credentialed School Counselors. Michigan schools are strongly encouraged to provide all students with comprehensive school counseling programs led by a Michigan educator with one of the four credentials for school counselors.
Access to School Counselors is imperative to Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan, which includes the following Goals:
School Counselors provide the following services: academic and career development, social/emotional development, advocacy, and leadership. School counselors help each and every student: apply academic achievement strategies, manage emotions, apply interpersonal skills, and plan for post-secondary options (higher education, military, workforce).
MDE strongly recommends and encourages school administrators to staff and assign credentialed School Counselors who are uniquely trained according to preparation standards to provide direct and indirect services aligned with the Michigan Guidance Comprehensive Model and American School Counselor National Model in accordance with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA).
School Counselors strive to create a future world where all students thrive. They are prepared to deliver school counseling programs that improve life-readiness and academic success, including futures in a career, college, and/or military service. An effective school counseling program is connected to a school’s academic mission and school improvement plan based on the following areas of the ASCA National Model: define, deliver, manage, and assess.
As professionals and educators, school counselors should not be assigned duties that could take them away from their primary responsibility of delivering services to students. Examples of what ASCA classifies as appropriate and inappropriate activities for School Counselors
are listed in the ASCA School Counselor Roles and Ratios, including the recommended 250-to-1 ratio of students to School Counselors.
According to ASCA, an individual is performing any of the duties related to a school counseling program if their position description or day-to-day duties include any or all of the following roles:
To provide school counselor services to students in Elementary, Middle and High School grades it is
essential that School Counselors are appropriately assigned to duties in accordance with Michigan
regulations and ASCA.
As educational leaders, School Counselors participate in ongoing professional development in college and career readiness and mental health initiatives, personal and social issues, technology, and pedagogy so they can provide professional development and support for school-wide initiatives and improvement plans.
In partnership with classroom teachers, school counselors prepare students for the rigor of college and provide practical strategies that will benefit all students in the world of work. School counselors extend their work beyond the physical walls of the school by providing online resources. As program administrators, school counselors build and maintain counseling resources and guide teachers and students in selecting relevant and resonant resources in print or digital format, as well as digital tools for learning.
