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State Board Adopts
Substantive Policies for Early
Childhood Literacy, Elevating Educational
Leadership
Michigan Department of Education, September
12, 2002
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State Board of Education members unanimously approved today
policy recommendations for two of its task forces which will
improve the way schools handle early childhood literacy and
encourage and nurture school administrators.
The Board’s Ensuring Early
Childhood Literacy task force, chaired by Board Member Sharon
A. Wise, created four overarching policies adopted by the
Board in regard to early childhood literacy efforts and
resources. Those policies include:
• Promoting public awareness
to inform citizens to become dedicated to early literacy.
• Promoting early literacy
and fostering collaborative partnerships that optimize the
growth and development of Michigan’s children.
• Ensuring that Michigan’s
children will receive seamless, high-quality early literacy
experiences.
• Providing high-quality
early literacy opportunities for Michigan children that are
taught by knowledgeable and capable individuals.
The task force also directed
the Michigan Department of Education to undertake several
initiatives to support these overarching goals, including
encouraging Intermediate School Districts (ISDs) to promote
community awareness of early learning programs, and building
partnerships with local libraries, hospitals, and medical
organizations to provide free early learning materials to
families with young children.
The Board also directed the
Department of Education to draft recommendations to the
Legislature to restore and increase funding for
state-sponsored literacy programs, including the Michigan
School Readiness Program (MSRP), and the All Students Achieve
Program - Parent Involvement and Education (ASAP-PIE). A
second recommendation would focus on restoring funding to
support Regional Literacy Training Center efforts to increase
the number of teachers and administrators receive professional
development in early literacy development and acquisition.
A third and final
recommendation would also be worded to encourage the
Legislature to fund full-day, full- year, high quality early
education programs for at-risk young children.
Board members also
unanimously approved policies from its Elevating Educational
Leadership task force, chaired by Board Member and NASBE
Delegate Marianne Yared McGuire.
Those policies include:
• Creating an advisory panel of seven to nine members to
monitor and review proposed changes in
educational policy and their potential implications for school
administrators.
• Working with the advisory panel to develop a new system of
endorsement for school administrators, with
special emphasis on school building principals, establishing
standards for educational leadership that
incorporate core competencies.
• Supporting high quality professional development through the
establishment of an effective, state-wide
mentoring program for new principals, and securing an
appropriate level of funding for it through the federal
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation.
Full copies of both task force reports are available on the
Department’s website,
www.michigan.gov/mde.
In other business, Board members extensively discussed
progress toward complying with NCLB, implementing Education
YES!, the state’s new school accreditation program, and
potentially adopting a revised definition of Adequate Yearly
Progress (AYP). No decisions were made on the items.
The Board will further
discuss the items at its October 17 meeting in Lansing. State
Board Adopts Substantive Policies for Early Childhood
Literacy, Elevating Educational Leadership.
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