Information
and Talking Points Regarding: Senate
Bill 0826 (SB 0826)
Opposed by Leaders
from Several Michigan Mathematics Education Organizations
DACTM ~
MCTM ~ M2C2 ~ MI-AMTE
Leaders of several Michigan mathematics education
organizations met during the week of April 24, 2016, to discuss the potential
ramifications of Michigan Senate Bill 0826 (SB 0826). Many of the proposed
actions from that bill are presented below as they are stated in the Senate
fiscal analysis document.
“The bill would amend the Revised School Code to do the
following:
·
Terminate all plans, programs, efforts, and
expenditures relating to the implementation
of Common Core
standards.
·
Prohibit the State Board of Education and the
Department of Education from adopting or implementing any other national or
multistate consortium standard, or the use of any assessments aligned with such
a standard, that would cede control of Michigan educational standards.
·
Require the State Board and the Department to
adopt for all grades State academic content standards in English language arts,
math, and social science, and require the standards to be substantially the
same as those used in Massachusetts during the 2008 - 2009 school year.
·
Require the State Board to develop academic
content standards independently, instead of as part of a multistate consortium.”
*We ask that you take action today and
contact your state representative and state senator to express your thoughts
and any concerns you may have regarding this proposed action. And, please share
this information, your thoughts, and your concerns with colleagues in other
content areas. Ultimately, ALL content
areas are likely to be affected by this bill, should it pass.
In addition,
Representative Amanda Price is the Chair of the House Education Committee. Her contact information is:
Email: AmandaPrice@house.mi.gov
Phone: (517) 373-0838 or
Toll
Free: (888) 238-1008
http://www.corestandards.org/other-resources/statements-of-support/
Other initiatives and programs would also be affected: MTSS, School Improvement, educator
evaluation, STEM courses and grants, K-3 early literacy efforts, and more!
Kathy Berry, President, Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM)
Karen Reister, President, Michigan Mathematics Consultants and Coordinators (M2C2)
Dr. Shari Stockero, President, Michigan Association of Mathematics Teacher
Educators (MI-AMTE)
Key
talking points you may wish to consider addressing:
1.
The high quality of our Michigan Academic
Standards, including the ELA and Mathematics standards adopted in 2010 and
the K-12 Science Standards adopted just this year (2016), has already been
established. These standards have been supported by a number of respected professional
organizations. See a listing of many
diverse organizations supporting the 2010 Michigan Academic Standards for ELA
and Mathematics at:
2.
The 2010 Michigan Academic Standards for English
Language Arts and Mathematics are just
now reaching the full-implementation stage.
Very limited data is available from state assessments from spring 2015,
and the structure of the spring 2016 assessment has been altered from that 2015
version, complicating any attempts to try to draw conclusions about the
standards, their implementation, and students’ performance and growth. Change to another set of standards would be
highly disruptive to teaching and learning, curriculum, and assessment.
3.
Aside from state assessment, many local schools and districts have only recently
created or purchased resources designed to align to these state standards. Across the state, this cost is likely in the
hundreds of millions of dollars. These costs include software supports and
tools, textbooks, revised and redesigned courses and units of study,
collaborative efforts to connect Career and Technical Education with the core
academic standards, teacher and administrator training, and more. The MAISA ELA
and Mathematics units across K-12 are excellent examples of thousands of hours
of collaborative work by hundreds of educators across Michigan. You are likely
to be able to readily name several other examples of expenses – including time
- your school and district have incurred to be able to best support teachers
and students in learning the content in our state standard.
We thank you for considering these urgent issues. Please know that – on past advice from state
representatives and senators – direct communication with constituents via
telephone or email truly does affect how these legislators think about and
ultimately act upon proposed legislation.
Your voice does have power to effect change to move mathematics education
forward in Michigan. Please take
just a very few minutes of your time to call or email your state legislator
elected officials.
Sincerely,
Scot Acre, President, Detroit Area Council of Teachers of
Mathematics (DACTM)
With support from Valerie Mills, Past-President, National
Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM)
Full text of SB 0826 as well as its associated fiscal
analysis may be found at:
A Fact Sheet from the Michigan Department of Education
regarding the 2010 ELA and Mathematics Standards:
