http://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0509/26/A22-326137.htm
Adopt tougher curriculum to improve Michigan schools
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>Jobs and state's economic future are on the line
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>The Detroit News
>Sunday, September 25, 2005
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>Proposed education fixes
>A panel chaired by Lt. Gov. John Cherry suggested changes including:
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>* Create a curriculum that actually reflects
>skills required to succeed after high school.
>* Remake high schools to motivate students.
>* Create compacts that plug business and entrepreneurship into education.
>* Teach all students to meet college entrance requirements.
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>A tough statewide public education curriculum is
>needed to give Michigan a chance at erasing its
>education deficit. Curriculum development by the
>state's 500 local school districts ranges from
>disastrous to disappointing.
>The current system of education benchmarks is
>not working. Thousands of students are
>sleep-walking through classes and landing
>unprepared at colleges and universities.
>At Henry Ford Community College, for example,
>about 82 percent of the school's new students
>take remedial math.
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>Students don't meet current benchmarks
>Technically, the state has benchmarks for
>students to meet. But not everybody's paying
>attention to them. In the class of 2005, about
>33 percent met or exceeded the state standards
>for social studies.
>A hallmark of Michigan education is local
>control of schools. But the state Constitution
>gives overall supervision to the State Board of
>Education.
>The two concepts are not mutually exclusive. The
>state already has education benchmarks and can
>revisit them without micromanaging classrooms
>and getting involved in daily lesson plans.
>Setting a higher bar and modernizing curriculum
>would give Michigan students a better start
>after graduating from high school.
>Over the years, a lot of questionable tradition
>has built up. Many schools teach biology,
>chemistry and physics in that order. But a
>researcher reports that the order was originally
>determined by listing the subjects
>alphabetically at the turn of the last century.
>Similarly, biology and chemistry are often
>taught as separate classes when it might make
>more sense to teach them together as
>biochemistry.
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>Tougher standards prepare better workers
>Gov. Jennifer Granholm recently said a rigorous
>mandatory curriculum for Michigan high schools
>is critical to the state's economic future. That
>is, the state's jobless rate is high partly
>because Michigan is not producing educated
>workers. Michigan lacks the culture of education
>required to keep the state competitive, a study
>commission said last year.
>Fixes fall to the State Board of Education,
>which has a long history of being out to lunch.
>But the board, spurred by Granholm, is expected
>to announce curriculum recommendations this fall.
>Those standards should be tough, and parents,
>teachers and students alike should understand
>that more work will be required of them.
>Change can not come incrementally. Michigan must
>move swiftly to make sure its students are
>learning what they need to know to compete in a
>global economy.
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> Copyright © 2005
> The Detroit News.
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