Michigan
The Coalition on Coalitions (CoCs) supports NAMM members and their networks working on state-level music and arts education advocacy efforts. The Michigan network provides tactics, resources and best practices to move and improve state-level policies, funding, and advocacy for music and arts education.
State Profile
To customize your state profile to reflect the current education advocacy partnerships in your state, please contact Jessica Cortez.
Action Alerts
1. The Michigan Department of Education is inviting feedback from parents and caregivers of school-aged children on Michigan’s new, online “school transparency dashboard.” The dashboard is designed to show the performance of every public school in Michigan, including public school academies (charter schools).
The new dashboard is designed especially for parents and other caregivers. It will report on more than 20 different factors—or measures—that parents and other stakeholders have said are important to them when evaluating the quality of a school. The survey allows participants to view components of the new dashboard, then answer questions about the way information is presented, the usefulness of certain features, and unique interests.
- Survey details:
- You can complete the survey on any computer, tablet, or mobile device.
- The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.
- All answers will be confidential.
- The survey must be completed by November 15, 2017.
The dashboard is currently under development by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE). It is expected to be made available to the public by early 2018.
Link here to stay up to date on MDE's ESSA activity
2. Connect with, join, and take action with Creative Michigan.
3. Distribute NAMM Advocacy brochures: Striking a Chord, ESSA 3Rs, and Why Learn to Play to parents, teachers, and other stakeholder networks in Michigan. Contact Jessica Cortez to request supplies.
4. Reference: NAfME Possible State-Level Requests.
Updates
Winter, 2018
Michigan’s ESSA plan was approved by the US Dept. of Education last November and includes the fine arts in the school accountability system.
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has just released the Parent Dashboard for School Transparency: www.mischooldata/parentdashboard. This dashboard lets parents search by school and learn how they are performing in a number of areas, compared to state averages and similar demographics. Data related to the arts is not yet included in this dashboard.
At a recent stakeholders meeting MDE outlined the index (0-100) by which school performance is measured. Arts education makes up a portion of a 14 percent portion which contributes to this scoring index.
Overall MDE focus related to ESSA remains in areas of equity, low-performing sub-groups, and other academic areas. This is fine and dandy but where does music fit in, since it can benefit these groups enormously?!
NAMM Member Contact
Pete Birchler and Jimmy Edwards
Marshall Music
pbirchler@marshallmusic.com
jedwards@marshallmusic.com
State Music & Arts Organizations
Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs
ArtServe Michigan
Americans for the Arts, Michigan