Talent & Education

With COVID cases among children rising, health officials ordered schools in the western U.P. counties of Iron and Dickinson to mask up in elementary schools. Barry and Eaton counties in mid-Michigan did the same. Many parents aren’t happy.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is spending $70 million for COVID testing for students and staff.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District had 50,000 students enrolled on the first day of school, but it may take home visits to get all of them in the classroom.

Fewer K-12 students will likely have to stay home from school because of exposure to COVID under new recommendations from the state health department. But local schools and health departments will have the final say on safety rules this year.

African-American and low-income third-graders were far more likely to be flagged for possible retention due to low reading test scores than their white or non-poor classmates. How many students are actually being held back remains unclear.

Eight of the nine most populous counties in the state now have orders requiring face masks in school buildings.

Use this database to compare scores in math and English for grades 3-8.

Scores fall, in some cases alarmingly so. But educators caution against reading too much into results from a year in which students were in and out of classrooms.

If Michigan’s experience is similar to other states, brace yourself for lower standardized test scores and bigger gaps between racial and income groups, caused by the pandemic.

The latest counties to mandate masks in schools are Wayne, Benzie, Leelanau, Emmet, Charlevoix, Otsego and Antrim.

Parents against mask mandates in schools have grabbed most of the attention in school board meetings and protests. Now, parents who favor mask mandates to protect against COVID’s spread are organizing.

Data released by the state and published here as a searchable database provides information on current mask policies for many of Michigan’s 537 public school districts.

Even without a statewide school mask mandate, many Michigan students will be required to wear face coverings when they return to classrooms in the coming days.

Some campuses went for mandates. But others tried prizes to increase the number of vaccinated students and parents on campus as the fall semester begins.

Low-income students aren’t going to college at the rates they were before the pandemic. Is it time for the state to make higher ed more affordable?

With no state mandate, local Michigan superintendents are being forced to make tough decisions on whether to require face masks to protect against COVID this fall. The debate is dividing communities like Eaton Rapids.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who said she would “follow the science” on pandemic policy, is apparently not following the advice of her chief medical officer on school face mask mandates.

Check out the latest on rules set by colleges across the state as they prepare to start their fall semesters while the COVID-19 Delta variant spreads, mostly among the unvaccinated.

Michigan schools are investing heavily in summer school to accelerate learning. They are hiring reading, math and behavioral specialists (and a few drones) as students transition back to classrooms.

The board, by a 6-2 vote, rejected a non-binding resolution by Republican members to prevent schools from requiring masks, COVID tests or quarantining unvaccinated students. One GOP member was in tears.