Education

Anthony Ianni of Okemos played basketball at Michigan State. Current Sports host Al Martin talks with him about his efforts to promote greater understanding of people on the autism spectrum.

Thousands of students are returning to Michigan State University for the start of fall classes.  Current State’s Kevin Lavery captures some of the sounds and emotions of the back to school move-in.

Thousands of returning and first-time students have arrived at Michigan State University for the start of the fall semester.  For several days, many have been moving into their dorm rooms.  Current State’s Kevin Lavery caught up with a few students and parents caught up in the moment. 

Michigan’s Latino population has grown more than 40-percent in the last 15 years. A new Michigan State University report studies socioeconomic factors affecting the well-being of various Latino communities. Current State talks with Dr. Rubén Martinez, director of the Julian Samora Research Institute, about their findings.

The two-year-old Lansing Financial Empowerment Center is launching a new program called “Lansing SAVE.” An automatic child savings account will be opened when enrolling in kindergarten in a Lansing public school. Current State talks with Lansing SAVE director Jayme King, and San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros, who started a similar program there.

Charters schools and vouchers might be the most most controversial debates about schooling options. But there’s another program that’s sending tens of thousands of Michigan kids away from their assigned schools. Current State talks with Joshua Cowen, associate professor at MSU, about his ongoing research into the program.

The Lansing School District failed to realize hundreds of thousands of dollars in projected savings after it outsourced bus transportation. Peter Spadafore, President of the district’s Board of Education talks with Current State about what happened.

Current State talks with Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon about the school’s recent tuition increase, its new office handling all investigations of discrimination including sexual assaults and harassment, and making Michigan State a tobacco-free campus.

A new water exhibit at the Impression 5 Science Museum in Lansing is getting a huge financial boost from the Rotary Club of Lansing.

An MSU professor who has authored a book about the hook-up culture on today’s college campuses has organized a program this weekend geared toward preparing high school girls for the pressures they may encounter when they move on to college.

More than a half million Michigan public school students have now completed their first M-STEP tests. The Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress replaced the MEAP assessment beginning in April. M-STEP is designed as an online assessment that covers content from the more demanding Common Core curriculum.  It has fewer multiple choice questions and more that require problem solving and critical thinking skills.

School’s out for summer! Today marks the last day of school for many districts, including the Lansing School District. As students clean out their lockers and say goodbye to friends, many will be looking forward to summer camps and family vacations. But for some kids, particularly those who are low-income, enriching summer activities aren’t always accessible. And that can have a huge impact on their academics come fall because of something called the “summer slide”. That’s the term used to describe the learning losses kids experience over the summer.

  Road funding, education spending and other budget issues are among the focus of discussions at the state capitol.   There were several developments yesterday in education spending.  A measure meant to bridge the funding gap between school districts emerged.   Meanwhile, a focus in the road funding debate continues to be whether the money for a fix can be found among existing revenue or if new revenue is required.

The economy in Michigan is on the upswing, and education budgets that were cut during the great recession are starting to increase again. But despite some funding boosts, educational achievement in Michigan has remained fairly stagnant in the past 10 years. And that’s meant that some of the states that used to trail Michigan, like Tennessee and Florida, are now ahead of us in national rankings. Advocates says Michigan students are unlikely to catch up without substantial changes to the state’s educational policy.

Say the words “climate change,” and the first thing that might come to mind is melting polar ice caps. That’s an accurate image, but of course, climate change affects the entire planet. Scientists say the rising tides from all that melting ice have to go somewhere, and some Michigan State University students are watching one remote part of the world that’s starting to see some effects.

Sister Cyril Mooney is renowned for her decades of work to improve education for the impoverished of Calcutta, India. Sister Cyril was initiated into the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Loreto order, in her native Ireland in 1955. She has been affiliated with the Loreto School of Calcutta almost all the years since.