Lansing School District Press Conference to Announce State of Michigan Partnership Efforts
Lansing School District to hold press conference to announce State of Michigan partnership efforts
(Lansing, MI) – The Lansing School District will hold a press conference at 11 a.m., on Wednesday, November 30th in the Board of Education room of the Shirley M. Rodgers Administration Building, located at 519 W. Kalamazoo Street in Lansing to discuss strategies regarding the recently released 2021-2022 School Accountability Reports. The reports use statewide student assessments and other quality metrics to measure school performance for all Michigan public schools.
M-STEP tests are one measure of student performance. The Lansing School District combines M-STEP, local assessments, assignments and projects and other data for a more well-rounded picture of academic achievement.
“Since I arrived in Lansing 16 months ago, I was struck by the great people working for the school district,” said superintendent Ben Shuldiner. “All staff members I met wanted to do right by students. However, the Lansing School District had antiquated systems and structures, a lack of district-wide focus, and a history of low performance. Today, we acknowledge what the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has stated, that for far too long, the Lansing School District has underserved our children. We have already taken significant steps to ameliorating the areas of concern: we have hired more teachers, we have increased Pre-K enrollment, we have created an alternative education school, we have increased Career and Technical Education programs, we passed a bond to build new schools, we have created the Department of Instruction to focus on improving instruction in the classrooms to name just a handful of positive changes. But we must do more. We welcome this partnership with MDE so that together the school district and MDE can better serve our students and our community.”
In the past 16 months, the Lansing School District has worked hard to implement new structures and a complete reorganization.
“We now have established an Office of Schools, and have conducted over 600 visits to schools this year,” said deputy superintendent of schools Jessica Benavides. “This partnership with the State of Michigan will take a team effort including our district leaders, principals, teachers, support staff and union leadership.”
“We know the work to make significant changes has just started, and we look forward to our partnership with the State of Michigan to continue the great work we have done to get the Lansing School District students the education they deserve,” said Gabrielle Lawrence, president of the Board of Education.
