Recommendations & Implementation

Click on one of the commisssion's recommendations below to access additional information and resources.

1. Make higher education universal. Over the next decade, Michigan must forge an expectation that all students will achieve a postsecondary degree or credential.

Status: Pending. Governor’s “New Merit” proposal is awaiting action in legislature.

2. Set high expectations for high school students through rigorous standards and curriculum. By the 2006–2007 school year, develop rigorous new high school standards that reflect the competencies necessary for postsecondary success and readiness for work.

Status: Implemented. Legislation signed April 20, 2006.

3. Establish a new high school assessment. By the 2007–2008 school year, replace the MEAP with an accepted test for college readiness for the purposes of admission that is useful for aligning curriculum, course sequences, and grade-level content against the new standards.

Status: Implemented. Legislation passed in 2005.

4. Create a culture of entrepreneurship. The State Board of Education must integrate entrepreneurial skills and education into Michigan’s K–12 standards; Michigan’s higher education institutions must develop and offer entrepreneurial degree/certificate programs and create a Center of Excellence for Entrepreneurship and Innovation; and the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth (MDLEG) and Michigan’s K–12 and higher education associations must reinforce efforts to create partnerships among Michigan’s education communities that offer entrepreneurial credentials.

Status: Partially implemented. The state board endorses the 21st Century Jobs Fund Initiative. Over 200 entrepreneurial education programs are in place.

5. Implement new strategies for high school success. Before the decade is over, Michigan’s government, business, education, and civic leadership must put in place a network of newly fashioned secondary schools and learning environments.

Status: Partially implemented. A growing number of restructured high school models are in place or under development.

6. Equip educators and administrators to support the high-expectations high school path. Intermediate school districts (ISDs) and higher education institutions—in partnership with education stakeholders from the business and foundation community—must develop new strategies and resources for educator professional development.

Status: Action pending. SBE/MDE to lead overhaul of teacher preparation, professional development 2006–2007.

7. Create community compacts for educational attainment. Michigan local government leaders must join with business, labor, and education leaders to organize “community compacts” that increase local postsecondary participation rates by 5 percent each year for the next ten years.

Status: Partially implemented. There are many community-driven efforts, most notably the “Kalamazoo Promise.”

8. Improve institutional completion measures. Michigan’s higher education institutions must set their own success goals and benchmarks for student progress and degree completion that emphasize timely progression to the degree.

Status: Partially implemented. Community colleges are participating in P-20 data system to track completions; 15 universities/Presidents Council are committed to best practice networking.

9. Expand access to baccalaureate institutions and degrees. Michigan’s higher education institutions must ensure that residents in all parts of the state have access to baccalaureate programs; universities that currently grant applied baccalaureate degrees must forge new partnerships with community colleges to expand this credential’s availability, enabled by legislation passed during the 2005–2006 legislative session.

Status: Partially implemented. There is an expanded number of university centers and partnerships around the state. Discussions are under way between community colleges, universities, Governor’s Office, MDLEG regarding applied baccalaureate legislative proposal.

10. Expand opportunities for “early college” achievement. During the 2005–2006 session, the legislature must install a dual enrollment funding system that provides incentives for collaboration between secondary and postsecondary institutions; all of Michigan’s school districts must expand opportunities for dual enrollment so that 50 percent of the state’s (and no less than 10 percent of any school’s) high school students are earning college credit by 2015.

Status: Action pending. SBE/MDE reviewed initial recommendations of NGA leadership team, SBE to make specific recommendations late spring 2006.

11. Improve transfer process and award dual degrees. By 2006, Michigan’s higher education institutions must (1) create a statewide “transfer wizard” website containing course articulation and transfer information for all Michigan higher education institutions; and (2) establish the Michigan Milestone Compact, granting an associate’s degree to a student transferring from a community college to a four-year degree-granting institution following completion of necessary course work.

Status: Partially implemented. MACRAO improvements have been made to Michigan Mall transfer site. Several Milestone Compact, Dual Degree programs have been established between four-year and two-year schools.

12. Increase the number of postbaccalaureate professionals. Michigan businesses and foundations must create a significant endowment to fund scholarships for Michigan students to pursue postbaccalaureate degrees; Michigan’s higher education and business communities must partner to greatly expand internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty; and Michigan’s universities must expand dual enrollment programs to allow undergraduate students to move efficiently to postbaccalaureate degree achievement.

Status: Not implemented.

13. Target adults seeking to complete postsecondary credentials. Michigan’s postsecondary education institutions must lead outreach campaigns that will recruit half of the 1.5 million adults with limited postsecondary education to return and complete their degree.

Status: Implemented. The Return to Learn Campaign engages almost all higher education institutions. Major state initiatives target adults: “Breaking Through,” a community college initiative linking adults with low basic skills with accelerated learning programs; the Jobs, Education, and Training (JET) MDLEG/Human Services program to fundamentally reshape the Work First program; the Office of Adult Education Work Readiness Credential; and Achieving the Dream, a proposed community college completion initiative.

14. Conduct an analysis of higher education capacity needs. During the next legislative session, the higher education community must conduct an analysis of the emerging issues related to higher education human resource and physical infrastructure capacity.

Status: Not implemented.

15. Create an emerging economy initiative. The state and federal governments, universities, and private industry must boldly invest in Michigan’s Technology Tri-Corridor to support the research, development, and commercialization of emerging technologies; and Michigan must create a 21st Century Research Fund that will give state, institutional, and private sector researchers improved access to matching funds for major research activities.

Status: Implemented. 21st Century Jobs Fund legislation approved in 2005.

16. Commercialize more research. Michigan’s higher education institutions must make commercialization of research an institutional priority; Michigan’s colleges and universities should establish their own venture capital funds; and Michigan’s universities and community colleges must form networks to accelerate applied research and business formation that leverage existing Smart Zones and business accelerators.

Status: Implemented. All three research universities have regional accelerator efforts, and other regional universities are collaborating on similar efforts.

17. Align postsecondary education with economic needs and opportunities. By 2006 the MDLEG must develop and make available a more powerful and user-friendly system for linking job and occupational data with job/career information and guidance at the community level; MDLEG must organize a process for communicating and reporting annually the match between current and emerging job and occupation needs and the efforts/outcomes of postsecondary education institutions to meet those needs.

Status: Implemented. MDLEG labor market information has been developed as strategic planning/guidance function.

18. Expand the role of higher education institutions in community development. All higher education institutions must aggressively partner with their communities and “cool city” commissions to develop and implement strategies and programs that leverage their unique role.

Status: Implemented. Higher education institutions are part of “cool city” process and institutional commitments to leverage local roles are occurring.

19. Develop a lifelong education tracking System. By 2007 the Michigan Department of Information Technology must develop an interagency data-sharing arrangement, in coordination with Michigan’s K–12 and higher education institutions, that creates a functioning lifelong education tracking system with information from multiple data sources.

Status: Implementation underway. Interagency workgroup is developing system under Department of Management and Budget/Center for Educational Performance and Information leadership.