Ed Trust President Kati Haycock Speaks at Mackinac Policy Conference
Haycock calls on Michigan to Build on Pre-K Investment to Provide Equitable Opportunities for All Children
MACKINAC ISLAND, MICH. (May 29, 2014) – Today Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust, told state leaders at the Mackinac Policy Conference that Michigan must build on its recent investments in quality pre-school programs to raise achievement for students at all levels — and to close troubling opportunity gaps that too often leave low-income students and students of color behind.
The path to success starts with quality pre-school programs for all children, but it simply doesn’t end there. To ensure that all Michigan students have the opportunity to reach their full academic potential they must have access to high-quality K-12 schools, too, Haycock said.
“Sending children from quality pre-school programs to low-quality K-12 schools is not only harmful to students, but it is harmful to the state of Michigan,” Haycock told the audience of business, philanthropic, and civic leaders.
One of the nation’s leading children’s advocates, Haycock made the case for Michigan to invest in proven strategies that have been shown to dramatically raise achievement levels.
“Michigan has a hugely important opportunity to invest in a strategy that has worked in other states in boosting achievement: a statewide support and evaluation system to give teachers better coaching and timely support to improve their practice,” she said. “Michigan should take this opportunity.”
“Our lawmakers deserve applause for their work on this proposed new system of improvement and fair evaluation for educators,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of The Education Trust-Midwest. “Governor Snyder and the legislature did great work last year by investing $65 million in early childhood funding. Let’s build on that success to improve K-12 school learning.”
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation hosted today’s event at the 2014 Mackinac Policy Conference.
To see Haycock’s presentation at Mackinac, find it here on the Ed Trust-Midwest’s website.
To request a presentation or host a community conversation about Haycock’s talk, and what Michigan can learn from the country’s leading education states, please contact Donnell Green at [email protected]
The Education Trust-Midwest (ETM) is the Midwest division of the national Education Trust located in Washington, D.C. To learn more about ETM’s work in Michigan, access our new 2014 State of Michigan Education report.
The Education Trust-Midwest is Michigan’s only statewide, non-partisan education research, information and advocacy organization focused on what is best for Michigan students, particularly low-income, African-American, Latino and American-Indian students in Michigan. We provide data-driven information and expertise to our state’s families, educators and policy and civic leaders about how to close our achievement gaps.
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