The MAISA Summer Conference was held June 18 and 19, 2008 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The theme of the conference was “Creating a World Class Education: An International Perspective.” Approximately sixty MAISA administrators from across the state attended the conference.

Conference Presenters included:

Dr. Dongping Zheng, Assistant Professor, Confucius Institute, MSU
Dr. Chun Lai, Assistant Professor, Confucius Institute, MSU
Dr. Paul Conway, National University of Ireland, Department of Education, Leeholme
Robert Purcell, General Motors, Vice President of Global Strategic Planning-Powertrain

Highlights

• Insights from China tour
• Gaining a global perspective
• Mapping the future—for Michigan and for MAISA

Insights from China tour
Participants heard from a panel consisting of three State Board of Education members, the executive director of MASA and a MVU administrator who also works with MSU. All of these panelists had participated in a study tour of China’s education through Michigan State University. They discussed their insights about China’s education system and the implications for Michigan.

Conference Panel Members included:

William Mayes, Executive Director, MASA/MAISA
Dan Schultz, MVI-MSU
Kathleen Straus, State Board of Education
Elizabeth Bauer, State Board of Education
Carolyn Curtin, State Board of Education

Gaining a global perspective
The participants engaged with professors from MSU-Confucius Institute and Ireland to better understand the education direction and planning process used by both China and some European countries. Then they heard a presentation and interacted with an expert on global strategic planning from General Motors Corporation.

Mapping the future—for Michigan and for MAISA
MAISA conferees were asked to share their views of what Michigan needs to consider in order to create a world class education system and what MAISA needs to consider to provide support creating that system.

This summary was drawn from workgroup discussions, and may include information critical to the future success of Michigan public education and therefore to the economy of Michigan.

KEY LEARNING AND NEXT STEPS

• In order to assure the children of Michigan receive an excellent and equitable world class education, Michigan will need to define “word class.” A definition might include such components as:
• Cognitive development
• Acquisition of 21 st century essential knowledge
• Logic and critical thinking
• Problem solving skills
• Creativity
• 21 st Century learning skills and strategies
• Technological literacy
• Civic development

• Once the definition and components are agreed upon, Michigan will need to assess its current strength in delivering each component and benchmark its success against best practice domestically and internationally.

• The use of researched best practices, benchmarks, and a gap analysis would then provide a basis of knowledge from which to create a plan of improvement for Michigan’s public education system.

• It is important to know that China and some European countries have already developed a strategic plan for their public education system based on the research of international best practices. Their approach is consistent with the teaching of Dr. Deming who would point out that setting direction without a basis of knowledge is not leadership but is tampering, which is dysfunctional and harmful to a system.

• The participants of this MAISA conference expressed their interest in and support for developing a research process resulting in verifiable data/best practice that could be used by Michigan policy makers to guide the development of future strategic direction for Michigan’s public education system.

• As strategist Bob Purcell noted in his presentation, a successful strategy requires:
• A plan; and
• A will to execute the plan

• Our Association believes our state leadership has the will to improve our education. The challenges we face are:
• Lack of a rich research-based resource as the foundation from which to develop a strategic plan for public education in Michigan
• Lack of a collaborative process involving all stakeholders to develop and implement a strategic plan for Michigan.