Meeting the Michigan Merit Curriculum: A Teacher Supply and Demand Formula

 

REL Webinar now online

Although most school districts in Michigan had graduation requirements before the introduction of the Michigan Merit Curriculum, the number and types of credits necessary for high school graduation varied by district. As you know, the Michigan Merit Curriculum standardized the number and types of credits for graduation across the state. In the 2010-11 school year, the Michigan Merit Curriculum will be in effect for all high school students in the state. It is particularly important for Michigan school districts to plan accurately for full-time equivalent needs because school budgets are increasingly limited at the same time that high schools are implementing more rigorous courses that require teachers to have mastered specialized areas of expertise. 

On April 20, 2010, Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest and the Institute of Education Sciences conducted a webinar exploring a formula to calculate within-school teacher supply and demand. The webinar, titled Meeting the Michigan Merit Curriculum: A Teacher Supply and Demand Formula, discussed a method that was developed through a collaboration between REL Midwest, researchers at Michigan State University (MSU), and the Michigan Department of Education.

The webinar, featuring Barbara Schneider, Ph.D., and Venessa Keesler from Michigan State University, has been archived and is now available online at REL Midwest Archived Webinars. The archived webinar begins with an introductory address by Dr. Schneider and is followed by a presentation by Venessa Keesler about a simple method to locate potential staffing shortfalls in core subject areas at Michigan high schools.

The link also provides access to REL Midwest's report on this issue. In addition, three tools are available to assist you in calculating within-school teacher supply and demand: a sample schools spreadsheet, a demand calculations spreadsheet, and a demand spreadsheet.

The host of the archived webinar was REL Midwest at Learning Point Associates, the regional educational laboratory serving Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The webinar is part of the Connecting Research to Practice series of events that are sponsored by REL Midwest.

For questions or additional information, please contact Leslie Nylen by telephone (312-288-7608) or e-mail (leslie.nylen@learningpt.org).