View Comments
LANSING In a normal year around this time, thousands of students across Michigan would be quietly filling in bubbles on the state’s standardized test.
As with all things education and COVID, it’s a little different this year.
In 2020, with the virus still new and unknown, the U.S. Department of Education waived its requirement that schools administer state summative assessments. That included the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, otherwise known as the M-STEP, which is administered to students in grades 3 through 8 and 11.
Michigan officials tried for months to secure another waiver this year, but were denied. Instead, they got a compromise: Schools are required to
East Lansing teacher reinstated after probe of slavery assignments
View Comments
EAST LANSING A MacDonald Middle School teacher returned to work Monday following an investigation into two assignments that drew criticism from parents.
East Lansing Public Schools concluded its investigation of Matt Christians, an eighth grade history teacher who assigned controversial assignments on slavery during Black History Month, Superintendent Dori Leyko confirmed.
Leyko sent an email to all eighth grade families Monday informing them of Christians return. She declined further comment due to scheduling conflicts.
Christians first came under fire earlier this year for assigning a worksheet that asked students to imagine themselves as enslaved people. Following public criticism of that assignment, a second assignment surfaced, from 2012, in which Christians asked students to argue for the positive aspects of slavery.
An eighth-grade history teacher is on leave after a 2012 assignment in which he asked students to write about the positive aspects of slavery surfaced.
(Illustration: DepositPhotos) An East Lansing middle school teacher is on paid administrative leave while the district investigates a second assignment he gave students on slavery. MacDonald Middle School social studies teacher Matt Christians first came under fire earlier this month after he asked students to write about what it would be like to be a slave. A Black parent raised concerns and the district apologized, the Lansing State Journal reports. Since then, the district has learned of a 2012 assignment in which he asked students to write about the positive side of slavery. One student refused to do the assignment, saying there were no positives to slavery, the paper reports. Christians reportedly warned of grade consequences.
(Illustration: DepositPhotos) An East Lansing middle school teacher is on paid administrative leave while the district investigates a second assignment he gave students on slavery. MacDonald Middle School social studies teacher Matt Christians first came under fire earlier this month after he asked students to write about what it would be like to be a slave. A Black parent raised concerns and the district apologized, the Lansing State Journal reports. Since then, the district has learned of a 2012 assignment in which he asked students to write about the positive side of slavery. One student refused to do the assignment, saying there were no positives to slavery, the paper reports. Christians reportedly warned of grade consequences.