Senator Dayna Polehanki
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Sen. Polehanki Comments on Gov. Whitmer’s 2024 State of the State Address
LANSING, Mich. (Jan. 24, 2024) — Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia) issued the following statement in response to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “State of the State” address tonight and her proposal to provide Pre-K and postsecondary attainment for every Michigan public school...
District 5: Happy New Year!
Dear Neighbor, I hope you had an amazing holiday season and are enjoying the new year! In 2023, the Senate Majority intentionally created successful outcomes for the people of Michigan. As 2024 begins, I am looking forward to another year of legislative progress and...
Gov. Whitmer Announces Grants for Before- and After- School Programs
$50M in grants expands access to affordable, engaging before, after, and summer school opportunities for over 67,000 students at 780 locations across the state LANSING, Mich. – Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer joined the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education,...
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Senator Polehanki March is Reading Month
Sen Polehanki in Support of SB 944
Sen. Polehanki Testifying in Support of Senate Bills 857 and 858
Senator Polehanki Asks Colleagues to Vote Yes on SB 911
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Federal Oversight
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In Michigan, we’re standing firmly against the Trump administration’s blatant attacks on our people and communities0 CommentsComment on Facebook
ICYMI! Happy to be a cosponsor of the bill, now law, that made this happen👇🏼 ... See MoreSee Less
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While, I won't denigrate Mississippi's efforts to improve its academics, the picture that is being painted by at least one Michigan publication that Mississippi is outperforming Michigan on the NAEP reading test ("The Nation's Report Card") is MISLEADING.
While Mississippi has *scored higher than Michigan ONE TIME over the past decade on the Grade 4 NAEP reading test . . .
Michigan has *scored higher than Mississippi EVERY TIME over the past decade on the Grade 8 NAEP reading test.
The assertion in the Michigan publication that Michigan "abandoned" our 3rd grade read-or-flunk law to our detriment is not supported by test score data.
It's not surprising that states that flunk their "worst" 3rd grade readers achieve elevated results ahead of the Grade 4 NAEP reading test, but these elevated test scores tend to flatten over time (by Grade 8 NAEP reading), like they do with Mississippi.
This is borne out in NAEP data from other states as well, like Florida, which also flunks its worst performing 3rd grade readers.
Source: Grade 4 NAEP Reading (toggle through the years) www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=NP&chort=1&sub=RED&sj=&st=MN&year=2015R3
Source: Grade 8 NAEP Reading (toggle through the years) www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=NP&chort=2&sub=RED&sj=&st=MN&year=2015R3
*statistically significantly higher
Note: NAEP only tests Grade 4 in elementary and Grade 8 in middle school. High school Grade 12 is not tested in Michigan and many other states in reading.
In my time in office, I’m proud to have pushed for a DATA-DRIVEN approach to improving Michigan's reading scores by doing the following:
Funding free high-quality preschool, getting closer and closer to making it universal
Making a law that will completely overhaul how our teachers teach reading (going back to phonics, the "science of reading")
Incentivizing the best and brightest of our young people to join our ranks as educators, while paying our veteran teachers closer to what they deserve (reversing the Snyder years 59% decline in teacher candidates)
On my still-need-to-do list:
Make Kindergarten mandatory
Shrink class sizes in K-3 classrooms
Tackle our chronic absenteeism problem
and more to come . . ... See MoreSee Less
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