Applying Research to Practice: K-12 Governance, AI, and Assessment Updates

Join us at the MERA Spring Conference for a day of learning and networking with Michigan's top education professionals!

This will be a dynamic, one-day conference packed with timely insights and hands-on learning opportunities for education professionals. This year’s event will feature:

🔹 K-12 Education Governance in Michigan- Brian Jacob (University of Michigan)

Findings of K-12 Education Governance study focused on: Distribution of authority across state entities and between state and local actors, school district consolidation, school choice, and education finance.

🔹The Role of Student Wellbeing Data in Predicting Student Performance Outcomes – Davie Store (Kent ISD)
Explore how student wellbeing data can be leveraged alongside academic indicators to better understand and predict student performance, supporting more informed, whole-child decision-making.

🔹MI School Data: Featured Updates and Insights – MI School Data Team (CEPI)

🔹How to Use AI to Maximize Your Time – Emily McEvoy (Anchor Bay School District)
Discover practical ways to use AI tools to streamline everyday tasks, increase efficiency, and free up time for high-impact work in education.

🔹 OEAA Updates – Chris Janzer, Andy Middlestead, Abigail Bies (MDE)
Stay informed with essential OEAA information delivered straight from MDE experts to support accurate and effective implementation.

Info: Discover practical ways AI can streamline your workflow and save hours each week. In this session, a local district director shares real examples of using AI to automate large-scale tasks—such as generating departments for thousands of courses in PowerSchool, converting old PD images into editable Word documents, and creating custom Excel macros to auto populate and color code NWEA and DIBELS scores.
Attendees will learn simple, powerful strategies for using AI to reduce manual work and focus more time on supporting staff and students.

Info: The Office of Educational Assessment and Accountability (OEAA) will provide updates on state student assessments, accountability happenings, and further analysis of the gender achievement gap in the 2024-25 state assessment data.

Info: Conference participants will be asked to respond to an online evaluation of the presentations throughout the day. The data collected will be used by the Board to improve future MERA conferences. All submitted evaluations will automatically trigger entry into an end of-the-conference raffle. MERA appreciates all evaluation related comments.

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Host or Publisher Michigan Educational Research Association (MERA)