Dear MAISA Member,

I want to begin this month’s update by acknowledging the FY 2025–26 Education Omnibus Budget (Conference Senate Bill 166 [S-3] CR-1) was approved last week by Michigan legislators. While we are grateful to have clarity moving forward, our team is still carefully reviewing the details to understand the full impact for students, districts, and communities across Michigan. We will keep you informed as we identify key implications for our shared work.

In this month’s InSiDe Update, you’ll find important dates, new resources, and opportunities to provide your feedback and expertise. Thank you for your continued leadership and dedication—it is your efforts that move this work forward for Michigan’s learners.

Here are my Three Things:

1. Calendar Dates & Events

We are looking ahead to several important opportunities for learning and collaboration. Please mark your calendars and register early when possible—it helps us prepare to deliver the best experience for all.

• General Membership Meeting with Dr. John Hattie – November 2025
• ESR Summit Part 2 in Big Rapids – November 19, 2025
• And don’t forget: the first two episodes of Java With John are now live!

2. Your Voice Matters

Your feedback shapes the quality and direction of the resources we create. Please take a moment to share your perspectives through:

• The MiStrategyBank User Feedback Survey, designed to improve the platform’s design, functionality, and usefulness.
• Opportunities to provide input for the MiGreatDataLake team, which is gathering teacher and administrator feedback to ensure our statewide data trust meets real classroom and district needs.
• The more voices we hear, the stronger and more responsive our tools and supports become.

3. Tools & Resources

We are excited to share new and updated resources to support educators in the field:



• New Literacy Essentials Playbooks, beginning with K-3 Essential 4, are now available to help instructional leaders bring professional learning directly into schools.
• Achieving Balance in Classroom Assessment offers practical strategies to strengthen responsive practices.
• Ingham ISD launched BackPack Press (backpackpress.org), a multimedia hub to amplify educator and student voices in local communities.

We will continue to monitor developments in Lansing regarding the state budget and school aid budget closely and keep you updated as soon as new information becomes available.

Thank you for your leadership and commitment to students during this uncertain time. Together, we are building momentum, creating systems that work, and ensuring Michigan students have the opportunities they deserve.

We are Better Together,

j

• Java With John: Episodes 1 and 2 are out now!
• New Literacy Essentials Playbooks 
• MASA Literacy Session "All Systems Go!"
• Early Childhood Administrative Network (ECAN) Monroe County Great Start Collaborative Early Literacy
• Michigan Learning Channel (MLC) September 2025 Updates
• MiGreatDataLake: Seeking Teacher Input
• MiSEN September 2025 Update
• Achieving Balance in Classroom Assessment
• Ingham ISD launches new website: BackPack Press
• MiStrategyBank (MSB) User Feedback Survey
• General Membership Meeting, Nov. 3 and Dr. John Hattie PL Day, Nov. 4
• Emergency Seclusion & Restraint Series Beginning November 19, 2025

Note: Please click "View entire message" at the bottom of this email to view the full newsletter!

Previous InSiDe Updates

Want to view the previous edition of the InSiDe Update? Click here to view the August 2025 edition.

Java With John, a new MAISA podcast, is out now!

Hosted by Dr. John Severson, MAISA's Executive Director, this series brings Michigan's ISD leaders together to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and collaborative spirit that drive educational leadership across the state.

The podcast provides a resource for leaders by sharing perspectives from across Michigan. It helps MAISA members by providing them with a statewide system of peers and thought partners, which is essential for navigating the complexities of their roles. Java With John also serves as a platform to discuss how MAISA’s four areas of service and support—advocacy, professional development, networking, and resources—empower ISDs as champions of student success. These discussions offer valuable insights and strategies for building relationships with local districts, responding to emerging needs like AI and legislation, and fostering collaboration.

• Watch episode 1 here
• Watch episode 2 here

In the inaugural episode, Dr. Severson sat down with Ken Gutman, Superintendent of Oakland Schools and MAISA Board Member, to talk about fostering trust, strengthening relationships with local districts, and navigating leadership in a landscape of both collaboration and autonomy.

In our second episode, John is joined by Amy Brauer, MAISA's Early Childhood Administrators Network (ECAN) Director and Early Literacy Professional Learning PreK Coordinator. During this episode, they discussed the impact of Early Childhood education and how to support emerging learners and educational leaders in our state.

These resources have been designed as companion documents to the K-3 Essential Instructional Practices. The first of these playbooks has been released on our website (under K-3 Essential 4). The playbooks are designed to support the successful implementation of the Essentials, providing instructional leaders with the capacity to deliver professional learning directly within the context of their school. They will be open to all for use, but will be a focus of the Literacy Leader Network.

Additional playbooks are in the works and will be released as they become available!

Michelle Goaley, Jill Ball, and Tyler Bader (pictured left to right)

At the MASA Fall Conference, we had the chance to spotlight an amazing team showing the power of strong systems in advancing literacy!

Michelle Goaley (MAISA), Jill Ball (Tuscola ISD), and Tyler Bader (Unionville-Sebewaing Elementary) shared how creating the right local conditions can truly drive change.

Their work is grounded in:

• Literacy Coaching
• Leadership Teams
• Professional Learning
• Shared Commitments
• Coaching Cycles & Learning Labs

Together, these efforts are making a big impact on students and schools!

Here's the September 2025 Smore update about MAISA's partnership with the Michigan Learning Channel (MLC) that brings the Literacy Essentials to life through the literacy broadcast series called Read, Write, ROAR!

Here are a few highlights:

• New updates to the Michigan Learning Channel's (MLC) website, including easy-to-use and quick access to learning resources
• Information about a new free writing module on EduPaths
• New Read, Write, ROAR! Home Connections cards 
• MLC visits Oakland Schools

Click here to read the full update via Smore!

As the MiGreatDataLake technical team prepares to begin building the MiGreatDataLake with our partners from Amazon Web Services, MiGreatDataLake Advisory members have been conducting a Learning Tour across Michigan. Our goal is to understand the data needs of teachers and administrators, identify their frustrations with data access, and share our vision for a P-26 Data Trust across Michigan schools and educational agencies.

To date, we have met with several MAISA leadership networks, including ECAN, GELN, METL, MSPRA, and SEILN. Our team has also connected with a group of school administrators in the Upper Peninsula and superintendents at the MASA fall conference.

From these meetings with over 200 administrators and ISD personnel, common themes have emerged:

• Timely and actionable data: Educators want to make immediate adjustments and respond to student needs proactively rather than reactively.
• Integrated student data: Administrators desire a single program to connect and house all student data elements, including academics, state testing, behavior, and attendance. They want to analyze a child’s full program history without manual data entry.
• Data integration with MICIP: There is a need for a system to integrate data with MICIP plans to align district needs with improvement strategies.

Our next step is to engage directly with teachers and staff in the classroom. In October, we will be meeting with diagnostic personnel from Eastern UP ISD and teachers in the central Upper Peninsula. While this is a good start, we need to connect with more teachers across Michigan.

Please let us know if you have an upcoming professional development or school improvement event where our team could have an hour to meet with teachers. We would like to gather their feedback on data needs and frustrations, and demonstrate a prototype teacher tool built upon the power of the MiGreatDataLake. 

Feel free to contact Doug Leisenring at dleisenring@gomaisa.org or 906-399-4123 if you are aware of any opportunities for the MiGreatDataLake advisory team to meet with teachers in your region.

Ingham ISD has launched a new website called BackPack Press.

Backpackpress.org "is a multimedia storytelling hub designed to connect schools with their communities. An initiative of Ingham Intermediate School District (Ingham ISD), BackPack Press celebrates local education by amplifying the voices of students, educators and staff across our region," the website said.

The site, launched in September, will act as a great resource for ISDs, schools, and networks.

To learn more about, head to Backpackpress.org.

We're inviting you to participate in our MiStrategyBank (MSB) User Feedback Survey! We want your insights to help us improve the platform's design, functionality, and content to better meet your needs as an educator in Michigan.

The survey is divided into three key areas to get your valuable feedback:

• Product & Functionality: We want to know what you think about the platform's design, ease of use, and search features.
• Partnerships & Engagement: Share your thoughts on how well MSB supports collaboration and how aware you are of the different roles within the platform's ecosystem.
• End-User Engagement: Tell us how valuable you find the content and what resources would encourage you to use MSB more often.

Why Your Feedback Matters

MSB was created by educators for educators. The more the tool is utilized, the more robust and comprehensive it becomes. Your input is crucial to making MSB more robust, useful, and effective for educators to find, select, and implement strategies. This allows more time for educators to do what they do best, build relationships with your students. 

The survey includes optional sections for you to provide your name and email if you're interested in participating in a future design session or focus group to give more in-depth feedback.

The survey is open now. Thank you for your continued partnership and for helping us make the MSB the best resource it can be!

Click here to take the MiStrategyBank User Feedback Survey.

If you have questions, please contact Amanda Stoel at astoel@gomaisa.org.

On November 4, 2025, the professional learning event at the Hagerty Center in Traverse City will bring together intermediate school district superintendents and their respective leadership teams for a collaborative day of engagement with Dr. John Hattie and Tommy Thompson.

Anchored in Hattie's research on Visible Learning, the session will focus on four (4) big ideas:

• climate, student-driven learning
• evaluative thinking
• collective responsibility
• how they can be effectively applied across Michigan's ISDs

Rather than a traditional lecture format, the event will invite participants into interactive dialogue, collaborative problem-solving, and the exploration of high-impact (effect size) instructional practices that are supported by research.

We intend for this gathering to be more than a single-day workshop marking the launch of a statewide movement to strengthen instructional practices through research-based strategies and collective leadership.

Participants will reflect on how to align local practices with system-wide priorities, define shared commitments across Michigan's 56 ISDs, and adopt accountability structures to sustain long-term change.

Through the leadership of Hattie, Thompson, and Michigan's ISD network, the event will emphasize moving beyond fragmented efforts toward a unified, strategic approach that empowers educators, builds system-wide capacity, and delivers meaningful improvements in literacy, math, and overall student success.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to lead a collaborative, statewide effort toward meaningful improvement in student outcomes: Register here*

*Please register each person attending; there is a $75 registration fee per attendee. 

**If you are an ISD Superintendent and have not yet registered for the November 3, 2025 General Membership Meeting, the above link will allow you to register for that day as well. 

To register, click this link: https://events.gomaisa.org/catalog/eventdetails/52

Visit the MAISA Event Site to view monthly calendars and upcoming meetings and events