A $200 million rebirth for Detroit education

Foundations, teachers, parents aim to model DPS on what works
BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY and ROBIN ERB
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100306/NEWS01/3060358/-1/WEATHER0802/A-plan-for-Detroit-schools&template=fullarticle

In less than a decade, public schooling as we know it in Detroit could be transformed. In what one think tank calls the biggest educational movement since the state adopted a charter-school law, a group of local foundations has teamed up on a $200-million plan to start 70 new schools for Detroit kids.

Led by the Skillman Foundation, the group expects to announce details of its education plan on Thursday.

One organization, Michigan Future Schools, already was given enough money to start up seven new high schools through 2012, with a goal of opening 35 new high schools in all by 2018. The first school is to open in the fall.

The plan to replace low-performing schools with high-performing ones apparently has the support of Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools. The district got a $50,000 planning grant from Michigan Future Schools to study the feasibility of a new science and medical high school.

"If we can do this, it's a game-changer," said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc., a nonpartisan think tank that started Michigan Future Schools. "Most of the schools Detroit kids go to -- whether it's charter, DPS or a suburban school -- are not quality schools. We want to change the whole system."

The plan, reaction

The group is planning to offer start-up funds to attract organizations and educators capable of opening high-quality public, charter or private schools in Detroit or neighboring suburbs accessible to Detroit students.

What's driving the initiative is low achievement in many of Detroit's public and charter schools. About half of the high schools on the state's draft list of the lowest-performing schools in Michigan are in Detroit Public Schools, in addition to some charter schools.

"This is definitely not about trying to replace the Detroit Public Schools," said Tonya Allen, vice president of program for the Skillman Foundation, a nonprofit that has invested millions in Detroit-area schools. "It's about figuring out how we scale up as many good schools as possible. It's about trying to replicate what we know works."

The group expects to release details of its education plan on Thursday.

It sounds good to parents

But already parents say the idea sounds worthwhile.

David Smith, a short-haul truck driver, said his 11-year-old son, Kyle, has struggled in the three schools he has attended, one a DPS school, the other two charter schools.

Since his sixth-grader did his best work at a DPS school, Smith said that any new school should be part of the existing district.

Still, the idea of new schools is exciting because it would re-energize students, teachers and parents.

"It's like getting a new car. You take care of it. You wash it," he said. "It would attract new students and parents."

DPS is on board with the part of the plan that calls for 35 new high schools. It was granted $50,000 to study opening a new science and medical high school.

"To dream, plan and actualize a quality high school where students thrive academically and graduate prepared for success in college can serve as a model for new school development throughout the city and beyond," said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief academic and accountability auditor for DPS.

$13 million committed

Four of the foundations that have joined the partnership -- Skillman, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Kresge Foundation and the McGregor Fund -- have already committed $13 million to Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor-based think tank that plans to start up 35 of the 70 new schools as college preparatory high schools.

That initiative, called Michigan Future Schools, plans to ultimately raise $38 million more to help open the schools by 2018. The $13 million will be given to educators who apply for and get the grants to open the first seven high schools by 2012.

The first grant -- $850,000 -- was given to the Detroit Edison Public School Academy to open a high school this fall.

Michigan Future wants to fund schools that follow a similar model to that of the University Preparatory Academy. To win a Michigan Future grant, applicants must be able to prove their school will graduate at least 85% of students, send at least 85% to college and provide a counselor to help at least 85% of graduates get a college degree.

The organization was involved in starting University High in Ferndale and wanted to do more, an official said. The new high schools will be small -- 500 students at the most -- and located south of 12 Mile Road and east of Telegraph Road so that Detroit students can easily attend them.

"We don't care if they're public, charter or private," said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc. "As long as they can convince us it's going to be quality."

A look at the future

Doug Ross, founder of the University Preparatory Academy charter school and a new charter school that opened a campus in the Detroit Science Center last fall, said the plan represents the future of city schools.

"Making the old ones better doesn't work," Ross said. "They need to be closed and new schools created by people with track records."

The Skillman Foundation has been leading the Excellent Schools Detroit effort, which convened six community meetings since the fall and surveyed about 600 residents on problems and solutions to the city's educational crisis. The group includes such organizations as United Way for Southeastern Michigan, Think Detroit PAL, New Detroit Inc., Detroit Regional Chamber and the Detroit Parent Network.

Talks about the education plan -- prompted by Skillman -- were under way in December when the sobering test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress were released, said David Campbell, president of the Detroit-based McGregor Fund, one of the initiative's major supporters.

Detroit's students had tested the lowest of any district in the U.S.

Though they were "devastating news," the scores also added to the urgency, Campbell said.

"We recognize the educational outcomes for Detroit kids need to be improved if we're going to make progress in economic development and in reducing the need for human services," he said.

A focus on the educational foundation for metro Detroit children, in addition to the collaboration from so many different sources, will mean sweeping and lasting change under the new plan, said W.K. Kellogg Foundation spokeswoman Joanne Krell.

"This is a measured, intelligent approach to transforming education in Detroit. I think there's a lot of good reason to look forward," Krell said.

Waiting on specifics

Both Campbell and Krell declined to discuss money or specifics of the plan.

Otis Mathis, president of the DPS board, said he had not heard about the plan until contacted by the Free Press late Friday, but said he was not surprised.

The attention to DPS's woes has drawn plenty of plans and ideas. But as in too many of those plans, the DPS board once again had been left out of those discussions, he said.

Contact CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com