Northwestern Digital

21st Century Digital Learning Environments (Just WHAT the Doctor Ordered)

2011-09-06T05:50:00.000-05:00

Students, teachers brace for new reality

By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY and LORI HIGGINS FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS

When the school buses roll this morning, it will be the beginning of a crucial year for Michigan because stringent, systemic changes are headed to all 800 school districts and charter schools.

A financial crisis means many students will head back to schools where class sizes are larger, programs have been cut, their favorite teacher may have been laid off and where services are being privatized. Some children may have to walk farther to catch the bus — if bus service is offered at all. Some are paying more to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities.

Some teachers have taken pay cuts and are paying more for health insurance. All are faced with higher standards under a new evaluation system whereby student test scores will soon weigh significantly in their performance evaluations.

And, this year, it will be harder to earn a passing score on the MEAP test and Michigan Merit Exam.

“We need to do a better job getting all students prepared for 21st-Century careers,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan. “Recent reforms, combined with those under consideration, will transform the way teachers instruct, students learn and schools perform.”

Budget cuts cloud 1st day for students

New schools are opening in Detroit

By LORI HIGGINS and CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS

This school year is expected to bring the kind of change that marks the start of a new era — with widespread budget cuts that will be felt in the classroom and parents’ wallets, legislative changes that have teachers feeling demoralized, a more intense focus on the worst-performing schools and several new schools opening in Detroit.

“There’s a lot going on at every level,” said Judy Pritchett, chief academic officer for the Macomb Intermediate School District. It’s the kind of transformative change happening in one year that Pritchett has never seen before.

Much of it is bringing anxiety, but Pritchett said despite that, she expects school staff to walk into buildings today for the first day of school with renewed excitement.

“Those kids are going to come … and all those rituals and traditions we go through — that’s exciting. The staff will be there, and they’ll be waiting.”

But the journey to the beginning of the 2011-12 school year hasn’t been easy.Teachers in many districts are heading back to the classroom making less money and digging deeper to pay for health insurance. The challenges have attracted the attention of Randi Weingarten, the national president of the American Federation of Teachers, who will be in Detroit today to tour schools and meet with officials. In Detroit Public Schools, unions are fighting a 10% pay cut imposed on employees by the state-appointed emergency manager, Roy Roberts.

The financial pinch also will be felt in Northville Public Schools, where teachers agreed last month to an overall wage cut of 4% and where the average teacher will go from paying $350 annually for health care to paying $3,500.

The contract will mean sacrifices all around to maintain the quality of the school district, said Nick Nugent, a middle school math teacher and president of the Northville Education Association.

“People are going to have to rework their family budgets … just like every other family has had to do in the metro area,” he said.

Cuts and sweeping changes to the state’s teacher tenure laws — which make it easier to get rid of ineffective teachers, strengthened evaluation systems for teachers and principals and restricted unions from bargaining over some things — have left many teachers feeling put upon, said Doug Pratt, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association.

“They feel so attacked and vilified,” Pratt said. “It’s sad because this is normally the time of the year that educators look forward to every year. It’s a new beginning.”

Kids are heading back to classes that will be more crowded than ever, Pritchett said.

“Will it be off the wall — with 30, 40, 50 kids in a classroom? That’s an individual issue with districts. But generally they’re going to see class sizes increase,” Pritchett said.

The budget crunch won’t end there. Many districts that didn’t have pay-to-play fees for students who participate in athletics and some other extracurriculars have instituted those fees. Some districts increased the fees.

Busing took a hit, too.

More districts outsourced busing service to private firms. And some cut back on the amount of busing they offer. Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, for instance, cut noon busing for kindergarten students.

The impact? Parents have to pick their kids up from morning kindergarten classes, or get their kids to school for afternoon kindergarten classes. The move saved the district nearly $500,000, Jim Larson-Shidler, assistant superintendent for business services for the Plymouth-Canton district, said recently.

In an effort to hold onto students and funding, Detroit Public Schools has allowed parents for the past several years to send their children to any school they wanted.

Not this year.

Parents who want to transfer their students from one building to another within DPS will find that they have to stay put through the first week of October. DPS is requiring students to attend their neighborhood school or stay in their current school.

DPS is losing thousands of students each year — 100,000 in the last decade — and that has left officials scrambling to shift teachers each fall to school buildings where they are more needed. If everyone stays put, it will be easier to assign teachers and track students for the Oct. 5 statewide student count day, said Karen Ridgeway, the DPS interim superintendent. “We need to stabilize the enrollment,” Ridgeway said.

The student enrollments at schools statewide on that day will determine 90% of each district’s state aid per-pupil funding for the year, up from 75% in past years.

Skeptics predict the change could push parents away from DPS.

“When you make it difficult for a parent to get a child into a school, they’re going to take their kids elsewhere,” said Annie Carter, vice president of the Detroit school board. “You’re saying to some parents their child has to stay in a failing school. This can end up in court.”

Three new high schools will open today in Detroit that were launched with the help of grants from Michigan Future a nonprofit organization — Detroit Collegiate Prep and Ben Carson School of Science and Medicine in DPS and the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a charter school.

Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, said the group will announce this month three more high schools that will open in 2012. “At least at the high school level, Detroit parents are actively looking for alternatives,” he said.

DPS is unveiling some improvements designed to make the district more attractive. For instance, today is the largest rollout of construction under the $500.5-million DPS bond with 10 new and renovated buildings opening. DPS also will become the first in the nation to use an airport-style concealed weapons detection system in all its high schools.

And for the first time, parents will be able to access student assignments, attendance records, textbooks and other information via an online database.

“If anyone believes that the new Detroit Public Schools will operate like the old, you will see otherwise this year,” Roberts said.

2011 2010 Commencement Challenge (Winners)

2011-09-05T16:55:00.000-05:00

Detroit Collegiate Prep

2011-08-25T16:47:00.000-05:00

Detroit Collegiate Prep High School Accepting 9th Grade Applications

Detroit Collegiate Prep High School (DCPHS) is an exciting new, DPS college preparatory high school in Detroit opening for the 2011-12 school year with its inaugural 9^th grade class of 162 students! A collaboration between DPS, Michigan Future and Diplomas Now, DCPHS partners with City Year Detroit, Communities in Schools of Detroit and utilizes John Hopkins University's (JHU’s) award winning “Talent Development” curriculum model. DCPHS is open to any student eligible for 9^th grade and offers each of them a unique college preparatory high school environment, enriched with positive role models, mentoring and support services geared toward life success in college and beyond.
Detroit Collegiate Prep will open for the 2011-2012 school year as a DPS "priority school," built on the “small high school” model, eventually enrolling approximately 500 total students in grades 9-12. It will be located at the newly renovated Northwestern High School building's east wing at 2200 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit 48208, complete with its own Detroit Collegiate Prep building entrance, principal and staff, classrooms, mentors, tutors and after school program.
DCPHS offers students and their families:

Small Class Sizes/small high school model: A student: staff ratio of 8:1* and a maximum class size of 27 allow for a highly personalized, nurturing environment where positive 1:1 relationships and mentoring can thrive.
Accelerated College Prep Curriculum: Every student engages in a college preparatory curriculumthat includes an accelerated math and reading curricula designed by Johns Hopkins University to ensure that all students can succeed in college prep math and English classes, the basis for success throughout college years.
More Academic Classes: A block schedule allowing students to focus on 4 courses at a time and take 8 additional academic courses over their 4 years in high school (32 courses vs. 28 on a traditional schedule).
Mentors: A team of City Year young adult corps members will serve as full time "near peer" mentorsby providing additional academic, mentoring, tutoring and social support, serving as positive role models for all students.
Enrichment Programs: A wide range of individual support for the special needs of students, plus after school enrichment programs provided through Community in Schools of Detroit (CIS).
Positive School Environment: A positive collaborative "whole school" environment that values the voice of students and their families. We want to engage teenagers and their families in building our school traditions, celebrating our successes and creating a bright future for every DCPHS student!

*11 DPS and JHU staff members, a team of 7-8 full time young adult City Year corps members and a CISSocial Worker (MSW) for the 9^th grade class.

We still have several 9^th grade spaces left to enroll for our Inaugural 2011-2012 School Year – the high school graduating class of 2015!! If you will be a 9^th grader this year or know of a student or family who would like more information on DCPHS, please have them call us at:

(313) 899-7370 or visit our website at http://www.diplomasnowdetroit.org

Piloted in Philadelphia, the Diplomas Now model that will shape Detroit Collegiate Prep is currently running in schools in Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Antonio, Chicago and Philadelphia, with commitments for expansion from additional districts this upcoming school year.

Diplomas Now Feltonville Full-Year Pilot Results

The Feltonville School of Arts & Sciences, a high poverty 750-student public school in Philadelphia, was the national demonstration site for Diplomas Now
Students made dramatic improvement in the three researched-proven “early warning indicators” of dropping out: Attendance, Behavior and Course performance in math & English (see below)
4,500 instructional hours were regained through reduced suspensions
The school met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the first time

Also visit: www.cityyear.org/diplomasnow or www.diplomasnow.org or http://michiganfuture.org/schools/2010-11-schools/ for further results and information on the Diplomas Now model of DCPHS.

City Year unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, giving them the skills and opportunities to change the world. In communities across the United States and through two international affiliates, these diverse young leaders help turn around high-need schools and get at-risk students back on track to graduation by working to improve their attendance, behavior and course performance. For more information, please visitcityyear.org.
Founded in Boston in 1988, City Year has established programs in Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Columbia, SC; Columbus, OH; Denver; Detroit; Little Rock/North Little Rock; Los Angeles; Louisiana: Baton Rouge; Louisiana: New Orleans; Miami; Milwaukee; New Hampshire; New York; Greater Philadelphia; Rhode Island; San Antonio; San Jose/Silicon Valley; Seattle/King County; and Washington, D.C.; and international affiliates in Johannesburg, South Africa and London, England.

For more information, please visit www.cityyear.org/detroit.

"Any Time, Any Place, Any Way, Any Pace!" (Digital Learning Model)

2011-08-22T05:15:00.000-05:00

Schools of Choice bill coming

Legislature likely to get proposal this week as foes from Detroit, suburbs gear for fight

By CECIL ANGEL FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

An education reform package that includes mandatory Schools of Choice and cyber schools could be introduced in the state Legislature as early as Wednesday, the chairman of the state Senate Education Committee said.

“It’s a good possibility on Wednesday, the 24th, we’ll have part of the package ready for introduction,” said state Sen. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair Township.

The education package also addresses charter school caps and school aid. The package is part of Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed “Any Time, Any Place, Any Way, Any Pace” public school learning model.

Education Committee hearings on the package will begin Sept. 7, Pavlov said.

Mandatory Schools of Choice is emerging as the most controversial part of the education package.

Opposition is strong in the heavily Republican Grosse Pointes. In heavily Democratic Detroit, three legislators have said they are opposed to state-mandated Schools of Choice because, they said, it will negatively impact Detroit Public Schools.

“I don’t want the state to help usher children from one community to another at the expense of the community where they are,” said state Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, whose district includes the Grosse Pointes and part of Detroit.

State Sen. Coleman A. Young II, D-Detroit, said every proposal out of Lansing that was supposed to help DPS has hurt it. He cited the 1999 state takeover that was supposed to improve the district academically.

At the time, the district had 180,000 students, a $93-million fund balance and a $1.5-billion bond project. Under state control, DPS wound up with a $200-million deficit, he said.

“I don’t think the state should be imposing another mandate on the city or any other city,” Young said.

State Rep. Lisa Howze, D-Detroit, said mandatory Schools of Choice “would further impact DPS’s ability to stabilize.”

Last week, the Grosse Pointe Woods City Council passed a resolution against mandated Schools of Choice.

The Grosse Pointe Woods-based Michigan Communities For Local Control has set up a Web site at www.miclc.com and is contacting other school districts to build opposition.

Peter Spadafore, assistant director of government relations for the Michigan Association of School Boards, said the MASB has been talking with the Snyder administration and legislators about the bill.

Based on the ongoing discussion, the bill likely will include “universal choice K-12 up to capacity. The problem is how to define capacity,” he said.

Spadafore said the MASB is opposed to mandatory Schools of Choice. “We feel that decision should be made by the local school district,” he said. “By mandating Schools of Choice, it’s just a solution looking for a problem.”

21st Century Digital Learning Environments & Studios (2)

2011-08-15T11:37:00.001-05:00

Models our Practice (Real-World Learning by Doing!)

2011-08-13T07:12:00.001-05:00

Sunday: August 14, 2011 12:00PM to 2:00PM (Channel #4 MSNBC A Stronger America: "Making the Grade")

Clickondetroit.com
http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/28851709/index.html

21st Century Digital Learning Environments & Studios

2011-08-02T05:45:00.001-05:00

WHEN is Less MORE?

2011-07-30T05:57:00.005-05:00

ROBERTS OKS 10% PAY CUT AT DPS

Union contract change the 1st under new manager law

By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

A month after warning union workers that they would see a 10% wage cut next school year, Roy Roberts, the emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools, signed executive orders Friday that impose $81 million in wage concessions on workers starting in August.

Union leaders called the new law an attempt to bust public unions and pledged to fight for their contracts in court.

“I’m not taking this lying down,” said Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers.

All 10,000 workers in the district — union and nonunion, including Roberts — will see a 10% cut in their paychecks starting Aug. 23. They will begin to pay 20% of health care benefits costs Sept. 1.

The decision marks the first time that Public Act 4 of 2011 — the new emergency manager law — has been used to modify school employee collective bargaining agreements.

The contract modifications and concessions are part of an effort to eliminate the district’s $327-million deficit, Roberts said in a written statement.

“The No.1 priority is providing the children of Detroit Public Schools with a quality education. For that to happen, the school district must be financially sound,” he said.

On Thursday, state Treasurer Andy Dillon gave Roberts the required permission to go ahead with the cuts. Gov. Rick Snyder, who appointed Roberts in May to run DPS, also expressed support for the decision.

Impasse cited in changes at DPS

Union plans to sue, says negotiation efforts lacking

By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

The state’s controversial emergency manager law is being used to impose cuts on Detroit Public Schools unions partly because of a negotiations impasse with workers, officials said Friday.

DPS emergency manager Roy Roberts decided to modify the eight unions’ contracts after 45 meet-and-confer sessions with labor representatives, according to a statement released by DPS.

However, union leaders said there were no real efforts to negotiate.

“There was really no impasse because there was no back-and-forth,” said Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. “We were told, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ ”

Johnson promised to file suit against the district in connection with an executive order Roberts signed Friday that modifies union contracts to help get $81.8 million in savings.

As a result, all 10,000 workers in the district — union and nonunion — will see a 10% cut in their paychecks on Aug. 23 and will begin to pay 20% of health care benefits costs Sept. 1.

The decision marks the first time that the state’s new emergency manager law — Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act, Public Act 4 of 2011 — has been used to modify collective bargaining agreements for school employees.

The contract modifications are part of the effort to eliminate the district’s $327-million deficit, Roberts said.

“We are in an extremely difficult financial period for Detroit Public Schools, requiring extreme measures,” Roberts said in a written statement.

On Thursday, state Treasurer Andy Dillon gave Roberts permission to modify the union contracts. Dillon’s approval was required by law. Gov. Rick Snyder also supported the modification to the union contracts.

In an e-mail Friday, Geralyn Lasher, a spokeswoman for Snyder, stressed the importance of providing DPS students a quality education and making the district financially sound.

Ruby Newbold, president of the DPS secretaries union and the DPS Coalition of Unions, said, “Roberts is doing what he was sent here to do.”

Unions agreed to millions in cuts, furlough days and concessions last year, and further cuts won’t bring DPS out of the red, she said.

“There’s no way they can reduce the deficit with our salaries,” she said.

The imposed concessions will take the place of previous concessions. Teachers will no longer have to defer $250 per paycheck for the Termination Incentive Plan that has helped address the district’s cash flow problems. Other cuts announced Friday will suspend teachers union bonuses, sick leave payouts and other measures.

The wage and benefits concessions will affect everyone from teachers to principals and executive staff. Roberts’ $250,000-a-year salary is paid by the district and will also be subject to the 10% cut.

Public Act 4 of 2011 allows the state-appointed emergency manager to modify or terminate a union contract after meeting and conferring with union representatives. Last month, when Roberts released the 2011-12 budget, he announced that he intended to impose the cuts.

By law, the contract modifications will last until the state declaration of fiscal emergency in DPS is revoked.

The lowest paid union workers will now earn at or near minimum wage, said Keith January, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 345, which represents about 1,400 DPS food service workers, technicians and bus attendants. The average worker in the union earns about $20,000 a year, January said.

“These are the parents of the children in DPS that are being devastated,” he said.

Union workers are part of a petition drive to repeal the emergency manager law through a ballot initiative.

• CONTACT CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY:

313-223-4537 OR CPRATT@ FREEPRESS

.COM

ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

Roy Roberts’ $250,000 a year salary also will see a10% cut.

The Good Old Days (Today), A 21st Century Job AND That GIANT SUCKING Sound! (Hummed to the soundtrack of The GOOD, The BAD and the Brutally UGLY!)

2011-07-25T06:13:00.000-05:00

Michigan must become a land of opportunity

Dan Redford has gone from being a Michigan ambassador to one of its exports.

A 2010 Michigan State University grad with degrees in international relations and Mandarin Chinese, Redford spent four months last year as one of 80 American students taking visitors through the U.S. pavilion at the huge World Expo in Shanghai. He returned to East Lansing to work on community-building projects among MSU’s 2,400 Chinese students and this month moved to Beijing, where he is working for a company that seeks out wealthy Chinese willing to invest in America in return for a green card.

Unfortunately for Michigan, Redford’s employer is in Wisconsin, which will reap the benefits of his efforts.

“It’s where the opportunity was,” Redford, 22, said in an interview from his home in Frankenmuth before he left for China. “I’ll always be a Michigan guy, but I’m representing southeast Wisconsin.”

His company is FirstPathway Partners of Milwaukee, which pursues investments under the federal government’s 21-year-old EB5 visa program.

Investment rewards

An EB5 is an employment-based visa. Basically, the EB5 program offers permanent U.S. residency to foreign nationals and their immediate family members for an investment of at least $500,000 in a federally approved project that will create or retain 10 American jobs. The investor need not take an active role in managing the project. There are regional centers established as investment targets, generally areas of high unemployment. Michigan has five of them.

Although the program seems a bit mercenary, it is attracting overseas capital to the U.S. — which still offers a standard of living with which most of the world cannot compete. And it’s a way of getting some Chinese money into the U.S. economy, although hardly enough to offset all the dollars we send their way for cheaply made consumer goods.

“China’s economic boom has created a lot of high-net-worth individuals,” Redford said. “The people who are generally most interested in the EB5 have families that they want to get into the American education system. A lot of investors will do this program for their kids. The children don’t have to attend school in the state where the investment is made. The visa holder doesn’t even have to live there.”

So, Redford says, while he’s trying to line up investments for Wisconsin, he hopes to be talking up Michigan, too, as a place to live and learn.

But he has no timetable for coming back to Michigan himself. For an educated young man who prides himself on thinking “glocally” — that is, forging relationships with people from around the world to effect change in any community you care about, anywhere on Earth — Michigan is simply not the frontier.

New horizons

Redford is not entirely at ease in China.

“I’ll never be Chinese,” he said. “I’m a 6-foot-5 white guy from Michigan. I was out for a run there once and even this little dog was staring at me as I went past. He knew I was different.

“But I enjoy the adventure of China,” he said. “There is something new going on all the time. It’s an exciting place to be.”

So Redford exemplifies a conundrum for Michigan.

We support a university system that, as it should, encourages a world view and educates our young people to find their place in it.

But we don’t yet have a world-class state that offers them an opportunity to use their newfound awareness at home. As a result, they leave — sometimes for China, but more often for any place that needs what they know and, as Redford put it, “is an exciting place to be.”

If Michigan ever again becomes that kind of place — a bustling ball of energy where new ideas sprout like sunflowers and people embrace adventure — we can only hope our Dan Redfords find their way back.

• RON DZWONKOWSKI IS ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE FREE PRESS. CONTACT HIM AT 313-222-6635 ORRDZWONKOWSKI @FREEPRESS.COM .

RON DZWONKOWSKI SAYS IT MUST DO MORE TO KEEP YOUNG MINDS FROM MOVING

G. L. KOHUTH

Dan Redford is a Michigan State University grad working in China to lure investments to the U.S.

2011-07-18T07:52:00.003-05:00

DETROIT

DPS’s Roberts to give council status update

-- COMPILED FROM REPORTS BY CHRISTINA HALL AND GANNETT NEWSPAPERS

It will be all things educational Tuesday at a Detroit City Council meeting.

Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts is expected to give a status update about the district since taking over that position in May.

Gov. Rick Snyder appointed the former General Motors executive to replace Robert Bobb.

Summer school students from Bennett Elementary School are to attend as guests of Councilman Andre Spivey.

The 10 a.m. meeting is open to the public. It will be in the Erma Henderson Auditorium inside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.

Just one example of an universally organic pedagogical learning environment

2011-07-18T07:12:00.001-05:00

Flashpoint (Doug Ross) 6-17-11

2011-07-17T09:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/28561728/index.html

The Detroit Shapers of Things to Come

2011-06-28T17:26:00.002-05:00

The GELT-ART of the LINCHPIN!

2011-06-27T10:28:00.001-05:00

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

LINCHPIN by Seth Godin

A linchpin, as Seth describes it, is somebody in an organization who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced—her role is just far too unique and valuable. And then he goes on to say, well, seriously folks, you need to be one of these people, you really do. To not be one is economic and career suicide.

No surprises there—that’s exactly what one would expect Seth to say. But here’s where it gets interesting.

In his best-known book, Purple Cow, Seth’s message was, “Everyone’s a marketer now.” In All Marketers Are Liars, his message was, “Everyone’s a storyteller now.” InTribes, his message was, “Everyone’s a leader now.”

And from Linchpin?

"Everyone’s an artist now."

By Seth’s definition, an artist is not just some person who messes around with paint and brushes, an artist is somebody who does (and I LOVE this term) “emotional work.”

Work that you put your heart and soul into. Work that matters. Work that you gladly sacrifice all other alternatives for. As a working artist and cartoonist myself, I know exactly what he means. It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it.

The only people who have a hope of becoming linchpins in any organization, who have any hope of changing anything for the better in real terms, are those who have the capacity to do “emotional work” at a high level—to be true artists at whatever they set their minds on doing. The guys who just plod around the office corridors, just turning up for their paycheck.... Well, those guys don’t have a prayer, poor things. The world is just too interesting and competitive now.

And Seth then challenges us, the readers, to become linchpins ourselves. To make the leap. To become artists. To do emotional work, whatever the sacrifice may be. It’s our choice, and it’s our burden. Seth won’t be there to catch us if we fall, but to become the people we need to be eventually, well, we probably wouldn’t want him to, anyway.

Congratulations, Seth. You have penned a real gem of a book here. Rock on.

--Hugh MacLeod

WISDOM Underlined!

2011-06-23T10:20:00.001-05:00

ROY ROBERTS ON DPS FUTURE

Every job, contract on line

He’s ready to trim — starting at the top

Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts marched across his private conference room Wednesday morning and pointed to a whiteboard where he had drawn in black marker a chart showing the new top hierarchy for the school district.

It had only seven jobs, down from the current 30.

But we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Roberts, the former General Motors executive who has been with DPS for only five weeks, said he expects to make massive employee cuts. He also plans to cancel and rebid every major contract in an effort to eliminate a $227-million deficit and run the city schools like a business — a business that will pay dividends to the community by successfully educating its children.

Roberts, who said his prime mission is to fully educate children, said the district will keep only the number of employees it can afford, including all 4,400 teaching positions.

“We’re the biggest employer in town. We need to figure out an organization structure,” he said in an exclusive interview. “We’re going to go through and say what’s needed in every functional area and every job under that functional area. And we’re going to put a name on every job. And when we run out of jobs, those left over are excess people.”

Regarding contracts with DPS, he said, “a lot of people had set up a little industry inside of this company. We’re going to stop it. We’re going to take every contract, every major contract that is in here, and we’re going to cancel it and ask people to keep working with us for 60 days. And we’re going to bid it. That’s the only way we’ll get the best price.”

New statewide district

The revelations came two days after Roberts joined Gov. Rick Snyder in announcing that some of Detroit’s worst-performing schools would be assigned to a special statewide district to help them improve. Roberts praised Snyder for understanding that Detroit is the state’s largest city and for helping people understand that Michigan cannot succeed without Detroit succeeding.

“I was a county commissioner, city commissioner and I’ve been a Democrat all my life,” Roberts said, “and a Republican called me and said, ‘Michigan runs through Detroit, and if I don’t help get Detroit on the right track, then I can’t reinvent Michigan. And the biggest single problem I have in Detroit is the Detroit public school system.’ … Every time we talked, it was about educating the kids first.”

Snyder also announced that Eastern Michigan University had signed on as a partner in the agreement to create the Education Achievement System because the agreement needed two government entities to create a statewide one. Responding to immediate pronouncements from some EMU faculty that they would not teach in city schools as a show of support for DPS unions, Roberts said no one has asked them to.

“Eastern was selected because of its long history of being a great teaching school,” Roberts said. “I haven’t heard one person, including the governor or anyone else, suggest that Eastern Michigan would have people in Detroit. There was no expectation for them to do that. But we would welcome their help.”

Unlike former emergency financial manager Robert Bobb, who spent a great deal of time rooting out corruption as he fought to change academics, Roberts said he would not be looking for criminals with DPS. He said his staff would certainly pursue prosecution of anything that comes up, but the primary focus will be on creating an accountable system that educates children, pays its bills and supports teachers, whom he said had been “castigated” in recent years.

‘You still need the teachers’

Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson said Roberts broke the news over dinner Sunday night that he didn’t plan to lay off any teachers.

“He said he didn’t see the need to alter our collective bargaining contract because he recognizes that’s not the problem,” Johnson said. “You still need the teachers because he’s budgeting for 68,000 students.”

Johnson said that the decision now means class sizes would be about 17-25 in kindergarten through third grade, 30 students in fourth and fifth grade and 35 students in sixth through 12th grade. He said that projections of 60 students per class, which made national news, “were never going to happen.”

Roberts said the Legislature has given him more tools than Bobb had. He can cancel union contracts and doesn’t have to work with the school board, “not because they’re bad people but because it’s a bad process.”

And he said he’s operating on a stopwatch, not a calendar .

“I know how to do this. I have people who know how to do this. None of us woke up this morning and said, ‘I think I’ll change today.’ People change because there are external stimuli. I’m going to provide the stimuli. This is not rocket science, and I’m not a rocket scientist. This is having a reasonable degree of intellect and the guts to get it done. You’ve got to call it.”

A personal matter

Roberts said his decisions, whether about personnel or finances, are all to make academics easier. For him, he said, it’s personal.

“I was one of those kids once,” he said. “My wife was one of those kids. I was raised in public schools in Muskegon. My father had a third-grade education. We were on welfare from time to time. We didn’t have books in our home because we couldn’t afford it. … And somewhere along the way, I got the bug for education. Education is what turns dreams into reality and if I can help a youngster get that same bug, then I’ll get my reward in heaven.”

• CONTACT ROCHELLE RILEY: RRILEY99 @FREEPRESS.COM

ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts said the primary focus will be on education, rather than corruption.

DPS EAS (Burp!)

2011-06-22T07:03:00.001-05:00

EMU staff: We won’t work in Detroit

Union leaders wary of plan for new district

By DAVID JESSE and CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

As Eastern Michigan University’s Board of Regents voted Tuesday to take part in a new school district to reform Michigan’s worst performing schools, faculty leaders promised not to do any work in Detroit that might help bust union contracts.

Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts would lead the new district , called the Education Achievement System, or EAS. And he has the power to nullify or change union contracts — a sore point.

EMU President Susan Martin said no faculty would be assigned to any work in a school in Detroit. But union leaders were skeptical, saying Monday’s announcements appeared to pledge faculty involvement to help turn around Michigan’s failing schools, starting with 34 DPS schools.

The new district idea resembles others created to deal with failing or troubled school districts. One of its key tenets is to increase money spent on classroom instruction from 55% to 95% of a school’s budget.

It’s unlikely the EAS will be able to reach that goal, predicted Mike Griffith, a senior analyst at the Education Commission of the States. He said the national average is 65%.

“There are things you need in a school — administrators, lunchroom staff, secretaries. … Those come to more than 5%.”

Emergency manager Roy Roberts

EMU faculty to respect union deals

Promise comes as board OKs DPS plan

By DAVID JESSE and CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS

Eastern Michigan University faculty members are promising not to do any work that might help bust existing public school teacher contracts, possibly crimping plans to use the faculty in a new statewide school district run by the university and the Detroit Public Schools.

“We won’t have our membership involved in breaking union contracts,” said Howard Bunsis, the treasurer of the EMU faculty union.

Gov. Rick Snyder announced a plan to create an Educational Achievement System, which would take in Michigan’s failing public schools, possibly starting with 34 DPS schools in about a year.

At issue is the power of DPS emergency manager Roy Roberts, who would also be chairman of the new district’s governing authority. As a governor-appointed emergency manager, Roberts has the legal power to end or modify DPS union contracts and to negotiate contracts for the new district.

A key ingredient of Snyder’s plan would be EMU’s willingness to move faculty from its college of education into struggling public schools to help train teachers and to work in other ways. Roberts said he was particularly interested in using faculty and their expertise to help students with special needs.

EMU’s union leadership balked at the Board of Regents meeting Tuesday. Despite the protests, the regents approved the agreement to take part in the new district.

The role of outside union members in a district run by a leader with legal powers to cancel contracts is but one gray detail that needs to be worked out. Some parts of the plan might need legislative approval and others are still in the planning phase.

Louisiana’s example

The Michigan district would be a new animal but based on an existing structure in Louisiana, which took in New Orleans Public Schools following Hurricane Katrina.

A major difference between Michigan’s EAS and Louisiana’s Recovery School District is that the RSD transformed most of its New Orleans schools into independently-run charter schools.

Chartering would be a possible course for Michigan’s future EAS schools. A school that shows adequate progress in five years may seek approval to become a charter school, return to its original school district or remain under the jurisdiction of the EAS.

Some performance indicators are positive for New Orleans . The Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University studied 44 New Orleans charter schools’ test scores from 2005-06 to 2009-10. It concluded that the RSD charter schools were making gains in reading and math at a faster pace than others.

Sen. Phil Pavlov, a Republican from St. Clair, said he’s working on draft legislation to help solidify the EAS.

“I’m working on legislation to require the highest level of accountability and transparency,” Pavlov said.

He predicted that the earliest the legislation would be introduced is late July.

Communication worries

EMU faculty members didn’t learn about the EAS until Monday morning from a news release, union President Susan Moeller said at the Tuesday meeting.

“I am not here to debate whether the EAS is a good idea or not for Detroit. What I want to bring to your attention is that, again, President (Susan) Martin has ignored the faculty and violated the contract. …

“Faculty need to be involved in the development and discussion of what is going to happen with this plan. They are the experts, and it cannot succeed without them.

“There still has been no communication from President Martin or the dean of the (college of education) to the (college of education) faculty regarding what this agreement is all about.”

The EMU faculty union wasn’t the only one to complain about lack of information before Snyder announced the plan on Monday. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, sent out a critical news release.

“We are troubled at the lack of teacher and school employee voice in the current plan, especially in light of the hard work Detroit’s education unions and school district have already done in collaborating to develop and implement workable solutions for the city’s schools.”

EMU President Martin said no faculty would be assigned to any work in a school in Detroit.

“This is an opportunity. We certainly hope that faculty would be willing to work in some of these struggling schools,” she told the Free Press.

Martin also said there was no intent to bust the teachers union or to exclude the faculty union from the process.

“This came together very quickly. We certainly want to work with the faculty union going forward on how we can take advantage of this opportunity.”

A NEW DPS Conversation (Begins)

2011-06-21T08:31:00.002-05:00

NEW START FOR WORST SCHOOLS

STATEWIDE DISTRICT 34 low-performing Detroit schools would be first inSCHOLARSHIP PROMISE Plan calls for DPSgraduates to get free college tuition NOT JUST DETROIT Snyder plan eventually would cover 200 Michigan schools

By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

A plan announced Monday to remake the Detroit Public Schools by transferring the district’s worst-performing schools to a new authority is a model unique to the nation.

It builds on a trend toward independent schools with more control at the individual school level. A new statewide district would be created, similar to the Recovery School District that took over most New Orleans’ public schools after Hurricane Katrina.

The DPS plan, unveiled by Gov. Rick Snyder, includes provisions for fund-raising to provide college scholarships for DPS graduates.

The plan is not a done deal. Some of it might need legislative approval, and details must be worked out, such as how to eliminate DPS’s $327-million debt.

The new district, called the Education Achievement System, would start with DPS schools and then absorb the worst-performing 5% of state public and charter schools, numbering about 200.

The plan would go into effect in 2012-13. Once transferred, schools would operate longer school days. And principals would have wider authority over budgets and hiring.

DPS emergency manager Roy Roberts will continue to run DPS and also be chairman of the new authority. The plan comes amid growing support to recast DPS into a system of independent schools.

“I’m telling you, the bullshit’s going away!” Roberts said.

REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder

Editorial

Stronger medicine for sick schools

Detroiters inevitably experience a sense of déjà vu whenever elected officials, business leaders, philanthropists and clergymen unveil yet another initiative to save the state’s largest school district — a sense, as state Schools Superintendant Mike Flanagan, a principal in the latest such initiative, acknowledged Monday, that “we have seen this movie before.”

So what is different this time? More specifically, what do the plans Gov. Rick Snyder and DPS Emergency Manager Roy Roberts outlined Monday offer to the families that have been leaving DPS like beach dwellers fleeing an approaching tsunami?

In December 2009, long before Snyder won election as governor, the Legislature authorized his office to create a new, statewide school district to which the state’s 200 or so lowest-performing schools could be dispatched, like trauma patients facing imminent death, for intensive care.

Although fewer than a quarter of those failing schools are DPS buildings, Snyder’s decision to make those 39 schools the nucleus of Michigan’s new Educational Achievement System (and his decision to make Roberts its acting CEO) recognizes that DPS is the epicenter of educational failure, not just in Michigan, but nationwide.

Or, as Arne Duncan, President Barack Obama’s secretary of education put it bluntly in a live TV message to those gathered for Snyder’s press conference Monday: “Detroit is, frankly, the bottom of the barrel.”

Snyder and Roberts propose to quarantine Detroit’s sickest schools from the financial and administrative dysfunction that plagues the entire DPS system and exploit Roberts’ powers under Michigan’s supercharged emergency manager statute to impose dramatic change — longer school days and school years, more autonomy for building principals, and the suspension or abolition of any union work rules that Roberts regards as obstacles to his turnaround prescription.

Schools assigned to the failing schools district would remain under Roberts’ or his successor’s supervision (and, ultimately, the state’s) for at least five years, at the end of which time those schools demonstrating improved student performance would be allowed to rejoin DPS, remain in the statewide system, or reorganize as independent charter schools.

Roberts proposes to support the 80 or so schools that would remain in DPS by giving principals and teachers in those buildings greater autonomy and underwriting a sort of Kalamazoo Promise Light — covering two years of community college or technical training — for students who graduate from any Detroit-based school. Snyder and Roberts say the philanthropic support for the so-called Detroit Promise is already in place, and that they look forward to expanding it to the sort of four-year tuition guarantee high school graduates in Kalamazoo enjoy.

Snyder and Roberts say they’ve given themselves until the beginning of the 2012-13 school year to address such fundamental questions as which Detroit schools will be part of the new state system, what curricular guidelines and work rules will prevail there, and how the interests of Detroit taxpayers who’ve authorized bonding for new construction and improvements in the DPS plant will be protected when failing DPS schools join the new state system. Failure to overcome any one of these challenges could, of course, doom the new district and its mission aborning.

But DPS has hardly been able to check its disintegration, much less reverse it, using milder medicine.

“This is the same thing that General Motors and Chrysler went though,” Roberts told a group of Free Press reporters and editors Monday afternoon. “Fifty years of crap — that’s what we’re fighting.”

What Roberts and Snyder are fighting for, both men insist, is not the solvency of a school district but the survival of a city and its young. Whatever legitimate questions Detroiters may have about their strategy and tactics, no one can dispute that that is the right objective.

REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit Free Press

Roy Roberts, emergency manager for Detroit Public Schools, makes a point about proposed reforms for failing city schools to members of the Detroit Free Press editorial board, education writers and editors Monday.

Statewide district will give more control to each school

TEACHERS, SCHOOL BOARD WAITING TO SEE HOW SNYDER PLAN PLAYS OUT

By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

The new education reforms that officials announced Monday would place more authority with individual schools rather than central-office bureaucrats and create a two-tiered public school system for the city of Detroit— one district operated by the state and Eastern Michigan University, existing alongside a leaner Detroit Public Schools district.

Gov. Rick Snyder, who announced the reforms in a news conference Monday with an assist from the U.S. secretary of education, said officials studied what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, where schools were placed into a special district.

Under Snyder’s plan, a new statewide district called the Education Achievement System will be formed to take control of the worst-performing 5% of Michigan schools, or about 200 schools.

The 2011-12 school year will be a planning year, and the new district would start in 2012-13 by taking over the worst-performing DPS schools first.

As of Monday, 34 DPS schools — 14 of them high schools — were eligible to be placed under the control of the statewide EAS. The principals at the remaining 80 or so DPS buildings also will be given more control over their budgets and hiring through what is commonly known as site-based management.

Roy Roberts, the DPS emergency manager, will continue to run DPS and will be chairman of the EAS, Snyder said.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan joined Snyder, state Superintendent Michael Flanagan and Roberts in a news conference via an Internet teleconference at Renaissance High on Monday.

Duncan, who has called DPS arguably the worst urban district in the nation, called the plan courageous.

“We’re fighting to save the city of Detroit,” Duncan said. “By virtually every measure, Detroit is at the bottom of the barrel. … Five years from now, there’s no reason Detroit shouldn’t be leading the country.”

The federal government is asking districts across the nation to focus on the bottom 5% of schools, he said.

All facilities — including any new construction — that are placed under the control of the EAS will remain property of DPS, Roberts said.

The DPS teachers’ contract will remain intact, and teachers should be recalled before July 29, said Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. (All DPS employees were laid off as of July 29.) The teachers’ contract expires in June 2012.

Roberts, by law, could cancel or modify union contracts, but so far has said he has no plans to do so. The 11-member DPS school board will continue to exist, but it has no authority under the emergency manager law that the state Legislature passed this year.

Seven board members are up for re-election this year, but a majority have not filed to run again.

How it will work

The EAS will be governed by an Educational Achievement Authority that will be established through an agreement between Eastern Michigan and DPS, according to a statement released by Snyder’s office.

The authority will be an independent, free-standing entity.

The EAS schools will offer a longer school day, as well as access to the arts, music and physical education, according to a statement released by Snyder’s office.

Businesses and nonprofit organizations, including the California-based Broad Foundation, which has $2 billion in assets and paid a portion of the former DPS emergency financial manager’s living expenses, have said they are interested in providing support for the reform effort.

DPS, EMU and the governor will appoint 11 board members to oversee the EAS as well as an executive committee that will select a chancellor to run the system.

A parent advisory council will be formed at each school. After five years, if a school has made adequate progress, it can return to DPS — or its original district; remain within the EAS, or become a charter school.

Labor contracts for employees under the EAS will be negotiated by the chairperson, who initially will be Roberts.

The new district will have more money for classroom instruction because it will not be saddled with any of the DPS deficit.

Also, DPS currently spends about 55% of its funds in the classroom, with the rest going to administration and debt repayment. The EAS would seek to spend 95% of all funds on classroom instruction.

The plan is not a done deal and many details are yet to be hammered out, officials said.

In 2009, the state Legislature passed an education reform law that would allow for the formation of an office that would oversee the worst-performing schools.

However, Snyder’s office is working with legislators, especially state Sen. Phil Pavlov, a Republican from St. Clair, to create legislation that would make the EAS and the partnership between DPS and EMU legally binding, according to Snyder’s office.

The plan is separate from other action plans under way to restructure education in the city.

Excellent Schools Detroit could be tapped to coordinate fund-raising for the EAS, according to the details released Monday. Excellent Schools Detroit is a coalition of local leaders that plans to raise $200 million to open 70 high-performing schools for Detroit students by 2020.

Carol Goss, a leader of Excellent Schools Detroit, said at some point its leaders and state officials will have to meet to determine the best way to move forward without replicating services.

Also, the DPS Renaissance 2012 plan and deficit-elimination plan that call for closing or chartering up to half of the district’s 141 schools by 2012 will continue, depending on the financial outlook.

The DPS budget is due June 30. A public meeting on the budget will be postponed from Thursday to Monday.

As part of the plan, the $327-million DPS deficit would be eradicated by refinancing much of that debt and paying it off in five years, Roberts said. He did not say that any entity planned on writing a check to help pay off the debt, but added, “If they do, I’ll take it.”

A fund-raising effort will focus on finding enough money to ensure that all DPS graduates would have a scholarship to cover costs at two-year colleges or for two years of post-secondary training.

The ultimate goal is to provide four-year scholarships similar to those offered by the Kalamazoo Promise, which has provided more than $17 million in scholarships to students in that city.

School board reacts

Six DPS board members met with Roberts in two separate meetings early Monday morning to hear about the reform plan.

Board member LaMar Lemmons III, the board’s finance committee chairman, said Roberts lost his cool and let go a few expletives during the first meeting.

Roberts told board members that $200 million of the district’s deficit would go away and the books will be balanced in five years under the plan.

Board President Anthony Adams said the board favored some of the ideas that Roberts told them about, such as plans to rebid some DPS contracts and the plan to give students scholarships. But board members would not go so far as to say they support the new reforms.

“We don’t have a lot of information,” Adams said.

Monday’s announcement at Renaissance High was invitation-only. Several teachers were not allowed to enter and at least two people were escorted from the building by police.

“This system is broken, and I can’t fix it, and you can’t fix it,” Roberts told dozens of stakeholders allowed to attend Monday’s announcement.

The announcement comes after two years of wrangling and proposals over how to restructure DPS to eliminate the deficit and improve the 62% graduation rate and national test scores that rank at the bottom compared with those of students in17 other cities.

DPS has been under two forms of state takeover in recent years — one from 1999 to 2006 and another from 2009 to present.

Sharlonda Buckman, executive director for the Detroit Parent Network, said she was pleased that the EAS plan is a statewide proposal.

“It’s not just about Detroit.”

• CONTACT CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313-223-4537 OR CPRATT@FREEPRESS.COM

ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

Roy Roberts, Detroit Public Schools emergency manager, explains some of the details of a dramatic educational restructuring proposal during a news conference held Monday morning at Renaissance High School in Detroit.

Behind the scenes

How Snyder’s spark of an idea grew into this plan

By DAVID JESSE FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The proposition made over steaks during a dinner was simple, yet complex.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder wanted to make bold changes in Detroit Public Schools, but needed help. Would Eastern Michigan University be interested?

That May 16 dinner at the Chop House in Ann Arbor marked the explosion of activity leading to Monday’s announcement of the establishment of a new statewide authority to run Michigan’s failing schools, likely starting with 34 Detroit public schools.

Snyder chose EMU based on its history of teacher education efforts, personal relationships with Snyder and DPS, and Lansing connections, people involved in or familiar with the discussions said.

There are still details to be worked out, and some of Snyder’s sweeping plan might need legislative approval.

In order to form the new authority, Snyder needs to use the Urban Cooperation Act of 1967, which requires that another governmental agency be involved in the plan. In stepped EMU, which has one of the oldest teacher education schools in the country and has trained a significant number of Michigan’s public school teachers.

Snyder’s proposed authority — called the Education Achievement Agency — would be a joint effort between DPS and EMU but be its own free-standing public policy entity.

EMU’s Board of Regents will be asked today to approve the 27-page agreement.

The first spark for the idea goes back to when Snyder was running for governor. During his discussions with various education leaders, the concept of creating a new system of schools to try to reform the worst performers was discussed and then more fully developed once he took office.

About the time Roy Roberts was named emergency manager on May 4, Snyder asked whether Roberts wanted to go down this road.

Roberts agreed to it. And that fast-tracked the work.

At the May 16 meeting, representatives from EMU met with state Superintendent Mike Flanagan and representatives from Snyder’s office and the Broad Foundation, which is run by philanthropist Eli Broad and focuses on education reform. Broad had been meeting with Snyder about education issues.

In the days following that May dinner, EMU regents who were involved in the meeting — Jim Stapleton, Roy Wilbanks and Mike Hawks — got President Susan Martin involved, along with attorneys. There were meetings with Roberts and his attorneys.

“It’s an aggressive plan, and it needs to be,” said EMU Regent Jim Stapleton, the chair of the university’s finance committee.

“From our perspective, given our long-standing reputation as a teachers college, we were the perfect partner.

“And it’s not lost on us the benefit of having a presence in high schools across the state can have on our enrollment goals.”

Stapleton knows Roberts, and Hawks is a prominent Lansing lobbyist.

“We like EMU,” Roberts said. “We signed up to (get) this done together.”

Throughout June, meetings were held, hammering out the details of the agreement.

On each side, there were questions about money, legal protection, length of the contract and a million other details.

The resulting agreement is a contract between DPS and EMU for 15 years.

It spells out who will be on the authority — two people from EMU, two from DPS and seven appointed by the governor.

It spells out the members of an executive committee to be led by Roberts.

It makes the authority subject to Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act laws.

It mandates that no member of the authority committee or executive committee be paid for his or her work.

On Friday, attorneys spent the day in Lansing hammering out the final details.

On Sunday, Roberts briefed teachers union officials.

Then, on Monday morning, he briefed Detroit school board officials, and shortly thereafter, stood in front of the news media and invited guests to spell out the plan.

“Today, we change the game,” he said.

• CONTACT DAVID JESSE: 313-222-8851 OR DJESSE@FREEPRESS.COM

ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts talks about restructuring the district. His receptiveness to the concept of creating a new system of schools to try to help the ones struggling most helped fast-track the plan. There are still details to be worked out, and some of Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal might need approval from lawmakers.

What they said

Here’s what decision-makers and stakeholders had to say about a plan announced Monday to create a special authority that could control 34 of the lowest-performing Detroit public schools and raise money to provide college scholarships for DPS graduates.

“We’re not fighting just to save children or to save the public school system, we’re fighting to save the city of Detroit. … Everybody has to own this process.”

U.S. Education Secretary ARNE DUNCAN

“The time is now to establish a permanent solution and to provide teachers in our most challenged schools and students of all backgrounds with the tools, resources and safe learning environments they need to flourish.”

Gov. RICK SNYDER

“As state superintendent, it’s one thing to say take over those 200 schools. The question in my mind for the last year has been, ‘And then what?’ This is the what. ... This time we have to get it right.”

MICHAEL FLANAGAN, state superintendent

“The devil’s in the details. … Our contract will remain intact, but it expires in June 2012.”

KEITH JOHNSON, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers

“Eastern Michigan University is ready to roll up its sleeves and commit to this initiative and deliver its expertise in support of improved learning environments and student achievement for all students, including those who are educationally disadvantaged students. Our kids and our state will be better off because of it.”

ROY WILBANKS, chairman of the EMU Board of Regents

“More questions than answers remain at this point, not the least of which include … what will happen to the collective bargaining rights of employees. … We are ready to roll up our sleeves and work with Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts and community groups. … We are not prepared to be treated as bystanders.”

Joint statement from KEITH JOHNSON, president, Detroit Federation of Teachers; RUBY NEWBOLD, president, Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees, and DONNA JACKSON, president, Detroit Federation of Paraprofessionals

Post-conference Note

2011-06-20T17:02:00.002-05:00

Breaking News on DPS Education Reform

Governor, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager jointly unveil dramatic education reform plan to restructure failing Michigan schools

(Note: DPS Emergency Manager Roy S. Roberts gave the following address at a news conference today, along with the governor, at Renaissance High School announcing a dramatic education reform plan to restructure failing Michigan schools. News release follows at end.)

Governor Snyder, you recall that last week my team had a day full of meetings in Lansing. We met with members of your team, had some insightful conversations with legislative leaders, were generally running a very tight schedule, and frankly got in the vehicle for the return trip to Detroit, tired. We were tired.

Then we headed into this very room, to attend a Meet and Greet from an invitation from this school’s parents and students, I met Principal Gail Russell-Jones for the first time, and we were treated to an hour-long presentation on each of the curricular areas and several student performances. It didn’t take long before that exhaustion turned into excitement and energy. It didn’t take long to hear the Principal state her vision that all schools can, and should, offer all students the level of educational excellence clearly evident here. I knew immediately that when we would get together five days later for this important announcement, that this is the school and the setting that we should make it in. Thank you again, Principal Jones to you and Renaissance High School-home of the Phoenix.

Governor, Superintendent Flanagan, U.S. Secretary Duncan, Principal Gail Russell-Jones, parents, students and Detroit community: today we change the game. You see, when Governor Snyder asked me to come out of quasi-retirement to accept this huge and daunting assignment, I knew it was the right thing to do. I knew that students in Detroit deserved our very best efforts and our very best minds and all the resources we can bring to bear on the situation to improve Detroit Public Schools. I also encountered many individuals who asked if I had lost my mind. I realized that they weren’t questioning my mental state, but rather that they had given up on the system and, sadly in many cases, its students. Well, today this is not about giving up on DPS or its students. It is about strengthening it, supporting them, creating a long term sustainable model, a System of Schools, that ensures a number of things. And this list is developed after many conversations with students, parents, teachers and others:

100 percent college- and career-ready graduates
100 percent of third graders reading at grade level
Resources, as much as 95% of them, going directly to the schools
Attracting and retaining students and families
A wide range of innovative choices
Safe and secure schools
Financial sustainability
Lean and supportive central administration
Rewarding and flexible teacher career paths

We are NOT on the path to achieve these goals under the current system design. It’s not about blaming the past or our teachers and educators who in nearly all cases are trying their level best. We have great people working in broken systems. When I accepted the task the Governor had given me, I knew there would be a lot to fix. But, I did not realize just how much was broken….There are no systems in place in such critical operational areas as Human Resources, Finance, Contracting and Procurement, IT. There is an organizational chart with some 30 people reporting to me and nearly half of them are contractors not full DPS employees and of those nearly all are scheduled to leave in 10 days at the end of this month. Our central office staff are spread out over 12 floors in four buildings in a condo ownership/lease arrangement. People don’t know each other. We all know about the $327 million deficit. We’ve seen the headlines that only 3 out of 100 Detroit students scored proficiently on the NAEP-National Assessment of Educational Progress-test and that roughly 80% of Detroit high schools fail to produce a single college-ready graduate. We have of the 92 schools across Michigan that have been identified as Persistently Low Achieving, 45 of those right here in Detroit. These students came to us with the desire and ability-we failed them.

So today we announce a new system that drives vastly more resources into their classrooms, offers schools greater autonomy and ensures dramatic student achievement increases.

First, let me say that there are many good schools, scores of highly talented students, and cadres of dedicated educators in the Detroit Public School system that will remain within the Detroit Public Schools system. There’s Detroit Renaissance High School but also Cass Technical High School. And there’s also the Detroit International Academy for Young Women, whose “Pink Panther” girls attend the only all-female public school in the State of Michigan. And, Davis Aerospace where students can get a pilot’s license in some cases before they get their drivers license. Eight of the top twelve highest performing elementary schools on the most recent Excellent Schools Detroit Report Card are DPS schools. Some names you probably have never heard-Thirkell, Charles Wright and Mann. The night after we visited Renaissance last week I attended a banquet for more than 300 DPS graduates who earned 3.5 or higher GPA’s. Successful schools will remain with DPS and given greater autonomy to do what they do best. My very first day on the job I met the highly talented principal of Marcus Garvey Academy Mr. James Hearn recently named the Coleman A. Young Foundation Educator of the Year.

DPS also will continue to manage all DPS property and debt service management and will continue to receive local tax revenue. DPS will also be issuing fiscal stabilization bonds and will eliminate the deficit in 5 years.

A new Education Achievement System (EAS) will place underperforming schools across the state, beginning in Detroit, under the umbrella of a more autonomous system that, in turn, will place the ultimate power for running each school in the hands of the principal, teachers and staff at the school, rather than in a central administration. It will allow principals to hire the best teachers; place, train and support them; therefore providing continuous improvement based on student needs, and ensure that at least a third more taxpayer dollars are spent in the classroom, rather than in a central office far removed from the school.

Schools in the system will benefit from numerous resources, such as a longer school day and year, a challenging curriculum, dramatically more resources and funding for classrooms, greater parent input and more autonomy to hire the best teachers, principals and staff and be held accountable for student achievement.

The new Education Achievement System also will place great emphasis on community involvement in schools. A Parent Advisory Council (PAC) will be formed at each school to incorporate local feedback and direction in a way that is much more direct than was possible previously. As the school progresses in its improvement plan, the parent council will assume additional responsibilities for supporting its school. Parents also will be asked to agree in writing to play a role in making sure their children succeed in school.

Additionally, we are working with foundations, businesses and philanthropic organizations to guarantee that all students who graduate from a high school in Detroit will have the financial resources to attend, at a minimum, their choice of a two-year college or career training school in Michigan. The goal is to expand the program to include four-year colleges as quickly as possible. The concept is modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise. Organizers have embarked on aggressive fund raising in an effort to create and then expand this program so that Detroit graduates may ultimately receive guaranteed financial resources to afford a four-year college education.

The system will be governed by an Educational Achievement Authority that will be established through an inter-local agreement between Eastern Michigan University and Detroit Public Schools.

The system will first apply to underperforming schools in Detroit beginning in the 2012-13 school year and will expand to cover the entire state. Over a five-year expansion period, it will envelop and operate underperforming schools across the state, in effect becoming a state-wide school district with a focus and specialization on the improvement of underperforming schools. Schools will remain within the Education Achievement System until they show dramatic progress for their students, at which time the improved schools may return to their traditional public school system.

I will remain Emergency Manager of DPS while at the same time serving as chair of the Executive Committee of the system during its 2011-2012 incubation and planning period. The system will develop capacity during the 2011-12 school year and will envelop the first schools from DPS in September 2012.

We have met with a great number of community leaders from all walks of life, and gotten a sounding from the larger community as well. Their input and counsel, much of it in the form of constructive criticism, has driven this model.

This Educational Achievement System, and Detroit Public Schools, are both centered on Achievement and Promise.

They…we…are the hope for our students, the attraction for our families and those to come, and the springboard from which fine educators both currently with DPS and from across the country can engage in 21^st Century Teaching and Learning in autonomous and accountable, supported, nurtured, appropriately funded, properly equipped, safe and well maintained settings.

Combined with the promise scholarship opportunity, this is indeed Detroit’s Promise. This is our promise and commitment to Detroit’s youth. I am excited and humbled to be a part of it.
*****

(News release follows...)
Governor, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager jointly unveil dramatic education reform plan to restructure failing Michigan schools
Goal of new system of schools is to provide all Michigan students with skills to complete rigorous post-secondary program of either college or career training

DETROIT – Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts today announced a plan to dramatically redesign public education in Michigan’s lowest performing schools by including them into a new system that drives vastly more resources directly into their classrooms and offers greater autonomy to help ensure dramatic student achievement increases.

The Education Achievement System (EAS) plan is a new statewide school system that will operate the lowest performing 5 percent of schools in Michigan not achieving satisfactory results on a redesign plan or that are under an emergency manager. It is designed to provide a new, stable, financially responsible set of public schools that create the conditions, supports, tools and resources under which teachers can help students make significant academic gains. It will first apply to underperforming schools in Detroit in the 2012-2013 school year and then be expanded to cover the entire state.

The system will place the ultimate power for running each school in the hands of the principal, teachers and staff at the school, rather than in a central administration or office far removed from the school. It will allow principals to hire the best teachers; place, train and support them to provide continuous improvement based on student needs and ensure that at least a third more taxpayer dollars are spent directly in the classroom. Schools will remain in the EAS until they show marked progress for their students at which time they can choose to stay or return their transformed DPS public school system.

“Students in every Michigan school deserve educational opportunities that prepare them for a successful future,” Snyder said. “The time is now to establish a permanent solution and to provide teachers in our most challenged schools and students of all backgrounds with the tools, resources and safe learning environments they need to flourish. Our kids, citizens and economy will all benefit.”

The new EAS also will place greater emphasis on community involvement in schools. A Parent Advisory Council (PAC) will be formed at each school to incorporate local feedback and direction in a way that is much more direct than was possible previously. As the school progresses in its improvement plan, the parent council will assume additional responsibilities for supporting its school. Parents also will be asked to agree in writing to play a role in making sure their children succeed in school.

“Today is not about giving up on DPS or its students,” Roberts said. “It is about strengthening it, supporting them, creating a long term sustainable model that ensures 100 percent college- and career-ready graduates, 100 percent of third graders reading at grade level, as much as 95 percent of resources going directly to the schools, programs that attract and retain students and families, a wide range of innovative choices, safe and secure schools, financial sustainability, lean and supportive central administration and rewarding and flexible teacher career paths.

“There are many good schools in the Detroit Public School system that will remain within the Detroit Public Schools system, but we are not on the path to achieve our goals and replicate those successful schools under the current system design,” Roberts added. “The new Education Achievement System will drive dramatically more resources into school classrooms, offer schools greater autonomy to use best practices and ensure significant and sustainable student achievement increases."

Snyder and Roberts said their announcement was held at Detroit Renaissance High School to underscore the excellence that can be found in DPS schools.

Snyder and Roberts also announced they are working with foundations, businesses and philanthropic organizations on a plan modeled after the successful Kalamazoo Promise to guarantee that all students who graduate from a high school in Detroit will have the financial resources to attend, at a minimum, their choice of a two-year college or career training school in Michigan. The goal is to expand the program to include four-year colleges as quickly as possible.

Organizers have embarked on an aggressive fund raising effort and will be seeking 4-year college and university partners to create and then expand this program so that Detroit graduates may ultimately receive guaranteed financial resources to afford a four-year college education.

Snyder and Roberts said the new Education Achievement System will restructure challenged schools in a variety of ways so that they meet parent, student and teacher needs. They include:

Ensuring that each child’s school has a principal that 1) is qualified and knows how to create a safe learning environment and 2) passionately believes that every child, of every background, is capable of success.

Spending as much money as possible in the classroom – not on administration – to help students and teachers make dramatic academic gains. Detroit Public Schools currently spends nearly half of its entire budget on bureaucracy and management, with $900 per student going simply to pay off debt. Because the system will operate on a very lean administrative structure and not be required to payout funds toward debt reduction, it will ultimately seek to push 95 percent of all school funds to the classroom.

Hiring teachers that have a track record or the promise of success, and then empowering, supporting and rewarding them to succeed in the classroom. Every staff member in the central office will be held responsible for supporting teachers in the classroom, and all employees will work under a “continuous improvement” model that allows staff to provide students with immediate help when they have fallen behind. Staff will be able to access a multitude of cutting edge national and local resources to bring students up to speed, regularly monitoring their progress and continuing this loop until each student achieves at dramatically higher levels.

Providing students with a challenging curriculum and longer school day that will allow for more instructional time in core subject areas like reading and math as well as access to the arts, music and physical education.

Providing every parent a voice in the future of their child’s school, including a role in the Parent Advisory Councils where they can provide direct feedback and guidance. As the school makes academic gains, the parent council will assume additional responsibilities for supporting its school.

Sharing local school performance data with parents so they can make an informed decision about how to get the best possible education for their child.

Asking parents to agree in writing to play a role in making sure their children succeed in school.

The Educational Achievement System will initially be run in partnership with DPS under Roberts’ leadership. Roberts will remain emergency manager of DPS while at the same time serving as chair of the Executive Committee of the system during its 2011-2012 incubation period. The system will develop capacity during the 2011-12 school year and will receive its first schools from DPS in September 2012.

“In my special message on education reform in April I said our system must position our children to compete globally in a knowledge-based economy and to have the highest possible quality of life,” he said. “To accomplish that goal we need to reshape our system so that all students learn at the highest level. This plan, which was developed after extensive research into the most successful efforts to improve low-performing schools around the country, is designed to achieve that goal.”

The system will be governed by an Educational Achievement Authority that will be established through an inter-local agreement between Eastern Michigan University and Detroit Public Schools. While both of these “parent organizations” were necessary to form the authority, it will be an independent, free-standing entity.

Eventually, the system will assume responsibility for and manage the schools from the 5 percent lowest performing schools in Michigan that are not achieving satisfactory performance on their schools’ redesign plans. As the EAS develops greater capacity, other school districts with schools that do not fall in the bottom 5 percent in performance will have the opportunity to enter into a partnership with the authority to take advantage of its best practices.

The system will be governed by an 11-member board, with two members appointed by DPS, two members appointed by Eastern Michigan University and seven members appointed by the Governor. Five members of the board will make up the Executive Committee, which will be chaired by Roy Roberts and comprised of one board member selected by DPS (Roberts), one member selected by EMU and three of the board members selected by the Governor. The Executive Committee will also select a Chancellor for the system.

A school that enters the system will remain under its jurisdiction for a period of five years. At the end of that period, a determination will be made by the EAS, with input from the Parent Advisory Council regarding the improvement in performance by students in the school. If the school is deemed healthy and performing, the school will have a choice: remain in the EAS, move back to DPS (or other district), or seek a charter to run independently.

Roberts said the model of greater autonomy and more community engagement at each individual school also will be incorporated into DPS and its central bureaucracy, also slated to be dramatically reduced in size. He said the combined EAS and DPS central organizations will be much smaller than the existing district organization, allowing for more dollars to be spent in classrooms where they are needed most.

DPS also will continue to manage all DPS property, debt service management and will continue to receive local tax revenue.

For more information, visit www.detroitK12.org.

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The Education Achievement System Explained

2011-06-20T12:59:00.001-05:00

Plan Aims To Help Detroit's Low-Performing Schools

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Announces Reform For District

DETROIT, Mich. -- A new school system is being formed to oversee the Detroit Public Schools' lowest-performing institutions as part of a broader effort to improve education in the state, Gov. Rick Snyder announced Monday.

The public-private partnership involves the struggling Detroit district as well as Eastern Michigan University, the Republican governor said. He said the schools would have a year to prepare and the authority would oversee them starting in the 2012-2013 school year.

View: Education Achievement System Plan Details
Read: F.A.Q's About Education Achievement System

Snyder says the pilot program, called the Education Achievement System, could be expanded later statewide. Snyder made the announcement along with Roy Roberts, the emergency manager of the Detroit school district whom he appointed earlier this year.

"We do have too many failing schools in our state," Snyder told reporters at a news conference in Detroit.

Roberts, who will remain in his post in Detroit, will lead the effort, serving as chairman of the Executive Committee of the new school system for 2011-2012.

Snyder also said a program modeled after the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program would be set up to help Detroit students attend college. The Kalamazoo program guarantees college scholarships to state universities and community colleges.

The Detroit scholarship program initially would help fund two years of college, and hopefully would be expanded to four years, he said. That effort would be funded by foundations, businesses and philanthropic organizations, and fundraising is under way.

Roberts is working to trim the district's $327 million budget deficit and improve education. The district's graduation rate lags behind the national average, and enrollment has dropped from 104,000 in 2007 to 74,000 this year and is projected to bottom out at 56,000.

Film at 11:00

2011-06-20T08:22:00.001-05:00

Failing schools won’t be in DPS

New authority to take control under changes Snyder will detail today

By DAVID JESSE, CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY and CHRIS CHRISTOFF FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Gov. Rick Snyder will create an authority to run several failing Detroit public schools as part of sweeping changes to be announced today for the city’s struggling school system, sources said Sunday.

The plan would restructure the failing Detroit Public Schools, which has a $327-million deficit on an operating budget of about $1.5 billion, by moving its underperforming schools under an authority to be run by the district’s emergency manager, Roy Roberts, according to sources. Schools would qualify for the new system if they are deemed below certain academic standards by the Michigan Department of Education

A law passed this year gives emergency managers new powers to control academics and finances, and to cancel or modify union contracts. The process of instituting new work rules at the schools could take a year, sources familiar with the discussions said.

A southeast Michigan university, widely believed in higher education circles to be Eastern Michigan University, also would be involved, to do teacher training in the schools.

There were no details Sunday about exactly how the new authority would work. Details were not being released by anyone in advance of a news conference scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Renaissance High School in Detroit.

However, sources did say that the Broad Foundation and other philanthropic organizations will pump significant amounts of money into the new authority. According to sources, Snyder has had several meetings with Eli Broad, the founder of the foundation, which is dedicated to education reform and has assets of more than $2 billion.

Broad grew up in Detroit and graduated from Michigan State University. He made a fortune in construction and insurance and has been a major MSU benefactor.

It’s unclear exactly how many DPS schools would be transferred to a new authority. DPS already has a program under way that would close or convert to charter about half its schools.

Under the plan to be announced Monday, DPS schools not labeled as underperforming would remain under the authority of Roberts, a former top executive at General Motors, in the same manner as they are today. There are no plans to dissolve the school board, sources said.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected to take part via a live feed from Washington, D.C., in today’s announcement. State schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan will attend.

DPS officials issued a three-line advisory Sunday afternoon, noting only that a news conference would be held to discuss “education reform.”

The governor’s office said Snyder would participate in a news conference at Renaissance, joined by Roberts.

Members of the DPS board of education, which has no authority because of the governor’s appointment of Roberts, said they were in the dark about the plan.

School board members reached by phone Sunday said that the board secretary contacted them about 7 p.m. Friday to say that Roberts wanted to meet with them Monday. However, they were not told the subject of the meeting and were not told that there would be a news conference.

Board member LaMar Lemmons III said, “Wow,” when told that Snyder and Duncan would participate in a news conference about DPS restructuring.

He said he plans to attend the meeting this morning with Roberts and four other board members.

“I hope we’re going to meet for them to say they’re going to eradicate the deficit created by the reform effort and the emergency financial manager, and that the district will be fully empowered so that we can refresh,” he said.

“I don’t know. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

Member Carla Scott said some board members were concerned that a meeting with the full board needed to be announced publicly or it would violate the state’s Open Meetings Act.

As of Sunday afternoon, she said she did not plan to attend.

“I’m not going to break the law,” Scott said.

But Scott added: “I just hope they’re going to do something that’s going to make schools better for children.”

Anthony Adams, the board president, could not be reached.

• CONTACT DAVID JESSE: 313-222-8851

OR DJESSE@FREEPRESS.COM

PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder is to hold a news conference on Detroit Public Schools at 11 a.m. today at Renaissance High School.

ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

DPS emergency manager Roy Roberts is to be given the authority to make new work rules at failing schools.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is to attend the news conference on DPS today via video.

(Aligns to Our Purpose / Digital Learning)

Jeb Bush shares ideas on education reform

Describing the 2012 presidential election as ugly, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was happy to quiet the drumbeat of some who hoped he might still run on the GOP side.

“I intend to support whoever the party decides should be the nominee,” Bush, 58-yearold younger brother of former President George W. Bush and son of President George H.W. Bush, said during a stop in Lansing.

Bush , who started his Foundation for Educational Excellence in Florida, ( www .excelined.org ), was invited by Lansing legislators to talk about reforms in his state and lessons that might translate for Michigan.

Bush told me between meetings he was flattered by the attention and others drawing comparisons to Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was recruited by the GOP to run decades earlier.

“But I’m not Dwight Eisenhower who was a war hero who saved our country. It was logical for him to be called into duty,” he said.

He also talked about his brother, who left the White House amid anemic popularity ratings.

“He has handled the post-presidency well as a former president should do but don’t always,” he said.

“History will treat him favorably,” he said. “When you hear how they took out Osama (Bin Laden) it was through techniques criticized when he was president that were used and helped identify leads that led to his killing.”

Crossing the nation

For now, Bush, who served as Florida governor from 1999 to 2007, seems content in his role as educational reform pied piper as he crisscrosses the nation.

He has been a champion for reform long before he ran for public office, saying “it also translates into economic opportunities that help communities.”

Bush had a private meeting with Gov. Rick Snyder, who said in April he would announce more education reforms on issues like early education.

“A quality, cutting-edge education system that gives teachers and students the tools to succeed is critical as we enter the new Michigan,” Snyder said during a joint appearance with Bush. “Michigan’s future depends on our success.”

Bush plans to issue a national report card this fall with a breakdown of states on digital learning.

“Those states that open up access to digital learning will be the ones with the biggest gains,” he said.

Bush also talked of unions and his view of them as impediments to reforms.

“They are there to protect their members and the status quo,” he said.

Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, took issue and said much of the reforms are about “breaking the union” and have nothing to do with improving the classroom.

Betsy DeVos, longtime supporter of vouchers and giving more choice on schools, said Michigan made inroads on charters in the 1990s but is lagging behind other states.

• CONTACT CAROL CAIN: 313-222-6732 OR CLCAIN@CBS.COM . CAIN HOSTS “MICHIGAN MATTERS” AT 11 A.M. SUNDAYS ON WWJ-TV (CBS DETROIT).

STEPHANIE McCLUNG/WWJ-TV-CBS

Gov. Rick Snyder appears with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during a stop in Lansing to discuss education reforms.

Student-Centric, Entrepreneurial, Innovative Empowerment (That's WHAT We're Talking About)

2011-06-03T08:10:00.001-05:00

Snyder builds DPS a new model and hope

MACKINAC ISLAND — So, is DPS dead?

Gov. Rick Snyder had an answer Thursday to the simple but daunting question posed in a Free Press story earlier this week.

It was yes. And no.

And despite the inherent tension in that reply, I think Snyder — who just appointed a second emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools — might be pushing the city toward its best possible hope for having sustainable, high-performing options in public education.

Yes, DPS is dead in the sense that the current system is insolvent and unsustainable. The system is still hemorrhaging students and, as a result, millions of dollars. And no one could effect the kind of dramatic cuts to match falling revenues without destroying the district’s ability to deliver fundamental services to children .

But no, Snyder also said, public education is not dead in Detroit. Far from it.

What he hopes former GM executive Roy Roberts will do as EFM is redefine and, as a result, revitalize it outside the restrictive framework of the old-style school district.

Encouraging innovation

In Snyder’s ideal, all schools in Detroit would be created around sets of individual principles and ideas, by committed groups of educators, parents, community groups and whoever else wants to get involved. They’d all be “charter schools,” in the sense of being constituted around the models they chose.

Some might be existing public schools. Some could be charters.

They’d have remarkable freedom to implement their models, try new things, pursue innovation. But the key is that they’d be held accountable for student performance — either locally under a new school governance structure or by the state, if that’s where they were chartered.

Snyder says the education reform plans that he announced last month will be tough on schools that operate under the state’s charter law, and if they don’t deliver, “they can lose their charters.”

Focus on results

This is what Snyder means when he talks about creating a “system of schools” to replace Detroit’s school system. He’s describing something that’s focused much more on results than on governance. It’s a system that would not look much like what the city has now.

There are already some promising examples — the schools that were taken over by the United Way in 2008; the new public charters announced by DPS last week. But growing such models to serve all the city’s children is more than a difference of scale; it’s also a question of substance.

There is still very little market incentive for anyone to take on responsibility for educating the city’s poorest and most isolated children.

This plan also depends heavily on Snyder being successful in changing how the state evaluates, rewards and metes out consequences for schools. Michigan does an awful job of that right now.

If he can work through the kinks, Snyder’s vision could offer real hope for public education in Detroit.

And at this point, it’s the only hope I see on the horizon.

• STEPHEN HENDERSON IS EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR FOR THE FREE PRESS. CONTACT HIM ATSHENDERSON600@FREEPRESS.COM , OR AT 313-222-6659.

Snyder: DPS may need to split

Empower schools, he says

By CHRIS CHRISTOFF and KATHLEEN GRAY FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

MACKINAC ISLAND — Detroit Public Schools might be better off as “a system of schools” rather than a single, large entity run by top-down management, Gov. Rick Snyder told the Free Press on Thursday.

Snyder, who appointed retired GM executive Roy Roberts as the emergency manager for DPS, said the district needs a radical overhaul — but, he said, it’s up to Roberts to enact changes.

“The nature of the district needs to change,” Snyder said. “Structurally, it’s a failing format.”

Snyder spoke to Free Press reporters and editors during the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual policy conference. His comments were among several at the conference that focused on how to better educate Michigan students.

Snyder said a new format would not necessarily convert Detroit schools to charter schools, but rather have them be managed like charter schools, with more autonomy. He said the school board could focus on measuring academic results instead of dictating curriculums and school-by-school management.

“You need to empower the schools more, rather than having a command-and-control structure of the district,” he said. “How do you give the administrator in that school and the teachers a team? You make it more entrepreneurial and innovative.

“It’s like they’re a business unit, and they’re there to help their kids grow. Give them the resources to succeed, and then, how do you hold them accountable?”

Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, spoke at the conference and said public schools’ success rests solely with teachers, who should be fired if their students don’t go on to college.

“If you get paid to educate a child and you cannot do it, then you should probably go into a different business,” he said.

Harlem Children’s Zone takes a holistic approach to education, helping families in a 100-block area of Harlem so that children are prepared to succeed in school. More communities, like Detroit, need to adopt the model, Canada said.

Canada said business owners should have a vested interest in helping produce better schools because eventually, they’re going to have to pick from the talent pool educated in public schools.

In another forum Thursday, the Excellent Schools Detroit group talked about creating excellent schools and recruiting great employees. Their goal for 2020 is to graduate 90% of their students, with 90% of those students enrolling in college without remedial classes.

The Michigan Future Schools Accelerator soon will open three high schools in Detroit: the Carson School of Science and Medicine, which is affiliated with the Detroit Medical Center; Detroit College Preparatory, and the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy.

The schools, funded with $800,000 each in foundation and grant dollars, will operate with no more than 500 students per school. Teachers will be hired from an open pool, instead of from a seniority list, and each school must have a counselor and a college coach who can help students after they graduate.

“And if the kids are off-track, it’s the educators who will have to change,” said Lou Glazer, president of the program.

A New Conversation Begins Today!

2011-05-17T10:10:00.001-05:00

NEW DPS MANAGER’S 1ST DAY

Roberts promises fast action, change

By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

The high level of uncertainty about the short- and long-term future of the Detroit Public Schools is not lost on Roy Roberts, the district’s new emergency manager.

As of now, parents and teachers don’t know for sure which of 45 schools will become charters. And all teachers have been pink-slipped as officials figure out how to address a $327-million deficit. Many or most teachers will likely be rehired before the start of the next school year.

“I understand there’s a feeling of uncertainty, and changes will surely be necessary,” Roberts wrote in a letter to DPS’s staff on Monday. “I soon will be taking a deep dive into all areas of this organization to determine cost efficiencies and organizational needs.”

Roberts, a 72-year-old former General Motors executive, was appointed this month by Gov. Rick Snyder. Roberts has a one-year, $250,000 contract that includes unprecedented legal authority to run the 74,000-student school system.

On Monday, his first day on the job, he pledged to move quickly to evaluate needs, fill several top-level administrative positions and build a culture of high expectations and cooperation.

The outgoing emergency manager, Robert Bobb, is expected to stick around for a month or so.

“Robert Bobb will work in a transitional capacity in support to the new EM and DPS for a period of time no longer than the end of June that the two will agree to,” said DPS spokesman Steve Wasko.

Roberts’ first day started with tours at Davis Aerospace High and Marcus Garvey Academy on the city’s east side. In a news conference at Garvey, Roberts said about half of DPS’s high-ranking staff are contractors, so he expects to hire new administrators for at least four positions: chief financial officer, budget director, human resources director and superintendent.

Roberts said the current plan to close 14 schools and charter as many as 45 others will remain in place as he assembles a team to evaluate needs. Roberts said he has no reason so far to dismiss the school board or cancel union contracts, powers he has as the emergency manager.

Roberts said he first wants to change the culture to ensure that students have “choices and chances.”

He’s facing a system with high absenteeism, and a 62% graduation rate, compared with 76% statewide. Of DPS graduates, about 1% of them are college-ready, according to ACT test results, compared with 16% statewide.

“I am challenging everyone in our DPS community to be focused together on creating a culture of excellence that permeates our system of schools like never before,” Roberts wrote.

Kristina Maxwell, whose children have attended Marcus Garvey Academy, said she wants Roberts “to keep the schools open and accessible. That’s the main thing.”

• CONTACT CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313-223-4537 OR CPRATT@FREEPRESS .COM

Photos by ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

James Hearn, left, principal of Marcus Garvey Academy in Detroit, leads new Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts on a school tour Monday. Roberts, appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder, spent his first day on the job at the academy and Davis Aerospace High.

Roy Roberts says he wants to change the culture of Detroit Public Schools to ensure that students have “choices and chances.”