Detroit Collegiate Prep

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 9th 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 9th 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 9th grade class. We still have several 9th grade spaces left to enroll for our Inaugural 2011-2012 School Year – the high school graduating class of 2015!!  If you will be a 9th 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)

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)

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

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

WHEN is Less MORE?

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!)

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.

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

Flashpoint (Doug Ross) 6-17-11

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

The Detroit Shapers of Things to Come

The GELT-ART of the LINCHPIN!

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!

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.