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Sunday, August 10, 2008

Nolan Finley

Radical changes needed for Detroit Public Schools

Some redeeming value might be found in the Detroit Public Schools, which fails to graduate more than two-thirds of the children placed under its care, if the remaining students left high school with a quality education.

But the district fails even those few students who stick it out.

Take a look at what's happening at one school, Osborn High.

In the fall of 2005, 811 freshmen walked in the doors of Osborn in northeast Detroit. By this spring, only 245 of those students were around for graduation. Some of the lost children may have transferred to other Detroit schools. Some may have switched to charter, private or suburban schools. But most of the missing likely dropped out.

Of the 245 survivors, only seven graduated proficient in math. That means that just 1 percent of the class that started at Osborn as freshmen was able to pass the state administered math test.

Other subjects aren't much better -- only 17 students were proficient in science, 18 in language skills, 11 in writing, 33 in reading and 87 in social studies.

No disrespect to those who soldiered on to Graduation Day, but the Osborn student body probably would have absorbed more knowledge lying on the couch at home watching "Jeopardy!" and "Oprah."

In other cities -- New York, Chicago, Denver, to name a few -- such extreme education failure has sparked public outrage, leading to the closing of the worst schools and the opening of the door to dramatic reform. In those other cities, new approaches to education are paying off rather quickly in higher graduation rates and improved test scores.

In Detroit, there's anger, too. But much of it is directed at new school Superintendent Connie Calloway, who in her first year on the job has had the courage to document the district's abysmal performance and to advocate for school models that have proven effective elsewhere in educating urban children.

The school board that hired Calloway is now openly at war with her and aligned with the most destructive elements of the teachers union in trying to undermine her reform agenda.

Calloway wants smaller schools committed to intense individual instruction and staffed by principals and teachers whose jobs depend on delivering a quality education. She wants to move fast so as not to lose another class of Detroit schoolchildren to ignorance and poverty. She believes she can convert all of the high schools to higher performing academies within five years.

That's what Calloway wants. Her board members want jobs and contracts for their friends and family, and they don't want Calloway making waves. And the community whose children are being cheated of their futures doesn't seem to want much of anything at all from its schools.

The only time the community is heard from is when the district tries to close a half-empty school building.

The truth is that even if Calloway enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the board and the community she would face a Herculean job in lifting up the Detroit schools. The district may have reached the point of no return.

Of its 16 middle schools, only five are meeting basic performance standards, as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act. Only five of 27 high schools get a passing grade.

The district does best in its elementary schools, where 68 of 80, or 85 percent, meet acceptable standards.

Maybe the easiest way to fix the district is to allow it to focus on what it does well and take everything else off its plate.

Give the Detroit district responsibility for elementary and preschool education in Detroit and spin off the middle and high schools to private contractors who will be freer to create the new schools Calloway envisions.

That would still leave the district with roughly 60,000 students. And it would give it the help it desperately needs to educate its upper grade children.

The school district could maintain control over the awarding of school charters -- with some oversight from the state to guard against nepotism, favoritism and corruption. (The last thing Detroit needs is a Bobby Ferguson Academy.)

And it ultimately could compete to operate schools itself, if it gets its house in order.

Or maybe there's a better idea for quickly turning around the Detroit system. But it's suicidal not to try something different.

Taxpayers spend $1.5 billion on the Detroit Public Schools. For that investment, they see more Detroit kids going to welfare and prison than to college.

I don't know what to say about a city that tolerates such abuse of its children. Except that this is Detroit, and Detroit is always its own worst enemy.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Reach him at nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064. Read his blog at forums.detnews.com/blogs/, and watch him at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on "Am I Right?" on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56. Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Reach him at nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064. Read his blog at forums.detnews.com/blogs/, and watch him at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on "Am I Right?" on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56.