Redesign firms for Detroit schools get mixed grades
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
The four companies charged with redesigning 17 low-performing high schools in Detroit have spotty records turning around student achievement at other struggling schools they have been selected to help in the region and across the nation, studies show.
Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, maintains that the companies have a “proven track record of raising student achievement.”
However, experts and a review of achievement data show modest gains in some cases and losses in others.
Heading off more criticism from parents and some school board members, DPS officials clarified the school redesign effort, saying the companies will not manage the schools, but rather assist the staff and provide training, curriculum and security planning.
“This is not a takeover,” said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief academic and accountability auditor for DPS.
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The Detroit Board of Education is to meet Thursday to discuss plans to bar the emergency financial manager, Robert Bobb, from hiring the four companies. The meeting is to begin at 5 p.m. and be followed by a 6 p.m. committee of the whole meeting that Bobb is expected to attend. The meetings are to be at the Detroit Public Schools Welcome Center, 3031 W. Grand Blvd.
Would these firms improve DPS?
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
The most well-known and criticized of the four companies selected this month to redesign 17 Detroit high schools is Edison Learning Inc., formerly the Edison Project founded in 1992 to manage charter schools. Edison managed Inkster Public Schools from 2000 to 2005. In 2005, MEAP scores at Inkster High fell in all but one category with the highest score at 40% of students passing the reading exam.
Those statistics highlight concerns about whether Edison Learning and three other consulting firms will be helpful in turning around performance at struggling schools.
The district also is vetting additional consultants to help redesign other low-performing schools, said spokesman Steve Wasko. Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said hiring the four firms is a bad move. “They don’t have a track record of success behind them,” Johnson said.
Edison Learning, a New York-based for-profit company, is to consult at six of the schools; Ed Works, an Ohio-based nonprofit, is to consult at five schools; the Institute for Student Achievement, a for-profit based in Lake Success, N.Y., is to consult at three schools and Model Secondary Schools Project, a small for-profit company in Bellevue, Wash., will work at three schools.
All but Edison specialize in creating small learning communities in large high schools.
Hiring the consultants shows guts and inspires hope, but it is no guarantee, said Sharif Shakrani, codirector of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University. “In some places, they have had success. In other places, they have not had very tangible success,” Shakrani said of the companies.
“The important question is, ‘What lessons have they learned…and how will they be able to apply that?’ ”
EDISONLEARNING INC.: The most well-known and controversial of the firms, the Edison Project, has been in the Philadelphia School District where it manages 15 schools — down from 20 in 2002 because of low performance. Joseph Wise, chief education officer for Edison Learning, said its consulting work in eight Hawaii high schools mirrors its plans for Detroit. After one year, the Edison students showed a 6.4% increase in math achievement while other students increased just 2%, said Mike Serpe, spokesman for Edison Learning. “We’re using Hawaii and Philadelphia as a framework for what to do and not do,” Wise said.
EDWORKS: Ed Works primarily creates small high schools through the Ohio High School Transformation Initiative as well as the Ohio Early College High School Network that allows students to graduate with associate’s degrees. Test scores at Ed Works schools vary, but graduation rates tend to rise. At DPS, the company is to help staff create personalized learning plans for each student, revamp curriculum and review expectations, a relationship that usually lasts about five years, said Executive Director Harold Brown. Dal Lawrence, past president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, said Ed Works’ schools have resulted in good partnerships, but no panacea. “The jury’s still out,” he said.
INSTITUTE FOR STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: ISA has been planning this fall’s launch of four small high schools within DPS’s Cody High and five in Osborn High with funding from the Greater Detroit Education Venture Fund. ISA has developed 80 small schools nationwide, often on a5year contract, touting the small schools approach as more engaging with higher graduation and college-acceptance rates. ISA’s spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.
Michael Tenbusch, vice president of educational preparedness for United Way for Southeastern Michigan, authored the study “Meeting the Turnaround Challenge” last year, which reported that ISA will not work with a school unless allowed to help select the principal. “ISA has a very effective model,” he said.
MODEL SECONDARY SCHOOLS PROJECT: MSSP developed the Detroit High School for Technology, a small school located within Pershing High, with funds from the Gates Foundation. The graduation rate exceeds 96% each year, but standardized test scores lagged after the grant expired in 2005. This year, the 178-student school saw 4% of its students pass the Michigan Merit Exam in math and 24% in reading. Now MSSP expects a 3-year contract, but the kinds of programs to be developed — technology or health-related, for example — will be up to staff and parents, codirector Linda Keller Mac Donald said. “It’s Detroit’s high school and it’s a Detroit decision how this gets organized.” Shakrani of MSU said within a year DPS should know whether the companies are worthwhile based on factors such as ninth-grade retention and failure rates and disciplinary suspensions.
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