MOU Scenario #1 (21st Century Digital Learning Environments)

Editorial

Tough assignment: Lift schools while cutting

   
Gov. Rick Snyder has set the bar pretty high for himself with regard to education.

   The governor says he’ll outline his plans to make Michigan’s schools more competitive and efficient in a major address this April. But in his budget plan released last week, he proposed deep cuts to both K-12 and higher education. And the state Department of Education released a report this week that suggests the vast majority of students graduating from Michigan’s schools are not college-ready. It is a dramatic indication of how poorly Michigan has kept pace with educational excellence.

   So the governor starts from a premise that Michigan’s schools must do more with less — a theme that has emerged in his approach to many other areas, but that may not translate as cleanly in education.

   Snyder is surely right when he asserts, as he did during the campaign, that something about Michigan’s’ schools just doesn’t add up. The state ranks 18th in per-pupil spending and fourth in average teacher salaries, but it has been sliding in overall performance rankings and is 49th in ACT scores — a key measure of college readiness.

   Snyder has talked about applying his value-for-money approach to Michigan schools, trying to set guidelines and benchmarks for evaluating how wisely schools allocate their resources, instead of just how much they spend.

   A business approach may finesse some of the funding issues Michigan’s schools face. But as the Department of Education report makes clear, the state’s schools need something close to a comprehensive rebuild — of teaching methods, standards and the accountability to make sure they all work to prepare kids for higher learning.

   Teachers need to have their evaluations — and at least some of their pay — tied to student performance, and they need access to training and other professional development resources that will help them do better in the classroom.

   And the state’s standards — for student learning as well as teacher quality — need to be consistent with the highest in other states.

   Snyder will also have to lead on those fronts, even as he cuts funding and insists on efficiencies on other fronts. His business background will not be sufficient for that task; he will need dynamic educational leaders to take the helm and pull the state through a serious period of reform.

   Snyder’s rhetoric has set the bar high. He’ll need to match it with action to get Michigan’s schools back among the best.

Sci-fi Moment?

DPS science scores worst among 17 cities

By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

   The low scores Detroit students earned on the test known as “the nation’s report card” were unsettling but not surprising, said school officials who have been working to implement a plan for change since last year.

   The Detroit Public Schools posted the worst science scores among 17 large cities that took part in the 2009 Trial Urban District Assessment, or TUDA, results released Thursday show.

   DPS already ranked last on the reading and math scores for 2009 — according to previous announcements — with the math scores ranking the worst in the history of the test.

   Robert Bobb, the DPS emergency financial manager, said he expects scores to increase in the next three to four years as academic changes take hold. In 2010, the district implemented 120 minutes of reading and math in kindergarten through eighth grade and extended after-school and summer school enrichment classes, among other changes, he said.

   “We continue to align DPS curriculum to the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) standards so our students can compete against any child in any state in this nation,” Bobb said

   The 2009 school year was the first time DPS took part in the TUDA. The DPS school board agreed in 2008 to participate in order to benchmark the district’s progress.

   As part of the TUDA, a sampling of fourth-and eighth-graders took the NAEP test, an exam that students across the country struggle to pass.

   In Detroit, 74% of the fourth-graders scored below basic-level understanding in science; 23% scored at basic level; 4% scored at proficient and no students scored as advanced.

   Among all 17 large districts that included Detroit, an average of 44% of fourth-graders scored below basic; 36% scored at basic; 19% scored at proficient and fewer than 1% scored as advanced.

   Among DPS eighth-graders tested in science, 80% scored below basic-level understanding; 17% at basic level; 3% scored at proficient and no students scored as advanced. Among all 17 large districts, an average of 56% of students scored below basic; 27% at basic level; 16% at proficient and 1% as advanced.

   “I want to commend the Detroit Board of Education,” school board president Anthony Adams, who joined the board in 2009, said of the decision to take part in the test. “Let us use this information constructively.”

   • CONTACT CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313-223-4537 OR CPRATT

   @ FREEPRESS.COM  

MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press

   Robert Bobb, the district’s emergency financial manager, said he expects scores to increase in the next three to four years as academic changes take hold.

Moving Target?

Class sizes unlikely to hit 60

Bobb: DPS can cut costs by sharing services

By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

   Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager for the Detroit Public Schools, attempted Thursday to quell some of the fear resulting from a deficit-elimination plan that calls for placing as many as 62 students in a class by 2014.

   In response to a Free Press inquiry, Bobb said that class sizes will not balloon to 60 or more children. He did not say how large they might become, however.

   Bobb said the budget cuts were approved in August, when the district needed a state-approved deficit-elimination plan so it could borrow money to shore up cash flow.

   The state superintendent this month gave Bobb deadlines for implementing the plan to erase the $327-million deficit by 2014.

   However, Bobb said he is working on a new budget, due to the state by May 31, in which he expects to get savings from sharing some services with the city and the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency.

   Such savings — an undetermined amount because talks are ongoing — would make it unnecessary to increase class sizes so drastically, Bobb said. “At the end of the day, that will not be the case. We know academically, educationally, it’s not good for children.”

   Parents should expect school closures to continue — as many as 70 of the district’s 142 buildings — but the last budget item cut will be classroom teachers, he said.

   “We will do everything financially and humanly possible not to have 60 children in a classroom,” he said.

   The current plan calls for placing 60 students in a high school class in 2012-13, and up to 62 in 2013-14. It would increase class sizes in grades K-3 from 25 students to 31, grades 4-5 from 30 to 39 and grades 6-8 from 35 to 47.

   Juana Torres, an administrative assistant at Southeastern High whose son is a senior there, said she was outraged when she heard the plan.

   She said she doubts classrooms can physically accommodate 62 kids, and test scores are bound to go down if class sizes swell that high.

   “If they can’t control and educate 35 students in a classroom now, it would be totally out of control. I just think that thought should never have been entertained,” she said.

   Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said the plan to put 60 students in a classroom may have helped balance the budget on paper, but “will never see the light of day.”

   “I believe Robert Bobb is trying to attain leverage in order to get the state to assume a good part of the debt or figure out an alternative plan that will allow the district to eliminate its deficit,” Johnson said.

   Johnson called the deficit-elimination plan a “moving target” subject to change, and said the teachers union has been working with the school board president to propose budget cuts that could avoid huge class sizes.

   School districts with deficits typically are expected to balance budgets within five years, according to the Michigan Department of Education.

Robert Bobb, DPS emergency financial manager, says the number of classroom teachers will be the last thing cut.

State of the City of Detroit Speech

STATE OF THE CITY

Bing: It’s time to ‘shape a new legacy

FUNDING CUTS: Gov’s plan could be dire for city POLICE: Reform mandates will be met WATER: Detroit is still in charge of system

By STEVE NEAVLING FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

   Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to reduce funding to cities will have “potentially devastating consequences” to Detroit’s vulnerable turnaround, Mayor Dave Bing warned Tuesday in his second State of the City address.

   Bing said the city’s “concrete but fragile gains” are at stake if the city loses tens of millions of dollars in annual state revenue sharing that funds basic services such as police and fire protection.

   Despite that, Bing struck a positive, but firm tone Tuesday in a packed Orchestra Hall as he pledged to bring the Police Department and water and sewerage system into federal compliance by year’s end.

   “For seven years, we have had officers working on compliance issues instead of patrolling the streets,” Bing said of a federal monitor mandating changes in the use of force and treatment of inmates. “We have paid millions in fees, and our reputation suffered every day that went by without progress.”

   Bing also addressed regional cooperation and an issue that has had city residents, those in the suburbs and legislators in Lansing talking for weeks: the future of the Detroit water and sewer system.

   After forging a deal to give the suburbs more say over water and sewage issues, Bing reassured residents Tuesday that the system will remain Detroit’s.

   “Detroit built this system; Detroit owns this system, and Detroit will manage this system going forward,” Bing said.

KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/Detroit Free Press

   Detroit Mayor Dave Bing delivers his second State of the City address at Orchestra Hall on Tuesday. Bing struck a positive, but firm tone as he pledged to bring the Police Department and water and sewerage system into federal compliance by year’s end.

Bing must consider kids in city’s revival

   My friend Janet just got a new job that requires her to relocate from Durham, N.C., to Nashville, Tenn. Now house-hunting, she said, “I’ll let you know where I’m living as soon as I figure out which school we’re picking.”

   It is that simple. It is that important.

   Families choose where they live and how they live based on the educational opportunities available to their children.

   So when Detroit Mayor Dave Bing gave his State of the City address Tuesday night — and didn’t mention education once until 25 minutes into a 32-minute speech, I was worried.

   Bing performed as expected. He highlighted public safety victories, such as homicides being down 15% and more officers being moved from desks to the street.

   And he did say that “we cannot afford to wait any longer and send another generation of young people out into the world unprepared to compete for jobs. When we make a case to the business community to reinvest in Detroit, education must be one of our top priorities. …”

   But that was it.

   No details, no new ideas, no discussion about a city school district that made national news this week. Twelve hours before Bing’s speech, I was invited onto “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” to discuss the dire straits of public education in Detroit.

   Twelve hours later, Bing talked about the new Detroit without dealing with the biggest elephant in the room, the first thing would-be residents who are or will be parents look at to determine whether to move.

   This despite his address coming two days after state officials told Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb to implement his deficit-reduction plan that could close half of the district’s schools.

   This despite his address coming a day after a state report saying that at more than half of Michigan’s high schools, fewer than 1 in 10 students will graduate this spring ready for college. Declining education is a Michigan problem. But by virtue of being the state’s largest, Detroit’s problem is always worse. You know the saying: If Michigan gets a cold, Detroit gets pneumonia.

   You cannot ignore pneumonia.

   The mayor, for all the hard work he has done, may be tilting at windmills in creating a vision for Detroit that doesn’t include a way to raise a generation that can keep Detroit working.

   Bing shared a quote from his friend, Bishop Charles Ellis, chairman of the massive Detroit Works neighborhood stabilization project. Ellis, quoting Nehemiah about rebuilding a city, said: “It was done because the people had a mind to work.”

   As I await my friend’s new address in Nashville, the one determined by where her children will attend school, I offer another quote, from Mark (10:13-14): “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”

   Before all else — the water department, the Woodward train, the changes in police and fire operations — before all else, we must take care of the children.

DPS credits Bobb’s overhaul for boost in grad rates

By ROBIN ERB and KRISTI TANNER-WHITE FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

   Detroit Public Schools has boosted its graduation rates to a four-year high because of aggressive academic expectations and leadership changes, according to district officials.

   The higher graduation rates were announced Tuesday, one day after the state revealed that just two of 28 Detroit high schools examined had more than 1% of seniors who were college-ready.

   Detroit’s district-wide graduation rate of 62% for last year’s graduating class compares with a 58% graduation rate four years earlier.

   DPS also noted that dropout rates decreased from 30% to 19% during that period.

   District officials credit the numbers to an ambitious overhaul of the district under emergency financial manager Robert Bobb, who has restructured dozens of schools, reassigned or hired 91 new principals and implemented ambitious academic requirements that expanded time for basic courses and increased access to college preparatory classes.

   Bobb, in a statement Tuesday, called the grad rates a “true testament” that reforms are working.

   But the district’s shifting enrollment also may have affected the grad rates. Enrollment grew at the highest-performing large high schools and shrank at some of the district’s lowest-performing high schools during the past four years, state data show. Overall, DPS enrollment shrank 14% in that period.

   Enrollment at standout high schools Cass Tech, Crockett and Renaissance — where 94% or higher of last year’s senior classes graduated — swelled by 12%, 53% and 22%, respectively.

   Meanwhile, the district hemorrhaged students at its lower-performing large high schools, including Kettering, Finney and Osborn — schools that graduated 60% or fewer of their senior classes last year.

   That doesn’t surprise Gary Miron, a professor of evaluation, measurement and research at Western Michigan University’s College of Education. So-called resource-rich parents — those who volunteer at schools and otherwise support their children’s education — are drawn to better schools, in turn, reinforcing those schools’ performance.

   If a lower-achieving school loses too many of its star students — and their positive influence on their peers — “its ability to respond is undermined,” Miron said.

FROM the WORLD of: The LARGER Conversation (But I'm the Valedictorian from....)

Many Michigan high school grads not ready for college, analysis finds

By LORI HIGGINS FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

   At more than half of Michigan’s high schools, fewer than 10% of students graduating this spring are college ready, according to data released today that for the first time measures the extent of college readiness at every high school in the state.

   The analysis by the Michigan Department of Education underscores that graduation rates are not a reflection of the quality of education kids are getting. It raises “grave concern” that students are graduating without the skills to succeed, said Martin Ackley, spokesman for the MDE.

   “Where is the value of that high school diploma if the students walk out the door not knowing how to read and write or do basic math and science ?” Ackley asked.

   The MDE used as its yardstick rigorous standards developed by the ACT, which measures students in English, math, reading and science.

   The results were dismal even for some elite schools in metro Detroit, with barely half their students considered college-ready.

   The data was released at the same time the state begins raising the standards for the Michigan Merit Exam and the MEAP.

It’s tough to get kids college-ready

Even top schools face big challenges

By LORI HIGGINS and KRISTI TANNER-WHITE FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

   It’s consistently one of the top-ranked high schools in the nation. Now a new distinction sets the International Academy in Bloomfield Hills apart from its peers.

   At the school, 73% of the students who last spring took the Michigan Merit Exam — which includes the ACT — were considered college-ready, the highest percentage among 823 high schools in the state.

   Other high schools fared far worse, reinforcing concerns state officials have raised for years that Michigan schools are not adequately preparing students for college.

   The data, released today by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), is the first attempt to give a school-by-school analysis.

   In the past, the only college-readiness data available was statewide averages on the ACT. That average has hovered around 19%.

   To determine college readiness, the state used standards developed by ACT, which defines it as scoring — out of a top score of 36 — an 18 in English, 22 in math, 21 in reading and 24 in science.

   Success beyond high school

   “We want all students to graduate from high school, but they need to graduate with the level of knowledge that will prepare them for success after high school,” said Martin Ackley, spokesman for the MDE.

   The MDE data show that even schools with high graduation rates struggle to graduate students who are ready for college curriculum.

   In Detroit Public Schools, all but two of the high schools had percentages of college-ready students below 1%. Even the district’s top-performing schools had low rates. Cass Technical High had 4.4% while Renaissance High had 10.8%.

   The International Academy’s strong showing is likely because of the International Baccalaureate curriculum the school uses, said Rob Glass, superintendent of the Bloomfield Hills Schools district, where the school is located.

   “It’s really designed to be rigorous and to prepare any student to participate at a high level at any university in the world,” Glass said.

   Today’s data release comes just two weeks after the state Board of Education approved a plan that would increase the standards for students to pass both the merit exam and the MEAP. Up until now, students needed to only demonstrate basic skills to pass those exams; the change would require they demonstrate college-readiness skills.

   Tougher requirements

   Jim Ballard, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, said part of the problem is that schools weren’t focused on college readiness when preparing students to take the merit exam.

   “We were looking at the wrong target all this time,” Ballard said.

   But that’s beginning to change, Ballard said. This year’s seniors are the first to have to meet the state’s tougher graduation requirements, which mandate a larger dose of math and science than most districts had been requiring. As a result, he said, student scores are improving.

   “We’re below college-ready, but at least we’re going in the right direction,” Ballard said.

   Ackley said all schools will need to set high expectations not just for students, but for teachers, administrators and parents.

   “Otherwise, it’s a serious disservice to the students and communities who are led to believe they are prepared to succeed, when they are not.”

   Standards questioned

   Some, though, question the use of ACT’s college-readiness standards.

   Judy Pritchett, assistant superintendent for instruction in the Macomb Intermediate School District, said she and many educators are concerned that the ACT has set the standards based on a 50% probability that if a student scores at those levels, the student will be successful in a credit-bearing college course.

   “We’re questioning whether a 50% chance of a particular outcome is really a meaningful definition of college readiness,” Pritchett said.

   Other factors, such as motivation, also play into how successful a student will be in a college course. She and others also question whether so much significance should be placed on one test.

   David Richards, superintendent in Fraser Public Schools, said preparing students to be innovative, collaborative and problem-solvers also is necessary for success.

   “The ACT doesn’t necessarily measure a lot of those qualities,” Richards said.

   Still, Glass said the ACT standards are “probably the best measure we have in terms of something that predicts college readiness. But it’s by no means perfect.”

   For instance, a student can hit the standard in three of the four areas but not be considered college ready because he or she missed it in the fourth.

   “It really comes down to how you view success in life,” Glass said. “Not everyone is going to be perfectly balanced and even in all areas.”

   The percentages for students in his district are illustrative of the tough ACT benchmarks.

   Students in Bloomfield Hills typically post some of the top scores on state exams. Andover High, though, had 47.6% college ready, while Lahser High had 29.7%.

   Although the district had among the higher percentages, Glass said he is concerned about how the public will perceive the numbers. “It’s not something to be taken lightly, but it’s not something to make a harsh judgment about education,” he said.