The Crucial Role of Design

Commentary

Why We're Still 'At Risk'

The Legacy of Five Faulty Assumptions

By Ronald A. Wolk

Our new president has looked into the abyss of our current economic, energy, environmental, and health-care policies and promises to challenge the fundamental assumptions on which they are based. He admonishes us to join him in thinking and acting boldly.

We can only hope he feels the same way about education policy.

After nearly 25 years of intensive effort, we have failed to fix our ailing public schools and stem the “rising tide of mediocrity” chronicled in 1983 in A Nation at Risk. This is mainly because the report misdiagnosed the problem, and because the major assumptions on which current education policy—and most reform efforts—have been based are either wrong or unrealistic.

Most of the people running our public education systems and leading the reform movement are knowledgeable, dedicated, and experienced. But they are so committed to a strategy of standards-based accountability that different ideas are marginalized or stifled completely.

One could write a book about each of the five major assumptions on which education policy rests, but in this limited space, a few brief paragraphs will have to suffice.

Assumption One: The best way to improve student performance and close achievement gaps is to establish rigorous content standards and a core curriculum for all schools—preferably on a national basis.

Standards-based accountability has been the national school reform strategy for nearly two decades. It is essentially a “get tough” strategy made tougher by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. By all measures, it has not lived up to its promise, and the reason is that it is based on the premise that if we demand high performance and educational excellence, schools, teachers, and students will somehow “just do it.” It is a strategy that basically expects schools to be highly structured institutions with uniform practices and policies, where a common version of education is delivered to all students.

Standardization and uniformity may work with cars and computers, but it doesn’t work with humans. Today’s student body is the most diverse in history. An education system that treats all students alike denies that reality.

The issue is not whether standards are necessary. Schools without standards are unacceptable. Society should indeed hold high expectations for all students, but those expectations should reflect the values of the family and society—doing one’s best, obeying the rules, and mutual respect—and not simply the archaic academic demands of college-admissions offices. We should be preparing young people for life, not just for college.

Standards don’t prepare students for anything; they are a framework of expectations and educational objectives. Without the organization and processes to achieve them, they are worthless. States have devoted nearly 20 years to formulating standards to be accomplished by a conventional school model that is incapable of meeting them. We will make real progress only when we realize that our problem in education is not one of performance but one of design.

Assumption Two: Standardized-test scores are an accurate measure of student learning and should be used to determine promotion and graduation.

The standards-based-accountability strategy, not surprisingly, has led to the alarming overuse of standardized tests, even in the opinion of some test-makers and psychometricians.

Some measures of accountability are necessary in any endeavor that spends public money and is responsible for an important societal mission. But is testing all students virtually every year really necessary to determine whether the system is working effectively and the money spent well? If test scores are the accepted indicator, schools have not been meeting the needs of students for the past couple of decades. So why spend more money and time on constant testing to tell us what we already know—especially when standardized tests do a poor job of measuring real learning, don’t assess most of the characteristics valued by parents and the larger society, and contribute almost nothing to the process of teaching and learning.

If the purpose of standardized testing is to measure student achievement so teachers can help individual students learn better, it fails miserably. Standardized-test scores tend, instead, to say more about a student’s socioeconomic status than about his or her abilities. If testing is to have a positive effect on student achievement, it should be formative testing that is an integral part of classroom teaching and learning.

The most disturbing aspect of today’s standardized testing grows out of the "get tough" strategy’s emphasis on high-risk tests. Using standardized-test scores to determine promotion and graduation is unconscionable. A recent Texas study confirms the negative impact of high-risk testing on students. The report notes that 135,000 high school students drop out each year, and that “the state’s high-stakes accountability system has a direct impact on the severity of the dropout problem.” Teachers complain that they are compelled to devote valuable instructional time to preparing students for the test. They argue that the demand of ubiquitous accountability testing tends to narrow the curriculum. And they say that by teaching to the test, as they are expected to do, they are forced to turn education into a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Except in school, people are judged by their work and their behavior. Few of the business and political leaders who advocate widespread use of standardized testing have taken a standardized test since leaving college. It is probably a safe bet that the majority of them, even after 16 years of formal education, could not pass the tests they require students to pass.

"But I took those courses years ago," they say. "I can’t remember all that stuff." Exactly.

A common justification for standardized testing is that it’s the best proxy for student achievement we have until something better comes along. The performance-based assessment used in many charter schools (and now statewide in Rhode Island and New Hampshire) is better.

Assumption Three: We need to put highly qualified teachers in every classroom to assure educational excellence.

A great idea! If we could do that, we’d be a long way to solving our education problem.

But it won’t happen for decades, if ever.

As a host of studies over the past 25 years have revealed, the teacher pipeline is broken at several points. We don’t attract enough of the brightest young people into teaching; we don’t prepare them well for the job; many find their working conditions and compensation unacceptable; and teachers are not treated as professionals.

Highly effective teachers are more crucial to the success of standards-based accountability than anything else. Without enough of them, the strategy can’t work. As any reasonable person would have anticipated, we missed the NCLB goal of having a highly qualified teacher in every classroom by 2006. Improving teaching is as difficult as improving student achievement.

More accountability is again seen as a major part of the solution: more-rigorous certification, tougher teacher evaluation, and higher teacher pay. But certification guarantees a high-quality teacher about as much as a driver’s license guarantees a good driver. Tougher evaluation would help get rid of ineffective teachers, but it’s hard to see how it would produce more good teachers. Higher pay is fine, but it is no more likely to improve teaching any time soon than raising pilots’ pay would make flying safer.

If we want effective teaching, we should change the ways schools are organized and operated, and shift the teacher’s primary role from an academic instructor to an adviser, someone who helps students manage their own education.

A rational system would redesign itself and make organizational and procedural changes that optimize the positive influence of good teachers and minimize the negatives. Creating opportunities for teachers to work together, to teach in teams, to share in professional development, and to be more involved in educational decisionmaking are ways to bring out the best in teachers.

Again, there are examples on the ground that such an approach works.

Assumption Four: The United States should require all students to take algebra in the 8th grade and higher-order math in high school in order to increase the number of scientists and engineers in this country and thus make us more competitive in the global economy.

This assumption has become almost an obsession in policymaking arenas today. Requiring every student to study higher-order math is a waste of resources and cruel and unusual punishment for legions of students. It diverts attention away from the real problem: our failure to help kids become proficient readers and master basic arithmetic.

The United States must indeed produce more scientists and engineers to compete in a global economy. But it is fallacious to assume that we can accomplish that by requiring every student to take algebra in the 8th grade and higher-order math through high school. It is like believing that by requiring high school students to take a few courses in painting, we will make them all artists.

Most young people who go into science and engineering are well on their way by the time they start high school, because they become hooked on science or math in the early grades and do well in mathematics in elementary and middle school. Some will go on to become scientists and engineers; others will not. To expect otherwise is unreasonable.

If the nation wants more scientists and engineers, then educators need to find ways to awaken and nourish a passion for those subjects well before high school, and then offer students every opportunity to pursue their interest as far as they wish.

Assumption Five: The student-dropout rate can be reduced by ending social promotion, funding dropout-prevention programs, and raising the mandatory attendance age.

Arguably, the dropout rate is the most telling evidence of public school failure. Nearly a third of entering high school freshmen drop out. The percentage is higher for blacks, Hispanics, and English-language learners. And in many urban districts, the dropout rate borders on the horrendous.

Most students drop out of school for legitimate reasons, and trying to talk them out of it with “just stay in” programs, or forcing them to attend for an additional year or two, makes no sense. The “get tough” strategy of high standards, rigorous curricula, and more testing has not lowered the dropout rate and, as the Texas study cited shows, probably increases it.

Dropping out of school is not an impulsive decision. The process begins long before high school, often by the 4th or 5th grade, when courses begin to be content-heavy and students can no longer get by with the ability to “decode” English, but must be able to understand what they read. If scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are reliable measures, only about a quarter of 4th graders can read proficiently, and the percentage declines in the 8th and 12th grades.

Students who fail early and often come to accept failure as inevitable and are on the path to dropping out as soon as they can. Probably a third of students who plan to drop out have made up their minds by the 8th grade and mark time until they can legally leave school.

To reduce the dropout rate, we must first understand and accept why students choose to leave school. The reasons most often given are boredom, personal or family problems, and inability to understand and do the work required. A smaller percentage of students drop out because they find school to be a waste of time; these often are young people with the ability to succeed in school but who find that what is offered in the classroom doesn’t interest or challenge them. (Some years ago, a survey of students asked what word they would use to define school. “Boring” won hands down.)

The key to graduating is learning; the key to learning is motivation. There are innovative public schools that graduate most of their students because they personalize education, encourage students to pursue their interests and build on that enthusiasm, and offer multiple opportunities to learn instead of a one-size-fits-all education.

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President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan should open a second front in this war on mediocrity and failure.

We need to continue making every effort to improve the existing public schools. They will enroll most of our young people for many years to come.

Simultaneously, we should pursue a parallel strategy of creating new, innovative schools and giving them the autonomy and resources to explore new ideas. These new schools can be a much-needed research-and-development sector for the conventional system.

Secretary Duncan should support a national effort patterned after Renaissance 2010, the program he launched in Chicago to replace failing schools with new, diverse models different from conventional schools and from each other.

It is neither wise nor necessary to bet the future on a single reform strategy, especially when hundreds, perhaps thousands, of schools are demonstrating every day that there are other and more successful ways to help children learn and succeed.

But we can pursue two strategies only if we act to assure that the dominant strategy does not smother the fledgling movement in its crib.

Ronald A. Wolk is the founder and former editor of Education Week. He is retired and chairs Big Picture Learning, a nonprofit organization in Providence, R.I., that creates innovative new schools. He is also the chair emeritus of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit corporation that publishes Education Week. The views expressed here are his own.

Special coverage marking the 25th anniversary of the landmark report A Nation at Risk is supported in part by a grant from the Broad Foundation.

Yin and Yang turns Outside In

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Commentary

Traditional public schools fail urban students

Alternative approaches are working

Peter Plastrik and Margaret Trimer-Hartley

Two big factors driving the Detroit school district's financial crisis won't be solved by cleaning up the books.

First, the district's schools don't work. They produce stunningly bad results -- far more dropouts than graduates, and graduates who aren't academically ready for college or careers. This failure generates the black flight from the city and into charter schools and nearby suburban districts.

Second, governance of the district is unaccountable for results. The faces may change -- new board members, new superintendents -- but the culture doesn't. It's a culture of low expectations and denial of the brutal facts of performance. There is no capacity within the district's leadership to redesign the school system to radically improve student achievement.

Big city school systems across the country -- Washington, D.C., New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles -- are mired in persistently poor performance.

Large-scale innovations in school design and school governance point the way to better education in those communities.

Even in Detroit -- where the education and political establishment clings to the old, failing model it controls -- these innovations are taking root.

The first innovation is in the redesign of schools for low-income African-American and Latino students so they will beat the odds by staying in school, graduating and going to college.

This kind of restructuring isn't about engaging in curriculum battles, buying new textbooks or toughening high school graduation requirements. Such actions alone won't make a significant difference in urban school graduation rates or student learning.

What does work and what is already being done here and elsewhere is a radical makeover of schools to engage low-income, at-risk students in learning and give them the nurturing and support often missing at home.

This redesign creates a new kind of school that uses teachers, curriculum, performance data, community resources, time and technology in new ways to engage students and make schools accountable for learning.

The general admissions schools we work with -- University Preparatory Academy (UPA), a K-12 system with 1,600 students, and University Prep Science & Math, a 6-12 charter system that opened this year with 162 sixth- and seventh-graders -- are just two examples of the model working in Detroit.

They are small schools of 125-500 students with small class sizes of 16-18 students. They offer every child powerful and enduring relationships with teachers and provide mentors from the world of work and other parts of the community. They customize student learning, tailoring lessons and projects to each kid's skill level, learning style, maturity and interests, rather than using one-size-fits-all curricula and textbooks.

At UPA and the science and math academy, every teacher is expected to know his or her students as well as they would know their own children. A big part of their job is to dig deeply, ask questions and figure out who their students are, what makes them tick and what makes them trip.

"We have ongoing -- daily -- discussions about whether we are doing enough to meet the needs of all of our students -- the low and high achievers and the unengaged," says Shawn Hill, principal of the science and math middle school. "The day that we pass the buck, give up on a child or stop asking what else we can do is the day we should close the school."

The most successful urban schools are designed to not only meet the needs of children who come to school hungry, tired, abused, angry or otherwise unprepared to learn, but to overcome them. Rather than write kids off because they are not motivated by traditional schooling, these schools use nurturing, sustained relationships to figure out what will excite them.

They know that the problems students and families have in high poverty communities are not excuses, but they are reasons why traditional school strategies don't work.

In addition to individualization, high-performing urban schools also hold high expectations for all students and usually offer college preparation as the expected path for all. There is no general education track. The schools rely heavily on partnerships with businesses and other institutions in the community to provide students with internships and experiences in diverse real-world settings.

These schools come in many varieties from college prep to science or arts-focused. They have different grade configurations, instructional approaches and student discipline codes. But no matter what their twist, a growing number of schools -- mostly charters -- that embrace the new model are performing much better than urban districts, and some are even reaching suburban-school level results.

New forms of governance

The second innovation in urban education is in school governance. Effective school governance systems allow schools to focus on student achievement and support site-based decision-making rather than central control.

Education reformers in Detroit and elsewhere have broken the iron grip of locally elected school boards and freed themselves from meddlesome and meaningless politics and personal agendas.

When Adrian Fenty became mayor of Washington, D.C., in 2007, he immediately got the City Council to abolish the city's elected school board.

"There are a lot of things you can do to improve urban education," Fenty says, "but getting rid of the school board is at the top of the list. When you have nine people who are going to vote on every little thing, let alone the controversial things, nothing's going to get done."

Responsibility for the new schools rests in many hands, including mayors in New York (1.1 million students) and Chicago (400,000 students), as well as authorizers of charter schools outside of traditional districts -- universities and community colleges, county governments, Indian tribes, state legislatures, state boards of education and nonprofit organizations.

• In Michigan, the second largest school system, with 30,000 students, is not a traditional district, but the 58 charter schools authorized by Central Michigan University.

• In Los Angeles, the nation's second largest school district, the mayor and school board created a nonprofit that controls 10 schools (18,000 students) that were in the school district until their teachers voted to join the new partnership.

• In New Orleans, a post-Hurricane Katrina shakeup by state government left the traditional school district with only a small fraction of the students it used to have and put the rest into the care of charter schools authorized by the state, or "recovery district" schools run directly by the state. Now charter schools serve a majority of the city's students.

• In Houston, two charter school networks, Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and YES Prep, plan to launch 55 more schools by 2017 and capture total enrollment of 30,000 students, 15 percent of the city's market.

• In Dallas, Richland College created an accelerated learning charter high school for students to earn an associate's degree and high school diploma at the same time.

Detroit charters' role rising

In Detroit, 40,000 students attend charter schools -- meaning about 25 percent of schooling for city children is governed by charter boards and the dozen universities and other entities that authorize them. This market share will grow as state barriers to more chartering in Detroit erode and/or the city's mayor receives some authority over schools.

Governance innovations are not a panacea, but they have two important virtues. First, they can establish oversight that is strategically focused with clear, measurable goals, rather than the often conflicting and confused edicts that come from political boards.

Second, the new operators can be more directly held accountable for the results of the schools. Mayors who run school systems face judgment at the polls every four years. Charter school boards must renew their contracts every few years. A scheduled day of reckoning is not a guarantee that these schools will perform well -- but it's a start toward accountability.

It seems likely that the Detroit district's new no-nonsense financial czar, Robert Bobb, and new funds in the federal stimulus legislation will set the system back on its feet, at least temporarily. But it will take innovation -- big changes in school design and governance accountability that produce dramatic improvement in results -- to get the system running permanently in the right direction.

NSF ITEST Grant Partners / Oakland Schools

OAKLAND PRESS

Schools expand virtual design, manufacturing training

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

From staff reports

AUBURN HILLS — Dassault Systèmes, a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, has announced that it provided an additional 400 seats of its PLM software to Oakland Schools through an academic partnership program.

This relationship with the intermediate school district, which began in 2002, provided Oakland County’s 28 school districts access to CATIA, a top virtual product design solution, as well as its digital manufacturing software counterpart DELMIA. Instructors at each of the 23 facilities taking advantage of the program have been trained in the software.

“The goal of this program is to fill the gap between education and industry by exposing students to the same high-tech tools employed by the leading aerospace, medical, consumer product, and automotive companies of the world,” says Bill Williams, Oakland Schools’ Career Focused Education consultant. “For example, more than 80 percent of new vehicles launched today are designed in CATIA, making training in this software a must for any would-be automotive engineer. We encourage every high school to take advantage of this offering and make 3D virtual design and digital manufacturing courses available to all of their students.”

Williams notes that manufacturing offers excellent career opportunities with typical wages and benefits being about 25 percent higher than other occupations. The other benefit is the anticipated growth in the application of digital manufacturing.

“We commend Mr. Williams and Oakland Schools for their efforts in this area,” says Roy Smolky, DELMIA Worldwide Academic Relations, Dassault Systèmes. “We believe programs like this are vital in helping not only Oakland County, but the U.S. in maintaining its role as the world's technology leader.”

The Dassault Systèmes solutions available through Oakland Schools are used to educate students in virtual product development where all product design and manufacturing processes are created, simulated and optimized in a virtual 3D computer environment, prior to being built in the real world. Companies using these technologies shorten development cycles and reduce production errors.

“We know from experience that students who are trained in these sophisticated tools are better prepared to enter university level programs, as well as the workforce,” adds Vickie L. Markavitch, superintendent, Oakland Schools. “It’s crucial that we tap students’ interest early on, encouraging them to acquire appropriate skill sets and pursue available careers in science and manufacturing.”

Pontiac Northern High School CAPTURES MICHIGAN STEM-FOCUSED CROWN!

Robots crash and bang into the corner at Saturday's FIRST Robotics competition at EMU

Posted: Saturday, 04 April 2009 5:27PM

Pontiac Northern, Milford, Utica Win FIRST Robotics Michigan

By Matt Roush

A coalition of teams from Pontiac Northern, Milford and Utica high schools won the FIRST Robotics state championship at Eastern Michigan University Saturday afternoon, earning the right to represent the Great Lakes State at the FIRST world championships April 16-18 in Atlanta, Ga.

They bested a coalition of teams from Fremont, Berkley and Grand Rapids Creston high schools.

Around 4,000 students, mentors, teachers, family members and volunters crowded EMU's Convocation Center for the raucous finals, complete with team mascots, flags, slogans, pounding music and big-screen video.

Teams that made the quarterfinals but didn’t advance to the semis were Auburn Hills Notre Dame Prep, Belding, Bloomfield Hills Andover, Bloomfield Hills International Academy, Madison Heights Bishop Foley, Pontiac Oakland County Schools, Romulus, Saginaw Career Complex, Southgate Anderson, Troy, Ypsilanti Willow Run and a combined team of Zeeland East and West high schools.

FIRST, an acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was established in the late 1980s by inventor Dean Kamen as a way to get American high school students as interested in science and engineering as they are in sports. The robotics competitions borrow a great deal of their style from big-time sporting events, as teams of robots work together to accomplish specific tasks in a game that changes every year.

From Feb. 27 through March 28, FIRST in Michigan operated seven district events to determine which teams would qualify for the state finals. The 2009 season in Michigan has seen an entirely new competition format that is serving as a pilot program for FIRST, with smaller "district" competitions restricted to Michigan teams replacing larger, more involved "regional" events in the state that were open to teams from anywhere. The idea was to cut travel and other expenses for the teams to make FIRST more affordable.

Michigan added 16 new rookie teams this year and how has 134 total, trailing only California in the number of participating schools.

This year's game, called "Lunacy," saw robots designed to pick up and dump 9-inch game balls into goals hitched to their opponents' roobts for points during a two-minute, 15-second match. Additional points are awarded for scoring a special game ball, the Super Cell, in the last 20 seconds of the match. Teams can also score by tossing balls into their opponents' trailers from designated points around the competition floor -- meaning that many teams this year recruited basketball or baseball players who could throw the balls accurately for long distances. A first this year was a low-friction competition floor and low-friction tires, which made the robots slip and slide and piloting more diffiicult.

The state's top 64 teams qualified for a chance to compete in the state championship. A day and a half of seeding matches whittled that down to the top eight teams. Those teams got to choose two alliance partners each -- teams they thought offered robots that could complement their own. Thus, eight three-team alliances competed in best-of-three elimination rounds in quarterfinals and semifinals before a thrilling finals showdown that offered all the drama and surprises of a state championship athletic match.

More at www.firstinmichigan.org.

Our Work with URC continues to yield benefits

Posted: Tuesday, 31 March 2009 5:24PM

Michigan Tops $1.3 billion In NSF Grants Since 2000

Michigan researchers brought more than $1.3 billion in National Science Foundation grants into the state between 2000 and 2008, more than their counterparts in bigger states like Florida and Ohio, according to a new NSF tally.

The vast majority of the federal grants, an average of $147.5 million per year, were generated by Michigan’s University Research Corridor institutions, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.

In 2008, for example, the three research universities received more than $130 million, or 83 percent of more than $156 million in grants awarded in the state last year.

“Important advancements and technologies have been developed because of NSF support,’’ said Steve Forrest, UM vice president for research. “In addition to a multitude of important individual investigator grants, NSF has also funded our large and transformative efforts such as the Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems and the U-M Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing. NSF backing also allows our state to participate in the National Nano Infrastructure Network which links the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility to other advanced resources around the U.S.’’

When academic research grants from all sources are totaled, the URC institutions receive more than 94 percent of academic research dollars coming into Michigan.

“MSU researchers receive substantial support from NSF, and we appreciate the recognition of our research capabilities that this level of funding provides,” said Ian Gray, MSU’s vice president for research and graduate studies. “NSF funding supports the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and much of the research conducted in our top-ranked College of Education, where faculty are studying ways to improve K-12 education, particularly in math and science. Our nationally ranked plant sciences research is also well supported by NSF.”

Michigan ranked ninth in the nation for NSF funding with $1.3 billion, just behind the much nation’s second-most populous state of Texas, which brought in $1.5 billion to rank eighth. Florida, the fourth-most populous state, ranked 11th, attracting $1.1 billion in grants over the same period.

Among neighboring Great Lakes states, Ohio ranked 18th for NSF funding with $800 million in grants, while Indiana ranked 19th, bringing in $771 million. The states receiving the most NSF grants were California, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas. Arizona rounded out the top 10 behind Michigan.

“Wayne State University looks to the National Science Foundation for support in many critical areas,” said Hilary Ratner, Wayne State vice president for research. “Their funding supports many of our critical research activities. Examples of projects include the development of novel technology for extending highway bridge life through controllable suspension components based on smart fluid technology, and development of intelligent textile technology that will be used as a respiratory sound monitoring device. These and other important projects will help drive the economic future of Michigan and the nation.”

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" With an annual budget of about $6.06 billion, NSF funds about 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities.

For the complete list, visit: www.cnsfweb.org/AllStates.Alpha.2000-2008.pdf.

For more on the URC, visit www.urcmich.org.

Connected in more ways then one (Congratulations to Nadine Stallworth-Tibbs)

Their competition done and trophies awaiting presentation, some FIRSTers relax with a line dance

Posted: Sunday, 22 March 2009 12:13PM

Ypsi, Detroit, Warren Win FIRST District Event

A coalition of Willow Run High School, Detroit Osborn University High School and the Warren Consolidated Schools took first place Satuday at the Detroit District tournament of the FIRST Robotics competition.

Two days of 80 seeding matches among 40 teams led to best-of-three-match quarterfinals involving eight three-team coalitions. The survivng four coalitions moved on to best-of-three-match semifinals. Winners there moved on to the best-of-three-match final.

The competing teams packed Wayne State University's Matthaei Center 2,000-seat gymnasium for the competiton and used its practice gyms for the pit area.

The winning coalition bested a three-team group from Madison Heights Bishop Foley High School, the Redford Township-based Michigan Technical Academy and Southgate Anderson High School.

The team from Willow Run also won the top non-competition award, the Regional Chairman's Award. This award is generally considered the most prestigious in FIRST and deals mainly with spreading passion about science and technology to the winner's community and school. The Regional Engineering Inspiration Award went to Team 440, the Cody High School team.

The national FIRST organization is experimenting this year with a new competition structure in Michigan, featuring a larger number of district competitions that are restricted to Michigan teams only, district competition that draw a relatively smaller number of competitors than FIRST's traditional regional competition that are open to teams from virtually anywhere. The idea is to cut travel expenses and give teams a chance to compete in more events closer to home. All of the teams competing Saturday hailed from within a half hour's drive of Wayne State.

The FIRST Michigan competition continues with district events Friday and Saturday in Troy and Grand Rapids, followed by the state championships April 2-4 at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

FIRST (For Inspriation and Recognition of Science and Technology) was established in the late 1980s by New Hampshire inventor Dean Kamen, creator of the Segway scooter. The competition involves teams of mentors (corporate employees, teachers, or college students) and high school students who collaborate to design and build a robot in six weeks. This robot is designed to play a game, which is designed by a FIRST committee and changes from year to year. This game is announced at a nationally simulcast kickoff event in January.

This year's game involves robots towing trailers -- robots designed to pick up balls and place the balls in the trailer of a competitor's robot. Team members are also allowed to toss balls into competitors' trailers from designated spots around the competition field. The balls have different point values depending on their color and when in the competition they're placed in the competitor's trailer.

Yours truly had the privilege of serving as master of ceremonies for Saturday's event.

Also, I wanted to mention that you FIRST Robotics fans can now vote for FIRST Teacher of the Year at www.wwj.com/pages/1843943.php. The poll allows voting once per day, and voting ends at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25. We'll present the Teacher of the Year award in April.

Off topic: But Our Macomb, Math, Science and Technology Center Students are Winners!

I believe CONGRATULATIONS are in order in that Ms. Lyndsey Reich and Mr. Tamim Shaker have recently won the Detroit Science and Engineering Fair / Team Competition 2009. They will be traveling to Reno, Nevada in May to compete and extend their winning ways. Kudos!

*Can't remember who we know in Reno..........ten-point toss-up to anyone?

Excerpt: Serves to Enlighten our Journey!

Taking a page from his friend and fellow billionaire Warren Buffet, Bill Gates has begun writing an annual letter to discuss candidly the success and failure of his foundation’s grant-making efforts each year. Having spent more than $2 billion in nine years to transform urban education, he has arrived at some conclusions we would do well to take heed of. He writes:

Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students’ achievement in any significant way. These tended to be schools that did not take radical steps to change the culture, such as allowing the principal to pick the team of teachers or change the curriculum. We had less success trying to change an existing school than helping to create a new school.

He goes on to state:

But a few of the schools that we funded achieved something amazing. They replaced schools with low expectations and low results with ones that have high expectations and high results. Almost all of these schools are charter schools that have significantly longer school days than other schools. The hope and promise of our traditional school districts lies with their ability to replicate the strategies and results of the schools that have done “something amazing” in high poverty communities.

But these are just some pieces of the puzzle. And while gains are made in some areas, we fall short of the finish line in others. When new principals were brought on last year to lead three failing Detroit public high schools whose teaching staffs had been reconstituted in keeping with No Child Left Behind, they soon learned that they would only be able to hire teachers from the very same schools that had been reconstituted. So teachers were rotated from one school to another, with the expectation of different results.

Principals must be able to hire the very best teachers for kids who need them the most. Our school leaders and teachers can accomplish that within the context of their collective bargaining agreement in ways that are consistent with measurable improvements in student achievement. But if they are unable to change, as Bill Gates has learned, they may be soon be replaced by schools whose leaders are able to cross that hurdle in order to do something amazing.

Innovation Insights

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Editorial

Bobb has the muscle to fix Detroit schools

Robert Bobb brings some managerial muscle to the Detroit Public Schools, and he's signaling that he'll use it to fix not only the district's finances, but also improve its dismal academic performance. But he's no Samson. To succeed, he needs the broad support of a community that ought to be fed up with the failure of its school system.

That means parents, teachers, community leaders and school board members. Bobb knows what he's doing and can straighten out school district's miserable mess, if that's what Detroit decides it wants him to do. But if the community fights him, if it allows the parasites and special interests to wear him down, Detroit's children aren't likely to get another chance for a quality public school education.

Bobb's motto is "Children First," and it would be useful for everyone in Detroit to adopt it.

What he's doing is absolutely necessary. Bobb is talking about closing as many as 20 schools to deal with a one-year deficit that could reach $200 million.

He's smart enough to know that school closings can't be done mechanically -- they are part of the life of a neighborhood in a city. Yet the district can't sustain the operation of buildings designed for 1,100 students that are occupied by only 300 students.

Bobb has also moved quickly to install systems to allow employees to safely and anonymously report financial wrongdoing, and has quickly suspended one payroll official for possible misbehavior.

He plans to bring in experts to look at the various operations in the huge district, which has revenues of more than $1 billion. Clearly, the administration of these funds has been sloppy. Bobb noted that he discovered in recent days that the district has received a $700,000 grant to aid students in learning to read, but that the money has never been spent.

He has said all kinds of experiments with different learning environments are on the table, including having the district set up its own charter schools, which have more freedom to experiment within the state's curriculum guidelines and don't have more flexibility in staffing assignments.

In one dramatic reversal of current school district policy, Bobb said he would be open to allowing private or charter schools to buy or rent closed Detroit schools, as long as the buildings are properly maintained. The district has been hoarding its boarded-up schools to prevent possible competition from private or charter operators -- thus denying itself much-needed revenue and cheating children of education options.

And all of the operations of the district, Bobb said, would be focused on teaching kids. Labor contracts with private vendors and school employees will all contain requirements that the services provided or the work done will lead to improvements in student achievement.

This should not be an exceptional or controversial set of goals. There are 95,000 students in the system who deserve the best efforts of everyone in the district and the community. Yet the sad history of the Detroit Public Schools is that attempts at reform meet with delay and obstruction.

Parents shouldn't tolerate any move to derail Bobb's reform agenda, and other political players, including school board members, should stand solidly behind him.

REFORM tied to the DOLLARS! (MAKES CENTS)

Obama Says Public Schools Must Improve

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 11, 2009; A01

President Obama sharply criticized the nation's public schools yesterday, calling for changes that would reward good teachers and replace bad ones, increase spending, and establish uniform academic achievement standards in American education.

In a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Obama called on teachers unions, state officials and parents to end the "relative decline of American education," which he said "is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy and unacceptable for our children." The speech, delivered in a venue meant to underscore the changing demographics of the nation's public education system and its long-term priorities, sought to bring a bipartisan approach to education reform by spreading blame across party lines for recent failures.

"For decades, Washington has been trapped in the same stale debates that have paralyzed progress and perpetuated our educational decline," Obama said. "Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though it can make a difference in the classroom. Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new investments in early education, despite compelling evidence of its importance."

Obama's speech, his first as president devoted to education, struck a tone of urgency at a time when public education is slated to receive about $100 billion in new federal money under the recently passed economic stimulus package. The money may give Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, more influence in reshaping a public education system traditionally guided by state governments and local school districts.

"The resources come with a bow tied around them that says 'Reform,' " Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, said in a telephone interview. "Our basic premise is that the status quo and political constituencies can no longer determine how we proceed on public education reform in this country."

Although Obama proposed many of the ideas on the campaign trail, he used the speech to link those prescriptions to the future success of the ailing U.S. economy. He encouraged experimentation in the public school system, including proposals to extend the school day -- to bring the United States in line with some Asian countries whose students are scoring higher on tests -- and to eliminate limits on the number of charter schools.

"A number of these things are simply encouragements to the states on matters that the federal government has little authority over," said Jack Jennings, president of the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy. "But with this stimulus money comes the ability to talk more about these issues. And that is very powerful in itself."

The president signaled a willingness to take on influential Democratic constituencies, including teachers unions, which have been skeptical of merit-pay proposals. He said he intends to treat teachers "like the professionals they are while also holding them more accountable."

Good teachers will receive pay raises if students succeed, Obama said, and will "be asked to accept more responsibility for lifting up their schools." But, he said, states and school districts must be "taking steps to move bad teachers out of the classroom."

"If a teacher is given a chance but still does not improve, there is no excuse for that person to continue teaching," he said. "I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences."

Obama's support for ideas such as merit pay and toughened accountability for teachers is similar in tone to proposals placed on the table by D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee in contract negotiations with the Washington Teachers' Union.

Rhee, a Democrat, said last year that voting for Obama was "a very hard decision" because of the party's traditional reluctance to take on influential teachers unions. A spokeswoman said last night that Rhee had no immediate comment on the president's speech.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a union with more than 1 million members, said in a statement that "as with any public policy, the devil is in the details. And it is important that teachers' voices are heard as we implement the president's vision."

Obama's call for states to adopt uniform academic achievement standards is likely to anger conservatives, who generally favor giving local school districts the authority to design curriculum and grading criteria. To make his point, the president said: "Today's system of 50 different sets of benchmarks for academic success means fourth-grade readers in Mississippi are scoring nearly 70 points lower than students in Wyoming -- and getting the same grade."

To encourage classroom innovation, Obama said, he wants the District and the 26 states that now limit the number of permitted charter schools to lift those caps. Such schools, founded by parents, teachers and civic groups, receive public money but are allowed to experiment broadly with curriculum. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools says 365,000 students are on waiting lists for charter schools.

Obama chose to deliver his remarks at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, senior administration officials said, to emphasize the growing proportion of Latinos entering the public school system. He said a quarter of kindergartners in public schools are Latino, adding that they "are less likely to be enrolled in early education programs than anyone else." He said the stimulus plan includes $5 billion to expand the Early Head Start and Head Start programs.

The president also noted that Latino students are "dropping out faster than just about anyone else," a national problem that cuts across ethnic lines. He noted that "just 2,000 high schools in cities like Detroit, Los Angeles and Philadelphia produce over 50 percent of America's dropouts."

Regarding higher education, Obama said he plans to expand several federal grant programs, including increasing the maximum amount of a Pell grant and allowing it to rise with inflation, and ending "wasteful student loan subsidies." The goal, he said, is to make college "affordable for 7 million more students."

"So, yes, we need more money. Yes, we need more reform. Yes, we need to hold ourselves accountable for every dollar we spend," Obama said. "But there is one more ingredient I want to talk about. The bottom line is that no government policies will make any difference unless we also hold ourselves more accountable as parents."

Bottom UP!

Ending the ‘Race to the Bottom’

Published: March 11, 2009

There was an impressive breadth of knowledge and a welcome dose of candor in President Obama’s first big speech on education, in which he served up an informed analysis of the educational system from top to bottom. What really mattered was that Mr. Obama did not wring his hands or speak in abstract about states that have failed to raise their educational standards. Instead, he made it clear that he was not afraid to embarrass the laggards — by naming them — and that he would use a $100 billion education stimulus fund to create the changes the country so desperately needs.

"Testing is not the answer, as the most disadvantaged children are then penalized... as their teachers spend the entire year teaching to the test. "

Susan Josephs, Bethel, Conn.

Mr. Obama signaled that he would take the case for reform directly to the voters, instead of limiting the discussion to mandarins, lobbyists and specialists huddled in Washington. Unlike his predecessor, who promised to leave no child behind but did not deliver, this president is clearly ready to use his political clout on education.

Mr. Obama spoke in terms that everyone could understand when he noted that only a third of 13- and 14-year-olds read as well as they should and that this country’s curriculum for eighth graders is two full years behind other top-performing nations. Part of the problem, he said, is that this nation’s schools have recently been engaged in “a race to the bottom” — most states have adopted abysmally low standards and weak tests so that students who are performing poorly in objective terms can look like high achievers come test time.

The nation has a patchwork of standards that vary widely from state to state and a system under which he said “fourth-grade readers in Mississippi are scoring nearly 70 points lower than students in Wyoming — and they’re getting the same grade.” In addition, Mr. Obama said, several states have standards so low that students could end up on par with the bottom 40 percent of students around the globe.

This is a recipe for economic disaster. Mr. Obama and Arne Duncan, the education secretary, have rightly made clear that states that draw money from the stimulus fund will have to create sorely needed data collection systems that show how students are performing over time. They will also need to raise standards and replace weak, fill-in-the-bubble tests with sophisticated examinations that better measure problem-solving and critical thinking.

Mr. Obama understands that standards and tests alone won’t solve this problem. He also called for incentive pay for teachers who work in shortage areas like math and science and merit pay for teachers who are shown to produce the largest achievement gains over time. At the same time, the president called for removing underperforming teachers from the classroom.

In an effort to broaden innovation, the president called for lifting state and city caps on charter schools. This could be a good thing, but only if the new charter schools are run by groups with a proven record of excellence. Once charter schools have opened, it becomes politically difficult to close them, even in cases where they are bad or worse than their traditional counterparts.

The stimulus package can jump-start the reforms that Mr. Obama laid out in his speech. But Congress will need to broaden and sustain those reforms in the upcoming reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Only Congress can fully replace the race to the bottom with a race to the top.

PONTIAC SCHOOLS has become part of the NATIONAL CONVERSATION!

BIG PICTURE! (Unfolding)

President Obama says the decline of education is "unacceptable for our children."

Obama wants to overhaul education system from 'cradle to career'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama began to flesh out the details of one of his signature campaign promises Tuesday, outlining his plan for a major overhaul of the country's education system "from the cradle up through a career."

President Obama says the decline of education is "unacceptable for our children."

"We have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us," Obama said in an address to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "The time for finger-pointing is over. The time for holding ourselves accountable is here."

"The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy and unacceptable for our children, and we cannot afford to let it continue," he said.

The president outlined a five-tier reform plan, starting with increased investments in early childhood initiatives.

Obama noted that the recently passed $787 billion stimulus plan includes an additional $5 billion for Head Start, a program to help low-income families.

He highlighted a proposal to offer 55,000 first-time parents "regular visits from trained nurses to help make sure their children are healthy and prepare them for school and life."

He also pledged to boost federal support in the form of "Early Learning Challenge" grants to states that develop plans to strengthen early education programs.

Second, Obama called for an end to "what has become a race to the bottom in our schools" through lower testing standards. Echoing former President Bush's call to end "the soft bigotry of low expectations," Obama said states needed to stop "low-balling expectations" for students.

"The solution to low test scores is not lower standards; it's tougher, clearer standards," he argued.

At the same time, however, he urged states to develop standards "that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity."

To help promote this goal, Obama said he would push for funding in the No Child Left Behind law to be more effectively tied to results. The Education Department, he said, would "back up this commitment to higher standards with a fund to invest in innovation in our school districts."

Obama's third tier focused on teacher training and recruitment. He noted that federal dollars had been set aside in the stimulus plan to help prevent teacher layoffs. He also reiterated a promise to support merit pay, as well as extra pay for math and science teachers with the goal of ending a shortage in both of those subjects.

At the same time, however, the president warned that ineffective teachers should not be allowed to remain on the job.

"If a teacher is given a chance but still does not improve, there is no excuse for that person to continue teaching," he said. "I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences."

Teachers' unions have opposed merit-based pay, arguing that it is unfair because it leads to competition among teachers and because teachers face different challenges depending on where they are located.

Fourth, Obama called for the promotion of educational "innovation and excellence" by renewing his campaign pledge to support charter schools. He called on states to lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools.

He also urged a longer school calendar.

"I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," Obama said. "But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

Obama's final reform initiative focused on higher education. Among other things, the president promised to boost college access by raising the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,550 a year and indexing it above inflation. He also promised to push for a $2,500 a year tuition tax credit for students from working families.

The American Federation of Teachers, a union with 1.4 million members, said Tuesday that it embraces Obama's goals to provide "all Americans with a comprehensive, competitive education that begins in early childhood and extends through their careers."

"We also fully support the president's call for shared responsibility for education -- among public officials, school administrators, parents, students and teachers," the group said in a statement.

"As with any public policy, the devil is in the details, and it is important that teachers' voices are heard as we implement the president's vision."

In promoting his program, the president called for an end to the "partisanship and petty bickering" that many observers believe has typically defined education policy debates in the past.

"We need to move beyond the worn fights of the 20th century if we are going to succeed in the 21st century," he said.

Obama also offered a rebuttal to critics who have accused him of diverting attention to issues such as education and energy at the expense of the deteriorating economy.

"I know there are some who believe we can only handle one challenge at a time," he said. But "we don't have the luxury of choosing between getting our economy moving now and rebuilding it over the long term."

Whew....

State payment allows DPS to make upcoming payroll

BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • March 10, 2009

The Michigan Department of Education has approved an advance payment that will allow the financially troubled Detroit Public Schools to make payroll next week, according to a letter that DPS released today.

The advance – DPS’ third so far this school year – will be sent as a result of a request from the school district’s new state-appointed financial manager, Robert Bobb.

The state will pay DPS its monthly state aid payment of $69.8 million on March 16, one day before paychecks are distributed. An investigation by the Free Press showed that DPS faces budget shortfalls for half of the payroll periods for the rest of this school year. Without the advance payment, DPS would be short about $12 million needed to pay its 13,600 workers.

In recent months, as the deficit has mounted, DPS has paid its employees while putting off payments to vendors. DPS has a deficit of at least $150 million and is behind on payments to vendors by more than $45 million, Bobb said last week.

The STIMULATION Model: AIM to MODEL the PRACTICE!

VIDEO: Cradle-to-College Education

An organization targets children in a 24-block area of Harlem, assisting more than 7,400 children and 4,100 adults.

By Converge Staff

Geoffrey Canada is the man behind what The New York Times Magazine calls "one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time." He is the president and CEO of Harlem's Children Zone (HCZ), a project that targets children in Central Harlem and follows them from birth to college.

According to its Web site, HCZ operates pre-school programs, after-school programs and the Promise Academy high "to ensure that Harlem students are prepared to enter and excel in college."

WASHINGTON POST / Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

Fixing Our Schools

Having uniform standards and rejecting old excuses would help, the new education secretary believes.

Thursday, March 5, 2009; A18

COUNT US as among those who worried that the economic stimulus plan's huge infusion of new money for education would produce only more of the same failed programs. So it was heartening to hear Education Secretary Arne Duncan describe an unacceptable status quo of broken schools in this country. Not only does he aim to use stimulus dollars to drive reform, but Mr. Duncan envisions this moment as the start of a historic opportunity to dramatically improve the education of children.

"Our job, my job is to fight for kids," Mr. Duncan told Post editors and reporters yesterday as he sketched his plans for the more than $100 billion in new stimulus spending and his ambitions for U.S. education. He made clear that school systems in search of the new federal dollars must be willing to pursue his agenda for change and that his reforms will be built around programs with proven records of success. Refreshingly blunt in describing a "crisis" in education, Mr. Duncan lambasted the system of 50 different states setting 50 different standards for student achievement. He is right to call it a "race to the bottom" in which neither parents nor students know where they stand in relation to the rest of the country, much less the world. Mr. Duncan is not prepared yet to require national standards, but he made clear that a single set of standards, aligned for college readiness and benchmarked to international standards, is where the country needs to be headed.

Equally exciting is his push for improved student assessments as well as sophisticated data systems to track the effectiveness of teachers and the education schools that produce them. Mr. Duncan, former head of Chicago's public schools, has firsthand knowledge of the challenges faced by schools and of what works. For example, he knows that students need more time in schools -- and that "talent matters," so schools have to reward excellence, put the best teachers where they are most needed and get rid of bad teachers. He realizes that it's important to reward everyone who is involved in helping a school succeed. But he's learned that there are bigger differences in teacher performance within schools than between schools.

We admire the fact that Mr. Duncan has absolutely no use for those who would use the social ills of poor children as an excuse for not educating them. "They are part of the problem," he said with disdain, arguing that education is the best way to end poverty. No doubt there will be opposition to his ideas from those traditionalists accustomed to the status quo. But Mr. Duncan made clear that his only interest is in what works.

Our President
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The MONEY to STIMULATE!

Michigan schools set to win big in stimulus

Granholm, lawmakers still debating final choices; utilities, cities want help too

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF • FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF • March 6, 2009

LANSING — Detroit Public Schools stands to reap $530 million — $355 million with no strings attached — from the federal stimulus package that will hand Michigan nearly $7 billion over two or three years.

That appears to make the district, which has an estimated $150-million deficit and finances so tangled the state recently appointed a manager to take the financial reins, the biggest Michigan winner in the stimulus sweepstakes.

In all, the state and local school districts could have at least $2.5 billion to spend as they see fit, based on an analysis by the Senate Fiscal Agency.

How that money is doled out will test the political and fiscal convictions of the governor, state lawmakers, school officials and hundreds of communities and others with their hands out for a piece of the biggest federal giveaway.

Cities, townships, counties, schools, state government and electric utilities have given Gov. Jennifer Granholm their $50-billion wish list for stimulus money.

At most, there's two cents available for every dollar requested.

In addition, Michigan will get nearly $850 million for road and transportation projects to be decided by the state and regional agencies such as SEMCOG.

Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Granholm, said no decisions have been made about the discretionary stimulus money. She said Granholm insists it be used to create jobs, improve education and promote “the new energy economy.”

Boyd acknowledged heavy demands for the money, given the state's 11.6% unemployment rate and growing need for government assistance, adding, “We are approaching this in a very prudent fashion.”

Lawmakers' ideas

Two key lawmakers represent different views of how the state should spend its stimulus money.

Rep. George Cushingberry, D-Detroit, is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which oversees all state spending. Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Cushingberry said discretionary federal money should be used for public schools, expanded government-paid health care for uninsured people and an early retirement plan for state employees, although he offered no details.

In contrast, Jelinek said the money should be spent on projects that create jobs and save taxpayers money in the long run, such as roads, water lines and sewers, or repairs to schools.

“We want to jump-start the economy, put people to work or keep them at work,” Jelinek said. “Increasing someone's retirement doesn't do that.”

House freshman Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, suggests using $200 million from the stimulus money to cover the up-front costs of converting the pension program for teachers and other public school employees from a traditional, defined-benefit pension to a 401(k)-style savings plan.

Such a change would ignite a firestorm of opposition from teachers and their unions, which hold their traditional defined-benefit pension as untouchable.

Granholm wants to use $1 billion from Medicaid and education stimulus funds to help balance the state budget and to prevent cuts in state aid to public schools and universities.

That would leave $1.3 billion at the state's discretion to spend, and $1.2 billion for school districts and charter schools, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency — $2.5 billion total.

Help for low-income students

Schools also will get $888 million earmarked for special education and to help low-income students.

School districts with proportionately large numbers of low-income students will get more money.

The northern Michigan district Mio-Au Sable, with 770 students, is to receive $1.3 million because it has lots of students from low-income families. That's more than will go to the 3,000-student Riverview Community Schools in Wayne County.

For a complete list of what school districts are estimated to get, go to www.senate.michigan.gov/sfa/main/K12Grants.pdf.

Cushingberry advocates using stimulus money to reduce the gap between what the top-spending and the lowest-spending districts pay to educate each child.

He said money could be used to purchase technology to create virtual universities. He also said stimulus money should be used to provide more health insurance to laid-off workers and other uninsured people.

“As a Democratic leader, that's the most important issue to me, to make sure everybody that we can gets some kind of health coverage,” Cushingberry said.

Asked what happens to schools when the extra federal money runs out, Cushingberry said, “If this economy in Michigan doesn't turn around in the next year or two, there won't be anything we can do anyway.”

Possible trouble ahead

Jelinek said he favors more state budget cuts, not fewer, to prevent chronic budget problems in the future.

He said the potential state deficit — pegged in January at more than $1.5 billion in 2010 — is likely to grow larger as the economy continues to falter.

Gary Olson, director of the Senate Fiscal Agency, said although Michigan will receive large amounts of federal money, it could be eaten up by ordinary demands for state spending. The state spends nearly $22 billion between its general and school aid funds.

The stimulus money for schools is a blessing and a concern, said Donald Wotruba, deputy director of the Michigan Association of School Boards.

The money will help avoid some layoffs, he said. But it could give a false impression that schools are flush.

“The public will be shocked because some people will still be laid off,” he said. “That will be hard to explain.”

Contact CHRIS CHRISTOFF at 517-372-8660 or christoff@freepress.com.

Southeastern High School: Mr. Victor Williams (Video)

http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/features/fundamentals/past_grantees.html

The TITANIC TSUNAMI of YIN and YANG (Or merely the Quiet before the Storm?)

On a mission to save a sinking school district

March 2, 2009

Today Robert Bobb takes the helm of what could charitably be called public education's Titanic -- the Detroit Public Schools.

Bobb arrives as the new fiscal manager not by choice, but as the latest shameful consequence of a systemic pattern of inept management and broken fiscal processes. Add to those problems a $140-million deficit for fiscal year 2008 and a lingering breakdown in the delivery of services, encompassing everything from basics like toilet paper to essentials such as access to mandated tutoring services.

No doubt, Bobb's training through the Eli Broad Foundation's Urban Schools Superintendent Academy will serve him well in prioritizing DPS's fiscal challenges. He has studied the success of big-city turnarounds and knows what must be done. Bobb's national connections could also position DPS to go after a portion of President Barack Obama's Race to the Top Fund, $5 billion that will be divided among school districts employing innovative turnaround ideas. Bobb should also take quick advantage of incoming U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's growing interest in Detroit.

A teensy sign of progress surfaced last week with the news that DPS is selling 27 previously closed schools, properties that had been languishing on the district's books and adding to Detroit's abandoned eyesores.

If Bobb can apply urgency and transparency to other lingering wasteful practices, he'll be light years ahead of any DPS leader since David Adamany, the former Wayne State University president who ran the district for a year during Gov. John Engler's state-imposed takeover.

Like Adamany, Bobb will need a political hide thick as an elephant's and a focus as unrelenting as a laser's. Call it battle armor for the inevitable dueling he'll face with some members of DPS's elected board of education, even as their authority is diminished by his appointment.

The culture of low educational expectations and excuse-making runs too deep with DPS for anyone to assume the board will welcome Bobb's reign. Thankfully, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has given Bobb a broom big enough to sweep out the waste and to begin restructuring DPS as a district finally on course for wondrous change.
Calloway must back up allegations

March 2, 2009

How surprising that Connie Calloway, the usually calm and demure former Detroit Public Schools superintendent, is suddenly so loquacious about the waste and corruption she saw while at the helm of the state's largest school district.

During a hearing on her dismissal, Calloway lobbed some pretty explosive -- and potentially criminal -- accusations against her former employers, the Detroit Board of Education.

Calloway insinuated, among other charges, that members of the board held closed-door meetings to determine vendor contract awards and strategically moved money between funds in order to profit personally.

Board members predictably bristled at the accusations. And they certainly should without seeing proof. Funny, Calloway didn't offer any during her diatribe.

But if Calloway has any evidence to back up what she's saying, she has an obligation to produce it -- and, just as important, to explain why she waited so long to come forward. A spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office told the Detroit Free Press it has not received documentation of any alleged criminal conduct.

During her short 18-month tenure, Calloway billed herself as a defender of accountability.

Now, she must be accountable for the questionable decision to open this sordid can of worms the way she did, and perhaps for sitting silent while others allegedly committed transgressions against the city's children.

The ART & MASTERY of BEING a "PLUSER!" (COLLABORATION ON STERIODS)

A LOOK at WHAT WORKS! (Coming to a Regional Center Near you Soon!)

A STUDY in Contrasts and Dysfunction?

Yin

Detroit news briefs: DPS doesn't turn in finance reports

February 25, 2009

Detroit Public Schools has failed to submit financial reports that are required under a state mandated consent agreement, according to the Michigan Department of Education.

DPS has not turned in at least five required documents since state Superintendent Mike Flanagan determined Dec. 8 that the district is in a financial emergency and in need of a state-appointed manager to take over the budget.

DPS has a $139-million deficit and has not paid millions of dollars in vendor payments in order to make payroll.

In appointing a financial manager, the state has exhausted its most serious penalty for noncompliance with the consent agreement. The manager, Robert C. Bobb, a former Washington city manager and school board president, is expected to start on the job next week.

YANG

Obama's school plea may not be enough

BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • February 25, 2009

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that it was the patriotic duty of students to finish high school and at least one year of college to equip the country for the 21st Century, but some say it's going to take more than words to stop kids from dropping out.

"Dropping out of high school is no longer an option," Obama said. "It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country -- and this country needs and values the talents of every American."

Eboni Ivory, 15, a student at Detroit's Southeastern High School, said students relate to Obama and will listen to him, up to a point.

"He said he's going to change everything and he said yes, you can," she said. His words will inspire students, but it's not going to be enough to stop kids who have made up their minds to drop out, she said.

Others say Obama ranks high enough with teens that his words could make kids listen.

"Look at him, he didn't have anything and he's president," said Raneisha Chatman, 18, a senior at Detroit's Henry Ford High School. "He can make a difference."

Michigan's Michael Flanagan is to be among several state superintendents meeting today with Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in Washington.

The Detroit Public Schools could be a topic of discussion. Duncan said last week he worries about the "poor quality" of education Detroit students receive.

Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-826-7262 or mmwalsh@freepress.com.

On Practical Wisdom Skills, Brilliance and the "Moral Will to DO the Right Thing"

Victor Williams: Doer of Great Deeds at Southeastern High School!

THINK: EduWood Digital Learning Studios!

Hollywood comes to Oakland

The Oakland Press/TIM THOMPSON A building in the General Motors Centerpoint complex in Pontiac, which will be the site of a $70 million movie studio with nine sound stages.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 11:40 AM EST

By CHARLES CRUMM and RANDAL YAKEY
Of The Oakland Press

Founders of a movie studio planned for Pontiac want to be making movies within 90 days. That’s a realistic goal, says county Executive L. Brooks Patterson.

The movie studio initiative was the high point of Patterson’s State of the County address Tuesday in Troy. Gov. Jennifer Granholm was supposed to make the same announcement at the same time in her State of the State address to the Legislature. Patterson blamed the governor for leaking news about the studio a day before the concurrent speeches. “The governor got so excited about the news — you remember she lived in Hollywood for awhile — she couldn’t contain her girlish enthusiasm and let the cat out of the bag,” Patterson said.

Patterson is among a halfdozen Republicans considering a run for governor when the term-limited Granholm leaves office in 2010.

But all agree the studio is certain to generate much-needed jobs.

“It’s good news — it’s going to be 3,600 jobs,” Patterson said Tuesday.

The local investors in the new studio are Oakland County developers A. Alfred Taubman, Gary Sakwa of Grand Sakwa Properties in Farmington Hills and Linden Nelson of Nelson Ventures in Birmingham. They’re teaming up with Raleigh Studios of Hollywood, Calif., and Endeavor Talent Agency of Beverly Hills, Calif.

“They’re the real deal,” state Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, said of Raleigh and Endeavor. Melton’s district includes Pontiac.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority also is putting up money for the venture, the reason it was included in both Patterson and Granholm’s speeches.

The new venture, called Motown Motion Pictures LLC and currently based in Birmingham, will include both a film studio and production company.

The investors plan to spend $70 million for a 600,000-square-foot development, including nine sound stages located inside General Motors’ former Centerpoint truck plant at South Boulevard and Opdyke Road in Pontiac.

The state’s growth authority expects the studio to create 3,600 direct jobs and another 1,500 indirect jobs by the year 2020 with an average weekly wage of $824.

The authority on Tuesday approved a state tax credit valued at $101 million over 12 years. The project also will receive $12 million in state incentives along with job training assistance through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Also receiving assistance from the authority are two other film industry businesses — one to be based in Plymouth and one in Detroit.

Michigan currently has the most favorable tax incentives for the film industry in the country.

Movie studio a definite among many ‘maybes’

Thursday, February 5, 2009 6:08 AM EST

By The Oakland Press

Amid all of the promises and glowing predictions we heard Tuesday night from both Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, there was at least one bit of very good, defi nite news.

In their state of the state and state of the county addresses, we were informed of the establishment of a movie studio in Pontiac. Motown Motion Pictures will invest $70 million to build its new film studios at a former General Motors plant.

Granholm noted that Pontiac’s studio was one of three projects coming to Michigan to boost its ongoing efforts to attract Hollywood filmmakers to the state. The governor noted that Wonderstruck Animation Studios will invest $86 million to build a new studio in Detroit and Stardock Systems, a digital gaming manufacturer, will build its production facilities in Plymouth.

The local investors in the Motown studio are Oakland County developers A. Alfred Taubman, Gary Sakwa of Grand Sakwa Properties in Farmington Hills and Linden Nelson of Nelson Ventures in Birmingham. They’re teaming up with Raleigh Studios of Hollywood, Calif., and Endeavor Talent Agency of Beverly Hills, Calif.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority also is putting up money for the venture.

Motown Motion Pictures LLC is based in Birmingham and will include both a film studio and production company.

The investors plan to spend $70 million for a 600,000-square-foot development, including nine sound stages located inside General Motors’ former Centerpoint truck plant at South Boulevard and Opdyke Road in Pontiac.

The state’s growth authority expects the studio to create 3,600 direct jobs and another 1,500 indirect jobs by the year 2020 with an average weekly wage of $824.

The authority has approved a state tax credit valued at $101 million over 12 years. The project also will receive $12 million in state incentives along with job training assistance through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

However, tax revenue for Pontiac is expected to be anywhere from $1.4 to $2.8 million annually, according to city officials. The state expects its tax revenues to be $178 million by 2020.

Patterson even mentioned the county was in the early stages of its first-ever film festival, possibly coming in 2010.

In speeches that made a lot of promises, it was good hear about some real, concrete projects coming to Oakland County and the state.

We commend Patterson, Granholm, the Pontiac mayor’s office as well as other local and state officials for their efforts in securing this project.

Generally, Granholm painted a beautifully bright future for Michigan.

Of course, she had to do something positive because with the highest unemployment in the nation and an economy that is reeling, gloomy doesn’t even do justice as a description.

Meanwhile, Patterson also did some painting. As usual, he focused on the county’s accomplishments.

Patterson, among other things, noted that Automation Alley, on the strength of a 17-percent increase in membership last year, has hit the magical 1,000 membership mark. He also said that 106 Emerging Sectors companies have either located in Oakland County or expanded here over the past four years, resulting in $1.3 billion in new investment and the creation of 14,762 new jobs.

The picture Granholm crafted certainly sounded good. She plans to shrink state government and balance Michigan’s budget while creating more jobs through diversification of the state’s industries.

Obviously, the devil is in the details.

Will the state balance the budget through some type of tax increases on the backs of businesses and individuals? Will Granholm remember that whatever federal stimulus funds the state receives will be a one-time shot, so they need to supplement Michigan’s finances, not just prop them up for one more year. We certainly can’t argue with anything Granholm and Patterson said. We hope their visions come true.

But just how realistic are they? Historically, we would predict that Patterson’s projections are more accurate because Oakland County has continually led the way in fiscal responsibility and acumen.

Time will tell.

We’ll get a glimpse of Granholm’s plans to finance her visions when she presents her budget next week.

But no matter how successful Granholm and Patterson are in their programs, one thing is certain: For the time being, we’re all in for a bumpy ride, so hang on.

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