Chalkbeat

The FAFSA woes complicating federal college aid are especially acute for some Detroit students

2024-05-20T17:10:06+00:00

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It was College Decision Day at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School, and Perriel Pace was walking through the halls wearing a sparkly shirt with a Michigan State emblem.

Pace had been excited to find the shirt at a church rummage sale. But on that day, it was a “bittersweet” choice of attire.

The Detroit high school senior was accepted to MSU months ago. She wants to become the first person in her family to go to college. But that hinges on federal financial aid. And with just a few months before the college semester begins, she still doesn’t have an answer about that funding.

Pace is among many students in limbo across the country due to the rocky rollout of a new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The process this year has been mired in confusion — the revamped form was released at the end of last year and has come with no shortage of technical issues. Some students are still shut out of the system. Others, like Pace, managed to fill out and submit the form — but still, they wait.

In Detroit, these problems have tested the resilience of vulnerable young people already facing barriers to higher education. It is a roadblock that looms large in a city where just 17% of residents hold a college degree.

Pace has had issues finding stable housing and receives support under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. She lives with her cousin now. Last year she stayed in a shelter. Despite those challenges, she is highly engaged academically and civically. Pace has participated in student government, performed in school plays, and is involved in a number of youth organizations across the city that advocate for social justice.

She wants to convert that advocacy into a career and either become a lawyer for incarcerated people, or get her doctorate in education and sit on the Michigan State Board of Education.

She feels a sense of responsibility to carve a path into higher education — if she can get the money to go.

“Everybody, all my family, is looking to me. No one ever got the opportunity. And that’s what held them back as well — funding,” Pace said.

Students seeking college aid should ‘not despair’

The situation has had a clear impact on the state’s students who are planning to go to college.

According to recent data, 38% of high school seniors in Michigan have completed the FAFSA, a 21% decrease compared to this time last year.

These delays also have many schools on edge and have led them to rework their own timelines. The Michigan Association of State Universities’ Mia Murphy said that many public universities have moved back enrollment and deposit deadlines to accommodate students and their families.

“We want students and their families to know that they’ve done nothing wrong, that this is unprecedented, and it should never be like this again,” Murphy wrote in an email to Chalkbeat.

At Wayne State University, school staff has been working “around the clock” to help students with lingering FAFSA stress, said Ahmad Ezzedine, vice president for academic student affairs and global engagement.

Last year, 54% of the university’s incoming freshman class attended tuition-free thanks to a university program that utilizes a mix of state and federal aid, Wayne State scholarships, and grants to help students from low-income households attend.

“So we are confident that students will have very generous offers if their tuition is not fully covered based on their family situation,” Ezzedine said.

His message to students mirrored what admissions officers at local institutions of higher education like Michigan State and the University of Michigan-Dearborn told Chalkbeat: “What we want is that students don’t despair and don’t let something like this stop them.”

Still, for many vulnerable students, getting the necessary college aid is just one piece of their higher education puzzle.

College roadblocks persist, but so do Detroit students

The FAFSA rigmarole this year is particularly hard on Detroit students who face additional barriers to college, like finances, family responsibilities, an

d a lack of transportation, said Stacey Brockman, a Wayne State professor of educational leadership and policy who studies the pathways to and through college for Detroit students.

The latter is especially pronounced in a city ruled by automobiles and lacking robust public transportation.

In a forthcoming study looking at transit barriers and costs that students attending Detroit area institutions face, Brockman found that students using public transit to commute to community colleges spent upwards of an hour getting to class.

“Just objectively, that’s a really long commute,” she said.

More than half of students Brockman surveyed who had stopped going to college said finding reliable transportation was a top reason. Another 40% said they struggled to pay for it.

For some students, that problem begins well before they are thinking about college. In a recent survey, parents with children attending Detroit schools reported frequent challenges in accessing a vehicle.

Brockman’s work also highlights that many students don’t give up.

She found that one in five community college students in the Detroit area were still enrolled and making progress towards a degree in their fifth year. Many are working and supporting themselves. Slowly and steadily, they make it through.

Something similar could be said about the level of perseverance necessary to complete the FAFSA this year.

Trying to create a college-going culture

Katey, a senior at Detroit Cristo Rey High School, started filling out the FAFSA form back in January, a few weeks after it became available. (Chalkbeat is only using her first name to protect her privacy.)

She’s on track to be a first-generation college student. Her parents are from Guadalajara, Mexico, and her household is of mixed immigration status. The federal government’s changes to this year’s FAFSA precluded her from completing the form. The revamped iteration asks for a parent’s Social Security number, something her parents do not have.

So Katey filled out a different form to confirm her father’s identity. The system rejected that form too, “but I never gave up,” she said.

Katey attended a FAFSA event through her school where she met Tanya Aho of Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, one of several community organizations helping people carve a path to college.

For months, Aho and Katey met and tinkered with the form and experimented with different strategies. Ultimately they figured out a workaround. Students around the country faced similar issues.

Aho said the glitch Katey experienced affected many students from backgrounds like hers up until the spring. Meanwhile, getting help in Spanish from FAFSA staff has been nearly impossible.

These layers of red tape are sending a message to students, she said.

“My kids are like, ‘You know, it doesn’t feel like they want us to get this money.’ And I really can’t argue … it doesn’t feel like this population has been a priority,” Aho said.

Katey spent difficult hours researching how to even apply for college. But it was the only way to get closer to her childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian. In the fall, Katey will attend Michigan State. It was her pick given the school’s veterinary program.

At Western International High School in Southwest Detroit, where nearly three quarters of students are Hispanic or Latino, there are two bilingual college transition advisers for 400 seniors, Alicia Alvarez and Gina Dossantos. That’s nowhere near enough, Alvarez said.

Many college advisers were eliminated from several Detroit schools last year after the district made budget cuts, including at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School, which Perriel Pace attends. At Western, Alvarez turned down a buyout last year but the school was ultimately able to retain her given its high enrollment numbers — more than 1,900 students attend the high school. Dossantos, meanwhile, works at the school through a partnership with the University of Michigan.

Many of the students Alvarez and Dossantos help come from vulnerable households. And they estimate roughly 20% of the students they have been working with are newcomers, often from Central American countries where they and their families escaped violence and death.

“They have to leave everything and come to this country — and then we can’t even help them get into college,” Alvarez said.

The FAFSA debacle has hampered the two advisers’ efforts to nurture a college-going culture at Western, and students are getting discouraged. “They are just like, you know what, maybe this isn’t for me,” Alvarez said.

Still, there are signs these advisers are making a dent. Alvarez is a graduate of Western herself. During her time at the school, there was much less emphasis on going to college, and there were no College Decision Day celebrations. But the contrast between then and now became clearer to her this year, when a Western student got into Harvard.

“It’s nice to see that the school is making progress in that way and to be part of that change” she said. “That feels really good.”

Robyn Vincent is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit, covering Detroit schools and Michigan education policy. You can reach her at rvincent@chalkbeat.org.

Cannabis use is hurting Detroit students. It’s also making more kids too young for school sick.

2024-05-13T17:07:33+00:00

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In the five years since Michigan voters approved recreational pot, cannabis culture has engulfed everyday life, especially in Detroit.

Billboards promising speedy weed delivery are everywhere. So too is a distinct skunky smell that lingers on streets, alleyways, and in apartment buildings.

The increased access to weed is contributing to a growing public health problem: More children are unintentionally ingesting marijuana edibles, getting sick, and going to the hospital.

From 2020 to 2022, the Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center, which takes calls from across the state, recorded 801 incidents of cannabis toxicity among children ages 5 and younger. That represents a nearly 75% increase of unintentional youth cannabis ingestion, a “worrisome and concerning” spike, said Varun Vohra, the center’s academic and managing director. Meanwhile, cases of unintentional cannabis use by children ages 4 to 13 grew by 60% from 2020 to 2023.

These trends have led public health professionals, local leaders, and school officials to search for solutions. In Detroit, school leaders are highlighting the urgency of what is likely a statewide problem. Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and school board members recently issued a plea for help to lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Vitti said cannabis use — intentional or not — is widespread in Detroit schools, disrupting classes and sending students to the hospital nearly every week.

This school year alone, the district has counted roughly 750 incidents involving marijuana as well as vape pens that students use for tobacco. The latter make up a huge chunk of those incidents.

The public climate for cannabis is such that a 9-year-old, Kaydn Mahouli, complained about the billboards for weed to Detroit City Council members.

All of this speaks to a new frontier for child health and safety that has officials in schools and beyond scrambling to address an unintended outcome of cannabis legalization.

Child cannabis poisoning on the rise nationwide

Michigan voted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2018, and recreational dispensaries opened their doors in December 2019. In Detroit, the first dispensary to sell recreational weed began operation in January 2023, a delay stemming from legal battles over the city’s marijuana ordinance.

Dr. Kelly Levasseur, chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, said the number of young patients entering the emergency department after the legalization of recreational marijuana rose dramatically.

“In 2020, during COVID … I’d have maybe one patient come in every few months, and now it’s probably every other week,” she said. “It is so common.”

Levasseur said toddlers and children, from roughly 16 months to 6 years old, comprise the majority of patients suffering from cannabis intoxication. They arrive with telltale symptoms of central nervous system depression: They are disorientated, sleepy, and confused as parents carry them into the waiting room. In severe cases, a child’s respiratory function becomes compromised.

“We can almost recognize these kids when they’re walking down the hallway,” Levasseur said.

Meanwhile, she is also treating teenagers for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, an illness caused by daily cannabis use that results in severe cyclical nausea and vomiting. Levasseur said it typically resolves when the patient completely stops using marijuana.

Dr. Jason Vieder, vice chair of the emergency department at Henry Ford Health, said the issue is especially acute among young children who get their hands on temptingly sweet cannabis gummies, cookies and brownies.

Part of the problem, not only for children but also young people and adults, is that the dosage in these products is an “inexact science,” Vieder said. He said that while prescription pills might have lines scored down the middle to accurately separate half doses, eating half an edible does not necessarily mean people are getting half the supposed marijuana dose.

The issue is certainly not unique to Michigan.

Bart Hammig, a scholar of public health at University of Arkansas, has published research on the rise of pediatric cannabis poisoning nationwide. Although the research is challenging given federal laws about cannabis, Hammig told Chalkbeat that “the rate of [emergency department] visits associated with cannabis use has increased about four to five times in the past decade.”

Even states that pioneered the template for legal cannabis struggle to address this issue.

Colorado became the first state, along with Washington state, to legalize recreational pot in 2013. But doctors like Sam Wang of Children’s Hospital Colorado still see a high volume of children with cannabis poisoning.

“So our state has kind of led the way … with things that include child resistant packaging, marketing and advertising regulations, dose limitations … public education, etc. And we’d like to think that this has helped,” Wang said. “But unfortunately, the rates have continued to increase.”

Wang and other physicians and researchers stressed the need for more public awareness campaigns, especially when it comes to adults leaving cannabis edibles around the house where little hands can grab them.

Searching for ways to reduce kids’ cannabis use

Vitti and school board members have outlined several ways to curb cannabis use among kids, including stricter regulations on packaging and labeling of marijuana products.

They are also calling for detection systems in schools for marijuana and vape pens, and public awareness campaigns funded through cannabis revenues and taxes.

Vitti said the need to address these issues is deepening. In an interview with Chalkbeat, he cited two recent drug-related incidents that involved a second and third grader. “When we have young children involved, there is definitely a greater sense of urgency,” he said.

When asked for a response to Vitti’s letter, a spokesperson for Whitmer referred Chalkbeat to Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency.

That office has rules aimed at keeping pot edibles and products away from kids. The rules prohibit products that could appeal to children and minors based on shape, label, and overall packaging. For example, cartoons or caricatures are not allowed, nor the word “candy,” and products must be sold in opaque, child-resistant packages.

“Enforcement of these rules has been — and continues to be — a high priority for the CRA for years,” David Harns, a spokesperson for the agency, said in an email to Chalkbeat.

Harns wrote that the image Vitti included in his letter of marijuana edibles masquerading in packages that resemble Sour Patch Kids, Jolly Ranchers, and Skittles does not represent “regulated Michigan products.”

DPSCD Police did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment about how often school police are encountering these products in Detroit schools.

Detroit City Council Member Angela Whitfield Calloway, a former Detroit public schools educator, said she is “beyond alarmed” about the situation.

She said more cannabis revenue should go toward funding robust education and awareness campaigns in traditional public, charter, and private schools.

“We have to have outreach, and we can’t depend on the schools because the schools are reaching out to us. They’re saying, ‘City of Detroit, we need your help,’’ Calloway said.

The proliferation of billboards advertising recreational cannabis across the city is also on her radar after comments to the City Council from Mahouli, the 9-year-old who expressed his concerns about children seeing the same billboards he sees “everywhere” that advertise marijuana.

Mahouli’s grandmother, Jacqueline Miller, explained to council members that Mahouli helps his mother at her substance abuse clinic in Pontiac and wants to become a doctor so he can take over the clinic one day.

Calloway has directed Detroit’s Legislative Policy Division to explore how the city could potentially restrict such advertisements.

Meanwhile, Council Member Scott Benson has proposed earmarking 10% of gross receipts from cannabis sales for youth substance abuse programs. Detroit currently uses 2% of its cannabis tax revenues for substance abuse outreach, and that includes a $40,000 youth program launching this summer through the Detroit Health Department. Benson says that’s not enough.

Roughly $101 million in state cannabis taxes from last year went to the K-12 School Aid Fund.

Although often less novel than marijuana, tobacco is also attracting similar concerns.

State Sen. Stephanie Chang, a Democrat from Detroit, said she is generally open to allocating more cannabis revenue for prevention. But she wants to drill down on more details and talk to stakeholders. And she pointed to her bill to address vaping, which includes banning flavored vapes, earmarking taxes for tobacco prevention and K-12 education, and enacting more regulations on businesses selling tobacco products.

Chang was recently at a student roundtable at Davis Aerospace Technical High School where students were asked if they know someone who has been harmed by vaping. “I think almost every student raised their hand,” she said.

Vitti has similar concerns. “The vape pens are even more dangerous [than cannabis] as far as usage and it’s a major problem,” he told Chalkbeat. “And that’s where we are seeing gas stations, close to school, selling vape pens, to underage children. That needs to be cracked down.”

Karmen Hanson, senior fellow with the National Conference of State Legislatures, has researched how states that were first to enter the so-called green rush, like Colorado and Washington, have incorporated public health into cannabis policy.

“Legislators and other policymakers will come back year after year, and regulators for that matter, too, to try to correct things that they believe need repairing or tweaking,” she said.

Hanson said local leaders now have the opportunity to learn from those examples.

Robyn Vincent is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit, covering Detroit schools and Michigan education policy. You can reach her at rvincent@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school leaders want action to get pot edibles away from kids

2024-05-02T22:12:53+00:00

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Detroit school district leaders are urging lawmakers to help address what they describe as an “increasingly alarming” rise in student use of marijuana edibles and vape pens containing marijuana.

“A week of school rarely passes where a student is not taken to the hospital due to intentional or unintentional consumption of edibles,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and members of the Detroit school board said in a Thursday letter emailed to federal, state, and local lawmakers.

From the 2019-20 to the 2020-21 school years, the Detroit Public Schools Community District had 289 drug-related incidents. Between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, there were 1,735 incidents. It is unclear how many of those incidents included marijuana use.

“This school year alone, we have already faced 745 drug-related infractions as of last week,” the letter said. The district leaders noted that the numbers have risen since marijuana was legalized in Michigan in 2019.

Vitti and board members are asking lawmakers to adopt safety measures that include:

Requiring clear labeling that identifies edibles as including marijuana.
Prohibiting manufacturers from using packaging that imitates non-marijuana candy.
Providing each school with funding to purchase detection systems for vape pens and marijuana. The funding from this initiative would come from the profits and taxes collected from marijuana sales.
Initiating a public awareness campaign, funded using marijuana legalization revenues, to educate the community on securing edibles and keeping them away from their children, as well as the potential risks of access to children.

The letter includes an image that shows some edibles packaged to resemble candies such as Skittles and Starburst.

“In some cases marijuana edibles are indistinguishable from regular candy brands, misleading our students and facilitating the ease of their distribution within our schools,” the letter said.

Attorney and DPSCD parent Marcia Spivey isn’t surprised by Vitti’s characterization of marijuana use in Detroit schools. She says she fought hard against zoning rules to try and keep marijuana dispensaries out of her neighborhood. In her work representing children in the foster system in Wayne County, she has clients “who are in middle school or high school that have admitted to using marijuana on a daily basis.”

She wants to see city leaders working more closely with school officials in the district, especially when it comes to policies such as the city’s marijuana ordinance.

“There needs to be better coordination in terms of legislation that impacts our families because the legislation that the City Council passes directly impacts the families in Detroit,” she said.

Parent Aliya Moore echoed Spivey — she wants to see the city and school district working in tandem on this issue. She said there should be a strong focus on businesses that sell to minors and parents should face consequences, too.

“Ultimately we are responsible — we can’t just say they walked to the store and got it on their own,” Moore said.

Still, Moore says the legalization of recreational cannabis in Michigan makes this a thorny issue.

“Basically,” she said, “you can get weed out of the gas station.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Robyn Vincent is a reporter covering Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at rvincent@chalkbeat.org.

‘Degree Forward’ is making college more accessible for Detroiters

2024-04-30T21:32:03+00:00

Andrew Linton’s college journey has been more than 10 years in the making.

After high school, the native Detroiter went off to Virginia to attend Hampton University, but left school due to a family emergency. Linton then spent time working in Washington D.C. before he returned to Detroit in 2021 and refocused on his education.

“I always wanted to go back to school. I just didn’t come across the right program,” he said. “But the stars aligned. I just made it my main focus to finish my degree and further my academic and job opportunities.”

Three years later, the 34-year-old received his bachelor’s degree in health care management, thanks to Degree Forward, a Detroit college program geared toward individuals with full-time jobs or family responsibilities that don’t allow for traditional schooling.

Degree Forward partners with Southern New Hampshire University to provide students with affordable, accelerated online classes to earn an associate or bachelor’s degree. Anyone in Michigan can enroll in the program, and Degree Forward has hubs in Detroit and Huron County.

But, “one-on-one coaching is really the core foundation of the program,” said Degree Forward CEO Danielle North, noting the nonprofit’s academic coaches walk students through financial aid options and assistance with their assignments.

Students can choose from three areas of study: health care management, business management, and communications. And unlike traditional colleges and universities, the curriculum is project-based, meaning there’s no lectures, tests, or grades, North said.

“You can’t fail in this format because you receive a ‘not yet’ or a ‘master,’ she said. “You get an opportunity to get in a feedback loop of constantly resubmitting until you actually hit mastery.”

Rather than dividing the school year into semesters, Degree Forward has several terms throughout the year, with the next starting in June. Tuition is $2,332 per term before financial aid, with no books or extra fees, according to its website.

To attend, prospective students can submit an enrollment interest form on the Degree Forward website and get connected with a coach. Then they must fill out a degree program application for Southern New Hampshire University. Once the application is submitted, an academic coach will walk through the financial aid process or set up a payment plan, as well as any paperwork requested by the college. The only eligibility requirement for Degree Forward is a high school diploma or GED diploma.

For Linton, the program’s first Black male graduate, the appeal of Degree Forward was its flexibility.

He works full time at Centria Autism, a provider of applied behavior analysis therapy for children with autism. Linton completed the program in a year with the support of his Degree Forward academic coach, Raylynn Henry, and his mother, a former principal in the Detroit school district. . His next goal is to obtain a master’s degree in accounting.

“Degree Forward changed my life by creating a pathway for me to get my undergrad degree while I was still working full time,” Linton said. “I came across a lot of professional people and I was happy to meet and network with them.”

The organization is also looking to expand its reach through the recently launched Black Male Achievement Initiative, which aims to offer support for Black boys and men in education and careers. North said she’s noticed that some male students find it difficult to ask for and accept help.

“Black men do need support, but how do we create a supportive culture where they can feel safe and comfortable to get what they need to achieve their goals?”

A second chance at an education

Degree Forward was conceived in 2021 when North helped launch another nonprofit, Diploma Equity Project, which works with K-12 schools, colleges, and community partners to improve college completion rates for two key groups: high school graduates entering college and adults looking to earn degrees.

Diploma Equity Project teamed up with Southern New Hampshire University after seeing the success of the college’s online program in Boston called Duet.

According to a study from the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice, or CHEPP, the graduation rate in 2019 among associate degree-seeking students at two-year institutions in Massachusetts was 20%. Meanwhile, Duet saw a 46% graduation rate among its associate degree students. Fifty-two percent of Black students graduated from the program, compared to a 12% graduation rate for other two-year programs in Massachusetts.

“We said ‘if we could replicate that and bring it to Michigan and Detroit in particular, we could really make a difference,’” North said.

In Michigan, 18% of adults enrolled in community college complete a postsecondary credential in four years and 57% of adults enrolled in a public university complete a postsecondary credential in eight years, according to a 2023 report from The Michigan Center for Adult College Success.

But the rates are lower for students of color. In 2021, 29% of Hispanic adults had an associate degree or higher, , while 27% of Black adults did. Black students also have the highest rate of leaving college without a degree, at 51%; followed by Hispanic students at 35%; white students at 29%; and Asian students at 19%.

Degree Forward started as a pilot program in late 2021 before its first official cohort in January 2022, North said. Last year, the program served 195 students and is on track to serve 300 to 400 students this year.

One of those students is Nkosi Mason, who recently received a bachelor’s degree in business management. Before joining Degree Forward, he had been out of college for 12 years and was working as a car salesman with LaFontaine Automotive Group.

Mason, 33, first joined Degree Forward last year as an academic coach. He said it’s the right job for him since he initially went to school to become a teacher.

“Being an academic coach allows me to be in alignment with that since I’m coaching students like I’m in the classroom,” Mason said. “It feels like I’m still accomplishing a dream.”

To become a Degree Forward academic coach, Mason said, individuals must have at least an associate degree and some experience in management.

A couple of months into the job, Mason enrolled as a student in the program.

“There’s not a lot of pressure since you’re able to go at your own pace,” Mason said. “There’s never that midterm and ‘I’m gonna eat 10 donuts and make it happen.’”

Mason found it hard to get back into the flow of a school routine, but said seeing his coworkers also going through the program inspired him.

“My colleagues went through the program and accelerated,” he said. “I wanted to do the same thing, so I had to figure out what it would take to do that and be able to build that into my workflow. It’s made me better as a person, but also being a contributor to the team. It’s nothing like I ever experienced when I tried to complete my degree 12 years ago.”

Nkosi Mason recently received a bachelor’s degree in business management through the Degree Forward program.

A safe space for Black men

When Mason received his degree, he became the second Black male graduate in the program.

Prioritizing Black men’s school success was one of the reasons behind the creation of the Black Male Achievement Initiative, North said.

A majority of students at Degree Forward are women, with only 18% of the population consisting of men. North also noticed that men were lagging behind in their completion efforts.

She said one reason the program works is because participants don’t have to give up their jobs.

“The reason why this program is so powerful is because you don’t have to give that up,” she said. “It may take longer, but you’re gonna have the support to actually get you through.”

Last month, the initiative held a meeting at Degree Forward’s Grandmont Rosedale office with Mason and a group of Black male leaders in the community, including Khary Turner, executive director of the Coleman A. Young Foundation and board president of the Diploma Equity Project.

The group was in the midst of planning a Father’s Day brunch, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 15 at The School at Marygrove.

Turner, a speaker for the upcoming brunch event, said the Black Male Achievement Initiative is powerful and bound to impact many mens’ lives. He hopes the project continues to expand to reach other parts of Detroit.

“With initiatives like this, it’s important to allow a certain degree of organic evolution to take place because there’s a point you want it to maintain its authenticity,” Turner said. “If it’s authentic, it will also attract people who are thirsty for that kind of dialogue and interaction. And you never know, you just may help a couple guys that will turn their lives around and figure out their path. That’s important … that’s really important.”

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

Birdie’s Bookmobile spreads joy of reading to Detroit children

2024-04-19T23:05:20+00:00

Inside classroom 148, a gleeful Alyce Hartman was telling the tale of three musicians: a squirrel cradling a guitar, a grizzly bear plucking a bass, and a chicken strumming a banjo.

Hartman’s voice rippled like a wave as she read the picture book “I’m Sticking with You-and the Chicken Too!” by Smriti Prasadam-Halls, an author of South Indian heritage.

Twenty-five second graders at Voyageur Academy sat on the floor listening, invested in the plot with every turn of the page.

In the end, the talking animals formed a friendship.

“We make our own music. We’ve nothing to prove. We do our own thing, and find our own groove,” read Hartman, like the storyteller her mother and the gauntlet of children’s theater taught her to be.

Storytime with students is among the hallmarks of Birdie’s Bookmobile, a pop-up literacy initiative launched in 2022 by Hartman.

Through vivid storytelling and mini-book fairs, Hartman increases children’s access to physical books and promotes the pleasures of reading, which could shape a student’s future success beyond classroom walls.

“We want kids to come in and have the opportunity to look and to touch and to feel and to experience” the books,” she said.

In Detroit, many students still struggle to read. The ongoing crisis has lasted more than a decade, angering community members and putting pressure on school officials to reverse the trend.

In the 2022-23 academic year, Detroit’s traditional public and charter school students slightly improved their reading scores on Michigan’s standardized test compared to the previous school year. Yet these results fall well below statewide numbers.

Hartman, a 55-year-old STEM and drama teacher at Detroit Prep public charter school, hopes to spark magical thinking in young readers. She believes books are portals to creativity, cultures across time, and place and potential careers.

Each week, she’ll hit the road and deliver hundreds of diverse books to classrooms, after-school programs, nonprofit organizations, and police precincts in Detroit.

Hartman said she’s also installed little free libraries at Nichols Elementary-Middle School, Detroit Enterprise Academy, and other sites.

“I want children here in the city to really enjoy reading as much as I did,” she said.

Several students from Voyageur Academy pick out books from Birdie's Bookmobile during a book fair on March 8.

A magical girlhood

As a child, Hartman relished the joys of playing pretend.

She transformed into characters from “Pippi Longstocking,” “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” among the abundance of books inside her Worthington, Ohio home. She loved reading with her mother, a kindergarten teacher. She wrote stories to her grandmother she’d send through the mail.

“I think that’s what has really spawned a lot of this,” she said.

In the early 2000s, Hartman moved to Detroit from Los Angeles, yet those childhood memories enriched her life’s purpose, fostering a love of creativity. Hartman chose the name “Birdie’s Bookmobile” for its cute imagery and alliterative sounds.

To date, Hartman said she’s distributed more than 16,000 books, made possible through grant funding from United Way for Southeastern Michigan, the Holley Foundation, and the Junior League of Detroit.

She’s purchased books from local sellers like 27th Letter Books in Southwest Detroit and Next Chapter Books in the city’s East English Village neighborhood and accepts book donations.

Many of the books Hartman picks feature Black and brown characters, written by a variety of authors, including everything from a humanitarian and a politician to a famous painter and professional wrestler.

Some of the titles Hartman curates have appeared on banned book lists that often target literary works by writers of color and LGBTQ+ writers. Although book bans have surged, Hartman hasn’t received any pushback.

Children of color, literacy experts say, are still overlooked or stereotyped in mainstream culture. Diverse books can teach all children to be empathetic toward people who are different from them. They can also boost a child of color’s sense of self.

Igniting Imaginations

The habit of visiting the library, Hartman said, is becoming a lost tradition, as school librarians and school libraries have begun to disappear.

“When I was growing up, that was special,” she said. “We just don’t see that so much anymore.”

In the wake of such scarcity, Hartman’s poised to boost reading culture. Her mini-book fairs, a feast of illustrated covers, showcase a plethora of stories waiting to be chosen.

Once the reading was finished, elementary, middle and high school students picked out their own books arranged in baskets and bins atop tables covered in mustard-yellow cloth. A bushy tree with googly eyes covered a wall and conveyed a message matching Hartman’s purpose written on its trunk: “Watch Us Grow!”

A boy huddled with a group of buddies to flip through a picture book starring Nelson Mandela. High school students gravitated toward graphic novels. Students can keep the books and take them home.

Room 148 is Voyageur’s reading cafe, where teachers hold small group lessons. Dayna Peoples, a reading specialist, oversees the cafe. Peoples helps students learn, pronounce and write words, leading the school’s K-8 reading intervention programs.

Voyageur is a K-12 charter school located on the city’s southwest side. The campus has two buildings. Roughly 1,300 students attend.

The school doesn’t have a library, but the reading cafe has more than 500 books thanks to Birdie’s Bookmobile’s recent visit.

Peoples met Hartman during a call organized by 313Reads, a coalition focused on improving literacy access in Detroit. Thrilled by the bookmobile concept, she welcomed Hartman into the school.

“Some parents don’t have vehicles. Some don’t have time to take their kids to the library. In this way, the library comes to them,” Peoples said.

Eighth-grader Kai Fee marveled at “The Gilded Ones” by Namina Forna, who grew up in Sierra Leone before moving to Atlanta. On the cover is a portrait of teenage warrior Deka, clad in gold jewelry and armor.

The 13-year-old noticed the warrior’s long braids, saying “Black girl magic.” She picked Forna’s young adult fantasy novel, wondering if that warrior was just like her.

“As Black girls, we don’t get very much attention,” she said. “I feel like this could help me. Like, believe more in myself.”

Sporting a purple beanie emblazoned with the ghostly Pokémon Gengar, high school senior Tyler McKinnon scooped up two books wrestling with themes of war.

Sometimes, the 18-year-old can’t find books that entice him. He appreciated the variety Birdie’s Bookmobile provides.

“I like reading, even news articles that help me like, not be ignorant, and expand my knowledge,” said McKinnon, holding the graphic novel “The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees” by Don Brown.

He said he wants to be an informed citizen of the world.

Voyageur Academy third graders looking through books at the book fair held by Birdie's Bookmobile at the school on March 8.

A shining mission

In the afternoon, Hartman went to 27th Letter Books to retrieve another haul of whimsical titles. Nestled on a low-key corner of Michigan Avenue and 25th Street, the bookstore carries historically underrepresented authors.

She greeted co-owner Erin Pineda, who recommended a picture book celebrating body positivity called “Bodies Are Cool,” written by Tyler Feder.

While Hartman shopped, Pineda’s rescue dog Chai sniffed around. Pineda thinks she’s a pit boxer, but her true breed is unknown. Hartman follows the children’s lit scene with zeal.

“I literally haven’t read an adult book in a long time,” Hartman said. “It takes me a long time to go through them now because I’m reading so many children’s books.”

Pineda grabbed “Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment,” a story she cherishes. Written by Jessica Curry and Parker Curry, the picture book profiles a young Black girl’s trip to see a painting of First Lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.

In 2019, Pineda helped organize a reading of the book by its acclaimed illustrator Brittany Jackson, a native Detroiter. She met Hartman during the event’s planning meeting at The Commons, a cafe, laundromat and community space on the city’s east side. The two immediately clicked.

The bookstore fuels Hartman’s mission.

The owners have set up a program where customers can round up their purchases to the nearest dollar. That extra money gets funneled into a fund allowing 27th Letter Books to sell Hartman books at cost.

“The work that Alyce is doing is so critical in getting books into kids’ hands,” Pineda said. “Letting them know they deserve those things.”

Last spring, a fire destroyed Hartman’s old ride: a little bus. In the meantime, Hartman drives a van to transport books to the city’s children. This calling, Hartman believes, was bestowed by a higher power.

“This is a vision that the Lord gave me,” she said.

Hartman went to the cash register and paid for her haul. The transaction produced a receipt several feet long. She carried boxes filled with books and loaded up the van. Her next stop: a youth boxing gym.

Before driving off, Hartman took a moment to find the next two books in “The Gilded Ones” series. She wants to give them to Kai.

This story originally appeared in BridgeDetroit and Detroit PBS.

Detroit students getting limited food options due to strike at distributor

2024-01-11T18:18:30+00:00

Meal options will be limited for students in the Detroit school district for the next week or two because an employee strike against the district’s main food distributor is causing disruptions in service.

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, told district families about the disruption on Wednesday.

“All students in all schools at all grade levels will continue to be fed breakfast and lunch,” Vitti said Thursday morning during a policy conference in Detroit.

“The menu will be lighter, but we’ll continue to feed everyone,” Vitti said.

The disruption to school meals is particularly important in a district like Detroit, where a significant proportion of students come from low-income homes and rely on the breakfasts and lunches they receive at school.

US Foods is a national company that distributes food to schools, restaurants, health care facilities, and hospitality businesses such as hotels. The company has a distribution center in Wixom.

Officials from the company could not be reached for comment.

Angela Angeles’ four children, who attend Maybury Elementary and Priest Elementary in southwest Detroit, began complaining earlier in the week that their portion sizes for lunch have gotten smaller.

The district notified parents about the US Foods strike Thursday morning via text message, she said.

As a former parent outreach coordinator for DPSCD, Angeles said she had seen school cafeterias run short of certain items.

“Sometimes it’d be like, pizza and french fries (for lunch) and then some kids would just get pizza and no french fries, because they will run out of french fries, so we offer them something else,” Angeles said. “Once they run out of french fries or chicken nuggets, they substitute it with corn or stuff like that for different grades.”

Until US Foods is able to resume normal deliveries, Angeles said she will make sure her children eat breakfast before going to school and have them bring a packed lunch.

Vitti said the strike by the company’s truck drivers is “preventing the district from receiving the volume of food regularly received to feed students.” He said the district was exploring other food vendors in order to provide basic food options to students.

Vitti said the closest strike affecting Detroit schools was in Wixom and was resolved Wednesday.

“There are still some lingering supply chain issues, but we will continue to feed all children breakfast and lunch.”

Detroit isn’t the only school district affected. In Indiana, WTHR reported that some districts were experiencing delays in food deliveries.

BridgeDetroit reporter Micah Walker contributed to this report.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach Lori at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Orlando Bailey is the engagement director for BridgeDetroit. You can reach him at obailey@bridgedetroit.com

In their words: The students, teachers, and advocates we heard from in 2023

2023-12-19T21:22:56+00:00

At Chalkbeat Detroit, we take seriously our mission to inform readers about efforts to improve public education in Michigan and explain how inequities create barriers to learning.

Crucial to our work is ensuring that the voices of the people who have the most at stake — students, parents, advocates, teachers, and other school staff — are front and center.

That’s part of our regular reporting. But we also elevate these voices with special features, such as first-person essays, How I Teach features, interview Q&As, and other formats.

As we wrap up 2023, we’re looking back at some of the voices we showcased over the last 12 months. Below, you’ll see highlights of those pieces.

And as always, if you have a story you’d like to share, or know of a voice that deserves to be heard, please reach out to us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Confronting racial violence with tenderness

I am required to teach Abraham Lincoln and how he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but not about the felony disenfranchisement that keeps many of my students’ families from experiencing true freedom.
N’Kengé Robertson

Detroit teacher N’Kengé Robertson tackled issues of racial violence and identity in this first-person piece. She explains that learning materials often leave out “critical conversations of race, gender, religion, language, and sexuality,” and fail to capture the lived experiences of students they’re supposed to reach. To address that, she said, she worked with her high school students to “improve the situation by compiling new resources, reshaping our lessons, and moving away from Eurocentric narratives in our classroom.”

Detroit students shed light on the need for self-love, inner peace

The pandemic has done a number on me. I don’t and can’t go anywhere, can’t sleep some nights, always see the negative before the positive, and I doubt almost everything and everyone around me.
TaMyra Smith

Detroit teen TaMyra Smith wrote about mental health and depression as part of Local Circles, a nonprofit that works with youth to research issues that are important to them.

In February, we published excerpts of student-written pieces about mental health that shed light on some of the post-pandemic struggles students are facing. The writing was part of a project of an organization called Local Circles. The participants included one student who said she struggled with depression, and another who urged students to seek help when they need it. For the most part, they agreed that self-love and inner peace are important for their healing. There is still widespread concern about the mental health challenges of students who are grappling with the after-effects of the pandemic. Adults trying to address this must listen to what young people are saying they need.

A Detroit man’s passion for getting kids to school every day

It was heartbreaking to me to see these children squandering an opportunity that later in life they’ll have to pay to get.
Larry Simmons

Chronic absenteeism has been a major storyline for Chalkbeat Detroit for more than a year. We’ve given readers a close-up view of one Detroit school’s efforts to get students to school regularly, the role community agencies have played, and barriers to improving attendance, such as spotty transportation and a state policy that punishes the parents of chronically absent students. In this interview Q&A, retired pastor Larry Simmons talked about what drove his years-long effort to help get kids in school regularly, and what it felt like to see children walking around his neighborhood when they should have been in school.

Looking at the world through a similar lens at Michigan camp

Detroit teen Torrance Johnson wrote a first-person essay about attending a Michigan camp for children with muscular dystrophy.

I rejoice in thoughts that my lost friends are running around happy and alive in the afterlife; at the same time, my heart aches, because they are no longer by my side.
Torrance Johnson

Detroit teen Torrance Johnson wrote a first-person piece, a version of which was initially published by the Detroit Writing Room, about how a camp in Lexington, Michigan, for children with muscular dystrophy changed his life. Going to this camp each year gave him an opportunity to be around other children like him who have muscular dystrophy. He wrote of the joys that brought, but also the sadness of losing friends.

Adults failed her when she was a kid. Now she is a watchdog for children.

No adults ever took the time to ask what was behind my surface-level behavioral issues … despite best practices and what research tells us about kids who “act up.”
Hannah Dellinger

Chalkbeat Detroit reporter Hannah Dellinger wrote a first-person essay about overcoming childhood trauma.

Chalkbeat Detroit reporter Hannah Dellinger, who joined our team in June, wrote an intensely personal essay about her experiences overcoming trauma. The sexual abuse she suffered as a young child led to behavior problems in school — signs of the trauma that adults ignored. Hannah’s piece illustrates not only the importance of having school staff trained to meet the needs of students struggling with trauma, but also how important it is for adults to be able to act on telltale signs that a student isn’t just acting out, but perhaps exhibiting the effects of trauma.

This Detroit teacher’s mission: Bring back school libraries

I really need to impress and stress how important going to school is and the work that students do there, not only because they’re young and they’re learning, but also because it has long-term ramifications for their life. The absence of libraries is an atrocity.
Josie Silver

Josie Silver teaches early elementary grades in the Detroit school district, and one thing she’s passionate about is equipping her children with books that will fuel their love of learning. Chalkbeat highlighted Silver as part of its regular How I Teach column, in part because the educator had been named a Michigan Collaborative Teacher Leader. Silver talked about the need for school libraries, and the challenges she has faced teaching students who are still struggling to rebound academically from the pandemic.

Detroit student who fought for ‘right to literacy’ is still in the fight

We obligate children to go to schools, but we don’t obligate schools to teach.
Jamarria Hall

Jamarria Hall was the lead plaintiff in the historic lawsuit that claimed state officials had deprived Detroit students of a right to literacy.

Jamarria Hall was the face of the historic 2016 “right to read” lawsuit that argued state officials failed to provide a basic reading education when they oversaw the Detroit school district between 2009 and 2016 under emergency management. Hall was a high school student when that lawsuit was filed, and became the lead plaintiff. Now 23, he told Chalkbeat in this interview that he sees the $94 million the state allocated this year to the district — part of a 2021 settlement of the case — as a way for young people to have a say in their future.

Michigan’s History Teacher of the Year helps educators combat racist myths

The world is such a fascinating place. Each student has passion and curiosity inside them, and I am so honored whenever I can play a small part in igniting these things.
Matt Vriesman

Teacher Matt Vriesman was named Michigan History Teacher of the Year.

In 2020, as the nation was undergoing a racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd, an administrator asked social studies teacher Matt Vriesman to share resources with other teachers. Vriesman had already adapted his own classroom lessons after realizing that state standards don’t always provide an accurate view of race, slavery, and injustice. That request turned into something bigger than his East Kentwood High School building. Vriesman, whom Chalkbeat featured in a How I Teach piece after he was named Michigan History Teacher of the Year, created a website that provides antiracism resources for Advanced Placement teachers across the nation. This work is important to Vriesman, who teaches at one of the most diverse schools in the state. “We are always looking for new ways to bring in the knowledge and experience of our students into the classroom,” he said. “It makes world history so much more ‘real’ for students.”

Michigan’s top teacher wants more focus on mental health, learning recovery

Many children are dealing with mental health issues themselves or dealing with the mental health issue of a parent or caregiver. In Michigan, we need to put as much time, resources, and funding into meeting the students’ mental needs as we do their physical and educational needs.
Candice Jackson

Detroit educator Candice Jackson was named Michigan Teacher of the Year.

Soon after being named Michigan’s Teacher of the Year, Candice Jackson used her new platform to push for schools to address the academic and mental health needs that have lingered as schools attempt to help students recover from the pandemic. Williams, the first Detroit district teacher to be recognized as the state’s top teacher since the 2006-07 school year, told Chalkbeat that students need counseling services and social-emotional learning programs to get back on track. That will pay off academically, she said, because stronger mental health “enhances academic performance, supports overall well-being, enables early interventions, and has short-term and long-term positive outcomes for students.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

How Detroit community groups are helping schools chip away at chronic absenteeism

2023-11-29T00:44:26+00:00

Sixth grader Ke’Von Thomas and a group of classmates at Detroit’s Durfee Elementary-Middle School sat around a cafeteria table one day last month, running through a list of 10 back-to-school tips and vying to see who had completed the most.

“Early to bed, early to rise,” was the first tip. Others included “establish a routine,” “organize your backpack,” and “limit screen time.”

Ke’Von, 11, said he had accomplished three tips since the school year started, and surveyed the others. “I did No. 1. You did No. 2,” he told one of the other boys. “Who else did No. 2?”

Across from him, seventh grader Miguel Perkins said he had followed five of the tips.

The list and the exercise came from The Konnection, a community group that’s working with Detroit schools to help motivate students to show up for school and “move the needle” on chronic absenteeism. Founder Sharnese Marshall uses the lesson early in the school year to reinforce positive attendance and academic habits with 20 middle school students who participate in a biweekly after-school program at Durfee.

In a city with sky-high rates of chronic absenteeism — meaning students who miss 18 school days a year or more — community groups like The Konnection have taken on some of the work of trying to improve student attendance. Churches, after-school programs, health centers, and other groups have provided services such as driving students to and from school, conducting home visits and phone calls, and building connections with families.

These groups don’t necessarily have the resources to attack what experts agree is the root cause of chronic absenteeism: Detroit’s widespread poverty, whose ripple effects include health problems, housing instability, and job barriers. So it’s hard to determine what impact they’re having on the broader problem.

Nonetheless, they have become an essential complement to the efforts by school officials and education advocates to improve attendance. With initiatives targeted at specific schools, neighborhoods, or family needs, they’re chipping away at a problem that has long undermined efforts to improve student achievement. And school leaders and district officials are embracing some of their efforts and strategies as part of their approach to reducing chronic absenteeism citywide.

Sarah Lenhoff, a Wayne State University education professor whose research includes studies of student attendance, says there’s room for still more community groups and local agencies to get involved at the root-cause level.

“Poverty alleviation, employment, job training, housing stability — these are major factors in whether kids can get to school,” Lenhoff said. “Outside organizations that are working on those issues, even if it’s not connected to the school system, could also make a difference.”

Ke’Von Thomas, 11, center, raises his hand during a wrap-up session during Konnection Klub at Detroit's Durfee Elementary-Middle School on Oct. 19.

DPSCD attendance plan evolves

Community groups have been working with Detroit school communities on absenteeism for more than a decade. But the Detroit Public Schools Community District formalized and standardized their role in attendance interventions beginning in 2018-19, a couple of years after the district emerged from state control.

Related: Detroit community groups have a long record of attendance work

That year, DPSCD outlined a plan that called for a holistic approach to improving attendance through wraparound services for students, hiring attendance agents, and partnerships with community organizations. The plan fell in line with growing consensus among advocates and national experts that districts should collaborate with local partners to support school-based attendance interventions.

Partly as a result of that plan, DPSCD reduced its chronic absenteeism rate to 62% at the end of 2018-19, from 70% the previous year.

The pandemic not only erased that progress, but raised the urgency of improving attendance: If students didn’t show up for class, they would struggle to recover what they lost academically during a year or more of online schooling.

And the effects of excessive absenteeism linger for years, research shows. Students who miss a lot of school are likely to struggle to stay on top of classwork, perform worse on standardized tests, and are more likely to drop out. Chronically absent students are also likely to miss out on high-dosage tutoring and other interventions school systems have prioritized in recent years to counter learning loss.

A 2022 study by the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research found that the district’s 2018-19 attendance plan, while showing early success, “only partially addressed chronic absenteeism as an ecological issue, implicitly downplaying structural and material barriers that families faced.”

It’s those systemic issues, Lenhoff said, that require better coordination between the district and city agencies and social services organizations, such as welfare and employment programs, and housing organizations.

She points to FosterEd Arizona, a child welfare program that coordinated with schools to improve attendance among foster youth, as well as a multiyear attendance effort in New York City that collaborated with city social service agencies. In both cases, school attendance data guided the implementation of interventions.

“There’s potential to really make a difference if we got more groups involved in the community development space who are working on housing, poverty, and unemployment, to be thinking about how might we track the attendance of the families that we’re working with and demonstrate that work like this could be beneficial,” Lenhoff said.

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said that because of federal education privacy laws, the district has to work within some limits on how much information it can share with outside social service groups. It does share attendance data with some community groups that provide programming for students, such as City Year and Communities in Schools, he said.

But that’s not possible for all groups without getting permission from individual families or through clearance. It is unclear how the Arizona and New York programs have been able to share attendance data with social service agencies.

“We could envision our district portal system providing access to partners so they can respond to negative attendance trends,” Vitti said. “However, this would take signoff from families and significant upgrades to the system we are building now. This would be impossible without a robust technology system. You cannot rely on spreadsheets to make this work.”

Middle school students make bracelets after completing their homework during Konnection Klub at Detroit's Durfee Elementary-Middle School.

Since the start of the pandemic, DPSCD officials have rapidly expanded their wraparound services for some of the most marginalized families, embracing the kinds of projects that community groups have been tackling in specific communities.

With the help of $4.5 million in philanthropic donations, DPSCD is launching 12 school-based health hubs across the city over the next several years to address the lack of student access to health care, a major barrier to consistent attendance.

At the health hubs, students, families, and community members can get physical, mental, and dental health services through current partnerships with Henry Ford Health and Ascension. They also have access to food pantry items and legal support.

One of the first few health hubs opening this year is at Durfee and Central High School, which share a building in the city’s Dexter-Linwood neighborhood. At the sites that are already open, families have been making health appointments and picking up health essentials like toilet paper, soap, and toothbrushes.

“We believe in whole child commitment,” Alycia Meriweather, DPSCD deputy superintendent of external partnerships and innovation, said at a recent community meeting on the new initiative.

The Konnection responds to lack of basic supplies

Durfee and Central have among the highest absenteeism rates within DPSCD: 82% at Durfee last year, and 91% at Central. It’s why Marshall and The Konnection began working there as far back as 2020.

Some students told Marshall they were not showing up to school because they didn’t have personal hygiene products or clean clothes. Others said school is boring, or they’re behind on work and don’t have the support to catch up.

On top of those challenges, in-school factors such as student-teacher relationships, bullying and safety concerns also create barriers to attendance.

Marshall responded to those needs by throwing quarterly attendance celebrations at Durfee, and setting up a school-based resource closet at Central, stocked with supplies students need to feel comfortable coming to school.

In the past year, the program’s closet served 275 high school students.

“Bullying is a real thing,” Marshall said. “Kids are bullied every single day because they don’t have the nicest clothes, or because they don’t smell the freshest.”

Enrichment programs help students stay motivated

They also launched the after-school Konnection Klub at Durfee, with enrichment programs that make coming to school more engaging. Several studies find that student participation in out-of-school programs can improve regular school attendance, encouraging students to show up to class.

This year, The Konnection is collaborating with local entrepreneurs and colleges to help students explore career opportunities in culinary arts, podcasting, fashion design, and transit services. Students in the after-school program also receive mentoring from community volunteers, practice social-emotional learning activities, and attend field trips to city sports and holiday events.

Mikaela Pugh, left, and The Konnection founder and CEO Sharnese Marshall work through a budget activity put on by Laurie Rivetto of Michigan State University Extension at Durfee.

“Schools may be supporting (students) academically,” Marshall said, “but enrichment programs can help you mentally and emotionally. They can help you in other ways that other partners can’t.”

Marshall worked with Durfee’s attendance agent and teachers to select participants who could most benefit from the program’s offering. They sought a mix of students who are chronically absent and those who are not.

“We want the students who are not there to feel supported by the leaders of the school who are showing up and who do understand the assignments,” she said. “We try to find a couple in each grade who are great students and do have support at home so that they’re able to pull the other kids up.”

Ke’Von (pronounced “kay-vaughn”), one of the students with strong grades and near-perfect attendance, had been eager to join the program since last year, when he was in fifth grade.

Leona Wright, an eighth grader at Durfee, was one of the students who needed the added support. She has routinely missed school on Mondays and Fridays this year, days her mother, Shavonne Jones, has to work late.

Jones works as a cook in a nursing home in Bloomfield Hills, about a 30-minute drive from Durfee. She says that between her and her fiancé's work schedules, it has been difficult to consistently get Leona to school on days they are both working.

“On Mondays, I have to be at work at 6 in the morning,” she said. “Then on Fridays, I go to work at 10:30, so I can take her to school but I won’t be able to pick her back up from school.”

Jones added: “There’s just a lot of difficulties with that. My job is understanding sometimes, but most jobs don’t want you to leave like that during the day.”

The family lives outside of the school’s boundary for yellow bus transportation as well, and Jones isn’t comfortable with her daughter riding the city bus.

One week in November, Leona was sick with the flu, prompting Jones to stay home from work to take care of her.

Marshall has sought out different solutions to some students’ transportation barriers, offering families Uber gift cards, asking volunteers to offer rides, or directing families to resources already available via the district, such as free bus passes.

Running the after-school program until 5:30, she added, provides some flexibility to families who can’t make the regular afternoon pickup time.

Eight grader Leona Wright, 13, works on a computer program during Konnection Klub at Durfee.

“It definitely helps the parents who are working, because a lot of times the kids are going home by themselves or they’re just hanging out in school,” Marshall said.

Leona says she’d rather be at school than at home. Prior to this year, she was homeschooled for four years and missed connecting with other students in person. Back at Durfee, she’s excited about trying out for the school’s cheer team and studying math, science, and social studies.

And she was eager to join The Konnection. “I wanted to make friends and experience my life and go on field trips,” she said.

The Konnection hopes to extend its reach

With a small team, Marshall has leaned on the support of roughly 150 volunteers in the past year to operate the resource closet, mentor students, and host attendance celebrations. She’s hoping The Konnection’s efforts can make more of a difference at Durfee. Last year’s chronic absenteeism rate was down 12 percentage points from the previous year, mirroring a decline across the district as quarantine restrictions eased.

“It’s still very high, but we’re making strides to be able to get that down,” she said.

She wants to see the program reengage younger students who may already feel disenchanted with school, or who might have lacked access to the resources, instruction, and extracurriculars the program provides.

In addition to attendance rates, The Konnection also tracks grade improvements, personal confidence, and “students’ desire to want to come to school.”

In a survey at the end of 2022-23, she added, 95% of club participants said they felt more motivated to attend school after being in the program.

This year, Marshall’s team is looking to reach at least 1,000 students across all its programs. They’re in the process of setting up a second resource closet at Durfee, and strengthening their relationships with community members outside the school.

The ultimate goal is still the same, she said: that “100% of our students will be on track in terms of attendance.”

“We’re trying to just bridge the gap where we can,” she said. “Until the policies are changed in order to ensure that our kids and our families are really taken care of and they’re not left out, the same issues will continue to perpetuate.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

How chronic absenteeism became part of this Detroit pastor’s mission

2023-09-22T19:17:32+00:00

Larry Simmons was troubled by what he saw outside the Detroit church where he was a pastor: School-age children were strolling the streets of the city’s Brightmoor neighborhood at times when they should have been in school.

That was over a decade ago, and it opened Simmons’ eyes to a problem that was already massive in Detroit: the epidemic of student absenteeism. In the 2012-13 school year, 68% of students in the Detroit school district were flagged as chronically absent, which at the time meant that they missed 10 or more days in a year.

The sight of youth skipping school was “heartbreaking” for the longtime pastor and community advocate, who saw the pattern of absences as a barrier to greater social and economic mobility for Black Detroiters.

Simmons had already been a familiar figure in Brightmoor and Detroit, having served as a political director for Detroit’s first Black mayor, Coleman A. Young, and a pastor of Baber Memorial A.M.E. Church.

But in the next decade, Simmons made encouraging school attendance one of his biggest priorities. He became a founding member of Every School Day Counts Detroit, a coalition of community organizations and schools across the city focused on chronic absenteeism. His work has allowed him to become heavily involved in the attendance efforts at Gompers Elementary-Middle School and other schools in the Brightmoor and Cody Rouge areas.

Larry Simmons has long been a familiar figure in Brightmoor and Detroit as a pastor and former political director for the city’s first Black mayor, Coleman A. Young.

He retired from Baber last fall but still leads Brightmoor Alliance, a nonprofit that focuses on revitalization efforts in the neighborhood.

Years after the initial encounter outside his church, student absenteeism remains at crisis levels, and not just in Detroit. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, chronic absenteeism — which is now nationally defined as missing 10% of school days or more — has skyrocketed in numerous states, with high-poverty school districts seeing higher rates.

In 2021-22, Michigan had one of the highest absenteeism rates in the nation: nearly 39%, compared with 19% in 2018-19, the last full school year before the pandemic struck.

The pandemic also derailed the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s progress in reducing absenteeism. After easing to 54% in 2019-20, chronic absenteeism rocketed to 77% in 2021-22. The rate was down to 68% last year, as the district stepped up its attendance efforts, but that still means more than two-thirds of DPSCD students missed 18 or more days of school.

“The schools alone cannot solve chronic absence,” Simmons said in an interview with Chalkbeat.

“It is measured in school. It is counted in school,” he said, but “it does not start and will not be solved alone in school.”

Simmons talked about the challenges and successes of his early grassroots efforts to address chronic absenteeism, the systemic issues that impede student attendance, and where he wants more help to solve the issue.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When did you first recognize student absenteeism as a problem in Detroit?

I didn’t become aware of attendance really as a challenge until I was a pastor at Baber, and we would see kids during the day who’d be out of school. They would just be walking around in the neighborhood. And I remember at community meetings, folks would talk about “Why are there kids all out on the street like this?” That’s what led us to pay attention to school attendance.

We eventually learned about chronic absenteeism through our research with (Detroit education advocacy group) 482Forward. We learned about this from Hedy Chang at Attendance Works and Robert Balfanz from Johns Hopkins University.

And we began to organize around this. And ultimately, Every School Days Counts emerged as a coalition out of that work with 482Forward. This would have been like 2012. And over the course of this time, we got a partnership with Wayne State University and we just began learning. We tried different things.

What was it about seeing kids skipping school that made you want to do something?

It was heartbreaking to me to see these children squandering an opportunity that later in life they’ll have to pay to get. I’ve basically spent my life working for the proper treatment of African Americans, and while it is absolutely essential that we get others to recognize our intrinsic value, it’s also true that we’ve got to do our part.

Why are young people standing in front of my church two blocks away in the middle of the afternoon? They’re passing up one of the biggest free investments available to help them achieve the life that I know they want for themselves. I know they want it, because when I talk to these young people, they have all these high aspirations. They want to live in these great houses, drive these great cars.

Well, if they happen to be 7 feet tall, and can play, and don’t get hurt, maybe they don’t need to go to school. If they can run as fast as Deion Sanders, maybe they don’t. But the truth of the matter is this landscape is littered with great talented people who didn’t get the training to manage their gifts.

The entrance to Baber Memorial A.M.E. Church in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood. Larry Simmons recalls standing outside the church and seeing school-age children walking around the neighborhood when they should have been in school.

From there, how did you get involved in grassroots efforts around chronic absenteeism? What were some of the early strategies you employed to address student absence?

We mounted this campaign called “‘Present’ in Brightmoor: Our School Attendance Movement” and began to organize around getting parents and churches engaged in this work. And we formed what we call the “Principal’s Table,” made up of principals of all the schools that were in Brightmoor at the time and in Cody Rouge.

When we first got started, we had about seven or eight churches that organized with us. And so we said, we’re going to each adopt a school. And we’re going to take the kids who are absent that the principals tell us about and we’re going to pick them up from home, and we’re going to take them to school, and pick them up and take them home in the afternoon.

We blew out two church buses and my car transmission carrying kids back and forth from school every day. So we realized it was just an unsustainable model. First of all, how many kids are going to fit in your car?

Then when we started to get the numbers back and realized just how many students were absent, it was clear between our burnt-out vans and my burnt-out transmission that we were not going to get anywhere.

So how did things evolve after that point?

Well one of the first things we realized is the data the Detroit Public Schools was passing out didn’t make sense. Back in those days, the statistic being used was average daily attendance.

“All of us were stunned when we first learned that just missing two days a month can make a child chronically absent.” — Larry Simmons

Average daily attendance tells me out of a group of students on any given day, what percentage of them are going to be present in the classroom or in the school. The problem with that is, different students may make up that percentage at any given time. So what you get is this patchwork of attendance. So in seeking to get accurate data, we got online and discovered Attendance Works.

We brought in Hedy Chang to Detroit for a conference of students, parents, and teachers. And over the course of about three weeks is when we learned about chronic absence.

All of us were stunned when we first learned that just missing two days a month can make a child chronically absent, and being chronically absent can lead to them not graduating on time, be more likely to get in trouble, and get excluded from school.

It changed our language and changed our way of thinking. And it turned out that nationally, the U.S. Department of Education had just issued a report on the problem of chronic absenteeism. And so we began to advocate and agitate to have this statistic used in Detroit and Michigan.

We evolved our strategies to try and focus on schools and messaging about chronic absence. We discovered that people didn’t even know what chronic absence was, and some would change their attendance behavior by learning that two times a month would be too often.

When the community first got started promoting this idea, the school system resisted. They didn’t like it, because the chronic absenteeism numbers were so appalling, they just wanted to count average daily attendance, and many of them still do.

It took probably about four or five years for us to win that fight, but ultimately, the state and the city began to use chronic absence as a statistic to evaluate student attendance.

What were some of the lessons you took away from that campaign?

We learned over time that this problem was way bigger than just having people pay attention to the statistics. People may not have known what chronic absence was, but they did know their children are supposed to be in school. There are other things that are operating in the ecosystem.

And we clearly understand that we have to have an all-hands-on-deck approach to solving this problem. The schools alone cannot solve chronic absence.

How do you feel about the recent rise in absenteeism rates?

The disappointing thing is before COVID, all of our work together had started bringing chronic absence rates down. Not transformatively, but significantly, and they were real drops. Not just blips.

COVID has blown all of that work up. We’re actually starting below where we started before. We’re worse off now than we were before. It’s not like we’re back to zero. We’re minus five.

How do you contrast the role of the school versus the role of community partners in addressing chronic absenteeism?

Schools have to be willing to acknowledge that the solution to this problem is beyond their scope of control, and therefore they need other partners to come to the table and bring resources and policy.

I would contend that a school-based challenge is to create the kind of school culture that makes school attractive. Part of our work at Every School Day Counts Detroit is to encourage schools to engage in these kinds of experiences. We had a big event with the Detroit Pistons this past school year where they brought Cade Cunningham and the other athletes to Gompers (Elementary-Middle School). Everybody got a new coat, everybody got a basketball, everybody got a backpack with the Detroit Pistons swag in it.

It creates a connectedness and creates a sense of belonging, and it creates an inviting atmosphere. It doesn’t substitute for rigorous academics, but it does help students want to put up with rigorous academics, because of all the other goodies, benefits, and joys of being present in school.

What sort of discussions or partnerships would you like to see with other organizations in the city?

We have a great partnership with the Detroit Pistons, who have devoted enormous resources and help to address this problem at several schools. DTE Energy also has been a great partner of late. They don’t have anything to do directly with education, but we certainly want somebody like that to be at the table.

We would want labor unions. We would want teachers. We would want the (United Auto Workers). We would want the companies that employ them at the table.

You often hear parents complain that their work schedules don’t permit them to be as attentive to their children’s attendance as they want to be. Changing work schedules or creating flexible work hours is beyond what the school can effect. But maybe the community could effect it.

Maybe labor unions could be brought to the table to say, ‘While you’re negotiating for everything, we need you to ask the companies, be they auto or other, how can we give parents more flexibility in their work schedules? And how can the school create more flexibility in its schedule so students can in fact get to school on time?’ I think it will take both.

We’ve got to come up with some serious structural, systemic solutions that really face the problem that we are confronting. It’s got to take all of us working together to do this — private sector, public sector, philanthropic, clergy sector. It is our responsibility and power to address some of the issues and challenges that cause chronic absence.

What role do you think the city of Detroit can and should play in addressing chronic absenteeism?

We’ve analytically gotten to a place where we really understand chronic absence in Detroit far, far better than we did. It comes from a lot of external drivers that result in children being chronically absent, and the clearest one is poverty.

“One of the things the city could do is to actually plan bus routes around school opening and closing. That’s completely within the city’s scope of power to be able to do now.” — Larry Simmons

Poverty creates certain life conditions. People who are very poor have less stable access to reliable transportation. They have less stable networks to compensate for things like sudden illness or any of the little disruptions that happen in everybody’s life every day when you don’t have as much as folks in higher income categories.

In the case of Detroit, most of its citizens are low-income. So the city should take that into account and either implement or advocate for policies that can address that poverty.

One of the things the city could do is to actually plan bus routes around school opening and closing. That’s completely within the city’s scope of power to be able to do now. That will cause some dislocation, it will cause some struggle, but there’s no solution we’re going to find that doesn’t do that.

Larry Simmons said his organization’s efforts made meaningful progress in reducing chronic absenteeism in Detroit, but “COVID has blown all of that work up.”

You’ve worn many hats over the years: from being a pastor over the past two decades to working under Mayor Coleman Young as a political director. How do you see all those roles intersecting into the work you do now?

We’re always talking about the same people. The person who comes to my church is the same person whose child should be in school down the street, is the same person who should go to vote for the leadership of our country.

We’re just pretending like we can deal with them separately, like I can abstract you as an object of education, and pretend that’s not connected to your spiritual life, your emotional well being, your political sense, or your economic aspirations. All these things are integrated, they’re interrelated, and so my focus most of my life has been on policy change, the policies that affect our community.

But as I grew older, I understood I couldn’t just talk about the policies that other people make. I’ve got to talk about the policies that we create inside our own houses. If my child gets up and tells me she’s not feeling good, the policy in our house may be that she doesn’t have to go to school. That’s a policy. It doesn’t affect anybody outside the four walls of our house, but nonetheless, it’s a policy.

What keeps you going in this movement?

Even though I now understand that the fight is more complex than I recognized when I first saw this, it’s still just as important.

And unfortunately, as a community, understanding where we are and what it is going to take to get to where we want to be is something we still don’t fully grasp. … We have to break that. And one of the essential ways to break it is to acquire the skill sets to compete in the 21st century economy. And you can get that for free down the street until you’re 18. After that, you have to pay.

So it’s just this fire in my belly that I have for the freedom of my people.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit schools are struggling with enrollment. Here’s what they’re doing about it.

2023-09-21T17:05:41+00:00

As students returned to the classroom this fall, early data from Detroit’s public schools showed another enrollment decline — a consistent trend for the last three years.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said this month that about 51,600 K-12 students were enrolled in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, a decline from about 52,300 enrolled at the same time last year, and roughly 53,000 at the start of 2021-22.

The exodus of students during and since the pandemic underscores the need for the district’s continued focus on strategies to boost enrollment such as marketing campaigns, back-to-school fairs, and neighborhood canvassing.

Detroit’s charter schools are also working to recruit new students after seeing their enrollment decline. Grand Valley State University, which authorizes over 25 charter schools in Detroit, including networks such as University Prep and Covenant Schools, has reported a drop of roughly 800 students in its city charters since the pandemic began, according to a university spokesperson. That’s nearly a quarter of their enrollment: In the 2018-19 school year, the university’s charters had about 31,000 students.

District’s enrollment strategies are a mix of old and new

During a summer school board meeting, Vitti laid out district efforts to increase enrollment. During the height of COVID-19, DPSCD lost 3,000 students. But with federal relief aid, the district expanded outreach, home visits, and door-to-door canvassing strategies using staff and parent volunteers. Those efforts resulted in a gain of 1,000 students.

Vitti said the primary strategy DPSCD is implementing is its new pre-kindergarten expansion, which will add 17 pre-K classrooms at 12 schools across the city this school year, including Barton Elementary, Garvey Academy, and Nolan Elementary-Middle School. While the district does not offer transportation for pre-K, families can arrange to have their children ride the bus with an older sibling who is eligible for transportation, Vitti said.

During a June board meeting, the superintendent said the district will annually monitor its preschool expansion “over the next three to four years” to determine whether actual enrollment numbers match projections, and whether it sees high reenrollment rates from pre-K to kindergarten. DPSCD’s K-12 enrollment is projected to remain constant next year, according to Vitti, with a potential bump of 335 pre-kindergarten students.

Vitti told BridgeDetroit this month that the district is already seeing growing demand for pre-K classrooms.

“As they move into kindergarten, most DPSCD pre-K families choose to continue their education in the district,” he said. “We’ve also seen that students who participate in our pre-K programs perform better academically. This year, students who were enrolled in our pre-K classes scored higher on math and reading tests in kindergarten than those who did not participate in our pre-K programs. By expanding our pre-K programs, we can engage more families early, find them a home in the district, and help them to build foundational academic and social-emotional skills that support them through their K-12 journey.”

Other methods include continuing with radio, TV, and billboard marketing campaigns as well as canvassing schools with low enrollment, Vitti said.

DPSCD also hosted Back-to-School Expos at dozens of schools, with most offering enrollment opportunities, school tours, food, and games.

Wanda Walker was among the caregivers who attended an expo at Marion Law Academy last month, a K-8 school on Detroit’s east side.

Walker’s 4-year-old great-grandson Noah Walker is a kindergartner at the school, while her 12-year-old granddaughter Autumn Walker recently started seventh grade.

While her grandchildren could have gone to a charter school or a school outside the city, Walker said having Marion Law located across the street from her house makes it convenient.

Detroit’s roughly 100,000 public-school students are widely dispersed across a mix of charters, traditional neighborhood schools, and application schools, with nearly 50% of children attending charter schools. Students from the city are also attending neighboring school districts through Schools of Choice of programs.

Walker said she’s active in the school community as a member of the parent-teacher association and has gotten to know the teachers and families at the school.

“Being a part of the community, I feel like I’m giving back,” said Walker, who is the primary caregiver for her grandchildren.

Major cities nationwide see decline in school enrollment

As of the end of 2022-23, DPSCD had a little more than 48,000 students — down from 51,000 before the pandemic.

Cities across the country, including New York, Chicago, and Denver, have lost enrollment in their public schools, too. This decline may well continue and even accelerate in coming years because of demographic trends, Chalkbeat has reported.

Between the middle of 2020 and 2021, large urban areas experienced a 3.7% decline in the number of children under age 5 and a 1.1% dip in the number of children 5 to 17 years old, according to a 2022 report from the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan public policy organization.

Each year, DPSCD officials share enrollment and attendance data from the first couple weeks of the new school year. These numbers provide an early gauge of enrollment patterns ahead of Michigan’s two official Count Days, in October and February, when the number of students attending school is tallied for the purposes of allocating state funding.

Enrollment numbers can fluctuate over the course of the year as families move into and out of the city, or send their children to different schools, even after initially enrolling in DPSCD. The district’s K-12 enrollment of about 48,000 at the end of last year was about 4,000 below the figure of the start of the year.

Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau found Detroit lost roughly 8,000 residents from 2021 to 2022 — a figure Mayor Mike Duggan has publicly contested, suggesting the city’s population has been undercounted.

The city’s population decline and decrease in school enrollment affected DPSCD’s budget for this school year, which saw more than 300 job cuts for central office positions and support staff including deans, assistant principals, college transition advisers, school culture facilitators, and kindergarten paraeducators. However, most people in those support staff jobs were able to transfer to a different position in the district.

Vitti said budget cuts were necessary due to many challenges the district is facing in addition to enrollment, such as the end of federal COVID relief funding, increases in employee salaries, health care costs, and inflation.

Canvassers worked through the summer

DPSCD is also targeting schools with low enrollment, such as Carstens Academy of Aquatic Science, Nolan Elementary-Middle School, Mark Twain School for Scholars, and Detroit International Academy for Young Women. The district’s Office of Family and Community Engagement has been leading the canvassing efforts. FACE Assistant Superintendent Sharlonda Buckman said canvassing was a key strategy during the pandemic and one that the department continues to use.

“For us, it’s about maintaining relationships with our families over the summer, giving new families an opportunity to court us, and take a look at all the programs and services that we have to offer and know about the schools in their neighborhoods,” she said.

FACE mainly does canvassing through its annual Summer on the Block series, which has been happening for the last six years, Buckman said. Trained canvassers — DPSCD parents, alumni, partners and neighborhood leaders — host community events at schools to connect students and their families to information throughout the summer and school year. The canvassers go door to door within a 5-mile radius of the host school and are paid $25 an hour over the summer, Buckman said.

FACE also invites agencies to its events to assist families with non-school-related topics such as job opportunities, household resources, and tax information.

This summer, FACE hosted 10 Summer on the Block events and had around 20 canvassers. The department also organized the district’s Kindergarten Boot Camp from June to August. The four-week camps prepare children and parents for kindergarten.

By the end of summer, the district enrolled 5,000 new students, which was 500 more new students than DPSCD had enrolled at the same time last year, Vitti said.

But FACE isn’t all about recruiting new students, Buckman said.

“It’s also about retention,” she said. “It’s about helping our families that we have over the summer with resources. There are a number of families already in that school that we also want to engage with over that summer period.”

Incentivizing staff members to recruit potential families could be a strategy to increase DPSCD enrollment, Vitti said during a July board meeting. Incentives could include bonuses for principals, assistant principals, and teachers if select schools meet a certain percentage of new students, or individual staff members could receive a bonus for recruiting a parent or a student to the district.

“In years past, we have considered different incentives for staff to reach out to families and try to increase enrollment, so that’s something that would have to be bargained,” he said during the meeting, referring to agreements with labor groups. “The best way to increase enrollment is at the school level and so, I think incentivizing at the school level would help in that area.”

However, the incentive plans won’t happen anytime soon, Vitti told BridgeDetroit in an email. He said he doesn’t see it being implemented this school year — at least not for the fall.

Detroit charters find barbecues, word of mouth effective

BridgeDetroit and Chalkbeat Detroit contacted several charter schools in the city, but only one, Detroit Innovation Academy, responded to questions about enrollment.

Principal Marina Hanna said 356 students are enrolled for this school year. That’s a little lower than the 375 students the K-8 school had before the pandemic, but Hanna said the school is enrolling new students daily.

“After COVID, we’ve maintained steady at around 350, and that’s typically because a lot of families now are choosing virtual options,” she said.

The small, West Side school is recruiting new students by hosting events, such as a recent back-to-school barbecue. Hanna said the event gave her a chance to invite academy partners and community members out to tour the school and meet the staff.

Detroit Innovation also attends community events such as the family fun day hosted by the Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance. The school also is working on expanding its social media presence.

But the most effective strategy Hanna has seen has been simple word of mouth.

“Word of mouth is honestly huge for us,” she said. “We’ve built a strong reputation in our community and with our families, so they often refer their friends and their neighbors to join our DIA family.”

Chalkbeat reporter Ethan Bakuli contributed to this story.

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit, where she covers arts, culture, and education. Contact Micah at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

Correction: September 25, 2023: This story has been updated to correct the number of student enrollees city charters authorized by Grand Valley State University lost since the pandemic began.

Detroit public schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti speaks on budget cuts, academic recovery

2023-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

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As federal COVID relief dollars for education begin to run out, school systems across the country are facing a jolt to their finances. But the Detroit Public Schools Community District has fared better than many in limiting the impact of the funding loss.

The district hasn’t been immune to cuts: Hundreds of positions were eliminated, the community has criticized district decisions, and parents remain concerned about the loss of some programs. But it deliberately focused most of the $1.27 billion it received from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, on one-time costs — rather than recurring budget items that can’t be sustained without federal aid.

That strategy will save the district from a so-called funding cliff that many other school leaders may soon face when the federal dollars run out in September 2024, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in an interview with Chalkbeat.

Vitti talked about what he thinks the district did right and his recommendations for other school leaders.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was the district’s strategy as you planned for the loss of the federal COVID relief money? What did you prioritize?

One thing that I’ve tried to do as superintendent is be disciplined with finances. … I always think about recurring revenue with recurring expenditures, and one-time revenue with one-time expenditures.

Boards, in particular, can be very vulnerable to spending one-time funding in a recurring way. Because of the concentrated poverty that our families face, you look at our outdated infrastructure, salaries that are not fully competitive, the wraparound services that our kids need — and all of that was magnified and exacerbated because of the pandemic.

So the normal challenges that we have as a district linked to concentrated poverty, linked to historic racism, you see that money and it’s like, “Wow, we can solve a lot of our problems,” because we’ve been talking about the need for revenue, because our kids need more than the average student.

When we paid for things that needed more people, we tried to rely on contracted services rather than increasing employment.

One focus of the dollars was let’s fill the revenue gap because of the loss of enrollment. Right when the pandemic hit and the first year we came back, we were down about 3,000 students. We’ve picked up some since.

(We kept everyone employed) that normally would have been laid off. You know, let’s not close schools, let’s not cut programming — that’s the last thing we want to do during the middle of the pandemic.

We funded things that were very specific to COVID, like masks, temperature check machines, ventilation systems, COVID testing, moving to smaller class sizes in order to have social distancing, the virtual school, nurses in every school, expanding mental health in all schools — we did all of that through contracted services, or it was one-time. There were things we did that weren’t linked to contracted services like expanding summer school.

About half of the dollars went to fund facilities, which was a clear one-time expense, one-time need, and an enormous gap in our district, which is that we have a $2 billion infrastructure problem with no revenue to solve.

There is a way to use the money to, for example, increase salaries, but you have to do it through bonuses if you’re going to be responsible. If you link it to salary increases, you’re going to hit a cliff.

Was getting kids back into classrooms in person with things like smaller class sizes, masks, hazard pay for teachers, and upgrading HVAC systems a focus to improve academic outcomes in the long run?

I think if we go back to the pandemic, the greatest sense of urgency I had was to get kids back in school, without a doubt. That literally kept me up at night and led to my own mental health issues. I did deal with mental health issues, because I didn’t feel like we were serving children the way they needed to be served. … Our children in particular needed in-person learning in order to continue to show the improvement we were definitely showing before the pandemic. I knew every day they were at home, we were getting farther behind.

2021-22 was the first year that everyone tested on M-STEP, and we really saw the impact of the pandemic that year. But in 2021-22, DPSCD showed less learning loss on average than the state of Michigan and less learning loss than city charter schools. That showed me that having this urgency of getting back in person and keeping schools open in that 2020-21 year was important (along with) fully implementing our curriculum online.

Which cuts were the most difficult to make, and which programs do you wish could continue but had to end due to the end of ESSER funding?

I never want to be the superintendent that has to reduce staff to get to a number, because I understand that there’s a human being behind it, and that human being is connected to a family. It’s never easy for me.

The next hardest decision probably came to not having summer school at the scale that we had before.

We heard from some parents and students that the loss of college transition advisers is disappointing. Do you wish the district could keep those positions?

What we said was, we have to protect direct impact on student achievement, so we definitely protected the classroom. We didn’t increase class sizes. We definitely have invested in our academic interventionists and even expanded them.

When looking at the college transition advisers, there’s no question they had an impact on children — no doubt about that — but not a direct impact on student achievement.

What we tried to do was convince college transition advisers to go into the On the Rise Academy program and become counselors, because that was something we could see expanding in future years, maybe with more (state money for at-risk students).

Did you anticipate the amount of criticism from the community you received about the cuts? Has it been difficult to communicate to the community that the end of some of the programs and resources funded by ESSER was due to the federal relief money expiring?

Detroit children have great need, and the school system in and of itself does not provide the resources that children deserve to be competitive with their peers in more affluent neighborhoods and school districts. That’s not a function of an incompetent, corrupt school board or superintendent. It’s the nature of how the schools are funded.

Although Gov. Whitmer has made strides in narrowing the gap between wealthy districts and DPSCD, the gap is still there. We not are not even equal yet. We are definitely not equitable.

People are very passionate about what we should be doing for our children. And there’s a sense of anger because our families know our children are capable.

What do you think other districts need to consider as they get to the point DPSCD reached last school year with the remainder of ESSER money being earmarked? What should they prioritize as those dollars run out?

My recommendation is to communicate often, frequently, and honestly about the advantages and disadvantages of the funding, and be upfront about how you’re spending the money.

DPSCD had less learning loss than our counterparts. And as we move into the 2023-24 school year, undoubtedly we’re narrowing the gap in performance, which means not only did we use the money effectively, we used it efficiently.

Hannah Dellinger is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 education. Contact Hannah at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit students show slight gains on Michigan’s standardized test

2023-09-01T17:56:32+00:00

Detroit students across charter and traditional public schools performed slightly better on Michigan’s standardized test this spring than a year ago, a reassuring sign for school officials eager to see academic achievement recover after the pandemic.

But local results remained well below the statewide numbers in math and reading, a gap that community advocates said highlights the need to redress historical disinvestment in Detroit education.

The results also spotlight the challenges the Detroit Public Schools Community District faces now that it has run through its federal COVID relief funding. The district received $1.27 billion in aid, and that money has helped pay for academic recovery work such as expanded tutoring, summer school, and after-school programming. Only some of those initiatives will continue when the federal aid runs out.

Results of the 2023 Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, known as M-STEP, were released Thursday.

In reading, DPSCD students made small improvements across grade levels, in most cases exceeding pre-pandemic results. In third grade, 12.4% of DPSCD students scored proficient or higher in 2022-23, compared with just 9% the previous year, and 11.9% in 2018-19. Fifth grade reading results remain below pre-pandemic levels, but improved a bit from last year.

On math tests, DPSCD students improved on last year’s results, and topped pre-pandemic results in fourth and sixth grades.

Wide as they are, the gaps in performance between DPSCD and the state appear to be narrowing, particularly among Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students, who are moving toward the statewide average faster than those demographics across the whole state.

“We are not surprised by this improvement,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. “The significant investments made in our staffing, curriculum, professional development, and school student resources over the years are reflected in these results. We have more work to do, and I want our community to know that the formula we have at DPSCD is working. Results do not lie.”

The results, however, cannot mask how much progress needs to be made to bring Detroit students in line with surrounding districts. Statewide, 43.9% of students scored proficient or higher in reading, and 35% did so in math.

Among charter schools in Detroit, results were mixed.

Detroit Edison Public School Academy saw year-to-year gains in both math and reading, but was still below 2019 results. Math results for grades 4 through 7 declined, while third grade saw an increase.

Detroit Enterprise Academy surged above its pre-pandemic results in math: The biggest gain was for seventh grade, where 32.9% of students were proficient in math, compared with 15.3% in 2019. However, reading results in many grades lagged behind pre-pandemic levels.

At Detroit Innovation Academy, fourth and seventh graders made improvements in math, with proficiency rates of 6.8% and 11.1%, respectively. Reading results for grades 3 through 6 were all below 2019 results.

Local education advocates said that despite the improvements, the 2023 results signal that more investment is needed to close gaps in Detroit and accelerate the recovery from the pandemic.

“I think we should be grateful that these scores were not lower, said Christine Bell, executive director of Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, adding that “it’s criminal that before the pandemic less than 50% of our kids were reading at grade level.”

Peri Stone-Palmquist, executive director of the Student Advocacy Center of Michigan, said Thursday’s results were a call for state legislators to pass literacy bills and “invest more deeply in equity, high quality tutoring, and special education supports.”

Education Trust-Midwest, an education research and advocacy organization, said the results pointed to “persistent opportunity gaps for our most underserved students, including Black and Latino students, students with disabilities and students from low-income backgrounds.”

There is more money coming, even with the loss of federal COVID relief aid, which districts have a year left to spend.

Michigan’s new school aid budget includes funding for early literacy and expansion of pre-K programming, and increased funding for special education students and at-risk students.

Districts can also apply for a share of a new $150 million state program to fund tutoring and other academic support initiatives. The funding is based on how many students are considered to not be proficient on statewide assessments.

Among the measures DPSCD has budgeted for is the placement of academic interventionists at select schools. Those educators will work closely with students struggling in reading and math, and are funded in part by a $20 million donation DPSCD received from billionaire MacKenzie Scott last fall. Individual schools also had the option going into this school year of using their Title I dollars to fund after-school tutoring.

The biggest boost for DPSCD will be the $94.4 million it received from the state to settle a 2016 lawsuit that claimed the state denied Detroit schoolchildren proper instruction in reading. The funds are dedicated to programs that support literacy.

Vitti has said he would like to use the money to hire more interventionists, increase literacy support for high school students, and expand teacher training on how to help students who are several grades below reading level.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit, where she covers arts, culture, and education. Contact Micah at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

Michigan schools will see big funding gains for neediest students under budget deal

2023-06-29T00:07:36+00:00

Michigan lawmakers approved a $21.5 billion K-12 budget Wednesday that includes a significant funding increase for students considered to be at risk of not meeting educational goals.

It’s the first K-12 budget since Democrats took full control of the Legislature this year, and reflects an aggressive approach to addressing significant learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among the state’s most vulnerable students.

Under the budget, districts will receive more money in the upcoming school year for economically disadvantaged students, English language learners, and students who receive special education, according to a House Fiscal Agency analysis of Senate Bill 173.

The budget also funds free school meals for all students, expands eligibility for the state’s pre-K program, and increases per pupil funding for tutoring.

In separate higher education budgets that total $2.8 billion, the state’s public universities and community colleges will receive 5% increases in operating funds.

The House and Senate voted on the budgets along party lines late Wednesday as they worked to beat a July 1 budget deadline.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer expressed satisfaction late in the afternoon, tweeting that the budget deal was “done.” After the Legislature’s vote, her office sent a press release in which State Superintendent Michael Rice said, “This is another outstanding budget, one that again works hard on funding adequacy and equity.”

Republican Sen. Thomas Albert, of Lowell, opposed the state education budget and said in a speech ahead of his no vote that both the school aid and general budget “simply spends too much money and it is not sustainable.”

But Republican Sen. Jon Bumstead, of North Muskegon, who served on the conference committee for the school budget, voted for the Democratic-led package.

He said ahead of his yes vote that “no budget is perfect,” but that the budget deal on schools reflects several Republican priorities.

“And just as Republicans did for many years in the majority, this budget makes a record investment in our schools,” he said.

Supporters say budget addresses ‘past wrongs’

More than half of Michigan students are considered economically disadvantaged. Advocates say the additional funding will help the state better support school districts and their students.

“This year’s school aid budget represents a giant step toward righting past wrongs and ensuring that all Michigan students have access to an excellent public school education,” said Alice Thompson, of the NAACP Detroit branch, who co-chairs a coalition that advocates for school funding reform.

“The unprecedented funding for students with the greatest needs, particularly those living in concentrated poverty, will be tremendously important to address the wide and unfair opportunity gaps that exist for students who are most underserved, especially Michigan’s Black and Latino students,” Thompson said.

The budget includes a 5% increase in the school “foundation allowance,” which is the base amount schools receive per student from the state. School districts will receive $9,608 for each student in the 2023-24 school year, an increase of $458.

The same increase will not be available to online schools, which will continue to receive $9,150 per student. Democrats and teachers unions have long argued that online schools require less money from the state because they don’t pay for buildings, transportation, sports, or other extracurriculars as traditional public schools do.

Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter industry group, said online students deserve equal funding.

“Students in online schools include many of the most vulnerable students in the state, many of whom are minority students, LGBTQ students, children living in poverty, and students facing medical challenges,” Quisenberry said. “It would make no sense to fund students differently. That’s not who we are as a state. While we’ve made great progress, we’re not there yet. All kids deserve equal funding, and we will continue to advocate for that principle.”

Funding for ‘at risk’ students uses new calculation

The education budget sets aside $952 million in additional payments for districts with students deemed “at risk.” That’s an increase of more than $200 million over what was set aside in this year’s budget, which provided schools with 11.5% more funding for each eligible student.

Under the new budget, schools will receive at-risk student funding using an “opportunity index” that considers a district’s concentration of poverty, based on the number of economically disadvantaged students, which could mean an index boost of up to 15.3% for some schools.

Democratic lawmakers said they hope to one day raise at-risk student funding far higher.

“As we’ve seen from study after study from those in the field and education researchers, we need to get to higher levels of reimbursement for at-risk students,” Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, told Bridge Michigan. “And so we want to put a target in this budget to have at least 35% reimbursement be a goal for us in Michigan.”

Thompson and other education advocates in the Michigan Partnership for Equity and Opportunity coalition have urged policymakers to adopt a funding structure that aligns more closely with Massachusetts, which revamped its education funding in 2019 to provide more for low-income students.

Massachusetts and Michigan have similarly large achievement gaps between low-income and more affluent students on standardized tests. But low-income students in Massachusetts scored 11 points higher in fourth grade reading last year than Michigan’s low-income students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The gap was even wider among Black students, with those in Massachusetts testing 17 points higher.

Under the new budget, school districts will receive 100% of base funding for students who receive special education, rather than 75% provided under the current budget. There is also more funding for English language learners.

“The budget finalized today represents a solid investment in schools for the upcoming year but, more importantly, represents an investment in students for years to come,” said Bob McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance, which represents more than 100 Michigan school districts. “Funding for special education, at-risk students, and universal meal programs will give more students additional opportunities to succeed both in and out of the classroom.”

Longtime community activist Helen Moore, who has championed literacy programs in Detroit schools and currently volunteers tutoring third graders at Detroit Public Schools Community District’s Barton Elementary School, said it will take more money than the Legislature is able to give in the upcoming school year to reverse years of underfunding.

“How do you make up for all the money that was taken from children who have been neglected and treated like slaves?” she asked. “There is no answer for it. There’s not enough money to do it.”

The budget includes $94.4 million for DPSCD as a result of a literacy lawsuit settled in 2020. The settlement required Whitmer to propose the funding, but she needed legislative approval for the funds to be awarded.

The budget prohibits the district from using the funding to supplant existing literacy programs and requires the school district to create a task force and spend funds in a way that aligns with the literacy settlement.

Isabel Lohman is an education reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com

Hannah Dellinger is an education reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

A guide to finding school transportation for your child in Detroit

2023-03-22T17:48:24+00:00

Getting students to school in Detroit can be tough. Transportation options are limited, and they vary depending on where your family lives and which school your child attends.

The lack of transportation resources helps explain why so many Detroit students frequently miss class and lose out on learning opportunities.

Here are answers to some of the common questions parents ask about school transportation in Detroit, and resources to help families get their students to school.

Why don’t most Detroit schools provide buses?

Part of the reason is that they don’t have to. Most students in Michigan don’t have a legal right to transportation to and from school. Only children with certain disabilities or some who are experiencing homelessness have a right to school transportation.

Buses, drivers and fuel are costly, so Detroit and other districts that have financial constraints limit the amount of busing they provide.

Citywide, around 20% of students this year get to school on a yellow bus.

What transportation options are available to Detroit families?

Walking or biking may be an option, though some families report safety concerns. Some kids living in Detroit do have access to free yellow buses (more on that below). DPSCD pays for transit passes for students who want or need to use city buses. The passes can be picked up at each school’s office. Some families rely on commercial ride share companies, such as Uber and Lyft, though students technically must be 18 to use those services.

Which options are available to my child?

The answer depends on where your child attends school.

Charter schools

Nearly half of Detroit charter schools offer some form of transportation, though options may be limited. For instance, the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences runs buses from a handful of stops across the city, but stops may not be within walking distance of each student’s home.

The Detroit Schools Guide provides a list of charters that offer some transportation, but the guide hasn’t been updated since 2020.

Before enrolling, call the school or visit its website to learn more about transportation options.

Detroit Public Schools Community District

DPSCD recommends that parents and guardians use PowerSchool, the district’s online information center, to find transportation options. Once you verify your address and contact information, you should be able to see your child’s scheduled transportation route. Parents can also call their child’s school directly, or the district’s Transportation Call Center at 313-945-8600.

DPSCD parents can access bus route information through Powerschool using the student reports tab, as this screenshot shows.

No matter where your child attends school, they are eligible for yellow bus service if it’s guaranteed through their individualized education program or the McKinney Vento Act for kids who are experiencing homelessness.

K-8 neighborhood public school: You qualify for yellow bus service if you attend your neighborhood school and live at least three-quarters of a mile from the school. Find your neighborhood school by entering your address on this district webpage.

If you move into a new neighborhood and the neighborhood school is full, DPSCD provides transportation to the next closest school.

High school: High schoolers are guaranteed a free pass to ride the city bus. They can pick up the passes at their school office. High schools in areas with limited DDOT service provide door-to-door buses or shuttles to school.
Application school: Children who go to these schools do not qualify for yellow bus service.

Schools of choice (districts outside the city)

Many of these districts do not provide transportation to Detroit students. Here are transportation policies for the handful of districts outside the city that enroll the largest numbers of Detroiters.

Oak Park Public Schools offers busing to Detroit students, though they must re-register each year. Parents should fill out a transportation request form or call 248-336-7601.
River Rouge School District operates bus routes across Detroit. See this map for bus stops. For more information or to select a stop, call 313-203-1497 or email transportation@rrsd.me.
Hazel Park Schools does not offer any transportation to general education students.
Ferndale Public Schools and Redford Union Schools do not offer transportation to students who enroll from outside the district.

Preschool

Some centers in the Great Start Readiness Program, Michigan’s state-funded preschool, are eligible for free transportation, but there are strict rules about parents signing children in and out of preschool. Some schools allow an older sibling attending the school to accompany the preschooler. See this list of preschool programs in Wayne County that offer transportation.

What if my child has a disability?

If your child’s individualized education program specifies that they need transportation, they are entitled to that transportation no matter what public school they attend. A little more than 2,000 kids attending DPSCD schools get this curb-to-curb service.

What if my family is homeless?

If your family doesn’t have stable housing and you want your child to continue at the school they attended before you lost your housing, they can have access to transportation under a federal law called the McKinney-Vento Act. Families who are staying in a shelter, temporarily staying in someone else’s home, or otherwise lacking stable housing should call their district (DPSCD: 313-748-6383).

High schoolers covered under this law get DDOT bus passes, unless they wouldn’t be able to get to and from school this way. In these cases the district may also offer shuttles or gas cards.

I’m having a school transportation problem. Whom can I call?

The DPSCD transportation help hotline is 313-945-8600.

DPSCD bus service for general education students is provided by the following contractors:

ABC Transportation: 313-835-2700
Trinity Transportation: 313-228-4522
DHT Transportation: 313 895-1300

DPSCD bus service for students with disabilities and homeless students is provided by the following contractors:

City Cab Company: 313-576-6344
New Detroit Cab Company: 313-633-5646
Checker Cab: 313-963-5000
Trinity Transportation: 313-228-4522
Regency Transportation: 313-615-0504

The Detroit Department of Transportation customer service phone number is 313-933-1300.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Sarah Alvarez is the editor-in-chief of Outlier Media.

Tackling Michigan youth mental health crisis: Detroit teens say it takes self-love, inner peace

2023-03-02T16:45:48+00:00

About 20 Detroit teens last summer set out to answer some important questions about how their peers are dealing with mental health struggles.

These high school students, part of a city youth organization called Local Circles, wanted to know two things about their peers: How they practice self-love, and how they find peace in a world in which they constantly feel judged.

They are relevant questions. Schools across Michigan are struggling to address the mental health needs of students. Those troubles existed before the pandemic, but the isolation, lingering effects of remote learning, and challenges coping in the midst of a global health crisis have deepened them.

The Detroit teens detailed their findings, and in some cases confronted their own mental health worries, in written pieces. Chalkbeat is publishing excerpts of those pieces today.

Local Circles is an organization that employs young people to research issues that are important to them. Nicole Jurek, the executive director of the organization, wrote in her own piece that adults too often think of young people in terms of what they can do in the future. But they have a voice today, she said.

“Young people have value (intrinsically, as we all do) for what they can do now, in their youth,” she wrote.

Read the pieces below from high school students TaMyra Smith, Torrance Johnson, Amaya Nard, Drew Smith Jr., and Stephanie Haney.

When depression takes control

TaMyra Smith is a sophomore at the DPSCD Virtual Academy in Detroit.

There was a time in my life where the bad days outweighed the good days. Depression took control over my emotions, school became more depressing by the minute, I faced personal problems at home, and, worst of all, COVID had just come out. I could see that I wasn’t the only kid dealing with these issues, yet since 2020, our tears have been hidden in the crowd, and there are fake smiles everywhere.

I’ve heard people say, “Life isn’t all that bad,” and that might be right. But if that were true, we would have more mentally stable teens in this world. Unfortunately, it is the other way around. It has gotten to the point where we’ve all become distant from one another, with no one to talk to, so that pain is just sitting within. A friend of mine once said, “The world feels like a ton of bricks have just landed on my chest, and the load won’t get any lighter.” Why should we have to live like this if we’re the future? What are we supposed to do in order to make life a bit easier for us?

“The pandemic has done a number on me. I don’t and can’t go anywhere, can’t sleep some nights, always see the negative before the positive, and I doubt almost everything and everyone around me.” — TaMyra Smith

About six months ago, a few of my old friends from middle school and I got back in touch via Instagram. Man, oh man, did it feel like we were getting to know one another all over again, and the energy wasn’t the same at all. By the way they talked, I could feel and hear the sadness in their voices while trying to hide what was deep down. I’m not the smartest, but I can tell when something is wrong.

The pandemic has done a number on me. I don’t and can’t go anywhere, can’t sleep some nights, always see the negative before the positive, and I doubt almost everything and everyone around me. Just recently, I had five assignments from four different classes that had to be completed the same day. I convinced myself that all of it wouldn’t get done, and I was right. And then I received a C in three of those classes since the work was turned in late. See what I mean?

Just the thought of school makes you wish it was already Friday again. More work, more engaging with your classmates, sometimes I don’t even want to talk. Many of my peers say that they’re being overworked, as if this is college, and I agree.

There is only so much teens can take before we begin to not care and want to give up. You never know what goes on in our heads. It could be built up stress and anger that will soon be released. Us teens need to come together, build our own safe environment and stop going against one another.

TaMyra Smith is a sophomore at the DPSCD Virtual Academy in Detroit.

Music as love and therapy

Torrance Johnson is a junior at Clarenceville High School in Livonia.

What makes me feel the most like myself? If you were to look at me, the first thing you would see is the bulky power chair I’m in. For me, my power chair, or rather my disability, is a key part of my being, as the chair and I operate as one. The chair is the first thing most people notice, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I feel it’s one of my defining characteristics.

Beyond seeing it, whenever I move you can hear the whirring of my chair as my wheels go around. Once someone gets to know me, the chair will become what I use to go from one place to the next. However, this can cause me to struggle to view myself as an individual separate from my chair. I have found a way to remedy this, and I’ve found it in music.

“You don’t have to play like Bach or Beethoven to make something beautiful or something that allows you to let feelings out.” — Torrance Johnson

When I’m creating music there’s no wheelchair, no disability, there’s just me and a piano keyboard where I’m free to let my heart and soul create. Music is my love, my therapist, my peace, my freedom. To explain why I feel such relief and freedom in making music to express myself, I asked music therapist Matthew Bessette. “When you’re creating music, you connect with your emotions and express them on a different level of understanding and connection,” he said.

When using music to express yourself, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. You don’t have to play like Bach or Beethoven to make something beautiful or something that allows you to let feelings out. Since I started playing the piano in February, it has become a passion of mine and something I love to do.

While crafting the survey, my peers and I would meet once a week at a facility in Detroit. I couldn’t wait to go there and was typically the first to arrive. In the facility, there was a piano I would play while I anxiously awaited the arrival of my cohort.

I’d begin by playing a single note which can sometimes be the beginning step in describing how you feel. I’d glide my fingers across key by key, letting the anxiety flow from me into the piano, and what came to exist was beauty and freedom. The piano from left to right goes from low to high. As you might guess, a person who is sad would play slow, somber notes compared to a happy person playing upbeat lively notes. I typically experiment with different notes and chords that I don’t always know will reflect the emotion of my heart, brain and soul.

For however long I play, I feel safe and unjudged. I simply feel peace! And that is more than okay with me. Playing allowed me to give my burdens away and be able to enjoy being there in the moment with my cohort.

Torrance Johnson is a junior at Clarenceville High School in Livonia.

Families must practice and model self-love

Amaya Nard is a senior at My Virtual Academy.

One of the findings that stood out to me from the students we surveyed last summer was that people who said they had a positive view on self-love also had someone older in their life who told them the importance of self-love.

My experience with self-love was different. The importance of self-love was a foreign concept for me growing up. Things like rest and relaxation were not allowed for children in my environment. I often saw adults using unhealthy forms of coping, like substances, instead of practicing self-love. I didn’t follow their example. But I can’t say the same for other children in my family. That’s not to say I wasn’t affected. Self image issues are something that I struggle with a lot. According to our survey, the older people got, their view on self-love became more positive. This makes me think that your environment as well as the people around you growing up can affect your view on self-love.

“Everyone should understand that children needing rest isn’t laziness and parents taking care of themselves is not selfishness.” - Amaya Nard

As children we follow the adults in our lives. Learning the importance of self-love in your most formative years will have an effect on how you view yourself then and in the future. Having positive influences in your family can reduce stress and conflict, according to a 2022 study in the journal Wellbeing, Space and Society. Besides family, your environment also plays a role in your well-being. Things like stable housing, food security and overall safety can affect if you practice self-care. That being said, while family and your environment can play a role in how you care for yourself, the main thing is really how you feel about yourself.

Everyone should understand that children needing rest isn’t laziness, and parents taking care of themselves is not selfishness. Learning how to love yourself can be challenging, but having supportive people in your life can help a lot. Even if you don’t have people in your life like that, you can be that person for yourself.

Amaya Nard is a senior at My Virtual Academy.

‘Alarming’ data on youth depression

Drew Smith Jr. is a junior at Metropolitan Junior Academy in Plymouth.

Teens go through a lot, and have been especially impacted by COVID. Sometimes adults might brush off what teens say and feel, and think that we don’t know better. We have the same feelings they do, and we wanted teens to know that they are heard and important.

A 2022 report from Mental Health America found that in Michigan, nearly 17% of youth ages 12-17 had a major depressive episode in the previous year. That’s higher than the national average, which was around 15%, or 3.7 million youths.

The data are alarming.

Here’s what we found after surveying our peers:

A lot of teens practice self-care by relaxing, there were a lot more people who had good relationships with self-love than people who didn’t, and more younger kids had negative relationships with self-love than the older ones. We concluded that as people grow older, they learn to love themselves more.

When practicing self-love, females will say motivating quotes about their beauty and looks, while males did not really have anything motivating to say other than, “You got this.” Female teens had deeper responses to the open-ended questions. Ultimately, we learned self-love impacts what you do in a day, how you react to people, and how much confidence you have.

“Respondents said things like, “I am loved,” “I am worthy” and “I am beautiful/handsome.” Ever since then, I’ve tried to implement “I am” statements into my everyday life to let myself know what I am.” — Drew Smith Jr.

These findings really made me think about myself and how I practice self-love. What I do to calm down and relax is lay down in my bed and watch a TV show that I enjoy. I never really thought about that being self-love until then. Spending time with my friends and family is also a way I practice self-love.

I started to ask myself, “What can I do to improve love for myself?” Then I remembered one of the questions we asked in the survey: “What are some motivational things you say to yourself?” Respondents said things like, “I am loved,” “I am worthy” and “I am beautiful/handsome.” Ever since then, I’ve tried to implement “I am” statements into my everyday life to let myself know what I am.

I’m so grateful for this experience, memories and knowledge learned this summer. And if any teens are reading this in the Detroit area, I want you to know that you are loved and you are heard and that Local Circles cares about you.

Drew Smith Jr. is a junior at Metropolitan Junior Academy in Plymouth.

Seek help when you need it

At times you may not have the best mental health or you won’t love yourself as much as you would like to, but that doesn’t have to stop you from being you.

“If there is no bright side, make one.” — Stephanie Haney

Over time you will go on a self discovery to understand yourself better and what makes you happy. Keep negative things out of your life, and if they keep coming back, take a different route to keep them away. There are going to be SO many ups and downs in your life. Try to look at the bright side of things and see how it will make you better. If there is no bright side, make one. Think of a positive situation and stick with it.

If you need help, call or text the mental health hotline at the number 988 (Michigan’s access line to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline).

Stephanie Haney is a junior at Cass Technical High School in Detroit.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit literacy and transportation programs get big support in Whitmer budget proposal

2023-02-10T19:31:58+00:00

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s education budget proposal includes $103 million in new funding for Detroit education programs, signaling a commitment from state government to invest directly in the city’s education future as Democrats take control in Lansing.

Whitmer is proposing a $1.5 billion increase in state school funding, or 9%, including a 5% increase in per pupil spending that would reach every school in the state. Her budget taps an estimated $4 billion school aid surplus to fund a wide range of new programs.

While Detroit isn’t the only local beneficiary of the proposal — schools in isolated rural areas, for instance, would get extra funding — the city stands out as a big potential winner if Whitmer’s proposal becomes law.

That’s welcome news for a city and school system working to recover from generations of declining enrollment and disinvestment.

The governor’s proposal includes “the kind of investments Detroiters have long championed,” said Angelique Power, president of the Skillman Foundation, in a statement. “This is parents’ and educators’ voices being heard.”

Skillman is a Chalkbeat funder. Click here for a list of our supporters.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District would get $94.4 million to support literacy programs. The GOAL Line, a local after-school and student transportation program, would get a one-time $6 million investment, and the Detroit Parent Network, a nonprofit, would get $3 million to help with outreach about literacy programs.

That’s in addition to proposed funding for tutoring and mental health programs, which will benefit students statewide but are particularly needed in Detroit, given the high rate of COVID deaths and widespread virtual learning.

Whitmer proposed the DPSCD literacy programs as part of a settlement in the 2016 “right to read” lawsuit against the state, in which a group of DPSCD students charged that the state violated their constitutional right to a basic education by failing to teach them to read. Whitmer settled the case, agreeing to pay damages to the students and to propose $94.4 million for literacy programming in DPSCD every year as long as she was in office.

Republicans rejected that expenditure, but with Democrats in control of the state Legislature, there’s a stronger chance that it will happen this year.

“I’m all in for it,” said Helen Moore, an education activist who was a prominent public champion of the lawsuit. “The children are really behind, I think they’re worse off than (district officials) are reporting to the public … We need all the help we can get.”

If the district were to receive the settlement funding, according to DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, officials would consider allocating the money toward hiring more academic interventionists for small group and one-on-one sessions, continuing literacy intervention for high school students and for teacher recruitment and retention.

To help with outreach for the new literacy programs, Whitmer is asking lawmakers to send $3 million to the Detroit Parent Network, a nonprofit that helps parents get involved in their children’s education.

The GOAL Line, which launched in 2018, serves children at 11 schools in northwest Detroit. The program is funded by the city, local foundations, and participating schools with the goal of helping working families.

Under Whitmer’s proposal, the GOAL Line would get $6 million in one-time federal COVID aid to supplement its $2.5 million annual budget and help expand its operations.

The GOAL Line currently serves 300 students, according to Adrian Monge, director of the Office of Early Learning for the City of Detroit. The Community Education Commission, which oversees GOAL Line operations, hopes to expand its services to as many as 525 students city-wide next year. The program currently transports students to Northwest Activities Center to participate in after-school activities. In the long term, Monge said, GOAL Line intends to open smaller sites across the city.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit isn’t dedicating any of its COVID dollars to early education. Advocates are upset.

2022-11-14T11:00:00+00:00

The city of Detroit isn’t dedicating any of its $826 million in federal COVID relief funds to local child care providers — a missed opportunity, advocates say, to support a critical service for children, families, and the local economy.

While other large cities put aside COVID funds specifically for child care facilities and early educators, Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration shelved a planned $6 million investment in child care infrastructure to make more room for investments in home repairs, internet access, and job training.

Officials plan to send a sliver of the federal aid to the child care sector — roughly $775,000, or 0.09% of the total — through economic development programs that will support child care programs along with other businesses.

The $6 million plan is still in place, but the city will look to philanthropies and corporations to cover the cost, said Adrian Monge, director of the city’s Office of Early Learning, whose position is also funded by philanthropic contributions.

Critics say the decision is a sign that the city isn’t putting skin in the game to support a child care sector bruised by the pandemic. They’re calling on city officials to back up their talk of supporting early education and use the city’s federal funds to pay for the plan.

“It is inconceivable that city governance would not dedicate available funding to offset the challenges like living wages for early educators and more,” said Denise Smith, director of Hope Starts Here, a Detroit-based early childhood initiative backed by some of the same nonprofits that fund Monge’s position. She noted that the city has a “deficit of 22,000 licensed quality options for families needing child care.”

“The Office of Early Learning has proposed a solid plan that has been endorsed by early childhood stakeholders,” she added. “It feels untenable that the funding to support this plan has not been granted.”

Duggan has said for years that he wants to expand the city’s early childhood offerings. But his latest efforts to expand the city’s role in preschool ran aground during this year’s state budget negotiations, and the city’s other early education initiatives, like the Office of Early Learning, are supported by outside funding.

Child care providers say the city could make a big difference with the COVID relief dollars.

“Help us with that funding so that the children have a cleaner and safer environment for children to play in, and we can beautify the city,” said Denise Lomax, owner of Child Star Development Center, a highly rated child care center with two locations in Detroit. “Help us with funding to employ more people, so we can give them a decent wage.”

Lomax added that she put in a request nearly a year ago to purchase and clean up vacant lots owned by the Detroit Land Bank near one of her centers, but she said officials haven’t responded to the request.

Monge said the city is focusing on using its existing resources to support child care programs.

“The city’s departments develop plans and strategies and drafts all the time to figure out how to get the most funding to Detroiters and to best serve our city,” she said. “Those things are always in process and subject to change.”

Other major cities have set aside COVID funds to directly invest in child care educators and facilities, according to data from April collected by the National League of Cities. Milwaukee plans to improve its educator pipeline by paying for Black male high school students to obtain child care credentials. Baltimore will provide direct aid to providers negatively affected by the pandemic. Phoenix plans to build a child care center for airport workers. Boston will pay providers to hire new staff.

Detroit received $826 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, the largest of several relief packages approved by Congress during the pandemic. The city has so far spent only about 5% of that, mostly on community health workers, foreclosure prevention programs, and administrative costs.

While Detroit’s allocation was among the largest of any U.S. city, it has a wide range of urgent investment needs resulting from the deterioration of its industrial and tax bases over several decades.

“There are so many competing priorities, and there’s a lot of need,” said Tonja Rucker, director of early childhood success at the National League of Cities, which tracks ARPA spending.

“But on the early childhood side, we have clear evidence that the return on investment is real,” Rucker said.

To be sure, the city’s shelved $6 million investment in child care facilities and the early educator workforce amounts to a tiny fraction of the $1.4 billion in COVID relief aid that the state is devoting to child care. That money is being distributed to child care programs across the state — including in Detroit — through grants and other programs.

But advocates and providers said the state’s spending doesn’t relieve the city of the responsibility to make its own investments. Even with recent COVID aid, the current funding model for child care — a mix of public dollars and private parent payments — doesn’t allow providers to pay early educators a living wage, resulting in extremely high turnover that makes it very difficult to maintain quality programs.

“It’s unacceptable,” said Jametta Lilly, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, a nonprofit advocacy group. “Our children need and deserve our best. I would hope that our mayor, just as our governor has, will listen and say, ‘OK, let’s make sure that this budget is significantly weighted towards building up child care infrastructure.’”

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s where candidates for the Detroit school board stand on education issues

2022-10-11T14:14:53+00:00

Detroit voters are getting their chance this election season to weigh in on the future of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, as they decide who will fill four school board seats that are up for grabs.

Chronic absenteeism. Mental health. Learning loss. Enrollment losses. These are among the issues most of the candidates weighed in on in response to questions Chalkbeat Detroit posed to them for this voter guide.

The Nov. 8 general election comes at a pivotal time for the Detroit school district. The pandemic has created or worsened a number of challenges, among the top ones being chronic absenteeism, which has surged. Students have left the district in large numbers in recent years. Youth leaders are advocating for increased mental health resources and safe spaces. And the district is investing federal COVID relief funds toward tutoring programs to address student learning loss in reading.

All that will be on the agenda of the school board. The seven-member board oversees the roughly 49,000-student district, approves contracts, and votes on policies that are implemented by Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and his staff.

School board members are the connective tissue between district officials and the broader student, staff, and family community that makes up DPSCD. A change in the board’s makeup could have significant ramifications for the district’s long-term reform efforts.

Over the last month, Chalkbeat reached out to all 18 candidates running for board seats with questions about their positions. Among the candidates are the four incumbents, several former school board members, a couple of parents, a few former educators, and a recent graduate.

Below you’ll find responses from 14 of the 18 candidates. The other four did not complete the questionnaire, despite our multiple attempts to get responses. Entries were lightly edited for spelling and punctuation.

Chalkbeat Detroit will continue to provide coverage leading up to Election Day. And at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 13, Chalkbeat and WDET 101.9 FM will co-host a virtual candidate forum. Voters can hear directly from candidates on the topics that matter the most to them.

This event is free to attend, but you must RSVP to receive the Zoom information. You can also let us know what questions you have for the candidates when you sign up. Register for the event here.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

‘We all know what we need’: Detroit youth work to boost mental well-being

2022-10-03T21:47:09+00:00

Across Detroit, young people responded to an ambitious pitch this spring: Come up with a strong idea for a program that would address the emotional and mental well-being of their peers, and possibly earn thousands of dollars to pull it off.

The result was scores of ideas that were as diverse as the young people themselves: A wellness room with Zen and calming activities. A spa day for male youth with incarcerated parents. A kitchen renovation so youth can come together for dinner and fellowship. A safe haven for LGBTQ students.

Those are just a few of the 40 ideas, proposed by people ages 9 to 23, that have received a piece of a $544,000 pot of money provided by the Skillman Foundation (a Chalkbeat funder), part of a new grant program aimed at addressing mental health and wellness. The awardees received between $5,000 and $20,000 to develop their plans.

The one thread through all of these concepts is that even though there are adult allies helping, the students were in charge. They came up with the ideas, they decide how the money is spent, and they decide how to turn their ideas into reality.

“We all know what we want. We all know what we need,” said Charles Patterson, 16, a junior at Davis Aerospace Technical High School.

What they need, Charles said, is connection with one another.

Charles is part of a youth group at the Eastside Community Network whose grant will go in part toward renovating a kitchen at the center and turning it into a place where young people can go to cook, eat meals, and spend time together.

Young people like Charles “are ready and capable leaders,” who are “enriched with lots of ideas,” said Lindsey Barrett, an associate program officer at Skillman who led the effort.

Charles said the pandemic left him feeling isolated, and turned him into an introvert because he spent so much time learning remotely. Things are better for students now that they’re learning in person, he said, but not all young people have re-engaged.

“You have to consider that maybe certain students went through something over the pandemic, maybe they had a family member pass away,” Charles said. “For me, three of my family members passed away during the pandemic and it was hard for my family, and for me personally.”

Report after report has highlighted the heightened mental health and emotional needs of students due to the pandemic. Long stretches of remote learning left students feeling isolated and disconnected from school and their classmates. Educators are trying to address that by investing COVID relief money into mental health, but staffing challenges have hampered efforts.

In Detroit, young people have been telling officials at Skillman that they need safe spaces to connect with their peers and the community. They also said they wanted to use physical activity, the arts, and creative expression to create these safe spaces, Barrett said.

“We know that these bright young people are really prioritizing their wellness, and they’re doing it by leading their own solutions,” Barrett said

On a recent Saturday, dozens of the grantees gathered in a room at the Northwest Activities Center in Detroit to receive training on project planning that was facilitated by the Neutral Zone, an Ann Arbor youth-led organization. They spread out on the floor, working in groups as they plotted their goals and the steps they need to take to accomplish those goals.

The young men from Developing Despite Distance, a program for males ages 10-24 who have a parent who is incarcerated, already knew one of their signature ideas was to take the group out for a spa day. Their adult leader, Tiffany Brown, guided them through the steps they would need to take to get there, like finding a spa and booking it in advance.

“We passed one coming up here,” Michael Glenn said as the group tossed around spa ideas. Michael, 16, is a junior at the School at Marygrove, and he’s looking forward to the spa day to help him nurse an old back injury from football.

Getting young people involved in addressing their mental health needs is important, Michael said, because many of them would otherwise stay silent about their struggles.

“Young adults don’t really express themselves,” he said. “It’s not that we’re afraid to. I guess it feels uncomfortable or unnatural. We don’t want to be a burden to others. So … this really helps out.”

Developing Despite Distance provides group counseling to the young men. The organization also works with them to connect with their incarcerated parents and helps them with visits.

The grant program “is a blessing,” said Brown. Not only will it allow for the spa day, but it will also pay for fitness training, more counseling, and a stipend for the young men for participating in Saturday counseling sessions. It’s the first time the participants will receive pay.

“When we have money in our pockets, we feel better, and that is really a form of self care,” Brown said.

Brown has often talked to the youth about her own self-care practices, which include getting massages. It gave the students the idea to do the same for themselves. Society, Brown said, doesn’t always give Black boys and men “the space to act like their wellness matters.”

“They’re often just putting on this mask like they’re OK. And so places where we can intentionally make them pause and really identify how they’re feeling in a safe, non-judgmental way, and provide support so that they can refill and recharge — that’s the root of what we do.”

Having an incarcerated parent means these young men have challenges that go beyond the pandemic.

“My biggest challenge is that they’re in schools, community centers, on our sports teams, and we’re not acknowledging that they even exist as a community … as a system. So the biggest challenge is that they are often suffering silently,” Brown said.

Over at the Eastside Community Network, cooking was the most popular program before the pandemic. Students would come together, cook, and then dine together.

“The students have said that … builds community,” said Tanya Aho, the adult leader for the group. But the kitchen was in need of a remodel, so the cooking sessions ended.

“This is completely student-led,” Aho said of the kitchen remodel. “They did the budget, they did all the research of the cabinets and the stove. They’ve done the design. They did the demo. They’ll be painting the cabinets.”

Charles, who has relied on sports and drawing to stay connected, wasn’t there for the demolition. But he’s involved in all of the planning and helping choose the finish on the cabinets, the color of the floors, and the type of countertops. He said bringing back the cooking program will be good, in particular, for students who feel disconnected.

“It brings a family atmosphere to our youth group,” he said.

KIPP charter school to open in Detroit

2022-08-30T23:03:45+00:00

Charter school operator KIPP, which canceled plans to set up in Detroit last year, is opening its first school in the city next week, bringing a nationally recognized network to a city dominated by small, locally grown charter schools.

KIPP Detroit Imani Academy will start out with 60 to 75 kindergarteners in a community center in northwest Detroit. The school, which received its charter from Central Michigan University, will eventually enroll students in grades K-12.

Some education advocates in Detroit have aimed to bring a KIPP school to Detroit for years. But national charter school operators have largely shied away from Detroit because of high rates of child poverty, relatively low school funding, and loose regulation that fuels fierce competition among local operators.

Supporters of the school said KIPP Detroit Imani Academy would raise the bar for Detroit schools, pointing to its well-documented record of improving test scores in communities of color. Originally called the Knowledge Is Power Program, the network now enrolls more than 100,000 students across 20 states, largely in urban communities with many students of color. It emphasizes high expectations for students and a culture of college-going.

Maria Montoya chose the school for her rising kindergartner because it is close to her family’s house, and because she believes that the KIPP network’s success will transfer to the new school.

“They get stability and support from having a national network of folks who’ve been learning together for a good number of years,” she said. “I feel confident that even though this is a new team, they’ll have the support they need to get this off the ground.”

Critics of the proposed school, including Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, have argued that with enrollment declining citywide, Detroit has enough schools already, and that competition from a new school would hurt existing schools.

The new school will be based at the St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center at 19321 W. Chicago Street. Candace Rogers, superintendent of KIPP Detroit, said the network plans to purchase a plot of land in the Cody Rouge neighborhood and build a K-12 campus.

“We aim to be a community-focused school, and believe that launching inside of a building that is considered the heart of a community is aligned with our beliefs as an organization,” Rogers said in an email, referring to the Community Resource Center.

When classes begin on Tuesday, Sept. 6, four kindergarten rooms will hold between 60 and 75 students, Rogers said. The school had aimed for more than 100 students in its first year and is still accepting applications. It has five teachers and four assistants on staff.

KIPP scrapped plans to open a school in a different part of Detroit last fall. The network had planned to purchase a vacant parcel of city-owned land and build a K-12 campus there. Amid public criticism of the sale, KIPP backed out of the deal.

Following a decade of rapid expansion, fewer charter schools have opened in Michigan in recent years. The state received a five-year, $47 million federal grant in 2018 to expand charter schools but has so far spent less than half of the money. The national KIPP network also received a substantial grant through the same program. The new school is funded in part by federal charter school startup grants.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

What we’re watching as Detroit district students return to school

2022-08-29T11:00:00+00:00

Happy first day of school!

The Detroit Public Schools Community District will reopen classrooms to students Monday morning for another year of learning amid a pandemic. This will be a critical year for efforts to address enrollment losses, chronic absenteeism, and facilities. The year will also feature a school board election in which a majority of the seats are up for grabs.

The Chalkbeat Detroit team will be following these issues and more. Here’s a closer look at them:

Will students return to the district?

Students have left the Detroit school district in large numbers, wiping out some of the small enrollment gains the district had experienced in the years before the pandemic. It raises important questions about the district’s future.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti puts the loss at nearly 3,000 since the pandemic began. During the 2019-20 school year, the district enrolled nearly 51,000.

A slimmed down district has some dire consequences. In Michigan, state funding for schools is based largely on enrollment. The district will receive $9,150 in state per-pupil funding this school year, which means a decline of 3,000 students could add up to about $27 million in lost revenue.

The district has managed to weather the declines so far, because a big injection of federal COVID relief money has helped fill in the gaps. But that money will run out, and the district could soon face a reality in which it must operate with much less money. In the district’s past, steep enrollment declines forced major budget cuts, led to numerous schools closing, and put the district under state control.

District officials have been urgently attacking this issue with initiatives that include a door-knocking campaign and fun events designed to attract parents back to the district. But will they be enough? What will it take to get parents to bring their children back? And where are they, for that matter? Are they being homeschooled? Are they enrolled in charter schools? Did they flee for suburban districts? Are they attending virtual schools? These are all questions Chalkbeat Detroit will be seeking to answer this school year.

Can new initiatives address chronic absenteeism?

The pandemic has created or worsened a number of challenges. Among the top ones in the Detroit school district is chronic absenteeism, which has surged.

The district had seen a reduction in its chronic absenteeism rate in the year before the pandemic, when about 62% of the students had missed 10% or more of the school year (the definition of chronic absence). In July, Vitti reported the rate had risen to 77%.

That rise has district officials planning more aggressive efforts. Vitti has repeatedly said that if the district can’t get kids back in school consistently, efforts to recover from the pandemic won’t succeed.

These new plans involve broadening the circle of district and school officials with responsibility for monitoring student attendance, using data to understand the challenges that prevent students from coming to school, and resolving them.

Chalkbeat Detroit has identified chronic absenteeism as a crucial storyline to follow this year. We want to write about efforts, in Detroit and beyond, to get students in school, explore reasons why students aren’t coming to school, and highlight success stories.

Wayne State researcher Sarah Lenhoff told Chalkbeat recently that the district’s plans to beef up its attendance teams is a start, but she believes fixing chronic absenteeism will require coordinating with city agencies to address employment, health, transportation, and housing inequities.

When Detroit’s kids don’t make it to school, Lenhoff said, “it really speaks to the need for the city to invest more in employment, invest more in stabilized housing, (and) make sure that families have the food and the health care that they need, so that they can give their children what they want to give them … get them into school.”

How will the school board election affect the district?

November’s general election could be a pivotal one for the Detroit school district.

Four of the school board’s seven seats are up for election, and 18 people are running for those four-year terms. Among the candidates are the four incumbents, several former school board members, a couple of parents, a few former educators, and a recent graduate.

Why are we watching this race? Because a change in the makeup of the school board could affect turnaround efforts in the district. Relations between the school board and superintendent are a key part of a district’s success, and Vitti and the current board have had a seemingly strong relationship since he was hired in 2017.

If any of the district detractors — and there are some among the candidates — is elected, that may change the dynamic on the board.

Stay tuned for Chalkbeat Detroit coverage. We’ll be profiling the candidates and holding an event so you can hear from the candidates directly.

Will a $700 million investment transform school buildings?

The Detroit school district has had longstanding facility problems, but lacked enough cash to fix them. COVID relief money is changing that. The district is investing $700 million of the nearly $1.3 billion of COVID relief funds it received to address its facilities.

What to keep an eye on this year: Work is expected to begin this fall on some of the projects. Work overall will continue through 2025.

The district will spend $281 million to rebuild five schools, $296 million to renovate buildings, and $128 million to reopen previously closed school buildings, expand pre-K, build additions onto existing schools, and demolish or sell some vacant buildings.

Earlier this year, Vitti said the district “has been using a bandage approach to our facilities districtwide.”

Vitti, who was hired in 2017, inherited a district that after years of state control had a number of schools that were in poor condition. When he interviewed for the job in 2017, he told reporters he was enraged that “our children have to go to schools where there are holes in the wall, tiles that are not replaced.” He has made investments since being hired, but the district has had limited funds.

“One of the most repugnant examples of the injustices our students and staff face is having to learn and work in school buildings that do not meet the standards of wealthier cities and school districts,” Vitti said in a statement in May, after the Detroit school board approved a facility plan.

A feature of the facility plan that will please students and teachers? When all the projects are finally done, nearly every school building will have air conditioning. That will make learning conditions better and it will mean the district won’t have to shorten school days because of stifling heat.

Will the district be fully staffed?

Two weeks ago, the district expected to begin the school year fully staffed with teachers, with some openings among support staff. But last minute resignations have put that in jeopardy.

“We have had about 30 unexpected teacher vacancies surface over the last two weeks,” Vitti told Chalkbeat Friday. “Most of these vacancies are related to teachers leaving the district for suburban districts for additional pay.”

As of Friday morning, he added, “about 80% of our schools are still fully staffed with teachers.”

As we noted Friday, the district is still in a better position than it was in previous years. In 2017, for instance, the district had 200 vacancies in the month leading up to the school year.

Detroit’s back-to-school enrollment efforts take on new urgency

2022-08-12T15:11:42+00:00

The quiet southwest Detroit block around Roberto Clemente Learning Academy pulsed with summer heat and back-to-school excitement on an August afternoon.

Community members mingled among the food trucks, arts and crafts activities, and information tables lined up across the school’s front lawn, where the Detroit Public Schools Community District was hosting the latest in its Summer on the Block event series.

The block parties have been part of the district’s back-to-school enrollment push since 2017. They’ve taken on increased significance in the wake of a pandemic that has seen the district lose 3,000 students since 2020, when it enrolled nearly 51,000.

Similar enrollment drops have struck school districts across the nation during the pandemic. But in Detroit, which has experienced decades of enrollment declines as families fled to charter and suburban schools, they’re particularly worrisome. The pandemic reversed what had been a period of stability — and some small gains — in enrollment after 2017, when an elected board regained power and Nikolai Vitti became superintendent. And since school funding in Michigan is directly tied to enrollment, drops in enrollment affect the district’s budget.

So the district is stepping up its enrollment drive with help from federal COVID relief money. DPSCD plans to invest $15 million of the nearly $1.3 billion in COVID relief funds it will receive into outreach with families and new community programming.

“That was the benefit of having equitable federal funding for the first time…We could make sure we had the tools and resources to help families,” district spokeswoman Chrystal Wilson said.

In addition to more Summer on the Block events, the district used its COVID relief funding to support a door-to-door canvassing initiative first launched in 2017, and to boost summer school programming.

Wilson said over 9,000 families enrolled in the district’s Summer Learning Experiences 2022 program, so “our families are telling us they want to get back to the business of learning, the fun of learning … finding that normalcy even though we’re still addressing wellness and mental health exiting from the height of the pandemic.”

Sharlonda Buckman, assistant superintendent of family and community engagement, said that checking in on families through door-to-door canvassing or hosting outreach events is all about “making deposits in the community.”

Buckman said this year’s Summer on the Block series is particularly important, providing families with the resources to help their students recover from pandemic learning loss.

By distributing summer learning materials such as free books, Buckman said, the district “helps parents close gaps in their home space.”

The Summer on the Block events also feature tables with representatives from a number of local agencies and organizations, as part of the district’s commitment to attract families to its schools through wraparound services. At the Roberto Clemente event, for example, families visited tables for the City of Detroit’s health and family services departments educating parents on the importance of vaccines and distributing home cleaning products.

According to state data, Roberto Clemente began the 2019-20 school year with 604 students; the most recent numbers show an enrollment of 530 students.

Principal Maria Hernandez-Martinez said her team is executing a number of initiatives this summer to bring students back.

In addition to going door to door to promote Roberto Clemente, Hernandez-Martinez’s team has organized parent meetings for each grade at the school to review the curriculum and schoolwide expectations before classes begin.

Because the school is located in a neighborhood with many Spanish speakers, she said, it is essential that her team include several bilingual people and that they provide all materials and send messages to parents in English and Spanish.

Roberto Clemente Learning Academy’s principal, Maria Hernandez-Martinez (center), talks a parent through the informational material distributed at Summer on the Block.

Hernandez-Martinez hopes to have more Summer on the Block events at Roberto Clemente in the future as she and principals across the district work to bring enrollment to where it was before the pandemic.

Looking around at the flurry of activity on the block that afternoon, Hernandez-Martinez said, “The main purpose of all this is to bring back my families.”

Grace Tucker is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat Detroit. Reach her at gtucker@chalkbeat.org.

Graduation rates and literacy levels top concerns at Detroit’s July school board meeting

2022-07-15T22:02:45+00:00

Reports of falling graduation rates, increased chronic absenteeism, and low high school literacy levels had Detroit school board members pushing for change during their meeting this week.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti noted that the district’s reading intervention efforts are working, based on K-8 reading placement levels. But board members expressed concern about the number of high schoolers still reading below grade level, and graduating without basic literacy skills.

Vitti faced questions specifically about the district’s choices on literacy tutoring programs, and whether it was underutilizing a local volunteer-led program called Let’s Read.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the school board unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing Pride Month, as well as other months and observances that “celebrate the vast diversity of our community.”

Here’s a look at some of the highlights of the meeting:

Is the district underusing ‘Let’s Read’ program?

The district is using federal COVID relief funding to help cover intensive literacy tutoring programs to help students recover from disruptions during the pandemic. It awarded contracts to a group called Beyond Basics to serve high schoolers, and to a company called Brainspring, which is providing literacy intervention for K-3 and virtual school students.

Beyond Basics is a Southfield-based nonprofit that specializes in providing one-on-one and small group literacy tutoring. The organization has partnered with the Detroit school district for over two decades.

Vitti reported that reading intervention programs like Beyond Basics have improved overall literacy levels for K-12 students. He said he’d like to see Beyond Basics and similar programs implemented for future academic years, but cautions that funding them will be difficult after the federal aid runs out. Under its 2021-22 contract with the school board, services from Beyond Basics were financed with COVID relief funding and money the district received through a “right to read” lawsuit settlement.

Board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo asked Vitti if the district could be making better use of Let’s Read, a program the district created in early 2019 with longtime Detroit education activist Helen Moore. Let’s Read, which was launched in advance of a new reading proficiency law for third-graders, connects adult volunteer tutors with K-3 students to help them improve their reading comprehension.

Apart from printing reading materials and offering training to the volunteers, Vitti said the district has not invested in Let’s Read. The choice of Beyond Basics was “not to undermine other tutoring services that are provided,” Vitti said. “But when a student is two or more grade levels (behind), they need intensive, research-based, multisensory intervention. And that’s what this intervention method provides.”

Vitti said 10th and 11th graders should see about two years’ worth of literacy growth in a semester of Beyond Basics intervention. There is no comparable data regarding the impact of Let’s Read on literacy levels, he said.

Vitti said he believed the pandemic limited the potential of Let’s Read by making volunteer tutors nervous about working in person with students. Out of the 99 Let’s Read volunteers who signed up online for 2021-22, just 29 showed up to participate, he said.

Some meeting attendees challenged that explanation. Aliya Moore, who is not related to Helen Moore, said she thought the low response was due to the district not reaching out to many of the volunteers who signed up.

Another attendee, Theo Broughton, said during the public comment period: “I’m hearing there were 99 tutors … but not to call the tutors, if that’s what happened, it’s as if you want the children at DPS to fail.”

Gay-Dagnogo urged the board to get rid of any barriers that might keep interested Let’s Read volunteers from participating.

“I don’t know if we’re presenting a barrier, or just the perception that there’s a barrier, but either way, I think we need to do a better job with transparency so that we can neutralize the ongoing disappointment of those who feel like we are somehow holding (Let’s Read) back.”

Vitti promised that 2022-23 will be the year the district “ramps up Let’s Read.”

Chronic absenteeism worsens for another year

The proportion of Detroit school district students who missed 10% or more of the school year worsened, Vitti said, in large part because of the district’s quarantine requirement for students who came into contact with COVID-infected people.

The chronic absenteeism rate rose to 77.6% in 2021-22, from 68.5% the previous school year. Before the pandemic, Vitti added, the district was making strides to improve attendance.

Vitti said the district still needed to address other reasons for absenteeism among high school students. A districtwide survey of students found students felt less loved and appreciated as they went into high school.

“The high school experience, bottom line for students, has to improve,” he said.

Between increased academic rigor in the classroom, better relationships with students, and continued investment in wraparound services and mental health, he added, the district needed to reprioritize its efforts to support high schoolers.

Board members weigh a new test to measure reading proficiency

As Superintendent Vitti outlined end-of-year data, some board members questioned how and when the district would improve graduation rates and reading proficiency among its students.

DPSCD’s four-year graduation rate fell 8 percentage points to 64.5% for the 2020-21 school year. The rate for the latest school year is expected to be reported in August.

Moreover, the percentage of students who are two or more grades behind reading level increased over the course of the pandemic, Vitti said.

To improve the graduation rate, Vitti said, the district is taking steps to help students make up coursework. It’s offering teachers extra pay to teach additional courses during the day, and offering after-school courses to help students make up missed credit.

“The graduation rate is not going to move overnight, but I do believe it’s going to incrementally improve,” Vitti said.

But board members and members of the public said they were disappointed by the students’ trajectory.

“I am really outraged at the numbers,” said board member Sonya Mays.

“At this rate … we are still having hundreds of students leave this district without something as basic as a high school diploma, and I just find that really outrageous,” Mays said.

Board President Angelique Peterson-Mayberry said in conjunction with improving the graduation rate, she supported testing students in reading proficiency before they graduated from the district.

“We’re doing a disservice to send students out into the world and not prepare them with basic skills,” she said.

Michigan does not currently have a standardized literacy assessment required for students to graduate, Vitti said. The only tests that the Detroit school district uses as the “best indicator” of a student’s reading grade level are the PSAT and the SAT. But both tests are designed to determine if students have the skills and knowledge to enroll in college.

Vitti said one option would be to create a literacy test for 12th graders, but he cautioned against requiring students to take more tests, adding that he preferred focusing on college readiness.

“I think we also have to be very careful when we talk about who is literate and who is not literate, because a standardized test does not always define that,” Vitti said.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Grace Tucker is an intern with Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at gtucker@chalkbeat.org.

Too few metro Detroiters are earning post-high school degrees, report says

2022-04-06T18:48:54+00:00

The number of metro Detroiters enrolling in college or post-high school training programs was already declining pre-COVID, but now it’s falling even lower. The number of residents earning degrees is also declining, raising concerns that employers will continue to struggle to find qualified workers.

The Detroit Regional Chamber raised those concerns in a State of Education report released Wednesday. The report uses regional, state, and national data to paint a grim outlook for metro Detroit and students who are Black or Latino or come from low-income homes. The report also says that efforts to get more residents, particularly adults, to earn degrees or certificates have stalled

Currently, just half of the 11-county region’s residents have a postsecondary credential, which includes two-year and four-year college degrees or a certificate in fields such as nursing or welding. The goal is to get that number up to 60%, but that won’t happen if enrollment continues to decline or those in college don’t finish.

“COVID has taken a toll and has made a bad situation even worse,” said Sandy Baruah, president and CEO of the chamber.

If the percentage doesn’t improve, the implications aren’t just dire for employers trying to fill jobs, Baruah told reporters this week.

“One of the reasons this issue is so important is (that) the level of educational attainment has a direct impact on an individual and a family’s economic security,” Baruah said. An individual’s financial stability is also directly related to the financial stability of a community. And “employers will go where the talent is,” he said.

Here are some of the concerning statistics the report highlights:

Even before the pandemic, there were concerns about regional postsecondary enrollment, particularly for students graduating from Detroit schools. The report shows that from 2018 to 2019, the percentage of high school graduates who didn’t enroll in college or a certificate program grew from 28% to 34% for the region. The number rose from 38% to 53% in Detroit.
Undergraduate enrollment in Michigan dropped by 8.9% between 2019 and 2021. That compares to a drop of 8% for the nation. The report says that fewer students enrolling in postsecondary education will mean employers won’t have enough qualified workers to fill jobs that pay middle class or higher wages.
The undergraduate enrollment data is even worse for students who graduate from schools with a large number of students from low-income homes. Their enrollment rate fell by 10% nationally between 2019 and 2020. Regional data was not available.
Nationally, 74% of students who started college in the fall of 2019 returned in the fall of 2020. For Black students, it was 65%, and for Latino students, it was 69%.

There were a few bright spots in the data. The percentage of students who graduated from high school in 2014 and are on track to graduate from a postsecondary institution within six years is on the rise. Postsecondary graduation rates are also on the rise.

The chamber is involved in or leading a number of initiatives to boost postsecondary numbers, including the Detroit Promise, which provides scholarships for students in the city to attend a community college or four-year institution. The chamber is also a member of Launch Michigan, a nonpartisan advocacy group that has pushed for changes to the state’s education system that will ensure more students graduate prepared for postsecondary success.

The Chamber’s Detroit Reconnect initiative is aimed at helping adults enroll in a higher education. In 2019, there were more than 676,000 adults in the region with some college credits, but they had not earned a degree or credential.

“If we can get a big chunk of them, that could make a big difference, you know, right away,” Baruah said.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. Contact her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan districts are running out of snow days. What happens now?

2022-01-28T20:43:17+00:00

It’s been a mild winter so far in southern Michigan, but already Reading Community Schools near the Ohio border is nearly out of snow days.

The district isn’t alone.

It’s not yet February, and many districts are nearing state caps on the number of days they are allowed to close for emergencies. In addition to snow days, there have been pandemic-related closures, attendance challenges and threats of school violence. Administrators want more flexibility, but the state Legislature doesn’t appear willing to grant it.

That jeopardizes school funding and districts’ ability to end the year on time in early June when many teachers and families have plans to start vacations and summer camps.

Michigan’s pupil accounting rules allow six school closures per year, known as “forgiven days.” They’re most often used for snow, but this is an unusual school year of staff shortages, COVID outbreaks, and copycat threats that followed the deadly November shooting at Oxford High School. Those factors are forcing school closures that are rapidly draining districts’ pool of forgiven days.

The 750-student Reading school district has had to close three times because of threats of school violence, once because of a citywide problem with water pressure, and once because of icy roads.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District has used all six of its forgiven days for health and safety reasons, administrators said.

On the snowier west side of the state, Newaygo Public Schools, about 35 miles north of Grand Rapids, already exceeded nine days. The district used five days for weather-related closings, plus 4½ more for “a variety of reasons” including staff shortages, Superintendent Jeff Wright said.

Administrators around the state have been asking the Legislature for more flexibility but so far their efforts have gained less traction than a school bus on an icy hill.

Fewer days versus long year

The closures come at a time schools already are trying to make up for lost learning time earlier in the pandemic when many schools closed or moved hastily to remote learning before teachers and students had the resources to get online. That has sparked some pushback to the notion of allowing fewer days of schooling, as opposed to extending the school year a few days or weeks into June.

“So many kids for the past couple of years have gotten nowhere near the [state-required] 180 days of learning so it’s even more important now to make sure they get as much as possible. We’ve got a two-year deficit we keep adding onto,” said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, an Ann Arbor-based nonpartisan think tank focused on education’s role in bolstering the state economy.

Districts that deplete their six forgiven days can ask the Michigan Department of Education for three more, but some administrators are concerned even that won’t be enough to cover unforeseen challenges in the months ahead.

“With so many disruptions this year, I don’t know if three days is going to make that much of a difference,” Reading Superintendent Chuck North said.

Unless the Legislature acts, districts will have to cut short spring breaks or extend school calendars by the number of days they’ve closed beyond their allotment of forgiven days.

So far, only three districts — Ludington, Muskegon and Newaygo — have applied for additional forgiven days, but it’s still early in the year, said MDE spokesman Martin Ackley. More applications are expected. The department is likely to approve them, but can only allow three additional days (for a total of nine) unless the Legislature provides more flexibility.

Cedar Springs Public Schools, 20 miles north of Grand Rapids, hasn’t applied for additional forgiven days although the district has used all six allowed days — two days each for bad weather, power outages and high teacher and student absences. Superintendent Scott Smith said he will extend the school year if necessary to meet the state-required 180 days and 1,098 hours of instruction.

“This does not keep me up at night. We’ve got provisions and we’ve got a plan … so to me this is really not a big challenge,” Smith said.

“It can be a little bit of a bump for some families who’ve scheduled vacation or some staff who’ve scheduled vacation, but you figure it out and make it work,” he said. “It’s a human business. You’ve got to be flexible.”

Extending the school year has a price

Extending the year could be costly and would require districts to renegotiate with local labor unions.

But money shouldn’t stop schools from doing what’s best for kids, especially in a year of historic school funding, Glazer said.

“If the only reason not to extend the school year is that it costs too much, then they ought to be able to figure that out,” he said.

For superintendents in northern Michigan, that isn’t the only reason. They face extra pressure from the tourism industry, in which businesses would suffer if school calendars are lengthened. They depend on long summers when families can visit and teenage workers can staff their shops and restaurants.

There’s another option, Glazer said. If it’s too unsafe to open school buildings, classes could be moved online, he said.

“It’s not perfect. A lot of homes have trouble getting Internet, but we’re far better off today than we were two years ago,” he said.

That could be a tough sell for lawmakers like Rep. Pamela Hornberger, who has staked out a firm position against remote learning. As chairperson of the Education Committee, the Chester Township Republican controls the House education agenda.

The worst thing the Legislature could do, Glazer said, is hand out extra forgiven days that would stop formal learning entirely.

“With all the disruption in kids’ lives because of COVID, why take additional school days away from them?” he asked. “We really need to figure out how to get as many learning days as possible. That’s particularly important for non-affluent children.”

Unprecedented disruptions caused by the pandemic have put districts in a vise.

There are financial penalties when district attendance falls below 75%. The amount is determined by a complex formula. For example, a district with 2,000 students and a state funding level of $600,000 per day would lose $56,000 on a day attendance fell to 68%, according to the formula.

In essence, schools stand to lose state funding if they open classrooms with attendance under 75%, while school costs (gas for buses, heating bills, and staff salaries) remain the same on those days.

“These penalties end up harming the very students we strive to educate and support. A loss of funding clearly takes away much-needed resources for students,” said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit school system.

Attendance rules challenge district

Superintendents face a difficult choice when surging COVID cases portend high absences. Some open school doors anyway and take the funding hit. Others close and use a forgiven day, hoping they won’t run out and later have to extend the school year further into June.

Attendance rules are less stringent when school years are extended, requiring only 60% attendance for districts to receive full funding on days after the originally scheduled end of the year.

Superintendents like Smith in Cedar Springs are willing to sacrifice funding to provide consistency for students who are able to attend.

“Let’s say we have only 68% in attendance. We’ll lose a fraction of the funding for that day but at least we can have a meaningful day for 68% of the students. It’s about what you can do, not what you can’t do,” he said from his 3,500-student district. “Let’s do what we can for those who are there, and catch the others up later.”

Petoskey Superintendent Chris Parker is similarly minded.

“To the degree schools are open, it’s better for kids,” Parker said. “If only 70% attend, at least that 70% gets the in-person instruction, social interaction, access to guidance counselors, and nutritious school lunches they need … but it’s going to reach a point where you can’t afford to do that,” he said.

“It’s great to say you’ll give up the money, but if you’re running a district without your full foundation allowance, the (local) board of education isn’t going to be fond of that.”

It isn’t clear whether school districts can make up for those funding losses using federal COVID-relief funds. Some superintendents said it’s possible but others believe that money must be spent in accordance with grant applications they already submitted.

Lowering the 75% threshold would be a big help, said Jennifer Smith, head of government affairs for the Michigan Association of School Boards, but so far the state House of Representatives has been unwilling to consider it. Other groups, including the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, also are asking the Legislature for relief from attendance requirements during the pandemic. So far, the Senate has taken a step in that direction but the House Education Committee has not budged.

The Senate bill would prevent districts from being penalized in limited circumstances when low attendance is caused by pandemic-related quarantines.

The school board association says that bill isn’t enough, but the House hasn’t been willing to go even that far.

Hornberger, the House education chair, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Other House Republicans, though, have resisted attempts to provide any flexibility they believe could encourage districts to return to remote learning or could make it easier for school buildings to close.

“I don’t understand that argument. The insinuation is that superintendents don’t want what’s best for their kids,” said Kevin Polston, superintendent of Kentwood Public Schools, a 9,500-student district south of Grand Rapids. “We know in-person instruction is what’s best for most kids, and the districts across the state have been committed to offering that for our students and families, but safety is always going to be first for us.”

Kentwood used two forgiven days so far this year on consecutive days because of snow, Polston said. When school resumed that Friday, only 71% of students showed up so the district won’t get its full share of state funding for that day unless the Legislature agrees to a rule change.

“Schools that are in person for every kid and doing the best they can shouldn’t be penalized during a pandemic,” Polston said.

The free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which has staunchly advocated for in-person learning, hasn’t taken an official position on the Senate bill but encourages the Legislature to reconsider attendance rules for quarantined students. The organization wants to discourage districts from temporarily switching entirely to remote instruction, as schools in Detroit and Ann Arbor recently did.

“Schools should be given greater flexibility not to excuse them from filling their responsibility, but to better equip them to provide students with effective instruction. That means guaranteeing all students access to an in-person option, as well as giving schools latitude,” said Ben DeGrow, the center’s director of education policy.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is working with Republican legislative leaders on ways to encourage in-person learning and is expected to offer proposals in her budget proposal next month. Bobby Leddy, spokesperson for the Democratic governor, would not say whether those solutions include flexibility on attendance rules and forgiven days.

“Right now 98% of districts have their classrooms open, and we are working to get that to 100% at soon as possible,” Leddy said.

Detroit superintendent proposes solutions.

Schools that have temporarily moved online are in a bind, Vitti said from Detroit, where students have been remote since December. Attendance is challenging on remote days when younger students might not have enough support at home, and older ones might have too many distractions.

On four days in January, Detroit’s attendance dipped below 75%, including once as low as 59%. The highest attendance in January was 78%.

Before going remote in December, Detroit schools closed several times because of building and city infrastructure problems, threats of school violence, and increases in COVID positivity rates. When schools reopen to in-class learning, Vitti said he expects to add five minutes to the school day to help meet the 1,098-hour school year requirement.

“We have felt the impact more than other districts regarding COVID because of the infection rate and because of low vaccination rates,” Vitti said. “I know other districts are in a similar situation, which is why we need some flexibility moving forward.”

Vitti suggests lowering attendance minimums to 60% and eliminating or reducing financial penalties in certain circumstances, such as during extreme weather, high COVID transmission rates, or critical infrastructure failure. The Legislature also could allow districts to close in response to threats of violence without using a forgiven day, he said.

Jennifer Smith of the state school board association said parents can do their part to pressure lawmakers to take action now so districts can plan for the spring, but she isn’t optimistic that they will.

“I don’t think parents will fully understand until we start talking about having to go to school in June,” she said.

“There needs to be an understanding from the Legislature that this is affecting their constituents, and something needs to be done. It doesn’t have to be drastic. It needs to be flexible,” she said.

Report: COVID, finances helped drive absenteeism in Detroit district

2021-12-20T19:58:54+00:00

Chronic absenteeism rose significantly for Detroit district students last year as families continued to deal with financial, logistical, and health ramifications of the COVID pandemic.

A new Wayne State report shows that 70% of Detroit students were chronically absent — missing 10% of last school year — compared with 62% in 2018-2019. About 54% were described as severely chronically absent, meaning they missed 20% or more of the year.

Absenteeism rose in all K-12 grades but especially among 12th graders, 87% of whom were chronically absent, while roughly three-fourths of district kindergartners and students who received special education services missed 10% or more of the school year.

The district had been making some progress to reduce chronic absenteeism prior to the pandemic. Several years ago, the Detroit school district invested in hiring attendance agents in every school. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and the board review chronic absenteeism data monthly, along with other metrics, and the superintendent has expressed his concern about the rise in chronic absenteeism since the pandemic began.

More than a third of families surveyed reported internet and computer issues during the school year, researchers found, contributing in part to the rise in absenteeism. Because schools pivoted to full online instruction last year, a lack of transportation was less of a factor in students missing school than it has been in previous years.

The report comes from a representative survey of more than 800 Detroit families as well as student attendance records and administrative data provided by the Detroit school district.

At the core of the study’s results, according to Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, an assistant professor of education at Wayne State, are the ongoing social and economic barriers that chronically absent students face, particularly the “really difficult choices that families are forced to make in order to kind of meet the expectation of good attendance without an adequate kind of social support structure.”

“We talked to families who had to quit their jobs to make sure their kids are in school,” Lenhoff said. “Maybe their child’s attendance is better, but then they’re unemployed, and they’re not making any money.”

Among the key findings:

Thirty-eight percent of parents said their child didn’t have access to a computer and 30% said internet troubles led to their child being absent. More than 50% of Detroit district families experienced financial and health-related challenges during the pandemic.
Thirty-four percent of district families had a family member who got sick or died of COVID.
Students in families who experienced economic challenges such as lower incomes, irregular work schedules, unemployment, and eviction were more likely to be chronically absent.

Detroit teen: ‘Dig deeper’ to find and help homeless students

2021-10-19T18:33:39+00:00

There’s a lot Azaria Terrell wants to tell adults about how they can help students who, like her, have experienced homelessness. She’d start with a few simple tips: Listen to them, develop relationships with them, and give them some grace.

Too often, she said, school staff place too much academic pressure on students who are homeless.

“Making sure I’m OK and getting a good night’s sleep … that’s way more important than making sure I’m turning in my assignments,” said Azaria, who is 17 and a senior at Pershing High School in Detroit.

“At the end of the day you can go home and lay in your bed and maybe grade students’ work, but that child has to stay on the streets that night. Not everybody is lucky enough to have friends to go stay with or family to go stay with. Sometimes they’re in abusive households and they literally have nowhere else to go. So, patience is really key.”

Azaria, who has experienced homelessness during her high school years, shared her story during a panel discussion Tuesday co-hosted by Chalkbeat Detroit and the University of Michigan Poverty Solutions (Watch the conversation in full at the bottom of this story).

The discussion was held in the wake of new research that shows schools in Detroit are struggling to identify students who are homeless and entitled to federally required services, such as transportation.

Azaria was joined on the panel by representatives of local schools, a researcher, and the founder of a Detroit nonprofit that works with young people like Azaria.

Here’s who joined her on the panel, and a snippet of what they had to say.

Jennifer Erb-Downward, senior research associate at Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, an initiative that partners with communities and policymakers to prevent and alleviate poverty. Erb-Downward explained that the federal definition of a homeless student is any child who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. That includes children living in shelters or on the streets, but it also includes students living temporarily in a motel or hotel as well as children living doubled up in another person’s home because of economic hardship. “The reason that definition is important to focus on is that what the research shows is that from an educational perspective, it’s really the instability that children are experiencing that has educational consequences,” Erb-Downward said.
Courtney Smith, founder and CEO of the Detroit Phoenix Center, which provides services to homeless students. Smith said the center began as a drop-in center for students to hang out, take a shower, wash their clothes, access a food pantry, get bus tickets, and participate in recreational activities. Now, there is also an after-school program that provides tutoring and other services, such as counseling. Smith said the programming was built around what students said they needed. Listening to their wants and needs was important, she said. Adults “often create programs without young people being at the table.”
Iranetta Wright, deputy superintendent of schools at Detroit Public Schools Community District, which has expanded its services to better identify and serve students who are homeless. In 2017, when the district’s current administration took the helm, there were only 600 students — out of about 47,000 — identified as homeless. There was no doubt that number was too low, she said. So the district revamped its efforts, ensuring every school identified someone to serve homeless students, and provided staff training. At the end of the 2020-21 school year, the number of identified students had grown to 1,900. Training has been an important part of helping staff understand what it means to be a homeless student, and also how to talk to students who confide in them. “Awareness is important for everyone, from our teachers to our custodians to our cafeteria workers, to our noon hour assistants. Everyone needs to be empowered with the right language,” Wright said.
Terrence George, superintendent at Covenant House Academies, which were founded to help at-risk students obtain their high school diplomas. The academies especially help those living in shelters operated by Covenant House, which the school is affiliated with. “Homelessness isn’t always about staying in a shelter. It can be bouncing around. We have so many kids in our school that couch surf. It’s … now not where do you live, but where are you staying tonight is the question,” George said. The school provides a range of services, and is working to ensure all of its three locations have showers, laundry machines, and close access to a child care facility.

The event began with a documentary clip currently being produced by Sofa Stories Detroit, a community arts program that uses live performance and theater to tell the stories of Detroit youth who have experienced homelessness and housing insecurity. The name of the production company acknowledges that for many youth, surfing on the couches of friends or relatives is common. The full film will be streamed live in November, during National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, said Andrew Morton, director of the project. Find more information here.

Azaria, the Pershing High student, said identifying students who are homeless isn’t always easy. Educators can look out for students who repeatedly wear the same outfits, or students who start secluding themselves from others, she said. But many homeless youth become good at hiding their struggles.

“They’re hiding it not only from the world, but from themselves. They’re trying to erase that part of themselves and build a new character at school so they’re not judged, so they’re not looked at wrongly, so that their family isn’t criticized.”

It’s something Azaria knows really well. She said she’s a different person at school, known there as someone on the right track and on her way to college. At home, she said, she could be struggling. She cited her connection with Smith and the Detroit Phoenix Center with giving her a voice to tell her story. Smith, she said, was “the kindest person” she’d ever met.

“I meet a lot of kind people who really only want to hear your story to benefit them. And that’s sad. Ms. Courtney — she’s kind. She really listened to me. She gave me opportunities to use my voice.”

She wants teachers and other school staff to care not just about how students are doing academically, but how they’re doing outside school. She said they need to “dig deeper, build a relationship with their students, and really see how their life is going.”

New Detroit program puts support staff on the fast track to become teachers

2021-10-13T23:17:00+00:00

The inspirational words were written with large letters and taped to the tops of the light wood desks, a fitting backdrop for an activity that had new teacher Will Cannon connecting with a group of sixth graders he was meeting for the first time.

“You are a champion,” said one of the cards. “Triumph,” “Fabulous,” “Conquer,” and “Passionate,” said others.

“Tell me what that word on your desk means to you,” asked Cannon, who had taped the cards to the desks hoping they would inspire his students.

“A lot,” called back one girl, whose desk displayed the phrase “You are amazing.”

Cannon is among 55 people who entered classrooms in the Detroit Public Schools Community District for the first time this school year through a new program — the first of its kind in Michigan — that trains them during a summer academy tailored to the particular challenges of teaching in Detroit.

On a recent day with a group of sixth graders, Cannon had them talk about inspirational words he’d written on cards and taped to their desks.

This program, called the On the Rise Academy, represents the first time a district has developed its own alternative teacher certification program, which the Michigan Department of Education approved in January. And in May, the department approved a second certification program for New Paradigm for Education, which manages the Detroit Edison Public School Academy network of charter schools.

Around the nation, alternative programs operating outside higher education institutions are growing as districts like Detroit seek to train their own, more diverse, workforce. School districts in cities such as Boston and Dallas already operate similar programs. Indiana lawmakers are weighing whether to allow districts to certify their own teachers to ease shortages.

In the Detroit district, about three-quarters of the fellows, as they’re called, previously worked in support positions such as paraprofessionals, attendance agents, and academic interventionists.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a recent school board meeting that the district decided to apply to run its own program because there are talented people in those positions who need an opportunity to put them on a path toward certification. The district is planning to launch another component of the academy next year, this one focused on current teachers who want to become recertified in an area of critical need, such as math and science.

“It makes complete sense to develop your own … because those employees know our students,” Vitti said.

The aspiring teachers — who must have bachelor’s degrees and pass the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification — undergo a hiring process that includes conducting a sample lesson before interviewers and taking feedback on that lesson, then conducting the lesson again.

Once selected, fellows are required to attend a six-week summer institute. There is coursework, but a key part is teaching summer school supervised by a high-performing teacher. Those who make it through the summer institute receive an initial teaching certificate before entering classrooms full time. They earn the same $51,000 salary as beginning teachers in the district.

The fellows receive individual and group coaching throughout the school year. They also are required to take more coursework in addition to teaching full time. Tuition is $6,000 but is waived if fellows teach in the district for six years. Fellows are required to teach in the district for three years.

Damarcus James, a former college transition advisor, is one of dozens of people who are part of an inaugural program to provide an alternative path towards becoming a teacher in the Detroit school district.

All of this was worth it for Damarco James, who previously worked as a college transition advisor at Osborn High School. James grew up in Benton Harbor, a district with similar academic struggles as DPSCD, and he said he’s motivated by a desire to help students who are growing up in impoverished communities like he did. He’s especially motivated knowing how much students have struggled academically during the pandemic.

“You truly have a chance to make an impact,” James said.

Would-be teachers need support and practice

Traditional teacher preparation programs operated by colleges and universities remain the most common way for aspiring teachers to get certified, accounting for 75% of all enrollment in 2019.

But Shannon Holston, chief of policy and programs at the National Council on Teacher Quality, said alternative certification programs are growing quickly, particularly those operated by non-higher education institutions such as school districts.

She attributes the growth to several factors: The decline in enrollment in traditional preparation programs has disrupted the routes school districts traditionally relied upon for new teachers. Some people interested in teaching see the alternative programs as a better option, because it’s a quicker and cheaper route to the classroom.

Just as important: Some local districts “just haven’t been having their needs met” by traditional routes, Holston said. “To ensure that they have teachers that are prepared in the way they want them to be prepared, they start their own program.”

Holston said research on alternative certification programs has been difficult to analyze because the programs are so different.

“There is some data on some programs that are effective. There are other programs that are on probation because they’re not meeting certain outcomes.”

She said successful programs offer strong coaching that helps the new teachers grow, but also have mechanisms in place to dismiss those that aren’t improving. Programs also should have rigorous admissions requirements and a teaching experience similar to student teaching so that fellows get to work with students. Programs vary on the length of such experiences. In some cases, it lasts a year. In others, it’s a summer school program.

In some programs, attendees come in with no classroom experience, and that concerns Holston. It’s imperative that these aspiring teachers spend extended time teaching in a classroom to gauge if this is the career for them.

“Sometimes people figure out that’s not what they want to do. We’d rather them figure that out in July rather than September.”

Holston, who reviewed online information about the Detroit district program, said she’s encouraged by several features, including requiring fellows to take a science of reading course and calling for two coaching visits and an administrative visit each month.

“That ongoing support is really important,” Holston said.

Program seeks to mirror district demographics

Cannon, a Detroit and district native whose path to the classroom came after a 20-year career as an engineer and a few more years exploring social work, is big on creating a positive atmosphere in his classroom. He introduced the sixth graders to a South African word that is central to his teaching philosophy: Ubuntu. Loosely, it means, “I am because we are.”

For a first-year teacher, Cannon seemed comfortable leading a classroom of middle school students. He told them about his background, played a video that showed young people persevering against incredible odds, and emphasized that he was connected with them and they have to work together for everyone to succeed.

“You’re all going to teach me a lot more than I’m going to teach you.”

Cannon came into teaching after a 20-year career as an engineer and after a few years in social work.

In Cassandra Tapia’s second grade summer school classroom, students participatedT in a “me too” game that revealed some common interests.

“I like robots,” one girl stood up and said.

“Me too,” responded most of her classmates.

“I like soccer,” said another.

“Me too,” the class responded.

Before she became a fellow teaching at Munger Elementary-Middle School, Tapia spent a year there as an academic interventionist, tutoring students who needed the most help.

Tapia said that one year working with Munger students was enough to “completely change my perspective” of what she wanted to do as a career.

Chalkbeat sat down with Tapia, Cannon, and James on one of the last days of summer school as the fellows were looking ahead to the beginning of the school year. They said they felt the academy prepared them for the challenges they would face in the classroom.

“I’m excited,” Tapia said. “I feel like I have a good support system. Teaching summer school has given us a glimpse of what to expect.”

“This program gives us everything that a brand-new teacher who went through a teacher prep program wishes that they had,” James added. “That’s the best way I can describe it.”

Cassandra Tapia was an academic interventionist before she entered a program that provides an alternative path towards becoming a teacher in the Detroit school district.

Tamara Johnson, director of the On the Rise Academy, said selecting candidates who are willing to grow and understand the culture of Detroit and its residents is what will make the program successful. The summer institute focuses on the history of the city and district. At one point, the fellows teamed up for a scavenger hunt downtown.. They also learned about the students they’ll be teaching.

“You want to be a part of that community and not have preconceived notions and ideas about where our students come from,” said Johnson, who is also the district’s senior director of talent pipelines. “You want to be able to learn with them, build relationships with them. That’s important in any classroom and in order to be able to do that, you have to be willing to learn who they are.”

“We pick people who view our students in a strength based way as opposed to a deficit-based way,” said Jessica Haynes, program supervisor of talent pipelines in the district. “We sought to have our demographics in On the Rise Academy mirror the demographics of our students in the district.”

Alternative certification programs have done what traditional programs have struggled to accomplish: Recruit diverse candidates into the profession. Just 30% of students enrolled in traditional programs are non-white, while more than half of those in alternative certification programs are non-white, according to data Vitti shared during the recent school board meeting. In the Detroit program, about 90% of those enrolled are non-white.

Meanwhile, the program could help boost the number of black male teachers, something districts across the country are trying to achieve. About 23% of those enrolled in On the Rise are black men. The district’s current population of black male teachers is 13%, Vitti said.

Ready to teach — and to learn

Two weeks into the beginning of the school year, Cannon was feeling good about his decision to teach. He was developing good relationships with his students, and he felt that the lessons he learned about creating a positive classroom culture were paying off. The fellows learned that community circles — when students and their teacher come together in a circle to talk — is one way they can build that positive culture.

A positive classroom culture and strong classroom management skills are crucial skills for success and were key focuses of the summer academy. Poor classroom management skills is one of the reasons new teachers leave the profession too soon, Johnson said.

“We know if the teachers can run a really well-managed room, all of the academic parts are going to come so much easier. And then we can keep them in the district, in classrooms, and make them better academic teachers because they have the management part together.”

Tapia agreed.

“Your lesson can be perfect but if you can’t manage that class, you can’t have 100% participation,” Tapia said. “If students can’t respect and trust you, you’re not going to teach them.”

For Cannon, the biggest challenge has been trying to help students who are far behind academically.

“It’s hard for me to see it. I feel this responsibility to catch you up immediately and it’s not going to happen that way.”

At that point in the school year, he had spent a lot of time focused on classroom rules and procedures and seeing where students stood academically.

On a recent day when Chalkbeat visited with Cannon and the group of sixth graders, he spent some time emphasizing what he hopes to see from students. He showed a short video about a boy who had persevered against a lot of odds. And then he turned to the students.

A large challenge for new teachers like Cannon is helping students who are struggling to catch up academically.

“That’s the kind of perseverance we’re looking for from all of you,” he told them. “We all have to find a way to make it through.

“Who is it up to?” he asked the students. The responses were varied.

“Us.”

“And me,” Cannon replied, which prompted this response from a student:

“All of us.”

Report: Pandemic ‘wreaked havoc’ in Michigan’s lowest performing schools but didn’t deter teachers

2021-09-27T20:31:47+00:00

A turnaround program had been helping Michigan’s lowest performing schools improve but those gains stagnated during the pandemic, according to a new report from Michigan State University.

The pandemic “wreaked havoc” on these schools, known as partnership schools, even as educators and students made extraordinary efforts to continue teaching and learning, said researchers from the university’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative.

The EPIC study found:

On-time graduation rates, which had been increasing before the pandemic, decreased last year.
Drop-out rates increased, but the number of students transferring to other schools decreased.
Attendance lagged and students were less motivated to learn, but educators said they had a better rapport with those who showed up for virtual classes.
Parent engagement decreased.
More educators — especially novice and Black teachers — left the profession during the pandemic. But those who remained were more likely to stay rather than transfer to other schools or roles. They cited school leadership, culture, and climate as their reasons for wanting to stay.

The backslide doesn’t surprise researchers who were tasked with tracking the schools’ progress since 2017, when the Michigan Department of Education gave them more resources and a chance to improve rather than face closure.

Partnership schools had been making gains in elementary math and English before the pandemic, according to EPIC’s 2020 report.

The new report shows that partnership schools were more likely to offer remote-only instruction than higher achieving districts last year. Learning from home was especially challenging for these students because they also were more likely to experience economic instability, food insecurity, illness, and difficulty accessing health care. Researchers found they also lacked resources for at-home schooling such as internet access, desks, quiet workspace, parental help with school work, and transportation to get supplies.

“I think for the population we serve here that they do better in the building,” one charter school leader told researchers. “We struggle and we continue to struggle with the virtual model.”

Households were loud and chaotic, one teacher said.

“There were children running around screaming, dogs barking and television blasting. All this took the attention away from the lessons. At times, it was the opposite, with the parent sitting out of view of the camera whispering all of the answers,” the teacher said. “Either way, my students were not learning a thing.”

Still, teachers in partnership schools were undeterred. They were less likely to leave their jobs for other schools than colleagues in similar buildings not in the partnership program.

“What impressed me the most was these teachers didn’t just give up. They were really still trying, and they were reporting back that their school culture and climate were improving and their job satisfaction was improving,” said Katharine Strunk, director of the EPIC and a professor of education policy at Michigan State.

The state has identified 123 schools for the partnership program, including 50 in Detroit.

The report bolstered the state education department’s commitment to the program and its efforts to speed up learning by prioritizing the most crucial content over the next school year. The department expects to add more schools to the partnership program next fall.

“Many of the challenges faced by partnership districts are large systemic issues that span beyond the education realm, so any solutions require partners, time, and honest conversations about deep-seated changes that are necessary,” the department said in its written response to the report.

EPIC concluded that partnership schools would benefit from more funding, better recruiting and retention of faculty — especially Black teachers — and more robust socioemotional support.

The report is EPIC’s third on the effectiveness of the partnership program. Researchers said it was hard to isolate the effects of the program from the effects of the pandemic, which were more profound in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods that partnership schools tend to serve.

Researchers considered dropout rates, teacher mobility, district revenue data, educator surveys, and interviews. They used teacher perceptions of student learning rather than test results because the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, known as M-STEP, was not administered in 2019. Teachers estimated that 15% to 16% of students began the school year on track in language arts, math, science and social studies, and even fewer — 11% to 13% — finished on track.

They found the pandemic exacerbated already difficult challenges children in these schools faced.

“For many of our students, making it through the day is all they can do,” one teacher told researchers. “My high school students have shouldered enormous burdens this year. They are breadwinners, babysitters, tutors, cooks, and whatever else is needed in the household.”

Read the full report here.

‘Tiny’ bathrooms, big curriculum: New Marygrove early childhood center boosts Detroit neighborhood

2021-09-17T21:33:42+00:00

When Ariyah Small came home after the first day of school last week at the new, highly touted Marygrove Early Education Center, there was one small thing that had her excited.

“I love my new school,” Ariyah, 3, told her mother, Antoinette Reid, who recounted the conversation Friday as she spoke during the grand opening of the new center.

“I’m like, ‘What about it do you love?’” Reid recalled asking her daughter. “She said, ‘They got tiny bathrooms and I can use it all by myself.’”

The tiny bathrooms are just small features of this big new center on the campus of the former Marygrove College in northwest Detroit. What is most significant about the new $22 million 28,000-square-foot building, is what it represents.

The early childhood center is part of a unique “cradle to career” initiative that was announced in 2018 and already includes the School at Marygrove, a high school operated by the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The initiative will eventually also include a kindergarten to eighth grade school. Construction on the early childhood center, which is being operated by Starfish Family Services, began in 2019. The Kresge Foundation (a Chalkbeat funder), expects to invest $75 million into the cradle to career project, including for the construction of the new center.

Speakers Friday described the opening of the center as an “historic” moment for Detroit, in part, because it represents a full-scale effort to create quality early childhood options that every child in the city deserves.

“It’s not just about the building,” said Wendy Lewis Jackson, the Detroit program managing director at Kresge.

Jackson said “it” is about the curriculum that was developed by Starfish and University of Michigan, about the center serving as a resource for other early childhood providers in the neighborhoods surrounding Marygrove, and about the center providing “essential support for children from birth through higher education and onwards towards a career.”

Principal Celina Byrd poses with student Ariyah Small at the grand opening of Marygrove Early Education Center in Detroit.

The curriculum is focused on literacy, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and social justice.

The cradle to career effort at Marygrove has also spurred development in the surrounding neighborhoods, said Rip Rapson, Kresge president and CEO.

“It is undertakings like these that will define the Detroit of the future, that will give the city’s residents reason to believe that their neighborhood will offer the kinds of opportunities that every citizen has a right to expect and that every citizen deserves,” Rapson said.

Reid toured the new facility in July. It features 12 large classrooms, three interior courtyards that bring in natural light and a connection to the outdoors, and areas dedicated to children’s health and holistic development.

“When I toured the center, I was like finally, someone gets it,” she said. “The building was designed with the whole child in mind, which I’m very appreciative of … Inside is cheerful and just inviting. I like the space for the teachers, for the families. And sometimes it’s the small things that matter, and it was the laundry facilities for me that make the difference.”

The cradle to career initiative is one of the biggest efforts to emerge from Hope Starts Here, an ambitious project publicly launched in 2017 with funding from Kresge and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (also a Chalkbeat funder). The goal of this 10-year project is to ensure that by 2027, Detroit is a city that puts its children first by taking steps such as increasing the number of children in quality preschool programs.

Mayor Mike Duggan, who has been a strong advocate for quality early childhood education programs for all Detroit children, said the Marygrove effort took “what could have been a tragedy for the city,” when the college closed its doors in 2019, and “turned it into a cause for joy.”

He echoed Rapson’s comments about how the effort has spurred growth in the surrounding communities. Duggan said property values in the Marygrove neighborhood and the adjacent Fitzgerald neighborhood have grown faster than any others in the city. Storefronts that were once boarded up are now open for business.

It “has helped the rebirth of northwest Detroit,” Duggan said.

Report: Homeless students are undercounted and underserved in Detroit. Schools struggle to find them.

2021-08-23T22:11:32+00:00

Detroit schools for years have severely undercounted the number of homeless students in the city, leaving thousands of children without the crucial services they’re entitled to and need to succeed. The pandemic has made the undercount even worse.

The undercounting is highlighted in a new report released Monday by the University of Michigan Poverty Solutions initiative.

District and charter schools in Detroit identified 1,785 students, or about 2% of the student population, as homeless in 2017. But the researchers said the number is much higher — between 7,000 and 14,000, according to the report.

The undercounting matters profoundly because federal law provides explicit protections and services for homeless students, including transportation to and from school, the right to remain in the school they had been attending, academic support, and the right to enroll in a school even if they lack proper documents. Those services are crucial because homeless students are more likely to be chronically absent, drop out of school, and be suspended or expelled from school.

The undercount estimate is based on two things: One is 2017 data that shows 16% of households with children in Detroit reported being either evicted or forced to move within the previous year, which meets the definition of student homelessness. The number is also based on state guidelines that consider there to be a likely undercount if fewer than 10% of a school’s population of students from low income homes aren’t identified.

Data are from the 2017-18 school year, the most recent for which detailed information about homeless students was available.

The pandemic has put even more emphasis on the need for school officials to identify homeless students. A November report by Schoolhouse Connections and Poverty Solutions found that during the last school year, schools across the country were seeing big declines in the number of identified homeless students. The declines were not because there were fewer homeless students, but because school staff struggled to maintain connections with them during a pandemic that forced many students into remote learning.

“There are going to be a lot of kids who are or have been homeless in the last year, who have been just totally disconnected from school,” said Jennifer Erb-Downward, senior research associate at Poverty Solutions, a UM initiative that does research on poverty, and one of the authors of the report.

How homelessness affects students in Detroit

Here are some of the key takeaways from a University of Michigan Poverty Solutions report, released Monday, that raises concerns about undercounting of Detroit’s homeless student population, and the educational implications of that undercount.

In Detroit, Black students had a greater risk of homelessness than their peers in other races, accounting for 86% of students who were homeless but 82% of students overall.
Homeless students had the highest rates of chronic absenteeism with 3 out of 4 students in Detroit Public Schools Community District and Detroit charters missing 10% or more of school days. On average homeless students attended just 102 days of school during the 2017-18 school year.
Homeless students struggled academically more than their peers who have secure housing. The report notes that these challenges persist after stable housing was found.
Suspensions and expulsions in Detroit accounted for 12% of all disciplinary actions statewide, the report said. Students in Detroit who were formerly homeless face the highest disciplinary action rates with 1 in 4 suspended or expelled during the 2017-18 school year.
Half of Detroit students who were homeless during high school graduated on time, compared with an average graduation rate of 73% for all. Also, 55% of the students who experienced homelessness during middle school graduated after four years of high school, even when students had secure housing during high school.
Statewide, students who were homeless during the 2014-15 school year were 14 times more likely to enter foster care during the 2015-16 school year than students who were not homeless the previous school year.

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines homeless students as those “who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.” That definition includes students living on the streets and in shelters, but also includes other scenarios such as students who are moving from home to home, living with relatives, or living in motels.

“If a child doesn’t have a stable place to live, it’s impacting their health, it’s impacting their education, and we have the data to show that. So, we have to figure out some way to deal with it,” Erb-Downward said in an interview Friday.

From the beginning of the pandemic until now, advocates for homeless children have scrambled to connect with these students.

“We are definitely concerned as to where the homeless students are at and working on ways to best identify and recapture students,” Julie Ratekin, homeless youth services manager at Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, told Chalkbeat in the spring. In her role she coordinates with the homeless student liaisons at all of the schools in Detroit to train them to support homeless students and connect them with community resources homeless students may need.

Erb-Downward said another pandemic related challenge for homeless students is that families who have struggled financially during the pandemic worry about what the future holds, especially given that an eviction moratorium that has been in place since early in the pandemic will eventually end.

“That fear is very real and there are a lot of families who are likely going to experience homelessness and housing instability.”

Across Detroit, 95% of schools are very likely or likely undercounting homeless students, based on the 2017 data. But it’s not just a Detroit issue. Across Michigan, which has the sixth-highest number of homeless students among other states in the nation, the percentage of schools likely or very likely undercounting was 88%.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal law governing K-12 education in the nation, placed a stronger priority on identification, with state and local school districts required to “provide training and professional development opportunities for staff so that they can identify and meet the needs of homeless children and youths,” according to a 2016 policy letter from the U.S. Department of Education.

Also, schools will benefit from $800 million Congress allocated, through the American Rescue Plan Act, to help homeless students. Finding students is a key part of spending the money. And the federal education department has told schools they can use the money for students to buy cell phones and prepaid debit cards, and pay for short-term temporary housing, such as a few nights in a motel — things that typically aren’t allowed.

“There’s opportunity to really reach kids who are struggling, and to provide them with the support that they need,” Erb-Downward said.

While most Detroit schools are struggling to identify homeless students, there are several charter schools highlighted in the report that are getting it right. At those schools (Cesar Chavez Academy, George Crockett Academy, and Covenant House Academy), determining a student’s housing situation begins during the application and enrollment process.

“Staff find out if students are homeless through enrollment forms, in-person conversations, and just by paying attention to kids and how they show up to school,” the report says. “Schools benefit from building long-standing foundations of trust between administrators and the community, so families will sometimes refer other families in need to staff to get assistance.”

Students generally don’t talk about their housing situation, Margaret Thigpen, homelessness liaison at George Crockett Academy, told Poverty Solutions.

“You just have to ease into it. And you have to build trust. They need to know that you care about them,” Thigpen said.

The report says the Detroit Public Schools Community District has ramped up its efforts to identify homeless students by identifying a homelessness point of contact in each building and increasing training to assist with identification and connection to support services.

“This approach holds potential for improving identification and could be adopted at charter school networks that do not have such a system in place,” the report said.

Ratekin and other experts recommend schools do several things to find students who may be homeless: Posting the rights of homeless students with contact information to support services in public places, adding information and support options to school websites, and creating community partnerships to build awareness. During the last school year, the agency created a 24/7 hotline to connect families to resources.

Sarah Bousley-Crane, the school social worker at Warrendale Charter Academy in Detroit, told Chalkbeat in the spring that homeless students at her school were having more academic struggles during the last school year compared with their peers.

“There’s like the overall struggle that everybody’s dealing with, and then most of our families that are qualified under McKinney-Vento are in doubled up situations,” she said, meaning they are staying at someone else’s house. “Being home, plus being in the home of somebody else is making it more difficult for those students.”

What’s next for abandoned schools in Detroit? Neighbors say almost anything is better than vacancy.

2021-07-26T15:17:17+00:00

The City of Detroit is looking for developers to revitalize dozens of vacant school buildings following years of demands by residents that something be done with the properties.

Over the last year, engineers and architects visited unused schools across the city, measuring the buildings and estimating the cost of repairs hoping to convince developers to find new uses for the schools. The buildings could see a wide range of new purposes, including as housing, community centers, industrial facilities, or — more controversially — charter schools.

Neighbors have long told local officials that almost anything would be better than leaving the buildings vacant. While the buildings are generally structurally sound, some have been left open to the elements, vandalized, and stripped of valuable metals. Typical redevelopment costs are $5 to $15 million according to city estimates.

Those price tags come as no surprise to Sandra Turner-Handy, a leader of the Denby Neighborhood Alliance, who lived near Wilkins, one of the city-owned schools, and knows it’s in bad shape.

“I drive by there and shake my head,” she said. “My daughters went there. They lived on the corner of that street.”

“The disinvestment around these closed schools is so evident. When they don’t pick up these buildings and do something with them it represents their disinvestment in the whole community.”

School buildings anchor communities, serving as gathering places and public resources or more. When they become vacant and deteriorate — as they did in major cities around the country, a trend driven by deindustrialization and white flight — the surrounding neighborhoods often suffer.

Detroit is an extreme example of school closures, and empty buildings remain a painful reminder to residents of two decades of declining enrollment and disinvestment. Two hundred schools closed during that time, and many remain standing. Like other abandoned properties, schools contribute to chronic absenteeism because they increase students’ fears of walking to school.

In 2014, the city forgave millions of dollars of unpaid Detroit Public Schools electrical bills in exchange for some of its vacant properties — 57 schools in total. The most dilapidated buildings were torn down, but 39 stayed standing and have been largely neglected for years.

In total, the project cost $858,000. The city covered the cost of a detailed accounting of the 39 city-owned buildings, while the Detroit Public Schools Community District chipped in $223,000 for surveys of two dozen district-owned buildings. The documentation, which is available online, includes the estimated cost to redevelop each property along with architectural measurements and a survey of existing land uses, population, and community needs in surrounding neighborhoods. Public meetings to discuss redevelopment possibilities are in planning stages, city officials said.

City representatives also created less detailed reports on the vacant buildings still owned by Detroit Public Schools Community District. That information isn’t included on the project website, but it was provided to the district and will be incorporated into an upcoming facilities plan.

“The analysis will inform the district’s 20-year facility plan, which will be presented to the school board in January,” district spokesperson Chrystal Wilson said in a statement. “This plan will make recommendations for the current use of all school buildings, those being used and those vacant.”

Residents have been attending public meetings for years to demand that something be done with the properties. Turner-Handy called them an “eyesore” and said they bring down the value of surrounding properties.

The next step for the buildings is “a three-way match-making process between what the building could be, what the neighborhood needs, and what the developer can do,” said Andrew Wald, a lead consultant on the project and head of the Detroit office for Interboro, an architecture and planning firm.

“We have a good understanding of the buildings,” he added. “Now it’s about going out and finding the developers, the people who have the ability to take on these projects, and getting them talking with the community.”

The community’s response will hinge in part on how the building is being used. Garrick Landsberg, director of historic preservation for the city, said a wide range of new uses are possible, including for new charter schools, though he noted that many of the buildings are too large for most new Detroit schools. The Detroit district has in some cases sought to prevent charter schools from opening in its former buildings, but not this time. The Detroit Public Schools didn’t include a clause preventing future use by charter schools when it gave the buildings to the city in 2014, said city spokesman Dan Austin.

Charter schools enroll a higher portion of students in Detroit than in almost any U.S. city, and new charter proposals can still be controversial. Opponents say charters increase competition for students in a city where many schools are already struggling with enrollment, while supporters point to the relatively high test scores posted by the highest-performing charter schools.

Some Detroiters welcomed the news earlier this year that KIPP, a national charter operator, proposed to build a school on city-owned land. But activists pushed back, and KIPP eventually dropped the proposal and is seeking property elsewhere in the city.

“At this point, I’m okay with charter,” said Aliya Moore, a community activist who was the PTA president at Oakman when the school was shuttered in 2012 by a state-appointed emergency manager. The Oakman building was designed to serve people with disabilities, and Moore said she wants to see it used for that purpose.

Not everyone is ready to accept a new charter school in a former district building. The city shouldn’t take bids from charter school operators, said Helen Moore, a community activist (no relation to Aliya).

“We do not want or need any more charter schools in the city of Detroit,” she said. “If that’s what they want to do with the schools, I think it’s wrong. If they went in the direction of more housing for the city and using the buildings for that purpose, that would be a positive.”

No matter what use is found for the vacant schools, the community should benefit, said Derrick Williams, whose son attended Oakman. The school was an anchor of the community, he said — he played Santa Claus at holiday parties.

“When the school closed, people moved out, the neighborhood went down,” he said. “A lot of people had moved over in that area because the school was right there. The school was family oriented, we all looked out for the kids.”

Today, he said, “you ride past the building and get sad.”

Editor’s note: July 27, 2021: This story was updated with the clarification that the Detroit Public Schools Community District covered some of the cost of the survey of vacant schools in the city.

New Skillman president will bring a passion for racial equity to Detroit children

2021-06-21T19:00:47+00:00

The woman selected to lead one of the most prominent philanthropic foundations in metro Detroit is a passionate advocate for racial equity and social justice — two issues at the heart of discussions about improving the lives of Detroit’s schoolchildren.

“This is an electric city I’m coming into, hat in hand, ready to listen and learn,” said Angelique Power. On Monday afternoon, the Skillman Foundation (a Chalkbeat funder) announced she would become the nonprofit’s new president and chief executive officer.

Her selection wraps up a months-long search to replace Tonya Allen, who led the organization since 2014 before leaving for a job in Minnesota earlier this year.

Power, whose job with Skillman begins Sept. 13, is currently president of the Field Foundation in Chicago, where she led racial equity efforts that resulted in the foundation rethinking how and who it funds.

The Skillman Foundation, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, is known as a strong advocate for Detroit’s children and their education.

“Skillman’s approach to philanthropy really resonates with me,” Power said. “It’s admirable. It’s important. Skillman leverages all that it has to offer in service of children,” Power said.

Suzanne Shank, the vice chair of the Skillman Foundation board who led the search for a new president, said Power was a unanimous choice of the search committee and the board.

“She really rose to the top of the pack as being a visionary leader who had a strong reputation for consensus building across a broad divide of people,” said Shank, president and CEO of Siebert Williams Shank & Co. “She definitely has her finger on the pulse of the racial justice movement.”

The latter was crucial, Shank said, “given the time we’re in right now.”

“We felt that someone who is known as a champion of racial justice, but who also can come into the Detroit market sort of fresh and new and give a different perspective, would really provide some value,” Shank said.

“We’re witnessing this generational shift in this past year alone, where we saw all of these uprisings that were youth led, that were calling for systems change and asking us to sort of rise to the occasion,” Power said. “And I feel like Skillman has the track record. It’s been working on this for some time. And that appeals to me.”

Power already has some familiarity with the city. She spent time volunteering here when she was a student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Two of her previous foundation jobs had connections to the city. Power, the daughter of a Chicago public school teacher and a Chicago police sergeant, also spent many summers and weekends traveling to West Michigan, where the family owned a small cottage.

She plans to move to the region this summer with her husband, Sean, and her 11-year-old daughter, Sadie Lousiane.

She said she’s not coming in with any plans to make changes at Skillman. Instead, she wants to build on what Allen started.

“Tonya is a rock star. She’s beloved and she’s brilliant. What she built, she built with love. And I feel a deep responsibility to her work, her legacy, her name.”

That’s why her priority early on will be to listen to Detroit residents. In particular, she wants to hear from young people “what they want from Skillman in this moment.”

She’s well aware that Detroiters at times can be skeptical because “they’ve had too many experiences with outsiders who have an extractive relationship with Detroit.”

For her, though, coming to Detroit is like a calling.

“We all are needed to unlock an equitable future for [Detroit] children.”

KIPP drops plans to build charter school on Detroit-owned site

2021-06-15T22:46:00+00:00

KIPP, the nation’s largest nonprofit charter school network, has dropped plans to purchase a 10 acre parcel of city-owned land for a K-12 school.

This doesn’t mean there won’t be a KIPP Detroit: Imani Academy. The network is already authorized by Central Michigan University to open a school, and it can tap into a $20 million anonymous donation to build a school somewhere else.

But the decision to walk away from the proposed land purchase is an early bump in the road for KIPP, which supporters say will bring a high quality education option to a city that doesn’t have enough. National operators like KIPP have historically avoided Detroit, where student needs are high, public support is low, and there’s no regulatory body to stop another school from opening next door and competing for enrollment and funding.

With its proposed opening date months away, KIPP must now choose another location after spending months working with the city on the sale and convincing its potential neighbors to publicly support the plan. The network’s U-turn also means the project will face less public scrutiny in coming months. City rules require public hearings for sales of this size, and the proposal was headed to City Council this fall for further hearings and a vote.

Candace Rogers, superintendent of the planned KIPP school, did not immediately return requests for comment. Melia Howard, manager for Detroit’s District 5, worked with KIPP on the planned sale. She confirmed that the network no longer wants to buy the land. The city canceled a public hearing set for Tuesday regarding the proposed $125,000 sale of 13141 Rosa Parks Blvd., a vacant parcel of land owned by the City of Detroit.

“We’re really disappointed because we’ve been working on this for six months,” said Teresa Clarington, president of the Longfellow Block Club. The club is named after the school that previously stood on the land KIPP wanted to buy. Clarington and other block club members have spoken extensively with Rogers about the proposed school and advocated publicly for the sale.

The club held a cookout on Monday and was expecting an update from KIPP officials, but the officials didn’t show up, Clarington said, adding that she hoped Rogers would eventually explain to block members why KIPP changed its plans.

Some Detroiters opposed the planned sale, saying the city has enough schools already for its shrinking student population. Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has spoken against it; education activists critical of the plan dominated a public meeting last month.

KIPP’s supporters in Detroit point to the network’s track record of academic success in communities of color. The network enrolls more than 100,000 students in 20 states.

Requests for comment from Mayor Mike Duggan’s office and the Central Michigan University charter schools office weren’t immediately returned Tuesday.

KIPP’s application for a charter, which was approved last fall by Central Michigan University, listed its Detroit address as 11457 Shoemaker Street. The network said at the time that it planned to begin operating at that address this fall with 110 kindergartners. Within a decade the network hopes to enroll 1,300 students K-12.

Detroit kids 12-15 can get the Pfizer vaccine beginning Thursday

2021-05-12T22:46:26+00:00

Detroit children over the age of 12 can start getting vaccinated at city locations beginning Thursday, but they need to have a parent or guardian with them to get the shot.

“Parents are going to have to be engaged,” Mayor Mike Duggan said. “We don’t vaccinate children unless their parents are with them.”

The city is expanding the vaccination age requirements a day after Wednesday’s decision by the federal Centers for Disease Control to approve the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents 12-15 years old. Previously, the vaccines were available only to those 16 years of age or older.

Duggan said there are new rules because children are involved:

Anyone 12-17 years old must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
The parent or guardian must show identification.
The parent or guardian must sign a written consent form.
An adult accompanying anyone under the age of 18 will not be eligible for the city’s “Good Neighbor” program reimbursement, a city initiative that provides a $50 gift card for any city resident who brings a friend or neighbor in for vaccination.

“I don’t want that ever to be a question that somebody took their child in to get vaccinated because they wanted $50,” Duggan said.

Asked whether he would be working with schools to get students vaccinated, Duggan said he will leave that effort to Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

“My job is to make the vaccine available. I think you’ll see the school district take the proper role,” Duggan said.

The district is already working with its health care partners to provide vaccination clinics for children. On Tuesday, a group of high school students launched Teens for Vaccines, a campaign to encourage their peers to be inoculated.

The students said they embarked on the effort because they want their peers to know why it’s important to get vaccinated.

“I just felt like it was my part to make sure I can at least do something to protect my family,” Demitri Marino, a senior at Renaissance High School, said.

Here’s why a 3-2 Detroit school board vote to suspend in-person learning until the end of the school year failed

2021-04-14T03:30:58+00:00

The Detroit board of education voted 3-2 Tuesday night to suspend all in-person learning in the district until the end of the school year, after several community members urged “just one member” to put the matter to a vote.

But seconds after the vote was taken, the three who voted yes were told the vote failed.

At issue: Jenice Mitchell Ford, the district’s attorney, said the board’s bylaws require a majority of the elected board members to approve a motion for it to be valid. Two board members — Misha Stallworth West and Corletta Vaughn — were absent from the meeting.

“You have to have four to approve any action item on tonight’s agenda,” Board President Angelique Peterson-Mayberry said.

The vote came nearly four hours into the regular board meeting, after a public comment period. Several of the nearly 20 people who spoke urged the district to shut down in-person learning because of Detroit’s high COVID-19 rates. The district has paused in-person learning for three weeks after spring break, with students expected to return to buildings April 26. During the pause, students have been learning virtually.

Benjamin Royal, a district teacher who has been leading protests against in-person learning since last summer, said there is “an urgent necessity of closing the schools now and keeping them closed at least through the remainder of the year.”

Royal said schools “cannot be safely reopened until all students are vaccinated and COVID testing confirms the coronavirus is no longer spreading in our community. This is a decision this board can make tonight. It only takes one board member to make a motion to put it to a vote.”

The board member who made the motion was Georgia Lemmons. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo and Deborah Hunter Harvill supported her. Voting against the motion were Peterson-Mayberry and Sonya Mays. The vote to suspend doesn’t affect students who have been going to school buildings to attend the district’s learning centers. In those centers, students can learn virtually, but under the supervision of school staff.

At the time of the vote, about 200 people were still tuning into the virtual meeting, a board member commented.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said he is concerned that the board action would further disenfranchise district parents who want in-school learning for their children. Earlier in the meeting, he had provided the board with information showing most surrounding school districts in Wayne County offer in-person learning. The Detroit district has about 19,000 families who responded to a survey saying they want their children in school buildings, but the district can’t accommodate them because there aren’t enough teachers willing to be in person.

Suspending in-person learning for the rest of the school year is “going to be shocking for families to hear that. I do believe we risk losing students,” Vitti said.

Mays had said before the vote that she didn’t think it was proper for the board to make such a big decision with two members absent.

“I just would hope that for a decision as weighty and important as this, we can find time and space to ensure all board members are included in the conversation,” Mays said.

But Gay-Dagnogo said the board needs to make a decision now so families have time to plan.

“How do we adequately plan if we keep vacillating back and forth. We need a consistent plan,” Gay-Dagnogo said. “It’s time for us to … make sure people are safe.”

Immediately after the vote, and before the board secretary could finish saying that the motion passed, Mays and Peterson-Mayberry interrupted, saying that the motion didn’t pass. Peterson-Mayberry then asked Mitchell Ford to explain.

Ford read from the board’s bylaw, which was adopted in 2018 and revised in 2019.

It reads: “No act shall be valid unless approved at a meeting of the Board by a majority vote of the members who are: (i) elected or appointed to and serving on the Board; and (ii) authorized to vote. Also, a proper record must be made of the vote.”

The insistence that four votes were needed affected a number of votes the board took after the controversy, with multiple 3-2 votes.

And later, Gay-Dagnogo found another version of the board’s bylaw on the district’s website that said a vote is valid if a majority of the board members present approve it. That prompted her to say that “until we get clarity … the vote we took stands.”

That version of the bylaw isn’t dated, though it is what shows up during a simple web search for district bylaws. But it is not on the portion of the district’s website that hosts updated board policies. Gay-Dagnogo said having an outdated version of the policy on the website created confusion and “that is exactly why the public lacks trust in the district.”

Vitti said district officials would get to the bottom of why the old version of the board policies is still on the website and have them removed.

Prior to the vote, Vitti urged the board to reconsider and have a broader discussion at its May meeting. He said he was committed to not reopen school buildings until then.

“I understand this is the board’s purview to make this decision. The action, if taken by the board tonight, is unprecedented,” Vitti said. He said that in his four years as superintendent, the board has “never taken an action like this without working through it in committee or a special meeting.”

Detroit district pausing in-person instruction for one week after spring break to prevent COVID spread

2021-03-30T23:08:27+00:00

The Detroit school district has decided it will pause in-person instruction next week to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after spring break.

“This is to allow employees and students a week of social isolation after spring break to limit the spread,” a note on the district’s web site said Tuesday.

The decision in the Detroit Public Schools Community District comes as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Michigan and as school district leaders weigh whether they can continue holding face-to-face classes. Many Michigan schools began reopening in recent weeks under pressure from state officials. Bridge Michigan reported Tuesday that there were 241 confirmed cases of COVID outbreaks in state K-12 schools as of March 25. That was up from 201 the previous week. An outbreak occurs when there are two or more related positive cases in a school.

The district is on spring break this week. The move to keep students home next week will affect students who were taking classes in a classroom with a teacher as well as students attending learning centers located in each school building. The centers give students an opportunity to take all of their classes online, but in a room supervised by a staff member.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told reporters last week that the district was considering the pause.

“We know extended families will be visited. We know churches will be open,” Vitti said at the time. “We are concerned about the infection rate.”

In the note on the web site, district officials said they don’t anticipate another district shutdown.

They said the introduction of vaccinations, mitigation and safety measures, and the ability to identify isolated cases and quarantine students and staff “mean that we should expect that schools remain open, even if the infection rate in the community is more elevated than previous months.”

The district said it would continue to consult with public health experts and make adjustments if necessary.

Earlier in the day Tuesday, the city of Detroit cited rising COVID-19 cases in issuing an order barring in-person government meetings. The order noted that the positivity rate in the city was 7% the week of March 14 to March 20. That’s up from 3.2% the week of Feb. 7 to Feb. 13.

During the week of April 5, those who had spent time learning in buildings will learn online. They will return to buildings April 12.

Employees will be required to receive a negative COVID-19 test before returning to buildings. The district also plans to launch random COVID-19 saliva testing for students the week of April 12.

About 9,000 students have returned to attend the learning centers and in-person instruction since the district reopened buildings in February and March. Only about 1,000 students are receiving full-time, in-person instruction. The rest are either attending the learning centers full time or receiving a mix of in-person instruction and online classes.

The district enrolls 49,000 students.

As Detroit classrooms reopen, district hopes safety measures will put teachers at ease

2021-03-08T22:43:08+00:00

Sultana Gambrell had only been back in her classroom at Ronald Brown Academy for a couple of hours, but she was already on a roll with a lesson about the water cycle.

“High five!” she called out to a student who’d just given a correct answer. She started to move toward him, then thought twice.

“Well, we can’t touch, but high five!” she said, miming the gesture to her student, who returned it.

It wasn’t quite business as usual in the Detroit Public Schools Community District on Monday as teachers returned to classrooms in Detroit for the first time in months. Staff kept a close eye on students to make sure they stayed six feet apart and wore their masks over their noses. And many students still took some lessons online because not enough teachers agreed to return to their classrooms to meet demand from families.

Even without full attendance, Monday marked another step toward a pre-pandemic normal. An estimated 20,000 students were expected to report to school, or about 40% of the total. That’s about twice as many as last fall, when the district reopened classrooms until rising COVID-19 cases forced a suspension in mid-November.

At the same time, the district expected 20% of teachers to report to their classrooms, ensuring that some students who wanted in-person instruction wouldn’t get it. Nikolai Vitti, district superintendent, said he wouldn’t know how many teachers and students showed up on Monday until later in the week.

“I was ecstatic,” said Sonya Haynes, an English teacher at Brenda Scott Academy, of the return to work. She hasn’t been vaccinated yet, but she said she strongly prefers teaching in-person to teaching virtually. “I was like a little kid last night getting ready for school. Clothes ironed, lunch made.”

Vitti visited schools on Monday morning with Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the district’s largest educators union.

Both said they expect more educators to come back to work in person in coming weeks. Earlier in the pandemic, the district and union agreed that teachers would be able to choose whether to work in person or virtually. Other staff, including assistant principals, deans, and paraprofessionals, were required to report to work on Feb. 24.

“My biggest concern is that we’re not completely matching student demand with teacher willingness to come into the classroom,” Vitti said. “But I’m optimistic that over the next weeks or months, that when these teachers talk to other teachers about the safety standards that we have in place, more will come back.”

Guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention say schools can be opened safely even if teachers aren’t vaccinated. However, many teachers are leery of returning to work before receiving the shot.

Health officials in Detroit estimate Detroit health officials estimate that they have vaccinated about 9,000 teachers — including charter school teachers — but federal law prohibits the city from telling the district which teachers have been vaccinated without the teachers’ consent. The district sent a voluntary survey to its roughly 3,800 teachers asking whether they have received vaccines, but so far has received only a few hundred responses.

Vitti said Detroit teachers are particularly concerned about the dangers of the virus because many lost family members in the spring, when the city was hit especially hard.

Despite the agreement between the district and teachers union, some teachers are concerned that they will be forced to work once they are vaccinated, Vitti said. Vitti has said that the district will not require teachers and families to get the vaccine.

Martin, the union president, said the district “has done everything that it can do to ensure safety.”

“I’m seeing mitigation strategies implemented,” he added. “I’m seeing small class sizes, students six feet apart in classrooms. It’s going to take some time for folks to get more comfortable. But I’m pretty confident that we’re going to start to see those numbers increase over the next few weeks.”

When a student comes to school and their teacher doesn’t, the teacher will still give lessons online. For older students, that might mean taking a virtual lesson from their teacher while sitting in a classroom supervised by another adult. The next hour, they might have a face-to-face class with a teacher who opted to return.

For younger students, who often only have one teacher, this can mean spending the day in one of the district’s learning centers. Each school has a center where students can learn virtually at school.

There were more than a dozen students in the learning center at Brenda Scott Academy on Monday. Most had laptops on their tables, while a few read books. Several students weren’t using headphones, and all their teachers’ voices were audible at once.

At Ronald Brown Academy, Michael Foster, a fourth grade math teacher, was teaching students virtually and in person at the same time.

As he walked his students through a lesson on fractions, a voice came from a speaker at the front of the classroom: “I can’t see your screen at all.”

There were a dozen students in Foster’s classroom, and several more had been following the lesson at home. At least one of the virtual students was struggling to stay connected.

Foster tried to keep talking about fractions and fix the problem at the same time.

“How many parts are inside two-fifths?” he asked.

“I can barely hear you,” the student interjected. “I still can’t see the screen.”

More than a dozen students from various grade levels at work in a “learning center” at Brenda Scott Academy in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Students are assigned to the centers if their teachers decline to work in person. Each student does classwork independently or listens to their teacher through a virtual platform.

Want to fix the chronic absenteeism problem in Detroit schools? Start with transportation.

2021-02-19T23:10:15+00:00

Transportation struggles aren’t the only reason chronic absenteeism is so pervasive in Detroit schools, but it is the most common reason so many students aren’t showing up for class on a regular basis, Wayne State University researchers say in a new report.

About 50% of students in district and charter schools in Detroit are considered chronically absent, meaning they miss about 10% or more of the school year.

The Wayne State researchers, who are part of the Detroit Education Research Partnership, warn that the pandemic has exacerbated the problem, and that seems to be validated by increased chronic absenteeism so far in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The researchers predict chronic absenteeism will get worse in the fall unless school and community leaders come up with new solutions for school transportation.

As part of the study, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with Detroit parents, high school students, and school staff during the 2019-20 school year. They also analyzed attendance trends in the city.

Here, we highlight several key findings from the research. You can read the full report here. And check out the sidebar below to see some of the recommendations.

Solutions to addressing chronic absenteeism in Detroit

A report from Wayne State University on chronic absenteeism in Detroit offers a number of immediate, medium-term, and long-term recommendations for school and community leaders. You can read the full report here. Below are the key suggestions.

Detroit school and civic leaders must develop system-wide solutions for school transportation to ensure students can access public schools. Those solutions include immediately advocating for more resources to maintain health and safety protocols on school and public transportation, developing creative solutions for back-up transportation, and aligning school transportation with other efforts to strengthen neighborhood vitality in Detroit.
Detroit school leaders should provide clear guidance to families about health and school attendance, advocate for resources to ensure that schools are safe when students and staff return to in-person learning, and proactively establish contingency plans for when in-person learning is not safe.
School and community attendance initiatives should prioritize support more than accountability. Partnerships should be developed and strengthened to remove barriers to attendance and strengthen the conditions for student attendance at every level of Detroit’s educational ecosystem.

The Wayne State researchers also released a report Thursday on the tie between chronic absenteeism and third grade reading achievement. You can read it here.

Transportation is a major barrier

Transportation “was the most frequently requested resource when we asked parents what would help them with their child’s attendance,” the report says. But the issues aren’t just about access to transportation.

Some parents don’t own a car and some who did said their car was unreliable, or broke down frequently and needed repairs they can’t afford. Some said taking city buses was unreliable or unsafe. And some expressed frustration that they don’t have access to school transportation. Walking to school, the parents said, isn’t always a safe option because of crime, inclement weather, or because their children are too young.

Meanwhile, some parents pointed to a “lack of social support that often left them with limited transportation options when their routines were disrupted and they had to find backup transportation to get their children to or from school.”

“I don’t have a lot of people, or pretty much nobody to rely on to be able to take her to school if I’m not able,” one parent told the researchers.

The report says that the pandemic is likely to mean more families will have fewer resources to get their kids to school, and they won’t be able to rely on an already limited social and family network to help because of social distancing protocols.

Health concerns are also a barrier

Illnesses — because of conditions such as diabetes, severe asthma, or allergies — added “a substantial number of days on top of other reasons that students were absent.” The researchers said these issues are compounded by problems with access to health care.

Mental health, too, affects student attendance, the researchers said.

The pandemic will only exacerbate these issues, they said, because families “are more likely to keep their children home if they appear sick or if they are concerned about sickness.”

Parents want their kids in school

The researchers found that parents are keenly aware of the importance of having their kids in school because they want “to instill in their children a view that school was important and that they should not make excuses to stay home.”

Some, in fact, reported they go to great lengths to try to get their kids to school — including turning to any relative they can find to help and adjusting their work schedules.

Despite that, many said they often find themselves making trade-offs, prioritizing their children’s safety and health and their family income.

“The fact that decisions about well-being often required a trade-off with attending school reflect the unjust conditions they face — conditions that may demand even more trade-offs in light of the public health and economic impacts of COVID-19,” the report says.

Detroit district will remove Fs, limit graded assignments in push to help overwhelmed online students

2021-02-03T02:18:31+00:00

Students would be able to retake exams up to two times, the letter grades D and F would become a G or a No Credit, and homework largely would be limited to reading assignments or studying.

These are the changes that will usher in a dramatically new way of grading in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, and address mounting complaints that many students learning online are overwhelmed and disengaged. The changes take effect for the current semester.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti detailed the changes, recommended by an online learning task force that includes 200 people, during a school board meeting Tuesday night. The group’s goal was to devise recommendations to improve online learning, as well as student motivation and engagement. Vitti said the task force will continue to meet and present more ideas.

“If we don’t do something, our attendance rates will continue to decline and our failure rates will continue to increase,” Vitti said.

Educators across Michigan and the nation have drawn attention to rising rates of failure and many schools have made similar adjustments to help students be successful.

In the Detroit district, about 20% of elementary and middle school students and up to 35% of high school students failed at least one class in the first quarter. Those rates are about twice that of the previous school year, according to district estimates.

Meanwhile, average daily attendance is 72.5% in the district, compared to the average of nearly 85% during the last school year, before the pandemic forced the closure of school buildings and the transition to remote learning.

Here are the changes, presented at the board meeting:

Students may retake quizzes and tests up to two times to demonstrate their understanding of the content.
The grade letter D would become a G. Students would get credit for the class, but it would not impact their grade point averages. The change would be retroactive to first semester grades.
The grade letter F would become NC, for no credit. The NC would not affect grade point averages.
The changes to D and F grades would apply to students in grades 3-12. Students in lower grades do not currently receive letter grades.
Students who attend and participate in class 80% of the time cannot receive a grade lower than a G.
The number of graded assignments issued by teachers in a week would be limited to one per subject in grades K-2 and two per subject in grades 3-12. There will be no limit on quizzes and tests. Teachers would be required to give students a breakdown of assignments and tests planned for the week each Monday.
Homework will be limited to reading assignments or studying, as well as the limited number of graded assignments teachers could assign for homework.
Students can submit late assignments and resubmit assignments to receive a better grade within a 10-day window.

Vitti said the recommendations “are not about lowering standards.” Instead, he said, “this is about creating a process so our students can feel like they can be successful, and to engage in a way where they can think about what they’re learning and not be so overwhelmed that they’re giving up. We’re hearing from too many students and too many families that students are literally giving up.”

Board member Misha Stallworth West said she appreciated the recommendations. She asked Vitti whether the changes to D and F grades would affect college applications.

“Do we know how that will work for transcripts for college?” she asked.

Vitti noted that the grade point average, one of the data points colleges look at when evaluating applications, won’t be affected by the change. He said another district has already been using G’s instead of Ds, and it “has not raised red flags.”

Marnina Falk, a teacher in the district who spoke during the public comment period of the meeting, said “all this flexibility you’re adding ... is great,” but she said she’s concerned it will put more work on teachers.

“Simply adjusting our grading system is not enough,” Falk said. “My students and I are exhausted,” she said.

KIPP will open a school in Detroit. Can the charter network succeed where others faltered?

2021-01-13T21:10:49+00:00

KIPP, the largest nonprofit charter school network in the U.S., plans to open a school in Detroit. If the school can replicate KIPP’s national track record of academic success, it would immediately be one of the highest-performing in the city.

For years, some education advocates in Detroit have tried to attract KIPP and other organizations like it, but the city’s fiercely competitive, open-market model of schooling and Michigan’s school funding model got in the way.

Now, with the help of an anonymous $20 million donation toward a new KIPP campus on the city’s east side, those advocates hope that the 25-year-old network will give more Detroit students a shot at attending a high-performing school.

“It’s terrific news,” said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, an education think tank that has funded charter schools in Detroit. “KIPP is one of the better national operators. People have been trying to get them here for 20 years.”

Whether KIPP can do more for Detroit children than other schools have done remains to be seen. Its new school, KIPP Detroit: Imani Academy, will open in fall of 2021 or 2022 as a 110-student kindergarten program, with plans to expand to a 1,300-student K-12 school at a rate of one or two grades per year.

That means it will likely be four years before KIPP students take standardized exams, which could measure comparable achievement, in Michigan.

Still, KIPP will stand out immediately in Detroit.

The city is home to dozens of mostly small, locally run charter schools that consistently perform below state averages by virtually every academic measure.

KIPP enrolls more than 100,000 students in 20 states, and has a track record of producing strong academic outcomes in low-income communities of color (almost all of its students nationally are low-income and Black or Latino). The organization is continuing to expand with the help of tens of millions of dollars in federal charter school grants.

Detroit is known for fierce competition between schools for students and funding. KIPP is known for sharing its practices with neighboring school districts.

What’s more, KIPP will have a substantial funding advantage: a $20 million campus plus millions of dollars from the national KIPP organization and federal charter school grants. Many schools in economically depressed areas like Detroit struggle to maintain school buildings, and charter schools don’t receive any dedicated funding for facilities.

Candace Rogers, the superintendent of the new school, said KIPP hopes to continue its practice of collaborating with other education groups. Rogers was previously principal of Detroit Enterprise Academy, a Detroit charter, and has worked with KIPP’s national organization for roughly a decade.

“We look forward to long, productive partnerships in Detroit,” she said in an email, adding that KIPP would also continue its practice of supporting its students until they complete their higher education. KIPP counsels students and their families about applying to college, partners with colleges that provide resources for first-generation college students, and follows up with students throughout college.

“We make a two-decade commitment to our students’ educational journey: beginning in kindergarten and continuing for a decade after eighth grade (to and through college),” Rogers said.

New charter schools in Detroit often encounter skepticism from local school and community leaders who point out that the city already has too many schools, and that adding more fosters competition for funding that hurts students.

“I do not believe the city needs another charter school,” Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said in a statement. “Instead, energy, resources, and time should be spent on the schools (public and charter) we already have. In addition, there are plenty of ‘model schools’ in our district (and even a few charters) that are examples of higher performance. No one needs KIPP to demonstrate what our students can do with the right leadership, teachers, and systems and processes. We know what this looks like.”

Skepticism will not surprise KIPP officials, especially as leaders of the national Democratic Party take a more critical stance toward charters. School boards in other states have rebuffed new KIPP schools in recent years.

Jack Elsey, executive director of the Detroit Children’s Fund, a nonprofit that recruited KIPP to Detroit, agreed that there is an oversupply of classroom seats in Detroit. “But the more important question is, ‘how many quality schools do we have?’” he asked.

“And the answer to that is: not nearly enough. In fact, the vast majority of schools in Detroit do not perform well. We can discuss all the reasons for why that is the case, but when you have a chance to bring in an organization with a proven track record of academic success like KIPP, you seize it.”

Unlike in many other major U.S. cities, the local school board in Detroit does not have a say in which charter schools open where. KIPP’s charter was approved in December by Central Michigan University, a public university two hours away from Detroit that is one of numerous charter school authorizers empowered to open charter schools in the city.

KIPP has faced criticism as one of the charter organizations that built strong academic results in part through strict “no excuses” discipline policies, which some critics view as implicitly racist. Vitti said he believes “Detroiters will raise questions” about KIPPs “history with student discipline and their approach.”

KIPP and some other charter networks have since relaxed their approach somewhat. “We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but one of the great things about KIPP is we are a learning organization working hard to evolve,” Rogers said.

The national KIPP organization will shape most aspects of the school, including curriculum, teacher training, and discipline policies.

Still, an appointed school board will make key decisions about direction. Elsey said the school and school board would have “local, Detroit leadership.”

Some key details about the project — including where the school will be housed — remain fuzzy. KIPP’s application for a charter specifies an initial temporary address of 11457 Shoemaker Street, a warehouse complex on the city’s far east side that currently houses an early learning program. Backers say they haven’t yet settled on the site, or on the future site of the new K-12 campus.

In addition to standard public school funding from the state, the new school will also receive $2 million from the national KIPP organization, $3 million in federal charter school start-up grants, and $1 million from private fundraising, according to the application.

Charters with substantial philanthropic backing are not a new phenomenon in Detroit. One of the city’s largest charter networks, University Prep Schools, draws heavily from a Michigan philanthropy. The network typically performs better than the city average, but its test scores do not approach state averages.

Detroit education advocates who have been trying for years to attract national education organizations to the city welcomed KIPP’s announcement.

“KIPP has demonstrated their ability to deliver quality education opportunities for students for years,” Elsey said. “Their arrival to Detroit means that now, more children in our city will have an opportunity to receive an excellent education.”

Some speculate that national organizations stayed away from Detroit for many of the same reasons that schools here already struggle: anemic state funding, an oversupply of schools, and a wide-open school market with few quality controls.

“There was so much movement between schools and hyper competition, it actually undermined the idea of quality, because people were going to the highest bidder,” said Robin Lake, director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education, an education think tank, who has conducted research in Detroit. “And sometimes literally: ‘Who can offer me a laptop?’ School quality just wasn’t part of the discussion.”

Lake said KIPP’s arrival could galvanize the city’s schools.

“KIPP can show what’s possible,” she said. “They don’t work miracles. They don’t overcome decades of poverty in one swipe. But they can create powerful outcomes. It’s a proof point.”

It won’t be easy. Detroit public schools struggle from longstanding structural problems such as the relentless churn of teachers and students among schools.

“Teacher turnover rates [at KIPP] have been historically very high,” said Chris Torres, a professor at Michigan State University who worked as a consultant for KIPP and has become a critic of some of the network’s practices.

“They tend to recruit less experienced teachers who are willing to abide by the KIPP model, which given Michigan’s context could be something to pay attention to. There’s already a very low supply of teachers, especially younger, newer teachers.”

Six education issues we’re closely watching in Michigan in 2021

2021-01-04T22:15:12+00:00

The year 2020 may be over, but the challenges it brought to schools across the state because of the pandemic will persist — for months and possibly longer.

This new year brings plenty of questions about how Michigan’s public schools will continue to adapt to new ways of learning, as well as the pandemic’s long-term effects.

It’s been nearly 10 months since the first cases of COVID-19 hit, forcing schools to shift to online learning. The first half of this school year has been marked by debates about the safety of reopening schools, concerns about student achievement and student mental health, and the disappearance of thousands of students.

Here are six issues Chalkbeat Detroit will be watching during 2021:

A return to in-person learning?

A number of schools across the state halted face-to-face classes during the fall because growing numbers of COVID-19 cases were raising safety concerns. Many districts planned to reopen schools for in-person learning in January. But will that happen? And for how long? Much depends on what happens as a result of holiday gatherings. Schools in areas of the state that see spikes likely will have a difficult time transitioning from virtual instruction. And then there’s the question of what effects frequent transitions will have on students and teachers.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District, which halted its in-person classes in mid-November with plans to resume Jan. 11, told Chalkbeat Monday positive COVID-19 cases are still too high and they are now looking at a February return.

The vaccine effect

As Michigan continues to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, some are optimistic life will begin to return to normal. That’s especially the case given that teachers and other school employees will be among the first to receive the vaccine, after frontline essential workers such as hospital and emergency services staff.

But there are a lot of questions, such as whether large numbers of school staff will get vaccinated and whether they’ll feel safe returning to school after being vaccinated.

Some educators have argued that it won’t be safe to return to school until vaccines are widely given to students and staff. There is not yet a COVID-19 vaccine available for children under the age of 16. Also, some residents do not plan to get the vaccine. In Detroit, more than 60% of those surveyed recently said they were not likely to get it.

Improving online learning

We keep hearing that virtual learning is here to stay, even if it’s just for a small number of students. But will it improve? Students have complained about too much screen time, too many classes, too much isolation, and growing mental health challenges. In the Detroit district, a task force is being created to suggest changes.

Meanwhile, there are serious questions about whether schools will do a better job of serving the needs of students with special education needs, some of whom aren’t receiving the services they need to succeed.

Will students return?

Public school enrollment was down by 53,000 students this fall, according to unaudited figures Chalkbeat obtained last month. That’s far above the student count declines Michigan has been experiencing for well over a decade, and it’s particularly concerning because included in that overall number are 13,000 students who are unaccounted for.

Some of those students may be learning at home. Others may have moved to private schools. But some of those students likely aren’t being educated at all, which could have academic implications if and when they return to class.

If the enrollment declines continue into the next school year, they could affect how much money schools receive from the state.

A focus on literacy

Last year, Michigan officials put off requiring some third graders who are far behind in reading to repeat the grade. It’s unclear whether the law will be delayed another year. If it moves forward, the number of students who could be held back would likely increase because of the pandemic.

Also unknown is the fate of bipartisan legislation that would help students with dyslexia. The proposals would ensure students who show signs of dyslexia be identified in the early grades, and give educators more training to identify and work with dyslexic students.

Testing and accountability

Michigan’s standardized testing usually begins in the spring. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education allowed states to skip federal requirements for annual testing. Michigan is among the states that have asked for a waiver for the current school year.

Even if the state exams are cancelled this year, schools still must abide by Michigan requirements that they test students in the fall and spring to monitor student progress.

Tonya Allen, one of Detroit’s fiercest advocates for Detroit children, is leaving the Skillman Foundation

2020-12-14T17:38:50+00:00

Tonya Allen, who has helmed one of the most prominent nonprofits working to improve K-12 education in Detroit, is stepping down to take a new job in Minneapolis.

Allen will officially leave as the president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation (a Chalkbeat funder) in 2021. Allen, who has held that role at Skillman since 2014, will lead the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis.

“The Skillman Foundation and Detroit are my heart,” Allen said in a statement. “Thinking about the impact our team has been able to make for children in Detroit fills me with pride. I never saw myself leaving, but when you are called you must act.”

The McKnight Foundation, one of the largest foundations in Minnesota, has recently evolved toward a “new mission to advance a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive.” In a statement, the foundation cited the global pandemic, a national racial reckoning, and the climate crisis in saying Allen is “the right person to take the helm during this historic time.”

“I’m committed to advancing racial equity, and to do so from the site where our country lost George Floyd, Philando Castile, and so many others is something I could not turn away from,” Allen said in her statement, referring to two Black men who were killed by police officers.

Maria Woodruff-Wright, Skillman’s vice president of operations and its chief financial officer, will become interim CEO as a search for a new leader takes place.

“We’ll have an aggressive search for candidates who represent the foundation’s relentless commitment to children, to Detroit, and to equity. We also acknowledge that Detroit is talent-rich; we’ve had great success at finding local leaders,” said Suzanne Shank, a board member and chair of the foundation’s search committee.

Allen said she is confident Skillman “is well-equipped to continue its mission as a fierce champion for Detroit kids, after all they have done this over six decades.”

Here are some of the initiatives Allen has been a key part of leading, according to Skillman officials:

Serving as one of the co-chairs of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, which advocated for the legislative initiative that created the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the return of an elected school board to the district, and more charter school accountability.
The Good Neighborhoods Initiative, a $120 million commitment to improve conditions for children in six targeted neighborhoods.
Creating and expanding Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, which increased summer jobs for youth from 2,500 to 8,200 paid positions.
The Detroit Children’s Fund, a nonprofit that has assembled leading civic leaders to invest in schools and educators to ensure more Detroit children can receive a quality education
Launch Michigan, a statewide partnership of business, education, labor, philanthropy, and civic leaders advocating for a high-quality K-12 education system.
Serving as chair for Campaign for Black Male Achievement, and co-chair of Executives’ Alliance for Boys and Men of Color and My Brother’s Keeper Detroit.

The Skillman Foundation is celebrating its 60th anniversary this month. It has granted nearly $670 million since its inception in 1960 and has assets of approximately $500 million.

“Tonya Allen stands tall among a long line of powerful leaders who have been at the helm of The Skillman Foundation,” Shank said. “It has been an honor to support her and the critical work of the foundation. Both will go on to continue to make meaningful impact.”

Mary Kramer, the incoming chair of the foundation’s board, said Allen’s exit “is a big loss for us and for Detroit.”

“Tonya has been a force at The Skillman Foundation and in Detroit,” Kramer said. “She has held a laser focus on children and Detroit as CEO for the last seven years, including taking on leadership roles in the city and the state.”

Fewer children in Detroit and the rest of the state are eating school meals

2020-11-23T23:21:44+00:00

The number of students eating meals in the Detroit school district is way down this year, a pandemic-related problem that has officials wondering whether children who need meals aren’t getting them, or if their parents have found other sources of food.

In a typical school year, the district distributes 69,500 meals a day. With three quarters of the district’s students learning online since the beginning of the school year, that number has been reduced to about 16,000 meals a day since September, despite the district’s efforts to provide meals that can be picked up by students learning online.

Now that face-to-face instruction has been suspended until January, and all students will be learning online, the daily count is expected to drop to 4,000, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a finance committee meeting Friday morning.

Here’s where Detroit online learners can get meals during the fall

The declines raise concerns about the well-being of children, especially if their parents are not finding meals elsewhere. Nearly 90% of the students in the Detroit district are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, and many have relied on school to receive meals. Research shows that students who receive subsidized meals from school are less likely to struggle with hunger issues, obesity, and poor health.

It’s an issue being felt across the state and nation, particularly in districts with large numbers of students learning online, said Diane Golzynski, director of the office of health and nutrition services at the Michigan Department of Education.

The state education department has a comprehensive interactive map that helps connect parents to school locations where they can pick up meals, she said.

“But it appears that there are still struggles with getting the food. I don’t have hard data on why but my best guess is transportation, timing, and communication are the largest challenges,” Golzynski said.

Where to find free food:

Families have a number of options if they’re in need of meals during the pandemic. Here are just a few resources:

The Michigan Department of Education’s statewide map will connect families with the closest school meal distribution site.
The Detroit school district provides grab-and-go meals at every school on Mondays and Thursdays (see map above). During the week of Thanksgiving, the Thursday distribution date has been changed to Tuesday.
Gleaner’s Community Food Bank has mobile food sites throughout the region. Check out the list of upcoming dates and locations.
Call United Way’s 2-1-1 hotline, which will connect people to the closest place to access food.

We know there are even more resources out there for families. The United Way of Southeastern Michigan is trying to get a handle on where metro Detroit families are turning for help with food. If you’re a small agency or part of a grass-roots organization, reach out to Bryan.VanDorn@liveunitedsem.org.

You can also share that information with Chalkbeat and reach out at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Vitti, during Friday’s committee meeting, said he believes the numbers are down largely because parents have found other sources of food.

“My sense is that families will continue to rely on other sources,” Vitti said. That may change, though, as COVID-19 cases rise and if the state moves toward a lockdown, he said.

The decline in meals served has community agencies like the United Way of Southeastern Michigan (a Chalkbeat funder) seeking ways to understand the challenges facing families and to get a handle on where families are getting food.

The agency is “engaging both funders and research institutions to study the current state of food security in Detroit as well as the impact that COVID-19 has had on individual family’s access to food resources,” said Bryan VanDorn, manager of health and basic needs for the agency

The drop in school meals also is sparking discussions in the Detroit district about how to keep the 550 staff members in the food and nutrition department employed.

During the Friday committee meeting, Vitti recommended using COVID-19 relief funds or dipping into the district’s $106 million general fund balance, which is set aside for dealing with catastrophes and addressing pressing building repairs. Using one of those two sources would allow the district to cover the $7 million that would be needed to maintain current staff levels.

Another option, Vitti said, would be to proceed with layoffs, but he said “I don’t think our district wants to go through layoffs.” Some employees, though, might be willing to accept a voluntary layoff, he said.

The board will decide what to do at an upcoming meeting.

“This is a really terrible and unfortunate situation, probably one of the most difficult we have faced … in the last few years,” said board member Sonya Mays, the committee chair.

Maintaining food service staff is something other districts are grappling with, Golzynski said. And the issues go beyond serving enough meals to keep everyone employed to also include keeping staff healthy so they can work and finding staff willing to work during a pandemic.

Unlike some other district jobs that can be done remotely, food service workers must work in person, Vitti said.

Every school in the district has served as a grab-and-go site where parents can pick up meals two days a week. On Mondays, they receive three breakfasts and three lunches. On Thursdays, they receive four breakfasts and four lunches, enough to carry them through the weekend. The goal has been to keep as many locations open as possible so parents have easy access to meals, said Machion Jackson, assistant superintendent of operations.

The district also has made meals available to parents and students regardless of whether they’re enrolled in a district school, Jackson said.

“There’s no governance structure when it comes to feeding children,” she said.

After years of state oversight, commission gives financial control back to Detroit district

2020-10-26T17:55:55+00:00

For the first time since 2009, the Detroit school district can operate without financial oversight from the state.

The Detroit Financial Review Commission voted Monday to release the Detroit Public Schools Community District from state financial oversight until the end of 2021, a crucial step in the district’s efforts to control its budget and finances. With the exception of several years, the city district has been under some form of state control since 1999.

“This is a monumental day for all Michiganders,” said Rachel Eubanks, state treasurer and chair of the commission. The district is “on the continued path of good finances, improved academics and services, and paying down of long term debt.”

The commission has had to approve the district’s budget, major contracts, out-of-state travel, and union contracts since 2016. Before that, state-appointed emergency managers controlled the district from 2009 to 2016. The emergency manager law is still on the books, and any future mismanagement of finances could result in another state intervention.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has argued for more than a year that the district met the conditions necessary for a release, including having three consecutive balanced budgets.

“I do appreciate how everyone committed to this process and gave us this chance and opportunity,” Vitti said, thanking the commission members and the school board in their efforts. “None of us are satisfied with where we’re at. We are going to continue to work hard.”

Vitti said the district’s financial progress wouldn’t have happened without an empowered school board. Adopting balanced budgets did not take away from other reform efforts, including enhanced student courses and teacher pay.

“We turned the budget upside down and aligned it to a very aggressive strategic plan,” he said.

“Now we are moving into enhancing and scaling the reform we’ve started.”

Commission member David Nicholson, who’s also a top executive for a chemical manufacturing company, said the district’s work displayed “a much deeper day-to-day knowledge of what’s going on behind the numbers we see.”

Monday’s action is a vote of confidence in the district’s ability to manage finances. The oversight began as part of a legislative solution to save Detroit Public Schools from financial collapse. That $615 million legislative deal created a new district — Detroit Public Schools Community District — to educate students. DPS remains to collect tax revenue and pay off millions in legacy debt. In addition to releasing DPSCD from oversight, the commission also released DPS for one year.

Eubanks said the one-year waivers were granted because that is how the statute was written. The commission would consider rescinding the waivers if there are issues with the deficit or other budgetary or account requirements.

Jeremy Vidito, the district’s chief financial officer, said the district had complied with many of the commission’s requirements, including adopting a balanced budget and satisfying recurring debt obligations. Despite a projected decline in enrollment this fiscal year, the district won’t lose money because the current budget anticipated a 10% cut in state funds. Vidito said DPS was “on track to fully repay its debts.” DPS is projected to repay its operating debt by 2027, and its capital debt by 2050.

“This is an incredible milestone for DPSCD,” said board president Iris Taylor, who is a commission member and running for re-election to the board.

Detroit Superintendent Vitti wants more face-to-face learning to encourage 3,000 missing students to attend class

2020-10-14T02:28:45+00:00

Enrollment in the Detroit school district is down by 3,000 students compared with this time last year, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a school board meeting Tuesday.

What that number means is unclear because, like last year, the district still has about another month to find these students. When data last year was official at the end of the count period, the district had 51,000 students.

Count Day enrollment numbers must be audited by intermediate school districts, which provide services for schools. The numbers are then sent to the state. The count is more difficult this year because school leaders have to account for students learning in person and online, which is more difficult than last year’s process.

Schools across the state are reporting dips in their preliminary enrollment numbers. Flint Community Schools lost about 500 students compared with last year’s fall count, and Kalamazoo Public Schools lost 248 students.

“I’m very concerned where we stand as a district on student achievement,” Vitti told board members about the large number of missing students. He also was alarmed about students stressed over the academic year, parents struggling to support learning at home, and potential increases in chronic absenteeism.

Losing 3,000 students, even with about a month to boost those numbers, is a significant effect of the pandemic, which has disrupted learning for district students and staff. For weeks, the district has mobilized staff and volunteers to canvass neighborhoods, knocking on the doors of students who haven’t shown up for face-to-face or virtual classes. They’ve been successful in getting 1,000 students in school.

But that still leaves 3,000 students unaccounted for. The loss won’t be a financial hit for the district this year because the state changed the way it is calculating funding for schools. It will, however, hit next year. In Michigan, state funding follows students, so in ordinary years every student lost means a loss of per-pupil funding. The change in state law for this year, because of the pandemic, lessens that blow.

Vitti warned that student absenteeism is climbing this year. A student is chronically absent if they miss 18 or more instructional days in a school year.

In the 2018-2019 academic year, 70% of the students in the Detroit district were chronically absent. The rate improved to 63% in 2019 after the district launched several initiatives, including putting an attendance agent in every school. Chronic absenteeism is also a problem for some of the city’s charter schools.

Although some schools now offer fully remote learning, Vitti urged school administrators to consider offering face-to-face or hybrid instruction during the next grading period to help encourage students to attend classes. A hybrid learning option would have students split time between in-person and remote classes during the week, if enough teachers and staff are willing to work inside school buildings.

“Principals are gonna be at the driver’s seat at this change,” he said.

Board treasurer Sonya Mays asked if the district could improve its efforts to engage students in online learning.

“Is there a way to do online learning better to capture these children?” Mays said. “We’re going to have a lot of kids who won’t be in a face-to-face situation for the next three to six months,” she said, noting that families may still feel it’s unsafe to return to school buildings due to the pandemic.

In the first month of the school year, there have been many complaints from students, parents, and teachers about too much screen time and jam-packed online schedules.

In response to those complaints, Vitti said he is urging school leaders to reduce screen time for students and to offer office hours to support online engagement. Schools may also adjust online schedules based on student and parent demand. The district must approve all schedule changes.

The district is also expanding Parent Academy workshops to help families navigate online learning tools. Yet Vitti stressed that online learning was “not designed for K-2 children.” About 40% of the missing students are in grades K-3.

Parents have been struggling without enough food for their households or a lack of child care, Vitti said, which could also affect the parents’ ability to support learning at home.

“Learning is not the number one priority at this time,” for these struggling parents, he said.

Board member Deborah Hunter-Harvill recommended another board study session to discuss other strategies to support families. A study session was held earlier this year to discuss the district’s reopening plan.

“It all goes back to the fact that our families don’t have everything they need,” she said.

Some Detroit students need more support in college. A new team of charter schools wants to change that.

2020-10-08T16:35:47+00:00

Four charter school management companies in Detroit have entered an unusual collaboration to help their graduates succeed in college.

Detroit students often don’t get the support they need to earn a four-year college degree, especially if their parents didn’t attend college. The companies want to reverse that trend: They promise that within a decade, 90% of their high school graduates will complete a full year of college coursework — much higher than the state average.

People with bachelor’s degrees earn 31 percent more on average than those with an associate’s degree and 84 percent more than those with a high school diploma over their lifetimes. Members of the charter school collaborative chose to focus on improving college outcomes rather than directing their students toward career and technical education.

“You’ve got a group of schools here who are really committed to college or bust,” said Jack Elsey, executive director of the Detroit Children’s Fund. “They recognize that we talk about careers more in places where kids are poor than we talk about college. I think you have a group of schools here who recognize that their kids are fully capable of going to college and doing well. But it’s not going to be easy.”

Strategies may include hiring additional college counselors or staff to follow up with graduates to ensure they’re on track to complete their first year of college.

The group, called the Detroit Charter High School Collaborative, promises to share data and best practices around college attainment, an unusual level of cooperation between private management companies in Detroit. It’s part of a larger effort organized by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce to prepare more people to enter the workforce in southeast Michigan.

Members plan to meet in coming months to settle on shared strategies. The Detroit Children’s Fund, a nonprofit, will provide funding and information about best practices for supporting recent graduates.

The collaboration means “more access to resources for students, it puts them in a better situation of opportunity,” said Ralph Bland, president of New Paradigm for Education, one of the largest charter networks in the city.

The companies, which also include Equity Education, Promise Schools, and University Prep Schools, collectively serve more than 3,000 students, many of whom are African-American and economically disadvantaged.

They are fueling a citywide effort to give Detroit students the support they need to earn a college degree. Individual teachers work to encourage students to follow through on college applications. The Detroit Promise scholarship aims to lighten the financial burden for standout learners. And the Detroit district set aside money to ensure every school has a person dedicated to preparing students for college.

The barriers facing high school graduates in Detroit are daunting, especially if they don’t have family members who attended college, or if they are among the 85% of city students who are economically disadvantaged.

Over the last year, Chalkbeat spent time with recent graduates to show just how much support many need to succeed in college. Nearly half of graduates from Detroit’s main district who make it to college must take remedial courses. Among Detroit charter school graduates, that figure is between 32% and 75%.

Their goal — 90% of students completing a year of college — is ambitious. Between 25% and 60% of 2017 graduates from schools run by participating management companies completed one year of college coursework within two years of graduating. Statewide, that figure is just 52%, one reason Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has made higher education attainment a pillar of her education policy.

Danielle Jackson, CEO of University Prep Schools, said the collaboration would help the network identify new ways to help students choose colleges and navigate challenges once they’ve arrived on campus.

“Every one of our students can graduate from college, we know they can,” Jackson said in a statement. “It’s up to us to figure out how we can get them there.”

After week one, attendance down in the Detroit school district as 78% of students show up for class

2020-09-15T22:38:14+00:00

After a week of instruction in the Detroit school district, just 78% of the students who signed up for online or face-to-face learning have shown up for class.

The number, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a school board meeting Tuesday, highlights the challenges Detroit and districts across the nation face as “the traditional way of learning and going to school has been disrupted by the pandemic.”

Last year at this time, 90% of the district’s 51,000 students had shown up for classes.

“Active and consistent attendance … is our greatest threat, outside of student achievement,” Vitti said.

Similar drops in attendance are happening across the country. In Chicago on the first day last week, 84.2% of students attended online class, a 10 percentage point drop from the usual first-day figures. But attendance rates varied widely from school to school. In Memphis, district staff in Shelby County Schools are working to contact almost 3,000 students who have been unaccounted for since online classes began two weeks ago.

Vitti said the district will step up its efforts to get students in school, including another round of home visits. Those efforts will intensify up through the period in early October when student attendance will determine how much state aid schools receive. Vitti said the district will keep it up even after this period because “it’s important that we stay engaged.”

He said the district appears to be enrolling more students who are new to the district, but he said it’s too early to be sure.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Vitti gave school board members an overview of what the district has seen since classes began Sept. 8. About 75% of the district’s students are learning online, while 25% are learning in person.

The district provided parents with three options for learning during the 2020-21 school year. In addition to online or in-person learning, parents could choose to have their students learn online while being in a school building in learning centers. A support staff member oversees those learning centers.

Vitti said 2,300 students have attended the learning centers. That number is growing daily, he said.

‘Where are the kids?’ Inside the first day of online learning for one Detroit school.

2020-09-09T21:33:36+00:00

Karlotta Hicks was ready to teach online. Her handmade Zoom background featured numbers and the ABCs, kindergarten concepts she hoped would jog her first graders’ memories after nearly six months away from the classroom. She’d spoken by phone over the summer to the parents of her 14 students, letting them know that virtual classes would begin right after Labor Day at 8 a.m.

“It’s going to be as if the kids were in front of me,” she said confidently a week before classes began at Winans Academy for Performing Arts.

When class began on Tuesday, just one student appeared in her virtual classroom, and his audio wasn’t working. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of students and teachers were troubleshooting their way through glitch-filled first days of online learning. This was going to be tough.

After a spring of incalculable loss, educators in Detroit are scrambling to get students back on track. As the pandemic continues to spin out of control, schools have been forced to choose — with little guidance — from a menu of bad options for resuming classes. Winans Academy, set in east Detroit neighborhoods that bore the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, chose to begin the year entirely online.

This spring, as the virus snowballed in Detroit and the city’s unemployment rate spiked to historic levels, school fell by the wayside for many families. Fewer than half of the students checked in with their teachers in an average week.

“Parents told me, ‘on the scale of things I’m dealing with, school work is No. 5,’” Principal James Spruill said.

Many students at Winans had fallen behind even before the pandemic. The school’s growth scores, which measure student improvement on standardized tests, have remained stubbornly low despite repeated staff shake-ups and state interventions. Experts warn that the pandemic will likely make things worse at schools like Winans, where nearly every student is economically disadvantaged.

The stakes have never been higher for the latest reinvention effort at Winans Academy. After surveying teachers and staff, school leaders announced that classes would be held online until January at least.

Would virtual instruction — a new format for most school staff — allow students to catch up, or at least avoid more backsliding?

Would students even show up?

“Give me a thumbs up if you can hear me,” Hicks said to her lone student. He wore bright blue headphones printed with characters from the movie Toy Story 4. No thumbs up.

Eventually, his mother leaned over the tablet that the school had lent the family, and the audio crackled to life.

“Yay, it’s fixed, wonderful,” Hicks said. “Welcome to the first day of school.”

Karlotta Hicks, a first grade teacher at Winans Academy of Performing Arts, in her classroom on the first day of school 2020. She taught from her classroom via video conference. She chose an outer space theme for her classroom this year, she said, to help students get used to the idea that the pandemic has ushered in a new world.

At 8:12 a.m. Hicks decided to stick with her game plan. She cued up a welcome song she’d found online. She sang along to the video: “Good morning, good morning, how are you?” The student smiled and mouthed some of the words, but the sound was choppy.

“Could you hear me singing when it glitched?” she asked.

“I didn’t hear you because of the glitching,” he said.

“You didn’t hear me, oh my goodness. I was singing, I was going all in!”

“Sorry.”

“No worries,” she said. But she decided to reschedule class for 12:15 p.m.

“I’m going to do the introduction with everyone,” she told the student’s mother. “I just need to call them to see where they are.”

‘I can easily say 100’

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon a week before classes began, it seemed like the entire neighborhood around Winans had gathered at the school to pick up devices and school supplies. Enrollment had been trending down for years, but more than 300 parents had already signed up, and Spruill estimated that at least that many came by. A line of cars snaked around the block.

Near the front door, teachers piled up backpacks stuffed with workbooks, pencils, and other school supplies. Wearing masks and keeping their distance, families and teachers greeted each other as if they hadn’t been together in years.

Lynn Coleman, a middle school math teacher, found one of her top students from the previous year. “Guess who got into Renaissance?” she asked school staff, referring to the selective Detroit high school.

“She worked us hard enough,” the student said, smiling.

Coleman grew up not far from Winans, attending nearby Denby High School, and she takes pride in the easy connections she makes with students.

Those connections took on a painful weight this spring: The coronavirus death rate in the school’s ZIP code, 48224, and in surrounding ZIP codes is more than three times higher than the death rate across Michigan. Coleman says the virus spread rapidly through her large extended family this spring, sickening eight people and killing several.

“I can easily say about 100” friends, family, and acquaintances got sick, she said. “Easily.” Her great aunt and uncle, who had been married for 60 years, died within a week of each other.

“If we are going through that, who knows what our scholars are going through?” she said.

Early in the pandemic, one of her students called her cell phone at 9:30 p.m.

“She said, ‘Miss Coleman?’ I said ‘Yes?’ She said, ‘Oh, I miss you.’” The student got off the phone quickly, but Coleman sensed the call’s significance.

“She only knows what that may have done for her,” Coleman said.

‘Where are the kids?’

Even after the community endured so much grief, the first day of Coleman’s math class felt almost normal.

Her goal for the day was to establish norms for virtual learning and to get to know her students by asking them about their summers, but the kids were playing it middle-school-cool.

“I didn’t do nothing this summer but sleep,” said one student. “I did order some shoes.”

“I didn’t do anything but be in my room on my phone,” another said.

“Were you playing on TikTok?” Coleman asked, referring to the video-sharing app.

That got a surprised laugh.

“Yeah, I know about TikTok,” she said.

They got through the rest of the lesson OK — students agreed that they should mute their microphones while others were talking and refrain from making fun of each other for incorrect answers — but there was a problem: Only nine students showed up of the 25 she was expecting.

Teachers across the school were reporting the same issue. While the school didn’t confirm the actual attendance number, Spruill acknowledged that attendance was low.

“The teachers and I were kind of sad at one point today,” Hicks said. “Like, where are the kids? It was emotional, because we weren’t having that interaction with our students, and that’s what you long for as a teacher. We just had to pull ourselves together, because we can’t let the kids see us like that.”

Hicks got some answers after calling families who had missed her morning class. One family had lost power during a morning thunderstorm that cut power to 4,000 Detroit homes, many of them near Winans. Other families were struggling to log onto their new laptops.

Spruill, who previously worked as a technical consultant for other charter schools in Detroit and who is the primary tech support person for Winans Academy, said he was not surprised by the low turnout.

“It was a constant line of parents not knowing how to log in,” he said. He insisted that attendance will improve throughout the week, adding that many schools in Detroit see attendance fluctuate wildly in the first weeks of school, because parents often sign their children up for more than one school.

Still, a more troubling possibility loomed: What if virtual learning asked too much of families, many of whom had jobs or were looking for one, and didn’t have time to provide full-time academic support for their children?

The phone numbers for three families in Hicks’ class were disconnected — what would happen to those students? And many parents already seemed stretched thin.

“I’m bouncing around to help my other kids,” one parent told Hicks. “I’m here, but I might not be on the screen.”

Amber White, whose son is a first grader in a different class at Winans, said she spent an hour on Tuesday morning just getting her two children logged on.

“This morning, it was really, really rough,” she said. “I was like ‘no, this isn’t going to work.’”

White took a week off work to help her kids get acclimated, but she worries that she’ll need more time. She was among a minority of parents at Winans who said they wanted the school to provide some in-person instruction this fall, and she said the first day of school showed that she was right.

“I mean, I understand the danger,” she said. “But the reality is that y’all might need to open the schools.”

‘We just have to make it work’

By 12:15 p.m., Hicks could breathe a small sigh of relief. Seven students popped into her Zoom class — just half of the total, but much better than one.

Hicks had the students practice what would become their morning routine, starting with the Pledge of Allegiance, then ran through class rules.

The students were visibly delighted to be in class together, virtual or not. They called out each other’s names and pushed their faces right into the camera. One girl wore a T-shirt printed with the words “First Day of Distance Learning 2020.”

“What did you learn today?” Hicks asked.

“Today I learned that school is fun,” said the boy with the Toy Story headphones.

“That makes me smile, my heart is smiling,” Hicks said.

The last part of the first day featured a story. A classroom aide read aloud as Hicks stepped away to take a phone call from a parent. The book, called “I Love School,” traced the routine of a single fictional school day. The pictures showed scenes that must have felt very distant to 6-year-olds who hadn’t been inside a classroom since March: a teacher leaning over students’ desks to look at their work, students eating lunch together in a cafeteria, students sitting in a circle on a rug while their teacher read a story aloud.

“Tell me what the story was all about,” the aide asked when it was over.

“I liked it because it told us about school, and we haven’t been at school for a loooong time,” said a girl with no front teeth and black beads in her braids.

“I miss my school,” said another student.

“And we miss you guys, but it’s so good to see you here now,” said Hicks, sitting back down. “This is our new way of going to school.”

That won’t change until January at the earliest. Winans officials said that they’ll consider moving to a hybrid schedule, bringing students into classrooms in shifts, if local coronavirus metrics take a turn for the better.

Facing nearly four months of online teaching, Hicks says she remains optimistic.

“It’s just Day One,” she said. “Seven came in, and they’re excited. That’s what you want, especially at this age, is for them to want to learn. That’s how you create lifelong learners. I’m excited for that.”

“It’s not like there are other alternatives,” she added. “This is how learning is occurring. We just have to make it work.”

This story is part of a series examining how Detroit schools, including Winans Academy, are adapting to educating students in the pandemic.

Michigan’s new school year: Uncertainty, COVID, and lots of online learning

2020-09-08T04:31:03+00:00

By 8:20 Tuesday morning, the mask-wearing students sitting in classrooms in the state’s largest district will have gotten their temperatures checked, answered questions about COVID symptoms, and taken seats at least 6 feet away from each other — while most of their classmates get ready to learn from their homes.

By all measures, it will be the most unsettling beginning to the school year for the Detroit Public Schools Community District and the three dozen or so other districts and charters in the region that officially launch the 2020-21 school year.

In the lead-up to the first day, debate has swirled about whether students should learn online or in person, about the effect COVID will have, and about how schools will help students who have experienced learning loss or trauma.

Here’s a roundup of what you need to know.

Cue the chaos?

Let’s face it, there are a lot of unknowns as we head into this new school year. But we do know this: Things will go wrong. Technology will fail. Some students will thrive online. Others won’t. Some schools will have positive cases of COVID. The debate about in-person versus online will continue to rage on, particularly since a new state law requires districts to revisit their decisions every month.

Fall learning should be different

Most students in the Detroit district will be learning online. So will many others across the region. How will virtual learning differ from last spring’s experience? For one, expect less flexibility on attendance and turning in assignments this time around. Also, we know many districts provided training for teachers on online instruction, so they should be better prepared than they were in the spring. But many will be teaching live lessons for the first time.

Learning at school, but remotely

In the Detroit district, students who opted for online learning can sign up to attend learning centers in school buildings, where they can complete their remote work under adult supervision, although not physically with their teacher.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said such a program fulfills multiple needs. For one, working parents won’t be home to supervise their children. Others don’t feel comfortable overseeing their studies.

“Public institutions have to put our arms around our most vulnerable families,” Vitti said. “Our families need us more than ever.”

The program is free. In contrast, some districts have received backlash for charging parents for child care programs that allow their children to learn remotely but inside school buildings. Vitti was also critical, saying “It’s a shame,” that districts would charge for such services.

Link between in-person learning and partisan politics

By now, you know what your school’s reopening plan includes. But researchers could have predicted whether a school would open fully in person or fully online based on how your county voted in the 2016 election.

Michigan State University researchers Sarah Reckhow and Matt Grossmann looked at an analysis of reopening plans, which found 59% of Michigan districts are providing at least the option of fully in-person education, while 12% are fully remote. When comparing that data with the results of the 2016 election, this is what they found:

“In heavily Democratic voting counties, school districts are over four times as likely to open fully remote this fall. In heavily Republican counties, school districts are 1.7 times as likely to offer in-person instruction. School districts in political battleground counties are in the middle.”

Why the pattern? The researchers said districts may be following public opinion on reopening, “which is increasingly following partisanship.”

Positive COVID cases

If you’ve been paying attention to what’s happening across the country, you know there’s a good chance schools operating in person will see positive COVID cases. So what happens if that occurs? In many cases, parents won’t even find out. State guidelines give local districts a lot of flexibility in how to deal with positive cases and in notifying people about them.

The bottom line is that unless your child has had close contact with someone who tested positive, you likely won’t find out, at least from school authorities. If a student or employee in a class tests positive, the school will require only those in that class to quarantine and learn online, in many cases. The district would probably only close a building if an infected person had contact with many people throughout it. Want to know how your district is handling COVID? Check their reopening plan that should be prominently displayed on the home page of their website.

Meanwhile, the state has released numbers of outbreaks in K-12 facilities — but not their specific location or name. The state’s website defines an outbreak as “two or more cases with a link by place and time indicating a shared exposure outside of a household.”

Last week, the state’s outbreak tracker listed five new outbreaks and three ongoing outbreaks in K-12 schools. The lack of specifics about where the outbreaks are will change soon. After facing heavy criticism, the state says it will release details Sept. 14 on the locations of the K-12 school COVID outbreaks.

School budget uncertainties

School districts are starting the school year without knowing how much state aid they will — or won’t — receive. The Michigan Legislature has yet to approve a budget, and the pandemic-related recession has led to a steep decline in state revenue. Districts are bracing for a reduction in state aid. The most recent revenue forecast for the state provided a less steep decline, but it’s unclear if that will mean no cuts for schools.

Far fewer teacher vacancies in Detroit

Months after Nikolai Vitti became superintendent of the Detroit district in 2017, the school year opened with more than 300 teacher vacancies. This year, Vitti is expecting vacancies to dwindle substantially, particularly for general education teachers. Districts statewide still struggle to hire enough special education teachers. Last week, Vitti said the district was fully staffed for elementary general education teaching jobs.

Vitti attributes the drop in vacancies in part to two steps the district has undertaken in the last two years: Boosting the starting salary for beginning teachers to $51,000, and giving incoming teachers far more credit on the pay scale for their years of teaching than it had done previously.

Detroit teachers vote to allow union leadership to call ‘safety’ strike over COVID concerns

2020-08-19T23:05:30+00:00

Detroit teachers have overwhelmingly voted to authorize union leadership to call a “safety strike” if the school district doesn’t meet their demands to start the school year online.

“The action that the union took today is not an action that we wanted to take. It’s an action that we had to take,” Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said during a Wednesday evening press conference.

“It is a vote of confidence from our membership that we will do whatever we need to do to ensure the health and safety of our members.”

Martin said 91% of the union members voted yes. A safety strike would mean teachers would agree to teach and work remotely because of safety issues inside buildings. The union stressed in a press release that it is not a work stoppage.

The vote, held Wednesday afternoon during a virtual union meeting, gave the union members an opportunity to weigh in on the debate over the reopening of schools for the 2020-21 school year. The union has about 4,000 members.

The “yes” vote means union members could now walk if the district doesn’t ensure safer working conditions for members who want to teach face-to-face. Union officials are demanding a virtual start to the 2020-21 school year, saying it isn’t safe to be in school buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If talks break down and we are not able to come to an agreement, we can institute a safety strike,” he said.

In response to the union, district superintendent Nikolai Vitti and the school board issued a joint statement: “While we acknowledge the action taken today by DFT, we are also confident the school board and the district in discussion with DFT will result in a safe reopening of schools.”

Martin said as contract negotiations continue with the district, union officials want to also ensure support staff, such as guidance counselors and social workers, have the option of opting out of in-person work.

The union is asking for hazard pay for those who work in school buildings, COVID-testing for students and staff, and assurances that school buildings have proper ventilation.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, commenting on Twitter before the meeting, said the district and the union are making progress in negotiations.

“Conversations with the DFT have increased over the past week and we are both bargaining in good faith. The reopening process is very hard, on multiple levels, but we will get this right for our students, families and employees.”

During a school board meeting Tuesday night, Vitti said the district will ask some parents to switch their children from in-person learning to the remote-only option, or to consider transferring to a nearby school, if there aren’t enough teachers willing to teach face to face in their school buildings.

Vitti said surveys completed by a four-fifths of the district’s parents indicate 80% prefer to send their children to school online, with the remaining preferring in-person learning. He has stressed for months that parents should have that choice, and has also noted that some children need in-person learning.

Before the strike vote, some teachers outlined why they were planning to vote to authorize a strike. Among them was Erica Webb, a district middle school teacher. Webb said she wants to teach online because her son is still recovering from an illness, and she fears bringing home the virus.

“Any pathogens could possibly be a potential setback, and I’m not willing to take that risk,” she said. “I could be a potential carrier to him, my parents.”

Detroit charter, private school students to get tech devices, internet access thanks to new fund

2020-08-11T21:17:17+00:00

Nearly 40,000 charter and private school students in Detroit will receive remote learning devices and high-speed internet thanks to a philanthropic effort aimed at bridging the city’s digital divide.

It’s the second such initiative this year for Detroit students. An earlier effort, called Connected Futures, is a $23 million program to provide tablets and internet service for students attending the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The district is in the process of distributing those devices.

This new effort, called the Tech Fund for Detroit Students, raised $1.8 million and will target charter and private high school students and recent graduates, who will receive the devices to help them with continued learning, according to a Tuesday afternoon press release.

The announcement comes as many schools across Michigan plan to begin the school year online. In Detroit, that kind of online learning can be difficult for students who don’t have the necessary technology. The district had to provide paper packets to many students to keep learning going in the spring, because they lacked internet or devices. The lack of access can limit a student’s academic opportunities and further exacerbate learning gaps.

“We’re thrilled that so many Detroit institutions have come together to ensure more students can engage in remote learning and progress in their education,” Punita Dani Thurman, vice president of program and strategy for the Skillman Foundation, said in a statement.

“High schoolers and recent graduates are the focus of this fund because they will have the least amount of time to catch up if they fall behind in their studies,” Thurman said. “Digital literacy and access isn’t only imperative now, during this pandemic. It is imperative for young people’s ongoing education, connection to community, and access to the job market.”

Charter and private schools will have to apply to receive support from the Tech Fund, and a committee of civic and school leaders will review the applications. Schools outside of the city can apply, but they must specify how the funds will be used to help Detroit students.

The goal, according to the release, is that with Connected Futures and another effort called Connect 313, all children in the city will be able to learn online if necessary.

“COVID exposed inequities in our country — and in our schools,” Jack Elsey, executive director of the Detroit Children’s Fund. “Access to technology is critical to student achievement, more today than ever before. I am thankful for the team of funders who came together in the name of equity to help close the technology gap for Detroit students and provide the resources they need to be successful.”

These are the funders that are making the Tech Fund possible:

Deloitte Foundation
DTE Energy Foundation
Detroit Children’s Fund
Nancy and Arn Tellem and the Detroit Pistons
Harlem Children’s Zone
Hudson-Webber Foundation
Ideal Group
Quicken Loans Community Fund
The Skillman Foundation (a Chalkbeat funder)
United Way for Southeastern Michigan (a Chalkbeat funder)

Watch Detroit teens speak about race and activism: ‘If you don’t advocate for yourself, no one will’

2020-07-31T19:11:56+00:00

Lamont Satchel Jr. isn’t interested in declarations of anti-racism by school districts and corporations. What matters to him goes much deeper.

“I don’t need an official statement from you. I want to see it,” said Satchel, a Detroit high school student who was part of Chalkbeat Detroit’s virtual student panel discussion on race Thursday afternoon.

What does he want to see? He wants to see corporations with Black people in positions of power and leadership. He wants to know that everyone, from the janitors to the CEO, have done self-reflection to see if they’re perpetuating stereotypes and if they’re treating Black and brown employees differently than they do others.

“Are they really saying that they’re anti-racist and having trainings and teaching their employees that?” asked Satchel. “Or are they saying they’re an anti-racist organization to keep their revenue flowing, to keep their workforce strong, to keep their public opinion strong? That’s the question we have to ask.”

During the hour-long conversation, Satchel and four other Detroit students tackled issues of racism, teaching Black history, police in schools, and activism. Well over 100 people, including a number of educators, tuned into the discussion that was moderated by Chalkbeat Detroit reporter Eleanore Catolico and former intern Imani Harris, a Northwestern University student from Detroit.

The panelists were:

Ama Russell, a rising senior at Cass Tech
Makiah Shipp, a rising freshman at the University of Michigan and a recent graduate of Detroit Edison Public School Academy
Abimifoluwa (Abimi) Onifade, a rising freshman at the University of Michigan and a recent graduate of Renaissance High School
Liz Okunawo, a rising senior at Cass Tech
Satchel, a rising senior at Cass Tech

Here’s a recap of what they had to say. See the video below to listen to the full conversation.

What it means to be an activist:

The students agreed that there is more to activism than marching, chanting, and holding signs. Some of them have not attended any of the ongoing protests since George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Activism, they said, is also about educating themselves and others.

“To me, activism is any positive action you take to support the movement,” said Onifade.

As part of her volunteer work with a political campaign, Shipp is helping young people get registered to vote.

“At the end of the day, not everybody’s parents vote, not everybody understands the voting process so that can often discourage people to vote at all,” Shipp said.

Russell, through a group she cofounded called Black Lives Matter in All Capacity, has planned and attended protests. The group’s most recent efforts have involved pushing for the release of a Black teen from Beverly Hills who was sent to juvenile detention during the pandemic for not completing her schoolwork. Hours before the panel discussion began, Russell had just finished an overnight occupation outside the detention center.

“I strive to empower Black people … through education,” she said.

What they wish their history classes taught about Black history:

The students say school curriculums need to delve deeper into black history.

“The only common figures we all learn about is Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks. It kind of stops there,” Satchel said. “We kind of forget the whole other side of Black history, that we had businesses, we had Black power. We had Black wealth. And even though it was destroyed, it still — it helps to know where you come from to move forward.”

“In schools we’re taught the history of slavery and how slavery is abolished,” Onifade said. “It’s not really explained that modern-day slavery still exists in the justice system. That’s what needs to be talked about.”

What school leaders should consider when discussing police and security guards in school:

Of the five students, Russell is the only one who strongly supports the elimination of police from schools. She said police are more prevalent in schools with large Black and brown student populations, and that leads to the assumption “that our children need some type of reinforcement … they make sure that Black and brown students from K-12 know that you are trained to be an inmate.”

Russell believes money for police officers can be better used to hire more social workers and counselors, and to provide better mental health services to students.

Others, though, said it’s important to provide school police officers with training so they can better connect with students.

“It’s important that leadership, when considering this topic, think more about protecting the students rather than policing the students,” Shipp said.

How white teachers who want to be allies can make the classroom a more empowering and equitable space:

Satchel said the biggest things white teachers can do is to create an environment in their classrooms where students feel free “to express how they feel.”

“The biggest things with my white teachers is authenticity. Just because you’re a white teacher and you say ‘I’m with you,’ it doesn’t mean I trust you. Understand that. Everyone has to build a certain level of trust. We have to move past just words. We have to see action,” Satchel said.

“Kids pick up on BS. We know when people are being authentic. And we know when people are having this little political show of ‘I’m just this amazing and giving teacher and I hear all my students.’”

Community leaders should elevate the voices of young people:

Russell said leaders need to seek out young people and invite them to the table to have conversations. Then, they need to listen.

“You should invite teens to the conversation with the same respect you would any other public official or adult. Make sure you’re honoring the youth in the space and making sure their voice is heard and not minimize them because they’re younger.”

What they want people to know:

The biggest lesson adults can learn is to understand the impact of living with the inequities between Detroit schools and suburban schools.

“You don’t go through the things I go through,” Okunawo said.

How I Lead: The largest charter network in Michigan wants to create lessons that work equally well online and in the classroom

2020-06-26T20:57:39+00:00

Shortly after Michigan schools closed in a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus, National Heritage Academies began shipping laptops to students who lacked the devices necessary to complete assignments from home.

Tens of thousands went out, said Nick Sheltrown, chief learning officer for the charter school network. By tapping its reserves, NHA plans to purchase enough by this fall to provide all of its 64,000 students with devices.

“It’s something we were planning on doing in 2021-2022, but we moved the timeline up,” Sheltrown said in an interview earlier this month. “We’re trying to design ostensibly a true ‘brick to click’ strategy, where if we need to transition to face-to-face or hybrid instruction, we’re able to do so with curricular continuity.”

Nick Sheltrown

Lessons that work equally well in-person and in cyber space will be especially crucial for the network this fall. In a letter to parents earlier this month, the network wrote that it is planning for the possibilities of in-person learning, learning from home, or a hybrid model where students spend some time learning in classrooms and some learning online.

Education leaders and policymakers across the country are preparing for a return to school that is still veiled in uncertainty. More than three months into the pandemic, coronavirus cases are on the rise in Michigan.

NHA’s plans for the fall and beyond carry particular weight because it is one of the largest for-profit charter operators in the U.S. with more than 80 schools, most of them in Michigan.

Other heavyweights in Michigan education policy have rolled out plans or will do so soon: the Republican legislature, the state’s largest teachers union, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who created a task force to study education during the pandemic.

We spoke with Sheltrown about what the coming year could hold, and how NHA plans to help the many students who have fallen behind while classrooms are closed. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Can you talk about the costs for NHA of adjusting to COVID-19?

Your cost basis is going up, because you’re essentially designing a learning experience both virtually and face-to-face. You’re essentially accepting two cost bases, but your funding is going to go down.

We’ve already spent significant resources to ship out 162,000 learning packets that we designed to students. We’ve purchased tens of thousands of Probooks [laptops] for students.

How much learning have your students lost during the shutdown?

The most robust way to estimate learning loss is to use standardized assessments, which are difficult to administer remotely. Our first systematic look at learning loss will likely come here in the fall. We use NWEA MAP [a standardized exam], and that will give us a sense of where the students are at in the beginning of the school year.

Many students will have fallen behind — or further behind, in some cases. What can you do about that?

One of our strategies is to review some of the content that we tried to cover remotely with students. But we need to take a somewhat long term view of this. I don’t know that it’s realistic to think that we can catch students up over a matter of a week or two at the beginning of a school year.

What we’re looking at is how do we extend the learning opportunities for students so we can catch them up. We’re talking about our summer learning strategy for 2021. How do we make that far more robust?

For some students who had particularly robust at home experiences, learning loss may be pretty limited. For other students it may be much larger. So we’re devising strategies for extending the school day and throughout the summer.

Will students be required to attend extra classes during the summer and virtually during non-school hours?

That’s what we’re trying to determine as a system.

COVID-19 has accelerated our thinking on this. We developed robust learning videos that we used our content experts to film, then we sent them out to all of our third-grade teachers, to allow them to use that with their students

If we’re developing a lot of digital assets to support teaching and learning in a remote context, there’s nothing to stop us from continuing to develop those and use those throughout normal operations.

I’m not ready to say that we’d be requiring these out of school, but we’ll be having candid conversations with parents about the learning needs of their students and really encouraging and promoting learning throughout the calendar year.

‘We won’t stop’: Detroit school district march links racial justice and equitable funding

2020-06-11T16:29:10+00:00

Hundreds marched in Detroit Thursday to spread a message: Michigan can prove that Black lives matter by equitably funding Detroit schools.

“We want the same education as Grosse Pointe has, and we won’t stop until we get it,” Ridgeley Hudson, a member of the district-wide student council, told a crowd of educators and students, referring to a wealthy suburban district that neighbors Detroit.

The Detroit school district held the peace protest to draw attention to K-12 funding inequities. Thursday also marked the 14th straight day of Black Lives Matter protests in metro Detroit following the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer.

Districts that receive less money from the state often serve more children of color. The Detroit district receives $8,142 per student per year from its state foundation grant, while Bloomfield Hills, a wealthy suburb of Detroit, receives $12,354, even though Detroit enrolls a higher proportion of students who need extra support. District leaders said they haven’t ruled out a lawsuit over the state’s school funding system.

While federal funds help Detroit make up some of the funding gap, that money comes with strings attached, and it isn’t enough to overcome years of disinvestment in school facilities. Many schools in Detroit lack air conditioning and windows that open, and the Detroit Public Schools Community District has no way to pay for nearly $1 billion in urgent repairs.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti addresses the crowd during the school district’s peace protest on Thursday, June 11, 2020.

The district — along with many education leaders statewide — has been pushing the state to rethink the way it finances schools. The “right to read” lawsuit, which wrapped up this week, was part of that effort.

“If you talk about Black Lives Matter in education, it’s not about equality, it’s about equity,” said Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti at the protest, speaking into a megaphone. “Our kids don’t need the same. Our kids need more.”

He added: “I stand before you as the father of Black children … and as the superintendent for almost 50,000 Black and brown children.”

Starting around 11 a.m., participants, many of them wearing T-shirts representing the district’s roughly 100 schools, walked from King High School to Campus Martius downtown.

District police cars cleared traffic for marchers, most of whom wore masks, although many stood within six feet of one another despite the district’s promise that social distancing would be enforced.

Clora Smith, who teaches at Greenfield Union in the Detroit school district, was among the participants during a protest Thursday, June 11, 2020.

The crowd held Black Lives Matter signs and chanted “Education, equality,” “Say their names — which ones?” and the district’s slogan, “Students rise, we all rise.”

The coronavirus pandemic has magnified the disadvantages faced by Detroit students, said Jenifer Loher, a third-grade teacher at Burton International Academy.

Many of her students didn’t have the technology they needed to learn from home while school buildings were closed.

“I look around at other communities in the area and all the other students have the resources they need for their students,” she said. “I need to speak up for our students, because they matter.”

Clora Smith, a first-grade teacher at Greenfield Union, said she wants her students to understand what’s going on in the world.

“I am a teacher of young boys of color. This is a peaceful way to show we care. Our goal is to move forward.”

For policymakers looking for ways to rectify racial injustice, overheated Detroit school buildings are a good place to start, said Janet Cannon, a math teacher coach for the district.

“It’s as simple as central air,” she said. “The buildings are very old.”

Sydney Matthews, a paraeducator at Greenfield Union, said it’s disheartening to see the lack of financial backing in the school district. Her school building has roaches.

“Children should not have to worry to make sure they’re not running into the bug traps. That should be a place where it’s clean, where it’s safe. For it not to be that way is a very huge problem,” she said.

Madeleine Battey, an 11th-grade math teacher at Mumford High School, said she wants more high-quality technology for her students.

“I want our school to have true 21st-century education. That’s the biggest thing for us right now.”

Amanda Dechter, a second-grade teacher at Greenfield Union, wants greater investments in emotional support for her students.

“We need counseling, mental health resources. Our students are experiencing trauma after trauma after trauma,” she said.

As the Detroit district recruits new teachers, they hope a boost in starting pay will entice candidates

2020-05-22T01:50:08+00:00

The Detroit school district, as part of its quest to hire more experienced teachers, is boosting starting pay in the district to $51,071.

Here’s a breakdown of what teachers, new and existing, can expect for the 2020-21 school year:

The starting salary for a new teacher with two years of experience will increase 25%, from $41,014 this year. The increases will vary depending on the number of years of experience.
The starting salary for a new teacher with no experience will increase 33%, from $38,400 this year.
About 480 current teachers who now make salaries below $51,071 will be boosted to that level.

District officials said they will now have the highest starting salaries for beginning teachers in the region.

They said the salary boosts, already built into the budget process for next school year, are crucial to efforts to recruit new teachers and reduce class sizes.

Higher starting salaries for beginning teachers, both those new to teaching and those with experience, could make the district more attractive at a time when schools find themselves continually fighting for a shrinking pool of teachers.

“Our strategy is to recruit teachers with experience, not brand new teachers,” said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District. “With that said, we would not turn a certified teacher with no experience away if they were an excellent candidate.”

From the time Vitti arrived in the district three years ago, he has said boosting teacher salaries is a priority. Teachers have seen pay increases, either with salary hikes or bonuses, in each of the last three years. Previously, during many years of control by state-appointed emergency managers, teachers saw their pay cut and loaned the district money.

“The District remains staunchly committed to improving compensation for all educators to ensure Detroit’s children have access to the highest quality teachers possible,” Iris Taylor, president of the district’s school board, said in a statement. “We will continue to work to make all of our teachers the highest paid in the state and country.”

The district has long struggled to fill teaching positions. In the 2016-17 school year, the district had 275 teacher vacancies. That number was reduced to 70 during the current school year, but as the district closes out the year, the expectation is that there could be as many as 200 by September.

Detroit isn’t the only district that has struggled with vacancies, particularly in some hard-to-fill subjects such as special education, math, and science. The district also is facing its own looming crisis: A third of the current teachers “could retire at any moment and another third of teachers could be in a position to retire in one to four years,” Vitti said.

“If we do not act with a sense of urgency regarding the recruitment of teachers to DPSCD then we slow the progress our children are making and own the failure to develop a long-term strategy to prevent the vacuum that a mass retirement could create over the next five years.”

Recruiting teachers could also be important as schools attempt to reopen in the fall, after more than three months of remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic. Most expect health concerns to remain in September, and in order to maintain social distancing, classrooms likely will have to hold fewer students. That could mean more teachers would be needed. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has created a panel at the state level that will plan for the safest way for students to return to school.

The district is near the end of a three-year contract with the Detroit Federation of Teachers. Terrence Martin, president of the union, emailed members after the district announced the starting salary increase.

“We look forward to continuing a larger discussion with the District that results in increased salaries for all those we represent,” Martin told them. “You are highly valued members of our school district, our community, and have remained committed to providing our children with a quality education. We will always fight for what is fair and equitable for all unit members.”

Inside the Detroit right-to-read case: How a settlement came together and a groundbreaking precedent fell apart

2020-05-21T23:40:24+00:00

Helen Moore was among the most visible champions of the Detroit literacy lawsuit. The veteran education activist says she was also a skeptic.

“We were doubtful from the beginning,” she recalled. “When it came out we celebrated but most of us who’ve been in the civil rights movement a long time knew that our foot was just in the door.”

Her apprehensions proved prescient. Just a few weeks after a federal panel ruled that there is a constitutional right to read — a precedent long sought by education activists like Moore — judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to review the case, destroying the legal precedent that Moore and other advocates had cheered just weeks earlier.

That decision was perhaps the final big twist in a four-year, roller-coaster legal fight that sought to reshape the national legal landscape and win resources for Detroit schools.

The payoff for students wasn’t nothing, but it was far less than many advocates had wanted. The city school district will get some additional resources under a settlement reached last week with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A constitutional right to education, however, is still a distant hope for education advocates who see it as a tool to eliminate educational inequities in the U.S.

‘Very important news’

Late on May 13, Jamarria Hall’s phone buzzed with a text from the other side of the country.

“Call me first thing in the morning,” Mark Rosenbaum, the California-based attorney leading the lawsuit, wrote. “Very important news.”

“I’m still up,” wrote Hall, one of seven Detroit students who brought the lawsuit. It was 11:49 p.m., well after his usual bedtime, but he was keyed up from serving as the public face of a campaign to pressure Gov. Gretchen Whitmer into settling the case.

Rosenbaum told him over the phone that the case was over. Whitmer had agreed to a settlement that included $2.7 million for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, plus a promise that she would pursue another $94 million in the state legislature.

Hall, Rosenbaum, and others involved in the case knew that a far greater investment would be needed to transform the district’s fourth-grade reading scores, which are worse than those of any other big city in the U.S. They knew the settlement would hardly put a dent in the problems named in the lawsuit — the leaking school roofs and outdated heating and A/C systems that will cost up to an estimated $1 billion to fix.

Still, the deal represented a win for the city’s school district, which could easily have received nothing at all from the lawsuit, which was filed in 2016.

And a settlement was far from guaranteed in the face of an economic crisis and the GOP-led state legislature’s resistance to major new education spending.

“I didn’t know we were going to have a settlement until it was settled,” said Bruce Miller, a Michigan-based lawyer who was involved in the case on behalf of the plaintiffs.

‘The biggest obstacle was reality’

Three weeks earlier, on April 23, a panel of three federal judges in the Sixth Circuit Court ruled 2-1 that terrible conditions in Detroit had denied students their constitutional right to literacy. A federal court had never recognized such a right before.

The ruling launched a race to a settlement.

“Within a matter of hours if not minutes, we were putting together a plan,” said Eli Savit, an attorney for the city of Detroit who filed a brief in the case. “Everybody was doing other things. The world didn’t stop. But we were constantly working on this.”

Negotiators believed from the start that they stood a good chance of coming to terms with Whitmer. As a candidate, she’d spoken in favor of the student plaintiffs. And while she had chosen to continue the state’s defense after her election — a “betrayal” in Hall’s eyes — the state’s lawyers had refrained from arguing that a constitutional right to literacy does not exist.

Several lawyers were also encouraged that Whitmer, a registered attorney, was personally involved in the negotiations at times.

“She doesn’t have a lot of free time, let’s put it that way,” said Evan Caminker, one of the lead negotiators on the students’ legal team and a professor at the University of Michigan law school.

As Whitmer spent her days working to coordinate Michigan’s response to the pandemic and deal with protesters, lawyers began putting in long hours in virtual meetings, working out the foundation of a settlement.

It was slow going at first. The plaintiff’s team included some of the best lawyers in the country — at least five people involved in the talks had worked as law clerks for Supreme Court justices, but none had settled a case in the middle of a pandemic. At one point, Caminker’s daughter caused a stir by walking into his office with one of the family’s pet rats on her shoulder while he was in a video conference.

“We were in 12 different rooms all over the country,” Rosenbaum said. “Under normal circumstances this would have been resolved a lot faster.”

Some on the team felt they needed to move quickly. On May 7, the Republican-led state legislature had requested that the Sixth Circuit undertake a rare review of the case, calling the notion of a right to read an error of “grave and exceptional public importance.” The legislators argued that Michigan had protected the school system from “local mismanagement” by installing state-appointed emergency managers and ultimately agreeing to pay off some of the district’s debts.

To Caminker, May 14 was the best target date. After that, the Sixth Circuit could overturn the case, giving Whitmer less incentive to settle.

Negotiators put in long hours — “18, 19, 20-hour days,” by Rosenbaum’s count — to figure out what the settlement should contain. Their first challenge: Everyone on the students’ side of the case believed that a major investment in Michigan’s schools was the best way to ensure that all students learned to read, but that seemed out of the question. Any major new spending would have to be approved by the legislature in a state where school funding has stagnated for decades.

And with Michigan’s economy at a standstill due to the coronavirus and state coffers hemorrhaging money, any major spending seemed even less likely.

“The biggest obstacle was reality,” said David Hecker, president of the Michigan chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, who worked with the students’ lawyers on the settlement. “Would this state legislature vote to provide a bunch more money to Detroit?”

Fashioning the settlement: Do-nows and do-laters

As negotiations began, Detroiters were watching the case closely — but from the outside. Six months earlier, 200 Detroiters got up at 3 a.m. to be on hand at the federal courthouse in Cincinnati for oral arguments in the case. Now local activists were worried that their voices would be excluded from the settlement.

“Right now it looks like it’s going to be all white men who don’t live in Detroit who are sitting in the room negotiating with the governor,” Angie Reyes, a long-time community organizer in southwest Detroit and the founder of the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, said on May 5.

As activists pressured Whitmer to settle through a text message campaign, Reyes reached out to Hecker to ask if he’d help community representatives get a seat at the table.

The students’ lawyers agreed. In the end, representatives from numerous community groups participated, including advocacy groups 482Forward and the Brightmoor Alliance, the city of Detroit, the Detroit school district, and the Skillman Foundation, which had put up $150,000 to start the lawsuit in 2016. (Skillman is a Chalkbeat funder.)

Many of the Detroiters at the table — including Reyes, Larry Simmons of the Brightmoor Alliance, and Skillman CEO Tonya Allen — had worked together previously as members of the Coalition for Detroit Schoolchildren, a community group that published proposals for improving Detroit’s schools in 2015 and 2017.

They argued that the settlement should give Detroiters more voice in state education policy. The settlement ultimately created Detroit-based advisory groups that would influence the way any settlement funds were distributed and advise Whitmer on education policy.

With just a couple of days to go before Caminker’s preferred settlement date of May 13, attorneys worked feverishly to double check the legal ins and outs of the settlement that was taking shape.

“I haven’t shaved in probably four days,” Caminker said after the settlement was announced. “I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life, and many of them have forced me to work around the clock, so that’s not new to me, but I usually find time to shave.”

Late in the evening on May 13, the settlement was finished. It had two parts: do-nows, and do-laters.

Whitmer had agreed to introduce legislation — and reintroduce it for as long as she was governor — that would send $94.4 million to the Detroit district for literacy programs.

She also would immediately lift restrictions on the district’s power to raise badly needed funds from local taxpayers, create a Detroit panel that would advise her on education policy, pay $2.7 million to the district immediately for literacy programs, and send $280,000 to the seven student plaintiffs to continue their secondary educations.

‘The fight will continue’

As news of the settlement went public just after midnight, the people involved in the case could finally take a breath.

Many had hoped to get more for Detroit students. But with the right-to-read precedent still standing, the settlement seemed to cement an important legal milestone. Allen called it “a quiet pivot to a new era.”

“After we had our last phone call just before midnight, and officially signed the letter to the court, I couldn’t sleep,” Savit said. “You got a sense that something really historic was on the horizon.”

Still, lawyers involved in the case knew that the precedent was fragile.

After the settlement was announced, Carter Phillips, an attorney consulted with the students’ legal team, wondered openly if this was the end. “It’s not all tied up in a bow. You can’t ignore the risk that the court might rehear the case.”

He was right to worry: Days later, 16 judges on the Sixth Circuit court voted to review the case, nullifying the April 23 ruling opinion that the U.S. Constitution gives citizens the right to literacy.

The settlement wouldn’t be affected, but the long-sought right-to-read precedent was gone.

“We’re disappointed,” said Caminker. “We always knew that was a possible outcome. It was after all an important decision, in our view a landmark decision. No one can say they would be surprised that the whole court might say this is important enough to review.”

A faster settlement wouldn’t necessarily have prevented the court from overturning the right to read, he added.

In the meantime, federal courts in other parts of the country are hearing similar cases. And while the Detroit case has been formally vacated, the logic of that ruling could still influence judges in other courts, said Kimberly Robinson, a professor at the University of Virginia who has written in favor of a federal right to education.

“If the lawyers who litigated Brown v. Board took one defeat and said ‘We’re going home to cry in our milk’ — no,” she said. “The fight will continue. You shouldn’t overstate this case.”

From a student teaching math to urine leaking from a bathroom, these are the conditions that prompted the historic Detroit literacy lawsuit.

2020-05-14T19:26:51+00:00

When the Detroit “right-to-read” lawsuit was filed in 2016, it detailed conditions the plaintiffs said deprived “students of even a fighting chance.”

Remedies could be on the way, because Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced early Thursday that a settlement had been reached with plaintiffs in the historic lawsuit, which sought to establish a right to literacy. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month in favor of the plaintiffs.

The settlement included $2.7 million that will go to the Detroit school district and $280,000 that will go to the plaintiffs. An additional $94.4 million for literacy programs would go to the district, but the state legislation would need to approve.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of students who at the time attended two schools in the Detroit school district and two charter schools, all of which have either closed or undergone major transformations. The lawsuit also refers to the district’s Marion Law Academy, which at the time of the lawsuit was part of the defunct Education Achievement Authority, a system that was run by the state for some of the worst-performing schools in Detroit.

Here, adapted from a 2016 Chalkbeat story, we highlight some of the allegations included in the 136-page lawsuit. The allegations are based on statements from students and teachers.

Hamilton Academy (a charter school that closed in 2019)

Many students had a vocabulary of only a couple hundred words. Some students couldn’t sound out letters.
The middle school science classes at Hamilton are currently taught by a paraprofessional who states that she does not understand the material and cannot lead classroom experiments.
In the 2015-16 school year, the seventh- and eighth-grade math teacher left several weeks after the start of school year due to frustration with large class sizes and lack of support. He was temporarily replaced by a paraprofessional and then a special education teacher. Eventually, the highest performing eighth-grade student was asked to take over teaching both seventh- and eighth-grade math, while the paraprofessional remained in the room to assist with classroom management. This student taught both math classes for a month.
After a Hamilton student was kidnapped and murdered, his classmates were not provided any opportunity to grieve. No additional counselors were brought in, and the teachers were not offered any support or training on how to speak with the students about the tragedy. Instead, on the day the police found the boy’s body, the only school-wide reaction was an announcement by loudspeaker to remind the students, who were using their phones to share details about what happened and to communicate their grief, that cell phones were not allowed at school.
Temperatures of over 100 degrees caused students and teachers to vomit and pass out during the first week of school.
The playground equipment — which is designed for 2-5 year olds, although the school served children ages 5-14 — is frequently broken. One of the playground slides was disconnected at the base so it shifted around, and the other had cracks with sharp pieces of plastic sticking out. Multiple students had sliced or otherwise injured themselves while playing.
It was not uncommon for meals to feature moldy bread and expired milk. The students knew not to drink out of the water fountains, which are frequently infested with cockroaches and maggots, and the teachers and principal would bring in bottled water they purchased themselves.
Students found bullets, used condoms, sex toys, and dead vermin on the playground, although teachers tried to arrive early to clean the playground themselves.

Cody Medicine and Community Health (previously was among three schools that operated in the Cody High building; now there is just one school)

Many of the students struggled when called upon to read aloud, with some stumbling over monosyllabic words. Yet the few instructors originally designated as reading interventionists, which was insufficient in number, were required to cover teacher vacancies in other classrooms.
There was no meaningful training in literacy intervention available, even when requested by teachers. Plaintiff Jaime R. was in an English language arts course in ninth grade during which the class spent a large part of the year going paragraph by paragraph through a single novel, which has a third-grade reading level.
There were multiple students who didn’t speak or write fluently in English, yet there were no English language learner teachers at the school. When a family of Iraqi refugees sought to register their daughter, their community school, the district attempted to transfer the child to a school over 25 miles away because it could not support her English language needs. The teachers ultimately relied on other students who spoke Arabic to assist the English language learner students.

Marion Law Academy (was a Detroit district school for years, until the Education Achievement Authority was formed. It remained there until 2017, when the EAA was disbanded)

At Marion Law Academy, inexperienced teachers used Google to search the internet for lesson plans the night before class, and many paid out of their own pockets to obtain lesson plans online.
Classrooms become so crowded that a teacher who managed to obtain chairs for all 42 students had to pack them together so tightly that a left-handed student could not sit next to a right-handed student. When a teacher was absent and no short-term substitute was available, classes were frequently combined. That could leave one teacher with as many as 60 students.
The school lacked teaching resources. Textbooks, library books, and other curricular materials were thrown away at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year when the school opened as an EAA school. The materials were trashed as part of a plan to switch to digital learning. But the new digital platform was ineffective, lacked existing instructional materials, and was abandoned in the 2015-16 school year. Administrators told teachers at Law that they were expected to buy their own supplies.
At Law, several classrooms flooded. In one fourth-grade classroom, a leaking hole in the ceiling created what students called “the lake,” and the teacher surrounded the area with yellow caution tape after multiple requests for repairs were ignored.

Experiencia Preparatory Academy (a charter school that had closed by the time the lawsuit was filed)

There were no certified English language learner teachers for long stretches of the school’s three years of operation. In the upper grades, about 20 of the approximately 80 students were English learners, but the English language class available to them covered the same elementary phrases for two years, regardless of the skill level of the individual students.
Plaintiff Esmeralda V. — who was more comfortable speaking Spanish than English — was frequently called upon to assist her Spanish-speaking classmates by summarizing the material for them in Spanish. Some students relied on Google Translate in order to teach themselves English, although many EL students did not have access to the Internet outside of school.
Textbooks at Experiencia were damaged and many years out of date, with taped spines and ripped and missing pages. The computers at the school were frequently broken, and when they did work, the Internet connectivity was so poor that they were nearly unusable. The third floor of the building technically had a library, but there was no librarian and students were not permitted to access the library or check out books without a teacher escort. Most of the time, the library remained locked.

Osborn Academy of Mathematics (one of the schools that used to operate in the Osborn High School building; there is now only one school)

One class had 42 students but only 32 desks. Another classroom had 52 students but only 37 chairs and fewer desks. The overcrowding also significantly exacerbated the extreme heat at many points during the year.
At the Osborn schools, fire exits are frequently locked and chained to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering from the street. During the 2015-16 school year, a fire broke out in the school and students were given no notice to evacuate because the Osborn fire alarm system failed.
At Osborn MST, urine frequently leaks out of the men’s room and soaks the carpet in the hallway, causing the hallway to smell for days.

Settlement reached in historic Detroit right-to-read lawsuit

2020-05-14T05:31:00+00:00

A settlement has been reached between Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the plaintiffs in the historic “right to read” lawsuit that argued Detroit children have a right to literacy.

Whitmer’s office released a joint statement at nearly 1 a.m. Thursday morning.

“We are pleased to announce that we have reached a settlement that will help secure the right of access to literacy for students in Detroit who faced obstacles they never should have faced,” the statement read.

“This landmark court decision recognizes that every child in Michigan deserves an opportunity to obtain an education, which is essential to having a strong foundation in life and a brighter future.”

The statement said details will be released later Thursday. But the settlement could have wide-reaching implications and would ensure that the precedent of a right to an education will stand at least for a while.

Whitmer had been under intense pressure to settle the lawsuit.

A federal panel on the Sixth Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled last month that the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to basic literacy, laying down a major new legal landmark and handing a victory to the Detroit students who argued in the 2016 lawsuit that they’d been deprived of an education by the poor condition of the city’s schools during a period in which the state was largely in control of the district.

Republican lawmakers in the Michigan Legislature asked the full appeals court to reconsider the panel’s decision, calling it a “precedent-setting error of grave and exceptional public importance.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday a group of attorney generals from 10 states (Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, and Texas) filed a brief in support of the defendants. They too are requesting a review by the full court and rule that the Constitution doesn’t “guarantee a positive right to education.”

“Forcing states to engage in expensive and interminable litigation over whether their education systems meet the panel’s amorphous standard will only consume additional resources that undoubtedly would be better spent elsewhere,” the states’ brief says.

Chalkbeat reported Wednesday that Whitmer was in settlement talks. Among the things being requested by plaintiffs and officials from the Detroit school district: A commitment to equitable funding, funding for literacy initiatives, and facilities improvement.

‘It’s just not how I wanted to end my 1st year’: How college freshmen from Detroit coped with coronavirus

2020-05-13T21:08:03+00:00

One day soon, the weight of the coronavirus pandemic will hit Marqell McClendon.

The Detroit native will come to terms with the deaths of her uncle and great aunt. With the challenges of having to leave her college campus. With the disease that has devastated her community.

For weeks, though, McClendon kept her mind fixed solely on surviving a difficult shift to online classes. It’s a complicated transition that threatened to upend the momentum from her first semester, in which she did what seemed unthinkable a year ago: She made the dean’s list at Michigan State University.

“It hurts a little,” McClendon, a freshman, said as she contemplated her grades suffering as a result. “I’m trying the best that I can and my situation isn’t really my fault. But, it’s just not how I wanted to end my first year.”

Chalkbeat has been following McClendon and other first-year college students from Detroit this academic year, capturing their stumbles and successes to provide insight into what high school graduates from struggling communities need to succeed in college.

The abrupt, unsettling disruption to an already difficult first year has tested McClendon, as well as fellow college freshmen Kashia Perkins and Demetrius Robinson. None of them had ever taken an online class, so they were thrust into an unfamiliar learning environment with little preparation and with professors who were also feeling their way through this new reality.

Marqell McClendon, who just finished her freshman year at Michigan State, takes notes during an online lecture while completing her schoolwork from the bedroom of her Detroit home.

The global pandemic has also tested them in other ways. Robinson, a Central Michigan University student who dreams of taking over his family’s fitness business, has immersed himself in the details of COVID, lecturing his friends about taking precautions and being careful himself when he leaves home to cut his grandfather’s hair. He’s also had to mourn the loss of a family friend.

“I just wake up every day and do the things I know that I’m actually in control of.” - Marqell McClendon

Perkins, meanwhile, insulated herself by staying in her dorm on the MSU campus. The decision not to finish out the spring semester at home was a nod to her growing need for independence. But her insulation may also explain why she believes too much is being made of the seriousness of the virus.

As the virus spread through Detroit, shutting out the world around her was important for McClendon. She traded the solitude of her dorm room and favorite quiet spaces at Michigan State for the brick home she shares with her family on a quiet street on the city’s west side. Her bedroom and the home’s back porch are where she kept up with her studies. She tried not to think about the coronavirus, even though it has personally impacted her family.

Kashia Perkins, shown here in a fall 2019 file photo, remained on the Michigan State University campus to complete the spring semester after classes were moved online.

“It hit closer to home,” said McClendon, who last year was the valedictorian of her senior class at Cody High School in the Detroit school district. “What I’m actually doing … is not thinking about it at all. I just wake up every day and do the things I know that I’m actually in control of and I try not to worry about things too much.”

When we talked to McClendon several weeks ago, she said she hadn’t allowed herself time to mourn.

“I feel like I should try as hard as I can to focus on my schoolwork because I know that’s what everybody wants me to do instead of worrying. Eventually, I will mourn, because the semester is almost over.”

For McClendon and other Michigan State students, May 1 marked the end of finals.

‘I can’t do this online’

Despite the disparate ways they’ve coped with coronavirus, one thing unites the three: Their distaste for taking classes online and their worry that fall semester classes will also be conducted virtually.

“If this gets shut down until 2021, I don’t know if I’m going back to school. Because I can’t do this online,” said Robinson. “I would rather start school back when I can physically go back to the campus.”

Demetrius Robinson, seen here in a fall 2019 file photo, was worried that the fall semester at Central Michigan University would begin online. The university announced this week they will return to in-person classes.

The switch online has been difficult for students across the board. But it’s been especially hard for those from struggling communities like Detroit, where many children come from low-income families.

“Our students come from backgrounds where they were already facing certain barriers, already facing certain stressors when it came to persisting through college,” said Terran Davis, the alumni success coordinator at the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, the charter school from which Perkins and Robinson graduated. “This added pressure of the virus has definitely amplified some of these stressors.”

He and David Williams, who helps lead the college-going efforts at the high school, said the suddenness of the switch has been a factor. Some students don’t have the technology at home. Some don’t have the quiet space there to study. Others struggle to get school work done in the midst of family dynamics.

“The transition ... has not been smooth,” Williams said.

Some experts are worried about the emotional well being of college students nationwide who are coping with the pandemic. A national survey of 2,000 college students, completed in April by the advocacy group Active Minds, found that 80% of the students said COVID has negatively impacted their mental health.

“There are (mental health) resources still available to them,” said Jerry Caldwell, director of the Charles Drew Science Scholars at Michigan State. “We let them know that we are here to reach out to us if they have needs.”

“Our students come from backgrounds where they were already facing certain barriers, already facing certain stressors when it came to persisting through college.” - Terran Davis

The program helps students pursuing science and medical-related majors – most of them from underrepresented communities – with intense academic advising, academic coaching, career advising, and a connection to a tight-knit community. In the midst of the pandemic, they have worked to provide weekly “Zoom with Drew” activities, such as an event where the students played Pictionary and another night when they played trivia games.

They’re also making sure students have access to important resources such as food pantries, and tutoring. For instance, the program connected McClendon with someone to help her with her difficult chemistry class.

Longing for face to face connections

Anyone who knows Robinson, an extrovert who thrives when he’s around others, will understand why he dislikes online classes. He made it his mission as a freshman to meet as many people as he could and have his name known on campus.

“I like the face to face classes. I like going to my professors’ office hours. I like going after class, walking up to my professors and saying, ‘Hey, I didn’t quite understand what happened in class,” Robinson said.

This is important for Robinson. He struggled through his first semester, largely because he said he didn’t take advantage of opportunities to talk to professors about what he needed to work on to improve his grades. When we caught up with him earlier this year, he said he was finally feeling like a college student.

“I’m getting that feeling like, ‘Man, I’m really here. I’m here to stay.’ I’m settling down,” Robinson said in February. He had also begun spending more time talking to his professors and noticed a “drastic change” in his performance.

But then, while he was on spring break not even a month later, and visiting a friend who attends an Ohio university, the world changed. In-person classes were canceled and students were told not to come back to the university. Robinson had only a week’s worth of clothes and none of his school textbooks (“You weren’t bringing that book on your spring break.”)

He was still able to connect with his professors, but it wasn’t as easy. And, he said, there were the typical technical glitches that have come with such an abrupt switch to online classes, like the time everyone in one of his classes got disconnected from the live lesson, but the professor kept teaching because he didn’t know there was a problem.

Eventually, Robinson was able to visit campus and pick up the things he needed. Then he made a final trip last week to empty out what was left in his room. Robinson got some welcome news Monday afternoon. Central Michigan announced it is returning to face-to-face classes in the fall.

“Time to say bye bye until next year,” he said as he prepared to leave his dorm room for the last time as a freshman.

Kashia Perkins and other Michigan State University students are awaiting a decision on whether classes will begin in-person or online for the fall semester. The university will make a decision by early July.

A campus safe haven

Perkins grew up in Detroit, and that’s where her family is, but home to her this year was her dorm room at Michigan State. And that’s where she opted to stay when the university president announced classes were moving online and students were encouraged to go home.

“I’m more of a visual learner.” - Kashia Perkins

“I’ve gotten so used to being on my own that I’d rather stay in my own space and do my work here,” Perkins said.

She was among about 800 students who remained on the campus. But while the setting was idyllic, the venue for classes wasn’t. She struggled to keep herself motivated to get up and get her classwork done. Her self discipline, she said, has been lacking. And she doesn’t feel like she’s learning as much as she would in a face-to-face class.

“I’m more of a visual learner,” Perkins said. “I would like to see you sit with me and do a problem together so I understand it.”

But it’s not just the switch to online classes that has been difficult. She misses the activities she was involved in. From the beginning, Perkins has been passionate about getting involved in clubs and organizations on campus, including a dance club that puts on regular performances.

The coronavirus has taken a toll on Perkins’ home town (at last count, the city had 1,213 COVID-related deaths and 9,897 people test positive). Still, Perkins — who plans to change her major from human biology to nursing — downplays the significance of the virus. She said it doesn’t worry her because she thinks government officials are making the pandemic seem worse than it is.

“People with weak immune systems … that’s really who it affects,” said Perkins, who cites statistics showing that most people who get it will survive.

“That’s why I feel like they’ve blown it out of proportion. They know people in this world will survive. They’re making it seem like if you get it, you’re going to die.”

Nationwide, 80,820 have died of COVID. In Michigan alone, there have been 4,674 deaths.

As she looks ahead to the fall semester, Perkins is hoping for a return to normal. She said she became too lazy this spring as she learned online, so she’s hoping the fall semester doesn’t begin virtually. (Michigan State officials plan to make a decision by early July)

“That’s not a good way to start off. I want to start the school year off strong so I can end the semester strong.”

‘Everything was just harder’

Throughout the fall semester, McClendon was aggressively seeking help with a difficult math class, including approaching strangers in her dorm and asking for assistance. The persistence paid off. She earned a 3.8 grade point average and a spot on the MSU dean’s list.

Earlier this year, she was already concerned about the increased rigor of this year’s classes, which include chemistry, another difficult math class, and physiology. She was determined to maintain that grade point average.

Marqell, shown in this file photo from fall 2019, saw her grades decline during the spring semester after making the dean’s list in the fall.

Then the pandemic came, and suddenly, “everything was just harder,” McClendon said. “It’s harder to learn because basically we’re teaching ourselves.”

She struggled to keep up with her classes and to stay organized, especially for those courses where her professors record their lectures and students can watch the lectures at their own pace.

“Every time I look up, I’ll have three assignments due that I knew nothing about because it’s not like you go to class and then your professors remind you that you have something due.”

There were more than a few missing assignments. She also missed entire classes. It prompted her to create a chart so she could more easily keep up.

Math became an even bigger problem than it was last semester, and this time, the resources she relied on — such as going to the math resource center on campus and getting hands-on help — weren’t so handy.

“I think my grades are declining right now,” she said several weeks ago.

The confirmation came this week. McClendon passed all her classes. But she earned far fewer credits, dropping her cumulative GPA to a 3.0, still not bad for a first-year freshman.

But that’s not enough for this determined student, who puts a lot of pressure on herself to do her best.

“Hopefully, we’re not doing online next semester so I can do better.”

This story is part of a partnership with Detroit Public Television. It was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

Protesters plan a ‘car parade’ outside Whitmer’s house, pushing her to quickly settle the right-to-read lawsuit

2020-05-12T17:43:05+00:00

Protesters are planning a car parade past Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s house tomorrow, part of an ongoing effort to pressure Whitmer to settle the Detroit “right to read” lawsuit.

“Our children cannot read as they should,” said Larry Simmons, a Detroit pastor and director of the Brightmoor Alliance, an advocacy group, during an online press conference Tuesday. “I call upon you to settle this lawsuit now. Keep your word.”

The students’ supporters are eager for Whitmer to settle the case out of court. Observers say the ruling would likely be overturned if it were reviewed by other appeals judges or by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We are not commenting on pending litigation other than to say what the governor has always affirmed: every child is born with a right to a quality education,” said Tiffany Brown, a spokesperson for Whitmer.

Protesters angry about Whitmer’s stay-home-order gathered outside her house last month.

Lawyers representing the Detroit students and the state are in settlement discussions. The Detroit district, which is also involved in the talks, is pushing for a range of possible settlement terms:

A commitment to equitable school funding.
Funding for literacy initiatives.
Facilities improvements.
Elimination of the Financial Review Commission that oversees the district, which was created as part of a state aid package in 2016.
The ability to raise funds from local taxpayers, lost as part of the state aid package.
Assurance that the state can no longer impose emergency management without the consent of voters in any district.

On Tuesday afternoon, members of the State Board of Education, who are defendants in the lawsuit, voted 6-2 to support the appeals court decision. The vote went along party lines, with six Democrats voting yes and the two Republicans voting no.

The appeals court “took on the responsibility to make sure those kids are literate, are educated,” said Tiffany Tilley, a Democrat from Southfield who is a Detroit native. “This case … is historical for every child and every zip code.”

The board heard from Jamarria Hall, one of the plaintiffs who has been the face of the lawsuit. Hall was a high school student in the district when the lawsuit was filed; he now attends college.

“If we lack the resources and the proper facilities to learn in, how can we be productive students? How can we go out in the world to be productive citizens?”

Tom McMillin, a Republican from Oakland Township, warned that a vote to support the decision will be a vote to have a federal judge make decisions about how to ensure Detroit students have a basic right to an education.

“What is going to happen is a George W. Bush appointee will become the de facto emergency manager over a significant portion of the Detroit school system. That’s what you will be authorizing. You are authorizing the removal of local control.”

He and Nikki Snyder, a Republican from Dexter, also argued the money to ensure that right could come at the expense of other school districts in the state.

Simmons said protestors participating in the car parade, scheduled for noon, will maintain social distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Education activists with 482Forward, an education advocacy group in Detroit, say they haven’t heard from Whitmer about her plans to settle. During her 2018 campaign, Whitmer said repeatedly that she believed there is a Constitutional right to literacy, and that she supported the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Those promises won Whitmer the support of black voters in Detroit in 2018, and her handling of the coronavirus crisis has also won her some fans. “When it’s all over, you invited to the cookout,” the Detroit rapper GMac Cash said in a song that went viral earlier this month.

Dawn Wilson-Clark, a Detroit parent and organizer with 482Forward, said Whitmer still needs to deliver on her promises to families in the city.

“I don’t care what the song says. You’re not invited to the cookout until you settle this.”

‘Settle it.’ With the clock ticking, education advocates push Gov. Whitmer to end the Detroit literacy lawsuit

2020-05-05T21:46:18+00:00

The Constitutional right to education was in danger the moment it was established by a federal panel last month.

Whether that precedent survives — and what it means for Detroit students — is up to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Advocates and plaintiffs in the Detroit-based “right to read” lawsuit are pressuring Whitmer to settle the case quickly. They worry that their win and the precedent, long sought by education advocates, will be undone if Whitmer appeals it to a more conservative higher court.

But they hope that a settlement could make gains for Detroit students. Advocates say there’s a wide range of policies Whitmer could put in place to partially make up for problems that have long plagued Detroit schools — including shifting the state funding formula or creating a literacy fund for struggling Detroit schools.

“We have an opportunity right now to reset this and make it right,” said Arlyssa Heard, a parent organizer with the advocacy group 482Forward. “Think about all the harm that has been done.”

Heard says her two sons struggled in city schools with leaky roofs, outdated books, and a shortage of certified teachers. She moved them repeatedly, but found that many schools suffered from the same problems. “The bottom line was this: My son was not in an environment where he could learn,” she said.

The family’s experience is similar to ones described in the literacy lawsuit, Gary B. v. Whitmer, which argued that the state was responsible for the poor condition of the city’s schools.

Last week, Eric Clay, a federal judge on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled in favor of the seven students who brought the suit. “Education — at least in the minimum form discussed here — is essential to nearly every interaction between a citizen and her government,” he wrote.

Detroit schools are still badly underserving its students. Citywide, student scores on Michigan’s reading exam lag far behind the state average, though they made gains last year. The Detroit district’s literacy levels consistently rank below those of any other major city in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national exam considered the gold standard for measuring student learning.

Representatives of the plaintiffs, and Whitmer did not return requests for comment. Detroit district leaders urged Whitmer to settle the suit in a letter last week.

From the moment Whitmer was elected, the lawsuit put her in an awkward position. As a candidate, she had insisted that “every child in this state has a Constitutional right to literacy.” But as the state’s top official, she argued that the case should be thrown out because the state no longer controls Detroit schools. Another top Michigan Democrat, Attorney General Dana Nessel, declined to take part in the case, saying she sided with the students.

If Whitmer appealed the case now, though, the students’ victory could be overturned by a higher court. The Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to rule that education is a Constitutional right. The current court, with two appointees of President Donald Trump, is unlikely to rule in the Detroit students’ favor, said Mark Paige, an education law professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

The clock is ticking: Whitmer has only 90 days from the April 23 ruling to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, and 14 days from that date to ask the Sixth Circuit to undertake a rare review of Clay’s ruling.

Advocates have already begun to lay out a wish list. Angie Reyes, executive director of the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, which has pushed Whitmer to settle the case, said the problems in the lawsuit hurt students across Michigan.

“There have been two or three generations where the schools have not met kids’ needs,” she said. “And it’s not just Detroit.”

Reyes hopes that a settlement might shift the state’s school funding formula, sending more money to schools whose students have greater needs connected to poverty, disability, or English proficiency.

She offered another idea: A “literacy fund” that would send money to schools that have failed to teach students to read. Parents and school staff would have a say in how the money was spent. A settlement reached in a similar lawsuit in California included a literacy fund.

Any settlement would be complicated by the economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus outbreak, which is projected to cost Michigan billions of dollars in revenue. The Republican-led state legislature would need to sign off on any major spending included in a settlement, an unlikely prospect as they work to cut the state budget.

But new spending might not be the only way to help schools.

“There are a variety of things that would represent a step forward for education conditions in the state that may not have a large price tag in the short run,” said David Arsen, professor of education policy at Michigan State University.

One example: The 2016 law that prevented the Detroit district from going bankrupt also limited the district’s ability to raise local tax money, a major problem for a school system whose buildings urgently need more than $500 million in repairs. A settlement could return the district’s full power to raise funds from Detroit residents, Arsen said.

A settlement could also breathe life back into a proposed citywide administrative body tasked with overseeing district and charter schools, Arsen said. That idea was initially included in the 2016 law but was removed at the urging of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who was an education activist and philanthropist at the time.

In an email, a spokesperson for the Detroit Public Schools Community District said that the district is advocating for a range of possible settlements, including: A commitment to equitable school funding, funding for literacy initiatives, facilities improvements, debt restructuring, elimination of the Financial Review Commission that oversees the district, bonding authority, and assurance that the state can no longer impose emergency management without the consent of voters in any district.

Reyes agreed that the city’s school system, which is composed of the city district and dozens of charter schools, could use an administrative overhaul.

“We want there to be some sort of oversight, and that both systems are meeting the needs of our children,” she said, referring to the district and charter schools.

More important, Reyes said, is that any settlement should address the root causes of the problems in Detroit schools.

“We want to be sure that it addresses some of these systemic issues, and that it’s not just a Band-Aid.”

‘Governor, now is the time’: Detroit district officials want Whitmer to settle landmark literacy lawsuit

2020-04-29T18:56:52+00:00

Detroit school district leaders are urging Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to reach a settlement with the plaintiffs in a 2016 literacy lawsuit.

“We respect your advocacy for traditional public education throughout the state and in Detroit,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and Board President Iris Taylor said in a letter to the governor. “However, we encourage you to stop listening to attorneys and rely on your instincts.”

The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of a handful of Detroit students, sought to hold state officials responsible for systemwide failures that the plaintiffs say have deprived Detroit children of their right to literacy, left many classrooms and buildings in terrible condition, and left teachers without the resources they needed to do their jobs. The lawsuit seeks remedies that include literacy reforms, interventions and facility fixes.

Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that students have a right to literacy, overturning a district court decision that threw out the case because there is no federally mandated right to an education. Legal experts described the appeals court ruling as a historic win for a case that was considered a long shot.

“The decision shines a bright light on the State’s failures toward the school district’s children and employees, mainly teachers,” the letter from Vitti and Taylor said. “Despite the district’s improvement under an elected empowered school board and appointed superintendent, the legacy of state control will negatively impact children and the community for years. Accountability and justice are required.”

The state oversaw the district for much of the last 20 years until 2016, when Michigan lawmakers OK’d a $617 million plan to address crushing debt in the city’s school district. That plan called for creating a new district — the Detroit Public Schools Community District — to educate students. The old district — Detroit Public Schools — exists to collect tax revenue and pay debt.

Vitti and the school board have discussed suing the state over the district’s condition after it was left in state control, but haven’t. The district filed a brief in support of the plaintiffs in the literacy case.

During state control, the local school board was disempowered, teacher salaries suffered, multiple schools closed, and the district was left deeper in debt.

State officials may decide to appeal the decision, but the victory is key for advocates fighting for equitable school funding. The community group 482Forward launched a social media campaign urging people to record videos asking the governor to to settle the lawsuit by May 7.

Vitti and Taylor also pressed the governor to address statewide school funding inequities.

“Governor, now is the time for you to leverage this decision to make inroads in the historic and current inequity that holds back the potential of our students,” the letter said.

Read the letter below:

Letter Dr Taylor and Dr Vitti Letter to Governor Whitmer Seeking Settlement of Gary B v Whitmer Lawsuit (PDF)Letter Dr Taylor and Dr Vitti Letter to Governor Whitmer Seeking Settlement of Gary B v Whitmer Lawsuit (Text)

Detroit district anticipates budget obstacles due to COVID-19, including a possible ‘hold’ on employee salary increases

2020-04-28T22:42:22+00:00

Estimates showing big declines in state education revenue have Detroit district leaders reassessing salary increases, while also focusing on hiring new teachers in the fall.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti made a recommendation Monday to put a “hold” on any salary increases for the next school year.

Vitti said the district had been planning to offer permanent salary increases based on a budget proposal presented earlier this year by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which called for increases in per pupil funding.

But the economic impact of COVID-19 has resulted in projections that revenue for schools could be down as much as 6% to 13%, Vitti said. The district is exploring how to keep current staff members working in order to prevent layoffs.

If state school allocations are reduced, “then our proposed budget will need to prioritize protecting jobs and current salaries and wages,” Vitti said in an email Monday night. “We could consider bonuses depending on the extent of state reductions, enrollment, and federal funding.”

The district is expected to propose a budget in May and submit it to the board for approval in June.

Terrence Martin, the president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the union that represents teachers, counselors, and other school employees, said the union understands the district may face state funding cuts, but they are still pushing for the increased pay.

“We certainly plan to bargain in good faith with the school district for increases that our members deserve,” Martin said.

The current contract was approved in 2017 and included an increase in wages of more than 7% over two years, partly to make up for cuts made during years of emergency management. The third year, which was not negotiated until last year, provided salary increases for some and bonuses for others. The current contract expires at the end of this school year.

Earlier Monday, during a school board committee meeting, Vitti said the district would look to expand work duties for some employees during the school shut-down, and also if schools do not return full-time in the fall. For instance, a bus aide may be asked to perform the work of a cafeteria worker or custodian. This would require approval from the district’s workers unions, including the DFT.

“The world is changing. And the complexities linked to work in the school setting are changing as well. And we are willing to work with everybody to ensure employment and everyone’s salary, but there has to be a give-and-take in this situation,” Vitti said.

Martin said the district will need to take into consideration the challenges employees will face.

“These folks are professionals. They are trained. And it’s not easy to go from one classification to another and be willing to do so,” he said. “It’s not easy to be a bus driver. It’s not easy to be a custodian. It’s not easy to be a teacher. So, you know, we cannot act as if it’s easy for anyone to just fly over to another position.”

The district will get some economic relief through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act. Vitti said he’s not yet sure how much the district will receive. But he said that although it might be used to cover current salaries, it won’t be used to provide salary increases because it’s one-time money that will not be renewed.

The lack of federal money in addition to what’s provided in the CARES Act could result in big job losses across the nation. The Council of the Great City Schools, a national coalition focused on urban education, estimated a 20% decrease from state and local sources for large city school districts. That’s why the coalition urged federal lawmakers Tuesday to approve an additional $175 billion dollars to support schools. Vitti is one of several school leaders that signed the advocacy letter, which also noted that without the financial boost, it’s estimated that 275,000 teacher jobs could be cut across the country.

There are also other factors that may affect the district’s budget, including enrollment, higher employee health care costs, and the challenge of renewing a Wayne County tax that has provided about $80 million annually for school districts. Voters will decide on the tax renewal in November. The district has used revenue from it to pay for salary increases.

Teacher recruitment is another district priority going into the fall, Vitti said. There are currently 100 teacher vacancies, and it’s estimated that 60 percent of the district’s teachers will retire within the next five years. The district is considering using what money is available to hire more teachers, especially if class sizes must be reduced to adhere to social distancing.

The recent investment into providing devices and internet access to all of the district’s students also puts them in a better position to attract teacher candidates.

“There’s even more positive energy about the district. And this is an opportunity to recruit teachers that may feel economically unstable in other districts, mainly charter schools in the city. So we need to use this to our advantage,” Vitti said.

Detroit students, parents, and teachers navigate challenges during expanded online learning

2020-04-24T23:32:25+00:00

The Detroit school district launched an accelerated version of its online learning plan this week, giving students with technology access an opportunity to see their teachers and classmates in person via live lessons in subjects such as math and English since schools shut down because of coronavirus.

The 90 percent of Detroit district students without computers or tablets continue to use paper academic packets, but the district added the chance to have phone conversations with their teachers. During a Thursday press conference, superintendent Nikolai Vitti said that only 10 percent of students were able to consistently access online resources.

Teachers spent last week learning how to use Microsoft Teams, the platform the district is using.

Vitti also said that the district distributed 30,000 academic packets this week, which is the same content available online. So far, the feedback the district received from teachers has been positive.

“Teachers generally appreciated the developed curriculum and the quality of the Teams platform,” he said.

Chalkbeat spoke with students, a parent, and a teacher about the challenges of learning in a time of heightened anxiety and stress due to the coronavirus. All of them dearly miss connecting inside the classroom.

Ciara Cade, student, Cass Technical High School

The transition to online learning this week has been rough for Ciara Cade, a high school junior who thrives on the connections she has with her teachers.

Without those spontaneous, in-person exchanges, she said that learning is dull, and online learning hasn’t made it much better.

“It feels like I’m in a box talking to my classmates,” she said. “It’s so awkward to join this thing and to be sitting here in my room and I’m just talking to all my friends. I feel isolated.”

Despite those rough patches, she says logging on to learn is a positive, productive thing to do while confined in her home on Detroit’s east side.

The 17-year-old starts her day around 8:30 a.m. in her bedroom, sitting at a tiny desk stacked with physics and chemistry books. She dreams of becoming an astronaut, but all the hours she’s spent alone during the pandemic are giving her pause about a career that requires a fair amount of isolation.

Sometimes her mind wanders. On Thursday, she couldn’t stop worrying about the health and safety of her teachers.

“Not being able to keep in touch with some of my teachers for a few days is kind of scary because you’re wondering, Are they OK?” she said. “People have relatives die or pass away. And you have to watch them try and continue everything the next day.”

As far as learning goes, Ciara is staying optimistic.

“We’re trying to do the best we can to try and keep everything normal,” she said. “It’s not a productivity contest.”

Alaina Larsen, teacher, Schulze Academy for Technology and Arts

Teacher Alaina Larsen inside her kitchen with her dog Bella.

One of the hardest parts for Alaina Larsen is losing out on watching her fourth-grade math and social studies students grow. She loves seeing her students become more independent.

“I miss the magic,” she said, her voice breaking as she held back tears over the phone.

She teaches live online between 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, and 2 p.m to 3 p.m. on Friday. She’s working hard to replicate the stability of her classroom.

There have been some growing pains. Adapting to each student’s needs has been an adjustment. Larsen is all about efficiency, drilling down concepts before advancing to the next step, and distance learning makes it hard to see if her students understand all the concepts.

Her style of teaching changes depending on whether she’s communicating with students online or by phone.

She shares her cell phone number with families and encourages them to call if they don’t have a computer or tablet at home as they work through fractions, the focus of her instruction these past few days. She’ll walk through how to tackle an equation over the phone, then tell the student to work on it alone and then call her back to tell her they figured it out.

Teaching during coronavirus has challenged her as a teacher, but she welcomes the opportunity after almost 20 years in the classroom.

“That’s so powerful to kind of reach everybody and give out to all the students equal access to us,” she said.

Larsen also makes space for her students and their families to share sorrows and fears. When everything becomes overwhelming, she takes time to relax grabbing a cup of coffee, walking her dog, or tending to her hostas and lilies at her Eastpointe home.

Darlene Waller, parent, and Elaina Waller, student at Greenfield Union Elementary-Middle School

Darlene Waller (left) holding her daughter Elaina (right).

Little changed this week for Darlene Waller and her daughter Elaina, a first-grader with autism.

The Wallers are among the 90 percent of families in the district who can’t access the district’s online educational resources. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said this week that just 10% of Detroit students have been able to consistently learn online.

Darlene’s laptop was damaged by a virus, and the tablet she bought for her daughter doesn’t have the capacity to do the online work. She’s relying on phone calls with Elaina’s teachers and the paper academic packets.

She has teachers, who have done a good job of helping Elaina understand and retain reading and math information.

Darlene briefly homeschooled Elaina last year, and she’s always on the hunt for the best learning materials and supplementary resources.

“Focus on subjects that they like. And if the school curriculum is just too much, if it’s just causing too much anxiety and stress, you know, kind of try to build your own curriculum around that,” she said.

Darlene and Elaina get up between 5:30 and 7 a.m. each day to brush Elaina’s teeth and eat breakfast. She makes sure Elaina has time to play with her toys, like her ball maze, to help break up the day’s routine. They end the academic day around 2 p.m.

Darlene hopes that the time spent on Elaina’s education during these early years will stay with her into adulthood.

“I had to unlearn the fact that not all kids go through the same milestones,” Waller said. “I really hope and pray that she’s able to be self-reliant, self-sufficient, because I won’t be around forever.”

Eva Oleita, student, Cass Technical High School

A picture of Eva Oleita’s bedroom, where she completes her school work.

A couple of days ago, Eva Oleita was having problems with her internet connection. She doesn’t have a laptop, so she used her phone to log into the district’s online program. Nothing worked.

“It’s been kind of difficult for me. Because, you know, I can only do so much on my phone as it is,” she said.

She was able to log into the system twice this week to catch up.

In one of her classes, she’s learning about how COVID-19 compares to the Spanish flu. Eva said the lessons have been beneficial to help her combat disinformation and learn how to protect herself. Her mother is a nurse working in hospice care who was previously exposed to COVID-19.

“As teenagers, we might be a little bit more naive. And we might be, you know, they might be able to sway our thoughts with it,” she said. “So I think it’s actually good that we’re learning about it.”

Detroit students score a win: Appeals court affirms right to literacy

2020-04-23T18:45:28+00:00

There is a constitutional right to literacy, a federal court ruled on Thursday, dealing a surprise victory to the Detroit students who sued the state in 2016 over the disastrous condition of their schools.

“Just as this Court should not supplant the state’s policy judgments with its own, neither can we shrink from our obligation to recognize a right when it is foundational to our system of self-governance,” wrote Eric. L Clay, a judge on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Clay was joined by another member of the three-judge panel, while the third issued a separate dissenting opinion.

“Access to literacy is such a right. It’s ubiquitous presence and evolution through our history has led the American people universally to expect it. And education — at least in the minimum form discussed here — is essential to nearly every interaction between a citizen and her government.”

The court overturned a decision from a district court in Detroit, which threw out the case because there is no federally mandated right to an education. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to say whether the Constitution gives every citizen a right to an education.

“It’s a historic victory for the community of Detroit that has carried on the struggle for educational justice for decades,” said Mark Rosenbaum, the lead attorney on the case for Public Counsel, a nonprofit legal firm. “There could not be a more thrilling or a more just result.”

State officials could appeal the decision, but Rosenbaum said he hoped that attorneys and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would be able to work out a settlement.

What that settlement might look like is uncertain, especially as Michigan faces a multibillion dollar budget shortfall caused by the coronavirus. A similar lawsuit recently settled in California’s state courts brought an additional $50 million to that state’s most troubled schools, a small sum in a state education budget of tens of billions of dollars.

The right to literacy outlined in the decision could actually limit a potential settlement because it’s fairly narrow, said Kristine Bowman, a professor of law and education at Michigan State University. While literacy is important, it’s far from the only thing schools teach. She noted that few children leave even the state’s most troubled schools totally illiterate.

“Literacy is a pretty low floor,” she said. “And yet in this case, the judge said, ‘Hey, there’s a place where kids are falling through the cracks, and it’s the state’s fault.’”

A settlement could either focus exclusively on Detroit or apply more broadly to all of the state’s most troubled schools, Bowman said.

Tiffany Brown, a spokeswoman for Whitmer, said the governor’s office is still reviewing the decision. Still, she added:

“Although certain members of the State Board of Education challenged the lower court decision that students did not have a right to read, the Governor did not challenge that ruling on the merits.”

“We’ve also regularly reinforced that the governor has a strong record on education and has always believed we have a responsibility to teach every child to read.”

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti described the ruling as a victory that “validates what Detroiters have been saying all along - Detroit students deserve better and the state of Michigan needs to be held accountable to address that injustice.”

Vitti said he hopes Whitmer seeks to settle the case. The district filed a brief in support of the plaintiffs in 2018.

“It is time to move on from the false argument that DPS was not damaged at the hands of the State and more importantly, that district children and teachers were not damaged under State management,” Vitti said. “It is now time to move toward healing these historic wounds.”

The lawsuit put some elected officials in the awkward position of arguing against plaintiffs they agreed with. Even as lawyers in the Michigan Attorney General’s office defended the state against the students’ concerns, Dana Nessel, the Democratic Attorney General, attempted to file a brief on behalf of the students. A judge refused to accept the brief, saying it represented a conflict of interest. Nessel says she got the outcome she wanted, anyway.

“I am overjoyed with the Court’s decision recognizing that the Constitution guarantees a right to a basic minimum education,” Nessel said in a statement. “This recognition is the only way to guarantee that students who are required to attend school will actually have a teacher, adequate educational materials, and a physical environment that does not subject them to filth, unsafe drinking water, and physical danger.”

Literacy Lawsuit Sixth Circuit Decision (PDF)Literacy Lawsuit Sixth Circuit Decision (Text)

‘I was scared for so long’: Detroit students learn to find inner strength after experiencing trauma, living through COVID-19

2020-04-16T21:41:31+00:00

Brianna and her friends were all smiles in the car, soaking in their high school football team’s win. The 14-year-old replayed the joys of the day in her head: the corny jokes, prank calls, improvised dance routines.

Then she was jolted by the sound of a loud pop. A man with a rifle was shooting at someone in the street. The smell of smoke filled the air as the onslaught of bullets blasted through the car, leaving Brianna with bullet fragments lodged in her forearms.

Soaked in blood and covered in broken shards of glass, she was rushed to the hospital, where she spent the night surrounded by a chaotic swarm of adults trying to figure out what happened. She has never forgotten that night.

“I could have been gone,” she remembered.

Many of Detroit’s young people have dealt with trauma — from crime, poverty, abuse, environmental issues, and currently with the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a reality that causes immeasurable disruptions in learning. Often, teachers don’t have the necessary training to provide support, and if students don’t have a trusted peer or adult they can confide in, they are left on their own to deal with the impact.

Brianna, a senior, is among a group of teens helping the city’s youth combat trauma. The students, all enrolled at Detroit Collegiate High School, a charter school on the city’s east side, created Detroit Heals Detroit. This group brings together young people from across the city for periodic healing circles that help them process their trauma through discussions, writing, and group activities. They’ve also published a collection of student reflections.

The healing circles, held on Saturday afternoons on the second floor of the Chandler Park Library in Detroit, are usually focused on the everyday traumas students experience.

But none of them could have anticipated the trauma that has come as they cope with a pandemic that has closed their school buildings, and left them with a growing uncertainty about the future.

That’s why they held an impromptu, virtual healing circle on Instagram Live recently, giving each other a chance to come together while confined to their homes. Brianna and junior Earneasha Byars moderated the discussion, giving their peers a chance to share their feelings and mourn the lost school year.

“Being in the house is depressing for one. Not being able to go to school is upsetting because this was our most important year,” Earneasha said. “It stopped our daily lives. It’s like we’re on a break from reality. No education. No money. No nothing.”

🔗The consequences of trauma

The pandemic has halted the face-to-face healing circles. But it hasn’t stopped these students from putting the lessons they’ve learned into action.

The conversations they’ve had since this group formed has allowed them to talk openly and honestly about their pain, without fear of being judged.

“You may not even know it because even the smallest thing can really hurt you. And it made me more in touch with my feelings, being able to actually say when something hurts me,” Brianna said.

Someone who experiences trauma — an emotional response to a harrowing event — may have experienced violence, abuse, neglect, family dysfunction, death, poverty or even racism. It is an unrelenting hurt. If left unaddressed, bad grades, missed school days, or dropping out of classes altogether can result. A person may feel hopeless and powerless, or perceive the world only as a source of danger.

Brianna, now 18, was terrified of leaving the house. Even though the shooting incident happened four years ago, random, loud noises still disturb her.

For many of Detroit’s young people, the long-term effects of trauma can provoke a series of lifelong problems: depression, substance abuse, or entering the criminal justice system. In a Detroit district survey, a significant number of students said they felt unsafe at school, contemplated suicide or felt depressed during the school year. These feelings are often the result of one or more traumatic experiences.

Trauma is felt across the state — and nation — and impacts not only children, but also adults. In 2016, the state health department surveyed thousands of Michigan adults about their childhood experiences and found 39% of respondents reported being verbally abused, 29% reported substance abuse in the household, and 18% reported physical abuse. One out of five respondents reported experiencing four or more traumatic experiences.

One study found that even though traumatic experiences are prevalent across income and education levels in the nation, youth of color, those from low-income backgrounds, and LGBTQ youth are significantly more likely to face these types of adversities and experience trauma as a result.

Yet students shouldn’t be seen as “broken” or victims of their circumstances, said Dr. Roland Coloma, an assistant dean of education at Wayne State University and co-director of the Kaplan Center for Research on Urban Education. Students should be taught how to build upon the resilience in themselves.

🔗Learning to heal, together

By showing vulnerability, Brianna helped build resilience. After the shooting, she needed to be closer to her family and friends. They helped her, and she now feels a deep sense of purpose to support people who suffered the way she has.

At Detroit Collegiate, Principal Michille Roper-Few is working to make the school more “trauma-informed” by creating a culture of sensitivity, awareness, and understanding.

Roper-Few said she’s been impressed with the students’ selflessness and how they model good behavior for their classmates. They’re quick to try to diffuse verbal confrontations between their peers and will alert the teachers when something bad is happening or will happen.

“They’re a great group of kids. They always have been,” she said. “They’ve been through a lot. They’re trying to give back to others while also finding their way.”

Those close friendships have been important to keeping senior Silyce Lee on a positive track.

“I never had that. There’s somebody out there that cares about you,” he said. “I have family but the support is, like, low. We all love each other but everybody’s busy.”

Sirrita Darby, director of Detroit Heals Detroit, started conducting healing circles when she was a teacher at Detroit Collegiate because she saw a need. At first, students were shocked to see their teacher show so much honesty and vulnerability about her own childhood trauma. The experience helped eliminate the gulf between them.

“We’re like, ‘Oh, I feel comfortable talking to her. I feel like I can tell her my story,’ ” Earneasha said. “She’s not going to judge me.”

When it came to writing about their trauma, Darby encouraged students to let the emotions flow without worrying about spelling, grammar, and other rules typical of writing assignments. This freedom actually helped her write better, Brianna said.

“Sometimes that can be hard for students because they feel like they’re judged because they can’t write as well as others. They can’t put their thoughts into a paper,” she said.

Darby no longer teaches at Detroit Collegiate. But her work at Detroit Heals Detroit focuses on empowering youth to imagine hope and possibility for themselves while also researching the root causes of trauma.

Being a part of the conversations has contributed to her own healing as well, Darby said.

Silyce, Earneasha, Brianna and other members of Detroit Heals Detroit are now a tight knit clique. They still live with trauma, but they survived and are now moving forward.

Earneasha, for instance, has lived with the constant threat of gangs and the fear that one day, her mother will get an unbearable phone call saying she has to bury her daughter. But Earneasha is still tough-minded.

Silyce is still mourning the loss of a family member who died in a car accident. His cousin was the sun to him, and he misses her warmth and kindness. Despite the grief, Silyce loves making people smile.

Brianna is witty, gentle-hearted and perceptive. Even though the memory of the shooting still lives with her, she continues to put the pieces of her life back together and now feels whole again. The memory, she said, has helped her cultivate empathy for others, especially students like her. She doesn’t want them to be afraid for the rest of their lives.

“I stayed in the house for so long and until recently I just decided okay, yeah, I’m gonna go … I’ll go to this party,” she said in an interview before the coronavirus crisis. “I was scared for so long because it was such a freak accident. This was just something that just randomly happened but for other kids, this is happening” every day.

The shooting, the death of a loved one, and the threat of gangs are burdens, but the students won’t let them derail their aspirations.

“Yes, that’s who I am,” Earneasha said of her experience. “But that’s not who I will be and what I will do.”

🔗How trauma is heightened in the pandemic

During the recent online healing circle, students talked about the isolation they’re feeling being at home.

They didn’t stop there. After the online healing circle, the students reached out again on Instagram, offering mental health check-ins to anyone who needs to talk. As part of that check-in, they’ve urged young people to fill out a survey, in which they ask a series of questions. “How are you? Like for real, How are you?” is one of the questions. “What are you most concerned about? What are your worries?” is another. The hashtag couldn’t have been more appropriate: #DetroitYouthSupportingDetroitYouth.

Because of the statewide shutdown of schools, many Detroit students lost a place of security that school provided, leaving many of them disconnected from trusted peers and adults.

The loss of school compounded with past trauma and current fears of the virus could be taxing for youth, which can worsen existing traumatic feelings, said James Henry, a Western Michigan University trauma expert.

That fear could only be heightened during the pandemic, he explained. “ ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen to my family. Who’s gonna die? What does all this mean?’ That fear is dominant,” he said.

Brianna Donald (top) and Detroit Heals Detroit director Sirrita Darby (bottom) discuss challenges of the pandemic during a recent virtual healing circle. Screenshot taken by Eleanore Catolico/Chalkbeat

“With the loss of safety and this lack of predictability, you lose relational connections that are the primary factor in helping to mitigate all those [traumas]. We need to seek out ways to be able to find connection,” he said. Social distancing guidelines that dictate people stay 6 feet away from each other mean students must find new ways to connect.

Students flooded the Instagram Live feed with their frustrations over high school life being canceled, their fears over the coronavirus, hopeful prayers that nobody in their families would get sick, and reflections on the uncertainty they’ll confront when they return to school. The feelings were summed up in one comment from a student during the discussion.

“The world will never be the same again.”

Detroit district confirms that Osborn staffer with COVID-19 wasn’t at training sessions last week

2020-03-15T19:57:44+00:00

The Osborn High School staff member who has tested positive for the new coronavirus didn’t attend professional development sessions held last week by the Detroit district, officials said.

That answers a question teachers across the district have been asking since Saturday night, when Superintendent Nikolai Vitti notified staff that an Osborn teacher had tested positive and others at the school have exhibited symptoms.

Vitti has advised those in the Osborn learning community to self-quarantine for 14 days.

The confirmation that the staff member didn’t attend the training sessions may only partly resolve concerns raised by the district’s teaching staff, since others in the Osborn building say they have symptoms of the virus and may have been in those sessions. The sessions were held in multiple buildings.

The district has described the employee as a staff member, though the city’s chief medical director described the person as a faculty member in a statement Saturday night.

Vitti, in a statement Sunday, said “the title of the individual may compromise the person’s identity.

“Unfortunately, based on the spread of the virus, medically we know this will not be the first or last incidence. As more incidences surface, it will be difficult to pinpoint who had direct contact with anyone and everyone who had contact with someone who had contact with someone else,” Vitti said.

“This is why social distancing is the best practice right now for everyone. Several Osborn employees have already expressed showing symptoms of the virus. This is another reason why the focus on just one individual may not be helpful.”

Benjamin Royal, a member of a vocal caucus within the Detroit Federation of Teachers that has been critical about the response to COVID-19, said he’s hearing teachers express concerns about that training and potential exposure. He believes local, state, and federal governments have been too slow to respond and worries about what’s next.

“Right now, the city, the state, the country is not prepared for what’s coming,” Royal said.

The head of the teachers union declined to comment.

One district employee, an elementary special education teacher, said she’s worried because she attended a professional development session Tuesday at Renaissance High School with hundreds of other staff from across the district. She doesn’t know if any staff from Osborn were at that session. The teacher, who asked that name not be used because she’s afraid of possible repercussions for speaking out, said she cares for an elderly parent with health problems.

“I’m concerned about my mom,” she said.

Learning packets and online lessons will be available to Detroit students starting next week

2020-03-13T23:16:57+00:00

Learning will continue in the Detroit school district during the three-week school shutdown, where officials have prepared learning packets and online lessons for students.

The district’s homework hotline will also be available for families and students.

The district is among many across the state that have scrambled to come up with ways to keep students academically engaged as the threat of closures related to the coronavirus loomed. That threat became reality Thursday night when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all K-12 schools in the state to close over coronavirus concerns.

Here’s what’s on tap for students:

K-8 learning packets focused on math, English language arts, science and social studies will be available for students to pick up beginning Wednesday. The lessons in the packets will also be available online, through a mobile application called Clever.
Students in grades 8-12 will be able to use the Khan Academy, which provides free online instructional videos, to prepare for the PSAT and the SAT. Students can also pick up PSAT and SAT workbooks from select district schools.

The district is making 58 of its schools available for students to pick up the learning materials, and meals. For a complete list, go here.

And for those students who want academic help from a live educator, the homework hotline will be available from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and then from 5-8 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number is 1-833-466-3978.

Students and parents can find additional academic resources on the district’s web site.

Live updates on coronavirus and Detroit schools: Michigan K-12 schools ordered to close

2020-03-26T22:43:00+00:00

Two weeks ago, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all K-12 schools in the state to close in a bid to slow the spared of the new coronavirus.

The order affects nearly 1.5 million public school students, 537 school districts and nearly 300 charter schools. Private schools are also affected.

Have questions or want to tell us about the impact on your school? Email us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org or community@chalkbeat.org.

🔗March 26

🔗Detroit to increase meals sites for students, filling gap left when the district scaled back

The city of Detroit, which is experiencing a surge in residents testing positive for the new coronavirus, is expanding the number of recreation centers serving breakfast and lunch to children during the school shutdown.

The expansion will help fill a gap left after the city school district cut back its sites due to health concerns raised by employees.

The city was already providing meals daily at four locations. Two more will now hand out meals on the days the district isn’t distributing meals. All sites will provide Detroit families with meals on Fridays that can last through the weekend.

🔗March 25

🔗Michigan policymakers: We’re working on COVID-19 questions. Educators: Hurry up!

With Michigan’s school shutdown dragging into its second week, Sen. Majority Leader Mike Shirkey held a conference call Wednesday morning to try to untangle a knot of education issues raised by the state’s ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

He asked the bipartisan group of lawmakers and education advocates to weigh in on several questions. Will school staff get paid? Are state tests going to be canceled? How can we ensure that high school seniors are allowed to graduate?

And, crucially: Will schools be forgiven for the days they’ve missed during the closure?

🔗Detroit math teacher’s bedtime stories soothe students during the school shutdown

Every night, Voncile Campbell transforms into a new fantasy character. A little boy hunting for treasure with pirates. An owl playing with a fox. A teddy bear king who can’t fall asleep.

Campbell is a math teacher at Bow Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, and since the school shut down she’s created a new role for herself as a bedtime storyteller.

By posting videos on the school’s Facebook page at 8 p.m. nightly, she’s staying connected to her students and letting them know they’re still with her in spirit during the closure.

🔗March 24

🔗‘It happened so quickly’: Detroit area advocates scramble to help vulnerable students. But first they have to find them.

After schools closed to limit the spread of the new coronavirus, advocates for Detroit’s vulnerable youth said the most frustrating part of trying to help them is finding them.

Social service agencies, schools, libraries, and community centers that provide necessities like meals, bus tickets, internet access, places to shower, and even shelter are closed or limiting their services, cutting off the resources these students depend on.

“There are a huge number of children in the city of Detroit who are facing housing instability and homelessness, and the vast majority of these children have not been identified,” said Jennifer Erb-Downward, a senior research associate at the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions.

🔗March 23

🔗Detroit puts temporary stop to meals distribution to reassess in light of employee concerns

The Detroit school district will begin scaling back its effort to distribute meals because of employees’ health concerns, as more of them test positive for the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Beginning Tuesday, meals will be discontinued as the district considers its next steps. Academic packets will no longer be distributed, either, though that information is also online.

“We are reassessing how to provide meals to students that ensures everyone’s health. We will inform everyone of the new system of distribution shortly,” Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said Monday.

🔗Vitti: Close Michigan schools for the rest of the school year

Detroit district superintendent Nikolai Vitti is urging Michigan leaders to close schools for the rest of the year.

“Family and employee health anxiety is too high to have students return to school prematurely. Opening too early will lead to numerous challenges, mainly extreme levels of student and employee absences that will undermine the expected learning experience in schools,” Vitti wrote Monday in an open letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, state Superintendent Michael Rice, and the state Board of Education.

Vitti also said the district is against switching to virtual instruction for academic credit.

🔗Federal officials allow Michigan to cancel M-STEP; state lawmakers must now act

Michigan has received a waiver that will allow the state to cancel the M-STEP and other state exams this school year, but the state Legislature must also act to make that official.

“We are pleased that the U.S. Department of Education heard our call to waive the federal requirement for statewide student testing,” State Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement Monday morning. “We now need the Michigan legislature to amend state law that requires statewide testing and accountability.”

The waiver comes after federal officials said Friday they would allow for the cancellation of state exams. Michigan officials filed a waiver that afternoon.

🔗March 20

🔗Likely cancellation of all state tests would allow Michigan to put third-grade reading law on hold for a year

Michigan students will almost undoubtedly not have to take the M-STEP this year, after the federal government said Friday it would allow states to cancel exams because of widespread school closures.

The cancellation of state exams will mean the end, for at least a year, of Michigan’s Read by Grade 3 law, which required that beginning this year, schools would have to hold back some struggling third-graders whose scores on the M-STEP exam show they are a grade or more behind in reading.

🔗Whitmer “dismayed” state education department won’t count online instruction during shutdown

Schools offering online instruction during the state shutdown of schools won’t be able to count any of that time toward the requirements that schools provide 180 days of instruction.

That ruling from the Michigan Department of Education was met with criticism from school leaders in districts that have switched to online instruction during the shutdown. And it elicited a stern response hours later from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“I was dismayed to see that, quite frankly,” Whitmer said during a late afternoon press conference, hours after the guidance was sent in an email to school leaders Friday morning.

🔗Michigan’s Teacher of the Year is homeschooling during the coronavirus crisis. Her children aren’t impressed.

With U.S. schools shuttered in an effort to contain the new coronavirus, millions of parents are attempting to teach their children from home. It’s no simple feat for even for the nation’s most celebrated educators.

“Just so everyone is clear: my children are not the least bit impressed at being homeschooled by the Michigan Teacher of the Year,” Cara Lougheed tweeted earlier this week, striking a chord with parents everywhere. Her message received some 12,800 likes and more than 400 retweets.

🔗March 19

🔗What’s standing between Michigan school districts and online instruction during the COVID-19 outbreak?

With 1.5 million Michigan students stuck at home in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, digital technologies seem like an obvious way to keep students connected with their schools.

But less than a week into a historic public health crisis, student learning is largely falling to families as schools opt not to attempt to hold any classes online. Superintendents recognize that not all of their students have access to the internet and a computer at home, and worry that holding classes online could get them in trouble with state and federal authorities.

🔗March 18

🔗Detroit charter school parent tests positive for coronavirus

A Detroit charter school parent has tested positive for the new coronavirus, prompting officials to suspend the pick up of academic packets at the school.

The parent has two children who attend the University Preparatory Art & Design Elementary School at 10225 3rd Ave., in Detroit.

“The children who attend the school have not shown any symptoms at this time,” a notification on the website of the University Preparatory charter network said. A letter also went home to parents. Officials from the school could not be reached for comment.

🔗How the Detroit district mobilized to provide 26,000 meals during shutdown

Edith Hampton is in urgent need of food to feed her children.

That’s what brought her out on a cloudy Wednesday morning to Mackenzie Elementary-Middle School in the Detroit district. It was the first day of a massive effort to ensure students don’t go hungry during the statewide schools shutdown that officials hope will slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

“If I don’t eat, I don’t care. As long as my kids eat. Yes, that’s all I care about,” Hampton said.

In Detroit, where child poverty rates are high and a majority of students qualify for subsidized school meals, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to worsen the inequities Detroit families living in poverty face. Many students in the city rely on school for breakfast and lunch, and many district and charter schools, as well as community agencies, are stepping up to provide meals. There are about 51,000 students in the district, and close to 86 percent are economically disadvantaged.

🔗March 17

🔗Whitmer to DeVos: ‘Do the right thing’ and waive student testing this year

Michigan’s education leaders are calling on the federal government to grant a nationwide waiver from rules that require students take state academic exams.

The request came in a letter from state Superintendent Michael Rice and Casandra Ulbrich, president of the state Board of Education, to Betsy DeVos, the U.S. Secretary of Education from West Michigan.

It comes a week after the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance saying it will consider waiving requirements for statewide tests.

🔗March 16

🔗MAP: Here’s where Detroit children can get meals during the three-week school shutdown for coronavirus

In a state where nearly half of the students qualify for subsidized school meals, a three-week shutdown could be overwhelming for children in need.

But many schools and community groups are working to make sure those children don’t lose out on the school meals they rely on everyday. Michigan schools are shut down through April 5 under an order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who hopes the shutdown will slow the spread of the coronavirus.

We’ve provided a map that shows the locations where families can pick up meals. There’s a version of the map in Spanish here. If your school isn’t listed, please send the information to us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org and we’ll update the map of schools and the list of organizations.

🔗What 4 parents and educators need with weeks to go in Michigan’s historic school shutdown

One thing is clear about Michigan’s statewide school shutdown, which will continue for at least three more weeks: This is going to be tough for parents and teachers.

“This is a scary time for all of us,” said Dawn Bruce Pollard, a preschool teacher at Greenfield Union Elementary-Middle School in Detroit.

Pollard will be paid during the shutdown, but she worries about students being left home alone while parents work, and about parents losing jobs so they can care for their families.

Her answers came to us via Chalkbeat’s online survey of parent and teacher needs.

🔗Detroit’s school closures: What we know about pay, testing, meals, and more

As Michigan marks the first official day of the state shutdown of schools, many questions still remain about how canceling classes for three weeks will impact schools, students, testing, and employees’ pocketbooks.

What questions do you have? Send them to me at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org, or to the Chalkbeat Detroit team at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org. We’ll search for answers and report what we find here, so keep coming back for updated information.

🔗March 15

🔗Whitmer: Closing schools over COVID-19 concerns ‘the right thing to do’

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said the number of school employees who have tested positive for the new coronavirus — and the addition of a young person among the list of new cases — illustrates why she has ordered schools shuttered.

“Closing our schools in this moment is the right thing to do to ensure that parents and educators and children have the support they need,” Whitmer said during a press conference Sunday.

Whitmer spoke just after state officials announced that the number of COVID-19 cases in Michigan has grown to 45 people, up from 33 Saturday night.

🔗Detroit district confirms that Osborn staffer with COVID-19 wasn’t at training sessions last week

The Osborn High School staff member who has tested positive for the new coronavirus didn’t attend professional development sessions held last week by the Detroit district, officials said.

Vitti has advised those in the Osborn learning community to self-quarantine for 14 days.

🔗March 14

🔗As the number of people with COVID-19 grows, a Detroit school staff member tests positive for the new coronavirus

A staff member from Osborn High School in the Detroit school district has tested positive for the new coronavirus, and more are exhibiting symptoms, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in an email to staff.

“As of tonight, other staff members have indicated they are demonstrating symptoms of COVID-19 from the school,” Vitti wrote in the email.

The staff member is now one of 33 people in Michigan who’ve tested positive for the virus, which causes COVID-19. The number increased from 25 on Friday. Symptoms include fever, coughing, sneezing, and shortness of breath.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District posted the information on its website Saturday. The news comes two days after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all schools in the state to close beginning Monday. The closure extends through April 5, and schools would reopen on April 6.

🔗March 13

🔗‘Desperate need’: Michigan’s working parents are squeezed by shutdown of K-12 schools

The sun was high overhead on Friday afternoon, long before the end of the typical school day in Detroit, but 11-year-old Joshua Spann was on the basketball court with his friends.

School is out for the next three weeks across Michigan after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered the closure of all K-12 schools from Monday through April 5.

Some schools, Spann’s Detroit charter included, opted to also close on Friday. That’s why Shelly Franklin, Spann’s grandmother, picked him up from a basketball court on Friday afternoon instead of from school.

Franklin’s family is lucky. For those who don’t have a grandmother on call, the widespread school closures represent their own emergency.

As the number of COVID-19 cases in Michigan hits 25, school districts across the state are rushing to limit the negative effects of school closures with online lessons to prevent learning loss and adjusted meal programs for children who depend on the nutrition they get at school.

🔗Learning packets and online lessons will be available for Detroit district students starting next week

Learning will continue in the Detroit school district during the three-week school shutdown, where officials have prepared learning packets and online lessons for students.

The district’s homework hotline will also be available for families and students.

🔗2 Metro Detroit teachers test positive for coronavirus

A teacher at a private school in Oakland County is one of the 12 people in Michigan who have been identified as having the coronavirus.

Few details were revealed about the teacher or school during a press conference held by Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter and county health officials.

Also Friday, Dearborn Public Schools announced that one of its teachers, whose exposure to someone with coronavirus forced the closure of a school this week, has now tested positive for the virus.

🔗In a city with high poverty rates, the Detroit school district will keep meals flowing during closure

The Detroit school district will keep some school buildings partially open for students to quickly pick up breakfast or lunch while schools are closed.

The district will also provide learning materials for students for the three weeks Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered all K-12 Michigan schools to close. That period begins Monday and runs through April 5, with classes expected to resume April 6.

🔗With schools closed in Michigan, teachers work on ways to help students keep learning

Roughly 1.5 million Michigan students will be out of school starting Monday for three weeks, part of a statewide effort to limit the spread of COVID-19.

That doesn’t mean they have to stop learning.

With students at home on Friday, teachers at schools across the state reported to school to develop virtual lesson plans. That included educators in West Bloomfield, a suburb of Detroit.

In a new Facebook group called Keep Michigan Learning, a teacher in Walled Lake posted an online activity she created for students last winter, when Michigan had more snow days than usual. Students posted videos of themselves describing the books they were reading at home.

🔗March 12

🔗Gov. Gretchen Whitmer orders statewide closure of schools

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered all K-12 schools in the state to close in light of concerns about the coronavirus.

Whitmer announced the order during an 11 p.m. press conference, where she was accompanied by State Superintendent Michael Rice and other state officials.

The order affects nearly 1.5 million public school students, 537 school districts and nearly 300 charter schools. Private schools are also affected.

And a group of Michigan superintendents is asking for guidance from State Superintendent Michael Rice on a number of issues related to the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak, including what happens if schools have to close in the midst of state academic testing this spring.

“School administrators from throughout the region are receiving a growing number of questions from concerned parents regarding the health and safety of their children,” wrote Robert McCann, executive director of the Tri-County Alliance for Public Education, which represents the interests of district leaders in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties.

One of the questions addresses a looming issue for Michigan. State testing begins in April, and it’s a critical year given that for the first time, the results of the third-grade reading exam will determine which struggling readers should be required to repeat the grade. That’s thanks to the state’s Read by Grade 3 law.

Graduation rate is down in the Detroit district but up statewide

2020-02-27T01:10:58+00:00

The graduation rate in the Detroit school district declined last year, according to new data, landing at 75.84% for the class of 2019.

That’s down from 77.27% the previous year. Statewide, 81.41% of the students in the class of 2019 graduated on time, up from 80.64% the previous year. The graduation rate percentages reflect the number of students who began as freshmen in the fall of 2015 and graduated during the 2018-19 school year, and take into account students who transferred in or out during that time.

(Scroll down to search the graduation rates for schools and districts in Michigan)

It’s unclear why the rate went down in the Detroit district, though some of it could be related to the impact of the district taking back control of a handful of high schools in 2017 that had previously been in the Education Achievement Authority, a state reform district for some of the worst performing schools in the city. Those high schools had been in the EAA for five years.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a statement that there may have been issues with the way the state identified some students — particularly those who had previously been with the reform district — when calculating the rates.

Regardless of those issues, Vitti said, “more work needs to be done.”

“All district indicators are moving in the right direction but graduation rate,” Vitti said, referring to improvement the district has seen in academic achievement and in areas such as chronic absenteeism. “Our elementary and K-8 schools reflect the best of our rebuilding efforts. Our high schools have been slow to implement the reform at scale. High school reform will certainly be a greater focus in the years to come.”

The data were released late Wednesday afternoon by the Michigan Department of Education and the Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information.

Among the steps Vitti said the district has taken to improve high schools: Teachers are using a new literacy and math curriculum, career academies were expanded and there is a greater focus on data related to attendance, absenteeism, staffing, discipline, SAT performance, college and career participation, and graduation rates.

Meanwhile, Vitti said the district will begin issuing its own letter grades to schools. And an assistant superintendent has been assigned to oversee all high schools “to streamline support and accountability.”

Vitti said reform at the schools that previously had been part of the EAA has been more difficult, “because of how unstructured learning was taking place through online learning and a lack of direct instruction.

“High school reform started, at scale, this year. We must improve, though, and will improve our high schools in the years to come,” Vitti said.

The statewide dropout rate for the class of 2019 was 8.36%, down from 8.73%. The graduation rate and the dropout rate add up to less than 100%. That’s because a portion of students didn’t graduate on time but remained in school, or earned a high-school equivalency degree.

The improvement in the Michigan graduation rate is encouraging news in a state where top officials are trying to get more students through high school and into some kind of postsecondary education. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s goal is for 60% of state residents to have a university or college degree or completion of a training program by 2030. Right now, the percentage is around 43%.

“This is great news for our students and families, because every kid in Michigan deserves a great education that gets them on track to graduate and pursue a postsecondary education,” Whitmer said in a statement.

State Superintendent Michael Rice noted in a statement that the graduation rate for 2019 is an all-time high since 2008, the year states were required to adopt a uniform formula for calculating the rates. But he said more work needs to be done.

“While we continue to have significant room for improvement, particularly for students of color, economically disadvantaged students, and special needs students, we are making yearly progress in increasing graduation rates and decreasing dropout rates.”

Staff writer Koby Levin contributed to this report.

Report says charter school authorizers in Michigan lack oversight

2020-02-26T20:21:54+00:00

A report out Wednesday shines a spotlight on an ongoing issue in Michigan, concluding that the agencies that authorize charter schools lack state oversight.

The authors of the report, published by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, suggest a series of solutions, including a recommendation that the state superintendent, a role now held by Michael Rice, works to strengthen the power he has to hold authorizers accountable.

Michigan charter schools educate 150,000 students, about 10% of the state’s total student population. The schools can be authorized by universities, community colleges, and school districts.

“While authorizers of charter schools are currently providing some degree of oversight, the degree and quality of oversight is unknown and not available to the public, because oversight of the authorizers is lacking,” the report states. “This is a problem since charter schools are providing public education services with tax dollars.”

The report was commissioned by the Levin Center at Wayne State University Law School.

The research council recommends:

The state superintendent could adopt administrative rules that set requirements for the authorizers and provide better oversight.
The Legislature could enact statutes that define oversight expectations and responsibilities.
The Legislature could make charter school authorizing a privilege that must be earned and maintained.

Rob Kimball, who chairs the board for the Michigan Council of Charter School Authorizers, said authorizers in the state are “fully accountable.”

“Our state’s children deserve all of us working together to help them succeed and learn, and this report from the Levin Center does nothing to advance those important conversations about student achievement. It divides, rather than unites, by rehashing decades-old arguments that distract us from the real job at hand — educating kids.”

An increasing number of authorizers have sought to address the oversight question by undergoing the process of becoming accredited through a national organization.

You can read the full report below:

Pop-up centers will help Detroit district parents determine if their children are exempt from new reading law

2020-02-24T21:49:06+00:00

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is opening multiple pop-up centers in its schools to make it easier for parents of struggling third-grade readers to keep their children from being held back under Michigan’s tough new reading law.

The district recently sent letters home about the upcoming opening of the pop-up centers and other ways parents can apply to exempt their children from being held back. The locations of the centers are still to be determined.

The pop-up centers are part of an overall strategy in the district to educate parents about the law, which requires school officials this year to hold back third-graders whose test scores indicate they’re reading below grade level.

Many studies demonstrate that grade retention can have harmful effects on a student’s social and behavioral development, and retention doesn’t help improve a student’s academic performance in the long term. One study also found that boys were twice as likely to be held back than girls, and students of color were disproportionately impacted by retention.

Previously, the district has held information sessions so parents can understand how the law can impact their children. The district also has provided parents with materials they can use at home to help their children with literacy. And a program that seeks volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring was launched more than a year ago.

The letters about the pop-up centers come less than two months before state testing begins, and as officials as high as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sound the alarm about the law’s impact. During her State of the State speech last month, Whitmer announced she is working with philanthropic organizations to educate parents, targeting school districts in low-income and urban areas who may be hit hardest by retention.

“This punitive law could be a nightmare for families, and this initiative will give parents and students the resources and support they need to get through it,” Whitmer said in her speech.

It’s estimated that about 20%, or nearly 800 district students, would have been held back last year if the rules had been in place then. That’s well above the 4% of third-graders typically held back in a given year.

Statewide, between 4% and 5% of students are expected to be identified for retention.

At the pop-up centers, staff will help parents fill out surveys to see if their child qualifies for an exemption and can request an exemption on site, the district said. Students who have a learning disability, English language learners with less than three years of language instruction, and students who’ve already repeated the third grade can qualify for an exemption.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has repeatedly spoken out against the law, citing research that shows forcing students to repeat a grade damages their confidence in learning.

“We firmly believe that student retention is a decision that should be made between the school leader, teacher, and family,” Vitti wrote in the letter.

Jametta Lilly, who heads up the Detroit Parent Network, a parent advocacy group, said many parents aren’t aware of the law and how it works — which is why her organization has worked hard over the last year to help educate them. She said a parent’s role in shaping a child’s learning is often underestimated, but is critically important.

“A parent is a child’s first teacher,” she said.

The group has hosted parent-led workshops on early literacy and the third-grade reading law. They’ve also partnered with Education Trust-Midwest, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization focused on improving education, to create a web portal with resources to help promote reading. The two groups also made toolkits that educate parents on the law, a guidebook on how to work with teachers to support their child’s learning, and a list of local summer reading programs.

“Holding our kids back never helps them,” Lilly said. “We need to have a whole community focus on improving literacy, not just schools.”

Michigan teachers to lawmakers: Give us a voice in policy decisions that affect our jobs

2020-02-18T18:59:46+00:00

As many districts across the state continue to struggle to recruit and retain teachers, a new report provides insight from a group whose voices aren’t always part of policy discussions: Working teachers.

Here are a few things they say can make a difference: Recruiting bonuses or other incentives for new teachers, equity in school funding, reducing barriers to earning certification, improving mentoring for less-experienced teachers, and paid internships for aspiring educators.

But one solution that seemed to permeate the discussion was this: Teachers said they want lawmakers to hear their voices during discussions about education.

“Take the time to listen to front line educators like myself before making policy decisions that impact … the classroom,” said Heather Gauck, a teacher in Grand Rapids.

Gauck was among several teachers who took part in a press conference to promote the report, “Examining Michigan’s Education Workforce: How to Address the Talent Shortage Facing Michigan’s Schools.”

The report comes at a critical time, as many Michigan school districts struggle to hire teachers, particularly for high-demand subjects like special education, math and science, and career and technical education. A report last year noted that Michigan’s supply of teachers is dwindling, and worse, that the state isn’t doing anything about it.

The report released this week was commissioned by the two statewide teachers unions, the Michigan Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, as well as by Middle Cities Education Association, a group that represents the interests of many of the state’s small urban school districts.

The report was completed by Public Policy Associates, a Lansing-based policy and research organization that held focus groups with teachers in five locations across the state, including Detroit, as well as via an online session. All total, 120 teachers participated. Michigan has about 105,000 teachers.

The author of the report, Dan Quinn, said the goal wasn’t to focus on the problems, but instead to offer solutions from teachers.

Quinn also noted that local leaders have been attempting to deal with the teacher recruitment issue on their own, some by creating teacher cadet programs that train current high school students who show interest in teaching. Statewide, though, he said there hasn’t been as much movement.

“There really hasn’t been a statewide, concerted effort to move these types of processes forward,” Quinn said.

For more of the teacher recommendations, read the report below.

Five years after its high school closed, the Highland Park district is seeking charter operators to build anew

2020-02-14T19:42:08+00:00

Nearly two years after the Highland Park school district was released from emergency management, the school board is moving forward with ambitious plans to bring high school students back to the city.

The district announced this week that the school board had approved requesting proposals to build and operate a new high school and an adult education center. But the district wouldn’t run either school. Instead, it would seek a charter operator.

The proposed venture seems unusual, considering it was just five years ago that the city’s only high school was shut down because of declining enrollment. At the time, the school only enrolled 160 students. The district later demolished the building that housed them on Woodward Avenue.

Currently, the district has an agreement with the Detroit Public Schools Community District to educate high school students in the city. Students also can attend neighboring school districts as well as charter schools. Some attend school as far as 7 miles away, according to the request.

Highland Park is a small enclave within the city of Detroit and its school district has struggled with many of the same problems as the Detroit school district. From 2012 to 2018, a series of state-appointed emergency managers ran the Highland Park district. The state brought them in to deal with massive debt that accumulated partly because of swiftly declining enrollment.

The city currently has only two schools — a K-8 school operated by the district, and a charter school.

Officials in the district are optimistic that revitalization happening in and around the city will translate into more students. They say enrollment is already increasing for students in grades K-8. But there are big questions, such as whether the district will be able to attract students and how the new school would be financed.

According to the request for proposals, the district would commit a portion of $1 million it has in revenue from a millage for the projects. But companies seeking to build and operate the high school and adult education center would need to demonstrate they have the cash to pull off the project. It’s unclear whether any charter school companies would have the money, or interest, in taking on such a project.

The construction plan is part of what officials described as “an aggressive plan to rebuild the district.”

“We think there’s a market for quality education that’s accessible in Highland Park,” Kevin Smith, the district’s director of operations, said in an interview Thursday.

District officials said they expect 500 students to enroll when the school opens, which would be in 2021. The school could be built on 1.2 acres the district owns at 105 Pilgrim St., the site of the former Henry Ford Middle/High School.

District officials envision the new high school offering a college preparatory program with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. The adult education center would be geared toward adults looking to complete their high school education, or adults looking for job training.

Smith said the district hopes the new high school will attract students graduating from city schools, as well as students from outside the city,

The city is ideally located along the Woodward Corridor, said Don Weatherspoon, who was the district’s emergency manager in 2015 when Highland Park High School was closed. Just months after that, Weatherspoon began talks with lawmakers and community college officials to create a kindergarten-through-college system.

Those plans never materialized. Weatherspoon noted the new plan faces some barriers. High schools, for instance, are far more expensive to operate than elementary and middle schools. And the district will need to figure out how it can stand out in a sea of choices for high school students.

“The kids aren’t going to come back just because you have a new building,” Weatherspoon said. “There has to be something new.”

After-school funding proposal in Wayne County doesn’t make make March ballot, but backers ‘are not giving up’

2020-02-08T00:07:47+00:00

The future of a millage proposal that would have raised money to pay for after-school programs in Wayne County is in flux after the initiative failed to make it onto the March 10 ballot.

Leaders of that effort, though, say they aren’t giving up. The proposal is trying to address a $55 million funding shortfall in after-school programs across the county.

They say officials from the Wayne County clerk’s office told them in early January that the nearly 90,000 signatures that were submitted to the county in order to get the proposal on the ballot couldn’t be counted in time.

But the reason is unclear since the group — Wayne Kids Win! — met the county’s Dec. 3 deadline for submitting signatures. They also submitted well over the required 53,000 signatures. County election officials could not be reached for comment. The issue was first reported Friday afternoon by Crain’s Detroit.

“We are very disappointed,” said Mark Fisk, a spokesman for the Wayne Kids Win! group. “We had an amazing and overwhelmingly positive response to the proposal, and we believe it should go on the ballot.”

The effort has been endorsed by a number of high-profile individuals advocating for after-school programs: Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, and DTE Energy President and CEO Jerry Norcia.

“Right now, we are regrouping,” Fisk said. “We’re exploring our options. We are not giving up, in any way, on this important effort to increase access to after-school programs.”

Fisk said the group would look at getting the proposal on the ballot again, possibly in August or November. It’s unclear if they would need to collect signatures again.

The one-mill, five-year proposal would have generated about $42.5 million annually for five years, and go toward programs “that promote safety, improve math and reading skills, help develop work-readiness skills and provide recreation for Wayne County children and youth” after school, on weekends, and during the summer.

Detroit school proposal would pump $25 million into building repairs

2020-02-05T22:56:25+00:00

Dozens of schools in the Detroit district would benefit from a proposed $25 million in spending to mostly fix building problems that in many cases have become safety issues.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti revealed the proposal during a school board committee meeting this week, and the board would need to approve tapping the district’s rainy-day fund for the amount.

As part of the plan, $9 million would go toward repairs needed at three buildings that are part of a sweeping district restructuring effort. Eighteen schools would get masonry repairs to stop water from leaking into buildings and 14 buildings would get new boilers. Nineteen schools would get paving repairs to fix dangerous potholes.

Across the district, playgrounds would be repaired. Swimming pools would also be repaired so that classes and competitive swimming can be restored in the district.

Vitti said most of the projects would address “immediate safety-to-life issues, things we have to address or they’re going to become larger issues that will affect the day-to-day operation of schools.”

These repairs and others would come as officials seek a long-term solution to the district’s crumbling infrastructure. A 2018 facility audit found the district needs more than $500 million worth of fixes to its buildings.

With a long-term fix still to be determined, the district has made smaller steps toward fixing the worst problems a priority. Two years ago, it set aside $13 million for capital projects, and last year, it set aside $17.6 million. In the last two months, the district has held a series of community meetings to educate the public about the problems.

If the board approves the $25 million on capital projects, it would be a big step forward not just for addressing facility needs districtwide, but for the restructuring plan that also needs board approval.

That plan, which Chalkbeat wrote about in November and December, involves moving some schools and programs to different buildings with the goal of increasing enrollment and getting more of the district’s 51,000 students into buildings that are in better condition.

Three of the buildings that are part of that plan need repairs totaling $8.5 million.

Vitti said during the meeting Monday that spending $25 million will leave the district with $100 million in its rainy day fund, and another $30 million in reserves.

“It doesn’t put us in a situation where we’re losing our savings,” Vitti said.

For more on the proposal, read below:

How GM’s big $1 million donation will improve the reading skills of 500 Detroit students

2020-02-03T17:14:49+00:00

Big books used to intimidate Makayla Link. So did big words and big paragraphs.

But that was in ninth grade, when she was reading at the seventh-grade level. Today, as a senior, she has caught up — a feat she credits to Beyond Basics, a literacy program that on Monday got a big boost in funding.

General Motors has donated $1 million to the program, which provides intense tutoring to high school students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

It’s the largest single donation to the literacy effort. And it brings Beyond Basics to halfway toward its goal of raising $6 million this year. Overall, it helps meet a three-year, $33 million fundraising campaign goal.

The new cash comes during a time of crisis for the district and many other schools in the state and nation that are struggling with data showing large percentages of students aren’t reading well. In the district, just 28.5% of the students last year met college readiness standards in reading and writing. That compares with 55.4% statewide.

“This is a silent epidemic in America,” Pamela Good, president of Beyond Basics, said during a news conference Monday morning at Mumford High School. “It is killing the futures of our children. It is not just Detroit. It is Michigan and it’s across the nation.”

After benefitting from the program for more than a year at Mumford, Makayla found herself enjoying reading.

“It felt kind of weird, how I can read big books,” said Makayla, who is 17. “Big books used to scare me.”

For the Detroit district, the money is allowing 500 more students to benefit from the tutoring, up from 300.

Beyond Basics has 50 tutors in schools across the district. The goal is to expand that number to 300 over the next three years.

Donating to improve literacy is something every business in the city should be able to support, said Mark Reuss, the president of General Motors.

“No student should have to struggle with basic reading and writing,” Reuss said.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the Beyond Basics program is a leader in the field of literacy and has shown strong results in getting students to grade-level reading.

“They’re not just working with students for the sake of working with children. They’re actually moving the needle,” Vitti said.

Sophomore Deont’E Mays, 16, said his reading skills were “not really good” when he entered the program, which helped build his confidence and improve his reading. Now, he wants to pay it forward and help tutor younger students.

“It’s a really nice program.”

From homeless mother to an early childhood classroom: Here’s what this Detroit educator learned from a remarkable 2019

2020-01-31T00:35:59+00:00

Here, in a feature we call How I Teach, we ask educators how they approach their jobs. You can see other pieces in the series here.

Though she’s still new to the early childhood classroom, Rosey Lyons is quick to see the ways children bring their home lives into the classroom.

She knows many of their struggles first-hand.

At the beginning of 2019, Rosey Lyons was a homeless high school dropout, a single mother who spent an inordinate amount of time on buses trying to get herself to work and her four young children — ages 1, 3, 4, and 5 — to childcare.

By year’s end, Lyons, 28, was a certified assistant teacher at Children of the Rising Sun Empowerment Center in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood. She had a house, a van, and a high school diploma.

“2019 was epic,” Lyons said.

We spoke with Lyons about her reflections on teaching and her remarkable year.

Rosey Lyons, 28, with her four children after graduating high school

Our conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Early educators in Michigan are severely underpaid, and many struggle with credit card debt and meeting basic expenses. How have you dealt with that aspect of your new job?

I have worked since I was 16, and I have never made as little money as I make here. And it’s still a better job, a better career, than any other place I’ve ever worked.

I can’t see myself not working with kids. I know I can help them. I can be there for them. Like I wanted somebody to be there for me.

What was going on in your life when you decided to seek childcare for your kids?

Well, I have just finally left a domestic situation with the father of my kids. And I was technically homeless, me and my kids were sleeping anywhere from motels, to my car, people’s couches, floors, pretty much anywhere we could get. I had started working at Amazon and needed childcare.

How did you wind up in an early childcare center?

When I came to do a walkthrough [to find a place for my kids], I told Zina [Davis, the center director] that I have four kids that needed before and aftercare while I worked at Amazon. And I let her know like, ‘Hey, I have nobody backing me. I really need childcare. Because I want to work you know, my goal is to provide for my kids.’

But once she let them in, the paperwork didn’t come through in time so I didn’t have childcare, and I lost the job at Amazon.

And at that point she said to me, ‘You know, I’m looking for somebody for my childcare center.’ She would ask me what my experience was with kids, and it went from there.

You had a remarkable 2019. How are things going now?

We’re still adjusting to having our own house. It’s still a check-to-check situation, but I have a check. We’re still getting our house together, but we have a house. It’s still like, ‘what’s that noise coming from the van?’ — but we have a van. We’re sitting comfortably in the van, we’re not running over to catch the bus. It had been me leaving work at 6 p.m. with four kids, and they were walking a mile sometimes to the bus.

Everything tried to tell me to just hang it up. Give these kids to somebody who can do it better. Don’t work with kids when you can’t provide for your own kids. And today I feel like I did a complete 180. I’m not where I was and my kids are doing better.

You finished your last few high school credits online (and a Child Development Associate certificate) after you started your new job. What was your graduation ceremony?

I went and walked across the stage in front of my four kids last year. Nothing is more beautiful.

I saw some people who walked across the stage back when I was originally supposed to. And they said they were proud — I was a success story because some people will leave school and never go back.

What’s something that surprised you about teaching?

When the [director of the center] hired me, I thought I’d be like a babysitter. And it’s so much more than that. You’re teaching these kids problem-solving skills, conflict resolution skills. You’re not just in here trying to drill them in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Sometimes these kids come and they don’t have any nurturing at home, and they’re looking for you to give it to them, and that’s okay. I’m here for it. A teacher is everything. I don’t take my own children’s teacher for granted because they don’t have to be here doing this. The work is underrated.

You also found housing during 2019 after a being without a place to stay. How did that happen?

I was working with different agencies to help me and my kids get housing. And it was taking so much longer than I was told. I felt that I would never have taken on school or a new job if I had known it would take this long. I mean, me and my kids were living in motels, living at my sister’s, living at my cousin’s, living in the car. It was like fight or flight at that point.

And I end up getting a call one day from a lady at Community Housing Network. And she said, ‘Hey, Miss Lyons, I’m calling because you’re the next person in line on a waiting list to be accepted for this housing program.’ So I went there and I filled out a lot of paperwork, and then I was just calling them every day, like, ‘did you hear anything? Is there anything I can do?’

And it kept getting pushed back, but finally, I got the call on August 28. So me and my babies got to be in our own house where nobody can put us out.

How did you manage to get ahold of a car amid everything else that was going on?

One of my students here has a grandfather who does a lot of good work in the community. He saw me and my children leaving work one day, walking to the bus stop. And of course, it’s dark. It’s cold. And he took it upon himself, he said, ‘I’ve got this van I’m not using, and I want you to have it.’

He made sure it was roadworthy. He made sure I had my insurance and everything together. Then he literally handed the keys over. I had never been handed anything in my life, I didn’t want to take it. I felt like I needed to pay for it, I said I would come do odd jobs at his office. And he told me no, but to make sure that I paid it forward in life.

What’s the hardest part about being a teacher?

In general, the hardest part for me is separating from teaching when I go home. Because sometimes I will stay in teacher mode with my own kids, and they might not need a teacher at that moment. They might just want mommy. They might just need somebody to listen, somebody to cry to, somebody to vent to. Once 6 p.m. hits, even if I have to go home and write a lesson plan, it doesn’t matter. I still have to find time to deal with my kids just as their mom.

What’s been one of your favorite lessons to teach?

We have Friendsgiving during the harvest season, and we asked the kids to bring in objects from home. It was impactful to see what the kids brought that was comforting to them and has meaning to them. These are small children, and for some, it was a book. And you get a different view of them because you don’t see their home life, you see them at school.

What’s next for your family?

It feels good to cry happy tears finally, because I’ve cried a hell of a lot of sad ones. And now it’s like, ‘Where can I go from here?’ People are saying, sit down and rest, but I doubt it. Now I’ve got to elevate everything that I worked hard to get in 2019. I can’t remain stagnant. I don’t want my kids to get comfortable with anything unless there’s nothing else they can achieve. You always want to know something else.

Report: ‘Our children deserve better,’ starting with a dramatic increase in how Michigan funds its vulnerable students

2020-01-23T15:04:59+00:00

Michigan should dramatically increase funding for students from low-income homes by 100%, and provide a financial boost to property-poor school districts that struggle to keep up with their wealthier peers.

Those are two of the main recommendations made in a report released Thursday morning by The Education Trust-Midwest, a Royal Oak-based education research and advocacy organization.

The report adds to a growing discussion in Michigan about how to properly fund schools. Multiple major studies in the last few years have concluded that the state’s system is inadequate and inequitable. The findings haven’t led to major changes. Last year, lawmakers rejected Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s attempt to move toward a system that would pay schools more for students who are more costly to educate.

The report, which also recommends the state spend 75% to 100% more on students who are English language learners, says Michigan should learn from other states. In Georgia, for instance, schools receive 2.5 times more funding for students who are learning English.

“Our children deserve better,” Amber Arellano, executive director of the organization, said in a statement. “Our employers are demanding better. Other states are doing better.”

The report acknowledges that Michigan already provides some additional funding for needy students. For instance, the state spends 11.5% more on students from low-income backgrounds. But that additional money, which this year added up to $960 more per student, “is well below what is recommended by research,” the report says. There are a handful of key recommendations in the report. Michigan should:

Provide funding based on student needs. Currently schools receive a flat rate per pupil, with a small amount of additional money going to some populations.
Provide more money to less wealthy districts, which would help many urban and rural schools.
Ensure dollars are used well to improve student experiences and outcomes.
Be transparent about the system’s design and monitor the funding districts actually receive.
Provide transparent data on how much money is going to schools.

To read the full report, see below.

‘What we’re doing is not working.’ Why Detroit students struggle in college

2020-01-22T22:07:46+00:00

High school needs to be “harder.” Schools need to get rid of worksheets. And high school classes should be more like college classes.

These comments shed light on some of the struggles Detroit students face when they get to college. The insights come from a new Michigan Future report based on the experiences of 133 students who graduated from two charter schools and one traditional public high school in Detroit from 2014 to 2017.

The report could provide a road map for high schools that want to better prepare their students to succeed in higher education, as well as the colleges they’re attending.

“What we’re doing is not working,” said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, a nonprofit organization focused on education and economic development. “We need to understand why it’s not working and then do something about it.”

The report comes at a critical time. More and more research shows that economic mobility is strongly tied to earning a college degree. And while getting to and through college is a challenge for many students, it’s particularly difficult for students of color and students from low-income families.

Chalkbeat has been exploring these challenges this academic year as we follow a group of Detroit and Newark high school students through their first year of college.

The nonprofit organization worked with the Berman Foundation to launch a scholarship program to provide a small amount of funding for textbooks for students who shared their college grades and completed surveys about their experiences.

Students said they needed additional support in four primary areas:

More rigorous coursework in high school to prepare for college-level work. Students said they weren’t just unprepared for the amount of work, but also “the intellectual challenge that they would be expected to participate in in college.” One had this message for school officials: “No more worksheets.”
Help developing successful academic habits. Students reported spending about 10 hours a week studying and preparing for college classes, when the research suggests they should spend 30 hours a week. That likely is because of their outside responsibilities, including work, according to the report.
Training in financial literacy, especially in understanding financial aid. For instance, students need help understanding how to set up bank accounts and credit cards and manage their finances responsibly.
Better cultural preparation, especially for non-white students matriculating to predominantly white institutions. Students report struggling to adapt in these environments.

The surveys revealed that just 18% of the students were on track to graduate in four years, while 48% were on track to graduate in five years.

Those numbers, author Sarah Szurpicki says in the report, are worrisome because taking too long to accumulate credit can increase the risk of students dropping out or losing scholarships.

Students considered on track for graduation in four years have at least a 2.0 grade point average and have accumulated an average of 15 credits a semester. Those on track for a five-year graduation have at least a 2.0 GPA and have earned an average of 12 credits a semester.

Glazer said that while some high schools in the city and some colleges have strong programs in place to help students succeed, none is doing everything it could.

He suggested that high schools could better prepare students if they were as focused on and held accountable for the college success of their graduates as they are for standardized test results.

What’s missing in most high schools, Glazer said, is a mission that all teaching and curriculum from freshman year onward is designed to prepare students to earn a college degree. Schools in other parts of the nation have been successful by focusing on teaching and curriculum that prepare students for college.

“It’s in their DNA,” Glazer said.

Catch up on Chalkbeat’s Ready or Not series here.

To read the full report from Michigan Future, read below.

Ambitious new school at Marygrove hits another snag as interim principal leaves unexpectedly

2020-01-17T20:44:06+00:00

A high-profile new school in Detroit has lost its second principal since it opened in September.

Adrian Monge had been serving as interim principal of the School at Marygrove after Nir Saar, the founding principal, was removed from his post in October for reasons that remain unclear. Monge resigned last week. She will be replaced by Christa Reeves, who was previously the principal of Bagley Elementary School of Journalism and Technology and an assistant principal at Cass Technical High School.

Halfway through its first year, the school is still in the early stages of an ambitious plan to build a “cradle-to-career” school on the campus of the shuttered Marygrove College. After enrolling only ninth graders this year, it plans to add 10th grade classes next year. Once crews finish work on a new $15 million early childhood center on the site, the school ultimately plans to enroll students from prekindergarten through 12th grade.

The concept is the result of a partnership between the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the University of Michigan, Marygrove College, the Kresge Foundation, and others. (Kresge is also a Chalkbeat funder.)

Frequent changes in the principal’s office are a challenge for any school. That’s perhaps especially true for a school like Marygrove, a high-profile project which is attempting to pull off an unusual, project-based curriculum that blends social justice and engineering.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the school won’t be affected in the long run by Monge’s departure.

“[Monge] did not feel that she was the right fit for the high school principalship,” he said in an emailed statement. “She was originally recruited to eventually serve as the K-8 principal. We respect and understand her decision. There were no outstanding issues, concerns, or questions regarding her leadership or separation.

Adrian Monge

“The changes in leadership have been unexpected and unfortunate but we have no question or doubt that The School at Marygrove is currently successful and will continue to grow into one of the best schools in the country.”

An event was held at the school yesterday to give parents a chance to meet the new principal.

Monge previously served as principal of Detroit Achievement Academy, a charter school that enrolls students in grades K-7. She declined to comment on the reason for her departure.

“I am working to support a smooth transition for the school and continue to root for the success of our students, staff, and the Marygrove project as a whole,” she said in an emailed statement.

Saar, the founding principal, was placed on administrative leave this fall pending an investigation into his conduct. The district said at the time that the behavior in question did not negatively impact students. He has not appeared on a periodic list of fired district employees.

Vitti said parents he had spoken to were more concerned about consistency in the classroom than in the principal’s office.

“Leadership matters but for parents and children it’s students’ experience in classrooms and at the school that matters most.”

Detroit principal fired over alleged remarks about sex

2020-01-15T23:16:45+00:00

The Detroit school district has fired a principal accused of making sexually explicit remarks, following a school system investigation.

The principal at Marion Law Academy was said to have discussed topics such as vampire sex in the presence of staff and parents. He is also accused of using profanity in front of staff and students at the school, which enrolled 425 students in grades K-8 last year.

During the course of the investigation, the principal denied making sexual jokes, and said his vampire comments were taken wholly out of context. He admitted, however, to some use of profanity.

Officials found him to have violated school policies regarding ethical conduct and professionalism and acting in a manner that “might endanger the safety or lives of others,” per the district’s findings. He was terminated during a school board meeting Tuesday night.

His termination was among several the board approved unanimously, without public comment. The board for the Detroit Public Schools Community District discussed personnel terminations during a closed session with Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

The district’s investigation alleges that the principal talked about his personal sexual history and made sexual jokes in the school’s parent resource room in front of staff members and parents. At one point, he also talked about vampire sex and how women should please men, a witness said in a statement. The report’s findings also note that at least part of this discussion was captured on video.

The principal said he did not make jokes that were sexual in nature, and denied making the comment about how women should please men.

He argued that he mentioned vampire sex while talking about his girlfriend catching her daughter watching a cartoon titled “Vampire Sex.” He said it was during a discussion with staff about the impact of trauma, and he was explaining how television shows and video games could traumatize students.

The principal also received a written reprimand from the district last summer for failing to submit a semester observations report on time.

The principal did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

I witnessed the struggles of Detroit students. Now I want to chronicle their journeys.

2020-01-14T21:17:11+00:00

My student, a high school sophomore, was multiple reading levels behind. She needed a great deal of support.

She was kind, sweet, and quirky. She was obsessed with singer Ariana Grande. But she was also being bullied. I was a tutor, hired by an agency to work in a Detroit school. I had little training or experience working with youth, and I felt ill-equipped to truly help her.

The experience taught me a lesson. So much of the public discourse surrounding education in public schools focuses on what’s happening to students like the one I was tutoring. Too little time is spent asking them what they think about their circumstances.

But I want to ask those questions, and that’s why I’m thrilled to begin a new role at Chalkbeat Detroit. I’ll cover the Detroit school district and work to give a stronger voice to those who have the most at stake: students, teachers, and parents.

The time I spent tutoring and my new job have given me an opportunity to reflect back on my experiences. My education story took place miles away from where my pop-star-loving student grew up.

Eleanore Catolico, far right, with friends at a National Honor Society ceremony.

I attended an academically rigorous, parochial high school in suburban Detroit. My parents, who were immigrants from the Philippines, ingrained in me that academic achievement was the key to surviving in America. Each day in the classroom, I felt the pressure to outperform my peers.

When I was 15, I remember crying after I got a B on an essay in American literature, my favorite subject. I felt I had something to prove. I was burdened by academic stress throughout my college tenure.

Looking back, my student’s struggles mirrored mine as a teen girl. I was eccentric, shy, and also bullied. I had a difficult time making friends and battled low self-esteem. But my school provided me with the resources and critical support needed for me to overcome my personal obstacles. So many students in Detroit’s main school district don’t have those options.

I am joining the Chalkbeat Detroit team at a crucial point in the history of the Detroit Public Schools Community District. After nearly a decade under state-appointed emergency managers, Detroit’s main school district is in the midst of rebuilding. District leaders have overhauled the curriculum and showed improvements in the latest test scores. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti is pushing for equity in school funding and holding meetings in Detroit to address how to manage the district’s deteriorating buildings.

Michigan’s third-grade reading law is in full effect this year as districts rally to prepare students to pass the state’s standardized exam or else possibly be held back a year.

The outcomes of these efforts to improve urban education in Detroit could have long-standing, dramatic consequences.

I come to Chalkbeat Detroit with a strong background in working with community members to develop stories. Most recently, I was the civic reporter for 101.9 FM WDET, Detroit’s public radio station, covering city government.

I hope to produce stories that help Detroiters understand the impact of district policies on schools, teachers, students, and their families.

Most of all, I want students to tell me their stories. I want to document their struggles but also their stories of empowerment and resilience.

Schools are the lifeblood of neighborhoods. To improve our coverage, I hope to help our bureau chief Lori Higgins and reporter Koby Levin develop innovative and concrete ways to reach new readers, with a focus on broadening our audience to include students and parents. We don’t want them just to be the subjects of our stories, but participants that help shape our coverage. Chalkbeat Detroit is for these communities too, not just policymakers and experts.

This work only matters if you are there to guide us along the way.

Please reach out to me at ecatolico@chalkbeat.org or to the whole team at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org. Our journalism is stronger when our stories are inclusive, diverse, and working toward influencing the local civic debate on urban education.

Why a local university is investing in a new teacher residency program to fill a pressing need in Detroit and Dearborn schools

2020-01-07T22:47:56+00:00

A new teacher residency program will train 36 experts in math and science to teach in Detroit and Dearborn, where two of the state’s largest urban districts are located.

The Wayne State University program, called Metro Detroit Teaching Residency for Urban Excellence, is a $2.5 million project with an important goal: increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and math teachers.

It comes during a time when many Michigan schools, particularly those in Detroit, struggle to hire qualified teachers in math and science.

The program “has the potential to help us fill openings in science and math classrooms with a diverse pool of teachers who are invested in improving outcomes for the students of Detroit,” Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said in a statement.

The program also comes at a time of increased interest in teacher residency programs, which combine teacher training with intensive and lengthy classroom internships, similar to the way doctors are trained. It’s one of the features of a unique “cradle to careers” program recently launched on the campus of the now-closed Marygrove College.

The Wayne State program begins with an 18-month period in which the students will receive a $40,000 stipend, complete a master’s degree, and receive a teaching certificate. Following that, for two years teachers would receive mentoring and professional development while teaching.

Those accepted for the program would have to commit to teaching at least three years in the Detroit or Dearborn school districts.

The project will target recent college graduates and midcareer professionals in the region with expertise in science, technology, engineering and math. Especially valuable will be those with experience in automotive and technology industries who’ve been affected by recent and planned plant closures.

Having qualified teachers in these subjects “is vital to the development of our nation’s and region’s workforce,” Keith Whitfield, the provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Wayne State, said in a statement.

The university received $1.1 million through a federal grant. The university will kick in the remaining $1.4 million.

5 Detroit education stories we’re tracking in 2020

2020-01-02T19:44:01+00:00

Welcome to a new decade of education in Detroit.

We know that teachers will teach and students will learn in 2020. Beyond that, there are a lot of questions. Will preschool be expanded? What will happen when the new “read-or-flunk” law goes into effect? Where will the Detroit district find $500 million for building repairs?

Here’s a list — in no particular order, and about half as long as it could have been — of the key education issues Chalkbeat will be following this year.

And here’s to making 2020 a great year for Detroit students.

How many third-graders will be held back because they struggle to read?

This May, hundreds of families across Michigan (and especially in Detroit) will receive letters announcing that their third-grader scored below a 1252 on an English language arts exam and the state intends to hold the student back.

That is a distressing letter to receive, especially given that most families haven’t heard about Michigan’s new law. The law’s rollout will be among the biggest education stories in the state this spring and summer.

But a lot could change before May, including the law itself. More than one key Republican lawmaker has expressed doubts about holding back thousands of third-graders, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, wants the law repealed.

Even if the law remains, there will be a lot of unresolved questions. Will schools be able to help struggling readers catch up? Will parents and schools take advantage of tools that could allow their child to advance to the next grade despite their reading score? Will poor families be disproportionately impacted, as they have been in other states with similar laws?

This is a good place to start for basic questions about the law. If you have concerns or uncertainties, please send me an email.

Will every 4-year-old in Detroit get access to free preschool?

Mayor Mike Duggan said it, then said it again: Every 4-year-old in Detroit will have access to high-quality preschool by this fall.

Will it really happen? Key players in the Detroit early childhood sector say it looks promising, and Duggan insists he has the necessary support from Republican lawmakers.

If Duggan manages to bring in new preschool money, it would mark the beginning of a story that will play out for years. If it happens, we’ll keep a close eye on whether the new program would disrupt existing preschools in Detroit, and whether it would have the same quality standards as a highly regarded state-run program for 4-year-olds.

What will it take for these Detroit grads to succeed in college?

Education is supposed to help students get ahead in the world, but that’s increasingly difficult to do without a postsecondary degree. One of the most troubling aspects of Detroit’s K-12 school system is that it consistently graduates teens who aren’t ready for college.

Detroit bureau chief Lori Higgins spent the last six months asking what can be done to improve the situation, and she’ll be telling those stories through the end of the school year.

Her first stories followed the paths of several Detroit grads in their first year of college, showing the challenges they face and the programs and people that can help them bridge the gap.

Keep an eye out for the next installments.

Can the Detroit district find money to fix its aging buildings?

Between promising test scores, a new curriculum rollout, and a looming facilities crisis, the Detroit district had a roller coaster 2019.

As we approach the end of Superintendent Nikolai Vitti’s third year on the job, he is focusing on the urgent need to repair the district’s crumbling buildings. But the district doesn’t have the $500 million needed to do the job, and it’s still unclear where the money could come from.

Many Detroit students attend school in classrooms that don’t have heat or windows that open. Something has to change. Will 2020 bring solutions?

How will education issues fare at the ballot box?

Voters will shape the future of education in Detroit in a big way this year. They’ll get a chance to weigh in on three ballot proposals that have major implications for schools in the Detroit area.

One proposal would raise money to expand after-school programming in Wayne County, which includes Detroit.

Another would boost funding to schools countywide, with $19 million on the line for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, for example.

The third would provide revenue for Detroit Public Schools, which exists solely to pay off legacy debt. Officials with DPSCD, which was created in 2016 to educate students, say that homeowners in Detroit could be stuck with higher tax bills if this ballot issue fails.

What’s missing? Your story.

The hopeful, challenging, frustrating, and inspiring story of education in Detroit isn’t complete without the voices of teachers, parents, and students. Your experience matters, and Lori and I (and soon our new reporter Eleanore Catolico) are always happy to talk. You can reach us here.

Q&A: From model preschools to higher pay, Denise Smith has big ideas for early childhood education in Detroit.

2019-12-20T02:45:47+00:00

Last year, Denise Smith traveled to Reggio Emilia, a province in northern Italy famous for its parmesan cheese.

And its preschools.

Smith, a veteran early childhood educator, helped bring Reggio’s focus on hands-on, student directed learning to the Detroit area, and she wanted to see the original in action.

Smith said she was stunned by the community’s commitment to the program.

“Everybody knows where the schools are, and that they’re a part of the schools,” Smith said. “From the restaurant owner to the police officer to the mom who doesn’t have children — everybody.”

“That’s what I want to see here.”

There is no one in a better position than Smith to make that happen. As the new implementation director of Hope Starts Here, Smith has a seat at the tables where those policies are being made. Hope Starts Here is a $50 million initiative to improve early childhood education in Detroit led by the W.K. Kellogg and Kresge Foundations. (Both are Chalkbeat funders.)

The effort comes amid a growing consensus that early education plays a crucial role in preparing children for kindergarten and beyond, especially for students from low-income families.

Nearly three decades ago, Smith started her early education career providing child care in her home. She went on to help build Michigan’s child care rating system and lead an early childhood coalition in Flint.

Denise Smith

She takes on her new role at a potentially pivotal moment, as Mayor Mike Duggan negotiates with Republican lawmakers to offer free preschool to every 4-year-old in Detroit as soon as next year. Yet she recognizes that creating an early education system as strong as Reggio’s is a long game.

We spoke with Smith about the biggest challenges facing early education in Detroit, and about what it will take to overcome them.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Hope Starts here spent its first year supporting existing programs. Now the initiative is opening a high-profile $15 million early childhood center at the School at Marygrove. What’s next?

We intend to have least three other prototypes. We’re definitely looking to see not only can we bring additional high quality programs online, but even prototype some that are more affordable than, say, the Marygrove project.

And can you say anything more about what those might look like?

The goal is really to develop a model that’s more affordable and replicable. So that as we think about filling the gaps in the number of seats available to children, we can do it in a way that’s much more expeditious than it currently is.

What are the major roadblocks facing early childhood in Detroit?

Even with a current potential for the city to get some slots under the governor’s plan for universal pre K, you always have to ask, how are we going to staff it? Talent is a huge concern. We don’t pay these folks anywhere near what they should receive, so it’s hard to attract and retain them. It’s a conversation that I have everywhere I go: How can we address wage?

What kinds of answers do you get to that question?

Other states have tried some things like tax incentives and bonuses. There are examples out there, we just need to think about what works in this context and what it would take to get it over the finish line.

Any other major challenges?

Facilities is one, which is one reason why there are deserts where there are no early childhood programs. So we’re thinking about all of the pieces in this current environment. With the facility issues and concerns that DPSCD has, you know, is there [building] stock that could be used for early childhood instead? Is there potential for charter stock to be used in this way so it has dual benefit?

Do you think Duggan’s universal pre-K plan is going to happen for real?

It looks promising. But one of the things that those slots could do, if not done in a very intentional and thoughtful way, is disrupt the early childhood landscape, even if only by perception. Because every time a program that’s bright and shiny and new [arrives], providers who are already doing the work feel anxious that they’re going to lose their clients because this bright, shiny and new thing is there.

And it goes back to what I was saying before: Do we have enough staff? Are we going to pull talent from our existing programs in order to be able to fill these slots? How do we do that in a way that we’re not creating that kind of rush. How do you make sure that you are supporting the entire landscape with particular workforce development opportunities?

You have a wide range of experience with early childhood education. Will you talk about the experiences that you bring to your new role?

I’m raising my niece, who is 9. She was born with drugs in her system. She had that to overcome — a lot of physical strife in the very beginning. [But she] has read two grade levels ahead all the time since she started being tested. We poured a lot of time and energy into her, and so when folks talk about whether this early childhood stuff works or not, I would say yes, not only because of what I’ve learned from books, but from what I learned and know through experience.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the region of Italy that is famous for its preschools.

Education group wants Michigan to spend millions to create literacy equity fund

2019-12-18T23:54:46+00:00

A prominent group of education leaders wants the legislature to immediately allocate extra funding to schools with a higher percentage of poor students. It’s the first step in what the group says will be a comprehensive plan to reshape how Michigan pays for education.

The first set of recommendations from Launch Michigan, a nonpartisan lobbying group, calls for a system that “funds children based on their needs,” echoing the language of experts and politicians who have advocated an overhaul of the state’s 25-year-old method of funding schools that mostly doesn’t consider the needs of students, regardless of the challenges they face.

The group recommends that the state immediately create an equity fund that would support literacy instruction in districts with more students who live in poverty or attend geographically isolated schools.

The group’s eventual goal for the state: to reach the funding benchmarks set by the Michigan Finance Research Collaborative, a group of experts that proposed a sweeping overhaul last year to the funding system that could require a $3.6 billion investment.

As Launch Michigan begins work on transforming its ideas into more specific policy proposals, key questions are still unanswered.

“Where is the money coming from?” asked Craig Thiel, research director for the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, a nonpartisan think tank.

The report acknowledges the need for additional school funding but doesn’t specify how that problem should be resolved. It comes in the wake of a fractious budget fight centered on whether the state should raise taxes to pay for education or road repairs. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget proposal would have made changes to the education budget that jibe with the Launch Michigan recommendations, but it was shot down by the Republican-controlled legislature.

Raising money for schools for next year’s budget could be equally difficult. The state still hasn’t figured out how to pay for badly needed road renovations, which is one of Whitmer’s top priorities.

“The equity fund is a fine idea; however, it is going to need funding, and we have already seen that the state legislature is unwilling to increase funding for schools in any meaningful way,” Michelle Miller-Adams, a senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute, wrote in an email.

Launch Michigan also calls for a number of changes to the state’s education policy, including:

An expanded school accountability system with escalating interventions for chronically failing schools.
A single school rating system that reconciles the existing school rankings with A-F letter grades approved by the legislature last year.
Additional higher-quality teacher training on literacy instruction.

Supporters of Launch Michigan hope that it is a broad enough coalition to convince legislators to give school policy a second look. The group’s 20 members include leaders from teachers’ unions, education groups, and business associations.

The recommendations are based in part on a survey of 17,000 teachers.

This is not the first group of policy heavyweights to push for changes to Michigan’s school system, which has faced stagnant funding and test scores for two decades. Numerous reports — 800 pages’ worth — have come to similar conclusions in recent years, arguing that the state needs to change its approach to school funding.

Chris Wigent, president of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators and a member of Launch Michigan, is eager to push forward.

He joined the group because “number one, it’s to fundamentally change the way we fund schools,” he said.

Scroll down to read the full report.

Have concerns about your Detroit school building? Here’s a chance to share your story.

2019-12-17T23:47:35+00:00

Cold water the color of Earl Grey streamed through the ceiling of Virgil Mason’s 10th-grade English classroom. The teacher was apparently used to it: She caught the water in a garbage can and kept teaching.

Mason shared the story of what he calls the “great tea fall” at a Student Story Slam hosted this summer by Chalkbeat and 482Forward.

Here’s a chance to share yours. As the district seeks help to make badly needed repairs to its facilities, Chalkbeat would like to hear from you. How are conditions in your school building affecting students and teachers?

Please click here or scroll down to fill out the form.

Mason, now a student at the University of Michigan in Dearborn, said he doesn’t want any Detroit student “thinking that’s normal — debris, losing you books… mold.”

Yet school facilities problems are all too common across Detroit. District and charter schools operate in buildings that are often decades old and badly in need of repair. The bill for the district alone is projected at more than $500 million, an amount that is growing rapidly.

The district is developing a plan to cut costs and more efficiently use its school buildings, but it doesn’t have the money to make all the necessary repairs.

We hope to use some of your feedback in a story, but we won’t identify any respondents without asking them first.

More zzz’s may be on the way for high schoolers in Detroit as district weighs later start times

2019-12-16T23:04:15+00:00

Teenagers in Detroit could sleep later next year if the city’s main district has its way.

Pointing to a growing body of research linking sleep and academic achievement, leaders of the Detroit Public Schools Community District want to move high school start times from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. The last bell would ring at 4:20 p.m.

“The research is overwhelming that it is best to start later than earlier when you are talking about high school students,” said Nikolai Vitti, district superintendent, adding that he believed the change would lead to better attendance and “more alert students.”

Union leaders haven’t weighed in on the district’s plan, which was made public for the first time at a school board committee meeting on Monday. The teachers’ contract allows for start times between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Vitti said the policy has been in the works for two years, and that principals and parent focus groups were consulted about the change.

A spokesman for the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the district’s largest teachers union, said union leaders plan to discuss the issue with Vitti.

“We have no comment at this time but we are looking forward to having a conversation with Dr. Vitti about the proposal,” Ken Coleman said.

Decades of research suggest that students are more likely to attend school, pay attention in class, sleep more, and ultimately graduate if their high school starts later. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends high school start times later than 8:30.

Schools everywhere have been pushing high school start times back, from Dearborn and Berkley in suburban Detroit to the entire state of California. The promise of improved student achievement is perhaps especially enticing for a district in the third year of a major effort to undo decades of disinvestment in the classroom.

Research highlighting the benefits of later high school start times has been making headlines for decades, but school districts have been slow to change. The average school start time nationally is still 8:03 a.m., and many schools start earlier. In 2015, fewer than 20% of American schools started after 8:30 a.m.

The shift won’t just affect the district’s several dozen high schools. To make bus schedules line up, four schools with younger students will start earlier and two will start later. The biggest changes are coming to Thurgood Marshall Elementary School and Henderson Academy, which will move from 9 a.m. start times to 7:30 a.m.

Critics of the policy argue that changes to district bus schedules made to accommodate later high school start times can result in painfully early wake-up calls for younger children. While Detroit board members said they support the idea, they raised concerns about scheduling, asking whether the changed start times would pose a problem for sports teams or for parents who drop their children at school on the way to work.

“In the morning, parents are dropping kids off and getting on to their jobs,” said Deborah Hunter-Harvill, a school board member. But she added that the change could also be an improvement in the afternoon. “At the end of the day parents will be getting off at 5, so it’ll jibe really well.”

Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, a board member, also said that an earlier start time could pose safety concerns for younger students who might now be walking in the dark.

Vitti added that staying later in the afternoon could pose a challenge for some high school sports teams, especially football teams that make it through the playoffs in late fall, when there is less light. He said he spoke with coaches about beginning practices immediately after the school day ends.

The policy would reduce the district’s bus routes by 8%, or 30 total routes. That would translate to a cost savings of $814,717 next year.

“This is less about cost,” Vitti said, “and more about trying to give students the right start time in the learning day.”

‘I can take a failing grade,’ but not homelessness: The hard choices some Detroit students make for college success

2019-12-09T22:58:20+00:00

It was a heavy moment during a panel discussion about college success when Myla Smith described the financial challenges that led to some impossible choices.

During her freshman year at Michigan State University, Smith said, the struggles she and other students from low-income backgrounds faced left them working as many hours as they could to bring in cash they needed to live. Financial aid wasn’t enough.

“Sometimes work was more important than class,” said Smith, a graduate of Osborn High School in Detroit who now works as a college advisor at a high school in Romulus. “Because, I can take a failing grade, but I can’t take being homeless. Do you guys understand?”

The discussion came during an event put on Friday by the Detroit College Access Network, an organization that coordinates efforts to ensure all students in the city have the opportunity to attend college. (Full disclosure: I moderated the panel discussion.)

Smith, who earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, was one of four college students and recent college graduates that spoke to the audience about their experiences, both in high school during the college preparation process, and when they arrived on campus.

Ashley Johnson, the director of the college access network, said she hopes Smith’s story opens the eyes of some of the college officials who were in the audience.

“It was really powerful,” Johnson said.

The idea behind the panel discussion was to help people understand the challenges facing students from the city who go on to college. It’s also the goal of a series, called Ready or Not, that Chalkbeat launched in September. The series follows a separate group of recent Detroit high school graduates through what is often a challenging first year of college.

Nationally, only 60% of students who enroll at four-year institutions earn a bachelor’s degree within six years. That is the average for all students — the six-year college graduation rate is much lower for black students (40%), Hispanic students (55%), and students from low income families (49%).

Smith shared the stage with De’Ernst Johnson, a graduate of Davis Aerospace Technical High School who now is studying performing and fine arts at Schoolcraft College in Livonia. He spoke about the importance of having high school staff who invest time in helping students prepare for the challenges of college.

“I had an immense support team with the counselor at my high school and the assistant principal and a couple of teachers who not only saw the best in me but also told me about … how I could progress even more.”

He’s driven, in part, because he wants to set a good example for his younger siblings.

“I want to show them that there is another way of life out there and you don’t have to just go to high school and that’s the end of your education. You can go to college … and do anything you want to do.”

Anton Bronson’s moment of clarity came when he went to the college graduation of a cousin. He recalled seeing people graduating to go on to become doctors, nurses, and “careers I never heard of before.”

“It was kind of inspiring,” said Bronson, a graduate of Cass Technical High School now studying business at Oakland Community College.

America Yahya graduated from Voyageur College Preparatory High School in Detroit and is now studying social work and public health at Wayne State University.

She described growing up the youngest of nine children, with a mother who never went to school and a father who had to drop out of school in his native Yemen while in middle school. Before transferring to Voyageur, she said, she attended another charter school that didn’t push college and didn’t offer college preparatory classes. What helped, she said, was getting involved in an organization that helped her see the possibilities of college.

She urged those in attendance to do the same for other youth.

“Look to your neighbors, look to your community and see what you can do for them,” Yahya said.

Smith’s advice to those working with young people: Affirm them, and “tell them they can do whatever they put their mind to.”

She said that being the top student in her school meant getting a lot of attention from the staff. But, she said, “that took a lot of attention away from other students. They didn’t get pushed to go and contact colleges and to apply for scholarships.”

“Being a college adviser, sometimes I feel like I’m the only one telling students that they are worthy, that you don’t need to be in the top 10% to go to college. It’s very sad.”

‘We need to fight.’ Why the Detroit district wants the community to advocate for better facilities and more control

2019-12-07T00:02:13+00:00

The dozens of people who attended the first facilities meeting in the Detroit school district Thursday night walked away armed with information. They also left with marching orders.

“Lansing needs to hear from you,” Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, vice president of the Detroit school board, told people near the end of the meeting. “We need to fight.”

Attendees were urged to reach out to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other lawmakers and make a set of demands:

Provide equal and equitable funding for schools
Release the district from state oversight
Give the district the power to seek bond proposals
Create a pot of state funding districts could tap for building maintenance and repairs
Create a legislative solution for debt that was created when Detroit schools were controlled by a state-appointed emergency managers.

Those demands are coming as the district faces a $500 million price tag to address the poor building conditions that exist at many of its schools. That price tag is expected to soar to well over $1 billion by 2023 if the district does nothing.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said years of disinvestment, particularly during the time emergency managers were in charge, left buildings in such poor shape. And the $617-million plan that in 2016 addressed crushing debt didn’t set aside enough money for facility fixes.

That legislative effort created a separate district — the Detroit Public Schools Community District — to educate students, while the old Detroit Public Schools district exists to collect tax revenue and pay off debt. The deal also left the district under the control of a financial review commission, which must approve all collective bargaining agreements and big contracts. And the deal left the new district without a clear way to ask voters to approve a bond proposal that could be used to repair facilities.

The meeting, held at Detroit Collegiate Preparatory High School at Northwestern, was the first of 11 being held through January to educate the community about the poor condition of many district buildings, and seek input on possible solutions.

Here are some key takeaways from the meeting:

If advocacy doesn’t work, pursue legal action

Vitti said he hopes the advocacy will lead the governor and lawmakers “to do the right thing,” and address the needs listed in the demands.

But if they don’t? Vitti said the district will evaluate the advocacy efforts around April of next year and if there is no progress, the district will pursue “local options and possible legal options.”

“If people aren’t going to do the right thing through the legislative process, then we have to consider holding them accountable to do the right thing through the court system,” Vitti said.

No school closings planned, but people are anxious

Since he first announced the meetings in early November, Vitti has said no school closings are on the table at this time. (There is, however, a proposal on the table to phase out Ludington Magnet Middle School.)

“That’s a top concern for teachers,” said Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the district’s largest union.

“Anytime our members hear about anything that sounds like reorganization, they think about emergency management and think about the days when schools were closed and members were laid off,” he said on Friday. “We certainly got a number of calls from members.”

The anxieties came up during a question-and-answer session, as Vitti answered questions audience members wrote on cards.

“What will happen to DCP at Northwestern? Are you closing the school?” read one of the questions.

Vitti said no. Enrollment at the school is increasing, he said.

He repeated Thursday night something he’s previously said: that he is committed to keeping current high schools intact.

No ‘good’ buildings in Northwestern boundary; Cass Tech ‘deficient’

Each of the meetings is being held in a different high school, with information about the schools located within the high school’s boundary area.

For Thursday’s meeting at Northwestern, there was some sobering news: None of the schools is considered in good condition, according to the results of a facility audit completed last year, which rated whether schools are in good, fair, deficient or failing condition. They’re labeled based on how much work is needed.

Of the nine schools in the boundary, only one (Detroit School of Arts) was considered in fair condition. Four (Burton, Cass Tech, Douglass, and West Side) are in deficient condition. The rest (DCP, Noble, Sampson, and Thirkell) are in failing condition.

Vitti said Cass Tech may be a surprise, given the age of the building, about 15 years old. He said “there are challenges in the way the building was designed.”

The total amount of needs across the nine schools is $246.5 million.

Recent proposals spur questions

Vitti also fielded questions about recent proposals the district shared with the community, including proposals to require students at two high schools — King and Communication and Media Arts — to take an exam to gain entry. Students who live within a mile of King High, though, would be able to enter without taking an exam.

Critics of the plan say the emphasis on exam schools will wind up excluding students already enrolled in the district. Martin said the policy could harm students who have fallen behind academically, or who don’t have the necessary support at home to take on an exam process that can be daunting for an eighth-grader.

The union would support the plan, Martin said, if it included additional measures to help students tackle the new applications.

“We think that it needs to be tweaked in order for all of our students to be able to take part,” he said.

Vitti argued at Thursday’s meeting that the district needs a mix of traditional high schools and examination schools in order to attract and keep students. It’s what many parents want, he said.

“We lost a lot of our students because we don’t have enough exam seats,” Vitti said.

These charter school parents voted for Whitmer. They’re not happy she vetoed their funding.

2019-12-04T22:27:57+00:00

Two months after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed a funding increase for charter schools, charter parents aren’t letting her forget it.

“I am going to keep beating that drum,” said Kellie McCline, whose fourth-grade daughter attends University Prep Science & Math Elementary, a charter school in Detroit. “I voted for Gov. Whitmer, and it was a slap in my face.”

As Whitmer and legislative leaders near a deal that would restore the charter funding, the governor is facing the ire of charter school parents in places like Detroit and Flint, Democratic strongholds where half of students attend charters.

“I voted for her, and now I feel like my child is different” from a student in a traditional school, said Sabrina Cristofaro, whose daughter attends Voyageur Academy in Detroit.

If the veto stays in place, charter schools across Michigan will lose out on the $240 per pupil funding increase that went to traditional schools across the state. The increase is small — just outpacing the rate of inflation — but it’s significant for schools already running on tight budgets. McCline’s daughter’s school would have received roughly an additional $120,000 this year, enough to hire two additional teachers.

As a candidate, Whitmer stayed away from explicitly anti-charter rhetoric. Her budget proposal would have brought even more funds to schools across the state, including charter schools.

But Republican lawmakers developed a budget of their own rather than raise taxes, as Whitmer had hoped. In response, Whitmer vetoed numerous parts of the legislature’s proposal, targeting programs, such as charter schools, that are important to the Michigan GOP.

Charter schools have already received two checks from the state that don’t include the additional funding.

“There’s outrage,” said Moneak Parker, executive director of Detroit Voice for School Choice, a charter advocacy group that focuses on parents. “When you paint a picture of how much money or how much their district would have received, they’re upset and they’re outraged.”

On Wednesday, a group of parents and school leaders planned to dramatize its effects by reading aloud outside Whitmer’s office in Lansing the last names of thousands of charter school students.

The charter system has plenty of critics, who point to its lack of transparency and the proliferation of for-profit school operators. Some cheered Whitmer’s decision to axe its funding.

Sarah Williams, a former teacher, has her share of concerns about Michigan’s charter schools. She said she doesn’t approve of for-profit companies running schools, and she worries that success for the charter sector comes at the expense of traditional school districts.

But when her local traditional school in west Michigan wasn’t a good fit for one of her three children, Williams turned to an online charter school to make sure his education wasn’t interrupted. This turned out to be a good short-term solution, she said. And it gave her a different perspective on Whitmer’s veto.

“If the governor and the state decide they want to rethink the charter school situation, then there needs to be a bigger conversation before you start cutting off support for those schools,” she said. “There are students in those schools.”

Detroit school officials launching conversation with public about the district’s $500 million building problem

2019-12-04T20:36:07+00:00

The Detroit school district has some massive facility needs and no easy fixes. That’s one of the reasons district officials are beginning a series of meetings Thursday to educate the public and get their input on possible solutions.

At these meetings, to be held in high schools across the district, the public will hear about the physical conditions of buildings. They’ll hear information about how buildings are being used, as well as information about the financial challenges facing the district.

An audit completed last year found the district had more than $500 million in immediate facility needs — a price tag expected to grow to $1.4 billion by 2023 if the district does nothing.

The meetings come on the heels of another set of meetings wrapping up tonight that the district launched last month. They sought public input on a sweeping set of proposals.

Chalkbeat was the first to unveil the details of those proposals, which include requiring students at two high schools — King and Communication and Media Arts — to take an exam to be admitted, moving district headquarters out of the historic Fisher Building, and moving students and programs at a number of district schools.

Feedback from those earlier meetings has already prompted changes from the original proposal. For instance, King would still be converted into an exam school, but students who live within a mile of the school would be able to attend without having to take an exam. This addresses criticism from some who argued that neighborhood students should still have a shot at attending the school.

There’s also been a slight shift in the plan to move students from CMA to the building now occupied by Ludington Middle School. The plan had been to move the Ludington students to Charles Wright Academy. Now, though, the district says the Ludington students will be able to remain at their school until they finish the eighth grade. Once the existing students have graduated, younger students who would have attended Ludington would instead go to Emerson Elementary-Middle School. It’s unclear when CMA would move to the Ludington building. The district is considering several options, one of which includes having CMA share the building with students in grades 7-8 next fall, while other options involve phasing in the CMA move.

There are no proposals on the table for the meetings that begin Thursday night. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has said the goal is to help the community understand the building conditions and set the stage for a broader conversation about how to address the problems.

Vitti has long been critical of the lack of attention paid to the district’s buildings during the years emergency managers were in charge. When he interviewed for the job in 2017, he told reporters — after he had toured some schools — that he was enraged “to see that our children have to go to schools where there are holes in the wall, tiles that are not replaced. It’s unconscionable and it’s a clear indication of the injustice our children face here.”

These are the dates and locations of the 11 upcoming meetings. All of the meetings take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Thursday (Dec. 5) at Detroit Collegiate Preparatory Academy @ Northwestern, 2200 W. Grand Boulevard
Monday, Dec. 9 at Cody High School, 18445 Cathedral Street, Detroit, MI 48228
Wednesday, Dec. 11 at Henry Ford High School, 20000 Evergreen Road
Thursday, Dec. 12 at Pershing High School, 18875 Ryan Road
Monday, Dec. 16 at Mumford High School, 17525 Wyoming St.
Wednesday, Jan. 8 at Denby High School, 12800 Kelly Road
Thursday, Jan. 9 at Martin Luther King Jr., Senior High School, 3200 E. Lafayette
Monday, Jan. 13 at East English Village Preparatory High School, 5020 Cadieux
Wednesday, Jan. 15 at Central High School, 2425 Tuxedo St.
Wednesday, Jan. 22 at Western International High School, 1500 Scotten St
Thursday, Jan. 23 at Osborn High School, 11600 E. Seven Mile Road

A Detroit high school could get its old name back, and pay tribute to the late John Conyers

2019-11-27T17:23:12+00:00

Detroit Collegiate Preparatory High School at Northwestern could be getting a new, but old name. And its auditorium could be named after late Congressman John Conyers.

Those are two proposals on the table before the Detroit school board. Decisions likely won’t come for another month or so.

The board is expected to take action on whether to begin the process that could lead to reverting back to the original school name, Northwestern High School. Surveys would have to go to key groups, such as students, staff, parents, and alumni, to determine if there is support for the name change.

A change back to Northwestern has the backing of the Northwestern High School Alumni Association. Some of its members asked for the name change during a school board meeting earlier this month. And a petition calling for a name change, signed by more than 700 people, was turned in to the district.

Information included in the agenda for a Monday school board committee meeting noted that the school’s name was changed from Northwestern High “unilaterally through emergency management. Community stakeholders were not engaged and did not provide input.”

Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, vice president of the board, said Monday she’s excited about the process moving forward.

“Northwestern has this rich history,” she said.

The board has a policy that outlines the steps that must be taken to name or rename a school building. The first step is for the board to initiate the process. The policy requires administrators to then hold community meetings and conduct surveys to gauge support.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the only cost associated with changing the name would be to change signs outside the building, and eventually, to change uniforms that are labeled with the school name. He estimated the cost to be between $40,000 and $50,000.

The board also is likely to take action next month on a proposal to name the school’s auditorium after Conyers, the congressman from Detroit who served more than 50 years. Conyers, a Northwestern alum, died last month. The auditorium would be called the John James Conyers, Jr. Auditorium.

Vitti told school board members at a committee meeting Monday that the Conyers proposal stems from a request by the Conyers family.

The process for naming an auditorium after someone only requires board approval. Such a commemoration, though, is “reserved only for those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the enhancement of education generally or the district in particular or to the well-being of the district, community, state or nation,” the board policy states.

“Congressman Conyers did a lot for education and was right there with us, speaking and echoing that education is a civil right,” board member Deborah Hunter Harvill said during Monday’s meeting. “He means a lot to the world of education.”

This emergency manager says better management wasn’t enough. The Detroit district needed cash.

2019-11-26T23:29:27+00:00

Emergency managers appointed to heal the Detroit district’s finances did little more than apply Band-Aids to a major wound, according to a recent report.

Robert Bobb, one of those emergency managers, says Band-Aids were all he had.

Like others appointed to run Detroit Public Schools amid a financial crisis, Bobb took out loans to cover the district’s short-term costs, an approach that led to ballooning debt and interest payments.

“We couldn’t make payroll. The district could not even pay its utility bills,” he recalled. “Either we close the doors, or we go to short-term borrowing that will have a negative impact in the long term.”

The report, which was commissioned by the school board, found “startling mismanagement” by the state officials who largely ran the district between 1999 and 2015.

The era of state control ended in 2016, when the legislature created a new district to educate students while the old district collects tax revenue and pays off debt. The new, debt-free district is in better financial shape, although it faces a looming facilities crisis.

Bobb’s comments add to a long-running debate surrounding one of the thorniest education policy problems in Michigan: What do you do when a school district is headed for a financial cliff? The stakes could hardly be higher for the thousands of students currently enrolled in districts that are struggling financially and academically.

The four other emergency managers appointed to run the Detroit school system did not respond to requests for comment.

While the Detroit district is in much better financial shape today, recently posting a small budget surplus, its leaders warn that the progress is threatened by the district’s aging buildings. And across the state, school districts like Benton Harbor and Flint face the same challenges that pushed Detroit Public Schools to the brink of bankruptcy.

The report argues that emergency managers didn’t solve the problem. Rather, they “failed to address the structural operational issues plaguing DPS,” the report’s author, an attorney for the Allen Law Group in Detroit, wrote.

Bobb, who ran the district from 2009 to 2011, was a highly controversial figure. He closed dozens of schools, cut a lot of positions, and privatized many services. He also pushed for the conversion of some district schools into charter schools.

The school board at the time successfully sued to stop him from overhauling the district’s academics operations. A judge ruled that Bobb had overstepped the boundaries of the emergency management law at the time. In response, Bobb pushed the legislature to give emergency managers more power. When Republicans won control of the legislature the next year, they followed his advice, passing one of the most powerful — and controversial — emergency management laws in the country.

One of Bobb’s hires, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, would later come under scrutiny after the district entered a $40 million curriculum contract with her former employer, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Byrd-Bennett is currently in federal prison for her role in a corruption scandal in the Chicago school district.

As emergency manager, Bobb had nearly complete control over the operation of the school district.

Bobb wasn’t interviewed for the report, and he said its basic conclusion — that the district was mismanaged by state-appointed officials — is “baloney.”

Bobb agrees that he and other emergency managers didn’t solve the basic problem of shrinking enrollment and shrinking revenue.

They couldn’t, he said, without more help from the state: “You need a cash infusion.”

David Arsen, a professor at Michigan State University whose research has focused in part on emergency management, says Bobb’s efforts to cut costs — he closed 72 schools — were hamstrung by school choice policies.

“He closed lots of schools, but the deficit kept getting bigger, because when you close schools in a city like Detroit, the students don’t come back, they go to charters or to schools in the suburbs,” Arsen said.

Bobb recognized the problem by 2010, when he proposed legislation that would have provided a major influx of cash to the districts hardest hit by declining enrollment.

That’s ultimately what happened in Detroit, which got $617 million in additional state funding in 2016 to avoid a default. (No Detroit-based legislators voted for the deal, objecting to what they saw as an incomplete solution with too many strings attached.)

“The whole idea of emergency management is that the school district’s problems are due to poor management and the failure or local democratic governance,” said Mike Addonizio, a professor of education at Wayne State University. “By 2016 it became apparent to policymakers in Lansing that there was no way to manage DPS out of its budget deficit.”

In the meantime, children in Detroit were left with chaotic and subpar schools, the report points out. The district’s academic operations fell into disarray, and the financial picture got worse.

Bobb points out that there were some wins: He established an independent office to investigate fraud and corruption in the district, and he says he rooted out corrupt contracts and eliminated unnecessary expenses. He also brought in thousands of volunteers to tutor students in reading.

Addonizio agrees that a major cash infusion was the only way to solve the problem. He believes it didn’t come sooner because of a political consensus in the Republican-controlled statehouse that the structural issues would be solved by school choice measures.

“They were convinced that more choice could resolve problems of educational deficiencies and management problems. I guess maybe they thought that failing schools would close and that children would then enroll in schools that were succeeding. But when students leave schools and districts, the schools don’t close. The children remaining in the district just suffer.”

The students who left the city didn’t get a great deal, either: A recent report found that they tend to end up in schools with higher discipline rates, more new teachers, and higher teacher turnover.

But while Bobb agrees that the state should have been quicker to send extra funds to the district, he’s not convinced that emergency management is a bad idea.

“They also need to be smart with respect to how much cash do you actually need and then your ability to manage these situations. Outside help can figure these things out.”

Editor’s note: Nov. 27, 2019: This story has been updated to include more information about Robert Bobb’s tenure as emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools.

Report: Detroit faces the most challenges to keeping kids in school. Schools can’t fix the problem alone.

2019-11-25T20:55:16+00:00

How bad is Detroit’s student chronic absenteeism problem? Wayne State University researchers have identified eight conditions — such as poverty, unemployment, and even cold temperatures — that are strongly correlated to chronic absence, and the city leads all other large metropolitan areas in having the worst outcomes for almost all of those conditions.

The findings come with a key takeaway the researchers hope will prompt action: Schools alone can’t solve the problem of getting students to school every day, said Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, an assistant professor in the college of education at Wayne State University. And, the findings come during a critical time as the Detroit school district invests heavily in a number of efforts designed to get students in school.

Citywide, across district and charter schools, about half of the students are chronically absent — meaning they’re missing 18 or more days during the school year.

Lenhoff said what’s needed is a more coordinated effort that brings together policymakers, school district officials, charter school officials, community organizations, and community members.

Without it, the work being done by schools is “unlikely to make the huge difference we need to make,” Lenhoff said.

There is already a community-wide effort, called Every School Day Counts Detroit, focused on improving attendance in the city. Lenhoff said that effort includes the Wayne State research team, school districts, and several community organizations, such as the Brightmoor Alliance, that are tackling attendance problems. But it needs more involvement from city officials and policymakers, she said.

Lenhoff is one of the four authors of the report, called “Detroit’s Uniquely Challenging Context For Student Attendance.” The others are lead author Jeremy Singer, Walter Cook, and Ben Pogodzinski. It’s a continuation of a series of research reports this year that examines issues related to education in the city, including attendance and mobility.

The researchers looked at a number of factors that could impact chronic absenteeism to come up with the eight identified as having a strong correlation:

Percentage of adults with asthma
Rate of violent crime per 1,000 residents
Residential vacancy rate
Unemployment rate
Poverty rate
Racial segregation
Population change from 1970-2010
Average monthly temperature

Adult asthma rates may seem like a strange factor, considering we’re talking about children. Lenhoff said there was limited data on child asthma rates across all of the communities studied. But the report notes that the adult asthma rates “may reflect the degree to which students are more or less prone to asthma themselves.”

They also looked at large metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more to see how Detroit ranks. The city ranked at the top for adults with asthma, violent crime, unemployment, poverty, residential vacancies, and population change. Detroit ranked second for segregation and third for average (cold) monthly temperature. Lenhoff said she didn’t expect the latter to be a factor.

“Students who walk or take public transportation to school may be particularly impacted by inclement weather, including extremely cold temperatures, snow, and rain, as research has shown that such conditions can create barriers to attendance,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the rate of residential vacancies is a factor because many of those vacant homes are abandoned and unsafe properties that students must walk by in order to get to school. Also, racial segregation, the report said, “may reflect a history of disinvestment and racial discrimination at the root of … barriers to attendance like poverty and blight.”

By far, the city also has the worst rates of chronic absenteeism among the 33 communities studied, with a rate of 47.80%. That is followed by Milwaukee with 38.20% rate and Philadelphia, with a 31.80% rate.

Chronic absenteeism in the Detroit school district is about 63%, down from 70% the year before. The district has pushed to place attendance agents in every school. Lenhoff said many charter schools also have high rates of chronic absenteeism.

Read the full report below:

Duggan expects funding for free preschool next fall for 4-year-olds, but faces legislative hurdle

2019-11-22T19:41:37+00:00

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said Friday the city expects to be able to roll out universal pre-K for 4-year-olds by next fall, a development that could have a significant impact in a city where many children lack access to quality preschool programs.

“I think we have support from the governor and the Senate Republicans and the House Republicans to fund for next fall universal pre-K for every 4-year-old in the city, if they can just pass a budget,” Duggan said. “I’m quite certain that we will be in it.”

This isn’t the first time that Duggan has promised a major expansion of services for Detroit’s youngest learners. The mayor insists the state should prioritize Detroit, where just 1% of kindergartners enter school ready to learn. But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s current state budget didn’t single out Detroit to receive $63 million of federal child care funds, as Duggan had hoped.

Duggan made the comments during an early childhood summit that was held to recognize the work that has been accomplished since the launch of Hope Starts Here, an ambitious effort publicly launched in 2017 with $50 million from the Kresge Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (both Chalkbeat funders). The goal of this 10-year effort is to ensure that by 2027, Detroit is a city that puts its children first by taking steps such as increasing the number of children in quality preschool programs.

The mayor hopes funding for the initiative will be included in this year’s budget through a supplemental appropriation, said Eli Savit, an adviser to Duggan. He declined to say where the money would come from, saying that the details would be worked out in the legislature.

“He’s got an agreement in principle,” Savit said. “Of course all of this is subject to the budget process, the details of which the legislature will presumably have to work out.”

It’s a big hurdle for the city, given how far apart the governor and Republican lawmakers are on some other key issues regarding the current budget, such as a funding increase for charter schools that Whitmer vetoed.

“I don’t want to speculate on what the mayor said or on what could happen,” said Tiffany Brown, a spokeswoman for Whitmer, in a text message. “But I will emphasize the importance of both parties (Governor and Legislature) getting back to the table and working together to get a supplemental done to support programs that are important to Michigan residents like education, public safety, etc.”

If Duggan is successful, it will be a significant step in the city. There have long been concerns that too many children in the city enter school far behind academically, in part because they haven’t had access to strong child care and preschool programs. A 2017 study found 28,000 children in the city lack access to licensed child care providers from birth to age 5. The lack of preparation is particularly important because the state now requires schools to begin holding back struggling third-graders, beginning this school year.

With universal preschool, children across the city would have access to free preschool, regardless of income level.

Wendy Lewis Jackson, Detroit managing director for the Kresge Foundation, said Duggan has been consulting with Hope Starts Here on the universal pre-K plan.

“We fully expect that the administration will be able to roll out universal pre-K by the timeline the mayor laid out,” she said.

“The goal really is to ensure that every child that needs access to a quality early childhood education will be able to find a program that best meets their needs.”

An artist’s rendering of a new early childhood education center that will be built on the campus of Marygrove College.

In the years since it began, $27 million in additional funding from foundations has been raised for the Hope Starts Here effort, and 16,000 more children in the city are in strong preschool programs, said La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the Kellogg Foundation.

“Yes, change is happening and it’s happening because all the partners in Hope Starts Here have come to the table strong and very committed to what our goal is and what our vision is,” Tabron said.

Rip Rapson, president and CEO of the Kresge Foundation, said that since the beginning of Hope Starts Here, $3 million has been invested in providing wraparound services for young children and $4 million has been invested in improving the physical condition of early childhood facilities.

There are a number of goals driving the Hope Starts Here initiative, and Duggan’s push for universal pre-K fits into the overall vision.

Duggan asked the crowd to imagine what it will be like to tell parents of young children that they will have access to quality full-day preschool programs.

“Let’s give them the advantage,” Duggan said.

It was unclear what the cost of the universal pre-K program would be, and if it would come in the form of a Head Start program or some other type of preschool program.

Duggan was among the speakers during a ceremonial groundbreaking that was held for a major initiative of the Hope Starts Here effort: a $15 million early childhood center that will be built on the campus of Marygrove College, part of a unique “cradle to careers” initiative that began this school year with the opening of a new high school run by the Detroit school district. The early childhood center, funded by Kresge, will be operated by Starfish Family Services, an early childhood provider.

The new building will open in 2021. It will serve about 145 children in 12 classrooms. The building will also include community gathering spaces, a library, and big windows that provide views of the Marygrove grounds, said architect Marlon Blackwell.

Some neighborhood children are already benefiting from programs operating in some classrooms in existing Marygrove buildings. Anisha Evans is among the neighborhood parents already taking advantage of early childhood programs at Marygrove.

Evans said she found the program after searching for “a home, a bond.”

“I’m just overly excited,” Evans said. “She can grow here,” she said of her daughter.

Summit speakers kept coming back to the word hope. Tabron noted that as a child growing up in the city, hope was a given for her. That’s not the case for many children growing up today, she said.

“All of us are bringing back hope as a given for all of the children in the community,” Tabron said. “That’s very important to our children today.”

This veteran educator and advocate will head a $50 million effort to educate Detroit’s youngest students

2019-11-20T21:15:15+00:00

Decades after Denise Smith ran a home-based child care center, she’s returning to Detroit to lead a project designed to transform the city’s education offerings for young children.

Smith was named the first director of Hope Starts Here, a $50 million effort to expand child care in Detroit and improve existing programs, a spokesman announced Wednesday.

“The fact that 28,000 Detroit children lack access to quality child care is just one measure of how far we have to go,” Smith said in a statement.

Backed by the Kresge and W.K. Kellogg Foundations, the Hope Starts Here initiative has focused in its first two years on supporting existing child care programs. (Both foundations fund Chalkbeat.)

Smith comes on board as the initiative breaks ground on a $15 million early childhood center at Marygrove College that will complement a new K-12 school on the same campus.

Smith spent the last decade leading various early childhood initiatives in Michigan, including:

Executive director of Flint Early Childhood Collaborative and Educare-Flint
Vice president for early childhood, Excellent Schools Detroit
Director of Great Start to Quality, the state’s child care rating system

She said her experiences as a parent and as a caregiver for her nine-year-old niece have convinced her of the importance of early education.

“Once you’ve seen the difference that having opportunity can make in the trajectory of a child’s life you know what’s possible,” she said in a statement. “Yes, it’s hard. But it can be done. Now we have the right pieces to take the limits off of children’s lives in Detroit, and we can do it early.’’

Why the Detroit school district is investing in its newest teachers by giving them mentors

2019-11-20T20:33:14+00:00

Samantha Ciaffone was certain about one thing when she began her first teaching job in Detroit a few months ago: “I don’t know what I don’t know yet as a new teacher.”

But she quickly discovered she had an asset: a mentor who’s been there and done that.

Ciaffone benefits from a program, formally announced Wednesday, that connects veteran Detroit school district teachers as mentors to new teachers.

To do that, the Detroit Public Schools Community District has partnered with the GreenLight Fund Detroit, a philanthropic organization that is providing funding and helped connect the district with the New Teacher Center, which bills itself as one of the largest teacher mentoring programs in the nation. It’s a $5 million effort.

In a district that has hired more than 100 beginning teachers in the past year, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said providing them support to become effective educators is important.

That will help retain teachers and position the district to be more attractive to potential candidates who may see a mentorship program as an asset.

“What we don’t want to do is hire someone for the sake of hiring them,” Vitti said. “We want to support them so they not only stay in DPSCD, but stay in the profession.”

The program also boosts the district’s efforts to grow its talent.

“Our most important employees are our teachers,” Vitti said. “They have the greatest impact on our children on a day-to-day basis.”

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, right, speaks during a news conference Wednesday. He’s shown here with Desmond Blackburn, the CEO of The New Teacher Center.

As part of the new program, first-grade teacher Ciaffone is being mentored by Karen Pastor, a veteran teacher at Munger Elementary-Middle School. Pastor, who teaches the second grade, is among 115 teachers who received four days of training from the New Teacher Center in order to become mentors. The mentor teachers will each receive $700 stipends and be compensated for the training and for the weekly one-hour sessions they have with their mentors.

“It’s nice to be able to go to her with questions, and she’ll give me resources,” Ciaffone said about Pastor.

A 20-year district veteran, Pastor said she wishes she had had a mentor teacher when she stepped into her first classroom 25 years ago.

“I’m not here to make her a mini me. I’m here to let her develop into the teacher that she will become. That’s the most important thing. It’s an extremely delicate dance of giving her advice or guidance, holding her hand when needed, and letting it go because Samantha needs to develop into her own teaching philosophy.”

Rishi Moudgil, executive director of GreenLight, said the organization will initially contribute $650,000 to the New Teacher program. Over $5 million will be raised over five years from fundraising and grants.

He said GreenLight’s sole focus is to “better outcomes for families here in Detroit.” They do that by asking questions about the greatest needs in the community. And as they talked to parents and families, they heard resoundingly that a key need is better equipping the adults who are working with children.

That led to a search for the best programs in the country that help support teachers. They landed on the New Teacher Center.

“Our vision is that all new teachers who want to come to DPSCD will get a veteran mentor teacher for two years to be able to support their growth,” Moudgil said.

Desmond Blackburn, chief executive officer of the New Teacher Center, which is based in Santa Cruz, California, said the program supports teachers in 400 school districts nationwide, including New York, Baltimore, Miami and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina. He said it touches about 1.8 million students.

Blackburn said independent research on the program shows that students taught by teachers who’ve been mentored learned much more in math and English in one school year than their peers whose new teachers weren’t mentored. Retention rates were also stronger for teachers who were mentored, he said.

Blackburn said teaching is hard work, and teachers show up every day to confront that.

“But they want support and ongoing support day in and day out, from peers,” Blackburn said.