Academic Plan Highlights

To the Community
Message from Robert C. Bobb, Emergency Financial Manager

Children are the center of our universe. Each and every day our team goes about our work in the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) by continually asking the question as we make the tough decisions: “Is it good for the kids?”

We have stated from Day One that when our work here is complete in March 2011, we intend to leave five major products for the Detroit Public Schools:

1. A master education plan for 21st century teaching and learning
2. A plan for safe and secure learning environments
3. A master facilities plan
4. A plan for parent and community engagement
5. A long-term financial plan

This academic plan will drive our planning around facilities and finances. It sets rigorous goals and keeps our focus on Creating Centers of Excellence at Every School for Every Child, Every Day, in Every Neighborhood across Detroit Public Schools.

Our plan coincides with the Excellent Schools Detroit Citywide Education Plan, which I strongly support because we believe there must be a wide range of excellent educational options for our kids. And while I applaud the Citywide plan’s strong goals, I am pleased to say the DPS’ academic plan has even higher targets.

I am excited about our changes ahead. They include:

• More rigorous academics and a wider variety of extra-curricular offerings at every school
• Creation of a pre-K-14 system of schools that serve students through college
• College advisors and specialized offices at every high school
• Smaller class sizes, once finances are shored up
• A national recruitment effort for principals to ensure we have great leaders
• Dual enrollment, Advanced Placement and other college courses available to every high school student
• More emphasis on parental involvement, including tools to help parents

These reforms are based on lessons learned from successful private and public schools across Michigan and the nation. We have also embraced private sector models that work and that we know will work for Detroit.

We have no more time to waste. We know that we have not only a financial emergency but an academic emergency as well. In many of our schools, we have a reading emergency, a writing emergency, a science emergency, and a math emergency.

All of our children, including children with special needs and children learning English, must develop the knowledge and skills to gain admission to the college they want to attend or the employment they seek. This plan identifies what we need to do so that children in our care succeed. By we, I mean all of us. Educators, parents, business owners, faith-based leaders, elected officials, and taxpayers must come together and share responsibility for improving our schools.

To the Community
Message from Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Chief Academic and Accountability Auditor

This Academic Plan was created on behalf of children and designed for adults who will step up and assume the responsibility for turning around our schools. Many adults have contributed already to the conversation on what we must do to make that happen: members of the Governor’s Transition Commission; the Council of the Great City Schools; principals, teachers, and support staff in our schools; elected officials and community leaders; and parents and community members in our neighborhoods. Their recommendations provided the foundation for our work, and we are grateful for their expertise and commitment to changing direction.

This plan provides very specific directions on how to get students where they need to be: in the line of graduates waiting with anticipation to receive a diploma. When we achieve the goals we’ve set, it will be clear to everyone what students must know and be able to do to earn that diploma and what they too must do to support students along the way. On graduation day, that diploma will be more meaningful, not only for students and their proud families, but also for the college admissions officer, the potential employer, and the Detroit community.

Our Vision of Excellent Schools

The Detroit Public Schools Academic Plan sets out to create a system of schools in which all children learn every day. Our community has failed in this task before, but now is not the time for finger-pointing. We must come together in support of our children — not only for their future, but also for the future of Detroit.

We are creating schools in which:

Everyone knows what the goal is. Students and their teachers are clear on what must be learned in every subject and what good work looks like. Parents and community members know how we’re measuring student achievement and whether children and schools are making gains.

Everyone is learning more than was expected of them in the past. We will develop standards and a curriculum based on Common Core Standards to ensure higher levels of achievement for everyone by 2015.

Everyone understands that learning is a process. There will be more time to learn with an extended day, more chances and support to get it right, and more opportunity for educators to improve their skills. Our approach for every learner will be positive reinforcement for making progress toward the goal.

Everyone is learning: the preschooler learning to count to five, a group of teachers discussing ways to teach fractions, parents learning how to support their children enrolled in Algebra, the would-be Web designer and the graphic artist who is her mentor. In short, Detroit schools are for learners of every age and aspiration.

Clear Goals

This plan champions change for Detroit Public Schools by setting clear goals based on recommendations from a series of studies and from citizens across the community.

We have identified the 27 indicators of success that address our academic emergency, from an increase in test scores to a decrease in dropout rates, and set specific goals for each measure.

This ambitious plan raises the expectations for our students, parents, and community at large. It guarantees the creation of Centers of Excellence at Every School for Every Child, Every Day, in Every Neighborhood across Detroit Public Schools.

By 2015, the targets include:

• 100 percent pass rates for Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP), Michigan Merit Examination (MME), and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
• 98 percent graduation rate and average daily attendance for students
• Increasing numbers of teachers achieving National Board Certification
• An average ACT composite score of 22.2
• Also, more graduates entering and remaining in colleges and universities, more children moving out of special education, and schools improving on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
• 100 percent acceptance rate of students in post-secondary institutions

There will be decreases in:

• Students retained at each grade
• The dropout rate
• Student suspensions and expulsions
• Referrals and placement of students in special education

More schools will meet the requirements of AYP, and more teachers and principals will engage in meaningful professional development.

This plan requires much from many of us, but it requires one thing of all of us: We must come together in support of our children.

What’s in the Plan for Students

1. High standards, clear expectations: Our graduates must compete for seats in good colleges and jobs with good salaries. We will be implementing more rigorous standards to create clear, high, and consistent expectations for what students should learn in English, math, social studies, and science that draw from the nationally developed Common Core Standards. All students also will have access to Advanced Placement and honors classes.
2. A marketplace of schools: Students will have more school options that are a good fit for them: schools for students who want to be scientists or singers, schools designed for students still learning English, entrepreneurial schools for students who want to start their own businesses, career and technical schools for training geared to tomorrow’s jobs, and Early College High Schools and other models offering dual enrollment that prepare students for college with a head start on credits.
3. More extracurricular offerings: In addition to the usual menu of football, basketball, and baseball, more students will have access to debate or chess and performance groups like the Citywide marching band, jazz ensemble, and gospel choir, and more will compete in drama, dance, or media competitions.
4. A safe environment for learning: Every adult in a school must help create safe and positive environments for learning. Students must help, too. We will set and enforce rules of behavior, provide alternatives to suspension to keep students in school, and offer instruction in conflict resolution to help students become more skilled in heading off trouble before it gets out of hand.
5. More support at many levels: Students can expect support from volunteers, tutors, mentors, guidance and college counselors, and support organizations in the school. Students also will enjoy more attention from principals, teachers, paraprofessionals, and specialists focused on ensuring every child succeeds. Free summer school will be available for eligible students who must catch up to move to the next level or graduate.

What’s in the Plan for Parents and for the Community

Parents will see:

1. Schools that meet their children’s needs: Students will be academically and socially prepared for life after high school and will learn in a safe and secure environment that is a good fit for their interests and styles of learning. We will reorganize schools to be prekindergarten through grade 8 and 9-12. Schools will offer an accelerated/gifted program from kindergarten through 12th grade. At an even more basic level, students will have the textbooks and resources they need.
2. Help for children as soon as they start learning: Through seven Parent Resource Centers, we will offer classes for parents of infants and toddlers; schools will use Volunteer Reading Corps tutors so that students enter prekindergarten ready to participate fully.
3. A university for families: Parents and other family members can take short classes or courses at the Parent Resource Centers to learn parenting skills or how to help with homework. They can enroll in programs to earn a GED or acquire better language skills.
4. A welcome mat at every school: Parents will be welcome at every school. To support this goal, district staff will participate in professional development to learn how to develop more trust between families and their schools and engage families in their children’s education. Families can expect to see more opportunities to participate in school and district decisions.
5. Easier access to information: The same technology that teachers will use to develop classroom lessons can be used by families to see how their children are performing in class. Families will receive more information about school/district operations and decisions and can freely share opinions and ideas.

The community will see:

1. Schools that serve the whole community: In addition to doing a better job of educating children, we intend for schools to meet the learning needs of adults. Adult education classes, job skills training and development centers, and health clinics will all be found at neighborhood schools.
2. No-holds-barred school improvement strategy: Schools from both ends of the achievement spectrum — high performing and low performing — will receive additional resources to demonstrate what can be achieved with more: more professional development for staff, more time in the school day for students, and more freedom to hire teachers, all of whom will apply specifically to teach in these schools. These Priority Schools will serve as learning laboratories to investigate how much can be achieved in schools with more resources and fewer constraints.
3. Accountability for results: We have identified 27 indicators of success that address our academic emergency, from an increase in test scores to a decrease in dropout rates, and set specific targets for each measure for the next three years. For example, 58 percent of our students graduated in 2008. We want to see 78 percent of students graduating by 2011, and 98 percent of students receiving diplomas in 2015.
4. Opportunities to help students achieve: We will expand our 5,000-person Volunteer Reading Corps and other tutoring and mentorship programs to help all children at all grade levels.
5. Partnerships with the community: Businesses, universities, faith-based organizations, community agencies, philanthropic foundations, and elected officials all have a role to play in supporting student achievement, from providing internships and apprenticeships for students to supporting professional development for staff.

What’s in the Plan for Educators and Staff

1. Professional development: Anything that’s new — whether grade-level expectations for social studies, a conflict intervention curriculum, or a process for early intervention with struggling learners — requires time and attention to implement successfully. We cannot expect our staff to improve their teaching skills unless we foster their learning and growth.
2. Leadership development at every level of the organization: It’s nonnegotiable — everyone participates. New principals can expect intensive support, and a cadre of principals will help their peers improve performance.
3. Twenty-first century tools to support classroom instruction: With an instructional management system, teachers can view test results, figure out specifically what students have yet to learn, and find lesson plans (including some uploaded by colleagues in the district) to reteach the concepts students missed.
4. Reinforcements for struggling schools: Educators in schools that have consistently failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress will receive support from literacy and math coaches.
5. Shared accountability: Staff are accountable for students achieving standards, schools being kept clean and comfortable, and budgets being monitored and maintained. And the district is accountable for providing the materials, support, professional learning, and leadership that district employees require to do their work well.

Targets for the new Detroit Public Schools

Downloads

• Download the full DPS Academic Plan
• DPS Academic Plan Highlights
• Council of Great City Schools 2008 Report
• Governor's Transition Team 2005 Report