Detroit: Pulling Out of the Death Spiral

Education Week

By Tom Vander Ark

"The Motor City's traditional district remains the worst-performing big-city school operator in both the Midwest and the nation," reported RiShawn Biddle . "With 69 percent of its fourth-graders and 57 percent of eighth-graders being functionally illiterate in 2011, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Detroit has become infamous for perpetuating educational neglect and malpractice." Biddle notes, "the district's financial mismanagement has been even more spectacular."

Enrollment in the state's largest district has has dropped by more than 100,000 students since 2003--more dramatic than New Orleans. The Detroit News reports that, "District officials have shuttered more than 100 school buildings in an attempt to right size the district as it fell deeper into a financial crisis. The city is in even worse shape and was taken over by the state on March 1st.

So, asks the Smart Cities reader, why write about the disaster that is Detroit? Like New Orleans, Detroit families are beginning to benefit from the man-made disruption and corruption. The portfolio emerging from the disaster is worth watching.

Disaster Recovery . Modeled after the successful Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD), Michigan created a statewide school improvement district in 2011. The Education Achievement system will assume operation of the lowest 5 percent of schools. Education Achievement Authority (EAA) started operating 15 Detroit schools in September 2012.

While the RSD has relied on chartering, the EAS continues to operate schools with only a few charters. Chancellor John Covington, building on work he started in Kansas City, is leading development of an NGLC grant winning blended competency-based turnaround model. The Buzz platform built in partnership with Agilix (the Brainhoney people) features Compass Learning's Odyssey that "uses assessment data to prescribe a personalized learning path complete with rigorous and engaging curriculum and instruction." The approach is tailored by School Improvement Network.

Teach for America was shut out of Detroit for years but two years ago they were invited back to the District, to EAA, and to charter schools in the city. The University of Michigan, in nearby Ann Arbor, sends more grads to TFA than any other school.

Matchbook Learning is another NGLC grant winner and EAA partner working with middle schools in Detroit. As we noted in January, the conversion focuses on school culture, teacher coaching, stakeholder engagement, and blended classrooms powered by EdElements. Students are "grouped into small and flexible groups based on student readiness, interests, learning style and profile, and specific instructional objectives."

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