The proficiency gap between DPS and schools across the rest of state has actually increased since emergency management came to Detroit in 2009. The picture that the numbers paint is particularly bleak when the 15 schools handed to the Education Achievement System just before the fall MEAP are factored in. They show that Detroit’s third- through eighth-graders continue to lose ground in reading and math proficiency in most categories.
This is a tough one. What the article doesn't address in its stats about rising proficiency gaps is that most students whose parents have the resources send their kids to neighboring districts. Enrollment has plummeted recently as a result. I don't think that the schools are failing more than they already were, but if you take the high achievers out of the average, the average falls. I have no idea what a good strategy for Detroit schools is. Maybe we should use New Orleans as a model. After Katrina, they had no public schools, so they had to start fresh. I think Detroit should consider a similar measure. While not natural like a hurricane, it is a disaster nonetheless. The whole thing ought to be blown up, left to go into bankruptcy, killed, and rebirthed. Perhaps they can use the New Orleans all charter model, or maybe some policy wonk has another great idea that should be tried. The fact is that DPS is a national embarrassment, a shameful black eye for a rich country, and its not fair to the kids who have to suffer through it. The reasons may be complicated, and not entirely DPS's fault, but, still, I don't think it can be saved. Creative destruction is needed in this case, I'm afraid.
Yes, very tough. As we assign blame for school proficiency, should we first ask if quality schools produce economic prosperity and employment opportunities for which students may aspire? Or, does economic prosperity and employment opportunity produce measurably high-achieving schools containing students preparing for future career opportunities that they, and their parents, can envision? Students that are currently, by measure of standardized assessment, the main indicators of quality schools and the quality of it's educators? Could it be that economic prosperity and employment opportunity are the fuels for the fire of a prosperous educational system? The students of quality schools, by measure of yearly tests, are more likely measures of the prosperity of the economics system affecting students in that school system, rather than the quality of the educators within it. Could we expect DPS's current state of being to reverse if all staff and administration was replaced with educators from top performing school districts in the state?
No. I don't think we can blame the educators for how bad DPS has become. I think it's problems are numerous and multi-faceted. Unfortunately, it's gotten to the point that the death spiral is in full effect: The best students with the best parents have left, bringing down the average, which encourages more families to uproot. There is no end in sight. That's why I argue for a dramatic reorganization of DPS. It could even have the same personalities and staff on the other end, but there has to be a new beginning of some sort. That said, I have no idea what it would look like. What I do know is that as a citizen of Detroit, Michigan, and the US, I'm ashamed that this is how kids are treated in my home city.Could we expect DPS's current state of being to reverse if all staff and administration was replaced with educators from top performing school districts in the state?
Agreed. It is a disaster. It is a shame. It is embarrassing. What if the current state of DPS was the result of a single dramatic event? Say, flooding due to a terrible storm with video footage of failed levees. We might have Brad Pitt and other notables having a "Save DPS" telethon this coming week. Or, perhaps the decline of DPS truly is a natural disaster. It might be natural, when the causes are numerous and ambiguous, that human nature directs us, out of self-preservation, to avoid helping and getting entangled in a quagmire of the sort that DPS has become.