(NAME-MCE) Detroit Financial Manager Unveils $540M Academic Plan

[Anselmo Villanueva]

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/15/339103midetroitschoolsstateofdistrict_ap.html

March 16, 2010

Detroit Financial Manager Unveils $540M Academic Plan

By The  Associated Press

The man appointed to overhaul Detroit Public Schools' finances  unveiled a
shoot-for-the-moon, five-year academic plan Monday that calls  for making
sure every high school graduate who applies to college is  accepted.

If the $540 million plan, released to the public Monday night,  ever comes
to fruition it likely will be after the district has shrunk  even further.

Detroit has lost nearly 100,000 students since 1997 when  enrollment stood
at 175,168. It has about 84,000 students now, but that  number could "bottom
out" at 56,503 by 2014, emergency financial manager  Robert Bobb told
reporters after his state of the district address.

Fewer students mean less funding. The district gets nearly $8,200  for every
general education student.

While fewer seats will be filled, there also will be fewer schools  and a
more rigorous learning environment beginning next fall. Under the  Excellent
Schools for Every Child academic plan that Bobb unveiled, the  district
would have to graduate 98 percent of its students, have all of  them pass
state standardized tests and have anyone who applies to  college be accepted
by the 2014-15 academic year.

Improving the district's average ACT composite score from 15.6 to  22.1 and
improving attendance and lowering the dropout rate also are  part of the
plan, which would rely heavily on parents and the district's  5,345 teachers


Along with state funds, the plan would be financed by federal  stimulus
dollars and Race to the Top grants.

"It's a Herculean task. These goals are very ambitious," Bobb  said. "It can
happen if the community wants it to happen."

Appointed by Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm last March to  correct the
district's ailing finances, Bobb has spent the past 12  months restructuring
schools while cutting into a deficit that now  stands at $219 million.

He has weeded out waste, asked teachers to take a pay cut, and  closed 29
schools with 45 more expected to be shuttered. But the state  of academics
was as poor as district ledgers, causing many parents to  seek out charter
schools and public schools in suburban districts.

The 11-member school board has complained that Bobb has  overstepped his
authority and has sued to get academic control back. A  ruling is pending.

Board members adopted their own academic plan during the summer,  but they
note that Bobb controls the purse strings.

"I think he hasn't allowed it to be implemented," board member  Carla Scott
said. "You weren't hired to make an academic plan. Show me  where you've
corrected the finances."

Detroit's graduation rate for 2008-2009 was 58 percent, compared  with the
national rate of 89 percent. The district's 27 percent dropout  rate over
2008-2009 was more than three times the national rate of 8.7  percent.

Bobb's plan looks to lower the dropout rate to 3 percent and push  daily
student attendance up to 98 percent.

Advanced and proficient Michigan Educational Assessment Program  math scores
would rise from last fall's 62 percent to 72 percent next  school year, and
81 percent in 2011. The percentage of students with  advanced and proficient
reading scores would increase from 69 percent  last fall to 76 percent next
fall.

There will be expanded time for reading and mathematics in  pre-kindgarten
through eighth grade, and better programs for special  needs students.

"Our academic plan will make DPS schools competitive with the best  schools
in the city, suburbs and beyond because we will be gauging our  success not
against Michigan's standards, but against more rigorous  national
standards," Bobb told a crowd Monday night at Renaissance High  School where
he spoke about the state of the district.

It can work if the right foundations are laid, said parent Ida  Byrd-Hill,
who has a son and daughter in the Detroit School of Arts.

"Everything around the child is technology until they come into  school,"
she said. "They have to power themselves down to go into a  slow-moving
school."

The 38 first-graders in Chris Habood's class at Carleton  Elementary haven't
been able to power up for more than a month inside  their room.

"I see a lot of wishful planning," the longtime teacher said of  Bobb's
plan. "But it's hard to see it when I'm sitting with no  electricity in my
classroom. There are lights only."