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Changing Michigan's Schools / Detroit News Editorials

Changing Michigan's Schools
Sunday 2-11-2007

Local school districts balk at education reform

Michigan is already stepping back from its new commitment to education reform, just as it is trying to catch up with other states and the world.

Less than a year after Michigan passed much-heralded statewide curriculum reform for high schools, school districts are balking at fully implementing it, saying they will teach it through trimesters rather than semesters, allowing them to keep more elective courses as well as teachers who aren't qualified for the tougher classes.

In doing so, they are sabotaging students' access to the content they most need to prepare for college and the work world.

"It makes a mockery out of these high school graduation requirements," says Sharif Shakrani, co-director of Michigan State University's Education Policy Center and one of the country's foremost experts in student achievement. "Unless the legislators do something about this, it will be really hard to correct later on. Otherwise, it's a sham."

Today, The Detroit News kicks off a weeklong series on Michigan education, exploring how the state can dramatically improve students' K-16 success if it is willing to stand up to the special interests controlling the schools.

Never before has education mattered so much to our future well-being.

Yet at the school and district level, many administrators, teachers and union leaders are proving reluctant to follow state leadership on the high school curriculum reform passed last spring.

At the state level, both Democrats and Republicans resist or do not initiate reforms, using the respective excuses of union rights and local control to protect their core supporters.

These so-called traditions are holding the state back from educational and economic progress.

"I really am a local control guy," says Mike Reno, a Republican member of the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education. "But at this point, local control is out of control."

The problem is not ignorance. We know what to do. Other states have shown us.

Nor is the problem simply funding. Money helps, but it has not driven successful reforms elsewhere.

Texas, Virginia and North Carolina and other states have undertaken bold state-level reforms to effectively boost their students' academic success. As a result, they are increasingly closing their socioeconomic achievement gap.

By contrast, Michigan did not pass a statewide assessment until April 2006. The state has not improved its college attendance rate significantly, and its student achievement is continuing to fall behind compared with other states' performance growth.

"We need another approach," Shakrani says. "Other states have taken another approach, and it is bearing fruit."

This week, we'll look at how Michigan can -- and must -- take another approach to K-12 education.

If Michigan is to regain its educational edge, both political parties must put children before their partisan supporters and embrace a more open-minded, 21st century interpretation of their core beliefs.

_____

About the series
How Michigan must reform the state's K-12 education system to catch up with the rest of the world.
Today: Opponents use excuses of union rights and local control to frustrate school change.
Monday: Why Michigan's student achievement is falling behind, and what we can do about it.
Tuesday: We explore the special interests that fight reforms to turn around the state's dismal dropout rate.
Wednesday: How other states have overhauled teacher management to improve student performance.
Thursday: Michigan must cut its skyrocketing administrative costs to save money for the classroom.



Changing Michigan's schools
Monday 2-12-2007

State must play stronger role in education reform

Just 10 years ago, Michigan students significantly out-performed the national average on achievement. Today, their performance is barely average compared with other states -- and fails miserably compared to other countries.

Michigan students didn't grow worse; they just didn't grow at all. While our state's performance stagnated, other states' students blossomed under careful cultivation.

Years after other states launched dramatic changes to improve their schools, Michigan is just trying out overdue education reform.

Last year, Michigan implemented a sorely needed statewide curriculum reform. While we applaud this new mandate, we realize that schools need further state leadership to guide instruction, textbook policy, teacher management and other issues to ensure the educational system leads the country once gain, and the world.

Other states have embraced bold statewide reforms. They are seeing real results. Yet Michigan clings to outdated, rigid traditions of local control and union rights that need to be modernized.

We have always believed that government works best when it is closest to the people. But Michigan's local school boards have proven incapable of breaking the stranglehold of education unions and implementing common sense reforms. We cannot deny what is working in other states.

Experts and activists agree the state must take the lead on improving student performance by providing more guidance on instructional methods, and addressing school structures and educators who resist reforms.

Michigan can wipe out its education deficit if the state:

Provides more guidance on instruction. Many school districts are struggling to figure out how to implement the new state curriculum.

Overhauls middle school instruction and structures to better prepare students for high school.

Recommends textbooks, if not mandate them, to reflect the needs of the new global economy. Michigan instruction is based on textbooks. If the books change, the teaching will follow.

Michigan's rigid teacher bargaining agreements and interpretation of local control has continued to thwart reform.

"This is a state that has prided itself for many, many, many years that the decisions of education are made at the local, local, local level," says Sharif Shakrani, co-director of Michigan State University's Education Policy Center and one of the country's foremost experts in student achievement.

Mike Reno, a businessman and Rochester school board member, adds, "With local control comes responsibility to make sound decisions. Look at most school boards: I don't think they make bad decisions; they just don't make any decisions. If they had done their jobs, we would not have needed the state to lead reform. But we do."

Michigan's cultural attitude must also change. North Carolina upended its old belief that "not everyone is meant to go to college" and mandated that middle schools eliminate tracking. Now, every middle school student is taking rigorous college preparatory classes and they are closing their socio-economic achievement gap.

Michigan needs a similar comprehensive reform of education that starts with taking the schools back from special interests.

THE DIGITAL GENERATION!

HOW Can EDUCATION BENEFIT from WIRELESS OAKLAND Initiative?

Microsoft joins Wireless Oakland team: Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson announced that Microsoft Corp. had signed up as a member of the corporate team behind Wireless Oakland, the effort to offer free basic wireless Internet service everywhere in Oakland County. During his State of the County speech, Patterson announced that Microsoft will "develop and maintain all content and advertising on the Wireless Oakland portal," the home page for the system that will come up first on users' computer screens. WWJ Newsradio 950's Web site is offering a podcast of Patterson's remarks, at this link. There's also a podcast of an interview on the speech with Oakland County CIO Phil Bertolini, who is leading the Wireless Oakland effort. Installation of the system began in Troy Jan. 19. Other pilot areas in Birmingham, Royal Oak, Madison Heights, Oak Park, Wixom and Pontiac will be live with service available by April 30. At that time, Bertolini said, the county will release a schedule for rolling out service in the rest of the county. All areas of the county should see service by early 2008, Bertolini said. The system will offer Wi-Fi service free at 128 kilobits per second, at no cash cost to the county. The companies financing the system will make money selling faster service tiers. More at www.wirelessoakland.com.

AIM for the DIGITAL BHAG!

A New Story + a BHAG

David Warlick has blogged often about our need to tell a new story. A story about the technological shifts that are occurring in our society. A story about the impacts that digital technologies are having on our lives, the workplace, and, indeed, our very economies. A story about the future of eduation and what our kids need to know and be able to do in the New Economy. A story that helps people make the move from an education system designed for yesteryear to a system that is designed for tomorrow. This story needs to be told in a compelling way so that it resonates with listeners.

I agree with David. We do need a new story. We probably need multiple new stories, told in different ways to different people at different times in different settings. We need to tailor the new story for different audiences to ensure maximum reception. But I’m also thinking that a new story is not enough. A new story alone will not get us to where we need to be.

I think we also need a BHAG: a big, hairy, audacious goal. A tangible, concrete target that lets us know when we’ve reached some crucial point. A new story (or three or four…) is a necessary component, but I don’t think it will be sufficient in and of itself. I think we need a new story and a BHAG, because the BHAG will help drive action and allocation of resources. A new story tells us what the issues are but it doesn’t necessarily help people know what to do. The BHAG helps people understand where we might go and how to get there. Together a new story and a BHAG will help educators, and parents, and community members, and politicans create the will and the action to move us forward.

I think we’re starting to wrap our heads around what a new story might look like. For example, I know that the presentation set I’ve been delivering lately, which combines diifferent resources and quotes and materials from the blogosphere and elsewhere, is resonating well with folks here in Minnesota. But we still need a BHAG.

So what might a BHAG be? What might be a big, hairy, audacious goal, a target that makes us gulp a little bit but also is focused and achievable? What might be something that would help us accomplish our goal of moving schools, students, teachers, and classroom pedagogy into the 21st century? What might be a goal that is tangible and yet energizing, a goal that grabs people in the gut and serves as a unifying focal point of effort?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I can’t come up with anything better than this:

1. ubiqitous nationwide high-speed wireless Internet access, and
2. a wireless-capable laptop for every student and educator.

I’ve previously blogged about variations of the first component (both here and here), and I think we’re starting to see the revolutionary impacts of giving every kid and teacher a computer, even when those impacts weren’t foreseen or desired at the outset. I think these two in coordination (and you need them both, I believe) are a BHAG worth rallying around. Now of course the question is… what do you think?

AMERICA'S "Perfect Storm!"

Press Releases

ETS Report: Converging Forces Threaten America’s Future

Contact:

Tom Ewing (609) 683-2803 tewing@ets.org

Princeton, N.J. (February 5, 2007) —

Three powerful forces — inadequate literacy skills among large segments of the population, the continuing evolution of the economy and the nation’s job structure, and an ongoing shift in the demographic profile of the nation, powered by the highest immigration rates in almost a century — are creating a “perfect storm” that could have dire consequences for our nation, according to a report ETS released today in a National Press Club Newsmaker press conference in Washington, D.C.

“America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future,” a report by ETS’s Policy Information Center, warns that America is in the midst of a perfect storm that, if unaddressed, will continue to feed on itself, further dividing us socially and economically, jeopardizing American competitiveness and threatening our democratic institutions. In the report, authors Irwin Kirsch and Kentaro Yamamoto of ETS, Henry Braun of Boston College and Andrew Sum of Northeastern University contend that the convergence of the three forces has serious implications for future generations and could turn the American dream into an American tragedy.

“America’s Perfect Storm is a wake-up call with implications for education, business, policymakers and every parent and child,” says ETS President and CEO Kurt Landgraf. “It describes forces at play in society that will affect all of us in the near future. The American dream is the idea that everyone has the opportunity to make a living, provide for a family, and raise children who will be better educated and better off. If we fail to act now on the warnings sounded in this report, the next generation of children will be
worse off than their parents for the first time in our country’s history. The American dream could turn into an American tragedy for many.”

The report also offers hope that if we act now and develop new policies that will increase literacy skills across the population, we can reduce the impact of the storm, help our nation grow together, and retain our leading role in the world.

“America’s Perfect Storm describes brilliantly the major challenges facing American workers and our economy as the result of an education system that fails to educate our young people, an increasingly technological global economy, and major demographic shifts in our population,” says Arthur J. Rothkopf, Senior Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Unless we act aggressively and promptly to reform our public education system, the standard of living of U.S. workers will decline, and the U.S. economy will become far less competitive.”

One of the major forces contributing to America’s perfect storm is inadequate literacy skills among large segments of the population. “Individuals are expected to take more responsibility for managing various aspects of their own lives, such as planning for retirement, navigating the health care system, and managing their careers,” Kirsch says. “Yet half of adults lack the reading and math skills to use these systems effectively and, therefore, will face challenges fulfilling their roles as parents, citizens and workers. Perhaps of greater concern is the fact that this problem is not limited to adults. Our high school graduation rate, at 70 percent, is far behind that of other countries, and our students lag behind many of our trading partners in reading, math and science.”

The second force is a dramatically changing economy, driven by technological innovation and globalization. “The economy itself is experiencing seismic changes, resulting in new sources of wealth, new patterns of international trade, and a shift in the balance of capital over labor,” Braun says. “These changes are causing a profound restructuring of the U.S. workplace, with a larger proportion of job growth occurring in higher-level occupations that require a college education, such as management, professional, technical, and executive-level sales. The wage gap is widening between the most- and least-skilled workers; men with bachelor’s degrees can expect to earn almost twice as much over their lifetimes as those without.”

The third force contributing to America’s “perfect storm” is sweeping demographic changes. “Half of the U.S. population growth into the next decade is expected to come from new immigrants, which will have a dramatic impact on the composition of the workforce, as well as on the general population,” Kirsch says. “While immigrants come from diverse backgrounds with varying levels of education, we should recognize that 34 percent of new immigrants arrive without a high school diploma, and of those, 80 percent cannot speak English well, if at all.”

Although each of these forces is powerful in its own right, it is their interaction over time that can have momentous consequences. “Our nation has a choice to make,” Sum says. “If we continue on our present course, we will gradually lose ground to other countries and, in the process, become more divided socially and economically. Or we can invest in policies that will help us to grow together, policies that will result in better opportunities for all Americans.”

Download the full report, “America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future,” for free at www.ets.org/stormreport. Purchase copies for $15 (prepaid) by writing to the Policy Information Center, ETS, MS 19-R, Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ 08541-0001; by calling (609) 734-5949; or by sending an e-mail to pic@ets.org.

ABOUT ETS http://www.ets.org

ETS is a nonprofit institution with the mission to advance quality and equity in education by providing fair and valid assessments, research and related services for all people worldwide. In serving individuals, educational institutions and government agencies around the world, ETS customizes solutions to meet the need for teacher professional development products and services, classroom and end-of-course assessments, and research-based teaching and learning tools. Founded in 1947, ETS today develops, administers and scores more than 24 million tests annually in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide.

GO DIGITAL!

K-12 Computing Blueprint

Your Resource for One-to-One Computing
Timely tools, resources, and information for K12 leaders about mobile learning solutions. Includes research data, best practices, funding models, deployment strategies, and more. Sponsored by Intel Corp. and Center for Digital Education.

Whoever Provided the MUSICAL Backdrop to WHITTEMORE 422....God Bless!

A "Ticket" to the BIG SHOW filled with PROMISE!

Governor to push for free tuition

Local taxes, donations could send more high school grads to college

February 2, 2007

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF and LORI HIGGINS

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to give more Michigan high school graduates who can't otherwise afford it a chance to go to college.

In her State of the State address Tuesday, she will outline a plan -- inspired by the bold Kalamazoo Promise -- that would offer the incentive of tax money to match private donations to create a college-tuition plan for all graduates of public schools in economically stressed communities, administration officials said Thursday.

Detroit parent Ted Spencer said he likes the idea.

"We're losing a lot of kids between the third and sixth grade," Spencer said. "We need something to motivate them, and I think this would be beautiful."

The Kalamazoo plan is funded entirely by anonymous donors.

Granholm's plan would rely on deep-pocketed benefactors, but also match their money with a portion of local property taxes. The combined funding would pay tuition costs that aren't covered by financial aid such as Pell grants, scholarships or the Michigan Promise, which gives up to $4,000 for college.

Part of the funding would come from Promise Zones -- most likely entire cities -- which would capture half the annual increase in revenues from the existing 6-mill property tax on homes that pays for schools statewide, the State Education Tax (SET).

How much private money would be required before the taxes are tapped under Granholm's plan hasn't been determined.

Neither have other details, which must be discussed with potential donors and school districts before legislation is drafted, said Chuck Wilbur, Granholm's chief policy adviser.

For example, it is not known whether the tuition grants would go to students in charter schools, which are numerous in Detroit.

The tuition plan would be limited to areas with high levels of unemployment and poverty and low academic achievement.

Wilbur said groups in Detroit, Flint, Jackson and west Michigan have discussed ways to replicate the Kalamazoo Promise in their communities.

"We're doing this because we know the level of interest is high," Wilbur said. "Where struggling communities are trying to use higher education to create a better future for themselves, the governor believes the state should be part of that effort."

One potential problem is that in some cities, property-tax revenues haven't increased much as home values have stagnated and little new construction has occurred.

Detroit revenues from the SET are expected to rise by $2 million a year; Granholm's plan would take half of that for college tuitions. But in Flint, SET revenues rose by only $151,000 from 2005 to 2006.

That would create a total of about $76,000 for college tuition for Flint graduates to share.

Wilbur said the free-tuition program would stimulate property values to rise faster by attracting more families with children, and more development.

The Kalamazoo Promise is credited with increasing enrollment in Kalamazoo public schools by 1,000 students this year. Previously, the district was losing 250 students a year.

Kalamazoo Mayor Hannah McKinney said the city's home prices have risen by 10%, compared with flat prices in surrounding areas.

Among those considering the free-tuition concept is the Greater Flint Education Exploratory Committee. But no major donor has stepped forward, said foundation president Kathi Horton.

"The thought that there could be tools from the state, or the state could be an active partner in achieving this, is very encouraging," Horton said.

The scholarship program would improve the economy and give hope to young people who have the ability -- but not the money -- to attend college, said Carol Goss, president of the Skillman Foundation.

But she said community leaders must step up.

"As a foundation, this isn't something we could do by ourselves," she said.

In the Detroit Public Schools, free college tuition could reverse a troubling trend. The district has lost 60,000 students in the last decade, and the Board of Education is considering a plan to close 52 school buildings.

"We would retain more students and probably attract more students to the district," board President Jimmy Womack said. He said it would encourage more students to not only complete their high school education, but to also pursue higher education.

Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, said the details would determine the support Granholm's plan gets from lawmakers.

Cassis chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which likely would have to approve the property-tax portion of Granholm's proposal.

Contact CHRIS CHRISTOFF at 517-372-8660 or christoff@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Promise renews city's hope for the future

Secret donation opens the door for students to go to college

February 2, 2007

BY LORI HIGGINS

FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

Originally published June 4, 2006.

KALAMAZOO -- Elizabeth Lauer knows too well the sacrifices her mother, a single parent and former migrant worker, made to raise three children.

They "made me want to work hard to have the things I want in life," said Elizabeth, 18, a senior at Kalamazoo's Phoenix High School.

Her mother, Virginia Mills, barely had managed to finance the education of her older brother, who graduated this spring from Michigan State University. College seemed out of reach for Elizabeth.

Then came news of the Kalamazoo Promise.

The anonymously funded scholarship has changed Elizabeth's life and the lives of thousands of other students with its promise of full or partial tuition for nearly every graduate of Kalamazoo Public Schools.

"Words can't express what we feel," said Elizabeth, tears welling up in her eyes. "This is like a miracle."

Mills cried as she talked about what the tuition guarantee will mean for her daughter.

"I keep telling her I don't want her to be like me -- not having an education," she said. "I'm so happy for the promise."

In a district where enrollment has been on a downward spiral -- losing on average 250 students a year -- officials project that as many as 450 new students will enroll this fall because of the scholarship.

Students say the promise has motivated them to get better grades.

And a city where a quarter of the 77,000 residents live in poverty now feels revitalized.

"We really were in a crisis before the promise," Kalamazoo Mayor Hannah McKinney said.

Fiscal problems remain, she said, but now there is hope.

That hope is heard through the voices of the teenagers who now realize that the promise has the power to change their lives.

Elizabeth will attend Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where she'll decide between a career in business or medicine. Eventually, she wants to transfer to her dream school, MSU.

Her only regret -- one echoed by many students -- is that the promise was not part of the landscape sooner.

"I would have worked harder," said Elizabeth, who attends an alternative high school for students who have trouble succeeding in a traditional classroom setting.

A rosier future

It's hard to imagine one scholarship fund having as much impact on a school district as the Kalamazoo Promise is expected to have.

Like most urban districts, Kalamazoo Public Schools has struggled financially and academically. Its MEAP scores are well below state averages. More than half the students -- 61 % -- receive free or reduced-price lunches, a common barometer of school poverty.

The district has cut $20 million from its budget over the last seven years.

But just months after the promise was announced last fall, administrators now are looking at a decidedly rosier financial picture.

The current enrollment of 10,200 is expected to grow by 450 students for the 2006-07 school year, with the increases coming from charter schools, private schools and new residents, Deputy Superintendent Gary Start said.

And instead of cutting its budget, the district actually is going to have more money this year. The boost in enrollment is likely to bring an additional $3.3 million -- $2.3 million of which would go toward hiring new teachers.

The remaining money might be used for efforts such as lowering class sizes.

"The promise is going to save Kalamazoo," Start said. "Many urban districts are in a downward spiral. If you lose students, you lose funding. This is changing the spiral to an upward spiral."

The promise rewards longevity in the district, so families who want to take advantage of it -- and get tuition paid in full -- will have to move within its boundaries and enroll their children by kindergarten.

As he talked about the program, Start could barely contain his excitement.

"I feel like I've had two careers: One was before the promise and one was after," he said.

But it's in the lives of individual students that the promise is making the biggest impact.

"I didn't know how I was going to pay for college," said Emily Midling, 17, a Loy Norrix High School senior who graduates June 8. "This just means so much to me. I just see it like changing my life."

Danielle Betke, an 18-year-old senior at Phoenix High, remembers being skeptical at first when she heard about the promise. It took weeks before the reality sunk in. No longer was community college her only option. Now, she's planning to attend WMU.

"It was crazy. My mom cried."

The donors "don't know what kind of impact they're having on KPS students. They are changing KPS students' lives forever," Danielle said.

Though Danielle doesn't know who the donors are, this is clear: "They must have a lot of faith in KPS students. Loy Norrix and Central don't have the best MEAP scores or send a lot of students to Harvard. They figure maybe this can make us more of what we want to be."

Families first, then businesses

The city itself may undergo a transformation, too.

"We've just been a city people move away from," said David Harris, 18, a senior at Loy Norrix High School. He's enrolled at WMU, after initially believing the most he'd be able to afford was a community college.

The promise, David said, will help the city grow and encourage people to stay.

Bob Jorth, executive assistant for the Kalamazoo Promise, the fund's sole employee, agrees that there's been a change.

"There's more community pride," he said. "The community understands this is an extraordinary gift and that the whole community needs to step forward and show that they appreciate it and they're going to utilize it in a way that honors the scope."

While there hasn't yet been a rash of people buying homes within the district's boundaries, it's only a matter of time, said Bob Rateike, a real estate agent with ERA Network Real Estate in Kalamazoo.

"Long-term, the Kalamazoo Promise is going to be a real benefit to the area and to the real estate market. If the schools improve their reputation, it will have a positive impact," Rateike said.

McKinney said there already are groups of people working to determine "how we can best leverage the Kalamazoo Promise to really help the whole area's economic and community development."

The city itself sure needs it.

In the 1990s, it lost a General Motors plant. Gone are several paper mills that helped fuel the economy.

"People have been leaving the core city, moving to the suburbs," McKinney said, citing the quality of the school district, high taxes and fear of crime. "What the promise has done for us is take one of those off the table. It's up to us to deal with the other two."

She expects the promise will eventually bring in more businesses and stabilize the neighborhoods.

"We're going to see families move first, and then businesses," McKinney said.

'Everyone should go to college'

In the office at Phoenix High School, a large clipboard containing dozens of applications for the Kalamazoo Promise is displayed prominently on a rack.

The school serves struggling students, and of the 48 seniors who are graduating, 10 already have earned the scholarship. Principal Von Washington Jr. expects more to be accepted.

University officials say that even though the promise is a guarantee of funding, students still have to meet admissions standards.

"They might try harder now because they know they can get to college," said Chris Crook, 17, a Phoenix graduating senior.

Senior Elizabeth Lauer used to ride by big office buildings and dream of one day becoming a chief executive officer. But it wasn't something she ever thought would happen.

Until now.

"Everyone should go to college, so we're not depending on welfare and food stamps," Elizabeth said. "With college, you're pretty much guaranteed a career. ... You just have to want it."

Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or higgins@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.