Erin Einhorn

Detroit schoolsPershing

Detroit's Schools Are Full Of Empty Classrooms. Can They Find A Way To Keep The Buildings Open?

When Pershing High School opened in 1930, it was designed to serve more than 2,200 students in what was then a fast-growing part of the city’s east side. Today, the school serves just 314 kids. That means Pershing is more than 85 percent empty. It’s a similar story at Southeastern High School, Davis Aerospace High School and scores of other schools across the city that now serve just a fraction of the students they were designed to educate. Some schools, like the Douglass Academy for Young...

Charter SchoolsClosingsDetroit

Three Detroit-Area Charter Schools To Close In June, But Not All Parents Know

At least three Detroit-area charter schools will close in June after years of low test scores, leaving hundreds of families to scramble for new schools — including some who haven’t yet been notified. The schools set to close include Woodward Academy, one of Detroit’s oldest and most established charter schools. It opened near downtown Detroit in 1996. Also closing are the Starr Detroit Academy, which is located just across the city line in Harper Woods but serves primarily Detroit children, an...

What Detroiters Say New Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti Should Tackle First

Nikolai Vitti, the Florida school leader selected this week to run Detroit schools faces many steep challenges. Among the most daunting: He’ll be working with people who wanted someone else to get the job. “Educators wanted Alycia Meriweather,” said Andrea Jackson, a college advisor at Osborn Collegiate Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology, an eastside high school. Meriweather has led the district as interim superintendent for over a year and had been the top choice of many distric...

Cass TechDetroit schoolsMichigan Schools

How Changes To Michigan’s Ranking System Hurt Schools Like Cass Tech, Help DeVos Family Charter School

Some of Detroit’s most celebrated selective schools saw their standings plunge on the state’s most recent school rankings. Renaissance High School was one of the highest ranked schools on Michigan’s 2014 Top to Bottom schools list, scoring in the 98th percentile, better than 98 percent of state schools. But when the state in January released its latest ranking, based on 2016 test scores, the school had dropped to the 48th percentile, putting it slightly below the state average. Cass Technica...

Michigan School Closures Are Off For Now, As Long As Districts Agree To Partner With The State To Improve

The 38 Michigan schools that were threatened with closure in January could now have a way to stay open. State superintendent Brian Whiston sent letters this week to eight school districts that have schools on the closure list inviting them to participate in a “partnership” to fix the schools instead of shutting them down.  “Once an agreement is reached,” the letter says, “The School Reform Office (SRO)  has agreed to delay any next level of accountability actions in order to give the Partner...

Detroiteducation

Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Spent On Improvements By Taxpayers And Nonprofits On Detroit Schools Are At Stake With Possible Closures

Parents, students and staff at the Fisher Upper Academy on Detroit’s east side gathered at the school last fall for an exciting announcement. The Ford Fund, the carmaker’s philanthropic arm, planned to spend $5 million on a new “resource and engagement center” inside the school. Parents were thrilled to learn that they and their neighbors would soon have access to services like job training and a food bank in the same building where their children go to school, said parent Kenya Tubbs, whose...

Detroit schoolsEnrollment

Here's How Poisonous Politics And Bad Timing Killed An Effort To Streamline School Enrollment In Detroit

A sophisticated new enrollment tool that was supposed to make signing up for school easier in Detroit won’t be of much use to the thousands of families whose children could be displaced by upcoming school closures. Despite the more than $700,000 and countless hours of planning that went into creating a single application for Detroit’s competing district and charter schools, the effort has been put on hold indefinitely — a victim of bad timing, poor planning, and a toxic political environment....

State Steers Detroit Parents To "Better" Schools That Don't Accept Detroit Children

Thousands of Detroit parents last month opened their mailboxes to find an alarming letter. “You are receiving this letter because the school your child attends is at risk of being closed by June 30, 2017 due to academic failure for many years,” the letter states. The letter, signed by State School Reform Officer Natasha Baker, went on to explain that children attending closed schools may be offered “the opportunity to attend a higher-performing school” and encouraged parents to use an attach...

DetroiteducationSchool Closings

25 Struggling Schools In Detroit Are Set To Close, But Nearby Options Aren't Much Better

Michigan education officials’ aggressive school closure plan faces a major challenge: It’s unlikely that most students displaced by closures will end up in substantially better schools. That’s because there are few schools in struggling cities like Detroit that have test scores significantly higher than the schools facing closure. The 38 schools — including 25 in Detroit — on the dreaded list have all spent at least three years in the bottom 5 percent on a state ranking that measures test sc...

Decision To Close Michigan Schools Are 'Without Input' From Districts, Educators Or Community Says EAA Chancellor

The news that state officials are moving to shutter as many as 38 Michigan schools triggered fear and fury from parents and educators. Concerns were especially heightened in Detroit where 25 schools were put on notice that they’ll have to close their doors in June unless the state decides that closure would pose an “unreasonable hardship” to students — or unless school leaders are able to block the closures in court. The state School Reform Office “is making uninformed decisions without cons...

DetroitDetroit Public SchoolsDetroit schools

25 Detroit Schools Could Be Shut Down In June, 38 Total In Michigan

The state of Michigan Friday put 38 struggling schools on notice. After years of rock-bottom test scores and disappointing results, the schools were informed that they’re in serious danger of having to shut their doors forever in June. “Because we want all kids to have a good life after high school, our office is responsible for taking action when schools have been chronically failing for several years,” state School Reform Officer Natasha Baker said in a statement. A statement from Baker’...

ALYCIA MERIWEATHERANGELIQUE PETERSON-MAYBERRYDetroit Public School District

Elected Board Takes Control Of A "New" Public School District In Detroit, But Old Challenges Remain

The era of democratically elected school boards running Detroit’s schools officially returned Wednesday night with the swearing in of the seven new board members chosen by voters in November. “I do solemnly swear,” the board members said as they raised their right hands for the oath. “That I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this state and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Member of the Board of Education of the Detroit Public...

educationMichigan SchoolsSchools

Anxious Michigan schools must wait until next year to learn their fate

Michigan schools waiting anxiously for word on whether they’ll be shut down next year will have to wait a little longer. State officials initially planned to release their annual state rankings, which will be used to decide which schools will be forced to close, by the end of this month. Now, they’re saying the rankings — and any closure decisions — won’t come until at least January. The delay means that schools at risk of closure won’t be getting bad news before the winter vacation. But it...

Charter SchoolsDetroit PrepDetroit schools

Detroit's first intentionally diverse charter school might not stay that way

It was four days into the two-week enrollment period for the new Detroit Prep charter school and Kyle Smitley was starting to worry. Smitley, the school’s co-founder, had opened Detroit Prep in September with grand ambitions of building the city’s first truly diverse charter school. She had embraced an idea that’s gained momentum across the country as educators have increasingly acknowledged that the nation’s segregated schools are hurting children and communities, and had managed to recruit...

Detroit School Board Endorsements

Detroit School Board Candidates: Who Has Landed The Most Endorsements?

While most of the anxiety you’re surely feeling today is appropriately directed at the presidential race, people who care about Detroit should also be paying attention to the city’s historic school board election. Voters on Tuesday will choose seven Detroiters to help shepherd our schools out of a difficult period that’s been defined by financial distress, academic turmoil and emergency management. “Most important will be to choose a majority that wants to look forward, to the day when full...

Campaign SpendingCandidates for Detroit School BoardChalkbeat

Most Campaigns For The New Detroit School Board Are Running On Shoestring Budgets

More than 60 candidates are running for seven seats on the new Detroit school board — and most are running their campaigns on a shoestring. A Chalkbeat review of state and county campaign finance records shows that just 15 candidates seeking seats on the crucial new board reported receiving campaign contributions as of Oct. 23, the most recent date for which numbers were available. That includes several candidates who dipped into their personal savings, spending thousands of their own dollar...

Central Michigan UniversityCharter SchoolsDetroit

Inside A Detroit Charter School On The Chopping Block That Says It's Worth A Second Look

On paper, the Michigan Technical Academy looks exactly like the kind of school state officials are planning to shut down. The charter school in northwest Detroit has posted test scores in the bottom 1 percent in the state in recent years, and fewer than 5 percent of fourth-graders passed last year’s state math exam. The scores mean the school could be shuttered under a new law designed to rescue students in long-struggling schools from a culture of failure. The school will find out its fate...

ChalkbeatDetroit schoolsEllen Degeneres

Spain Elementary, Once A Symbol Of Detroit's Troubles, Gets A Chance To Show Off

Three weeks into the school year at Spain Elementary-Middle School, the teachers are starting to get used to their new classes. Students are starting to get back into the swing of things. And now it’s time for something unexpected: A PR blitz. The school in Detroit’s midtown neighborhood last year became a symbol of everything that was wrong with Detroit Public Schools. Photos of its dangerously buckling gym floors ricocheted around the world when teachers throughout the district starte...