Governor Snyder & Arne Duncan (Update: DPS, EAA and Ground Zero of Education Reform)

EDUCATION SECRETARY VISITS DETROIT SCHOOLS

Reform called encouraging

By Chastity Pratt Dawsey Detroit Free Press Education Writer

   Gov. Rick Snyder joined U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan Monday at Thirkell Elementary School and Brenda Scott Academy of Theater Arts in Detroit as part of three school tours highlighting local education reform and the importance of investing in preschool.

   Duncan, who in 2009 called Detroit Public Schools “ground zero” for education reform, said the statewide school reform district — the Education Achievement Authority — is “the right type of work.” But he stopped short of calling it a success.

   “It’s very early. This is their first year. Obviously long, long way to go, and there will be bumps in the road and hurdles,” he said. “I’m very, very encouraged.”

   Next year, Detroit Public Schools will add 25 preschool classes and will add early childhood programs for children who are three and younger, said Karen Ridgeway, the superintendent of academics for the district. Duncan and Snyder read a book entitled, “The Rainbow Fish” to Thirkell preschoolers before heading to their next stop on the tour.

   At Brenda Scott, the two officials were joined by Mike Flanagan, the state superintendent, and John Covington, chancellor for the EAA, for a town hall meeting with about 100 Detroit parents and staff.

   Scott is one of 15 Detroit schools now operated by the EAA, which has been at the center of controversy in recent weeks. The EAA was established in 2011 with Snyder’s support through an interlocal agreement between Detroit Public Schools and Eastern Michigan University. Its objective is to take control over and reform the lowest performing 5% of schools. It does not operate on traditional grade levels, but has an online curriculum that personalizes learning so students progress through school at their own pace.

   The EAA has experienced some budget shortfalls in its inaugural year operating schools, and used DPS as a conduit to borrow $12 million. The secretary of the board, mayoral candidate Mike Duggan, stepped down from the board on Friday after the loans were made public, saying he didn’t want the EAA to be drawn into the mayoral campaign.

   State Sen. Bert Johnson, a Democrat from Highland Park, gave Duncan a letter Monday asking him and President Barack Obama “to seriously consider the ramifications of giving the appearance of tacitly supporting this failed experiment,” a reference to the EAA.

   “What the Republicans are doing does not work, is not working and will not work,” Johnson said.

   During the town hall meeting, the panel encouraged local and state officials, along with communities, to stop fighting over politics and money.

   “There is one common enemy, that’s academic failure,” Duncan said. “All of us adults have to put aside our little petty differences or whatever and figure out how every single child in Detroit, in Michigan, and across the country has a chance to get a great education.”

   Parents who attended the meeting agreed.

   “We have too many chiefs. We need some more Indians,” said Shayla Summers, a parent at Beckham Academy.

   Roquesha O’Neal, whose son attends Osborn High, said the panelists engage in politics themselves.

   “They put on a good show today,” she said of the town hall meeting. “But they didn’t listen to the customers, let the parents and the young people speak.”

   The last scheduled stop on the tour was the Perry Child Development Center in Ypsilanti, where officials were to visit classrooms and lead a panel discussion with parents and education leaders on the advantages of expanding access to high-quality preschool programs.

   The HighScope Perry Preschool Study is a nationally renowned study that found that adults at age 40 who experienced preschool had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes, and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not attend preschool.

   Progress Michigan, a Lansing-based liberal advocacy group, sent a mascot in a skunk costume to Brenda Scott Academy and Perry to protest a group led by a Snyder appointee that had secretly studied the feasibility of a voucher-like system that would allow students to pay the costs of their schooling with a Michigan Education Card similar to the debit cards the state issues to pay welfare benefits.

   Snyder told reporters he never asked the group to launch the project nor to brainstorm on how to institute vouchers. The governor has since asked Flanagan to lead the group in brainstorming new uses for technology in the delivery of education.

   Contact Chastity Pratt Dawsey:

   313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com   or on

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U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan high fives fifth-grader Braxton Moss as he and Gov. Rick Snyder visit Detroit Public Schools’ Thirkell Elementary on Monday in Detroit. The visit was part of three school tours highlighting local education reform and preschool. PHOTOS BY MANDI WRIGHT/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Duncan works with Thomas Smith in his level 11-12 science class at the Brenda Scott Academy of Theater Arts in Detroit.