Data is key in quest to transform Detroit's schools
The formation of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren — a broad spectrum of community stakeholders, including leaders from the education, business, philanthropic and faith-based sectors — is an unprecedented opportunity for genuine reform in Detroit's public schools and a chance to improve the lives of thousands of young people.
As representatives of so many perspectives, coalition members will have varied ideas about what needs to be done, but we want to urge the coalition to follow the evidence.
The good news is that we have more data today than ever before to tell us what works in transforming education in high-poverty schools and neighborhoods.
The data show, for example, that the schools facing the greatest educational challenges require an infusion of human resources and capacity-building efforts so that evidence-based innovations addressing both academic and non-academic needs of students can be implemented. These are schools in which nearly all students need not only engaging instruction from skilled teachers, but also additional support to help them attend school regularly, stay focused in class and complete assignments.
Reform must address the needs and structures of the whole school and the whole child; a piecemeal or either/or approach will not work.
Research also tells us that many high-poverty schools have been struggling and unsuccessfully reforming for years. In good part, this is because both students and adults have to function under high stress and conditions of scarcity — a situation, which, recent findings have shown, clouds judgment. It also leads to a loss of hope. Thus the human, as well as the technical, aspects of school reform need to be attended to.
The students, families, teachers and adults at the center of it have to feel listened to and be shown a clear and supported path to improvement that is attainable. At the same time, in some cases, a fresh team of adults in the school will be required, not because they will necessarily be more skilled, but because they bring a can-do spirit instead of being bound by years of despair.
The data also tell us that by the end of sixth grade, it is possible to identify about half of the students who are falling off the path to graduation, and as many as 75% can be identified by the end of ninth grade. The good news here is that early-warning indicator systems — already in place in several Detroit schools and hundreds of others across the country — allow educators to intervene effectively and provide these students with the support they need to get back on the path to graduation. This approach especially works when a high percentage of students live in poverty and when schools are struggling to generate higher levels of student achievement and academic growth.
Finally, data and experience indicate that comprehensive school reform, including improved classroom instruction, enhanced student support, and effective early-warning indicator and intervention systems, works best when supported by a broad spectrum of community and educational leaders. They not only help sustain the reforms over time, track progress and make mid-course adjustments, but also provide students with tangible pathways from high school graduation to adult success via internships, job training and post-secondary schooling linked to the local labor market. This has been the case in school districts around the country.
The Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren has a real chance to break the Keep this in mind in quest to reform Detroit's schools:
