Contents of this issue:
- Contractor says DPS owes almost $600,000
- State implements new graduation rate calculation
- GRPS University Prep Academy has more applications than seats
- Huron County teachers win DTE Energy grants
- Grosse Pointe school board to vote on adding Chinese classes
- Comment and win an iPod
- New issue of Michigan Education Report released
CONTRACTOR SAYS DPS OWES ALMOST $600,000
DETROIT — A company hired by the Detroit Public Schools to clear
the 33 schools it closed last year says the district owes it
almost $600,000, according to The Detroit News.
DPS Facilities Chief Nate Taylor has stated publicly that
Aramark Education failed to comply with the contract; however,
the company says it was locked out of the schools it was
supposed to clear and wasn't provided with boxes, according to
The News. Aramark also said DPS didn't pay vendors, which lead
to movers walking off the job at least twice at certain
locations, The News reported.
Aramark's Midwest technical director, Salvatore Filardi, wrote a
letter to DPS Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Allman stating the
district owed the company $595,559. Filardi attached documents
proving the company did its job, but had trouble working with
DPS. In November, Filardi sent a letter to the district's
contract administrator outlining problems the company faced in
clearing out buildings, including a lack of lists of items
needing to be transported to other schools. Aramark eventually
spoke with building principals, who then provided the
information, according to The News.
"Move managers and moving crews were regularly hampered by
limited or no access to school buildings," Filardi said,
according to The News. "The moving teams spent a significant
amount of unproductive time waiting to access entire buildings
and individual rooms."
SOURCE:
The Detroit News, "DPS botched move, firm says," March 7, 2008
https://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080307/SCHOOLS/
803070398/1026
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Legislators: Listen to
Detroit Parents," Feb. 5, 2007
https://www.mackinac.org/8205
STATE IMPLEMENTS NEW GRADUATION RATE CALCULATION
MUSKEGON, Mich. — Michigan public schools are making plans for
the implementation of a new formula to calculate high school
graduation rates, according to The Muskegon Chronicle.
The new computation is a requirement under the No Child Left
Behind Act and is expected to lower most schools' graduation
rates by an average of 10 percent. As opposed to counting the
number of high school seniors who graduate, schools will now
count the number of freshmen who graduate in four years. Officials agree that this is a better indication of the actual
dropout rate and will help better direct schools towards
programs that could help, The Chronicle reported.
"I think overall there's a shared belief that this methodology
of looking at the long-term will give us a more accurate picture
of what's happening in our high schools," Leslee Fritz,
spokeswoman for the state's Center for Educational Performance
and Information, told The Chronicle. "That will help us design
strategies to make sure every student who starts high school
finishes high school."
The new calculation was used with last year's graduating class
and the results will be made available this summer, close to or
concurrently with the release of school report cards. A school
with less than an 80 percent graduation rate will not make
Adequate Yearly Progress. Schools that repeatedly fail AYP can
receive certain sanctions under the NCLB, but only if the school
receives funds for having a large percentage of its student body
qualify for the free and reduced lunch program. However, other
schools will still have to battle public perception of the
quality of their schools, according to The Chronicle.
"We are expecting both the statewide rate and the graduation
rate for a number of districts will likely go down," Fritz told
The Chronicle. "It will appear publicly that schools are headed
in the wrong direction."
Many principals are concerned about the effect new graduation
requirements will have on the number of students who drop out of
high school.
"There's a concern all principals would have that the graduation
rate might have a down-spike early on because of these (course)
requirements," Reeths-Puffer High School Principal Dan Beckeman
told The Chronicle. "The schools are working hard to realign
their curriculum to meet the needs of their students. They all
come in with different intellectual abilities."
SOURCE:
The Muskegon Chronicle, "Formula aims to pinpoint dropout rate,"
March 6, 2008
http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/03/new_formula_aims_to_pinpoint_d.html
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Graduation Rates an
Imperfect Measure of School Excellence," Jan. 7, 2002
https://www.mackinac.org/3932
GRPS UNIVERSITY PREP ACADEMY HAS MORE APPLICATIONS THAN SEATS
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Public Schools received
almost 100 more applications for the new University Prep Academy
than available seats, according to The Grand Rapids Press.
The district received more than 220 applications for the 128
spots for the school. GRPS officials hope they will be able to
fill spots in other specialized academies, developed through
Superintendent Bernard Taylor's public-private partnership, The
Press reported.
"Clearly, these are people who are interested in some of our
theme schools, and now our job is to educate them about some of
the other programs around the district that they might be
attracted to," district spokesman John Helmholdt told The Press.
The school is backed by local business leaders and is modeled on
a school in Detroit that has a 95 percent graduation rate and
where 90 percent of students go on to college. University Prep
Academy will feature small class sizes, individual learning
plans and an emphasis on parental involvement. The school is
operated by GRPS, but because the school is a pilot program, it
can be flexible with the school calendar and hiring, according
to The Press.
The district is also accepting applications for its other new
theme school, the Ellington Academy of Arts and Technology, The
Press reported.
SOURCE:
The Grand Rapids Press, "University Prep Academy applications surpass school's available openings," March 6, 2008
http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/03/university_prep_academy_applic.html
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Dearborn: A Traditional Public School District Accepts the Charter School Challenge," in "The Impact of Limited School Choice on Public School Districts," July 24, 2000
https://www.mackinac.org/2977
HURON COUNTY TEACHERS WIN DTE ENERGY GRANTS
BAD AXE, Mich. — The DTE Energy Foundation has awarded eight
mini-grants to Huron County teachers to fund projects that help
promote and develop an interest in math, science and the
environment, according to The Huron Daily Tribune.
Huron County teachers received a total of $3,250 for class
projects. A small reception was held for the eight teachers at
the Huron County ISD building. Tim Kerry, production manager at
the DTE plant in Harbor Beach, attended the event and thanked
the winners for helping to guarantee an educated workforce, The
Daily Tribune reported.
"We established this (mini-grant) program and the year-old Math
Enrichment Grant Program to partner with educators like you to
promote math, science, energy and environmental studies that can
excite students," Kerry said, according to the Daily Tribune.
"Your work in fostering interest and excitement in math and
science is essential in ensuring we have the workforce we'll
need in the future."
The DTE Energy Foundation's mini-grant program was established
in 1990 and has awarded more than $750,000 to public and private
school teachers within the company's service area, The Daily
Tribune reported.
SOURCE:
The Huron Daily Tribune, "Huron County Teachers," March 6, 2008
http://www.michigansthumb.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19366053&BRD=2292&
PAG=461&dept_id=476228&rfi=6
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Schools take a second look at
nonprofit foundations as revenue sources," Aug. 15, 2007
https://www.mackinac.org/8829
GROSSE POINTE SCHOOL BOARD TO VOTE ON ADDING CHINESE CLASSES
GROSSE POINTE, Mich. — Grosse Pointe Public Schools is
considering following the trend of districts throughout metro
Detroit by proposing the addition of Chinese language classes to
the curriculum, according to the Detroit Free Press.
If it is approved at a board meeting at the end of March,
Mandarin Chinese classes will be available for middle and high
school students starting in the fall. The district has been
examining the possibility for some time, and after four months
of surveys and parent meetings, the feasibility committee
decided it would be a worth addition, the Free Press reported.
Chinese is "starting to crop up in a variety of places. And I
think in our world's economy, it's a viable language to be
offering," Normayne Day, a Grosse Pointe mother who served on
the feasibility committee, told the Free Press.
About 140 students have requested it for the fall. If it's
approved, there would probably be two classes at Grosse Pointe
South High School, one at Grosse Pointe North High School and
one each at two of the district's middle schools. The district
has already received resumes and applications for the teaching
position, and state universities are working to produce teachers
who are qualified to teach the Chinese courses sprouting up
throughout the state, according to the Free Press.
SOURCE:
Detroit Free Press, "Chinese classes just need the OK,"
March 2, 2008
https://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080302/NEWS02/803020569/1004/ news02
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Undereducated Today,
Outsourced Tomorrow," Nov. 16, 2004
https://www.mackinac.org/6886
COMMENT AND WIN AN IPOD
MIDLAND, Mich. — Go to
https://educationreport.org and post a comment for a chance to win one of three iPods.
NEW ISSUE OF MICHIGAN EDUCATION REPORT RELEASED
MIDLAND, Mich. — A number of intermediate school districts in
Michigan spend thousands to provide a vehicle or vehicle
allowance for top administrators, according to state-required
financial reports. Michigan Education Report lists those
districts and the dollar value of the personal use of the
vehicles in an article in the spring 2008 edition, now available
online at
www.educationreport.org.
The new edition also features articles about the lack of data
available to school districts trying to seek competitive bids
for health insurance, increased income and spending reported by
the Michigan Education Association, efforts to change special
education laws, and opposing viewpoints on the question of
linking students' standardized test scores to individual
teachers.
Michigan Education Report is published by the Mackinac Center
for Public Policy. Readers are invited to comment on articles in
this issue, and about Michigan education in general, at the
Report's forum site,
https://educationreport.org.
The names of all individuals posting comments will be entered in a summer
drawing for an iPod.
MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education
Report (
https://www.educationreport.org),
a quarterly newspaper published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy
(
https://www.mackinac.org),
a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute.
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