Editorial: Off the mark on Detroit schools

[mwilbert]

Why are they allowed to shift him back to you? Why is that up to them? [[These are not rhetorical questions. Can you explain how it works?)

[DetroitTeacher]

His mother pulled him out prior to an expulsion hearing. His membership teacher [[for special ed) didn't send the paperwork for expulsion downtown by the date it had to be there [[since we thought he was gone of his own free will). Day treatment boots him out and back he comes. Since we are a public school we must take him. It was his mother's choice to re-enroll him and send him back to us. Even if he did go through the expulsion track, if no other school will take him they usually kick them back to us anyway. It's a no win for us and an all win for the troublemakers. He got expelled from Day Treatment [[which is basically a day-time juvenile detention facility with an education theme...it's the best way I can describe it). He goes back to court soon and I am hoping they ask for a school report. This kid needs to be locked up someplace before someone gets killed [[and I hate saying that about ANY kid...but in this case it's either he's going to kill someone or someone is going to kill him).

Why are they allowed to shift him back to you? Why is that up to them? [[These are not rhetorical questions. Can you explain how it works?)

[R8RBOB]

New article in the News. http://www.detnews.com/article/20110...-charter-firms

I would imagine the criteria for closing a school would be decreasing enrollment, population around said school leaving and condition of school building. That said, DPS believes that they will be able to flip the school as a charter. It is truly sad to see a school district that many like myself graduated from go down in flames.

[swingline]

English made some very accurate observations earlier in this thread about the futility of measuring the success of DPS [[or any other school district) based upon its attraction or retention of middle class white students. Racially diverse high-achieving classrooms are a good, desirable thing, but rarely occur due to both racist and non-racist factors. [[Two of these rare exceptions, though, may be found in Detroit at the only remaining private [[non-parochial) schools in the city: Friends School and Detroit Waldorf School.) Educators see this and know this. Achievement is the one thing that educators and parents can directly influence. Diversity levels are beyond their control.

[swingline]

A couple of days before the discussion in this thread, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA and its director, Gary Orfield, published a study regarding how segregation in the public school systems in southern California has created a blatantly separate and unequal education experience for blacks and latinos. http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/n...ern-california

Today, Prof. Orfield published a commentary on the Huffington Post that discussed his organization's study. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-o..._b_838731.html

A sad/wry smile from Detroiters might be excused upon observing Prof. Orfield's concern that one-third of black students in the LA region attend "intensely segregated" schools [[90% minority enrollment or higher). In SE Michigan, that number has to be at least double the one-third figure, maybe even higher.

Prof. Orfield asserts that efforts to equalize resources and then insist on improved achievement are usually doomed to failure due to the absence of peer groups of prepared and motivated students. He is probably right, He also recognizes that there are few tools available to promote racial and economic integration in public schools. Yet, he urges leaders to pursue this goal whenever possible because it is an effective tool for improving achievement for disadvantaged students.

[mwilbert]

I don't disagree with this, but it isn't going to begin to solve the problem, because the number of places where it is feasible is too small. People are going to have to figure out how to educate disadvantaged students without substantial racial or economic integration, or they aren't going to be educated anytime soon.

[Det_ard]

A couple of days before the discussion in this thread, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA and its director, Gary Orfield, published a study regarding how segregation in the public school systems in southern California has created a blatantly separate and unequal education experience for blacks and latinos. http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/n...ern-california

Today, Prof. Orfield published a commentary on the Huffington Post that discussed his organization's study. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-o..._b_838731.html

A sad/wry smile from Detroiters might be excused upon observing Prof. Orfield's concern that one-third of black students in the LA region attend "intensely segregated" schools [[90% minority enrollment or higher). In SE Michigan, that number has to be at least double the one-third figure, maybe even higher.

Prof. Orfield asserts that efforts to equalize resources and then insist on improved achievement are usually doomed to failure due to the absence of peer groups of prepared and motivated students. He is probably right, He also recognizes that there are few tools available to promote racial and economic integration in public schools. Yet, he urges leaders to pursue this goal whenever possible because it is an effective tool for improving achievement for disadvantaged students.

I'm left wondering what the effect is on the education of non-disadvantaged students who are used as peers. From personal experience with my children [["prepared and motivated students" IMO), there's a significant negative effect on the overall class if there's a non-trivial number of "unprepared and non-motivated" students.