education22

DetroitDetroit nonprofit dayDevelopment

PODCAST: Detroit Nonprofit Day, Warren Wants To Create A Downtown, Detroit Councilman Sued & More

This is your Daily Detroit News Byte podcast for Saturday, March 31, 2018. -The suburb of Warren is trying to create a downtown -A Detroit councilman is being sued -Local furniture maker Floyd is opening up a retail shop in Eastern Market -The State of Michigan adds 21 more schools to their possible closure list. Three, all charters, are in Detroit. -The Michigan Science Center is hosting a week long spring break camp -I talk to Amanda Lewan about Detroit Nonprofit Day -And sinc...

DetroiteducationSide Jobs

Detroit Teachers Working Second Jobs May Have To Begin Disclosing Them To District

Teachers and staff in Detroit’s main school district could soon have to tell their supervisors if they are supplementing their salaries with a side job. The school board’s policy committee last week approved a new policy that says the district  “expects employees to disclose outside employment” and bars employees from working a second job while on any kind of leave. The policy, which will now go to the full school board for more review before the board makes a final decision, comes amid a wh...

Detroit schoolseducationMichigan

Dozens Of Detroit Schools Added To State's List For Low Test Scores, But Forced Closure Not A Threat For Now

More than two dozen struggling Detroit schools will likely be added to the state’s “partnership” program after posting years of rock-bottom test scores. That will bring to 50 the number of Detroit schools in the program, which requires schools to meet certain improvement targets or face consequences. Those consequences could include closure or a staff shake-up but, for now at least, decisions about the schools’ fates will rest with local school boards. State officials say they currently have...

DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICTeducationEducation in Detroit

Inside Nikolai Vitti’s Early Effort To Transform Detroit’s Battered Public Schools

Three months after taking on one of the most daunting tasks in American education, Nikolai Vitti was having a fit over pizza — $340,000 worth of pizza. Vitti, Detroit’s new school superintendent, had just discovered that the district had set aside that eye-popping sum of money last year to pay Domino’s Pizza for what he assumed were hundreds of thousands of slices for parties in schools. He was asked if he wanted to do the same for next year.   “Do you really think for a minute I’m goin...

Charter SchoolsDetroiteducation

PODCAST: Starting A Micro Charter School In Detroit With Drew Schantz Of Venture School

[smart_track_player url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/dailydetroithappyhour/DD-23-Happy_hour_Schantz_mixdown.mp3″ social_gplus=”false” social_linkedin=”true” social_email=”true” twitter_username=”TheDailyDetroit” ] Drew Schantz is the founder of Venture School, a nonprofit charter looking to get their doors open in the fall of next year. It’s concept is a “micro charter” so-called because there will be 35 students or so in each grade level. In the meantime, Schantz is running a series of pop-up...

Detroiteducation

A Tale Of Two Pre-Ks In Detroit Shows Gap Between Classrooms That Get Private Donations And Those That Don't

LaWanda Marshall and Candace Graham both teach pre-kindergarten at the Carver STEM Academy on Detroit’s west side. Both have colorful, toy-filled classrooms, computers for students to use and assistant teachers to help guide their four- and five-year olds as they learn and explore. But Marshall’s classroom has other things too — lots and lots of other things that regularly arrive like gifts from the pre-K gods. “The office calls and says you have a package, and we’re like ‘Yay!’ and the ki...

DetroitDetroit Public Schoolseducation

No Music, No Art, No Gym, Overcrowded Classrooms And Teacher Shortages: The Journey Of Detroit's New Superintendent Starts Here

Detroit schools have been buzzing these last two weeks with what feels like a fresh start. A new superintendent —  Nikolai Vitti — has landed in the city and started his job as the first new leader of what is officially a new district. He uses words like “transformation” and “vision” and “hope” to describe a future when Detroit schools will begin to address the intensive challenges that have contributed to some of the lowest test scores in the nation. He sees Detroit becoming “a mecca of imp...

DetroitDowntown Boxing Gymeducation

When Fighting Back Against Detroit's Poverty, You Need An Education To Survive

As Khali Sweeney travels to represent his beloved Downtown Boxing Gym, one thing always remains on his mind: That education is a keystone to moving Detroit forward. Actually, it’s the only thing Sweeney thinks about as he and Downtown Boxing Gym Executive Director Jessica Hauser move through the crowds on Mackinac Island. They’re here to listen to the conversations about Detroit schools, to meet new Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti and to spread the work about their non-profit boxing gym. If...

Detroiteducation

Looming Financial Threats Could Undermine ‘Fresh’ Start For New Detroit District, Says Report

The creation of a new school district last year gave Detroit schools a break from years of crippling debt, allowing the new district to report a healthy budget surplus going into its second year. It’s the first time since 2007 that the city’s main school district has ended the year with a surplus. But a report released this morning — just days after Superintendent Nikolai Vitti took over the district — warns of looming financial challenges that “could derail the ‘fresh’ financial start that...

Boat Nerddetroit riverfronteducation

New Shipping Container Kiosk On Riverfront To Teach Students About The Great Lakes

The Portal View is a shipping container repurposed to provide an education experience about the Great Lakes and the maritime industry’s past and future. It opens to the public on May 22 (that’s National Maritime Day) and is located right outside of the Port of Detroit, between Hart Plaza and the Renaissance Center. The container will be home to Great Lakes maritime artifacts, educational boards, and an interactive computer provided by Boat Nerd. “As an economic engine, the Port of Detroit...

DetroitDIYeducation

Motown Movement Aims To Build Education Center Focused On Affordable, Sustainable Housing

Do you remember the story of the Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the dike to stop the leak and saved the town? That’s what three Dutch architecture students are doing in Detroit. They hope to put their finger in the dike and help Detroiters cut their energy costs and save more houses that might still have life from demolition. Bob Hendrikx, Dominik Lukkes, and Ronen Dan just launched their nonprofit Motown Movement project, which aims to make blighted homes livable again by reducing energy...

ChalkbeateducationStorytelling

An Evening Of Stories: "School Days" With The Secret Society Of Twisted Storytellers & Chalkbeat

There is something special about listening to someone tell their story, and storytelling events have become pretty popular in the past few years. Every month The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers holds an evening of storytelling at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The next evening of storytelling is this Friday, March 17. The theme for the evening is “School Days.” The education news organization Chalkbeat reached out to Twisted Storytellers to put together an...

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...

ChalkbeatDetroiteducation

Podcast: A Deep Dive On Detroit's Schools With Erin Einhorn And Julie Topping Of Chalkbeat

“If they don’t fix the schools, the rest will be meaningless.” – Erin Einhorn [smart_track_player url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/dailydetroithappyhour/DD-5Happy-Hour-Chalkbeat_mixdown.mp3″ social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_email=”true” ] Subscribe to the Daily Detroit Happy Hour podcast for free on iTunes Detroit’s schools seem to be constantly in flux, and keeping up with it is a lot of work. Thankfully, Erin Einhorn and Julie Topping do that work for Chalk...

Betsy DeVoseducation

Worried Betsy DeVos Could ‘Destroy’ Public Education? Here’s What You Should Know

Ed. Note: With all the polarization out there on the internet, we thought we’d find a summary that highlights what could actually happen with the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, a wealthy Michigander who also has wielded her influence on education policy in Michigan as well as Detroit, as the new Secretary of Education. Thanks to Chalkbeat, who we regularly feature on our site, for this. Betsy DeVos earned more opposition than any of President Trump’s cabinet picks — and any nominee for education...

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...

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...

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...