America's Promise Alliance

Detroit partnerships making tremendous progress towards high school graduation goals

3/11/2010

By Tanya Tucker

Detroit hosted the America’s Promise Alliance’s first official citywide dropout Prevention Summit in April 2008. Since that time, led by the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, Detroit has made tremendous progress in its post-summit goals and its commitment to collaboration as a key strategy to increase high school graduation rates and improve outcomes for young people. Detroit is one of 12 Featured Communities for America’s Promise Alliance, where  local partnerships are engaging leadership from corporate, philanthropic, government, community-based and education sectors, as well as youth and parents in the community.

United Way for Southeastern Michigan is managing and staffing the efforts of a collaboration of funding institutions, businesses and community organizations known collectively as the Greater Detroit Educational Venture Fund. Venture Fund collaborative members include Ford Motor Company Fund, Skillman Foundation, Communities In Schools, City Year Detroit and Detroit Parent Network. The Venture Fund was created with initial investments from United Way for Southeastern Michigan, the Skillman Foundation and AT&T as a result of the Dropout Prevention Summit.

The Venture Fund is working to improve graduation rates in Detroit and surrounding communities by realizing 80 percent graduation rates at the 30 high schools in Southeastern Michigan that currently graduate less than 60 percent of their students.

The Venture Fund provides incentives to schools to adopt the criteria and conditions that are consistent with those of successful school models and links schools with national intermediary partners to help develop and facilitate a turnaround plan. Eligible turnaround plans will be tailored to individual schools; however, key elements, such as site-based management and the division of large schools into multiple small schools, are consistent.

Progress as of February 2010

• Of the 30 eligible schools, 11 competed to be one of the first five schools selected.
• Three of the first five schools (two in Detroit and one in neighboring Warren) spent the 2008-09 school year planning for the launch of their new small schools and reopened with their new configurations in the fall of 2009. The remaining two schools in Pontiac and Melvindale are planning in 2009-2010 and will launch in the fall of 2010.
• The national intermediaries working with the first five schools are the Institute for Research and Reform in Education, the Institute for Student Achievement, International Center for Leadership in Education and Talent Development, Inc.
• The Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb, has committed to following the turnaround model currently being implemented at the two Detroit high schools at 15 additional public high schools in Detroit.
• In addition to working with Detroit Public Schools on two turnaround schools, United Way for Southeastern Michigan and the collaborative are also working  closely with the Detroit Mayor and Emergency Financial Manager to develop a citywide education strategy. In its early stages, the process is being guided by the Parthenon Group and Community Builders Institute and will result in the development of a vision for a citywide education system, the corresponding reforms necessary to achieve the vision and an implementation plan for these reforms including a stakeholder engagement strategy.
• United Way for Southeastern Michigan received a one-year grant totaling $125,000 from America’s Promise Alliance for personnel supporting coordination and convening of community collaborative efforts. With the funds United Way will hire two additional staff to support identification, coordination and ongoing engagement of the local collaboration of corporate, philanthropic, government, community and education sectors.
  

Next Steps

• The collaborative will hire a director and a manager of special projects to work specifically on the Venture Fund and related high school turnaround initiatives using the Alliance grant funds.
• While the past year has focused on launching the new operating models within the first five schools, in the coming year emphasis will be placed on coordinating efforts of current collaborative partners, as well as aligning additional partners to provide needed wraparound supports and address the barriers to high school success in the region.
• The group has just held the Turnaround Summit II on February 24, 2010 at two of the turnaround high schools to build greater awareness of the Greater Detroit Venture Fund goals and turnaround progress, and to engage the broader community in addressing the issues that face the turnaround schools.

To learn more about the Detroit Featured Community collaborative, contact Annette Grays, United Way of Southeastern Michigan, at Annette.Grays@uwsem.org .