NNew Detroit is steadfast in the belief that all children deserve a quality education. Since our inception in 1967, New Detroit has always served in a leadership role to convene those parties in search of educational excellence. Our reach extends from grassroots communities to boardrooms, from students and caregivers to administrators and policy makers. First and foremost, the effort must be about the children.

Excellent Schools Detroit

Currently, New Detroit is a member of the Excellent Schools Detroit coalition that has developed a Citywide Education Plan to help ensure that all Detroit children receive the great education they deserve. More information about Excellent Schools Detroit is available here.

Importance of Statistics

Inconsistent statistics suggest that between one-fifth and one-half of Detroit Public School (DPS) students graduate from high school. Clearly improving high school graduation rates is a main focus for Detroit’s education community. And though the Michigan Educational Assessment Program test scores from 2009 showed a narrowing of the achievement gap between minority students and white students, a gap still remains. More statistics on educational achievement is available here.

New Detroit is Concerned

According to the national college admissions testing organization, ACT (American College Testing) students are deemed college ready when they score at least the benchmark score or 18 in all four focus areas, English, Math, Reading and Science. In the 2008 graduating class in Michigan, 17% of all students are ready, 20% of whites, 34% of Asians, 8% of Hispanics, 7% of Native Americans and 2% of African Americans.

The Silent Epidemic

There is a high school dropout epidemic in America. Each year, almost one third of all public high school students – and nearly one half of all blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans – fail to graduate from public high school with their class. Many of these students abandon school with less than two years to complete their high school education.

This tragic cycle has not substantially improved during the past few decades when education reform has been high on the public agenda. During this time, the public has been almost entirely unaware of the severity of the dropout problem due to inconsistent data that has no uniform methodology for measurement. The consequences are tragic.

During 2009, about 20,000 Michigan teenagers will join the ranks of dropouts. Across the United States, more than half a million children will drop out of school this year, according to some estimates. To put the crisis in perspective, high schools are losing more than 60 students per hour.