How Do We Address Widespread Student Transience in Detroit?
Detroit Today hosts a robust community discussion about the “moving costs” for kids, families, and schools in Detroit.
One in every three children in Detroit ends the year in a different school than they started in. You don’t have to think long to imagine the interruption and chaos that ensues for students and teachers.
WDET’s partners in the Detroit Journalism Cooperative (DJC), Bridge Magazine and ChalkBeat, looked deeply into the effects of transience in Detroit’s public schools in a recent series or articles.
Parents who responded to a survey during the investigative work gave these reasons for moving their kids around:
“…academic struggles, issues with school discipline, and personal upheavals that forced them to find a new home. But, overwhelmingly, Detroit parents said they moved their children to new schools because they wanted better for their child — a safer school, a cleaner school, the kind of school where their children could thrive.”
WDET joined with DJC partners DPTV, Bridge, and ChalkBeat, for a community discussion about the issues with transience Detroit schools and families face in the education system, and looked at potential solutions, at the Detroit Public Library.
Click on the audio player above to hear the conversation at DPL.
Panelists include:
Dr. Nikolai Vitti, Superintendent, Detroit Public Schools Community District
Dr. Darienne Driver, President and CEO, United Way for Southeastern Michigan
Maria Montoya, student enrollment and engagement specialist with charter schools
Katherine Andrews, teacher, University Preparatory Academy
Alisanda Woods, Principal, Bethune Elementary-Middle School
Dawn Wilson-Clark, parent and advocate, 482 Forward
Ben Pogodzinski, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, Wayne State University
Chastity Pratt Dawsey, reporter, Bridge Magazine
Erin Einhorn, bureau chief, Chalkbeat Detroit
