Educators should count on data

Staying ahead of the numbers can help schools save critical programs

Today I read this headline in the Detroit Free Press: “School districts study enrollment drops.” The article talked about how school officials in Southfield and Romulus have created committees to study their shrinking student populations and to consider the ramifications. Will they have to close schools? Eliminate programs? Re-purpose their buildings? How can they cut staff while still guaranteeing good student outcomes?  

If you focused only on daily news reports, you’d think that Detroit and other urban districts were the only ones losing students—and the valuable state grant that comes with each pupil. We here at the Detroit-Area Community Information System have done an analysis of public school student enrollment across 83 districts in the tri-county area. We know that districts like Detroit, Southfield and Romulus aren’t the only districts in trouble…and the trouble didn’t just sneak up on us.

While we can blame the current recession for some of this loss, the demographic changes started occurring long before 2001. Our population—particularly younger families—has been moving from our urban core to the suburban townships, while births have been dropping across the region since 1990. Detroit births dropped by nearly half between 1990 and 2007.  For many southeastern Oakland County communities, only about one in five households have school-aged children.

More recently, 46 districts experienced decreased enrollment since 2005. A total of 53,053 students have left public schools in the tri-county area (2/3 from Detroit) in the past three years.  There were actually 36 districts that gained population (one held constant), but they accounted for an increase of just 11,170 students. *

Charter schools were the winners in each county, adding 743 students in Macomb, 1,214 in Oakland and 7,618 in Wayne.  The net for our area is a loss of 32,308 students in the last three years!

It’s great that districts are now trying to be pro-active as they face serious declines in their student populations. But this is also a teachable moment for us statisticians. It’s time we made data more available to school officials, city planners and policy makers. It may feel like our public schools are now being hit by a tsunami, but it’s really a tidal wave that has been a decade in the making.

 

* Our data came from the Center for Educational Performance and Information

National Community Activist Has Hopes for Detroit

Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children's Zone

The second day (Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009) of the Promise Neighborhood Conference in New York opened by a welcome from the recently re-elected Mayor of New York – Michael Bloomberg.

The first panel of the day consisted of Otis Johnson Mayor of Savannah, GA; Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, NJ (and star of the Sundance Channel’s documentary, “Brick City”); Ron Sims, Deputy Secretary of HUD; and Adolfo Carrion, Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs.  Two of the panelists — Johnson and Sims–were there during the civil rights struggles; the other two, recognized that many battles remain to achieve equality of opportunity for all children.  I was inspired and overwhelmed by the knowledge that the White House brought both generations into its circle and allowed them to tell their stories.

Several messages came to me loud and clear in that session:

1.  Excellence does not exist in a vacuum.

2.  We tend to operate in a “State of SEDENTARY AGITATION.”

3.  We all know what the problems are, but yet we all continue working in different directions.

4.  We need to articulate a SHARED SET OF VALUES for our city and region.

5.  A Zip code should just be an address,  NOT a predictor of life outcomes.

6.  The only impediment we have is ourselves.

I was fortunate enough to join Geoffrey Canada (pictured), founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, on an elevator ride in the hotel.  After a “fawning” hello, I told him that I was sorry to have missed his presentation at the Independent Sector conference in Detroit last week – November 6.

He responded with, “I am rooting for Detroit.”  I assured him that WE ALL ARE!

The Hope of Promise Neighborhoods

A successful 3rd grade math class in the HCZ

About 1,400 individuals from around the country, representing community planning teams from well over 100 cities, have come to New York City this week to learn more about Promise Neighborhoods, a federal initiative based on the Harlem Children’s Zone.

The Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) is an anti-poverty program that has created amazing outcomes for children. The Promise Neighborhoods initiative has learned HCZ’s “secret weapon:” you’ve got to support children from the womb through college. President Obama is now calling on the formation of 20 Promise Neighborhoods. I traveled to New York to find out what this model could mean for Detroit.

Yesterday (Monday, Nov. 9) began with opening remarks from Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of Policy Link and Melody Barnes, director of President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council. Barnes described how departments are being aligned around urban and metropolitan agendas.

A series of four workshops surrounded inspirational talks by Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express, and Geoffrey Canada, the driving force behind the Harlem Children’s Zone. We finished the day with an after-dinner speech by a true American treasure – Marian Wright Edelman, CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund and an icon in the historical fight for civil rights and children’s rights.

While the day was inspiring, my take away was the drumbeat around data, accountability, measurement, outcomes, results, metrics, etc. That’s what D-ACIS is all about: How can we measure the effectiveness of good ideas?

My favorite quote of the day came from an HCZ Board member – “This is a bad place to be average!”

I’m looking forward to sharing with you what I learn today.

12 Questions with Kurt Metzger

Kurt Metzger, Director of the Detroit-Area Community Information System center

Kurt Metzger recently joined City Connect Detroit as the Director of the new Detroit Area Community Information System center, also known as D-ACIS.  Kurt has previously held posts with the United States Census Bureau where he served as Director, covering Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia; and a Senior Research Analyst and Director for Wayne State University’s Michigan Metropolitan Information Center.  More recently he was the Research Director for the United Way for Southeast Michigan.  Having spent the last 30+ years in metropolitan Detroit, Kurt is a well known and prominent figure on the data scene.

Q.  Is Detroit Area Community Information System the actual name of the new center?

A.  Detroit Area Community Information System is a working title.  We will probably come up with a name that is a little catchier, with a better acronym so that people will have a better idea of what we are trying to do.  But for right now the center is called D-ACIS.

 

Q.  Can you explain the purpose of the new D-ACIS Center?

A.  D-ACIS is a comprehensive regional data collection, analysis and delivery system that will address a broad variety of issues and conditions facing Detroit and the region.  By having more comprehensive, neighborhood focused data and information, we in the region are in a better position to receive more federal, state and other funding to address vital issues and conditions and improve the quality of life for people in the entire metropolitan Detroit area.

 

Q.  How will D-ACIS be funded?

A.  The Skillman Foundation and Kresge Foundation awarded a three-year, $1.85 million grant to City Connect Detroit who is serving as an incubator and fiduciary to D-ACIS.  The new data Center is temporarily housed at City Connect Detroit’s downtown office.  After the 3 years, we expect to have some foundation funding; but the idea is for D-ACIS to become its own 501(c)3.  We want to develop the capacity to do analysis and research projects to actually start to bring money in and become self sustaining.

 

Q.  How and why did CCD become involved in the creation of D-ACIS?

A.  Several years ago, City Connect Detroit created a project called the Detroit Data Partnership (DDP) that maintains data-sharing agreements with numerous organizations.  DDP was funded by the Skillman and Kresge Foundations.  Based on the success of DDP, City Connect Detroit wrote and was awarded a grant by the Skillman and Kresge Foundations for the creation of D-ACIS.  Because of City Connect Detroit’s track record and expertise, the foundation community believed the organization would be the perfect place to incubate D-ACIS.

 

Q.  What is the overall mission of City Connect Detroit?

A.  Under the leadership of Dr. Geneva J. Williams, founder, president and CEO of City Connect Detroit, the organization’s mission is to create and facilitate cross-sector collaborations to aid metropolitan Detroit nonprofits, governmental agencies, businesses and others in obtaining national, state and local funding.

 

Q.  What neighborhood focused issues will D-ACIS address?

A.  The neighborhood focused issues will be detailed down to the parcel level, and will include, parks, recreation and green space; abandoned buildings, vacant land, blight and dumping; retail and services attractions; job availability; poverty; educational opportunities; crime and safety; and health and medical issues.  We’re looking at components and sustainability in healthy neighborhoods and ways to make sure those components are in every neighborhood in Detroit and the region. 

 

Q.  What excites you about D-ACIS?

A.  I have always believed in the power of collecting, sharing and presenting accurate and timely data and information to stakeholders who serve as catalysts to facilitate successful outcomes.  So, I’m excited to see the creation of D-ACIS because it will address a broad variety of issues facing Detroit and the region and perhaps break down a few of our geographic and racial barriers.

 

Q.  What are some of the benefits of such a center?

A.  In addition to having a region that shares vital information that will benefit all, D-ACIS will seek membership in the Urban Institute’s National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), which is comprised of 31 urban information and data centers throughout the nation.  Once we become a member, the center will be in line to compete for national foundation designated funding opportunities available to members only.  This will really put Detroit and the region on the map, so to speak, as far as developing a culture of data sharing for positive change.

 

Q.  If there are 31 urban information and data centers across the United States, are there models that are more attune to what’s going on in Detroit and the region?

A.  We have looked at several centers, but feel that Metro Chicago Information Center and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland are great examples.  Case Western’s New Cando is really an excellent model for us.

 

Q.  What is the biggest challenge that the D-ACIS center faces?

A. The biggest challenge is just getting people and organizations to share information.  People and organizations have the tendency to keep information close to the vest because  they often worry that information shared will be used in negative ways.  So we have to convince people that there are no agendas but to improve the quality of life for residents of Detroit.  And as I said earlier, it’s important that we break down a few of our geographic and racial barriers.  We, as a region, must figure out how to work together – city and suburbs – because this region can’t succeed unless the city of Detroit succeeds.

 

Q. When will the center be fully operational?

A. I’m projecting that the center will be fully operational in the Spring, 2009.

 

Q. What is your ultimate goal for D-ACIS?

A.  My ultimate goal is for D-ACIS to be a one-stop center, a central clearinghouse, where accurate and complete data and information can be accessed that ultimately moves this region forward.  This is an outstanding opportunity for Detroit and the region.  It’s an opportunity to show that the Detroit region can develop a culture of data sharing, which will allow us to tackle the “data silos” in which we tend to operate.

 

This interview was conducted by Donald James of Master Media.