Plans put forward to save DPS academics

Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb will release an education plan devised to help the district improve ACT scores, dropout rate, and graduation and third-grade reading scores by 2015.

The Detroit Free Press lists the changes Bobb intends to make with $80 million in potential Race to the Top federal funds:

• Three math and reading standardized tests a year in addition to the MEAP.
  
• Pre-algebra in sixth grade, algebra by eighth grade.
  
• Requiring every high school student to take an advanced placement class.
  
• Creating learning villages in schools, allowing teachers constant opportunities for development and training.

The DPS school board has already passed a plan that includes:

• Individualized learning plans.
• A longer school day.
• Twice-yearly professional development for teachers.

The Free Press also ran a column by Bobb calling on officials to make the right decisions for kids:

This should not be about who is in charge or about any one leader of this school system, but about righting the great wrongs that this school system has inflicted on far too many of its children.

All these ideas seem like they could really help improve the situation. Bobb is right - leaders must focus on the good of the children while debating how best to implement them.

(image via Wikimedia Commons)