Good Neighborhoods Grant Initiative 2006

Dr. Mary Gaskins "Reading Corner"

GOOD NEIGHBORHOODS

Park Initiative 2006

Building an Online Community / TENTPOLES of Origninating Intention

Submitted by: John Iras

Tips for Building an Online Community
By Susan Taylor
Nov 1, 2006
URL: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193401799

Attention school administrators: using technology to support virtual collaboration and establish an online community can serve as a useful tool to “keep the fire burning” among a planning group and help bring positive resolution to the task at hand.

The value of bringing the school community and various stakeholders together to address problems, find solutions and generally contribute to improving situations on the campus cannot be overstated. The most common way to bring people together is to host a face-to-face meeting. However, most issues are not resolved during a one-time meeting and follow up is usually required. In today’s world of competing priorities, it is difficult to find the space and time amenable to everyone’s schedule to allow for follow-up and ongoing conversations. To the rescue comes Virtual collaboration, and it can make a real difference.

Virtual Collaboration Tools

Virtual collaboration may be either Synchronous or Asynchronous. The difference: if it occurs during real-time activities like video teleconferencing or audio conference, where people are in different places participating at the same time, it is Synchronous; but if it enables participants to join in from different places at different times, then it is Asynchronous.

Some strategies to support virtual collaboration include the following:

Establish regular times for team interaction
Send agendas to participants beforehand
Designate a team librarian
Build and maintain a team archive
Use visual forms of communication where possible
Set formal rules for communication and/or technology use

Establishing an Online Community
To accommodate an online community, it is useful to think about the media being utilized and its effect on group dynamics. Kimball (1997, p. 3) provides some useful questions to help you with this process:

Media
Questions for Facilitator/Manager

Electronic Mail
What norms need to be established for things like: response time, whether or not Email can be forwarded to others?
What norms are important about who gets copied on Email messages and whether or not these are blind copies?
How does the style of Email messages influence how people feel about the team?

Decision Making Support Systems
How does the ability to contribute anonymous input affect the group?
How can you continue to test whether “consensus” as defined by computer processing of input is valid?

Audio (telephone) Conferencing
How can you help participants have a sense of who is “present?”
How can you sense when people have something to say so you can make sure that everyone has a chance to be heard?

Media
Questions for Facilitator/Manager

Video conferencing
How can you best manage the attention span of participants?
Where can video add something you can’t get with audio only?

Asynchronous Web-Conferencing
How do you deal with conflict when everyone is participating at different times?
What’s the virtual equivalent of eye contact?
What metaphors will help you help participants create the mental map they need to build a culture, which will support the team process?

Document Sharing
How can you balance the need to access and process large amounts of information with the goal of developing relationships and affective qualities like trust?

Building trust and establishing relationships is cited as a challenge for online communities, so begin with a face-to-face meeting and then pursue the online community. During your face-to-face meeting, let people know that you want to continue the conversations and ask people to join your online community by submitting their Email addresses to you.

To reach as many people as possible, keep things simple in the beginning. Initiate your online community with listserv messages. Begin by sending a message to your group thanking them for attending your recent meeting. One way to begin interaction is to post a question and ask people to respond.

Consider if you want responses to go out to everyone on the listserv or if you want all responses to come to you and you will compile the responses and send back to everyone. Compilation of responses may help ensure anonymity for your members and encourage participation in the beginning when the trust level may not be where it needs to be.

As your online community grows, it will be useful to host an audio conference or another face-to-face meeting to continue the work on building trust.

Remember to offer content and information focused on participants’ interests. Provide resources to help participants make informed decisions. Although information sharing does not encourage community interaction, it may serve to reinforce continue use of the online community.

Use opportunities to share success stories and reward or recognize members.

As your group becomes comfortable with the online community, you may want to consider providing more sophisticated methods to support and maintain your community. Of course, this will be determined by your members’ level of expertise and ability to meet the technology requirements.


Email: Susan Taylor


REFERENCES

Kimball, L. (1997). Intranet Decisions: Creating your organization’s internal network, Miles River Press.

SHARING CONFERENCE 10-18-2006 BARBOUR MAGNET MIDDLE SCHOOL

DIGITAL Communities Connect!

Government Technology

Digital Inclusion: Social Justice in a Communications Age

Sascha Meinrath

Sep 29, 2006

This is Part One of a 3-part series on Digital Inclusion perspectives from around the globe.

When do we recognize a shift in the fundamental social fabric of civilization? Where do we look to find better exemplars of participatory democracy? When do we realize that notions of justice have to expand to include a new ways of thinking about human rights? How do we change our institutions to support a more just and equitable world? These are the questions that thought leaders in the community and municipal wireless movement have been asking themselves more and more over the past few years.

An overarching theme that came up time and again during the interviews I conducted for this article is that we often think far too small when we talk about community networking. In a communications age, access to the resources, information, opportunities, and conversations that broadband services and community and municipal wireless networks facilitate is a vital element -- the foundation upon which the future of civil society rests.

The problem is to change the very nature of the municipal wireless debate -- incorporating a more liberatory language, more thoughtful actions, and the development and implementation of telecommunications infrastructures that directly improve the lives of users. At the heart of this debate is a tension between market economics and the "social contract" companies should be held to when providing critical resources to local communities. As Jim Baller, senior principal of the Baller Herbst Law Group, sums up, "digital inclusion is, or should be, a basic right of all Americans."

In citing the Declaration of Independence, Baller concludes that citizens have certain unalienable rights -- Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. "In the years and decades ahead, virtually everything that we do at work, in education, in public safety and homeland security, in medical care, in entertainment, in our communities, at the polls, etc., will depend increasingly on affordable access to advanced communications services and capabilities," states Baller. "No nation can lay claim to greatness without acting vigorously to ensure that none of its residents will be left out of the world."

What are the social and economic benefits of digital inclusion? Over the last few years, the importance of broadband services to communities has increased dramatically. Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, puts it this way, "it is now beyond dispute that information and communications technologies bring advantages in education, job-training, social networking, health-care, and overall quality of life." However, accessing this critical resource is only one component of digital inclusion. As Scott relates, "Having the 'ICT trifecta' -- access to the Internet, the equipment to use it, and the skills to exploit it -- may well be the difference for many families between upward social mobility and a declining standard of living. For children especially, having access to technology is not a luxury, it is a social necessity."

The United States was founded on the notion of ubiquitous, equitable communications infrastructures. In fact, post-Independence, almost three-quarters of all federal employees worked for the Post Office. And the Post Office was built in response to the discriminatory policies prevalent at the time in the Royal Post of Great Britain. When Alexis de Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America" in 1835, he praised the Postal Service and the newspapers and other information it conveyed as greatly responsible for the America's successes and the education of its populace. In discussing the Postal Service, de Tocqueville writes, "it is difficult to imagine the incredible rapidity with which thought circulates...It cannot be doubted that, in the United States, the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic."

Paralleling this analysis, Jim Snider, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, states, "Democracy requires well educated citizens. The Internet has become a necessary foundation for a well educated, economically productive citizenry for the 21st century."

John Atkinson, director of Wireless Ghana, concurs, positing that "communication and information give people hope and inspiration. You might say that communication access fosters social well-being, and that information access allows for economic potential." Dr. Arun Mehta, president of the Society for Telecommunications Empowerment, underscores the stakes for civil society, "you cannot have democratic processes that exclude a significant percentage of citizens."

The change in perspective that many wireless pioneers advocate is to look at digital inclusion as a vaccine that enhances civil society and protects against disruption. According to Harold Feld, Media Access Project's senior vice president, "leaving aside any considerations of social justice, creating permanently marginalized and technologically isolated pockets spread throughout our rural and urban areas is recipe for disaster. It imposes huge social and economic costs and creates a permanent underclass disconnected from the broader society."

And yet, leading broadband analyses support the notion that the United States has done a remarkably terrible job of connecting its citizenry over the past half-decade. Baller puts it thusly, "For the last six years, the Administration has defined America's best interests as synonymous with those of a handful of giant telephone and cable companies. During this period, trillions of dollars of investment capital have evaporated, America has plunged from 4th to 16th (some would say 19th) in global broadband penetration, and we have fallen increasingly behind the leading nations in access to high-bandwidth capacity and in cost per unit of bandwidth."

If we believe that civic participation is a central tenant of democratic society, then we need to think about Internet access as equally important. During the past half-decade, Matthew Rantanen, director of Southern California Tribal Technologies, has seen the impact of broadband services on Indian reservations he's worked with, "the people of this community have a better sense of control of their own destiny. They feel that by their own hand, they have taken control and have provided themselves with the opportunities that the majority of the rest of the country has access to."

Given the nature of broadband access, it is important to point out that the positive impacts of digital inclusion efforts do not accrue solely to those who are newly connected. As Mehta summarizes, "The value of a network goes up proportional to the square of its size." Like many "commons" (e.g., education, roads) everyone benefits as more people have access to the resource. Feld puts it this way, "The 'knowledge economy' really does benefit by having new people look at old problems in different ways or bring in wholly new considerations, ideas and tastes. In other words, digital inclusion is not about averting social catastrophe, or noblese oblige to the underprivileged, or charity. It is a calculated investment to promote our national self-interest, as sensible as any Silicon Valley VC investing in a start up."

With the class and knowledge divide growing in the United States, racism and xenophobia on the rise, and increasing concern about everything from the state of the Iraq war to woeful child poverty and healthcare coverage rates, why should we be concerning ourselves with municipal wireless? As Joshua Breitbart, principal at the Ethos Group, warns, "To the extent we digitize the public sphere, we exacerbate the racial and economic divides already prevalent in our society. It's the new Jim Crow. The Internet still offers the promise of a broader, more participatory democracy. Community wireless -- and not just civic projects, but networks with true community involvement and ownership -- is the vehicle for bringing people online and into the digitized public sphere."

Thus, when we talk about digital inclusion, it is important to think holistically about the potential impacts of this work. Michael Maranda, president of the Association for Community Networking has been forwarding what he calls "Digital Literacy, Access & Equity" for years. "Digital Inclusion is an aspect of social justice or equity," declares Maranda. "The Communications sector is both one of the most profitable and one of the most essential in the modern economy. The quality of the networks and infrastructure we have, along with the social and human capital investments in our communities, will define our quality of life and the direction our economies and societal structures will take."

This article is part of a three-part series on digital inclusion. Bellsouth declined comment for this series. Repeated e-mails and phone calls seeking comment were not returned by AT&T, Comcast, Earthlink, Insight, Qwest, and Verizon.

A Variation (and/or Validation) of OUR Theme!

Building the School of the Future

By Lindsay Oishi
URL: http://www.schoolcio.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192501205

Microsoft and the School District of Philadelphia have worked together for three years to create the School of the Future, an innovative model for incorporating technology into education that opens on September 7, 2006. Rob Stevens, the project’s architect for software solutions, and Mary Cullinane, group manager for Microsoft’s Partners in Learning program, spoke to School CIO about how IT leaders can learn from the School of the Future’s vision and approach.

Q. How much has the school cost so far?
A. The entire project is funded at $63 million, which is a traditional budget for the School District of Philadelphi. The money required toa operate a school is mostly spent on maintenance. But we’ve used LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification guidelines, so that the overall cost of maintenance will be less than the cost for schools that don’t follow these guidelines.

Q. What technologies are you providing students with?
A. Wherever these kids go, whenever there’s a learning opportunity, they have access to an infrastructure has been built to give them an appropriate environment. That means wireless throughout the school, experts from around the world coming in via streaming media, and infrastructure allowing them to communicate with teachers and parents. The collaborative environment will be very powerful. The other area that will be very powerful is the Virtual Teaching Assistant and Virtual Library. With these, we hope to foster a community of learning.

Q. Tell me more about the Virtual Teaching Assistant.
A. One of the principles of this school is to create an adaptive learning environment. When we went to school, every kid had to turn the page at the same time. With the Virtual Teaching Assistant, the class can have an individualized pace. As a teacher, you can put together a quiz, give it to your students, and immediately ascertain where your class is. The quiz comes up as a window on the students’ machines—they each have their own laptop computer. The results go back to the teacher right away, and if a student gets a certain pattern of questions wrong, the teacher can give them extra help in that area.

Q. How do you keep student data secure?
A. We’re relying entirely on credentialed access. Once you log into the operating system, we know who you are. You don’t have to remember multiple passwords. We have very secure passwords that allow, for example, parents to be identified only with their children, so parents will not be able to get information on another child. We’re not custodians of extremely sensitive information. But we do have the ability to protect it. It’s a well-bounded community of learners—people from the outside will have great difficulty getting information.

Q. Which technologies offer the highest return on investment?
A. First, the multimedia capabilities available through Windows Media services give students a wealth of resources that are visual and online. These are the most valuable in terms of the ultimate product, which is educational accomplishment. The Virtual Library, for example, is a repository for different types of digital media. It allows movies, documents, Web sites, and other content to be stored together. Second, we have automatic mechanisms for student enrollment. Whenever a student is added to the school, they automatically get a Windows account for school portals, e-mail, and a personal Web site. This translates into savings of time and administrative effort, which also reduces cost.

Q. How do school portals work?
A. The school has portals for students, the extended community, and faculty and staff. When you log in to your computer, you’re automatically logged in to your portal. If you’re a student, the portal knows what classes you have and shows you a picture of everyone in your classes. The extended community portals allow parents to be more familiar with their students’ teachers, and to find out what happened in the classroom. Faculty and staff can also use their private portal to communicate about students or even view pay stubs online.

Q. Do you have advice about making public-private partnerships work?
A. CIOs shouldn’t limit themselves to the most obvious asset a partner can bring to the table. When someone thinks about Microsoft, they think of software. But the School District of Philadelphia got to see how we hire people, motivate people, and create the culture of our organization. The other thing to remember is that money is great, but people are better. Individuals and their thinking are valuable resources. We’ve had over 45 people at Microsoft touch this project in various ways, and you can’t put a price tag on that.

Q. How can CIOs keep informed about the school?
A. Every step of the strategic planning has been documented on the Web site, for all schools that are interested in following a similar process. U.S. Partners in Learning will host quarterly briefings with schools across the country, and there is also an annual global forum where school leaders can get together and discuss the results of these innovations.

Lindsay Oishi is a graduate student in Learning Sciences and Technology Design at Stanford University.

© School CIO

Rigor, Relevance and Relationships ON HOLD?

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DETROIT SCHOOLS SHOWDOWN: Teachers on strike

BY CHASTITY PRATT and KIM NORRIS
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

August 28, 2006

Where the sides disagree

The school year for Detroit students is supposed to start Sept. 5, a week from Tuesday. Under Michigan law, a strike by teachers is illegal, but the union and the school district remain far apart on key contract proposals. Length of Contract Teachers want a three-year contract. The district is proposing two years. Wages Teachers seek 5% raises in each contract year. The district proposes a freeze on increases and a 5.5% pay cut across the board. Health care The district wants teachers to pay 10% or 20% of their health insurance premium, depending on their hiring date. Currently, teachers hired after 1992 pay 10%; those hired before then pay 0%. Co-payments for prescription drugs would increase from $3 to $10 on generic drugs and from $15 to $20 on brand-name medications. the district ALSO wants: To eliminate one preparation period per week from kindergartens through middle schools. To eliminate bonuses for critical-shortage hiring, attendance and longevity. To cut wages, sick days and health benefits for long-term substitutes. The teachers also want: A 25-minute shorter day in high school. Time off to go to a doctor for head lice or ringworm and not have the time charged to their sick-day account. Students who threaten or assault teachers to be transferred and the right to appeal readmission of a transferred student.

How districts compare

Here's a snapshot of pay and other conditions at a range of metro Detroit school districts. ARMADA Average elementary class size: The target class size for kindergarten to first grade is 20 students per class and 25 students for second to fifth grades. No. of teachers: 175 Top teacher pay: $68,031 Total reported crimes: 70 BIRMINGHAM Average elementary class size: 22 No. of teachers: 612 Top teacher pay: $82,131 Total reported crimes: 3 BLOOMFIELD HILLS Average elementary class size: Not available, though the district has a target of 22 students for kindergarten to second grade and 25 students for third to fifth grades. No. of teachers: 502 Top teacher pay : $83,721 Total reported crimes: 175 DETROIT Average elementary class size: About 30 No. of teachers: 7,000 Top teacher pay: $72,918 Total reported crimes: 5,574 FARMINGTON Average elementary class size: About 24 No. of teachers: 903 Top teacher pay: $83,417 Total reported crimes: 94 GROSSE POINTE Average elementary class size: About 24 No. of teachers: 585 Top teacher pay: $83,768 Total reported crimes: 77 MT. CLEMENS Average elementary class size: Target is 19 in kindergarten through third grade, and 25 per class in fourth to sixth grades. Number of teachers: 175 Top teacher pay: $69,430, based on the 2005-06 school year Total reported crimes: 84 PONTIAC Average elementary class size: Maximum is 28 for kindergarten to third-grade classes; 34 for fourth- and fifth-grade classes. No. of teachers: 513 Top teacher pay: $73,561 Total reported crimes: 157 SOUTHFIELD Average elementary class size: Maximum is 22 for kindergarten; 24 for first to third grades; 27 for fifth and sixth grades. No. of teachers: 700 Top teacher pay: District is still negotiating a contract. In 2005-06, it was $80,766. Total reported crimes: 23 Note: Total number of teachers still isn't locked in for many districts for the upcoming school year, as many are still hiring. Top pay refers to a top-of-the-scale teacher with a master's degree. Figures provided by school districts. Crime statistics come from the state Center for Educational Performance and Information and reflect reports from the 2004-05 school year for such offenses as robberies, bomb threats, physical violence, sexual assault, gang activity, vandalism and having weapons on school grounds.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers voted Sunday against a two-year contract proposal that included pay and benefit cuts and agreed to a strike that will put teachers on the picket lines in front of schools starting today.

Many teachers said they would accept a pay freeze, but considering the amount of crime in schools and bureaucratic mismanagement they say they put up with, they would not entertain the 5.5% pay cut the school district proposed. The union wants a three-year contract with 5% pay increases each year.

Ronald Duncan, a Cooley High School teacher, stood in support of a strike, clapping. One of his hands was in a cast he says is the result of an incident where a student body-slammed him, tearing the ligaments in his right arm.

"We make a big sacrifice. I can't tell you how much we spend buying supplies, and they want us to take a cut? It's not fair," he said. "In fact, I say it should be illegal."

The teachers were due back to work today, but the union and district are far apart. The two sides have a week to come to an agreement before school starts for the district's 129,000 students on Sept. 5.

Contract negotiations are to resume at 1 p.m. today.

The school district, fearing the strike, plans to petition for a court order today to force the teachers back to work and fine those who strike.

Superintendent William F. Coleman III said that if teachers do strike, parents should send their children as planned for the first day of school.

Administrators, support staff and security will be on hand to accept students, he said, adding that the district does not have enough administrators to replace the 7,000 teachers.

He maintained that the district needs $88 million in concessions from the union. "A strike does not change our financial situation," he said.

School board president Jimmy Womack criticized the union, saying the strike would hurt the city and hurt schools. Most Detroit teachers do not send their own children because 60% of the teachers do not live in the city.

"They need to take their concessions like everyone else. They need to participate in this revolution to try to bring this district back in line," Womack said, referring to the district's $105-million projected budget deficit.

"And from my perspective, they're clearly a part of the problem and not of the solution right now," he said of the union.

Of the estimated 6,000 DFT members who met at Cobo Arena for the vote, only a handful stood up in the auditorium to support the idea of returning to work while negotiators continued to craft a new contract.

Detroiter Tom Wilson, a teacher in the district since 1997, most recently at McMichael Technological Academy, was one of the few who wanted to return to work today.

"Parents have been hearing the 'S' word and are sending their kids to charter schools and out of the district. If I'm a working parent, I can't take a chance there won't be school to send my kids to," he said.

His concerns were echoed by some parents, who worried not only about their own children, but the long-term future of the Detroit Public Schools, too.

"I think it's going to devastate the district because people will leave," said Mia Parker, who has children in three Detroit schools.

Janna Garrison, president of the DFT, never uttered the word "strike," but made it clear to the union that laws prohibit a work stoppage.

"Just because it's a law, doesn't make it right," she added. "We believe we are fighting for what's right."

Under Michigan law, teachers could be fined a day's pay for each full or partial day they do not report to work. The union could be fined up to $5,000 a day.

By many accounts, Detroit teachers have it tough when compared with their suburban counterparts.

Most spend their days in crowded classrooms in school buildings that are an average of 65 years old and deteriorating. They are routinely victimized by car thieves and, last year, by armed robbers, too.

Add to that the public perception that the education they provide often does not measure up, and many teachers say it's a thankless work environment where even office equipment isn't available.

"I want to be able to make copies when I need them. That's embarrassing to have to put that in the contract," said Theresa Williams, who will teach second grade this year at Murphy Elementary/Middle School.

Kia Hagens, 31, of Detroit taught on-and-off in the district for about eight years between getting a master's degree and a law degree. She went to teach in Farmington Public Schools after DPS laid her off in 2005. Her pay jumped $7,000 and she has the potential to earn a top pay of $83,417 in Farmington compared with $72,918 in Detroit.

She still remembers the day when a mouse jumped out of her cupboard in her sixth-grade class at Golightly Education Center.

"In Detroit, they do not take care of business. You never know if you're going to be paid on time or not. And they do not treat their teachers well. I would tell any teacher on the fifth step or below, 'Run! You deserve better,' " she said, referring to the salary scale.

In addition to a pay cut, the district wants teachers to pay up to 20% of their health care benefits premiums.

A Kaiser Foundation survey found that nationally, the average worker with single coverage contributes $558 to his or her annual premium.

Not so with many teachers.

School employee benefits are better than the health benefit plans for 90% of other workers, said Adam Reese, senior consultant for HayGroup, a Virginia-based company that completed a study of school employee benefits for the Michigan Legislative Council last year.

"Teachers have traditionally been provided with fairly rich benefits to ensure that their focus is on delivering care and education to students, not worrying about, 'I can't afford to go to the dentist or the doctor,' " Reese said.

Shaton Berry said the current economy is not going to help the teachers gain support from the community when so many parents are losing their jobs. She has custody of two brothers in the district.

"I pay $120 a pay period for health insurance plus dental and vision, so I don't have any sympathy when you're talking about health care," she said. "In the end, the students are the ones being hurt here. And if students leave, teachers are going to lose their jobs."

Detroit's teachers on Sunday were not amenable to cutting their pay or benefits.

Steve Conn, a math teacher at Cass Technical High who is credited with instigating the vote that led to a strike in 1999, also riled up the crowd with an emotional speech Sunday, chanting, "No contract, no work!" after which DFT member Michelle Gibson asked Garrison to call for the vote.

Contact CHASTITY PRATT at 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Community Development Partner Succeeds!

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Once-failing Detroit school makes the grade

It also will have to improve next year to avoid sanctions

BY CHASTITY PRATT and LORI HIGGINS
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS

August 25, 2006

For years, Barbour Magnet Middle School on Detroit's east side was the catch-all building that took in busloads of students from overcrowded schools or those whose schools were closed for good.

It did not meet the federal guidelines for annual yearly progress and was considered failing by the government for six years.

Until June, the building was on schedule to be restructured under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The staff and students were preparing to be split up and sent to other schools, having been branded a bad school.

"I know that I put forth all the effort I could. I wanted for these children what I wanted for my own," said Randal Moody, the principal at Barbour for nearly 20 years.

But the staff learned something in June that became official Thursday -- for the first time in years, it had met its Annual Yearly Progress standards and no longer faces restructuring.

Moody said the secret to meeting the standards was in the planning.

He mandated that his teachers meet twice a week to go over state curriculum standards and expectations alongside the district's guidelines to make sure every class is on target. Students were signed up for after-school tutoring and enrolled in a two-week summer MEAP academy.

"Our focus was almost laser-like," Moody said.

Barbour is one of 92 schools in various phases of federal sanctions that made AYP for the first year. If these schools make AYP again next year, they will be removed from the sanctions list.

Some schools improved their status simply by getting more students to take the MEAP test, since federal law requires that schools test 95% of their students to meet the standards.

But in some cases, schools improved because they worked hard, said Sharif Shakrani, codirector of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University.

Many of these schools didn't meet the academic goals because too few of their subpopulations of students -- including minorities, low-income students, special education students and those with limited English speaking skills -- scored well enough on the MEAP.

"What they most likely have done is attempted to emphasize instruction to these populations, especially in the area of mathematics, which seems to be a problem for these schools," Shakrani said.

But these schools can't rest easy now that they've managed to meet standards this year.

Last year, none of the three high schools in Plymouth-Canton Community Schools met the standards because of low scores among special education students. This year, those three schools made it off the list. Most of the students took the MEAP, while some took an alternate exam designed for special education students.

"The students worked very, very hard throughout the year. Obviously, when it came to the testing, they tried their very best," said Mike Bender, director of secondary education.

"This is something we have to do," Moody said. "If we don't, based on No Child Left Behind, we're going to suffer the consequences."

Contact CHASTITY PRATT at 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Detroit Free Press / Letters to the Editors Speaks Volumes

Letters to the editor

FROM OUR READERS: Detroiters, clean up your city

May 12, 2006

I have to admit I am amazed that someone needs to be appointed to clean up Detroit ("Dear Mr. Penske: Clean this first. Readers weigh in: Every corner of Detroit could use some attention," May 10). I don't get to Detroit often, but when I do I am always amazed at the litter embedded in the chain-link fences, broken glass on sidewalks and other junk.

I am also amazed at the efforts to get people who don't live in Detroit to clean up the place. If you want to clean up Detroit, Detroiters need to clean their yards. To the many people who keep their homes immaculate, take a garbage bag to the nearest intersection, clean up the junk and put it out for pick-up.

You don't need Roger Penske, you don't need Dave Bing, and you don't need me to clean up Detroit. All you need is some elbow grease.

Randy St. Laurent
Lapeer

Get inmates to help out

We could have had Detroit cleaned up long ago if people on welfare and non-dangerous prisoners were used to clean the streets, remove graffiti, etc., as a way to pay back society.

We have a huge, untapped workforce receiving money for 26 weeks or three hots and a cot for the duration of their sentences, paid for by taxes. It's not too much to ask for a little elbow grease in return.

Pauline Costianes
Canton

Focus on the neighborhoods

What wonderful news to hear that millions will be spent on spiffying up Detroit's downtown. The sustainable value reaped from the millions spent on the Super Bowl fell short of expectations, so why not do more of what does not work? Entertainment and sports venues are important, but they should not be the primary consideration.

Until we put equal resources into more complex needs of the neighborhoods, it is futile to think we have any future as a city.

Mary Therese Lemanek
Allen Park

Change may be under way

In response to your article on cleaning up Detroit, I would like to compliment Roger Penske on his fine efforts and the work he has done in Detroit. His leadership with the Super Bowl should be praised not just for showing the world a cleaner Detroit, but also for starting a revolution. After seeing what Detroit could be like with a little bit of effort, more people are taking action to clean it up. Penske started what could be the transformation of Detroit from a trash-covered place, to a cleaner, safer and better city.

Nathan Yu
Troy

Penske is the man for the job

I read with great interest your May 9 article, "Super Bowl czar to help clean up Detroit," and must say I'm extremely glad to see that Roger Penske has chosen to stick his flag, his stake, right here in the city of Detroit. Penske did a remarkable job with putting together Super Bowl XL and cleaning up downtown Detroit. I have no doubt that downtown Detroit will look like a scintillating star with him at the helm.

Thomas A. Wilson Jr.
Detroit

Let's also have clean water, air

Just one word for Roger Penske's decision to put his energy and reputation behind keeping downtown Detroit clean: Bravo! His investment should be a catalyst not just for clean streets and sidewalks, but for healthier air and water to make downtown and its neighborhoods great places to live and work.

David Howell
Chairman
Friends of the Detroit River

Lana Pollack
President
Michigan Environmental Council

A waste of resources

As someone who has worked cleanups in the city before, I can tell you it is a waste of time, money and effort when you are confronted by residents sitting on their porches, saying it is about time someone cleaned up as you pick up trash at their lawn and curb. Residents need to care about their own property and city before anything will change.

Mark Levis
St. Clair

Take personal responsibility

While I am excited about Roger Penske's involvement with the city, I can't help but think of the cliché "putting perfume on a pig." Too many of my fellow residents are thoughtless pigs, constantly leaving their trash for others to clean up.

This conduct is condoned by others who step around the trash because "it's not mine." Until there is personal responsibility, Detroit will have more than its share of sties.

Lee W. Astrauckas
Detroit

KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL Pictures by John Iras

Keep On.........Keeping On!

Detroit

MOTOR CITY JOURNAL: Dear Mr. Penske: Clean this first

Readers weigh in: Every corner of Detroit could use some attention

May 10, 2006

BY BILL McGRAW
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

After learning that Super Bowl Superman Roger Penske's next assignment for Detroit is to marshal forces to keep downtown clean, the Rev. Donald Lutas had a thought.

Why not clean up the entire city?

"And keep it clean," Lutas, a Detroiter, wrote on the Free Press Web site, answering a request for readers' comments on urban cleanliness after Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick announced Penske's new role Monday.

Lutas, hardly the only reader who suggested that Penske work his magic beyond downtown, continued: "Go through any section of the city, and one is confronted with garbage, mess, dirt and more of the same. Clean up every corner of the city. Give us clean grocery stores, clean convenience stores, clean gas stations, clean strip malls, alleys and streets. Give us clean post offices and schools and police precincts."

Penske is the self-made billionaire nearly deified for masterminding Detroit's superb showing during Super Bowl XL. As some readers hinted, the decision to have him concentrate on keeping a chunk of downtown tidy is a curious one.

You don't have to be an urbanologist to see that the central business district is virtually litter-free compared to the rest of Detroit, especially since the Super Bowl helped spur a massive downtown makeover and an influx of new restaurants, bars, housing and retail.

As the new chairman of the civic group Downtown Detroit Partnership, Penske will have more on his plate than just garbage.

But tackling the debris problem across the vast city outside downtown is more in keeping with the talents of a man with his brains, ability and track record.

"Thank you, Roger, for your great leadership efforts. As soon as you get the downtown cleanup going, please move quickly to the neighborhood cleanup efforts," wrote Joey.

"Primping up downtown is nice, but Detroit's a city of real people, not just structures and commerce," e-mailed CEE.

In describing Penske's new gig, Kilpatrick said he would announce a second cleanup, aimed at neighborhoods, later this year. Industrialist and sports legend Dave Bing is expected to lead that effort. No details were available Tuesday.

Driving the west side Tuesday from 8 Mile to downtown, many neighborhoods appeared tidier than they had two months ago, but it wasn't hard to find significant piles of trash even on well-tended blocks: Clarita and Freeland; Ohio and Fenkell; Tuller and Ellsworth, and even on Leslie, not far from the home Kilpatrick occupied before he moved into the city-owned Manoogian Mansion after being elected mayor.

Kilpatrick has acknowledged illegal dumping is a major problem in Detroit, and he said it is not necessarily connected with his decision to end the city's bulk-trash pickups due to budget problems.

In his budget address to the City Council last month, Kilpatrick promised to mount an aggressive effort against dumping, and he has asked the council to approve the creation of 33 additional positions in the Department of Public Works to do nothing but clean up dumps. June 1 will mark the start of the city's most aggressive effort ever against code violations and dumping, he said.

Mayoral spokesman James Canning said Tuesday that city workers have cleaned up 905 illegal dumps since January.

Other readers, in e-mails and phone calls, urged leaders to fix Detroit's streetlights, do a better job illuminating buildings, demolish decayed structures and institute free parking after 5 p.m.

A couple of readers suggested the cleanup should start in the offices of elected officials in city hall. Others took their frustrations out on each other.

Then there was the message from an e-mailer known as "Unknown from GR." It advocated firing Lions general manager Matt Millen.

Contact BILL McGRAW at 313-223-4781 or journal@freepress.com.

VARIATIONS on a THEME or IMITATION is the Sincerest Form of Flattery!

Super Bowl czar to help clean up Detroit
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
May 9, 2006

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had a simple, happy message for Detroiters on Monday:
"Roger Penske is back!"

Confirming news reported in Monday's Free Press, Kilpatrick announced at a noon news conference in front of the "Spirit of Detroit" statue that businessman and auto-racing legend Penske will take on a major new downtown cleanup effort as the new chairman of the civic group Downtown Detroit Partnership.

With a budget of $1.2 million for the rest of this year and $1.5 million next year, Penske will oversee the effort to keep the downtown business district as clean as it was for Super Bowl XL.

"This is bigger than the Super Bowl, as far as I'm concerned, because this is sustaining value for this city and the future. So for me, it's an issue that I want to be sure I'm part of," Penske said.

The money, to be raised by private donations, will pay for daily patrols of uniformed workers to pick up litter, power-wash sidewalks, remove graffiti and posters and otherwise keep downtown looking clean. The area to be cleaned is bordered by Jefferson on the south, Beaubien on the east, Cass on the west and Adams on the north.

If there were any doubts about the need for a cleanup effort, a short walk along Woodward after Monday's news conference could dispel them. Sidewalks and the grassy median showed litter strewn about.

Penske said that Goodwill Industries, a nonprofit agency that lines up jobs for poor and disadvantaged people, would provide and supervise the workers. The cleanup effort, part of the mayor's Next Detroit series of initiatives, will start around June 1. Plans call for workers to clean from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and for shorter hours on weekends.

Kilpatrick was clearly pleased to have lined up the charismatic and popular Penske for the role. As chairman of the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee, Penske led a six-year effort that recruited thousands of volunteers to greet visitors during game week, that hosted the Motown Winter Blast and that partnered with the city in a massive downtown cleanup.

"He is the kind of guy that, if it's not being done right, he jumps right in and says, 'Let's just get it done. Let's do it,' " Kilpatrick said of Penske. "And we need that kind of aggressive, tenacious, positive attitude pushing a movement like this."

Penske, who will serve for an undetermined period in a volunteer capacity, said his new role follows from the Super Bowl effort.

"I think it's a natural transition for me to set new deadlines and achieve new successes for the city of Detroit," he said. "This is a continuation of the spirit and the execution and the movement that started with Super Bowl XL."
Evoking such fabled partnerships of the past -- including that of former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young and Henry Ford II -- Kilpatrick said Penske could have chosen anywhere to make his mark.

"Roger Penske -- a global competitor who does business all over the world, who can partner with any city on the planet, who can give of his service and himself and his resources anywhere -- has chosen to stick his flag, his stake, right here in the city of Detroit," Kilpatrick said.

As the downtown partnership's new chair, elected Monday by the partnership's board, Penske takes over from outgoing chair Matthew Cullen, a General Motors executive who will remain as vice chair.

Penske will also lead a revived effort to create a Business Improvement District, or BID. BIDs are districts dedicated to cleanup and marketing efforts, supported by a special tax on downtown property owners.

Many other cities have revived their downtowns using the BID model. Efforts to create a BID for downtown Detroit have failed because of political opposition. The new cleanup efforts are designed to bridge the gap between now and the time when a BID can win approvals from the City Council and property owners.

Kilpatrick said he would announce a second cleanup effort soon, aimed at neighborhoods. Industrialist and sports legend Dave Bing is expected to chair that effort.

Contact JOHN GALLAGHER at 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Detroit Free Press Article Sunday May 7, 2006

Spring cleaning starts in areas around Detroit
Litter, dumping sites get attention

BY CHASTITY PRATT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

May 7, 2006
Motor City Makeover

Enrico Carter and Rodney Curry pulled trash from a pile behind Liberty Liquor store on Detroit's east side that included mattresses, burned wood and had a barnyard stench.

After nearly an hour, the Detroit men had shoveled a path through the alley. "It might take two-and-a-half or three more hours to clean," Carter, 35, said.

The annual Motor City Makeover litter-removal effort kicked off Saturday on Detroit's southwest and near-east side while the Great American Cleanup swept through the east side to the south side.

For the first time, the city was divided into sections to be cleaned during the first three weekends in May. Last year, more than 60,000 volunteers participated, officials said.

More than 800 volunteers joined Carter and Curry as they took part in the Great American Cleanup, an annual, one-day national effort by an organization called Keep America Beautiful and organized locally by Keep It Moving Inc.

They mowed grass and piled trash into a bin. Some focused their efforts on cleaning up illegal dump sites. Carter and Curry especially wanted to clear the trash behind the store, whose owner donated supplies.

"We want people to take ownership," over their little area, said Sondra Yates of Columbus, Ohio, a representative for Keep America Beautiful.

Leslie Holsey, who works at Barbour Magnet Middle School and coordinates programs for students, said 115 students and volunteers with Keep It Moving picked up litter and planted flowers at the school. "The kids who helped do all of that, they're not going to let it get messed up," she said.

The cleanup is to continue May 13 for much of the east side and May 20 for the west side.

Individuals and groups can register to help by calling 313-224-4415 or by visiting www.ci.detroit.mi.us.

Individuals and community groups are required to register with the City of Detroit to get information on where to drop off bagged litter. There will be no curbside pickups.

Contact CHASTITY PRATT at 313-223-4537.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

PRIME TIME "KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL" CLEAN-UP EFFORT becomes NEWS at CHANNEL 7

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Gives "BIG THUMBS-UP" to Clean-up Effort!

WE are the MOTIVATORS!