Author: Hannah Dellinger

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.The coming school year will be an important one for addressing the transportation challenges that make it difficult for so many Detroit students to get to school.City officials on Friday announced a new ride share service pilot and a new initiative to help students feel safe on routes to school.The Detroit Public Schools Community District is expanding yellow school bus service to students at two more high schools with high rates of chronic absenteeism.Together, these efforts reflect city and school officials’…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.The Detroit school board will begin interviewing applicants as early as next week to fill a seat left open after the recent death of member Iris Taylor.Though the seat will be up for grabs in the Nov. 3 election, the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s board is required by state law to make an appointment within 30 days. If the deadline is not met, the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency’s board will be required to fill the seat.The DPSCD board voted…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s decision against the Detroit school district in its battle over collecting operating tax revenue.Unless appealed again, the ruling means the Detroit Public Schools Community District will have to rely on voter approval on a ballot measure that would allow the district to collect its own operating millage for the first time. Until now, Detroit Public Schools – which now exists only to take in tax revenue and pay off old debt…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.The Detroit teachers union voted to approve a tentative agreement with the school district that would give new bonuses to attendance agents, career and technical education teachers, and staff certified to teach English language learners, union officials confirmed Wednesday.Many of the Detroit Federation of Teachers’ bargaining priorities made it into the proposal, including higher wages for all members and additional workplace protections, a copy of the tentative agreement obtained by Chalkbeat shows. The contract covers the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years.“This…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.Dozens of Barack Obama Leadership Academy students chanted “Save our school!” in the rain Wednesday afternoon from the sidewalk in front of the Fisher Building in Detroit’s New Center.The kids traveled from their school on the east side of Detroit in two yellow buses. They picketed with signs that said, “Our school is more than a building – it’s our community,” “Protect our place to learn,” and “My opinion counts.” It was a last-ditch effort to convince the Detroit Public Schools…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.The Detroit Public Schools Community District has started planning for what it will do when it spends the last of the $94.4 million from its literacy lawsuit settlement. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, speaking at a board committee meeting last week, said once the one-time funds are gone, the district may have to make difficult choices about what programs to keep. The district has been spending about $30 million a year from settlement funds. The money will be gone by the end of…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.As the sound of fireworks boomed around Detroit neighborhoods to mark the end of Ramadan Thursday night, Humayra Ahmed stayed up late weighing a heavy decision.The 17-year-old had not yet decided if she would miss school at Cass Technical High School the next day to observe the sacred Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. If Ahmed didn’t go to school on Friday, she would not be eligible to receive a $100 perfect attendance incentive from the Detroit Public Schools Community District. She said…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.The Detroit school district is considering requiring students to apply for federal student aid for higher education in order to graduate.Doing so would open the Detroit Public Schools Community District up for state grants to pay for initiatives that help students get into college or work-study programs.The district’s proposal is intended to get more students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA. However, there would be several exemptions for students who don’t fill out…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.Despite the bitter cold Friday afternoon, hundreds of Detroit students walked out of class to protest recent federal immigration actions.Students poured out of Cass Technical High School before their last period of class began, chanting “immigrants are welcome here” and “no justice, no peace.” They marched around a loop in midtown with hand-painted signs to condemn the recent high-profile killings of two people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis. Some signs said: “There comes a time when silence is…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.Last year, the Detroit school district spent about $32 million from its literacy lawsuit settlement to hire more staff to support students learning to read, reduce class sizes in early grades, and pay for tutoring.Some of the investments are already paying off, said officials in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, or DPSCD. Students in classrooms with academic interventionists and kids who read with in-school tutors showed more improvement on average on the district’s literacy assessments than their peers, Superintendent Nikolai…