The failure of high schools has taken a huge toll on our state. A recent Johns Hopkins University study revealed that 73 high schools in Michigan have graduated less than 60 percent of their freshmen class for three straight years.

The problem is serious and it's not just an "urban" issue. Only half of the schools identified as troubled are located in larger cities, including 22 in Detroit. Another 12 schools are in Detroit suburbs, and 40 others are scattered around the state in small towns, including districts with strong financial support.

Listen to the standard line and you would believe money is a central barrier to school transformation. The real issue is one of public will.

Changing public will

One D partners New Detroit, the Detroit Regional Chamber, and the United Way for Southeastern Michigan are working to change public will around the issue of dropout prevention. In April 2008 the group hosted its first Dropout Prevention Summit and Retreat, in partnership with the America’s Promise Alliance, Skillman Foundation and the Detroit Parent Network, to create a broad and deliberate response to the unacceptably high dropout rates at high schools around the region.

More than 300 people attended, including Turnaround Teams from each of the 35 high schools in Southeastern Michigan that had been identified as “dropout factories.” The teams were made up of parents, principals, union representatives, faculty members, students and school support staff, as well as corporate, community and faith-based partners. Interested business and foundation leaders were invited to the summit to explore opportunities to fund some of the better ideas that emerged.

Summit keynote speakers included Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Connie Calloway, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools, David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, Michigan Chapter, and Michael Flanagan, state superintendent of schools.

The first day of the summit featured school district and community leaders from Boston and New York who have successfully boosted student achievement and attendance in their high schools. The local school teams spent the second day of the summit developing their own turnaround solutions.

The Action Plan

Summit attendees are now working to solidify Turnaround Teams for each school. Turnaround Teams will be working throughout the summer of 2008 to develop funding strategies and secure national vendors to help execute Turnaround Plans for each of the region’s schools with unacceptably high dropout rates.

If you are interested in learning more about the work of the Turnaround Teams or becoming involved, please visit www.OneD.org for more information.

Pictures, PowerPoint presentations and podcasts from the Summit are posted on the Web site, along with information on how to sign up for weekly Turnaround Updates. A summit video will begin airing soon on Comcast channel 22 in Detroit.

Reflections: Dropout Summit exemplifies regional collaboration
By Leslie Murphy

I know we complain a great deal about the lack of regional focus and collaboration in addressing the challenges in transforming our region, but it’s time to celebrate some of our progress. As Michigan -- and more specifically, Southeastern Michigan -- competes for economic development opportunities, a prepared workforce is always mentioned as a necessary component.

As we review what has to take place to strengthen our employment opportunities, education, and talent attraction and retention always end up among the proposed solutions. At the same time, it will come as no surprise that one of the issues we struggle with both regionally and statewide is unacceptable graduation rates from our K-12 school systems, especially in our urban and economically challenged districts.

Through extensive community outreach and substantial resident input, our region identified educational preparedness as a significant priority. It is one of three focus areas of United Way for Southeastern Michigan's Agenda for Change, along with financial stability and basic needs. One D, the consortium of organizations dedicated to addressing the most pressing issues in our region, also established educational preparedness as one of its five major priorities and decided to tackle the issue during a two day Dropout Prevention Summit to explore solutions.

I am proud to say that United Way took the lead in organizing the conference, and partnered with our One D colleagues, New Detroit and the Detroit Regional Chamber, as well as the Skillman Foundation, the Detroit Parent Network and our hosts, Lawrence Technological University. The mission was to advance the turnaround effort in 35 high schools in the region that have a drop out rate of 40 percent or higher. Edsel Ford II, One D's lead champion, kicked off the conference, and other leaders participated during the event, including Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Mike Flanagan, the state Department of Education's superintendent of public instruction, Connie Calloway, general superintendent of Detroit Public Schools and David Hecker, president of AFT Michigan.

The conference convened several experts from across the country with experience in successfully working with districts to improve student achievement and graduation rates. The experts presented their ideas to approximately 150 officials from DPS, suburban school districts and students, as well as representatives from foundations, businesses and organized labor. The conference format allowed participants significant time to discuss the approaches that had been successful elsewhere and begin the planning for our region’s turnaround.

There was lots of discussion about the importance of early childhood development to success later in school, which is something the Women’s Initiative of United Way identified as a critical success factor -- and we chose to focus our energy on this area. No doubt, our work will be a part of the multi-faceted solution and will ultimately contribute to this effort's success.

The excitement and enthusiasm throughout the event was unbelievable, as over 300 interested parties began to imagine our success and envision our future progress. Even during session breaks, the hallways were buzzing as attendees chatted about ideas to help each student in our region succeed in school.

It’s a new day in Southeastern Michigan and high-time we approach issues of importance as a team. This will take hard work and long-term commitment. But with the type of collaborative leadership this conference showcased, I am betting on the success of the home team.

Leslie Murphy
President & CEO, Murphy Consulting
and Member, United Way Women's Initiative

Volunteer Spotlight
United Way honors outstanding volunteers
Related: Event photos

Six individuals and two groups were honored with awards during United Way’s annual Volunteer Recognition Program May 20. The awards recognize volunteers from organized labor, youth, young adults, groups and companies who have made a difference in southeast Michigan.

The winners are:

• Bernie Firestone Labor Award
  Theresa Hawley-Pace and Terry Harden of UAW Local 594, for creation of the Caring and Sharing Program, which collects bicycles for children in need to enjoy
• Exemplary Group Service Award
  Chrysler Women’s Forum, for its work helping children get their basic needs met and preparing them to succeed in school
• Heart of Gold Award
  Terry Grahl, for helping women in transitional housing facilities enjoy a better living environment
• Heart of Gold Award
  Bob York, for helping families get their basic needs met after a devastating house fire
• Outstanding Business Award
  UPS, for numerous services provided to St. Francis Family Center in Southfield
• Outstanding Youth Award
  Lauren King, for helping individuals and families prepare their tax returns, and claim important refunds and credits in the process
• Young Adult Award of Excellence
  Adam Harris, for volunteer leadership during United Way’s Alternative Spring Break projects in both Louisiana and southeast Michigan

For the first time, all nominees had to submit a short video, in which they discuss their volunteer service and explain why they should be considered for an award. The nominations were narrowed down to two semi-finalists in each category and then featured on United Way’s Web site. The community was invited to view the videos and to help select winners. During National Volunteer Week, more than 3,500 votes were cast.

Women's Initiative welcomes new members

Membership in United Way for Southeastern Michigan's Women's Initiative continues to grow thanks to the group's dedication to addressing issues affecting women, children and families across the region.

Three new members recently joined the group. We are pleased to welcome:

• Deborah Thompson - Miller Canfield
• Sharon Field Hoffman - Wayne State University
• Blaire Miller - Virchow Krause & Company

The latest additions to the Women's Initiative raise total membership to 46 -- a 50 percent increase over 2007, and three times larger than the group in 2006.  

The Women's Initiative is a Leadership Giving program, which means members contribute at least $1,000 annually to United Way. 

Kurt's Corner
Another look at dropouts

The issue of dropout prevention has moved to the forefront of the educational component of United Way for Southeastern Michigan's Agenda for Change. This is not a signal that we value early childhood education any less or that our grade-level reading initiative, Operation ABC has taken a back seat. In fact, graduation rates are clearly tied to the availability and quality of early childhood education opportunities and Operation ABC is alive and well as grade-level reading is a predictor of high school completion and post-secondary education success.

I have chosen not to get into the conflicting measures of graduation and dropout rates. Such discussions tend to end up as arguments around the actual number and the methodology used, thus avoiding an honest discussion of the real issue – we have a problem with children not completing high school. While we know that a high school degree is not all one needs to succeed in the new knowledge-based economy, it certainly opens possibilities that will never be there without the degree.

This column looks at several sources of data to provide additional context to the issue.

The first represents a different take on dropouts. The Census Bureau, in both their Decennial Census and the new American Community Survey, provides a special tabulation for 16-19 year olds. Combining answers to questions on current enrollment and educational attainment, they are able to describe their current educational situation.

Data from the 2006 American Community Survey provides a good news/bad news scenario. While the number and percent of 16-19 year olds not enrolled in school, and not having graduated, decreased between 2000 and 2006 across the region and in each county, the numbers remain much too high. While we would like to see the number reduced to zero, we know that will most likely not occur. Nevertheless, we can certainly lower the numbers in our region – 13,763 or 6.1 percent of all 16-19 year olds.

Table 1. Enrollment / Graduation Status of 16-19 Year Olds in Southeast Michigan, 2006

Several points are clearly made by the data in Table 1.

• While each of the four UWSEM regions has more than 2,000 youth in this situation, the share of total youth varies from a low of 3.6 percent in Oakland County to a high of 10.7 percent in Detroit.
• Current enrollment shows the same trend in reverse – the highest rate (90.2 percent) is in Oakland County, while the lowest (80.1%) is in Detroit.
• Non-completion rates are shown to differ by gender, though the pattern is not consistent. While Oakland County has similar male/female rates, the share of non-graduates in Macomb and Out-Wayne counties is higher for females. Detroit reverses this trend as 12.4 percent of males, and 8.9 percent of females, 16-19 years of age have not completed high school and are not enrolled.

These results drive home the need to invest in our urban school districts. We must assume that the vast majority of non-graduates in Detroit are African American, and Latino. The plight of the African-American male has been documented annually in the National Urban League’s State of Black America report. They are underrepresented in colleges and overrepresented in the judicial system. The same case may be made for Latino males. While we recognize many of the social and policy factors that drive these discrepancies, we also know that education is a significant factor in reducing them. Access to quality education – from pre-school through high school – is essential for success. We must invest in our poor, urban neighborhoods where disinvestment has led children to see little hope; where education is not seen as a path to success.

UWSEM, through its funding priorities in educational preparedness, seeks to solve complex social issues. There is no more complex an issue than that of changing the culture around education and seeing to it that every child in southeast Michigan has equal access to high quality education, and each neighborhood provides the parental and community supports to ensure success.

Take Action Now
Be smart with your stimulus check

Economic stimulus checks began hitting bank accounts this month and many families are deciding how to best use the added bump to their incomes. We’ve come up with 10 options for spending your rebate check.

The options that follow could help you and your family move closer to financial independence by getting rid of debt, paying for an education or meeting vital basic needs.

1. Pay down debt. Debt is one of the biggest obstacles to financial independence. Give serious consideration to paying down credit card or student loan debt. Americans have doubled their debt over the past decade to $2.5 trillion (this excludes mortgage-related debt). The sooner you eradicate your debt, the sooner you can build assets, which will put you on the road to financial stability.
2. Apply toward mortgage principal. Consider making an extra payment to your principal. Although the short-term benefit may seem small the impact over 30 years could result in noticeable mortgage interest savings.
3. Avoid fees and get your whole check. If you don’t have a bank account, avoid cashing your rebate check at check cashing outlets that aren’t affiliated with a financial institution because they will charge high fees that eat into your rebate. Wal-Mart is offering the opportunity to cash your check for free at their stores and no purchase is necessary. Once you do this, you should also consider our next option...
4. Get banked. More than 28 million Americans do not have a bank account and an additional 44.7 million are under-banked, hindering them from becoming financially stable. If you are one of millions without a bank account, consider starting a savings account with your rebate. If you have a bank account, consider directing some or all of your rebate toward beefing up your rainy day fund.
5. Start (or add to) your child’s college fund. Individuals who are college educated are likely to make $1 million more in their lifetime than those with only a high school diploma. Help your child attain a full education and be better prepared to succeed in life.
6. Build you retirement nest egg. If you plan to stop working at some point you need to put money away. The money you invest in your retirement today is going to carry you even further down the road when the interest in your investment grows. Consider a Roth IRA or other investment vehicle.
7. Further your education. Have you been thinking about finishing a degree or receiving training in a different career field? Use your rebate toward that goal and in turn you can increase your employability.
8. Support others in need. If you have all you need, consider helping others thrive by donating some of your rebate to United Way.
9. Update your home. A home is a person’s greatest financial asset, so it’s important to keep it in good condition. Many home improvement stores are offering discounts if you use your rebate check toward merchandise.
10. Take advantage of retail savings. Once you have carefully covered all of your savings, investing and charitable giving bases consider taking advantage of discounts retailers are currently offering to consumers in hopes of getting some of their stimulus cash. National and local retailers are offering discounts, gift cards and other incentives to get you to shop. Now may not be a bad time to take advantage of the extra buying power to get clothes for the children or an item you really need.