Detroit Public Schools is pleased to announce that 12 of its schools have been released from the State of Michigan’s 2012 Priority Cohort Schools Status List. This signals that the state’s School Reform/Redesign Office recognizes the hard work being done by each school’s leadership and teaching staff, and their focus on data-driven decisions which are positively impacting the outcome of student achievement. The District was notified in a letter from SRO Chief Natasha Baker earlier this month.

The 12 schools that have been acknowledged for their improvements are:

• Blackwell Institute
• Burton International Academy
• Carleton Elementary School
• Carver STEM Academy
• Dixon Educational Learning Academy
• Dossin Elementary-Middle School
• Mann Learning Community
• Neinas Elementary School
• Nichols Elementary-Middle School
• Noble Elementary-Middle School (TDS partner school)
• Wayne Elementary School
• Charles Wright Academy of Arts and Science

“Detroit Public Schools is working expeditiously to improve academic achievement at all of its schools, with a special emphasis being placed on its Priority Schools. We are focusing on improving daily instruction, providing more targeted professional development for teachers and increasing the effectiveness of our school leadership. There remains a great deal of work ahead of us, but we are committed to removing more of our schools from the State’s Priority List and dramatically increasing student achievement across the board. We’re setting higher expectations for ourselves and celebrating our successes along the way. Kudos to the staff and students for their continued hard work,” said Errick Greene, Special Assistant to the Emergency Manager.

Greene is also attributing these improvements to the school instructional and leadership teams and staff who are implementing the transformations necessary to gain these results.

The priority now becomes developing and submitting a School Improvement Plan that leads to at least 85 percent proficiency on the state assessment by the 2021-2022 school year.

(Originally published on Detroit Public Schools website, February 18, 2016)