School & District Management

Foundation Battles Severe Educational Challenges in Detroit

By Andrew L. Yarrow — September 29, 2010 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Fortune magazine wrote last month that “if Detroit schools have a last best friend, it’s Carol Goss.”

Ms. Goss, who heads Detroit’s Skillman Foundation, has taken on the Herculean—if not Sisyphean—task of spearheading a turnaround of one of America’s most desperately failing school systems. The city’s high schools currently have a dismal graduation rate of 60 percent and Detroit seems to sink deeper into a decades-long slump from loss of auto and other manufacturing, blight, and political troubles. As Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute has said: “The philanthropic view is that there is no basement to build on in Detroit.”

But Ms. Goss is committed to building that basement and to moving on to the upper floors as well. She stepped in when Michigan’s governor seized control of Detroit’s schools two years ago. Goss brought together teachers resisting change, politicians fighting over education policy, and parents seeking to keep alive failed programs. She used the very juicy carrot of $200 million in grants to get the warring parties to jointly commit to higher standards and taking more bold actions.

Her coalition, Excellent Schools Detroit, plans to open 40 new charter, public, and private schools by 2015, issue report cards for schools, and launch a recruiting drive for teachers and principals outside Detroit, with the goal of raising the graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020.

This dedicated drive by a deep-pocketed philanthropist may be just what the doctor ordered for this and other especially troubled school systems. Ms. Goss seems to show that philanthropists can not only offer money but also use their clout to pull together all stakeholders in support of a common goal. Will it work? One can only hope so.

A version of this news article first appeared in the K-12, Parents & the Public blog.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Q&A When This Principal Talks About Mental Health, People Listen. Here's Why
The NASSP Advocacy Champion of the year said he used stories from his school and community to speak with his state’s legislators.
6 min read
Chris Young, a principal from Vermont, poses for a photo in front of a Senate office building in Washington, D.C.
Chris Young, a principal from Vermont, stands in front of a Senate office building in Washington on March 13, 2024. Young was among the secondary principals to meet with legislators urging them to keep federal funding for schools stable.
Olina Banerji/Education Week
School & District Management Teacher Layoffs Are Mounting. How Districts Can Soften the Blow
Layoffs are coming in districts large and small. Here's how district leaders can handle them.
8 min read
Pencil Eraser Erasing Drawn Figure
AndreyPopov/iStock/Getty
School & District Management Opinion 5 Strategies to Combat Student Disengagement
When principals get serious about building a more inclusive school community, it doesn’t just benefit students, but teachers as well.
Michelle Singh
5 min read
Illustration of a bright vibrant school where students feel welcomed. In the background the sky is filled with enthusiastic raised hands.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
School & District Management Advocacy or Electioneering? Education Leaders Walk Fine Line in School Voucher Debate
Texas is cracking down on district leaders' allegedly political speech—in what others see as a pretext for quashing anti-voucher sentiment.
5 min read
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walks away after announcing Texas' lawsuit to challenge President Obama's transgender bathroom order during a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 25, 2016.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton walks away following a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 25, 2016. Paxton recently sued several Texas school districts for allegedly engaging in electioneering before the March 5 primaries.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP