schools in dearborn, mi

[mdalbano]

When I grew up in Dearborn in the 50's and 60's, Dearborn Schools were rated top in the NATION, with Edsel Ford being right in the top 10. Today they're rated STATEWIDE based upon MEAP scores anywhere from 151st for Dearborn High to 350th for Fordson.

Despite these low scores Dearborn schools are spending over 8 million dollars completely renovativing their entire high school athletic fields which includes baseball, football and soccer fields, tennis courts and football fields. All three high schools will have astro turf on their football fields. A new school board member informed me this was voted upon before she got on the school board and it was because other schools were stating our sports fields were unsafe and didn't want to play on them. But if you took a look at the baseball fields, they are in far better condition today than they were in our day and they worked out just fine.

In the meantime, the school district has a 6 million deficit and the school board is talking about laying off some teachers and eliminating some middle school athletic programs. This shows you where our priorities are in Dearborn and tells you why our school system is in such bad shape.

[trinkit]

Originally Posted by mdalbano

When I grew up in Dearborn in the 50's and 60's, Dearborn Schools were rated top in the NATION, with Edsel Ford being right in the top 10. Today they're rated STATEWIDE based upon MEAP scores anywhere from 151st for Dearborn High to 350th for Fordson.

You could very well have been a classmate of mine. Class of '65, Edsel.

[mdalbano]

I graduated in 1969 from Edsel. Was a great school then, the highest rated in the city. My how times have changed. Let's how the new superintendent and new board members bring our wonderful schools back to where they belong, at the top.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by mdalbano

When I grew up in Dearborn in the 50's and 60's, Dearborn Schools were rated top in the NATION, with Edsel Ford being right in the top 10. Today they're rated STATEWIDE based upon MEAP scores anywhere from 151st for Dearborn High to 350th for Fordson.

Despite these low scores Dearborn schools are spending over 8 million dollars completely renovativing their entire high school athletic fields which includes baseball, football and soccer fields, tennis courts and football fields. All three high schools will have astro turf on their football fields. A new school board member informed me this was voted upon before she got on the school board and it was because other schools were stating our sports fields were unsafe and didn't want to play on them. But if you took a look at the baseball fields, they are in far better condition today than they were in our day and they worked out just fine.

In the meantime, the school district has a 6 million deficit and the school board is talking about laying off some teachers and eliminating some middle school athletic programs. This shows you where our priorities are in Dearborn and tells you why our school system is in such bad shape.

I totally agree. I just shake my head when I go by Edsel Ford with it's new astro turf football field. What a waste of money that would be better spent educating our kids.

This is why my kids no longer go to Dearborn schols. Summit may not have as much money as Dearborn but they don't spend what they have on astroturf.

It says a lot when parents like me would rather drive their kids 17 miles one way to a charter school with gas at $4.00+/gallon than send them to the school they can walk to. We moved here because of the reputation of the schools not realizing that it was an old reputation and no longer holds today. All that matters is the MEAP now and, apparently, astroturf.

[trinkit]

MEAP scores are THE biggest farce that Michigan's educational system has managed to come up with. It's a "carrot" that the administrators dangle in front of the students but, in fact, is a justification for the teachers.

[mdalbano]

Originally Posted by trinkit

MEAP scores are THE biggest farce that Michigan's educational system has managed to come up with. It's a "carrot" that the administrators dangle in front of the students but, in fact, is a justification for the teachers.

MEAP scores might be the biggest farce in Michigan's educational system, but Dearborn school board members I've been in touch with nonetheless feel that mainly Dearborn's high schools are terribly failing our children at educating them. That's from the horses mouth.

Hopefully our new superintendent and new school board member can fix that and the new super has stated that's his main goal. By the way, funny isn't it that the allegedly retiring super Artis all of a sudden doesn't want to spend time with his family in retirement now is hired by ACCESS.

[mdalbano]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

I pulled my kids from Dearborn schools because I was tired of paying Sylvan to plug the holes. Trust me. Snow elementary is not upper class by any means and I have to agree with Nearborn that they're teaching anything other than math, science or english.

Funny story. When I transferred my kids to a charter school three years ago, my youngest daughter runs up to me after school one day, all out of breath, and tells me "You have to talk to me teacher. She gave me the wrong spelling list. I don't know these words!!!!!". Imagine that, a list of spelling words you have to LEARN.

I will never forget the first spelling list my daughter got in 1st grade, at Snow. It actually had the words "A" and "I" on it. Talk about dummying down eduction and don't get me started on everyday mathematics. That's what sent us to Sylvan at $40/hr at the time. Every time I talked to the teacher because my daughter was not learning her math, I was told "We'll SPIRAL back to it and she'll get it next time". She got it when Sylvan taught it to her.

And science, my kids never saw a science fair project until they transferred to Summit. They never heard of the scientific method. Never did a science project. My kids do science fair every year now and at least a couple of projects that require designing an experiment and gathering data now and I LOVE Singapore math. Math that makes sense. Imagine that.

IvoryTickler makes many valid points. Sadly one of the biggest things that drew families to Dearborn was the high nationwide rankings of their schools. Up until I believe somewhere in the 80's Dearborn schools were ranked in the Top 10 nationwide and certainly were the best in the state.

Dearborn used to spend more than any other school district in the state, even than in the wealthiest Michigan cities and Dearborns spending per pupil is still pretty high, but the results are not high.

I have been informed by many that Dearborn schools have been seriously dumbed down, that many children come from poor families and that a large number of Dearborn students come from families that do not use English as a first language. This has resulted in enormous expense to the schools and some say special treatment of some groups of students over mainstream students. Either way it has resulted in very poor test scores and a very significant diminishing of the once high ranking school system.

This has resulted in many desirable working middle class families to move to other cities, much lower property values and a somewhat overall decline in the status of the city and schools. Add in the poor economy and the fact that Ford Motor Company pays approximately 1/4 of the taxes it once paid, it is a recipe for disaster.

Something needs to be done soon and we're hoping the new board members and new superintendent make some serious changes and progress soon, which some have indicated is their main goal. Time will tell.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by mdalbano

When I grew up in Dearborn in the 50's and 60's, Dearborn Schools were rated top in the NATION, with Edsel Ford being right in the top 10. Today they're rated STATEWIDE based upon MEAP scores anywhere from 151st for Dearborn High to 350th for Fordson.

Despite these low scores Dearborn schools are spending over 8 million dollars completely renovativing their entire high school athletic fields which includes baseball, football and soccer fields, tennis courts and football fields. All three high schools will have astro turf on their football fields. A new school board member informed me this was voted upon before she got on the school board and it was because other schools were stating our sports fields were unsafe and didn't want to play on them. But if you took a look at the baseball fields, they are in far better condition today than they were in our day and they worked out just fine.

In the meantime, the school district has a 6 million deficit and the school board is talking about laying off some teachers and eliminating some middle school athletic programs. This shows you where our priorities are in Dearborn and tells you why our school system is in such bad shape.

No, it shows how stupid our legislators are. Proposal A, years ago, created two pots that cannot be mixed. One for infrastruction and one for operating budget. Dearborn gets the money for things like the athletic fields from the local tax base but their operating budget from the state. They're not allowed to use the local money to hire more teachers. They can only spend it on buildings and improvements, so they do.

While I agree it's supid to spend money on astroturf when you're laying off teachers, it's the state that tells them where they can spend the money. Dearborn's operating budget is hurting because people are pulling their kids out of Dearborn schools but the infrastructure budget is based on homes in the area not students in the schools like the operating budget.

It's too bad they can't just dump the money they have from the local tax base into the operating budget pot. They could use to hang on to teachers more than they can use astroturf.

I think some operating budget money is still local but I don't think it's much. I beleive most of the operating budget money is the money that comes from the state. You know, the money that went with my kids when I pulled them from Dearborn schools.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by mdalbano

MEAP scores might be the biggest farce in Michigan's educational system, but Dearborn school board members I've been in touch with nonetheless feel that mainly Dearborn's high schools are terribly failing our children at educating them. That's from the horses mouth.

Hopefully our new superintendent and new school board member can fix that and the new super has stated that's his main goal. By the way, funny isn't it that the allegedly retiring super Artis all of a sudden doesn't want to spend time with his family in retirement now is hired by ACCESS.

I'm not sure two people can fix anything.

I agree on MEAP scores as they are used. I think they might have value if we tracked each student's improvement year over year vs. tracking % passing. Tracking % passing encourages schools to worry only about those students at the bottom. Hence the dummying down of education. You show much bigger gains if you focus on the bottom of the class so that's where the focus is.

I can't say as I blame schools. They know what side their bread is buttered on but that is not good enough for my kids which is why they no longer go to Dearborn schools and we will be moving as soon as we can to get them into a better district. While I'm happy with our charter school, the drive is getting tiresome and I miss being part of a local school and my kids having friends in their neighborhood. Not enough to send a child to the middle/high schools my kids would go to based on where we live though. Now THAT scares me.