Giving Compass' Take:

• Mumford Academy High School is one of the Detroit schools that is participating in the Team Fellows Program, funded by the Detroit Children's Fund. The program will send advisors and coaches to the school to build improvement plans with lead educators and make sure they are executed properly. 

• How can the Team Fellows Program adapt this model to different institutions and teachers? Do you see this model being effective for sustainable changes in teaching?

• Learn more about the state of the Detroit public school systems and the audit of a failing curriculum. 

In early April, Mumford Academy High School principal, Nir Saar, was isolated from the usual rush and noise of his northwest Detroit school. He was instead in a small conference room beyond the main office, huddling with his top advisors and a team of education experts in hopes of solving a problem that some say imperils the ability of schools in Detroit to be truly successful.

The problem is this: Because so many schools in Detroit are struggling, and so many are turning out grads who are ill-equipped to succeed in college, many Detroit educators have never had the chance to work in a high-performing school.

Team Fellows Program, funded by the Detroit Children’s Fund, that kicked off earlier this year at the Mumford Academy and at two Detroit charter schools. The program brings advisors into Detroit schools to provide intensive coaching to principals, assistant principals, deans and other top administrators. The coaches work with school leaders together as a team to collectively create improvement plans, then work to implement them.

The coaches from a New York-based organization called the School Empowerment Network, which got its start helping to launch 121 new schools in New York City, first came to the Mumford Academy in January. They met with students and educators, grilling them about what was working and what needed to improve.

They then set some ambitious goals. Among them: making sure teachers are adopting an “instructional vision” that involves pushing students not just to learn information, but to think about and discuss what they’ve learned.

Read the full article about Detroit schools by Erin Einhorn at Chalkbeat