Feature: The Broad Partnership Excites MSU Educators

An exciting new thrust funded by Eli Broad will focus MSU resources on Detroit Public Schools, hopefully strengthening both.

            As a child in Detroit in the late 1940s and early ’50s, Eli Broad recalls, dropouts were rare.  He attended Detroit Public Schools where, he says, he worked hard on the basics and was exposed to a college-prep curriculum that prepared him for college and for life.

            Later, while at MSU, he discovered an environment where relentless intellectual curiosity was valued and embraced.

            “Almost everything I am today, I owe to Detroit’s public schools and Michigan State University,” he says.

            What Broad is is a great success. After graduation from MSU in 1954, he went on to build two Fortune 500 companies: KB Homes (formerly Kaufman and Broad Home Corp.) and SunAmerica, Inc., a leading financial service company.

            The businessman’s accomplishments also include establishing the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation, an entrepreneurial grant-making organization whose mission is to dramatically improve K-12 urban public education through better governance, management and labor relations.

            In November, Broad announced a $6 million pledge to fund a partnership between MSU and the Detroit Public Schools to recruit and train a new generation of urban teachers.

            “I am honored to announce a new initiative that will link the two institutions that did so much for me—the Detroit Public Schools and Michigan State—in an effort to create opportunities for Detroit’s students to transform their lives, their schools and their hometowns,” Broad said in announcing the new program at the Detroit Economic Club.

            “I want today’s best and brightest Detroit students to become tomorrow’s best and brightest Detroit teachers.”

            The project is designed for DPS students who want to pursue a career in teaching. Students in the project will receive financial support, and after completing the five-year teacher preparation program at the MSU College of Education, will return to teach at the state’s largest school district.

            The scholarship is a loan-forgiveness opportunity that provides financial support to cover the full cost of attending MSU, including tuition, fees and room and board. The loan portion of the financial package is forgiven at a rate of 25 percent for each year of service in the Detroit Public Schools.

            In addition to current DPS students, graduates of the school district already at MSU, and those who transfer from junior colleges, will be eligible to be a part of the project. As many as 150 scholarships will be awarded.

            MSU freshman Krystle Hunter has submitted her application and says she’s eagerly awaiting an acceptance letter.

            A graduate of Mumford High School in Detroit, Hunter says she has always wanted to give back to the city and looks forward to serving as a role model to her future pupils.

            “I am a testimony that good things come out of Detroit,” she says. “I want to let others know there are bright, shinning stars in Detroit.”

            She’s also excited at the prospect of meeting veteran teachers through the program who can show her the ropes.

            “I want to connect with mentors who can teach me what they did in the past, and how I can bring it to the new generation,” she says.

            DPS students are extremely excited about the significant financial support the program offers because they are aware how well regarded MSU’s College of Education is, says Sonya Gunnings-Moton, who oversees the Broad Partnership program at MSU.

            “It reduces the financial barriers for attaining college preparation,” Gunnings-Moton says. “It provides the students with a high-quality education and teacher preparation, and it increases the presence of highly trained teachers in Detroit Public Schools. We consider this a win-win situation for all involved.”

            Already, students are lining up to apply, says Linda Spight, principal at Mumford High School in Detroit.

            “People want to go to college and sometimes don’t have the funds to do that,” Spight says. “Also, this program provides stability since students can expect to have a job after they graduate.”

            Another attraction is the support program participants will get after they are already in the classroom, she added. That includes retention efforts involving faculty and peer mentoring, professional development opportunities, and academic enrichment and support.

            DSP officials have said there are between 400 and 500 teacher vacancies in a district with about 151,000 students. Nationally, some two million new teachers will be needed in U.S. schools over the next 10 years, according to the National Education Association.

            The expected teacher shortage won’t be easy to solve, as it comes at a time when federal guidelines call for higher expectations of teacher quality, NEA officials say. Plus, in urban districts, close to 50 percent of new teachers leave the classroom within their first five years.

            To encourage students to consider a career in front of the classroom, the Broad Partnership also includes a three-week, on-campus summer program for as many as 750 DPS sophomores and juniors. The experience is designed to expose them to the university and teaching.

            The summer program for DPS students could capture the attention of and inspire students at a time when some may be considering dropping out, says Caesar Mickens, executive director in charge of training and staff development at the DPS.

            “Many of our students have not had the college experience,” he says. “This three-week program gives them an opportunity to see what it’s like to be on a college campus, stay in a dorm, follow a college program.

            “This takes some of the mystique out of it, shows them it’s possible.”

            Another component, the Broad Teaching Fellows, will provide up to 250 MSU teacher candidates the opportunity to complete a seven-week summer fellowship in the Detroit Public Schools. Fellows will be assigned a master teacher and will receive a $3,700 stipend.

            Mickens is enthusiastic about seeing MSU graduates return to their hometown.

            “What it does is it starts to build capacity,” Mickens says. “We get students who are homegrown, who understand the culture the environment, who can contribute more because they understand that.”

            And who are highly qualified. The MSU College of Education is among the leading schools of education in the country. U.S. News&World Report has ranked its graduate programs in elementary and secondary education No. 1for nine consecutive years.

            The college is committed to preparing teachers who understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in urban schools, and who will be successful in such settings, Dean Carole Ames says.

            “The Broad Partnership represents a wonderful opportunity for MSU to partner with DPS to prepare outstanding teachers who will make a difference in students’ lives,“ she says. “It draws on our college’s strengths to ensure that Detroit Public Schools students have highly qualified teachers in the classroom.”

            It is critically important to have these highly qualified teachers in the classroom, especially in an urban setting, says David N. Plank, co-director of the Education Policy Center at MSU.

            “All the research, all the evidence, shows that the single most important determinant of student success is having a highly qualified teacher in the classroom,” he says.

             Kenneth Stephen Burnley, the DPS chief executive officer, says the Broad Partnership is a boost to the district’s efforts to attract teachers who are highly qualified and committed to urban education.

            “Because of Mr. Broad’s generosity, 750 of our top students in the Detroit Public Schools system will get a full ride to attend one of the nation’s most respected education programs over the next five years,” Burnley says. “The bonus is that upon graduation they will come back home to Detroit to teach for several years.

            “In an age when urban education is facing some rather pressing Challenges and one in which it is getting harder to attract people to the teaching profession, Mr. Broad has thrown both education and the Detroit Public Schools a lifeline.”

THE BROAD PARTNERSHIP

            The Broad Partnership between the MSU College of Education and the Detroit Public Schools seeks to develop highly trained urban educators for service in the Detroit school system. The Broad Foundation has pledged $6 million for this initiative, which includes:

• Broad Summer High School Scholars Program. A three-week on-campus program for freshman and sophomore Detroit Public School students. Students who attend this summer program receive preferential consideration for financial support to cover the cost of attending the MSU College of Education.
• Broad Future Teachers Scholarship. This program provides financial support to cover the full cost of attendance at MSU’s College of Education. Students in this program receive priority employment consideration in the Detroit Public Schools upon graduation.
• Broad Summer Teaching Fellows. A seven-week summer fellowship for MSU teaching candidates in their junior or senior year. Fellows work with the Detroit Public Schools Summer School Program and are awarded a $3,700 stipend.

            For more information, visit www.educ.msu.edu/broadpartnership/aboutbroad.htm