Brian P. Stenn/Introduction
Harrol: It is your contention that Detroit's Public Schools are showing improvements then?
Stenn: It is.
Harrol: I assume you have evidence to back this claim up?
Stenn: I do, Mr. Chairman. If you'll permit me a moment. Here we are, this is Exhibit D-1, the data for this chart is presented in Exhibits D-1a through D-1g if you want to check my math but this is a summary table of SAT and MEAP scores since 2003. You'll note that we have, since beginning Detroit's All Student Success program, attained a year-over-year improvement in test scores of at least seven percent and those findings are significant at the 95% confidence level.
Stafford: Doctor Stenn, is this the result of All Student Success program, or the Acurion?
Stenn: With respect, madam, the two are inseparable. DPS has established a number of private-public partnerships to help our students overcome a wide array of structural, cultural, and situational disadvantages. Detroit youths are uniquely underprivileged and we've had to get very creative to get the results we present today. Every single tool we have adopted has been fully integrated with the others. Provision of education is complex system with many moving parts. It's the system that's working, madam, not any individual part. The system needs all its parts, but to focus on one is to miss the contributions of the others.
Harrol: You understand our concern, Doctor?
Stenn: I do, Mr. Chairman, and that's why it's important that our efforts remain isolated from the rest of the state. At this time it is premature to recommend that the whole of Michigan adopt our model of success. I'm not suggesting that the EAA do it our way - I'm suggesting that the EAA adhere to its mandate but that Detroit schools, while still under-performing, have been showing remarkable progress and that this progress could be jeopardized if we're made to change course now.
