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Neighborhoods Taking Action: A Partnership Approach to Policy and Systems Change to Improve High School Graduation Rates and Health

 

Lead: The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center

Key Partners: Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance, Communities In Schools of Detroit, the Detroit Department of Health & Wellness Promotion, Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Friends of Parkside, Henry Ford Academy, The Skillman Foundation; and the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Project Location: Detroit, Mich.

Contact: Robert McGranaghan, project manager, Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center, rojomcg@umich.edu 

Project Description:

Research has shown that people who achieve higher levels of education tend to be healthier than those who don’t. The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (Detroit URC), an equitable  partnership governed by a board whose members come from the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health, Nursing, and Social Work; the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion; eight community-based organizations (Community Health and Social Services, Inc., Communities In Schools, Detroit Hispanic Development  Corporation, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, Friends of Parkside, Latino Family Services, Neighborhood Service Organization, Warren Conner Development Coalition) and Henry Ford Health System—will use their grant funding to improve graduation rates at several of Detroit’s lowest-performing schools in the hopes of ultimately putting these students on a path toward better jobs and improved health. Neighborhoods Taking Action (NTA) will focus on schools identified by Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority (EAA), the new statewide authority on under-performing schools, specifically those schools located in the Brightmoor, Chadsey/Condon, Cody Rouge, Northend/Central, Osborn, Southwest Detroit and Lower East side neighborhoods.

A significant body of research has identified parental involvement and student engagement as important influences on educational outcomes such as achievement and the decision to stay in school until graduation. The NTA partnership aims to ensure that the students at the EAA-designated schools involved in this effort—and their parents—are actively engaged in and have an impact on the design and implementation of the reforms associated with the EAA (changes will roll out at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year). In addition to ensuring substantive parent and student participation in the educational reform process, the NTA partnership will select at least one identified “best practice” for increasing high school graduation rates, such as establishing small learning communities, and work with stakeholders in each of the above neighborhoods to determine what this change will look like depending on individual neighborhood and school needs. 

The Skillman Foundation has committed to providing a cash match of 50 percent of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant for this project.