0011 Lansing School District
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CLEAR—Choice, Learning, Equity & Academic Rigor! TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I: Application for Federal Assistance Application for Federal Assistance (Form 424) Abstract ................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ................................................................................................... ii Part II: Budget Form and Information Budget Form 524… .............................................................................................. iii School Project Budgets .......................................................................................... iv Part III: Program Narrative Addressing: Competitive Preference Priority 1: Need for Assistance ................................... 1-15 Competitive Preference Priority 2: New or Revised Magnet Schools...........15-18 + Appendix Competitive Preference Priority 3: Selection of Students........................Appendix Competitive Preference Priority 4: Increasing Integration / Diversity ........... 18-20 MSAP Selection Criteria o (a) Desegregation ............................................................................... 20-37 o (b) Quality of Project Design ........................................................... 37-115 o (c) Quality of Management Plan .................................................... 115-126 o (d) Quality of Personnel ............................................................ 126-136 o (e) Quality of Evaluation........................................................... 136-150 Part IV: Assurances and Certifications vi Magnet Schools Assistance Program Assurances Assurance-Non-Construction Programs Certifications Regarding Lobbying Debarment; Suspension, and other Responsibility Matters; and Drug Free Workplace Requirements Certifications Regarding Debarment; Suspension; Ineligibility; and Voluntary Exclusion – Lower-Tier Covered Transactions Disclosure of Lobbying Activity Part V: Desegregation Plan & Other Required Information vii Desegregation Plan Information Form and Attachments Table 1 Information – District-Level Student Enrollment Information Table 2 Information – Initial Year of Implementation for Existing Magnet School Table 3 Information – Student Enrollment Information for Proposed Magnet Schools Table 4 Information – Student Enrollment Information for Feeder Schools Table 5 Information – Competitive Preference # 3 Table 6 Information – Competitive Preference # 2 / Strength of Evidence Studies Part VI: Other information viii GEPA 427 Statement Principal Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) Letters of support Job Descriptions Resumes of Key Personnel References Cited Survey Ensuring Equal Opportunity for Applicants Lansing School District, fiscal agent PR/Award # U165A170011 Page e18 Lansing School District, applicant & fiscal agent P a g e | 1 COMPETITIVE PRIORITY 1 – NEED. Lansing School District (LSD), located in the heart of Michigan’s state capital, requests MSAP funding to reduce black student isolation, improve equity and access for students, and offer rigorous educational options at six high-need urban schools: CLEAR Magnet Schools and Themes 2017 - 2022 School Magnet Theme Grades Status Attwood New Tech Network Magnet School 4 - 6 Whole School Dwight Rich School of the Arts (Bernstein-Inspired) K - 6 Whole School Gardner International Magnet (Waldorf-Inspired) K - 8 Whole School Pattengill PLTW Biotechnical Magnet School K - 6 Whole School Eastern PLTW Biotechnical Magnet Academy 7 - 12 School Within a School Sexton STEM2 Early College Magnet School 7 - 12 Whole School For 45 years, Lansing School District has dealt with court-ordered mandatory desegregation and continues today (see Appendix for updated Desegregation Plan and decades of historical data). LSD enrollment is significantly out of balance with the demographic profile of Lansing. The community is 61% white, 23% black and 12% Hispanic, while the district is 26% white, 48% black and 19% Hispanic. Since the Fall of 2000 and a Michigan Choice Law that allows parents to enroll students anywhere in the state, LSD has lost 6,192 enrolled students to neighboring schools. At the same time, charter school legislation created nearly a dozen charter schools enrolling over 22,000 students within the district's boundaries. As primarily white and higher income families left the district, LSD's poverty rate increased and the schools grew more racially-isolated. Since 2000, LSD has closed fifteen elementary schools and one middle school and consolidated the enrollments of the closed buildings into other schools, as a result of the continued decline in enrollment. Today, the district is at a crossroads. We cannot balance our schools by attracting students only from other district schools. We must reach beyond our buildings and attract families who have left for other options. Rigorous STEM and STEAM-focused magnet schools promise to deliver the academic punch needed to reinvigorate Lansing School District and bring our families home. We have developed three strategies to improve equity, reduce isolation and grow our district into the future: PR/Award # U165A170011 Page e19 Lansing School District, applicant & fiscal agent P a g e | 2 Strategies to Integrate & Grow Lansing School District (1) Drastically reduce or halt the mass exodus of students (primarily white and higher income) from Lansing School District to charter schools, parochial schools and non-district options; (2) Stabilize Lansing School District enrollment; increase performance thru implementation of innovative, rigorous academic programs with proven track records of success; and (3) Aggressively recruit students from communities/neighborhoods served by Lansing School District who have left the district for alternative options to return and enroll in LSD schools. In short, LSD must entice families it once served to return to the district by improving current academic programs through rigorous, innovative magnet schools. By pulling families back through magnet programs, the diversity of schools will increase and black student isolation will decrease. Furthermore, enhanced academic options and expanded choice will elevate the quality of education offered to current students and promote improvements in chronically failing schools. In the search for working solutions, magnet schools have proven to offer positive choices that the community can understand, approve and rally behind. To this end, the district submits CLEAR— Choice, Learning, Equity & Academic Rigor! To identify schools and programs for this grant, LSD's Magnet Design Team—an experienced partnership of administrators, teachers, higher education partners, community / business leaders and parents—conducted a needs assessment that focused attention on two primary indicators: (A) social indicators; and (B) academic indicators. A) Social Indicators: School communities exhibit high poverty, illiteracy & family instability. Lansing School District serves 11,463 students attending 27 schools in Lansing, Michigan. With an average Free/Reduced Lunch rate of 67.28%, district students struggle with daily challenges, including: poverty, language issues, equity issues and lack of access to health and social services that negate positive school gains and reduce the quantity and capacity of academic options for high- need urban youth. The following chart highlights the magnitude of need in Lansing district schools: Social Risk Indicators LSD Schools Michigan Nation (National Rank) Per Capita Income $16,344 $26,613 $28,555 % Children Living in Poverty 39.0% 24.8% 21.9% PR/Award # U165A170011 Page e29 Lansing School District, applicant & fiscal agent P a g e | 3 % Children in Single Parent Homes 54.5% 32.7% 27.2% % High School Diploma or Higher 77.6% 88.8% 86.3% % Bachelors Degree or Higher 14.3% 25.6% 29.3% Sources: U.S. Census, 2014; LSD, 2016. Most of our students do not benefit from the parental and caregiver support needed to motivate children to excel in school. Combined with a long history of injustice and segregation, racial group isolation and socio-economic disparity is real for LSD families, as demonstrated below: • Nearly six of every ten of our young citizens (54.5%) live in single family homes; • Lansing School District is proud of its bilingual population of 2,495 students (22% of our student population) from 70 different countries, speaking more than 54 native languages; • LSD special education students total more than 21% of our student body; • The district average for free/reduced lunches is 67.28% across elementary, middle and high schools, ranging from 44.57% at Post Oak to 85.92% at Fairview; • Lansing School District’s student body has transitioned from 58% white, 42% minority in 1988 to 26% white and 74% minority in 2016, a 28-year time frame; • Conversely, city of Lansing demographics in 2016 show 61% white, 39% minority - directly opposite the racial and ethnic composition of Lansing School District; • MI ranks #2 in human trafficking behind Nevada (U.S. Trafficking Commission, 2016); • One quarter of the adults in our school communities perform at the lowest literacy level; and • At 15.8%, Michigan had the third highest unemployment rate for African Americans in the U.S. in 2014 (Economic Policy Institute). Lansing has been particularly hit hard with the loss of General Motors and tens of thousands of auto manufacturing and other jobs. Magnet school efforts that diversify and improve the quality of academic options