View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Commons@Wayne State University Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2016 An Examination Of Urban School Governance Reform In Detroit Public Schools, 1999-2014 Shaun Michael Black Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Education Policy Commons, and the Other Education Commons Recommended Citation Black, Shaun Michael, "An Examination Of Urban School Governance Reform In Detroit Public Schools, 1999-2014" (2016). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 1429. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. AN EXAMINATION OF URBAN SCHOOL GOVERNANCE REFORM IN DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 1999-2014 by SHAUN M. BLACK DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2016 MAJOR: EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP & POLICY STUDIES Approved By: _________________________________________ Advisor Date _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ DEDICATION I would first like to acknowledge and thank God for blessing me with the ability and good fortune to reach this point in my academic career, and I would like to dedicate this dissertation to all of the people in my life who have supported me in my pursuit of this doctoral degree. First and foremost, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my loving wife, Kellie. I would like to thank Kellie for inspiring me to always put my best foot forward and for pushing me during the challenging times; thank you for being my best friend and for being such a great and supporting wife. I would also like to thank Kellie for being such a fantastic mother to our young son. And I would also like to dedicate this degree to my son: Shaun E. Black who has been a tremendous blessing to both of our families. I would also like to dedicate this dissertation to my phenomenal parents, Herbert and Connie Black, for supporting me throughout this long process, but also for raising me with the mindset that quitting is unacceptable. Mom and Dad, thanks for always wanting the best for all of your children and pushing us to be better. I would also like to dedicate this dissertation to my late grandparents: Herbert Black, Virginia Black, Jessie Mae Butler, and Pearl Butler. My grandparents were instrumental along with my parents in helping to shape and mold me into the man that I have become today. I thank all of you for your love and support throughout this long process. Lastly, this dissertation is also dedicated to all of the hardworking educators (current and former) in the Detroit Public School system who gave their all to their students every single day in an effort to improve the life outcomes of the students attending Detroit Public Schools. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Michael Owens for being my adviser throughout this long process and for remaining my adviser after taking his leave of absence from Wayne State University. I would also like to thank Dr. Owens for all of his constant and timely feedback, which helped the development of my dissertation study over the years, including my first paper presentation at the UCEA national conference in 2013. I would also like to thank my education policy committee member, Dr. Michael Addonizio, for all of his valuable insight on Detroit Public Schools and how his insights have shaped my dissertation study. I would also like to thank my cognate committee member, Dr. Justine Kane, for all of her added insight on the development of a quality argument by examining the literature carefully for the gaps in the literature for this dissertation study. I also would like to thank my outside committee member Dr. John Portz from Northeastern University for agreeing to take me on so late in the dissertation process, and for his added insight and perspective on the turnaround of Boston Public Schools in the mid-1990s. I would like to thank Drs. Charles and Janice Green for their support of my academic career at Wayne State University dating back to my undergraduate studies in the late 1990s. I would also like to thank Drs. Kane, Owens, and Monte Piliawsky for their continued support and recommendations for the graduate professional scholarship since 2012, which helped me pay for a very large percentage of this doctorate degree. With that said, I would like to thank the College of Education and Graduate School at Wayne State University for the numerous scholarships I was blessed to receive over the past several years, which made financing this degree less stressful. And finally, I would like to thank Dr. Coretta Pittman from Baylor University for proofreading this document. iii I would also like to acknowledge my brothers for their support and encouragement over the years: Chris, Patrick, Stephen, and Sterling. I would also like to acknowledge my good friends for their continued support and encouragement over the years as I pursued my doctorate from Wayne State University: Mario Evans, Dennis Hubbard, Dwight Smith, and Nevara Smith. I would like to thank my in-laws, John and Pam Reeves, and my sister-in-law, Christa Reeves, for their continued support of this degree. I would also like to acknowledge all of my mentors over the years who motivated me to become a high school administrator: Earl Dixon, Paul K. Gray, Michael K. Lee, Debra Oleksy, Lisa Phillips, Rick Taylor, and Marcia M. Williams. I would also like to acknowledge my former administrative colleagues from Battle Creek Central High School: Bernard Brown, Coby Fletcher, and Anita Harvey for giving me an opportunity to become an assistant principal, for allowing me to be on the best high school administrative team in the state of Michigan, and for being great friends too! And while I was at Battle Creek Central, I met and worked alongside three very supportive gentlemen: Sgt. Mike Nunnally, Greg Williams, and Nate Willis. They kept me motivated to stay the course and to finish my doctorate despite the 240-mile roundtrip drive to Wayne State from Battle Creek to complete my coursework. At this time, I would like to acknowledge the two people who believed in me the most and motivated me in my early 20s to pursue a doctorate at a time when I was considering leaving the education profession all together: Coach James Reynolds, Jr. and the late Dr. Don G. Lessner. Coach Reynolds inspired me to have a strong passion for educating urban youth, and he reminded me that the moral purpose of an educator is to become rich, not financially, but rich by investing into the futures of young people so that their futures can be positive. Coach Reynolds iv also taught me that the name of the urban education game is to do right by kids; if it isn’t right by kids then you should not do it, period! I would also like to thank Coach Reynolds for giving me the professional and moral purpose to become an urban educator who truly cares about doing what is in the best interests of kids. Dr. Lessner inspired me over the Memorial Day holiday in 2007 to remain in the education profession and to strive to make a difference for kids who are being marginalized by the educational system in urban areas. Dr. Don also advised me that I should open a sports- themed boarding school for at-risk males living in poverty in metro Detroit. The purpose of this boarding school would be to provide the structure, discipline, and support needed for our males to be successful later in life. The end goal of the boarding school would be preventing these at- risk males from becoming negative educational statistics and the possible inclusion into the school-to-prison pipeline. I would also like to thank Mike Marshall, Tom Hoover, and the late Dr. Don (again) for giving me the opportunity to coach in the 21st Annual Michigan High School Football Coaches Association East-West All-Star game in 2001, which is still a lifetime highlight of mine. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication .......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... iii-v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... vi-xi List of Tables ................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures ................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Background of the Problem .....................................................................................4 Statement of the Problem .........................................................................................7 Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................8