DPS “Cherry Picks” students in 20 schools

It’s a little known fact that 20 DPS schools require students wishing to enroll must score high enough on entrance exams, have a minimum GPA from their current school, include letters of recommendation or actually interview for the chance to attend. Each of the following schools are “selective” enrollment schools rather than “open” enrollment schools which accept all students who wish to enroll. Here are the DPS selective enrollment schools:

1. Academy of the Americas — Language Proficiency Assessment
2. Ann Arbor Trail Magnet School —2.5 GPA / Letters of Rec
3. Bates Academy —3.2 GPA / Assessment / Letters of Rec
4. Cass Tech High School —Assessment
5. Chrysler Elementary —Assessment / Interview
6. Clippert Academy —2.5 GPA / Letters of Rec
7. Communication and Media Arts —Letters of Rec
8. Davis Aerospace Technical High School —2.5 GPA / Letters of Rec
9. Detroit Collegiate Prep High School at Northwestern —2.5 GPA / Letters of Rec
10. Detroit School of Arts —Audition / 2.5 GPA / Letters of Rec
11. Edward Duke Ellington Conservatory of Music and Art —2.5 GPA / Letters of Rec
12. Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural Studies School — 2.5 GPA / Language Proficiency Assessment
13. Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men — Interview
14. Golightly Education Center —2.5 GPA
15. Ludington Magnet Middle and Honors Academy —2.5 GPA / Assessment / Interview
16. Marcus Garvey Academy — 2.5 GPA
17. Mark Twain School for Scholars — 3.0 GPA / Assessment
18. Renaissance High School — Assessment
19. Robeson/Malcolm X Academy — 2.5 GPA / 3.2 GPA for 6-8 Honors
20. Spain Elementary-Middle School — Letters of Rec

GLEP isn’t taking a position on whether or not traditional public schools should be able to “screen” out students and operate selective enrollment schools. But we think it’s important when comparing academic performance that it is clear which type of student body is being represented.

Check out the graph below and you’ll see that student proficiency on the 2015 M-STEP is considerably higher for students in DPS selective enrollment schools (28% in ELA; 15% in Math) than it is for students in DPS “open enrollment” schools (9% in ELA; 5% in Math). By comparison, charter public schools are required to practice OPEN enrollment, and the proficiency of charter schools in Detroit (19% in ELA; 8% in Math) dramatically exceeds their “apples to apples” counterparts in DPS.  Just keeping it 100, as our friends say.