Academy of the Americas
Academy of the Americas is a public pre-kindergarten through high school of Detroit Public Schools, with its primary school campus located in the former St. Hedwig School in southwest Detroit, it offers a Spanish-English bilingual program. The high school, called Academy of the Americas High School, began in the 2014–2015 year with ninth grade students enrolled; as of 2014 it was one of two senior high school programs in southwest Detroit, along with Western International High School. The high school classes are located in Corktown, in a building next to the Ste. Anne de Detroit Catholic Church; this building opened on January 29, 2016. Academy of the Americas "Inside Detroit Public Schools » Academy of the Americas." Detroit Public Schools. October 8, 2008
Central High School (Detroit)
Central High School Central Collegiate Academy, named Central High School is the oldest public secondary school in Detroit, Michigan. As of 2012 Education Achievement Authority operates the school. Effective July 1, 2017, Central High now operates under the control of Detroit Public Schools Community District. In 1858, Detroit's first high school opened on Miami Avenue. By 1863, due to increased enrollment, the school was moved to a building that had housed the State Capitol - becoming Capitol High School. In 1871 the University of Michigan granted accreditation to the school. In 1893 a fire destroyed Capitol High School. In 1896, Capitol became Central High School, located at the intersection of Warren Avenue. During 1904, innovative educator David Mackenzie returned to his hometown as the new principal of Central High School. By 1913, under Mackenzie's direction, a one-year, college-level premedical curriculum was established at Central High - the first junior college curriculum organized in Michigan.
In 1916, the program was extended to two years, in 1917 the state legislature approved Mackenzie's plans for establishing the Detroit Junior College, forerunner of Wayne State University. In 1919, David Mackenzie was appointed first Dean of the college. In 1926, due to a further increase in the student population, Central High School moved to its current location, at 2425 Tuxedo Street. In fall 2015 several former students from Highland Park Renaissance High School, a high school in Highland Park which closed earlier that year, enrolled in Central. To help the Highland Park students adjust, David Oclander, the principal of Central, established a "dean of culture" at the school; as Detroit's oldest high school, Central has enjoyed a tradition of athletic success. Central High School dominated city league men's basketball during the early twentieth century, winning championship titles in 1906, 1907 and 1909. Despite the absence of tournament play, Central High was a perennial fixture atop the standings at season's end.
CHS won city tournament titles in 1934, 42 and 1980. In 1998, Coach Oronde Taliaferro marched his Trailblazers through the postseason, all the way to the Michigan High School Athletic Association championship game. In the final, Central dispatched Belleville High 63-47 to claim the state title. During the 1980s, Central's track and field program stamped an indelible mark in the record books. Anita Baker, multiple Grammy Award-winning singer Elissa P. Benedek and adolescent psychiatrist, forensic psychiatrist Eli Broad and philanthropist Melvin Calvin received the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on photosynthesis in plants Michael Dann was a former senior vice president of programming for CBS television William Davidson was a sports entrepreneur who owned the Detroit Pistons and Tampa Bay Lightning Antonio Gates, tight end for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League, 9-time Pro Bowl selection Gael Greene, food critic and author Melville Hatch, entomologist Jerome Horwitz spearheaded the research effort resulting in development of AZT, an antiviral drug used to treat HIV The Jones Girls, singing trio Kenneth Jay Lane, costume jewelry designer and socialite Carl Levin, United States Senator Sander Levin, United States Representative James Lipton, host of Inside the Actors Studio.
Detroit Public Schools. March 30, 2009
Western International High School
Western International High School is a secondary educational facility, located across from Clark Park, within southwest Detroit's Mexicantown. Western is operated by the Detroit Public Schools system. WIHS holds no admission test. Western is the most culturally diverse public high school in Detroit; as of 2012, it was the final remaining public high school in southwestern Detroit. Western serves Mexicantown, Boynton–Oakwood Heights and Springwells Village; the school opened in 1898 as "Western High School." The Webster School held high school classes on a temporary basis. On 26 February 1935 Western High School's campus was destroyed by a fire. Western received a new campus as part of the Public Works Administration projects. $216,381 in federal aid was used to rebuild the school. Western International had a rivalry with Southwestern High School. In 2012 Southwestern closed, part of its boundary was reassigned to Western International. Students from both schools protested the closure of Southwestern, the perceived quality of education, DPS policies.
As a result, over 100 students from Western received suspensions, with several receiving tickets from police officers. In response several students started a "freedom school" so they could receive education during their suspensions. In 2015 DPS designated Western as part of the "Clark Park K-12 Educational Comunidad" along with Earhart and Maybury elementary schools; as of 2000 the school offered training programs in technical skills, including work and school cooperative programs, with business education, computer-assisted drafting, desktop publishing, office management, office technology available. In 1999 there were six teachers that were a part of this program, the number doubled by 2000. In 2000 the school did not offer skilled trade courses; these courses were offered at five different technical centers in Detroit, interested students would arrive to their regular school early and board buses bound for a technical center. That year the technical schools had limited numbers of recruitment information available in Spanish, the primary language of many students at Western.
Author and athlete Ken Doherty was a 1923 graduate of Western High School, went on to athletic fame as an All-American track and field performer at Detroit City College. During much of the 1920s, he was the nation's best decathlon performer. Doherty's Track and Field Omnibook is the world's most read publication on the sport of track and field. Screenwriter John Briley is a writer best known for screenplays of biopics, he won the 1982Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay for Gandhi. He hasalso written for television and theatre, published several novels. Swimmer John Dudeck was a nationally renowned athlete. On the collegiate scene, he swam for Michigan State University. A former Big Ten Conference record holder and two-time Big Ten titlist in the 100-yard breaststroke, Dudeck was a nine-time All-American for the Spartans. King Cole is a former MLB player for the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, the New York Yankees. George Lerchen is a former MLB player for the Cincinnati Reds. George Saldana was named to the 1963 National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association All-America team, in the 400-yard freestyle event.
Todd Cruz was a 1973 Western graduate. In 1982, he hit 16 home drove in 57 runs for the Seattle Mariners. One year as a member of the Baltimore Orioles, he took part in the 1983 World Series. Ron Simpkins was a 1976 graduate of Western High School, he enrolled at the University of Michigan to play football for coach Bo Schembechler. While attending Michigan, Simpkins earned NCAA All-America recognition, he would become the university's all-time leading tackler. Upon graduation, Simpkins entered the National Football League draft, he played in Super Bowl XVI at the Pontiac Silverdome, losing to Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers. Simpkins would play in six NFL seasons before taking 1988 off, he returned with the Green Bay Packers. In the spring of 1990, Simpkins came home to coach football. During a career that spanned eighteen seasons, he was at the helm for the Cowboys of Western High School. Bello, Franchesca. "Funds to focus on renovation at Western." Detroit Free Press. October 14, 2010. Detroit Public Schools profile Western International High School
Detroit International Academy for Young Women
Detroit International Academy for Young Women is a PK-12 school in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's sole public girls' school, located in the former Northern High School; the school mascot is the "pink panthers". The school opened in a building on Woodward Avenue in 2005. At the time it had 78 students; the school changed into an all girls' school after July 2006, when the Michigan Legislature passed a bill permitting the establishment of all girls' and boys' public schools. In its first year of being a girls' school there were 95 students in grades 9-10, it moved into its current location in the fall of 2007. In 2008 there were about 400 girls attending the school. A high school, it began middle school classes around 2009, around 2010 it began elementary classes; that year there were 530 students. In 2014, 502 girls were registered at the school. In 2015 the school began holding white dress graduations instead of the usual cap and gown graduations. Several of the dresses were donated since most of the students receive free or reduced school lunches, a mark of having low income.
Many private girls' schools in the United States use white dress graduations. 60 girls graduated during the 2015 ceremony. As of April 2015, African-Americans comprise 86% of the student body; the second largest demographic is Asians, at 5%. 82% of students are designated as economically disadvantaged. Most students qualify for a reduced-price lunch. Students include African-Americans, Bangladeshis and Latinos, Whites. DPS stated that the school has a "strong tie to the Bangladeshi community." Principal Beverly Hibbler stated that the all-female environment was attractive to persons in the Bangladeshi culture. In 2010 about 45-50 students were Bangladeshi. Persons living outside of the DPS district are allowed to attend DIA; as of 2010 some students reside in suburbs outside of Detroit. Douglass Academy for Young Men - A public all boys' school in Detroit Pritchett, Aujhante. "Seniors fall out at Detroit International Academy." Detroit Free Press. December 18, 2013. "Inside Detroit Public Schools » Detroit International Academy."
Detroit Public Schools. October 6, 2008. Detroit International Academy for Young Women
Magnet school
In the U. S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities as school zones that feed into certain schools. There are magnet schools at the elementary and high school levels. In the United States, where education is decentralized, some magnet schools are established by school districts and draw only from the district, while others are set up by state governments and may draw from multiple districts. Other magnet programs are within comprehensive schools, as is the case with several "schools within a school". In large urban areas, several magnet schools with different specializations may be combined into a single "center", such as Skyline High School in Dallas. Other countries have similar types such as specialist schools in England; the majority of these are academically selective. Other schools are built around elite-sporting programs or teach agricultural skills such as farming or animal breeding.
Magnet schools emerged in the United States in the 1970s as one means of remedying racial segregation in public schools, they were written into law in Section 5301 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Authorization. Demographic trends following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education US Supreme Court decision revealed a pattern characterized as white flight, the hypersegregation of blacks and whites, as the latter moved to the suburbs. At first, districts tried using involuntary plans which involved court-ordered attendance, the busing of children far from their homes, building closer schools to achieve the required balance. Voluntary school integration plans were developed. One approach that educators within the public school system came up with was open schools. During the Open Schools movement of the 1970s, several ideas designed to influence public education were put into practice, including Schools without Walls, Schools within a School, Multicultural Schools, Continuation Schools, Learning Centers, Fundamental Schools, Magnet Schools.
"These schools were characterized by parent and teacher choice, autonomy in learning and pace, non-competitive evaluation, a child centered approach." Magnet schools have been the most successful of the ideas that originated from the Open Schools movement. It was expounded in 1971 by educator Nolan Estes, superintendent of Dallas Independent School District; the Magnet Schools Assistance Program was developed in the early 1980s as a way to encourage schools to address de facto racial segregation. Funds were given to school districts that implemented voluntary desegregation plans or court orders to reduce racial isolation. From 1985 to 1999, a US district court judge required the state of Missouri to fund the creation of magnet schools in the Kansas City Public Schools to reverse the white flight that had afflicted the school district since the 1960s; the district's annual budget more than tripled in the process. The expenditure per pupil and the student-teacher ratio were the best of any major school district in the nation.
Many high schools were given college-level facilities. Still, test scores in the magnet schools did not rise. On September 20, 2011, The Missouri Board of Education voted unanimously to withdraw the district's educational accreditation status from January 1, 2012. Districts started embracing the magnet school models in the hope that their geographically open admissions would end racial segregation in "good" schools and decrease de facto segregation of schools in poorer areas. To encourage the voluntary desegregation, districts started developing magnet schools to draw students to specialized schools all across their districts; each magnet school would have a specialized curriculum that would draw students based on their interests. One of the goals of magnet schools is to eliminate and prevent minority group isolation while providing the students with a stronger knowledge of academic subjects and vocational skills. Magnet schools still continue to be models for school improvement plans and provide students with opportunities to succeed in a diverse learning environment.
Within a few years, in locations such as Richmond, additional magnet school programs for children with special talents were developed at facilities in locations that parents would have otherwise found undesirable. That effort to both attract voluntary enrollment and achieve the desired racial balance met with considerable success and helped improve the acceptance of farther distances, hardships with transportation for extracurricular activities, the separation of siblings; as districts such as Richmond were released from desegregation court orders, the parental selection of magnet school programs has continued to create more racially diverse schools than would have otherwise been possible. With a wide range of magnet schools available, a suitable program could be found for more children than only the "bright" ones for whom the earliest efforts were directed; some 21st-century magnet schools have de-emphasized the racial integration aspects, such as Capital Prep Magnet School, a high school in Hartford, Connecticut.
Capital Prep, a year-round school where more than 80% of its students are black and Latino, boasts a near-0% dropout rate. According to the school's principal, the goal is to prepare all of its students for college. Since coming into fruition, the number of magnet schools has risen dramatically. Over 232 school districts housed magnet school programs in the early 1990s. By the end of the decade, nearly 1,400 magnet schools were operating across the co
Midtown Detroit
Midtown Detroit is a mixed-use area consisting of a business district, cultural center, a major research university, several residential neighborhoods, located along the east and west side of Woodward Avenue, north of Downtown Detroit, south of the New Center area. The community area of neighborhoods is bounded by the Chrysler Freeway on the east, the Lodge Freeway on the west, the Edsel Ford Freeway on the north, the Fisher Freeway on the south; the area includes several historic districts, the Detroit Medical Center, Wayne State University. The Midtown area is a general mixed-use community area of neighborhoods containing successive waves of development that have transformed the area multiple times since it was first platted; the neighborhoods are dominated by the thoroughfare of Woodward Avenue, which runs north and south through the heart of Midtown. This neighborhood was known as Cass Corridor and many Detroiters continue to refer to it as such. Woodward Avenue, running north and south through the center of the neighborhood, is inhabited by commercial businesses, public-oriented/cultural institutions, religious buildings.
The heart of the cultural center is located directly on Woodward in the northern part of Midtown. The north part of Midtown west of Woodward Avenue is dominated by Wayne State University, whose campus subsumes nearly the entire northwest portion of Midtown north of Warren Avenue and West of Woodward. Wayne State University's campus covers 203 acres in the northwestern section of Midtown. Wayne's campus is irregular, parts extend south of Warren and north of I-94, out of Midtown and into the New Center neighborhood. Wayne serves over 32,000 students; the first portion of what became Wayne State University was the Detroit Medical College, founded in 1868. The school of education was begun in 1881. In 1896, Old Main was built as Detroit's Central High School. College classes were added in 1913, these Liberal Arts classes evolved into Detroit Junior College in 1917; the school began offering four-year degrees in 1923 and graduate courses were added in 1930. In 1933, the disparate colleges were united under one administration into Wayne University.
In 1956, the school was renamed Wayne State University. Since the early 1940s, Wayne State University, backed by the City Planning Commission, has shaped the development of the surrounding area through its plan for growth; the availability of urban redevelopment grants beginning in the 1950s became an important funding resource for expansion of the university. The size of the campus has continued to expand, with the University constructing new building as well as repurposing older buildings located in the area; as of Fall 2015, nearly 30,000 students were enrolled at Wayne State: over 18,000 undergraduate students and over 8000 graduates students, with the remainder enrolled in professional programs. The Art Center is centered on the Cultural Center Historic District: the Detroit Public Library, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Horace H. Rackham Education Memorial Building; the district contains several cultural attractions. The library and art museum were built in the 1920s, heralding a City Beautiful movement in Detroit that aimed to establish the area along Woodward as the cultural center of the city.
Wayne State University housed in the former Central High School, began offering four-year degrees. These institutions formed a core area that attracted other public-oriented institutions to the area, including several music schools, the Merrill-Palmer Institute, the Detroit Historical Museum, the College for Creative Studies; the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Science Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit are located in the Art Center area; the Art Center portion of Midtown contains substantial residential areas, including the East Ferry Avenue Historic District and scattered late-19th century homes to the east of the Detroit Institute of Art. These neighborhoods have been infilled with townhomes and other residential developments and revitalizations. South of Wayne State University, the North Cass area contains a substantial number of multi-unit apartment houses, many mixed with earlier single-family homes; this area has been influenced by the expansion of Wayne State, with some of WSU's campus extending into the northern section of North Cass, much of the residential housing stock taken up by Wayne students.
There are a number of commercial buildings along the Cass Corridor just west of Woodward. Many of these support commercial businesses, an independent retail study by the University Cultural Center Association has shown that the number of independent retail outlets in Midtown, Detroit is increasing; the north Cass section has a smattering of industrial buildings dating from the automotive heyday of Detroit. Many of these, such as the Willys Overland building, have been or are being converted into residential loft space; the Detroit Medical Center was organized in 1985 as a union among several hospitals: Harper University Hospital, Grace Hospital, Hutzel Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital of Michigan. With the addition of other hospitals, such as Detroit Receiving Hospital, the campus of the DMC and its adjacent partner institutions now takes up most of the area between Mack Avenue on the south, Warren Avenue on the north, John R. on the west, Beaubien on the east. Harper Hospital was founded in 1863, receiving its first pati
Cass Technical High School
Cass Technical High School referred to as Cass Tech, is a four-year university preparatory high school in Midtown Detroit, United States. The school is named in honor of Lewis Cass, an American military officer and politician who served as governor of the Michigan Territory from 1813 until 1831; the school is a part of Detroit Public Schools. Until 1977, Cass was Detroit's only magnet school and the only non-neighborhood enrollment school in Detroit. Today, Cass is one of few magnet schools in Detroit. Entrance to Cass is based on middle school grades. Students are required to choose a curriculum path—roughly equivalent to a college "major"—in the ninth grade. Areas of study include, but are not limited to, arts and communication, business management and marketing and manufacturing, human services, science and arts; the school was founded on the third floor of the old Cass Union School in 1907. Its historic landmark building on Second Avenue in downtown Detroit was built in 1917. To the south of it an addition designed by Albert Kahn was built in 1985.
The new, modern facilities of the school were built in 2004 in an adjacent lot to the north of the original building on Grand River Avenue. In 2007 there was a large fire in the old structure. Complete demolition of the vacant Cass Tech building began in June 2011 and was finished by November. Pictures of the old historic structures, both from the outside and the abandoned inside floors and classes, can be seen here. In addition, a 3D floor-by-floor interactive map of the old building is available here as well. Following the fire in the old structure, it was removed by Homrich Demolition. At time of demolition, the school building was 830,000 square feet and weighed more than 100,000 short tons. Over 90% of the material in the building was recycled for other uses or as backfill. In 2008 some classes that were not popular with students were removed due to reduction in teacher staffing due to declining enrollment. Based on current enrollment information, there are 2,468 students that attend Cass Technical High School.
There are 728 students in the ninth grade, 585 students in the tenth grade, 585 in the eleventh grade, 570 in the twelfth grade. Of the 2,468 students that attend Cass Technical High School, 2,035 of them are Black or African American, 233 are Asian American, 147 are Hispanic or Latino, 12 are White, 28 are Arab, 7 are American Indian or Alaska Native. Of the 2,468 students, there are 948 boys. Cass Technical High School's average ACT score is 19, four points higher than the average for Detroit public high schools. Cass offers eleven advanced placement courses including language composition, chemistry and physics. Students are required to maintain a 2.5 grade point average on a scale of 4.0 in order to retain enrollment. Cass Tech students' strong academic performances draw recruiters from across the country, including Ivy League representatives eager to attract the top minority applicants. In 1984 Cass Tech was honored by the US Department of Education among 262 schools that should "shine as inspirational model for others" that included public and private schools.
In 2006 Cass represented DPS at the National Academic Games Olympics and won the Team Sweepstakes award. Over the years, the choirs are now working on their third. Cass Tech has many choir groups, including the following: Concert Choir Madrigal Singers V-Jetts/Vocal Jazz Ensemble Choral Genesis Cass Tech Men's Glee Mystique Women's Chorale The Harp program, established at Cass Tech in 1925. Cass Tech is the only school in the city of Detroit with a Harp and Vocal Ensemble led by nationally-renowned harpist Patricia Terry-Ross; the harp ensemble is composed of five well-seasoned student harpists. They each receive private lessons, learning performance skills and the traditional techniques of the Carlos Salzedo Method; the group performs outside of school related functions. There are beginner, intermediate and jazz band classes, as well as a marching band; the CTMB, under the direction of Sharon Allen, has performed for Patti LaBelle and Jay Z as well as various college and university homecomings.
The marching band was a part of the 2007 Orange Bowl in Miami, but was not televised. In 2008, the band performed at Texas Southern University. In 2010, the CTMB participated in Norfolk State University's Homecoming and won first place in the McDonald's Battle of the Bands. In 2013 CTMB went to the 2013 inauguration for President Barack Obama; the concert band program rose to prominence under the direction of Harry Begian, who led the Cass Tech bands from 1947 through 1964. Under his baton, the concert band performed twice at the prestigious Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic, played literature at a level far beyond that performed by a public high school band, including the Symphony in B-flat by Paul Hindemith and La Fiesta Mexicana by H. Owen Reed; the 2005–2006 Cass Tech String Quartet was the winner at the 2006 MASTA statewide chamber music competition. The quartet was featured in the 2006 Michigan Youth Arts Festival; the Cass Tech Chamber String Orchestra, the school's advanced orchestra, participated in the All City High School Symphony Orchestra program at the Renaissance Center's Ambassador Ballroom on March 8, 2007.
The Cass Tech Technicians football team is a high school football program in Division 1 Public School League, representing Cass Technical High School. Cass Tech won 2012 and 2016 MHSAA Division I state championships. ‡ Active NFL Pro 1956 Boys Class A State
