The U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan singled out the Detroit Public School district in February 2009 during a nationwide discussion on the quality of education in America by stating his extreme concern over the education Detroit Public School students were receiving.

Two years after making those comments, Duncan has yet to provide any concrete plans for the district.

It’s not uncommon for politicians to make blanket statements regarding the Detroit Public School system. Based on test scores, grade point averages, attendance records and dropout rates, Detroit Public Schools are a struggling educational system. But according to DPS alumni who currently attend or have graduated from the University of Michigan, these numbers only tell half the story.

THE DISTRICT

The Detroit Public School system comprises zoned, alternative and optional schools. As early as kindergarten, students may attend “optional” schools in which an examination is required before students are admitted. In middle schools like Bates Academy and Hally Magnet, students are placed in accelerated reading and math courses, which are rigorous academic programs compared to the average neighborhood school in Detroit. In the eighth grade, every Detroit Public School student takes an examination to determine whether he or she will gain acceptance to one of the district’s college preparatory high schools —King High School, Cass Technical High School and Renaissance High School — commonly referred to as “The Big Three.”

University alum Byron Conway, who attended the University on a full academic scholarship and is currently attending Boston University Law School, was the only student from his class at Kettering High School in Detroit to gain acceptance to the University in 2006. Conway said the distinction between test-in schools and neighborhood schools greatly affects the mentality of DPS students and their decision to continue on to higher education.

“Those schools were already bringing in students that have the successful mentality. They have the ‘I want to succeed’ mentality, whereas a lot of the other high schools were community-based high schools — which means they took in anyone from their community — and so they see a lot more of the ‘I just don’t care mentality,’ ” Conway said. “That’s what really separated the caliber between the Cass and Renaissance and Martin Luther King schools from the Mumfords, the Murray Wrights and the Ketterings.”

LSA Senior Bianca Renae Lee, a Renaissance High School alum, saw the negative effects of this kind of mentality firsthand.

“I’ve known people that took the exam and didn’t get in (to a ‘Big Three’ school), so when you throw people off like that, they have that mentality for the rest of their high school career,” Lee said.

Andre Criswell, a University alum and current School of Social Work student, graduated from Renaissance in 2006. He said there is a large disparity in the academic curriculum between test-in schools and neighborhood schools.

“The academics at Renaissance were extremely challenging. And it has the reputation in Detroit as being more challenging than Cass because it’s more difficult to get into, so Renaissance helped me a lot," Criswell said. "I can’t imagine how it would have felt coming from a place like Mumford or Central to Michigan.”

WHO'S APPLYING?

The dichotomy between Detroit’s college preparatory and neighborhood schools is on display in the admissions data for the University of Michigan provided by the University’s admissions office. In 2009, Cass Tech and Renaissance high schools sent a higher number of students to the University compared to neighborhood schools like Mumford, Denby and Kettering. Based on the 2009 data, only a small pool of students from neighborhood schools applied to the University. At some neighborhood schools, no students applied.