Transition to Teaching

The Flint Community Schools (FCS), an urban district of 21,513 students, is the third largest district in the State of Michigan and the largest of 21 school districts in Genesee County, Michigan. Students attend 31 elementary, 4 middle, 4 alternative, and 4 high schools. Looming challenges face the Flint Community Schools. Over the past forty years, declining enrollment, “white flight”, charter schools, and a changing economy have diminished the district “once vibrant” and with a student population which exceeded 45,000 to its current state.

In 1997, the Harwood Institute reported on Flint in “Back to Basics”. The report found a community that has begun to accept the challenges of a mayoral recall, a city in receivership ($40 million deficit) by the State of Michigan, a school district with poor student achievement, declining enrollment and a looming teaching shortage primarily associated with the rise and fall of the auto industry. Recognizing the dilemma the community has embrace the Flint Community Schools with a shared purpose that focuses on children’s growth and development.

Challenge is an inevitable fact of life. The foundation of building a stronger Flint Community lies in its ability to form partnerships. The Flint Community Schools take great pride in establishing collaborative partnerships with Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State University, and the University of Michigan-Flint. These institutions of higher learning complete a reciprocal circle that supports the Flint Community Schools as a laboratory of learning where teaching and learning strengthen the future of high quality teachers.

Through the Transition to Teaching grant as awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, the collaborative of FCS and the three institutions of higher learning will accelerate the significant recovery of a community yearning to deliver a quality education to its children. The struggles of Flint Community Schools is widely known with the state of Michigan as well as across the country. As a result, a turnaround with Flint Community Schools enabled through an infusion of higher quality teachers offers a model for other high-need urban schools who can optimize the commitment of local institutions of higher learning for high-quality consistent program delivery.

The goal of this project then, in support of the No Child Left Behind legislation, and the critical role it plays in influencing the future of education through the Transition to Teaching grant is to assist the Flint Community Schools in recruiting, preparing, and providing sustained, quality support to future highly qualified teachers in this district.