College Readiness Tracker

Currently, when parents enter the school system either in kindergarten or any other grade, there is no communication to them from the district about what it will take for their children to complete successfully a path from pre-kindergarten to college.  As their children progress through the years, there is no way for parents to see their cumulative progress and deficiencies.

The result is a consistent set of scheduling errors that discourage students and lead to higher dropout rates.  For example, it has been common practice for students to learn as juniors and seniors that they are not on track to graduate, for a variety of reasons.  It has also been common for students to be placed into classes out of their intended curricular order, e.g. trigonometry before algebra. 

Therefore, we demand that Detroit Public Schools pilot a College Readiness Tracker in 5 schools that will be language-accessible, mailed home twice a year, used in parent-teacher conferences, and made available online.  Each school should conduct orientations on the Tracker for all parents and for students in grades 6-12.  Teaching staff should use the Tracker to create intervention plans with parents and students when students are falling behind.