Winter 2017: Toward Education Justice

This Thursday we will be joined by Helen Moore, Malik Yakini, and Jeffrey Robinson to discuss the history of Detroit Public Schools. This panel will be moderated by Peter Hammer (WSU Detroit Equity Action Lab & Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights). 

Speaker bios below: 

HELEN MOORE

Helen Moore has been a life-long advocate and warrior for the children of Detroit, beginning with her days as a State of Michigan Social Worker and continuing with Black Parents for Quality Education and The Keep the Vote No Takeover Coalition. She is also a member of Detroit’s Council of Elders. Ms. Moore educates her community on school district policy, student rights, and other education-related legal issues and parental involvement efforts. She earned a bachelor's degree from Wayne State University and a juris doctorate from the Detroit College of Law. 

MALI YAKINI

Malik Kenyatta Yakini is an activist and educator who is committed to freedom and justice for African people in particular and humanity in general. From 1990 – 2011 he served as Executive Director of Nsoroma Institute Public School Academy, one of Detroit’s leading African-centered schools. Malik is a founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. Malik is dedicated to working to identify and alleviate the impact of racism and white privilege on the food system. He has an intense interest in contributing to the development of an international food sovereignty movement that embraces black farmers in the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. He is the father of three. 

JEFFREY ROBINSON

Dr. Jeffery D. Robinson is a native of Detroit, and a product of the Detroit Public School system. He is a Senior Administrator within DPS and is former Principal of The Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy of the Detroit Public School System; the nation’s first public African-Centered School. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Criminal Justice Pre-Law from Michigan State University and a Masters Degree in Educational Administration from the University of Detroit Mercy. He proudly holds a Doctorate Degree in African American & African Studies, Education and Policy from Michigan State University. Dr. Robinson is the Senior Pastor of the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on the Detroit’s eastside. He is an Associate Professor in the African American & African Studies Program at Michigan State University, as well as Adjunct Professor in the Africana Studies Program at Wayne State University. He is in the final stages of completing research on his first book “In the Interest of Others: A Critical Race Analysis of Detroit Public Schools”. He is a happy husband and proud father.

This panel will be moderated by Peter Hammer (WSU Detroit Equity Action Lab & Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights). 

Speaker Bios:

HELEN MOORE

Helen Moore has been a life-long advocate and warrior for the children of Detroit, beginning with her days as a State of Michigan Social Worker and continuing with Black Parents for Quality Education and The Keep the Vote No Takeover Coalition. She is also a member of Detroit’s Council of Elders. Ms. Moore educates her community on school district policy, student rights, and other education-related legal issues and parental involvement efforts. She earned a bachelor's degree from Wayne State University and a juris doctorate from the Detroit College of Law. 

BERNA RAVITZ

My passion for education began bubbling within me long before I could articulate it. As a youngster I was decidedly unchallenged by school. Ironically that led me to acquire a Bachelor’s in Psychology, a Master’s in Education, certification in Bilingual Education, and finally, a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction. All of this was in pursuit of the magic formula for 'evening the playing field' for all of my students. I began utilizing gifted and talented strategies (constructivist education) and saw amazing results in the progress of our students. My Experience as Michigan Teacher of the Year, National Distinguished Principal as well as an Educational Fulbright exchange allowed me such incredible experiences that are invaluable in my work even today. Upon retirement from my being a principal, I worked for several years as an Educational Coach in Detroit Public Schools; I currently dedicate my time towards fulfilling the mission of Simply Start Kids.

RUSS BELLANT

Russ Bellant is a retired City of Detroit employee, President of the Helco Block Club, President of the Detroit Library Commission, member of the Detroit Public Schools Task Force and also a founding steering committee member of RESTORE northeast Detroit.

In this special U-M bicentennial edition of Detroiters Speak, our panelists will reflect upon and examine university student engagement in Detroit and with Detroiters. How do/should students and faculty of higher education institutions in southeast Michigan engage with Detroit and Detroiters in efforts that build a more equitable educational landscape?

Moderated by Craig Regester, Associate Director/Adjunct Lecturer, U-M Semester in Detroit.

Speakers will include:

KENDRA HEARN

Dr. Kendra Hearn is Clinical Associate Professor at UM School of Education; Chair of Secondary Teacher Education; and Director of Teach For America Interim Certification Program. Prior to coming to the School of Education, Kendra Hearn was the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the West Bloomfield (Michigan) School District (2006-2010). Prior to this role, Hearn served the West Bloomfield School District as its curriculum director (2005-2006); in the Lincoln Consolidated School District in Ypsilanti as its curriculum director (2003-2005); as a professional development consultant for the Macomb Intermediate School District (2001-2003); and as a high school English language arts teacher at West Bloomfield High School (1996-2001) and Detroit Public Schools (1993-1996).

JOEL BERGER

Joel Berger, a 2010 University of Michigan graduate, spent his formative years growing up in Detroit’s East English Village neighborhood. He is a second generation teacher in Detroit schools – his mother taught in Detroit Public Schools for twenty-seven years. He has teaching experience in charter schools, the EAA, and Detroit Public Schools. He is currently in his seventh year teaching, now teaching high school English in the Detroit Public Schools Community District at Cass Technical High School. He has also been active in a number of education activism and teachers' union organizing efforts in Detroit, and was recently elected to the Executive Board of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. Joel received his teaching certification through the Teach For America alternate certification program at the University of Michigan. 

ASHLEY LUCAS

Ashley Lucas is Associate Professor of Theatre & Drama and the Residential College as well as Director of the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) at the University of Michigan. She is a fellow of the Ford Foundation, the UNC Faculty Engaged Scholars Program, and UNC’s Institute for Arts and Humanities. Lucas is also the author of an ethnographic play about the families of prisoners entitled Doin’ Time: Through the Visiting Glass, which she has performed as a one-woman show throughout the U.S. and in Ireland and Canada.

AARON KINZEL

Aaron Kinzel is a lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He is also a consultant that has worked with the U.S. Department of Justice and has worked on progressive public policy reform. Kinzel's passion for change comes from the adversity he faced in his early years surrounded by family members involved in criminality. Kinzel became a juvenile delinquent and spent 10 years in prison when he was only 18 years old. He has been featured in numerous media outlets including the Huffington Post.

MOLLY SWEENEY

Molly Sweeney is the Organizing Director for 482Forward. She graduated from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 2009 with a degree in Sociology: International Social Change. She is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. After college, Molly worked as the lead organizer of the Detroit Action Commonwealth, a homeless union, and as a section-8 tenant organizer. With D.A.C Molly led successful campaigns to create a homeless court, to change secretary of state policy, and to remove the question of misdemeanor and felony from city job applications.

Thanks to U-M Ann Arbor colleagues, Karyn Lacy, Ian Robinson, Stephen Ward, and Ashley Lucas, for their help in shaping and organizing this event, and for the additional support from the UM-LSA Bicentennial Theme Semester committee and staff.

This panel will be moderated by Peter Hammer (WSU Detroit Equity Action Lab & Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights). 

Speaker Bios:

ARLYSSA HEARD 
Arlyssa Heard, mother of two boys, is an Organizer and Policy Lead. She graduated from Northwood University with a degree in Accounting and a BA in Business Administration.Arlyssa began her work in Research and Evaluation at Michigan State University’s dept of psychiatry assessing local family intervention programs. Soon after, she started educating families and advocating for children at the Detroit Health Department. As a mother of a child with Sickle Cell Anemia, she was a statewide voice for parents while serving as a board member for Children’s Special Health Care Services.In 2014, Arlyssa ran, as a first timer, for Detroit Public School Board securing 25,000+ votes. She is a current board member on the Focus: Hope village steering committee, an active “Mamavist” and board member for grassroots organization Mothering Justice, and serves on the parent advisory council of The Children’s Center (Detroit). She has also served on several parent advisory councils for Detroit Public Schools and grassroots neighborhood community councils.

THOMAS C. PEDRONI
Tom Pedroni is an Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies and Policy Sociology and Director of the Detroit Data and Democracy Project. His current research examines educational and social inequality in relation to the post-welfarist educational policy complex of Detroit. Tom has published articles in peer-reviewed journals including Teachers College Record and Urban Review, as well as a number of chapters in edited volumes. His first book Market Movements: African American Involvement in School Voucher Reform (Routledge Critical Social Thought series) received the 2009 Critics’ Choice Book Award from the American Educational Studies Association.Tom received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 2003. He teaches courses in critical education studies, curriculum studies, critical youth studies, and critical theory. A central concern in Tom’s teaching and research is the promotion of schools as sites in which youth develop the analytical skills and leadership qualities to identify and act upon problems that impact the community and region.

Speakers included: Becca Dorn (parent of Boggs School students), Soh Suzuki (Board member, Boggs School), Brian Diskin (Long-time DPS Teacher, currently at Cass Tech), and 3 current Detroit high school students.

Questions we'll consider include:- How do parents make choices about where to educate their children in Detroit today? What are the many tradeoffs to be considered?- Why does choosing to open a grassroots, community-based charter school such as the Boggs School fit into larger efforts to bring education justice to Detroiters?- How do Detroit teachers reconcile the daily need to stay focused on educating their students with the greater systemic challenges that have been present for several decades now? - What do current DPSCD students think about the state of education in Detroit schools today? 

Moderated by Craig Regester, Associate Director/Adjunct Lecturer, UM Semester in Detroit Program.

In this final session of Detroiters Speak: Toward Education Justice, eliza qualls perez (DEAL) and Stephen Ward (UM-SID) will co-moderate a collective discussion on "Envisioning a Better Future for Public Education". 

Speakers will include:

Tom Stephens (Detroit Independent Freedom Schools - DIFS)
Erin Martinez (Detroit Children's Museum)
Two High School Students from DIFS

Come prepared to share your visions in small groups and in the closing large-group discussion. 

**Bonus: Food coming once again from La Nuestra Familia.