LANSING — State Representative Alberta Tinsley Talabi (D-Detroit) congratulates two schools within her district on their removal from the state’s Top-to-Bottom List, or the state’s Priority Schools List, which the Department of Education has identified as persistently lowest-achieving (PLA) or priority schools. These are the most academically challenged schools in the state. The Michigan School Reform Office said yesterday that the Detroit Public Schools’ Blackwell Institute and the Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology are no longer on the Top-to-Bottom list.
“These two schools have dedicated themselves to improving the quality of their education over the past few years, and their students are benefiting from that hard work,” Rep. Tinsley Talabi said. “I celebrate this achievement along with the staff, students and administrators of these schools, and look forward to seeing how the students of these schools will go on to become the leaders of tomorrow.”
The two schools were among 20 removed from the Top-to-Bottom list Tuesday. To be removed from the 2012 Top-to-Bottom list, the schools were required to have placed above the bottom 5 percent of schools statewide in 2013 and 2014, as well as ensuring that 95 percent of students are tested. The schools are still required to submit a school improvement plan to the Michigan Department of Education and show continued growth.
“I trust that these schools will continue to strive and improve in the coming years,” Rep. Tinsley Talabi said. “It is the right of every child to receive a world-class education, and the obligation of every school to provide it to them. I will continue to work with educators, administrators and my fellow legislators to ensure every Michigan child will receive the best education possible.”