MLK High hasn't succeeded in finding a corporate white knight and has suffered, even though it boasts some of Detroit's best secondary magnet programs. Teachers, parents and students have formed a technology committee to lobby the district for funding. And without it, Quick is skeptical MLK will change in tightly controlled and centralized Detroit, despite the move toward site-based management. Neither is there accountability for implementing technology programs. No one in the schools is responsible for mandating technology use or integration, much less for caring for the equipment itself.
Chambers says establishing better district curriculum guidelines is what drives school change.
And she offers a 1998 curriculum book the size of a telephone directory that includes technology-integration guidelines as proof the district is moving on such reform. That's a mandate. But with no training to teach educators how to use the guidelines and most teachers lacking access, major reform seems unlikely. You don't have procedures, you don't have standardized performance evaluations, you don't have major training in place. Until there's a fundamental systemic restructuring, change is really not going to take place.