Good Schools: Making the Grade Initiative

Good schools are where everyone is able to do his and her very best; and where all are challenged to achieve their highest potential. The challenge, as in all other urban areas across the country, has been to develop a universal process to identify and recognize good schools.  The Skillman Foundation took on this challenge five years ago with the development and launch of the Good Schools: Making the Grade initiative. (See The Indicators page for more details.) The initiative was designed through an inclusive process using interviews with leaders, focus groups, national advisors and a local task force.  The national advisors and local task force with representatives from different sectors of the community in Detroit and Michigan continue to meet regularly to review and make recommendations for each phase of the initiative.  Another unique feature of the multi-million dollar, seven-year initiative is the focus on helping schools improve, particularly by providing custom-designed technical assistance to aspiring schools.

In the launch year of the initiative, all elementary schools were encouraged to participate.  Grant writing workshops were organized to help all those interested in the application and review process.  An incentive of up to $100,000 to schools that qualified as High Performing Schools attracted many applicants.  The focus on helping all schools to become Good Schools resulted in the establishment of the Good Schools Resource Center at Marygrove College.  Besides managing the application and review process for the Good Schools: Making the Grade initiative, the Good Schools Resource Center provides technical assistance to schools that need help to attain or to maintain high scores in each of the nine Good Schools’ indicators.  In 2009, The Skillman Foundation chose Michigan State University to assume responsibility for the Good Schools Resource Center, moving its location to the MSU offices in YouthVille Detroit on Woodward Avenue and expanding the resources available to schools willing to commit themselves to the Good Schools indicators.

Goals of the Initiative

• To publicly identify, recognize and reward Good Schools
• To support schools that apply the Good Schools indicators and have plans to improve
• To help parents identify Good Schools and make informed decisions using unbiased data from public, charter, private and religious schools
• To create and share knowledge of best practices related to the 9 indicators of student and school success, with educators and parents