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The Marygrove College campus in Detroit will become a "cradle-to-career" site under new plans announced Thursday, hosting pre-school through graduate-level education, including a teacher-education program designed to emulate the hospital residencies used to prepare doctors for their careers.
Several entities are involved in the plan: the City of Detroit, The University of Michigan, Detroit Public Schools Community District, Marygrove College, a nonprofit known as Starfish Family Services and a Michigan foundation, The Kresge Foundation. It is being called one of the first "P-20" partnerships in the nation and is backed by a $50 million commitment from the foundation, The Detroit News reported.
Just last year, Marygrove announced it was ending its undergraduate programs and would only be offering master's degree programs starting in January 2018. The small Roman Catholic liberal arts college faced falling enrollment, consistent deficits, large debts and a dwindling endowment.
The Kresge Foundation spent $16 million on stabilizing the college and restructuring its debt.
Leaders now intend to pursue their new vision for the campus with the pilot of a ninth-grade program to open in 2019 and an early childhood education center and kindergarten in the fall of 2020. By 2029, all grades are expected to be offered, plus undergraduate programs, graduate programs, certifications and other professional development courses.
The University of Michigan will offer the teacher residency program, which will have undergraduate and graduate students serving as student teachers at a public school on campus. Once they finish their degrees, they'll be supervised resident teachers at the school for three years.
"The teaching school creates a singular space in which every adult in the building -- every adult -- is focused on two primary goals: the education of children and youth, and the education of new professionals, both teachers and leaders," said Elizabeth Birr Moje, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education, at a press conference announcing the new partnerships.
