Promise scholarship paved road for Obama visit to Kalamazoo Central High School

This spring marks the first round of Kalamazoo Promise recipients graduating from college.

It also marks the first graduates from Kalamazoo Public Schools who entered ninth grade knowing they would receive a guaranteed college scholarship. So it’s serendipity, perhaps, that President Barack Obama will speak at Kalamazoo Central High School’s commencement this year.

On the other hand, it’s not entirely coincidence — without The Kalamazoo Promise, it’s unlikely K-Central would have landed the Obama speech.

To be sure, the creation of The Promise isn’t the entire story. Rather, it’s how The Promise has proved a catalyst for a “community transformation” that has lead to K-Central winning a White House competition to honor national models for education reform.

The Promise was unveiled in November 2005 by then-Superintendent Janice Brown. Funded by anonymous donors, it provides college scholarships for every KPS graduate who has been in the district through high school.

“I think The Kalamazoo Promise is one of the things that makes a compelling argument for Obama to come to Kalamazoo,” said Michelle Miller-Adams, a political scientist for the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, who has written a book about The Promise. “The private nature of the gift is important — it’s a grass-roots effort by a few people with a vision. It shows how a few people in the community can come up with an innovation that changes a lot.

“It’s also about the fact that the school district has stepped up in a serious way to prepare kids for college,” Miller-Adams said.

“This district wouldn’t be where it is today without The Promise. It could have happened without The Promise, but it didn’t. It was The Promise that gave everybody a kick in the pants.”
… The initial data on Promise recipients suggests that free college really does make a difference in people’s aspirations and attitudes, says Tim Bartik, a former KPS board member and a senior economist with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. And that’s how the president could hold up Kalamazoo as a model, he said.

“I see The Promise as moving the conversation” on national school reform, Bartik said.  “The Promise shows you can have a major impact on K-12 education and the community by removing the financial barrier to post-secondary education. ... We need to figure out nationally how to do that in a broader context.”
Source: Kalamazoo Gazette, 5.09.10
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