Whole Health · The Standard We Govern By
Ask for the information we don't yet have. Then put informed questions before the Board.
Where the Board needs a measure and the public cannot readily find it, we do not fill the space with a weaker statistic. We ask: do we know?
A deliberately small set of headline indicators, each sourced to current DPSCD material. Where the district does not publish a measure, the row says so.
14.1% / 20.1%
Third-grade reading and math proficiency, 2026
Both improved year over year. Early literacy and numeracy remain the clearest early signal of whether the system is working for the students we have now.
Both up year over year
District-reported · DPSCD published results
30.6%
“Loved, Challenged, Prepared,” 2024–25
DPSCD's own districtwide student-experience measure: 27.6% (2022–23), 29.1% (2023–24), 30.6% (2024–25), with targets of 32.1% for 2025–26 and 33.6% for 2026–27. It asks whether students experience school as a place where they are known, challenged, supported and prepared — not merely whether services exist on paper.
Up from 27.6% in 2022–23; district target 33.6% by 2026–27
District-reported · DPSCD strategic plan
54.5%
Chronic absenteeism, 2024–25
Down from 66.1% in 2022–23, with a 42.9% goal for 2026–27. Average daily attendance rose from 81.8% to 85.9% over the same period. Attendance is the bridge indicator: it belongs to neither academics nor well-being alone, but sits at their intersection.
Down from 66.1% in 2022–23; goal 42.9% by 2026–27
District-reported · DPSCD strategic plan
83.2%
Class of 2025 four-year graduation rate
Against a Michigan rate of about 84%. College-and-career-readiness course participation reached 59.8% in 2024–25 against a 70% target for 2026–27. These are high-school outcomes. What happens after graduation is a separate question, and the data is not yet public.
A genuine milestone worth naming out loud
State or federally reported · DPSCD strategic plan
Data gap
Principal turnover, vacancy and tenure
DPSCD maintains a Principal Eligibility Pool, and its own postings describe principals as responsible for instruction, school culture, student social-emotional support, budgets, improvement, operations, family communication and community feedback. But an eligibility pool tells us nothing about how many schools lack a permanent principal or how long principals stay. Teacher salary and vacancy figures are evidence of workforce health generally — they are not evidence about principals, and we will not borrow them.
District-reported · DPSCD careers postings
Sourced directly
Facilities need against available funding
We retain the facilities need-versus-funding comparison and source it directly to the current Facility Master Plan rather than to secondary summaries.
District-reported · DPSCD Facility Master Plan
Transparency measures
Published materials, published timelines
We use observable transparency and accountability measures — were materials published in advance, were the district's own deadlines met — rather than inventing a “governance health” score that no one else reports.
District-reported · Board practice
We use three kinds of evidence rather than one dramatic statistic: student experience (“Loved, Challenged, Prepared”), attendance, and access to support infrastructure. One operational fact belongs alongside them: for 2026–27 DPSCD requires students and visitors entering school buildings to undergo screening, which can include metal detection and bag inspection.
In May 2026 the district notified families of increases in bullying, threats and attacks involving students, families and staff, and incidents involving edibles brought to school. That notice contains no counts, so we treat it as context — not as a quantitative claim.
The better question is not “how many programs exist?” It is: do students experience their schools as places where they are known, challenged, supported and prepared?
Michigan Department of Education and federal datasets are more independent of DPSCD than district publications, but they remain government administrative data — not independent evaluations. Every statistic we publish is labeled District-reported, State or federally reported, or Independently measured. That distinction is what makes a Whole Health proposal objective.
District-reported
State or federally reported
Independently measured
These would make the campaign's evidence materially stronger. None of them can be satisfied by district self-reporting alone.
Independently administered, current, and reported by school and student group.
“Loved, Challenged, Prepared” is a real measure and it is improving, but it is district-administered and district-reported. Safety and belonging claims should not rest on a single self-administered instrument.
Standard · Independently measured
Principals specifically — not teacher staffing figures used as a stand-in.
Nothing published today tells us how many schools lack a permanent principal or how long principals stay. Teacher salary and vacancy numbers describe a different workforce, and we will not borrow them.
Standard · Auditable district records, verifiable against state reporting
Verified through the National Student Clearinghouse or another auditable source.
The graduation rate is a high-school outcome. What happens 6, 12 and 24 months later is a different measure, and the 13th Year Proposal depends on it.
Standard · Independently verified cohort data
Missing data is itself a governance question. Naming the gap is part of the Board's oversight function.
We knowWe know the Class of 2025 graduation rate: 83.2%.
We need to knowWe need to know where graduates are 6, 12 and 24 months later.
We knowWe know the district recruits principals through an eligibility pool.
We need to knowWe need to know principal stability, tenure, vacancies and turnover — school by school and over time.
We knowWe know DPSCD measures whether students feel loved, challenged and prepared.
We need to knowWe need to know what those results reveal about safety, belonging, mental health, and differences among schools and student groups.
So the Principal Proposal rests on the condition of the principal workforce rather than on statistics borrowed from teachers.
So safety and belonging claims rest on a current, independently administered survey rather than on a single district-administered instrument.
So the 13th Year Proposal responds to demonstrated transition patterns instead of presuming them.
These requests are the foundation of the Principal Proposal and the 13th Year Proposal. Read the five proposals.