Warriors in the Community is a radio segment that features short, insightful interviews with key figures from Wayne State University about the many ways in which the university and its programs make a positive impact on the metro area and on the lives of Detroiters.
Episode 10 features a discussion with Sarah Lenhoff, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research (PEER), about the critical work that Detroit PEER does in partnership with Detroit schools. PEER works collaboratively with the Detroit education community to design and implement studies that answer questions of critical importance to improving the systems that contribute to the academic, behavioral, and socio-emotional outcomes of public school students in Detroit.
Transcript
Intro: This is “Warriors in the Community” brought to you by Wayne State University, and now to learn about how Wayne State is positively impacting our community, here is Darrell Dawsey.
Darrell Dawsey: Today I'm with Wayne State University, associate Professor Sarah Lenhoff, PhD, who is the founding Faculty Director of the Detroit Partnership for Education, Equity and Research, or Detroit PEER.
Please give us a quick overview of what Detroit PEER is and what role you play.
Sarah Lenhoff: So I'm the faculty director, which means I manage the center and we are a partner with Detroit school systems and community based organizations who are working to improve education outcomes for students in Detroit.
Darrell Dawsey: Tell me why such collaboration is necessary.
Sarah Lenhoff: It's necessary because institutions like school systems are already financially strapped. They often don't have a big budget to do research on their own.
Darrell Dawsey: What are some of the biggest obstacles that you face at PEER and how do you get around?
Sarah Lenhoff: I think the biggest obstacles are that kind of problems that we identify are sometimes really big problems, right?
They're structural, they come from inequalities that didn't start with the school systems and themselves. We try to break that down and think about, okay, what are kind of small practices or policy changes that you can make maybe at a pilot school that can sort of be a, a roadmap for that bigger change that might be needed.
Darrell Dawsey: Can you give us an example of how it's having a positive impact on the educational environment in the city?
Sarah Lenhoff: Sure. One of our key partners is a community coalition called Every School Day Counts, Detroit. They're working to improve student attendance in Detroit. We partner with the coalition to help identify how they can improve systems for kids.
And I think one positive thing our research has really done is help them shift the narrative that families and students aren't motivated to go to school, that they don't know that education is important, and our research has really shown that, that's a myth.
Darrell Dawsey: Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today.
Sarah Lenhoff: Thank you.
Extro: This has been “Warriors in the Community.” For more Wayne State News, please visit us online at today.wayne.edu/wwj and join us here next Monday at the same time for more warriors in the community.