To protect 24 schools from closure, the Detroit school board made a deal with the state. This is what it says, and doesn’t say

Exactly what changes are in store for 24 low-performing Detroit schools remains unclear — even after the school board signed a deal sparing them from closure.

The Detroit school board this week signed a “partnership agreement” with state officials that was required to keep the schools from being closed by the state. The schools were among 38 Michigan schools targeted for closure because they had been in the bottom 5 percent of state rankings for three years in a row. But in the face of strong political and community pressure, officials agreed to give districts a chance to partner with the state to avoid forced closures.

The agreement the Detroit school board signed Thursday night is not yet a plan to improve the schools. Instead, it gives the district a deadline of July 31, 2017 to outline “goals and strategies” for the schools and a deadline of Jan. 31, 2018, to have conversations with school communities about those goals. In exchange, the schools won’t face closure for at least three years.

Further details are notably absent. The agreement gives the district some new flexibility with respect to state reporting and spending rules and requires the district to “develop and refine goals and strategies” for affected schools. The schools will have to meet targets that remain undefined.

The isn’t the first time the state has required the district to come up with a plan to improve the schools. All of the schools under the partnership agreement had to have formal improvement plans in past years because of their status on the state’s list of Priority Schools. It’s unclear how any changes emerging from the partnership agreement would be more effective than the changes promised under those plans.

Read the full agreement here: