While Cook-Robinson is unique at the ISD level, African Americans and other racial minorities also are rare at the superintendent level among the state’s traditional public school districts, according to an analysis by Bridge Michigan.
While 65 percent of students in Michigan’s traditional public schools are white, 95 percent of superintendents are white.
By contrast, just 4 percent of district superintendents are Black in a state where almost 18 percent of traditional public school students are Black.
And of the 22 Black superintendents in the state, most are hired into Black-majoirity, economically disadvantaged districts.
“Even though I’ve been successful, there are districts I just couldn’t apply for,” said Josah Talison, an African-American superintendent at Ecorse Public Schools, where 80 percent of students are Black and 88 percent are poor.