Cass Technical High School - Cass Tech

Cass Technical High School, commonly referred to as Cass Tech, is a four-year university preparatory high school in Midtown Detroit, United States. The school is named in honor of Lewis Cass, an American military officer and politician who served as governor of the Michigan Territory from 1813 until 1831. The school is a part of Detroit Public Schools.

Until 1977, Cass was Detroit's only magnet school and the only non-neighborhood enrollment school in Detroit. Today, Cass is one of few magnet schools in Detroit. Entrance to Cass is based on test scores and middle school grades. Students are required to choose a curriculum pathâ€"roughly equivalent to a college "major"â€"in the ninth grade. Areas of study include, but are not limited to, arts and communication, business management and marketing, engineering and manufacturing, human services, and science and arts.

History and campus

Architecture

The school was founded on the third floor of the old Cass Union School in 1907. Its historic landmark building on Second Avenue in downtown Detroit was built in 1917. To the south of it an addition designed by Albert Kahn was built in 1985. The new, modern facilities of the school were built in 2004 in an adjacent lot to the north of the original building on Grand River Avenue.

In 2007 there was a large fire in the old structure. Complete demolition of the vacant Cass Tech building began in June 2011 and was finished by November. Pictures of the old historic structures, both from the outside and the abandoned inside floors and classes, can be seen here [1]. In addition, a 3D floor-by-floor interactive map of the old building is available here [2] as well.

Following the fire in the old structure, it was demolished and removed by Homrich Demolition. At time of demolition, the school building was approximately 830,000 square feet (77,000 m²) and weighed more than 100,000 short tons (91,000 t). Over 90% of the material in the building was recycled for other uses or as backfill.

In 2008 some classes that were not very popular with students were removed due to reduction in teacher staffing due to declining enrollment.

Student

Demographic

Based on current enrollment information, there are approximately 2,086 students that attend Cass Technical High School. There are 624 students in the ninth grade, 537 students in the tenth grade, 466 in the eleventh grade, and 459 in the twelfth grade.

Ethnicity distribution

Of the 2,196 students that attend Cass Technical High School, 1,951 (89.3%) of them are Black or African American, 89 (4.0%) are Asian American, 70 (3.2%) are Hispanic or Latino, 56 (2.6%) are White, 17 (0.8%) are Arab, and 2 (0.1%) are American Indian or Alaska Native.

Gender distribution

Of the 2,086 students, there are 1,269 (60.8%) girls and 817 (39.2%) boys.

Academics

Cass Technical High School's average ACT score is 21, which is four points higher than the average for Detroit public high schools. Cass offers eleven advanced placement courses including language composition, history, chemistry, calculus, and physics. Students are required to maintain a 2.5 grade point average on a scale of 4.0 in order to retain enrollment. Cass Tech students' strong academic performances draw recruiters from across the country, including Ivy League representatives eager to attract the top minority applicants.

Awards

In 1984 Cass Tech was honored by the US Department of Education among 262 schools that should "shine as inspirational model for others" that included public and private schools.

In 2006 Cass represented DPS at the National Academic Games Olympics and won the Team Sweepstakes award.

Music department

Many highly noteworthy performers in jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and hip-hop idioms have graduated from Cass Technical High School.

Choir

Over the years, the choirs have produced two CDs and are now working on their third. Cass Tech has many choir groups, including the following:

• Concert Choir
• Madrigal Singers
• V-Jetts/ Vocal Jazz Ensemble
• Choral Genesis
• Cass Tech Men's Glee
• Mystique Women's Chorale

Harp and vocal

The Harp program, which was established at Cass Tech in 1925. Cass Tech is the only school in the city of Detroit with a Harp and Vocal Ensemble.

Harp ensemble

The harp ensemble is usually composed of five well-seasoned student harpists. They each receive private lessons, learning performance skills and the traditional techniques of the Carlos Salzedo Method. The group does perform outside of school related functions.

Bands

There are beginner, intermediate, advanced and jazz band classes, as well as a marching band. The CTMB (marching band) has performed for Patti LaBelle, Sinbad, and Jay Z as well as at various college and university, and homecomings. The marching band was also a part of the 2007 Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, but was not televised. In 2008, the band performed at Texas Southern University. In 2010, the CTMB participated in Norfolk State University's Homecoming and won first place in the McDonald's Battle of the Bands. In 2013 CTMB went to the 2013 inauguration for President Barack Obama. The concert band program rose to prominence under the direction of Harry Begian, who led the Cass Tech bands from 1947 through 1964. Under his baton, the concert band performed twice at the prestigious Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic, and played literature at a level far beyond that normally performed by a public high school band, including the Symphony in B-flat by Paul Hindemith and La Fiesta M exicana by H. Owen Reed.

Orchestra

The 2005â€"2006 Cass Tech String Quartet was the winner at the 2006 MASTA statewide chamber music competition. The quartet was also featured in the 2006 Michigan Youth Arts Festival. The Cass Tech Chamber String Orchestra, the school's advanced orchestra, participated in the All City High School Symphony Orchestra program at the Renaissance Center's Ambassador Ballroom on March 8, 2007.

Athletics

Football

The Cass Tech Technicians football team (also referred to as the Technicians) is a high school football program in Division 1 Public School League, representing Cass Technical High School.

Cass Tech won the 2011, 2012 and 2016 MHSAA Division I state championships.

NFL Professionals

‡ Active NFL Pro

Swimming

Basketball

History

State championships

1956 Boys Class A State Champions
1975 Boys Class A State Champions

NBA professionals

Track and field

Cass Tech's track and field history goes back to 1926 when Eddie Tolan and his teammate Loving won the interscholastic track meet at Northwestern University. Tolan came to be known as the "Midnight Express". He set world records in the 100-yard dash and 100 meters event and Olympic records in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. He was the first African-American to receive the title of the "world's fastest human" after winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters events at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In March 1935, Tolan won the 75, 100 and 220-yard events at the World Professional Sprint Championships in Melbourne, Australia to become the first man to win both the amateur and professional world sprint championships. In his full career as a sprinter, Tolan won 300 races and lost only 7.

Boys Track & Field Team State Championships

JROTC program

Program is the largest organization in the school. It has a curriculum that includes Leadership Lab and Cadet Challenge, a drill team, and an honor guard team. The drill team is composed of: a First-Year Color Guard, an Open-Year Color Guard, an Armed Exhibition Team, an Unarmed Exhibition Team, a Female Armed Exhibition Team, an Unarmed Regulation team, and an Armed Regulation Team. The Armed Exhibition Drill Team was founded by Cadet Colonel Anthony James Cole (City of Detroit Corps Commander 1997â€"1998) in 1996, which opened the door for the Unarmed Exhibition Team and the Female Exhibition Team. The JROTC program has the "Gold Star Insignia", which is the highest attainable rank in the JROTC program, and has been maintained by the school since the early 1990s. In 2005, the Cass Tech Renegades Drill Team was selected to attend the National Drill Competition held in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was the first invite for the state of Michigan. The following year, the team was invit ed to return, leaving ranked fourth in overall performance. The honor guard team has attended many events throughout the city, including many parades and grand openings, as have the color guard and exhibition teams.

Notable alumni and people

Art, architecture, design

• Harry Bertoia, Italian-born artist, sculptor, and modern furniture designer
• John DeLorean, automobile executive, inventor of DeLorean automobile
• Niels Diffrient (1928â€"2013), industrial designer
• Berta Rosenbaum Golahny (1925â€"2005), painter, printmaker, and sculptor
• Ray Johnson, seminal figure of Pop Art movement, "Founding Father of Mail Art", and pioneered use of language in visual arts
• Judy Pfaff, artist, known mainly for Installation art
• Charles Pollock (1930â€"2013), industrial designer
• Charles M. Wysocki, Jr., painter

Arts and entertainment

• Dorothy Ashby, jazz harpist and composer.
• Geri Allen, post bop jazz pianist.
• Sean Anderson aka Big Sean; hip-hop artist signed to Kanye West's Label (G.O.O.D. Music).
• Warren Benson, composer
• Kenny Burrell, jazz guitarist.
• Ellen Burstyn, won Academy Award for Best Actress for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and starred in The Exorcist, Tony Award winner, Emmy Award winner, Golden Globe Award winner (did not graduate).
• Donald Byrd, jazz and rhythm-and-blues trumpeter.
• Regina Carter, jazz violinist.
• Ron Carter, jazz double-bassist.
• Doug Watkins, jazz bassist.
• Paul Chambers, jazz bassist.
• Alice Coltrane, jazz pianist, organist, harpist, composer, and the wife of John Coltrane.
• Muriel Costa-Greenspon, mezzo-soprano who had a lengthy career at the New York City Opera between 1963 and 1993.
• Jerald Daemyon, electric jazz violinist, composer and producer known for bringing technical refinement to violin improvisation.
• Delores Ivory Davis, was internationally recognized in opera, oratorio, and for performances with Springfield (Massachusetts) Symphony, St. Paul Symphony, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
• Artie Fields (1940 honors), bandleader, songwriter, record producer and jazz trumpeter.
• Carole Gist, 1990 Miss USA, first African American woman to win the Miss USA title.
• Wardell Gray, jazz tenor saxophonist who straddled the swing and bebop periods.
• David Alan Grier, actor, comedian.
• J. C. Heard, swing, bop, and blues drummer.
• Major Holley, jazz upright bassist.
• Ali Jackson, jazz drummer.
• Philip Johnson actor, leading role in the Lifetime movie America.
• Ella Joyce, actress.
• Hugh Lawson, was one of many talented Detroit jazz pianists of the 1950s
• Donyale Luna, model and actress.
• Howard McGhee, one of the first bebop jazz trumpeters, together with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman.
• Al McKibbon, jazz double bassist, known for his work in bop, hard bop, and Latin jazz.
• Billy Mitchell, jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his work with Woody Herman when he replaced Gene Ammons in his band.
• Kenya Moore, 1993 Miss USA.
• Naima Mora, fashion model, America's Next Top Model winner (Season 4).
• J. Moss (aka James Moss), Grammy Award-winning gospel singer-songwriter, composer, arranger, and record producer.
• Greg Phillinganes (1974) session keyboardist.
• Della Reese, singer, actress, later famous for playing Tess on the television show Touched by an Angel
• Frank Rosolino, was an American jazz trombonist.
• Diana Ross (1962), singer, actress, graduated one full semester ahead of her classmates; major listed in Cass Tech Triangle Yearbook was "home economics"; studied costume design as her curriculum path; 2007 Kennedy Center Honors recipient.
• Donald Sinta, classical saxophonist, educator, and administrator; in 1969 he was the first elected chair of the World Saxophone Congress.
• Cornelius Smith Jr., actor, 2010 NAACP Image Award winner for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series.
• Lucky Thompson, jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist.
• Lily Tomlin (1957), comedian, actress, 2014 Kennedy Center Honors recipient; winner of two Tony Awards, a Grammy Award, 5 Emmy Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award. Listed and pictured in the Yearbook as Mary Jane Tomlin â€" a cheerleader.
• Jack White, Grammy award winning musician and member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather.
• Gerald Wilson, influential jazz trumpeter, Big Band leader and composer.

Business

• Esther Gordy Edwards, former staff member and associate of her younger brother Berry Gordy's Motown label during the 1960s. Edwards created the Motown Museum, Hitsville U.S.A., by preserving the label's Detroit studio.
• Peter Karmanos, Jr., is the CEO of Compuware Corporation and owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, Plymouth Whalers and Florida Everblades hockey franchises. (did not graduate)
• Tracy Reese, fashion designer
• Preston Thomas Tucker, who was an American automobile designer and entrepreneur.

Educators

• Charles Gilchrist Adams, inaugural William and Lucille Nickerson Professor of the Practice of Ethics and Ministry at Harvard Divinity School in 2007.
• Evangeline Lindbergh, the mother of aviator Charles Lindbergh, was a teacher at Cass Tech at the time of her son's famous flight.
• David H. Sanford, Professor of Philosophy at Duke University; specializes in perception and metaphysics.
• Donald Sinta, Earl V. Moore Professor of Saxophone at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Fiction/Non Fiction

• Daniel Okrent, is a writer and editor, was public editor of The New York Times; also creator of Rotisserie League Baseball.
• Raynetta Manees, is an African American best-selling novelist; also a 1966â€"1968 member of the school's Harp and Vocal Ensemble.

Journalism/publishing/broadcasting

• Terry Foster, sports journalist, Detroit News, and radio personality, WXYT-FM.
• Ed Gordon, journalist.
• Pat Harvey, television news anchorwoman, CBS Los Angeles, National Assoc. of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.
• Gerald McDermott, award-winning filmmaker, children's book author and illustrator, expert on mythology.
• Toni Neal, Emmy Award-winning broadcaster.
• Daniel Okrent, author and editor.
• Michael Reghi, television play-by-play announcer and radio sports talk-show host.
• Shaun Robinson, television personality, Access Hollywood.

Law, government, and public policy

• Ella Bully-Cummings, first female police chief of Detroit.
• Cora Brown, was the first African-American woman elected to a United States state senate, winning a seat in the Michigan State Senate in 1952.
• Hansen Clarke, US Representative.
• George Cushingberry, Jr., is an African American member of the Michigan House of Representatives.
• Lisa Howze, State Representative.
• Kwame Kilpatrick, former mayor of Detroit.
• Kenneth Reeves, former Mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Barbara-Rose Collins, former US Representative.

Military

• Vincent W. Patton III, is a retired Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard in the United States.
• Thomas E. White, is an American businessman, former United States Army officer, Senior exec. at the Enron and the 18th United States Secretary of the Army from May 31, 2001, until April 25, 2003.
• Paul Wurtsmith, was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II.

Sports

• Joe Barksdale, NFL OT for the St. Louis Rams
• David Boone b. 1951, NFL DE for the Minnesota Vikings
• Walt Clago b. 1899, NFL End for the Rock Island Independents
• Robert Dozier, 1993 inductee to the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame
• Aaron Kyle b. 1954, NFL CB for the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos
• Carmen Fanzone, MLB player (Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs)
• Guy Frazier b. 1959, NFL LB for the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills
• Vernon Gholston b.1986, NFL LB/DE for the New York Jets
• Curtis Greer b. 1957, NFL DE for the St. Louis Cardinals
• Harlan Huckleby b. 1957, NFL RB for the Green Bay Packers
• Pat Ivey b. 1972, NFL DE for the Green Bay Packers
• Darris McCord b. 1933, NFL DE for the Detroit Lions
• A. J. Ofodile b. 1973, NFL TE for the Baltimore Ravens
• Ben John Paolucci b. 1937, NFL DT for the Detroit Lions
• Chris Douglas Roberts, NBA player for the New Jersey Nets, (did not graduate)
• Tom Seabron b. 1957, LB for the San Francisco 49ers
• Arnie Simkus, b. 1943 NFL DE/DT for the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets
• Thomas Sims b. 1967, Kansas City Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts
• Eddie Tolan, gold medal winner in the 100 and 200 meters events at the 1932 Summer Olympics
• Clarence Williams, NFL RB for the Arizona Cardinals
• George Brown, NBA Forward for Seattle SuperSonics
• Dorie Murrey, NBA Forward for Minneapolis Lakers
• Bill Mayfield, NBA Forward for Golden State Warriors
• Derrick Dial, NBA Guard for San Antonio Spurs

References

External links

• Home." Cass Technical High School. October 10, 2000. Retrieved on November 3, 2012.
• Official website
• Official website (Archive, 2000â€"2002)
• Detroit Public Schools profile
• Abandoned Cass Tech High School at Detroiturbex.com
• Cass Technical photos circa 2009 at Silentbuildings.com
• Blue Ribbon Schools program
• Program Overview
• 2002 Governor's Cup Awards
• Annual Conventions of SSMA
• Cass Tech talent
• Design Award
• Academic Games Olympics