Charter schools could see expansions in future

• Tweet
• 

The educational footprint of Central Michigan University’s Center for Charter Schools could get bigger with education reform laws recently signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Since its inception in 1994, the center has helped start 58 public charter schools throughout Michigan. It is a number that could increase as the law allows expansion of schools, despite the existing cap of 150 on university-authorized schools.

James Goenner, the center’s executive director, said the law allows officials to reward the better-functioning schools.

“(It’s for the) highest performing schools — give them a new contract called the school of excellence contract, and then take the vacancy that they’ve created and create a new charter school,” Goenner said.

State legislators addressed the cap to be eligible for a piece of $4.35 billion in federal “Race to the Top” funds and, to qualify, created the school of excellence mechanism. The outcome, some hope, spurs quality over quantity.

“It’s very important legislation,” said Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, the association that represents all charter schools in the state of Michigan. “It’s transformational in the fact that it adds quality charter schools.”

Thirty schools eligible for excellence status

Under the new law, a public school becomes a school of excellence after demonstrating high academic performance for three consecutive years on the MEAP’s math and reading sections.

Goenner said the Center ran a preliminary analysis based on MEAP results from 2007 to 2009 and estimated there are 30 schools eligible to apply for school of excellence status — a dozen of those being CMU-authorized schools.

“We’re going to monitor schools of excellence’s track record of replicating success,” said Doug Pratt, director of communication for the Michigan Education Association. “We want to replicate what’s working, not just adding schools to add schools.”

CMU is the largest university charter schools authorizer in the country and was the first authorizer in the state. The center now serves about 30,000 students.

Goenner said if CMU were a school district, it would be one of Michigan’s largest — second to Detroit.

The state’s cap on university-authorized charter schools has existed since the 1990s and, for CMU’s center to open a new one, another would have to close.

Other reforms approved by legislators would connect teacher evaluations to the performance of students, urge government takeovers of failing schools and raise the high school dropout age to 18.

The law would be beneficial to public education and would impact CMU’s role, Goenner said.

“The legislation really focuses on linking student outcomes to teacher effectiveness and school effectiveness,” he said, “and we think that that really done well can be a powerful driver of improving education.”

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.