State report card: Charters fare slightly better; gaps at National Heritage Academies schools a concern
More than half of the state’s charter schools that landed on the state's new “Focus schools” list are managed by National Heritage Academies, including Fortis Academy in Washtenaw County, an article on MLive.com said.
Fortis Academy, managed by National Heritage Academies, was one of three Washtenaw County charters to land on the state's Focus schools list.
Dwight Burdette | Geolocation.com
About 3.5 percent of the state’s 255 charter schools were given a “Priority” designation, compared with 5.2 percent of traditional schools, Mlive reported. And 9 percent of charters were in the Focus category, compared with 12.6 percent of traditional schools, the article said.
Of Washtenaw County’s nine public school academies, five graced lists of any kind.
Fortis Academy, authorized by Bay Mills Community College and managed by NHA; self-managed schools Ann Arbor Learning Community, authorized by Eastern Michigan University, and Honey Creek Community School, authorized by the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, all made the state’s Focus schools list.
NHA also manages East Arbor and South Arbor academies in Washtenaw County. It is supposed to manage a new charter in the Willow Run school district in the fall, South Pointe Scholars Charter Academy.
Self-managed New Beginnings Academy and Global Educational Excellence-managed Central Academy, both authorized by Central Michigan University, made the state’s Reward schools list.
None of the county’s charter schools appeared on the Priority list.
Read the complete MLive.com article on charter schools here.
Previous AnnArbor.com coverage:
Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.
Comments
Somargie
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 4:17 a.m.
Why isn't any respectable entity researching who is researching the data for the State of Michigan & their new "budget stealing tactic" to take even more money from public schools? The State of MI have a vested interest in pumping up the supposed success of "charter schools" and my guess it that it fared far worse and their are many more. In addition, when will this journalistic jewel (aka annarbor.com) & others accurately investigate the enrolled population ties & financial connections of the self-managed charters authorized by CMU in this county.
Somargie
Tue, Aug 21, 2012 : 8:36 p.m.
That Fancy Smancy MI ranking system of Focus schools, Reward schools and Priority schools is being used by the repubs to "take money" away from public schools & give it to charter schools & their buddies who run it. It is just another "con" like the "emergency manager" law. Why don't people read the small print of this & see it for what it really is. That achievement gap includes special education, children who don't speak english, and other students that charter & private schools don't want to teach. It's the great lie that the repubs push for people who believe everything the repubs & the rich charter school "robber barons" groups want them to instead of reading details. If newspapers & news outlet did their job & weren't beholden to the repubs who control them ....then maybe the truth would be out there.
SuperiorMother
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 2:12 p.m.
"But Grand Rapids-based National Heritage Academies, a popular company that manages 46 schools in Michigan, had 12 of its schools on the Focus list." In the interest of fairness, it's worth noting that 27 of 33 schools in the Ann Arbor district made the "focus" list. http://annarbor.com/news/state-report-cards-response/#.UCEhq_ZmQ7s
YpsiGreen
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 1:59 p.m.
Can you say vague?
Ghost of Tom Joad
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 12:07 p.m.
charter schools cherry-pick the top performing students, no wonder they do "better." Education is not a commodity that should be traded for profit. It is a fundamental right for all to have access to quality education. Undercutting funding, and then pointing to their lack of "success" is beyond dishonest.
thehawk
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 11:34 p.m.
You can't have it both ways. If a charter school is on the Focus list for having too big of a gap between the top and bottom 30%, then how can you accuse them of cherry-picking the top performing students?
Ghost of Tom Joad
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 12:08 p.m.
"their funding" in my comment is referring to public schools
Vivian1
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 11:04 a.m.
Because of this new focus on "the gap," many overall highly achieving schools are now considered "Focus Schools" and given the grade of a C. These were formerly A schools before this change of standard. There's an easy way to close that gap. Encourage your top 30% to do worse on "the test." Sad but true. There are overall lower achieving schools that are not "focus" schools because there was no gap. They all performed just okay. Also remember, this is all based on the MEAP, one standardized bubble test given over the course of 3 weeks, on most days in 3 hour stretches of time, in October, only one month after students have been back at school. That is no true measure of learning. All these arbitrary standards do is keep schools scrambling around trying to beat this test and avoid being the focus of these kinds of articles.
thehawk
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 2:51 a.m.
Focus schools: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/AtAGlance_Overview_Focus_Schools_393918_7.pdf Schools with the largest achievement gaps, defined as the difference between the average scale score for the top 30% of students and the bottom 30% of students. Priority schools: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/AtAGlance_Overview_Priority_Schools_393916_7.pdf Schools in the bottom 5% of the Top-to-Bottom ranking. Reward schools: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/AtAGlance_Overview_Reward_Schools_393923_7.pdf Schools in the top 5% of the Top-to-Bottom ranking. In addition to the top 5%, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) will add any school that: • is designated as a "Beating the Odds" school (school that is outperforming schools with similar risk factors and demographic makeup) • in top 5% of schools on the improvement metric in the Top-to-Bottom ranking
Floyd
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 1:47 a.m.
National Heritage Academies have been sued for including creationism in their curriculum, for promoting prayer in school, and for illegally dropping special education students. Their founder and CEO, Mr. Huizenga, has strong ties to the Koch brothers and Eric Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater. The Charter school movement is not just about competition in schools - it is the vanguard of the conservative agenda to take every public institution in America and give it to the One Percent to control and profit from. Schools should not be run like banks! Our kids are not commodities. They are the future of America and deserve a chance at the American dream, even if their parents are not rich.
thehawk
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 2:55 a.m.
Your data is outdated, and in most cases utterly incorrect. NHA did have some issues many years ago, but have since gone seriously mainstream. Charters also vary quite widely in theme, mission, and management, but you speak of them as a single entity.
Aquarius
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 1:11 a.m.
This is a very vague and misleading article about charter schools and how they compare to traditional public schools. The statistical diiferences are miniscule and only represent those schools that are not meeting expectations So as a parent does this somehow tell me that charter schools are doing a better job of educating kids? 3.5% vs. 5.2% and 9% vs. 12.6% in underachievement groupings is hardly significant evidence that these schools are a superior learning option. It is interesting that New Beginnings received praise and that they are self managed. National Heritage Academies is without question one of the most predatory companies with regard to coming into communities and undermining traditional public schools and they seem to best serve students without special needs. It will be very interesting to see if they can do the job in Willow Run with that new school soon to open.
Itchy
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 1:10 a.m.
What makes us think that this is a correct assessment? I have been involved with education for more than 40 years now and there will always be a top percentage and a bottom percentage. Cannot teach math to someone who lacks the ability to learn math. Period!
Jan
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 12:50 a.m.
Please explain what the Focus, the Priority and the Reward lists are.
Rod Johnson
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 2:18 a.m.
Thank you. An essential concept for understanding, completely missing from the article.
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 12:38 a.m.
It's too bad we can't cite those bureaucrats on their Common Sense Gap. Because from their directives, it seems quite clear they deserve a failing grade.
Dog Guy
Mon, Aug 6, 2012 : 11:32 p.m.
Bureaucrats could not care less about whether kids are learning, but heaven help the school with a gap.
J. A. Pieper
Tue, Aug 7, 2012 : 2:13 a.m.
Dog Guy, you have hit the nail on the head. Not only bureaucrats, but high level public school administrators, all they care about is what their district LOOKS like on paper. They really aren't focused on what the students are learning as much as how can the data be manipulated so they look good to the state and federal government, oh, and the locals too.