Sunday Leftovers
May 19, 2013NJ Legislature Update: Tenure Protection for all Public School Employees and Restrictions on Out-Sourcing
May 20, 2013Charter School Models for NJ: Learning From Michigan
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Michael Van Beek from Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy looks at a recent study from Stanford University’s Center on Education Outcomes (CREDO), which analyzes charter school outcomes in Michigan. Writes Van Beek, “[o]nly 6% of charters are underperforming in math and only 2% in reading. Further, 82% of charters produced growth in average reading test scores and 72% did so in math.”
What’s different about Michigan’s model for charter schools?
Michigan allows a variety of public entities to authorize charter schools, the most common being universities and community colleges. This frees charter schools from needing school-district approval to operate, which is like requiring new businesses to ask existing competitors for permission to open. By allowing more charters than most states, Michigan has developed a functional charter-school market, so much so that lawmakers recently took the bold step of removing the charter-school cap altogether.
Van Beek also notes that some media have distorted this most recent CREDO study by claiming that the research doesn’t include all charter schools in Michigan; “in fact, the study included 86% of all charter-school students in the state and remains the most comprehensive and rigorous study of Michigan charter schools.”
Outcomes were similarly positive in Detroit, where 47% of the adult population is functionally illiterate: “Of the 100 or so charters in Detroit, 47% did significantly better than conventional schools in reading and 49% did significantly better in math. Only one charter school in Detroit did worse in reading compared with the city’s district-run schools.”
No doubt it’s helpful that Michigan’s charter schools aren’t subject to traditional tenure laws, like the policy of retaining teachers during lay-offs based solely on seniority.
This piece is relevant to New Jersey, specifically the current debate about our charter school law reform. I wrote recently in NJ Spotlight about the (leaked) draft of new charter school legislation proposed by Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan. Assemblyman Diegnan would subject all aspiring charter schools to a community referendum, a model that doesn’t exist in any other state in the country. As Michigan shows us (and research confirms), a system of multiple authorizers provides students, particularly those in poor urban communities, with a shot at equitable educational opportunities.
1 Comment
So you would have these multiple authorizors usurp local communities' control over their own tax dollars?
Who died and left them in charge?
P.S. Please do not hold up Michigan as a model for anything except the disenfranchisement of the citizens in most of its largest cities via state takeovers.