Tag Archives: charter schools

Minneapolis Public Schools: Surrounded by K-8 Charter Options

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January 6, 2020

If the Minneapolis Public Schools succeeds in turning the district into K-5 and 6-8 schools only, as its current Comprehensive District Design proposal strongly suggests, it will become surrounded by a sea of K-8 options within and just outside its boundaries.

Of the one hundred sixty-four charter schools currently in operation in Minnesota, half are at least K-6 schools. Most are exclusively K-8. Many more are K-12, and of course this has something to do with the need and desire to retain students for as long as possible, for funding and programmatic reasons.

In Minneapolis alone, there are thirteen K-8 charter schools. Many attract non-white populations, despite the claim that students of color either do not do well in K-8s or that families of color are not seeking them. (Watch the Minneapolis school board’s December 12, 2019 Committee of the Whole meeting for a discussion of this.)

If higher standardized test scores are the measure of equity and success–which I would dispute wholeheartedly–then parents from all walks of life appear to be disregarding this when choosing K-8s. In a list of area K-8 schools provided below, I include test score and demographic data that illustrates this very point.

Most K-8s in and around Minneapolis in fact have MCA test score results that are lower than or equal to MPS sites with similar student demographics.

Of all the charter schools in Minneapolis, Yinghua Academy in Northeast has the highest percentage of students with grade-level (or above) math and reading MCA scores. This is not hard to imagine because test scores most closely match students’ socioeconomic status (or, as MPS administrator Eric Moore said recently, “test scores follow students”), and just ten percent of Yinghua Academy students live in poverty.

But scores notched at Yinghua are still lower than those at the district’s Lake Harriet School in southwest Minneapolis, which is a K-8 dual campus site where only 7 percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunch.

It is very difficult to compare these schools to one another, simply on paper. And, of course, MCA test scores do a terrible job of telling the far more complex story of any school. But it does beg the question of what criteria families are using to select schools for their kids.

Does MPS have this information?

If parents, and especially parents from marginalized communities, are not choosing K-8s because they can promise higher standardized test scores, why are they choosing them? What about this model is attracting thousands of kids who, perhaps, would otherwise be attending a Minneapolis public school?

The answer may lie in the fact that public education has become a choice-based marketplace, dominated by increasingly segregated, privately managed but publicly funded schools that are as subject to fraud and failure as any traditional public school.

And what will happen if MPS further reduces or altogether eliminates its K-8 sites, under the clearly mistaken assumption that K-5s and stand-alone middle schools are either better for students or more appealing to families?

K-8 and K-6 Charter Schools in Minneapolis (including demographic and test score data obtained from the Minnesota Department of Education)

Best Academy in north Minneapolis. K-8.

  • Student enrollment: 756
  • 98.1% Black or African-American; 88% Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL)
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 25.4%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 32.1%
  • Authorizer: Audubon Center of the North Woods (*authorizers receive thousands per year, per charter school, in taxpayer dollars to oversee school quality)

Bdote Learning Center in south Minneapolis. K-8.

  • Student enrollment: 101
  • 81.2% American Indian or Alaska Native; 95% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 2%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 0%
  • Bdote offers context for its lower scores here, through an language immersion lens
  • Authorizer: Innovative Quality Schools

Brightwater Elementary, north Minneapolis. Pre K-6. Preschool is private (tuition-based), K-6 is a charter school.

  • Student enrollment: 160
  • Nearly evenly split between White and Black or African-American students, with smaller percentages of other groups; 53% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 20.7%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 35.4%
  • Authorizer: Audubon Center of the North Woods

Cedar Riverside Community School, south Minneapolis. K-8.

  • Student enrollment: 140
  • 92.9% Black or African-American; 7.1% Hispanic or Latino; 95% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 20.8%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 33.3%
  • Authorizer: Pillsbury United Communities

Friendship Academy of the Arts, south Minneapolis. “Due to family and community demand, FAA has expanded to  a K-8 school.”

  • Student enrollment: 168
  • 98.2% Black or African-American; 73% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 51.7%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 52.8%
  • Authorizer: Pillsbury United Communities

Hennepin Schools, south Minneapolis. K-8, dual campus.

  • Student enrollment: 268
  • 94.8% Black or African-American; 95% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 44.7%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 40.5%
  • Based on the sample schedule listed online, students are in school from 8:30-4:35 with one 15 minute recess
  • Authorizer: Friends of Education

KIPP North Star, north Minneapolis. K-8. KIPP has a “strategic plan to grow to four schools by 2024.”

  • Student enrollment: 203
  • 97% Black or African-American; 95% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 19%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 26.4%
  • Authorizer: Volunteers of America

Mastery School, north Minneapolis. K-6.

  • Student enrollment: 230
  • 94.3% Black or African-American; 95% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 23.2%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 31.2%
  • Authorizer: Pillsbury United Communities

New City School, northeast Minneapolis. K-8.

  • Student enrollment: 306
  • 56.9% White, 22.9% Black or African-American; 32% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 49.5%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 63.5%
  • Authorizer: Novation Education Opportunities

Northeast College Prep, northeast Minneapolis. K-8.

  • Student enrollment: 319
  • 68% Black or African-American, 16% White; 90% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 41.8%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 39.7%
  • Authorizer: Student Achievement Minnesota LLC

Skyline Math and Science Academy, south Minneapolis. K-6.

  • This is school has yet to open.
  • Authorizer: Minnesota Guild of Public Charter Schools

Sojourner Truth Academy, north Minneapolis. K-8.

  • Student enrollment: 389
  • 74.6% Black or African-American; 18.5% Hispanic or Latino; 95% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 13.7%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 13.3%
  • Authorizer: Pillsbury United Communities

Southside Family Charter School, south Minneapolis. K-8.

  • Student enrollment: 116
  • 39.7% White; 21.6% Two or More Races; 47% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 47.3%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 60.8%
  • Authorizer: Volunteers of America

Spero Academy, northeast Minneapolis. K-6.

  • Student enrollment: 127
  • 55.9% White, 15.7% Black or African-American; 40% FRL
  • Almost 100 percent of students qualify for special education services
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 34.3%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 35.7%
  • Authorizer: University of St. Thomas

Stonebridge World School, south Minneapolis. K-6.

  • Student enrollment: 287
  • 64.8% Black or African-American; 22% Hispanic or Latino; 84% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 16.4%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 25.3%
  • Authorizer: Pillsbury United Communities

Twin Cities International Schools, north Minneapolis. K-8.

  • Student enrollment: 1,021
  • 99.9% Black or African-American; 95% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 41%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 43.3%
  • Authorizer: Pillsbury United Communities

Universal Academy, south Minneapolis. Pre K-8

  • Student enrollment: 403
  • 97.3 Black or African-American; 86% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 24.4%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 30.5%
  • Authorizer: Novation Education Opportunities

Yinghua Academy, northeast Minneapolis. K-8 Dual Immersion (Mandarin).

  • Student enrollment: 822
  • 53% White; 30.9% Asian; 10% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 84.5%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 74.2%
  • Authorizer: Friends of Education

And here is a quick look at a few of the non- K-5s near Minneapolis:

Loveworks Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, Golden Valley. K-8. *frequent recipient of philanthropic funds despite notably low results

  • Student enrollment: 159
  • 94.3% Black or African-American; 95% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 6.7%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 15.4%
  • Authorizer: Pillsbury United Communities.

Nasha Shkola, Brooklyn Park. K-8. Focused on the “unique needs” of Slavic and Russian immigrant students, as well as those interested in learning Russian.

  • Student enrollment: 99
  • 94.9% White; 70% FRL
  • Percent of students with math MCA scores: 65.6%
  • Percent of students with reading MCA scores: 47.5%
  • Authorizer: Innovative Quality Schools

Noble Academy, Brooklyn Park. Pre K-12. A growing charter school that recently expanded to include grades 9-12, with a special focus on Hmong language and culture.

  • Student enrollment: 1, 029
  • 86.9% Asian, 11.3% Black or African-American; 52% FRL
  • Percent of students with grade-level math MCA scores: 59.8%
  • Percent of students with grade-level reading MCA scores: 49.1%
  • Authorizer: Audubon Center of the North Woods

In January, MPS will begin holding information sessions regarding its Comprehensive District Design, with a final proposal expected in March. Thus far, the only versions of this redesign shown to the public have included nothing but separate K-5 and 6-8 schools. 

We must ask why this is, when the evidence clearly shows that all types of families are actively choosing the K-8 model. This points to another problem with the proposed redesign: the lack of ground-level staff and community input.

Spooky! Beware of Scripted Education Debates…

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October 27, 2015

How can you tell that the 2015 election is coming, and the 2016 one is not far off? By counting all of the anti-union opinion pieces and editorials floating around, of course.

Case in point: the Sunday, October 25 Opinion section of the Minneapolis StarTribune prominently featured a rail against “fundamentalist” teachers unions and their allies, written by former fundamentalist (by birth, we are told) and current “progressive” proponent of education reform, Lynnell Mickelsen.

Mickelsen’s piece, titled “Political rigidity? The left has it too,” seeks to rip teachers unions and the Democrats that support them–unquestioningly, of course–for, yawn, being, double yawn, opposed to anything that challenges their union-loving worldview. 

Still awake? Good, there’s more.

Mickelsen stirringly provides a list of why teachers union supporters (because that’s what they are, of course–nothing more, nothing less) are like fundamentalists. Mostly, it boils down to this: teachers unions and their blind followers are narrow-minded and simplistic, hate change, are old and racist, and will do anything to destroy charter schools.

Here’s an example, from Mickelsen’s piece (capitalization pattern is hers):

“Teachers’ unions are basically claiming Public Schools Are Between A Union and Its District, so any change in this tradition — i.e., charter schools — is an attempt to destroy public education.”

Mickelsen, who is an entertaining writer and a fellow education and school board meeting devotee, also decries the way Minnesota’s state teachers union, Education Minnesota, shamelessly funds Democratic candidates and thus exercises mind control over the party faithful:

Education Minnesota is the largest contributor to Democratic candidates and causes. It sets the tone and parameters of our education debates, which, among elected Democrats, are now predictably rigid and scripted — and this concerns a program that consumes 42 percent of the state’s operating budget, affects hundreds of thousands of children and has shamefully racialized results.

Speaking of “predictably rigid and scripted” education debates, Mickelsen’s piece originally showed up on former U.S. Department of Education employee Peter Cunningham’s blog, Education Post.

Education Post was launched just one year ago, with an impressive $12 million in cold, hard, conversation-starting cash. The goal? Providing a space, funded by old billionaire white guys like Eli Broad, to have a “better” conversation about education and how it should be done for poor children of color.

The bummer? It has since struggled to attract readers, leading Cunningham to recently send an email blast to his supporters, advising them on how to Tweet together and otherwise act as a united front:

When we all start sharing together more consistently, we’ll send a strong signal to our followers and friends, the media and the blogosphere, that we want to see more stories that show the positive difference we are making in the lives of children.

There it is! The “sharing together more consistently” thing! Just a few days before Mickelsen’s piece comparing union supporters to fundamentalists hit the fan, Cunningham published a near replica, called “The Best Hope for Teachers Unions is…Reform.”

Cunningham’s pro-“get tough” reform piece appeared on both his Huffington Post site and on Education Post, in a coordinated campaign sort of way.

I’m not sure if the two were comparing notes, but Cunningham’s piece strongly resembles Micklesen’s. Or maybe it’s the other way around. In any case, both pieces harp on remarkably similar (and familiar) points of view: charter schools are amazing, teachers unions are toxic and antiquated, and school choice is the yellow brick road to redemption.

Cunningham’s piece nicely sets the union-bashing stage for Mickelsen’s, through claims such as these:

Charter opponents like to label education leaders who are empowering families’ right to choose as “privatizers.” In their dictionary, public means “union-controlled” and any variation is the enemy.

And here is a similar snippet from Mickelsen’s piece:

In the union narrative, reformers aren’t just wrong about educational policy — they must have evil intent. So reformers are typically cast as vague “corporatists” hellbent on the equally vague profiteering from or privatizing of public schools.

Okay, I’m starting to see a rigid, scripted debate forming….

Here’s another tidbit from Cunningham’s post:

Teacher unions, who need unionized teachers and dues in order to exist, are fighting desperately to convince parents to stay with the traditional, district-run schools. But rather than appealing to parents on the strength of the education that traditional schools offer, their strategy primarily focuses on limiting funding for charters,capping their growth or organizing their teachers to join a union.

To quote Mickelsen’s piece, “I could keep listing common traits, but you get the idea.”

In short, unions are really, really bad, charter schools are really, really good, and anyone who disagrees with either of these points of view is a “fundie” not worth listening to.

In contrast, here are a couple of paragraphs worth considering, from New York professor Christopher Bonastia’s 2015 article, “The Racist History of the Charter School Movement”:

By all appearances, charters will remain on the educational landscape for the foreseeable future. While charter skeptics can’t merely wish them away, they can push for greater accountability—after all, isn’t this the whole point of charters? Anyone who blindly accepts that competition will improve education for students in charters and traditional public schools alike should remember that other articles of faith about the market—like cutting taxes on the rich will make all of our yachts and rafts rise—have proven illusory.

…There is no magic elixir that will fix our educational system. Of course, we should continue to be open to fresh ideas about improving school organization, teaching and learning. But if we continue to ignore important historical lessons about the dangerous consequences of educational privatization and fail to harness our desire to plunge headlong into unproven reform initiatives, we may discover that the cure we so lovingly embraced has made the patient sicker.

I am neither union nor charter school funded, so please consider donating to keep this blog rolling! Your support is crucial and much appreciated.

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Senator to Minneapolis Public Schools: Hannd ’em over

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Good news, job seekers! Hiawatha Leadership Academies, the Minneapolis-based charter school chain run by Eli Kramer is poised for growth and ready to hire a “Temporary Recruitment Ambassador.”*

As a TRA–not to be confused with TFA, which is a different sort of temporary employment thing, and, from one insider’s view, “closely aligned” with Hiawatha Academies–your main job will be to stop referring to children as children, and instead call them “scholars” every time you speak. As a bonus, along the way you will learn that teachers are no longer simply “teachers” (boring!), but instead have been elevated to “scholar coaches.”

Once you get this down, you will be on your way to helping fill Hiawatha’s hallways with Scholars Formerly Known as Children. Pause for a moment, if you will, and get inspired by Hiawatha’s “manifest destiny” dreams:

“Our vision is to expand our impact by growing to five schools by 2020. At scale, we will be putting five percent of all school-age scholars in Minneapolis on the path to and through college.”

But don’t worry–you won’t be alone in this mission. In fact, the path to having “scholar launching pads” throughout Minneapolis is currently being paved by the power of suggestion, thanks to some friends in high places.

David “I’ll Hanndle This” Hann; Photo by James Nord

Case in point: Republican state Senator David Hann, of the suburban happy land known as Eden Prairie, just proposed a bill to break up the Minneapolis Public Schools and, once and for all, dismantle its dysfunctional bureaucratic ways by breaking it into six smaller bureaucracies, each with its own list of administrators (I smell opportunity for all of you former “scholar coaches” out there!).

With a clear eye towards transformational change, here’s what Hann’s plan would bring to Minneapolis: “The six districts would choose a superintendent, hold school board elections, and decide whether it wants unionized or non-unionized teachers, among many issues. The districts would be free of state mandates.” And, because choice is only good for some people, in some situations, “…the bill would not give the Minneapolis school district a choice in the matter.”

I’m glad someone’s head is in the game. And, I am not surprised it is Hann, who, coincidentally, was once on the Hiawatha Academies board of directors, and is the president of something called “Parents for Accountable Schools” (which is nothing like the group Parents for Accounting Schools, I’m told.)

Of course, this bill–borne of the boredom that comes from representing a suburban district with no school-related problems–will not go anywhere. This time.

But, dear future potential scholar recruiter, it does go along with a recent Minneapolis StarTribune editorial, which warns that, when it comes to Minneapolis and St. Paul, failure to get test scores (Results©) up will give “ammunition to those who would dismantle urban public schools.”

And, it does plant a nice seed that may help Hiawatha reach its goal of capturing 5% of the market share in Minneapolis.

Maybe this firm can help?

*Job may have already been filled, as the scholar recruitment window is a narrow one.