In order to help Michigan compete to receive up to $400 million from the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” federal incentive program, the Michigan legislature on Saturday passed a series of bills to expand high quality public charter schools, provide alternative administrator and teacher certification, link student performance data to teacher effectiveness, and mandate state intervention for the persistently lowest-achieving schools.

While there are a number of details in the legislation that still need to be analyzed, and interpretation by the Michigan Department of Education will be necessary before implementation can begin, the following are highlights of the legislation:

Charter School Expansion – Schools of Excellence
A limited number of new charter school applicants, in addition to those existing charter schools that deliver exceptional academic success, especially those with high achievement among at-risk students, will have the opportunity to become “Schools of Excellence” under the legislation, which will allow for the replication of additional high-quality charter schools and will attract the nation’s best charter school models.  Schools of Excellence will be authorized under a new 6e section of the revised school code.

For new applicants, up to 10 “Schools of Excellence” can be authorized, with each one modeled after a high-performing school model and located in a school district with a graduation rate of less than 75%.  The first five (5) of these schools must offer high school grades.

For cyber schools, up to 2 statewide cyber charter schools can authorized as a “School of Excellence,” with a total enrollment cap of up to 1,000 per school.

For conversion schools, existing 6a charter schools can convert to become a “School of Excellence” if they meet any of the following criteria on average over a 3 year period:

• A K-8 school with at least 90% MEAP proficiency in Math & ELA; or
• A K-8 school with at least 70% MEAP proficiency in MATH & ELA and at least 50% of their enrollment is eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch; or
• A high school with at least an 80% graduation rate, at least an 80% attendance rate, and at least 80% of graduates enroll in post-secondary education

Administrator and Teacher Certification

• All public school administrators will need to be certified under this legislation.
• Existing administrators will have up to three years to complete the certification process.
• The MDE must approve alternative paths to administrator certification, such as the program currently being used under MI-Life.
• The MDE must also approve alternative paths to teacher certification, allowing programs such as “Teach for America” and the “New Teacher Project” to operate in the state.
• These programs attract the brightest college graduates to teach in urban cities for up to two years – and studies have proven them to be very successful at improving academic achievement for at-risk students.
• Under this legislation, all public school teacher and administrators will be evaluated and compensated, in part, based on the academic achievement levels reached by their students.

Intervening in Failing Schools

• The new federal definition of  “persistently lowest-achieving schools” will be any traditional public school or charter public school that meets the following criteria:
  • Is in Phase 1 or greater of AYP (failed to reach AYP for 2 consecutive years; and
  • Is among the lowest 5% of the state in academic achievement; and/or
  • Is a high school with a graduation rate less than 60%
• The state will be developing an intervention plan for all of these schools that will require at least one of the following models:
  • Turnaround Model
  • Restart Model
  • Intervention Model
  • School Closure
• In addition to this new federal definition and intervention plan, any public charter school that doesn't serve an alternative or special student population that has been in operation for at least four years and has reached Phase 2 of restructuring will be ordered closed by the State Superintendent of Instruction.

Memorandum of Understanding for R2T

• Any public school academy that would like to receive “Race to the Top” funding must have a signed MOU with the MDE on file prior to the state’s application for this funding.
• We strongly urge every PSA to sign this MOU, as the state reform plan will be consistent with the education reform legislation referenced above.
• The signed MOU should be delivered to your ISD or MAPSA no later than January 7, 2010.
• Please click here for a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding with MDE re: R2T.

“Race to the Top” Education Reform Bills:

• SB 981 (Kuipers) – Charter expansion bill
• SB 926 (Thomas)
• HB 4787 (Melton)
• HB 4788 (Johnson)
• HB 5596 (Pavlov)

We understand MAPSA members will have a number of questions about the implementation of these bills, and we will provide additional guidance and recommendations in the weeks ahead.