For Release:
1:00 pm
May 11, 2010

Contact:
Gary G. Naeyaert
517-374-9167

  
STRONG PERFORMANCE OF MICHIGAN’S CHARTER
SCHOOLS CONFIRMED IN NEW STATE REPORT
Michigan Department of Education annual report to the Legislature
highlights success of innovative public schools with at-risk students

Lansing, MI – Students in the state’s public charter schools continue to demonstrate improved academic achievement, especially with at-risk students in underserved communities, according to a report approved today by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).

Highlights of the 2009 Public School Academy Report to the Legislature include:

• 240 public charter schools served more than 103,000 students in the state.
• Most public charter schools are located in the 23 traditional districts comprising the “comparison districts” historically used by MDE for the purposes of baseline comparisons.
• 15 authorizers, which include colleges, universities, ISDs and local school districts, are active in their monitoring efforts and provide needed resources for their charter schools.
• Students in charter schools generally outperform students from demographically similar traditional districts when measuring MEAP performance.
• Approximately 10% of charter school students received special education services
• 64% of charter school students qualified for free or reduced lunch
• Approximately 72% of Michigan charter schools made AYP in 2008-09
• Two-thirds of public charter schools have waiting lists
• Public charter schools received an average of $7,412 per pupil in the state funding in 2008-2009, which is nearly $2,000 less than per-pupil revenue in traditional districts.

“We appreciate the strong endorsement of the public charter school sector represented by this report by the Michigan Department of Education. The Department and authorizers invest considerable time and energy to monitor and evaluate each and every public charter school in the state, and this report shows the system is working,” said Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA).

Quisenberry added that the charter school movement looks forward to working with MDE and other stakeholder groups to develop a more thorough “growth model” to measure student growth for the purposes of evaluating teacher and school leader effectiveness, which is required under new federal and state laws.

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Please click here to access the MDE 2009 PSA Legislative Report.

The Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA) has been the unified voice of the public charter school movement in Michigan since 1996.  MAPSA represents over 110,000 students, 5,000 teachers, dozens of authorizers and more than 50 education service providers working in 243 public charter schools in the state.  MAPSA assists the state's public charter schools in their mission to deliver achievement, choice and accountability through our advocacy, communications, technical assistance and professional development services. For additional information, please visit www.charterschools.org

MAPSA
215 S. Washington Square, Suite 135
Lansing, MI  48933
517.374.9167 p | 517.374.9197 f
www.charterschools.org