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our school.

4 Initiatives Seek to Raise Student Proficiencies

  Posted: May 8, 2010

Leaders and backers of the handful of high-energy “no excuses” schools in Milwaukee are launching efforts aimed at tripling the number of children attending such schools in the city.

The goal proclaimed by leaders of four efforts that have sprung up almost simultaneously is to raise the number of students in such demanding schools from about 6,000 now to 20,000 by 2020.

If the efforts succeed, they will dramatically change the education landscape in Milwaukee and, backers hope, make widespread the high achievement levels of the schools that are at the center of the new effort.

But for the effort to succeed, major political, institutional and financial hurdles will need to be jumped. People on both sides of the longstanding, giant chasm between partisans for Milwaukee Public Schools and partisans for charter schools and private voucher schools will need to cooperate and focus on matters of improving the quality of education where they might actually find common ground.

The question all the new efforts are beginning with is: How can the success of schools such as Milwaukee College Preparatory, 2449 N. 36th St.; Bruce-Guadalupe, 1028 S. 9th St., and St. Marcus Lutheran, 2215 N. Palmer St., become more widespread?

All three have programs that include longer days than most schools, rigorous curriculums, demanding disciplinary environments, strong intervention with struggling students, and a relentless focus on achievement. All three also have principals recognized for their excellence. College Prep and Bruce Guadalupe are charter schools, authorized to operate through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and St. Marcus is a religious school that is part of the publicly funded voucher program. None of the three screen students to admit only those likely to do better, and all three have consistent records of strong results.

Four initiatives
The four new efforts are overlapping and appear not to be competing with each other. They are:

• The founding of an organization, Schools That Can Milwaukee. St. Marcus, Milwaukee College Prep and Bruce-Guadalupe are members of a national coalition of independent schools serving low-income communities called Schools That Can. Participating schools must meet benchmarks such as having at least 75% of students rated as advanced or proficient in standardized tests. The new organization is an affiliate of that, and leaders are aiming to help existing schools reach the group’s standards, help make possible the opening of new high-performing schools, and attracting more nationally recognized school operators to Milwaukee.
• The launch by PAVE of a program to work with 11 schools to improve their quality or expand their size or both. PAVE - a long-standing support organization for private and charter schools in Milwaukee - seeks to help schools strengthen such things as governance structures and use of student performance data, as well as to help them raise money for building needs, says its president, Dan McKinley.
• Creation of a charter school advocacy committee, made up of many of the leading charter school figures in the city and chaired by former legislator Dennis Conta. The group has been meeting monthly, with the goal of increasing the quality of charter schools in the city, including closing low performing schools.
• The formation of an organization of voucher school leaders focused on improving educational quality. Leaders of about 50 voucher schools - a bit less than half of the schools involved in the voucher program - have joined, said Henry Tyson, principal of St. Marcus and president of the group.

Behind the new efforts lie two dominating facts: After more than a decade of rapid growth, the voucher and charter movements have not demonstrated they are getting any better results overall than MPS. At the same time, a small group of those schools are demonstrably high performing.

McKinley said the goal of the charter and voucher movement was to raise citywide quality.

“We confront the idea that it hasn’t,” he said.

The MPS role
McKinley, said leaders of the effort want to cooperate with MPS leaders.

“It’s just an outrage that we can’t have more good schools,” McKinley said. “We know how to do it. Let’s break down the old political barriers and get it done.”

Several MPS administrators and principals have been involved in some aspects of the effort. But especially at a time when a new superintendent is arriving and the financial situation of the system is stressed, the prospects for cooperation are uncertain, at best.

Some School Board members are dismissive of the record of “no excuses” schools around the country and have opposed efforts to bring in nationally known charter school operators. Some of the operating practices used at the hard-charging schools conflict with existing rules established in MPS labor contracts.

But MPS involvement and cooperation may be the key to whether the ambitious goal of 20,000 students by 2020 can be reached. The voucher program is nearing the 22,500 cap in enrollment set by the Legislature - highly likely to become a controversial issue soon. And MPS and UWM are nearing the caps they effectively have set on charter school operations, leaving only City Hall as a likely prospect for expansion of independently operated schools in Milwaukee as of now.

On the other hand, the three schools at the core of the new drive - Milwaukee College Prep, St. Marcus and Bruce-Guadalupe - are undertaking expansions.

How dramatic are the differences between the program and success of a school such as Milwaukee College Prep and other schools in the city?

Consider one example: In the test results recently released by the state, 85% of fourth-graders at College Prep were rated as proficient or advanced in reading.

Three blocks away is Metcalfe School, opened by MPS a decade ago with hopes it would be a model for success. This year, 26% of Metcalfe fourth-graders were proficient or advanced in reading.

Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School. He can be reached at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.

Milwaukee College Prep on Sunday Insight

On April 18, 2010 Milwaukee College Prep School received a shout out on the Charlie Sykes’ “Sunday Insight” television program for having such outstanding Reading scores on the recent state tests. Follow this link if you would like to hear the 21 minute long discussion about the challenge our state faces in having the lowest reading test scores in the nation.
http://www.620wtmj.com/podcasts/charlie_sykes_podcast/sundayinsight

Want to salvage public schools? Try character education

To people who run companies, honesty and punctuality are as important as computer literacy. Traits such as these are about respect for ourselves and others; they make up our character. Without character, quality work is almost impossible to produce no matter the number of employee incentives.

This is why we believe in character education. Starting in primary schools, we are advocating for a culture of character, one where we respect each other and are willing to sacrifice some personal pleasure for the greater good. It pays in more ways than one.

There is a national organization, Character Education Partnership, and a local chapter, Wisconsin Character Education Partnership, enabling schools to incorporate these fundamental ideas across the curriculum and in the atmosphere of the school.

At its inception in Washington, D.C. in 1993, the CEP thought character education was an end unto itself. What was hoped for was proof that character education affected academics.

The CEP outlined Eleven Principles as its core belief. (See the Web site www.character.org.) Nothing about the Eleven Principles is sectarian or related to ethnicity or economic background. Character can be found or taught anywhere.

CEP observed a host of problems resulting from loss of character emphasis in America. Not the least of these being the decline of the American education system relative to the performance of other countries.

After 17 years, the data is in. Our hopes were well-founded. When teachers, students and school administrators respect each other, reading, math and science scores go up. This is without a change of curriculum, text books or the addition of expensive equipment. (We’re not Luddites; we’re for technology, but if a school is in turmoil how will the students learn to use it?)

Milwaukee College Preparatory School (MCPS), on N. 36th St., is a shining example of this concept. Its outstanding academic results are evidence. The school was the recipient of a National School of Character award in November of 2009. Check out these facts:

In fourth-grade reading scores, MCPS scored 21% better than MPS; eighth-graders scored 15% better. In math, MCPS fourth-graders scored 27% better than MPS and eighth- graders 24% better.

About 98% of MCPS graduates remain in high school. Nearly 66% of the first MCPS graduating class went to college. Other schools from California to New York incorporating the Eleven Principles see the same results.

Curriculum experimentation is expensive and confusing to children. New equipment is expensive. Instructing principals and teachers how to encourage children to exhibit good character, especially by modeling it, is not expensive. CEP seminars are the primary method for disseminating knowledge about character education. Then, schools are given freedom to develop a program best suited to their circumstances. We believe with the Buddhist monk that, “There are many paths to the top of the mountain.”

Milwaukee is in the midst of a heated debate about salvaging our distressed public schools. Nowhere have we heard discussions about character education. We’re here to help. Teaching kids to be good is low hanging fruit with a lifetime payoff making for a productive society.

If you suspect we have a vested interest in this debate, we confess. First, we want children to be proud of themselves and excel academically. Second, we want them to be successful contributing members of society. Third, we hope they join the workforce of companies in southeastern Wisconsin.

By Richard R. Pieper Sr., Rich Teerlink and Ron Sadoff
Posted in the Journal Sentinel: Jan. 9, 2010
Richard R. Pieper Sr. is the founding CEO/Chairman of PPC Partners. Rich Teerlink is the former CEO/Chairman of Harley Davidson and Ron Sadoff is founder of Sadoff Investment Managers and founder also of Milwaukee College Preparatory School.

Now is the Time for Charter Schools

By Alan J. Borsuk of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: May. 5, 2009

The stars are aligned for good things to happen for the charter school movement in America, the president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools recently told a couple of hundred leaders of such schools in Wisconsin.

“We have a moment in front of us like none other,” Nelson Smith said, a chance to increase quality and the impact of charters as a whole.

Now, he said, if they could just get more people to understand what charter schools are.

So it is for charter schools - growing, providing both exciting and unsettling results, and still trying to establish themselves, both in practice and in the public mind.

In Milwaukee and nationwide, some of the most successful and attention-worthy schools are charter schools. So are some of the schools at the bottom of the spectrum. And a lot are in-between, with achievement results on a par with most other schools and with programs that are not particularly innovative.

Statewide test scores released last week showed strong results for schools such as Milwaukee College Prep on the north side and the new Carmen High School on the south side, both charters serving low-income minority students who are not screened for academic ability before admission.

Find the complete article:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/44422062.html

Milwaukee College Prep Wins Character Award

In his Journal Sentinel blog, Alan Borsuk celebrates the success of Milwaukee College Prep School. Milwaukee College Prep has been named a National Finalist in the National Schools of Character (NSOC) awards program by the Character Education Partnership (CEP) in Washington, D.C. Read the full article: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/41328482.html

On the Road to College and Beyond

Alumni Director, R. Slaughter is featured in an October 2008 Journal-Sentinel article about the importance of middle school students planning ahead for their future careers. The article addresses “an overall movement that has seen middle schools increase their attempts to get adolescents more focused on their futures through such activities as college campus tours.

“‘The younger, the better,’ said Reginald Slaughter, Director of Alumni Services for Milwaukee College Preparatory School, a city charter school where the classrooms are named after colleges and student field trips include tours of college campuses from Columbia University to Boston College. Recently, 38 students at the school took an all-day trip to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

“‘If you wait until they get into high school to consider whether they want to go to college, their time is up,’ said Slaughter, whose school serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade.”
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/33618484.html

Star of Teaching Award

Edward Richerson, 8th grade Math teacher has been selected as Wisconsin’s 2007 American Star of Teaching. This National award was presented Oct.12,2007 at an all school assembly by U.S. Dept. of Education Assistant Secretary, Terrell Halaska who flew to our school from Washington D.C. There were 4000 teachers nominated for this award from across the country, and Mr. Richerson was chosen as the winner for the State of Wisconsin. This is a phenomenal, well-deserved tribute for Mr. Richerson and an indicator of the high level of teaching that pervades classrooms throughout Milwaukee College Prep. Edward has been teaching math at Milwaukee College Prep for three years. In that time he has had a profound impact on the lives of the students he teaches. Under his watch, students’ scores at the proficient or advanced levels on standardized math tests have increased from 51 to 67 percent. The school’s principal, Mr. Robert Rauh called Richerson an “awesome role model with a tough love style that has helped students’ growth in life skills parallel to their growth in math skills.” Alan Borsuk from the Journal Sentinel recognizes Mr. Richerson in his Oct. 15, 2007 blog.
http://blogs.jsonline.com/education/archive/2007/10/15/national-recognition.aspx

Joanne Williams, FOX 6TV came to the school to recognize Mr. Richerson along with a piece on the 5pm news on Oct. 15, 2007.
Click to view article and video and type Milwaukee College Prep School in the search area.

Here is an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Sept. 25, 2007 “Reading gap is nation’s worst”.

In an article written by Alan Borsuk, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Sept. 4, 2007, Milwaukee College Prep School was used as an example of a school that continues to achieve excellent results.