Grand Valley State University has seen a lot of success as an authorizer of charter schools and sets to continue that achievement by expanding its number of charters for this fall, but sometimes schools just can’t meet the requirements.

WayPoint Academy, one of GVSU’s charter schools in the Muskegon area, closed its doors after the 2012-2013 school year due to low enrollment and academic performance.

“The board voted to close the school at our encouragement,” said Tim Wood, special assistant to the president for charter schools at GVSU. “We worked with that board and school for the previous three years, changing the administration, changing the management company but there was still no improvement in academic achievement.”

The academy’s finances suffered as well due to the low enrollment, which is another reason the charter school closed.

Some 228 students will be without a school next year with WayPoint Academy shutting down. To remedy this, GVSU’s Charter Schools Office (CSO) met with superintendents from the area to discuss taking those students into their schools.

An attorney has also been put in charge of dissolving the school and will be hosting two parent-student meetings with other schools to help students decide where to attend.

“We have a contract with each of our charter schools,” Wood said, adding that requirements that are basically the same across the board.

Four standards that focus on academic performance and fiscal responsibility must be met by each charter school. However, schools may remain functional if they meet only two or three of those requirements as long as they are showing progress, Wood said.

University Prep Science and Math Schools is one of 31 GVSU charter schools in the Detroit area. Margaret Trimer-Hartley, superintendent of the schools, said GVSU uses several methods to oversee the performance of its charter schools.

“First of all, on the operational side, we have to have a balanced budget,” she said. “We also have to meet performance metrics. We have to perform at a higher level than our host district, (and) then we have to outperform an average weighted blend of students that are in attendance.”

The weighted blend score comes from the charter school’s composite district, which is determined by the percentage of students attending the charter school who are from other schools. The composite district test score takes the other schools’ scores and weights them based on the percentage of students in attendance.

In addition, the charter schools must meet or exceed the 50th percentile on the nationally administered Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test, which is given in the fall and the spring. The test measures how much students have grown academically, with the 50th percentile equaling one year of academic performance growth in one school year.

Charter schools also send reports every month, and individuals from GVSU’s CSO are sent to check on schools’ progress.

“We have a representative attend every board meeting and find out the workings of the school, (and) a data management person who helps interpret their MAP data to help drive the teachers’ instruction,” Wood said.

The CSO also sends instructional technology specialists, reading specialists to work with the schools’ reading programs, and a classroom management person who helps teachers with student disciplinary issues.

GVSU has done a lot of professional development at University Prep Science and Math Schools, Trimer-Hartley said.

“I’m not a charter school zealot,” she said, mentioning that there are great public, private and charter schools, but there are also lousy ones.

“What I believe has gone well in Michigan, particularly at Grand Valley, is that there has been some innovations that have come about with charter schools with being a little bit freer,” she said, noting that less political motivation and bureaucracy allows the charter schools’ boards to move more swiftly and make decisions.

“The school boards are not meddlesome,” Trimer-Hartley said. “They’re not there to tell us how to do it.”

Though GVSU appoints the school board, it does ask for recommendations from individuals at the school, Trimer-Hartley said.

According to the CSO’s website, GVSU chartered its first three schools in 1995 and now has 51, with 42 of those serving grades K-8 and the remainder grades 9-12, with plans to expand.
“Next fall we’ll have 61 schools,” Wood said, adding that they are mainly in urban areas spread throughout the state.

GVSU also has a statewide cyber school, Michigan Virtual Charter Academy, with similar requirements as regular charter schools, but allows students to attend classes virtually from their home with a learning coach or parent.

Many school districts have failed students for years, and the charter schools allow students to go to school in their neighborhood, Wood said.

“Grand Valley is involved in the education business and we think there’s something to be said about an educated citizen,” Wood said. “If we have an educated population, I think everyone benefits.”
In the end, it’s about giving fresh options.

“We’re providing choice and opportunity,” Wood said. “Choice for parents to choose a good school and for students to receive a solid education.”