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Aisha Shule/W.E.B. Dubois Preparatory Academy in Detroit offers college-prep level academics, teachers routinely talk about college as the next step in the academic path, and the works with students and parents during the junior year to begin the college application process start. As a result, 15 of the school's first 19 graduates are pursuing degrees at colleges and universities such as Howard, Stanford, Wayne State, Michigan and Oakland, and more than half of those students have made the dean's lists. The emphasis is on involvement and individual attention: teachers know the names of all 200 students in the K-12 school, and students have teachers' home phone numbers. Together, they build a support network for each child. Not surprisingly, many graduates go back to serve as mentors to the younger students.
At Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse of Detroit, K-5 students learn and grow by exploring their own minds and personalities as well as their world. "Education is not just math and reading," Principal Carmen N'Namdi says. "Education ought to be a journey into you. You need to know what your learning style is, what your real strengths are as a person, and what challenges you." Lessons are designed to educate the whole child, focusing on not only the "Three R's", but also teaching culture and addressing the human spirit. "We believe that when you send your child here, you're joining a community." The school has a strong philosophy of "teaching from the norm." That means there are no Black History Month of special African-American studies in this inner-city school. Instead, culture and history are integrated into every-day lessons. Students do not hear adjectives such as black engineer, black writer or female astronaut, because their use would send a subtle message that being black or female is somehow abnormal and maybe even inferior, N'Namdi said. Nataki previously was a private school; its enrollment has tripled since becoming a charter school.
"From the courthouse to the schoolhouse, the battle rages over the impact and necessity of charter schools in the state of Michigan," reported the The Michigan Chronicle in December 1999. "But for Ken Navarre, owner of Michigan Motor Exchange, the issue is opening the doors of opportunity for young people. ... The Michigan Automotive Academy for five years has trained qualified and educated workers for the depleted ranks of the automotive industry. ... Navarre has served on the school's board for three years and became its president last fall." The Michigan Automotive Academy in Detroit, which trains 10th- through 12th-graders to be automotive technicians, never has trouble placing graduates in jobs or in training and higher education programs. Fifty percent of the 1999 graduates went on to further technical education. Since the school opened in 1995, all but a handful of its 100 graduates have had jobs waiting for them.
Livingston Technical Academy, located in Howell, was created by Livingston County manufacturers and educators to address the needs of booming business and a shrinking pool of technically savvy workers. LTA has had three senior classes and 45 graduates since opening its doors. All students who wanted a job secured an entry-level technical position. Five others have enrolled full-time in college while maintaining part-time engineering or industrial jobs. Students complete intensive internships throughout the year. During a 20-week semester, juniors and seniors spend five weeks working 32 to 40 unpaid hours a week at local businesses. One of those employers is now helping to pay a graduate's tuition at a state university. Livingston Technical was named a model innovative technical high school in 1999 and featured in the 21st Century Career Development Conference at the University of Michigan.
Ford Motor Co. created the Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn - located within the historic, internationally recognized Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village - to give students in grades 9 through 11 a unique education experience, including hands-on access to gems such as Thomas Edison's laboratory, a 1920's-era machine shop and the early printing presses. Visitors to the museum's agricultural display area regularly peer with curiosity through the glass walls of the "classroom among the exhibits." Heath Meriwether, publisher of the Detroit Free Press, calls the school "one of the country's most innovative ideas in education" and has written that nothing else "could match for me the possibilities for greatness and leadership that the academy represents."
New Branches Academy in Grand Rapids was among the first winners of the Michigan Association of Public School Academy's Summit Awards for schools that help students excel academically, overcome obstacles or get back on track. New Branches has returned to a time when schools were a focal point in the community and a gathering place for parents who reveled in being part of their children's education. The K-6 school has created a "learning community" of teachers, students, parents and administrators where children's safety, security, self-confidence and knowledge are a priority. All parents sign an agreement that requires them to spend at least 20 hours a year at school activities. In reality; families averaged 56 hours during the 1998-99 school year; 14 families had more than 100 hours of service.
Dr. Arthur Carter was deputy superintendent for Detroit Public Schools when he pushed the district to authorize seven charter schools, saying, "We want to take advantage of a law that allows for greater parents and teacher involvement in reconstituting a child's learning environment." Once the schools were under way, he left to take the helm at one, Sankore Marine Immersion High School & Academy, where 9th and 10th-grade students use marine science to learn math, English, foreign language and history. They explore careers on the water, including marine ecology and serving with the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard. Carter is a staunch advocate of charters, believing that they will lead educational reform, give parents real choice and make a vast difference in the lives of children.
Ken Tahfs had 32 years of experience in traditional public schools, including many years as a superintendent. Betsy Tahfs was a teacher and principal. Both left traditional schools because they were disillusioned, and now each of the husband/wife team is a principal at a Michigan charter school, Betsy at Chandler Woods Charter Academy in Belmont, and Ken at Vanguard Academy in Wyoming. They say charter teachers, students and parents are more eager, there's far less bureaucracy, the focus is on children and teamwork, and the character education programs are outstanding.
Jack & Betty McCauley are life-long educators: before starting a charter school, Jack has been superintendent of Lapeer schools for 15 years; Betty had directed the district's preschool and day-care services. Now, they direct Chatfield School in Lapeer, which serves 260 children in grades K-6. In a guest column for the Flint Journal, they talked about their charter school experience: of teachers who share their vision and work whatever hours it takes to get the job done; teachers who work diligently with parents; parents who are involved in the school daily; and graduates who return to mentor the children. And they write of intensive oversight from their university authorizer - far more than they ever saw in their former traditional public school system. Says Betty McCauley, "At Chatfield, all of our meetings focus on children. In the traditional school, we rarely talked about the students."
Looking at a world that moves a little too fast and often isn't very kind, Barb Gruesbeck, former member of the Eaton Rapids School Board, and Connie Dykstra feared their children were not seeing the importance of being good people. When the traditional public schools balked at supporting the values they stressed at home, the two founded Island City Academy in Eaton Rapids. "We were so fed up with the lack of moral education in schools that we decided to take the bull by the horns," said Gruesbeck, the mother of seven. "We know we're right on this." At Island City, character education starts with a morning flag ceremony and the "Pledge of Allegiance" and carries through to honoring "students of the week." Staff pick one trait, such as responsibility, honesty or respect, and stress it for a month in lessons.
Being an educator for nearly 20 years, Luay Shalabi saw too many students labeled "slow" or "dumb" because they had a language or cultural barrier. So he and other community leaders of Middle Eastern descent started Central Academy, a charter school where multi-culturalism is celebrated and positive character traits are taught right along with math and reading. The student body is 85 percent Middle Eastern. English is a second language for most and one they may not hear at home. Many were not making good progress in traditional public schools. The school's first state standardized test scores were the lowest in southeast Michigan. Three years later, scores often were double - sometimes as much as five times better in the various subjects. Eighty percent of students tested satisfactory in math, up from 17 percent. Reading also started at 17 percent satisfactory and has skyrocketed to 90 percent.
Threshold Academy in Greenville was started to stem an alarming national trend: many children completely lose their Head Start advantages by third grade; by sixth grade, they often are behind. So leaders at EightCAP, a local community action agency, decided to create a charter school that would carry the Head Start philosophies through six grade. Threshold provides the same developmental services for children and social services for families that Head Start offers.
Students attending the Detroit Academy of Arts & Sciences stay in class eight hours a day, 217 days a year (compared to the required 180). If students stay at the school through 12th grade, they will have received 1.5 more years of education than their peers in traditional public schools. If the Rev. Holley had his way, students would go to school year-round, taking "vacations" like working adults. Daily attendance at this inner-city school averages a remarkable 94 percent. A special foundation, funded primarily by Holley's Country Preacher Foods, is working to guarantee a college education for every student who graduates.
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