Amber Arellano

Detroit Charter Schools: new accountability movement targets low-performing charter academies

As a black parent frustrated with the Detroit Public Schools, Chris White saw charter schools as the answer for better public education for Detroit's African-American and Latino families.

He helped organize charter schools. He worked hard to successfully convince black Detroiters to believe in them.

Now he has a very different mission: to clean up a charter system that he sees is as corrupt and troubled as the Detroit Public Schools.

"Charters have been reduced to being a decentralized system of fiefdoms that are not held accountable," says White, a leader of the city activist group, Coalition to Restore Hope.

White reflects a movement afoot in Detroit. Some foundations, non-profits, political leaders and grassroots activists are convinced rigorous academic accountability has to be made a part of all schools' governance and management systems to improve performance, including charter schools.

Detroit's charter schools have been like a younger sibling who has many of the serious problems of his older brother, the Detroit Public Schools. Big brother grabs so much attention that the young sibling of charters and their students often get ignored.

Detroit's devastating national test scores underscore the point. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported last week that Detroit's fourth-grade math test score was the lowest among all big cities -- and not even close to the second lowest-performing city.

Charter schools performed just as poorly as traditional public schools in the city. A Michigan State University study of the latest state Michigan Educational Assessment Program test scores shows Detroit charter school student achievement is just as tragic. If Detroit charter students had taken the NAEP test, experts expect they would have performed just as badly, says Sharif Shakrani, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University.

"I often hear Lansing lawmakers say we should close down the Detroit Public Schools," Shakrani says. "They are mistaken. The charter schools are also troubled. The quality problem in Detroit education is across the board."

That's why a coalition of city stakeholders -- from the United Way of Southeastern Michigan to the NAACP, to charter school leaders such as University Prep Academy's Doug Ross and a host of foundations -- are working to build public support for greater accountability among all schools.

Racial, capacity, challenges

The question they have delved into for months is: What has gone wrong with most charters?

While a few charter schools in the city are academically strong and financially well-managed, such as Detroit Edison Preparatory Academy, city leaders and activists cite a common concern about charter school corruption. White speaks for many when he says the same culture in the Detroit Public Schools is at work in charters. Some charter school developers see these academies as an opportunity to create jobs for their friends and families.

State charter leaders and authorizers also have expressed how difficult it is sometimes to close low-performing charter schools, especially when the schools' leaders use the issues of race and ethnicity to prevent shutdowns.

"I've watched charter operators who have been ordered to shut down due to violations, and they would open anyway and not tell the parents," says White, who helped found Detroit's charter Sankore Emerging High School Academy. "Then when the agency moves to shut them down, the leaders would say to parents, 'These white racists are trying to shut down your black academy. They don't care about educating black kids!' The families go nuts."

Capacity and competence are also big problems, says Carol Goss, president of the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation.

"Charters have greater autonomy, but they need great principals, great teachers, strong curriculum and instruction," said Goss, whose foundation funds both strong charters and traditional public schools. "Really, there is no one place to ensure the quality of charter schools or accountability in Detroit or in Michigan."

Will to change

Goss argues that New York City provides a model for more accountability. In New York, the Mayor's Office has an Office of Education that provides accountability and standards, and has the power to shut down chronically failing schools of all kinds.

White worries the city's corruption culture and tradition for selective enforcement of laws would undermine its accountability work. He is exploring the option of federal receivership for the city's schools.

What is striking is that, for the first time since the 1980s, Detroiters and Michigan education leaders are nearing a consensus about the problems and needs of urban schools.

Goss remains hopeful the perennially divided Detroit may come together around a comprehensive city education plan that the ExcellentSchoolsDetroit coalition will present to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing in February.

"For the first time, there's the right leadership, the alignment and the will," Goss says. " I think the community really wants change."

Amber Arellano is a Detroit News editorial writer who covers education policy. Find her columns at www.detnews.com/arellano. E-mail her at aarellano@detnews.com