Grow and expand high-quality schools serving low income kids
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MMAC, through the direct involvement of its staff and recruitment of its members, has endeavored to support the start-up and growth of school networks that expand high quality education to more Milwaukee students.
Concern over the Milwaukee Common Council's commitment to continue as an independent charter school authorizer leads us to explore creating a new charter authorizer in the City. |
Working closely with Schools That Can Milwaukee (STCM), MMAC helped raise $2.5M to start Rocketship Southside Community Prep (RSCP), which is currently serving nearly 400 low income students.. MMAC staff, in helping RSCP launch, served on the national board as board chair, and today serves as a board member. This experience also led us to support two promising school leaders with their launch of new schools in 2016 (Milwaukee Excellence, a 6-12 MPS charter school, and Stellar Collegiate, a K-5 independent charter school authorized by UWM) as part of the Building Excellent Schools program, which trains school leaders. We helped by serving as the fiscal agent, recruiting board members, and in the case of Milwaukee Excellence, lobbying MPS for its approval.
In addition, MMAC staff worked with STCM to pull together a unique collaboration of school partners to work in concert in one school. The goal was to leverage investment from the business community and turn around a chronically low-performing school — MPS-Carver Academy. This project included STCM on coaching/leadership development, clustering of teachers in the school from Teach for America, City Year teaching assistants and Northwestern Mutual serving as a financial and strategy champion.
And we have engaged to help a host of schools lobby for expansion, including St. Augustine Prep, which will have capacity to serve 2,000 students. MMAC staff also serves on the board of Partners Advancing Values in Education (PAVE), which is focused on the governance, board leadership and business operations of its member schools. MMAC staff continues to work closely with Penfield Children’s Center to support its efforts to secure a facility and its expansion by charter. MMAC engaged directly in helping Carmen High School for Science and Technology develop a path to expand by working with MPS and other constituencies. Carmen was ultimately successful in partnering with Pulaski High school to grow its model. Carmen South serves 366 students; 507 students attend Carmen Northwest. 100% of the 2015 graduates were accepted to a 4-year college or university.
In addition, MMAC staff worked with STCM to pull together a unique collaboration of school partners to work in concert in one school. The goal was to leverage investment from the business community and turn around a chronically low-performing school — MPS-Carver Academy. This project included STCM on coaching/leadership development, clustering of teachers in the school from Teach for America, City Year teaching assistants and Northwestern Mutual serving as a financial and strategy champion.
And we have engaged to help a host of schools lobby for expansion, including St. Augustine Prep, which will have capacity to serve 2,000 students. MMAC staff also serves on the board of Partners Advancing Values in Education (PAVE), which is focused on the governance, board leadership and business operations of its member schools. MMAC staff continues to work closely with Penfield Children’s Center to support its efforts to secure a facility and its expansion by charter. MMAC engaged directly in helping Carmen High School for Science and Technology develop a path to expand by working with MPS and other constituencies. Carmen was ultimately successful in partnering with Pulaski High school to grow its model. Carmen South serves 366 students; 507 students attend Carmen Northwest. 100% of the 2015 graduates were accepted to a 4-year college or university.
Getting actively involved in school partnerships provides the MMAC staff with experienced insight into school operations and the impact of policy changes. We have also worked to recruit business leaders to participate on boards of schools. Here is a summary of school performance for those schools in which a MMAC staff member serves on the board.
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Rocketship Southside Community Prep (RSCP):
Located on Milwaukee's Southside, this fast growing school serves 425 mostly Latino children in grades K4-5. It is part of a national network of schools that provide individualized learning with the aim of closing the achievement gap. The most current 2016 state test results for grades 3-5 are impressive considering that English is a second language for most of these students. |
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Milwaukee College Prep:
Serves 2,000 low income students, mostly African Americans. MCP has continually achieved at a high level relative to MPS for its K-8 grades. |
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Milwaukee Scholars:
Serves 570 students in a K4-8 grade school, part of a national charter network run by Heritage Academies, it has been operating under a UWM charter for 5 years. |
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Veritas High School:
253 students with an emphasis on college acceptance and STEM education, chartered by UWM under Seeds of Health. Tenor High School: Opened in 2005, chartered by UWM under Seeds of Health. Serves 248 students who can graduate in 3 years and attend MATC tuition free for their 4th year. |
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Questions or comments? Contact Andrew Davis at 414/287-4141.