Charter Schools: Assessing the Present, Looking to the Future

Wednesday, March 20, 2013
8 a.m. to noon
Marquette Law School, Eckstein Hall
Complimentary event

Join us as we bring together noteworthy national, state, and local figures to examine the charter school movement. The two-decade-old movement to create independent, publicly funded schools is of major significance—more than two million children nationwide are enrolled in charter schools this year—but the charter impact has been difficult to assess. Speakers will include Margaret (Macke) Raymond, director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University; Sarah Carr, author of Hope Against Hope: Three Schools, One City, and America's Struggle to Educate Its Children, focusing on New Orleans; and a panel of local leaders.

The goal of this conference is to shed light and prod thinking on the significant, but controversial growth of charter schools in Milwaukee and nationally. On both levels, the two-decade-old movement is of major significance in terms of both the number of students and schools participating and the school reform energy that has fueled that growth. But overall results have not met the hopes of charter advocates and the impact on the overall education landscape has been difficult to assess. This conference will feature figures who can bring big-picture perspectives to the subject. It also will provide a forum for local leaders in the charter debate to discuss what would be the most beneficial paths to pursue in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.

The conference is co-sponsored by Marquette University Law School and the Marquette University College of Education.

8:00 a.m.Registration and refreshments

8:30 a.m.Welcome and introduction to the morning

8:40 a.m.New Marquette Law School Poll results on charter and other education questions. Professor Charles Franklin.

9:00 a.m. Macke Raymond, director, Center for Research on Educational Outcomes (CREDO), Stanford University: What Has the Charter Movement Wrought – the impact nationally of the rise of charter schools.

10:00 a.m.–  Break

10:15 a.m.-- Ground level realities: In “On the Issues” format, Sarah Carr, author of Hope Against Hope, a new book on school reform in New Orleans, and former education reporter for the New Orleans Times Picayune and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, talks about the clash of education cultures (charter school reformers versus longtime residents).

11 a.m. – So where should go from here? Panel discussion of local and state figures in charter debate. Panelists: Ronn Johnson, long-time head of Youth Leadership Academy charter school, now leading the launch of a major new charter operation, Universal Schools of Milwaukee, based in Philadelphia; Robert Kattman, retired head of the charter office at UWM and researcher; Bob Peterson, president, Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association; Carrie Bonk, executive director, Wisconsin Charter School Association.

Noon -- Conclusion