Melani Esman, a kindergarten teacher at Oakland Academy, leads her
class, including Greyson Sharp, right, in a stretching exercise Monday
afternoon. Oakland Academy recently was named the top charter school in
Michigan.By Jeff Barr
jbarr@kalamazoogazette.com
388-8581
PORTAGE -- A charter public school in Portage is tops among Michigan's 230 charter schools, an honor that punctuates what already is a momentous year for the school.
The honor comes as Oakland Academy has doubled its physical size with a new classroom building and continued a decade-long climb in enrollment.
The Michigan Association of Public School Academies bestowed the award at its annual conference in Detroit, which was attended by more than 3,000 representatives of the state's charter public schools.
"We know we have a special school here, run by a special team, but it's nice to be recognized," Oakland Academy Principal Melissa Dahlinger said. "It reaffirms that the team effort we have put together is working."
The publicly funded K-6 school is at 6325 Oakland Drive in Portage, but isn't affiliated with Portage Public Schools. The Behavioral Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Augusta, designed Oakland Academy in 1998 and still manages it today. Grand Valley State University charters the school.
Factors that went into Oakland's No. 1 ranking in Michigan included:
• Small class size (maximum of 20 students per class, and 10 students per teacher).
• Weekly progress reports for students.
• Detailed report cards that include marks for each curriculum objective.
• Independent observers who focus on each individual child's progress.
"This is a model school that deserves replication nationwide," Dan Quisenberry, Michigan Association of Public School Academies president, said after the award was announced Nov. 2.
The focus is on basic educational needs at Oakland Academy, where students scored above the state average last year on 10 of 13 Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests. There are weekly gym, music and art classes, and parents are responsible for transporting students to and from school.
When the academy opened in 1998, there were 25 students in kindergarten through second grade. This year there are 20 state-certified instructors teaching 199 K-6 students (sixth grade is being offered this year for the first time). There is no tuition.
With the opening this fall of the new building for kindergartners through
third-graders, the school has room for 280 students.
"We have the building
capacity for that many, and we would have to make more hires to keep our
student-teacher ratio where it needs to be," Dahlinger said.
The ability to reach students on an intimate level is an integral part of what sets charter academies apart from other public schools. At 10 students per teacher, Oakland's ratio is low even for charter schools.
"I spent 10 years in conventional public education, and I know that we are surrounded by many great public schools in Kalamazoo County," said Dahlinger, 37, who has been principal at Oakland Academy since 2003. "We take those same principles and we apply them in conditions that are even more conducive to successful learning."
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On the Web
For more information on Oakland Academy,
visit www.oakland-academy.org.
