Chapter 220 program producing results

Posted: Dec. 27, 2011

Students in the Hamilton School District's Chapter 220 program are performing much better than their peers in their resident school district, a report given to the Board of Education said.

The Chapter 220 program, which dates back to 1987, allows students from the Milwaukee Public School District (MPS) to attend suburban school districts. This year, the Hamilton School District hosts 108 students from MPS. All of the district's Chapter 220 program students graduated from high school last year. In fact, 100 percent of the program's students have graduated over the last five years. Considering that MPS graduated just 66.7 percent of its students in 2009-10, it's clear that the Milwaukee students enrolled at Hamilton have greatly increased their chances at success in life.

The 100-percent graduation rate even outpaces the Hamilton School District's overall 2009-10 graduation rate of 96.2 percent, but while the numbers look great, they do represent a very small sample size.

The graduation rate is based on only about 20 Chapter 220 students each year. District spokeswoman Denise Dorn-Lindberg suggested that the students participating in the program also may be more motivated to succeed in education in the first place.

"The kids who decide that they're going to ride a bus for over an hour each way may be coming from families where there's a greater priority on education," she said.

Dorn-Lindberg said that on average, the district has roughly 100 seats for Chapter 220 students, and those students enter a lottery to land a seat in the suburban school districts they select.

"Typically they'll put their name on more than one school list, because there are a lot more kids applying than those who will get accepted," she said.

The selection process is random, although applicants with siblings already enrolled in a school district receive some priority.

Chapter 220 differs from traditional open enrollment in that MPS also provides the transportation to the suburban school district. Open enrollees must provide their own transportation if they choose to attend a school outside their district.

In addition to the extra per pupil state aid the district receives, the host school district also receives additional state money for participating in the program.

The report, delivered at the Dec. 19 school board meeting, also highlighted student performance data. Approximately 70 percent of Chapter 220 students scored in the advanced and proficient levels on the state standardized testing, while 60 percent were advanced and proficient in mathematics. Those numbers fall well short of Hamilton's district-wide averages of 90.8 percent in reading and 87.8 percent in mathematics. But when compared to MPS scores of 40.2 percent in reading and 31.6 percent in mathematics, the numbers seem much more favorable.

Nonetheless the district hopes to address that achievement gap going forward.

Dorn-Lindberg said the district hopes to close not only the achievement gap between Chapter 220 students and the rest of the district, but also for English-second language, special education, and minority students as well as students of a low socioeconomic status.

Said Dorn-Lindberg, "We're looking to take it now to the next level as well. The goal is to have more students participate in high-quality, rigorous kinds of programming."

She said the district will guide more students toward Advanced Placement and honors courses and focus on getting more students to take the ACT.

On the whole, it seems that Chapter 220 students have a much better chance of gaining a positive educational experience in the Hamilton School District.