• Category 2

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: 6 - 12
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 594,833
    Student Enrollment: 447
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 96.6%
    White/Caucasian: 1.2%
    Hispanic: 0.6%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0.3%
    Native American: 0.3%
    Other: 0.9%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18
    % Reduced Lunch: 77%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 2016
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Maurice Thomas
  • CONTACT:
    4950 N. 24th St.
    Milwaukee, WI 53209
    414-464-7188
    info@mkeexcellence.org
Milwaukee Excellence Charter School
Milwaukee, WI
We believe that we are in control of the pathways of our students.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Scores: We have a full day of professional development after each round of MAP testing. We spend the entire day analyzing the data and making individual plans for each student.

We spend nearly $2,000 per teacher on professional development each year. All students receive Chromebooks, binders, and all supplies from Milwaukee Excellence at no cost.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
As it stands, 90% Milwaukee Excellence families would refer us to another family based on our latest survey. Each quarter we celebrate all students based on their GPAs and their character.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
If it's not working, we will change it tomorrow. That's it.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
1) All students in 8th grade will score above the 50th percentile on MAP in reading and math.

2) All high school students will score at least a 24 on the ACT during their junior year.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Transportation presents both an opportunity and a challenge for our school. The opportunity lies in our ability to be accessible to all students across the city. This separates us from other high-performing charters, many of whom do not provide transportation to students. The lack of transportation usually means those schools are populated with students that are economically more advantaged than students at Milwaukee Excellence. The ability for a parent to own a car and transport students daily is a sign of economic prosperity compared to many of our parents that do not have readily available transportation nor jobs with flexible schedules. We believe more charter schools should provide transportation to students no matter the cost.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Reading and math scores for African-American students are at a historic low for our city. The academic program at Milwaukee Excellence is a common-sense approach to meet the needs of Milwaukee’s economically-disadvantaged students. Our approach gives students double reading (120 instructional minutes) and double math (120 instructional minutes) to accelerate student achievement.
Explain how ESEA federal funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
We use ESEA funds to travel with our students so they can see opportunities outside of Milwaukee and realize their fate is not determined by their zip code.

Getting students out of the classroom and engaging in expeditionary learning is a critical part of their development as future citizens of America. For the majority of our students, Milwaukee has been home for their entire life. Many sixth graders had not left the state until this past May, when 90 sixth graders and a staff of eleven embarked on a weeklong visit to Washington, D.C. While in D.C., students visited two university campuses, Howard University & Georgetown University, toured countless monuments, and visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Museum of African American History & Culture, as well as the Holocaust Museum.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
We will use data as our main strategy to make changes for any initiative that will increase student achievement. We engage in a root-cause analysis at multiple levels. Below are examples of our data-driven systems:

Wildly Important Goals: These are our large schoolwide goals used to know if we are achieving our desired outcomes over time. Our Wildly Important Goal is “100% of 8th graders performing above the 50th percentile on all Measures of Academic Progress tests by 2020”.
Data Cycle Meetings: Teachers and leaders meet with Mr. Thomas to discuss and analyze their class data monthly. It is a rigorous interrogation of the data.
Teacher Performance & Evaluation: Teachers are evaluated bi-annually on a 5 point scale weighted based on student achievement results, our core values, student surveys, parent surveys, and instructional moves.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
We are a no-nonsense school when it comes to adults. We believe that we are in control of the pathways of our students. When students make mistakes, we believe they can fix them through restorative measures.

Restorative measures means a continuum of school-based alternatives to exclusionary discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions, that: (i) are adapted to the particular needs of the school and community, (ii) contribute to maintaining school safety, (iii) protect the integrity of a positive and productive learning climate, (iv) teach students the personal and interpersonal skills they will need to be successful in school and society, (v) serve to build and restore relationships among students, families, schools, and communities, and (vi) reduce the likelihood of future disruption by balancing accountability with an understanding of students’ behavioral health needs in order to keep students in school.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: 6 - 12
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 594,833
    Student Enrollment: 447
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 96.6%
    White/Caucasian: 1.2%
    Hispanic: 0.6%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0.3%
    Native American: 0.3%
    Other: 0.9%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18
    % Reduced Lunch: 77%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 2016
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Maurice Thomas
  • CONTACT:
    4950 N. 24th St.
    Milwaukee, WI 53209
    414-464-7188
    info@mkeexcellence.org