Twenty metro-area charter schools will get help improving their academic offerings as well as their organization because of a $2 million grant from Cargill.

Macalester's Center for School Change, which received the grant money, announced Monday that it will work with LarsonAllen consulting to offer assistance to charter schools looking to improve operations as well as the quality of education they offer.

"Part of the future is wrapped up in [charter school] kids," said Joe Nathan, director of the Center for School Change. "And while some charters are doing a great job, others need to do better. ... Our goal is to be very aggressive about increasing student achievement."

The grant is a nod to the fact that since their inception in 1991, some charter schools have struggled with the operational side of education while trying to improve schools for children.

The state has seen several high-profile failures as charter schools' increasing popularity brings growing pains, with some schools troubled by subpar student performance, shoddy fiscal management and conflicts of interest in school governance.

Issues such as financial and strategic planning have sometimes fallen by the wayside with a push "to get those dollars as close to the students as possible, which sometimes leaves the infrastructure getting short shrift," said Ben Aase, a managing consultant with LarsonAllen.

According to Nathan, they have not yet decided which schools will get grant money. Charter schools will be chosen from those in Minneapolis and the north and west suburbs. Schools that meet goals set out in their grant work will receive financial rewards.

The Center for School Change will work with the schools to help reduce the achievement gap, Nathan said. That means faculty will get help using research-based teaching methods, schools might extend their school day and school year, and families will need to get more involved.

LarsonAllen will help the schools with how their organization operates.

"It's about strengthening the infrastructure that really supports programming and curriculum," Aase said.

If a school is nearing the end of its contract with its sponsor, for example, LarsonAllen would help the school with strategic business planning for the next stage of its contract, he said.

Minnesota's charter schools are unique in that almost all of them work on their own, outside of a larger network, and "they don't have the same level of opportunities to work in an interconnected way."

The grant work will continue over the next three years.

"What is clear is that there are some charters that are doing a really good job with youngsters, and there are some that are not," Nathan said.

Emily Johns • 612-673-7460