Charter schools

[Staff]

There is a link to the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in the education links section. Links to this charter school and other local schools are in the link section, upper left section of the home page.

[Scoop]

Steve Brandt,
Star Tribune February 24, 2005

Charter schools in Minnesota recorded another year of explosive enrollment this school year, even as the number of students enrolled in public schools dipped.

Growth in the number of suburban charters was a major reason, according to the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota.

Nevertheless, students at charters are more likely to be poor or minority group members than students in districts. Charter schools added about 3,200 students last year, their biggest jump since they began operating in 1992.

In Edina, Rogers, Forest Lake and several other Twin Cities suburbs, there are more than 20 charter schools in operation, which is similar in number to Minneapolis and St. Paul. There are more than 30 outside the Twin Cities.

Charter enrollment statewide was 17,441 last fall, or 18 percent more than the previous school year.

Center Director Joe Nathan said it's his impression that parents of students at suburban charter schools are seeking smaller schools and a distinct program that often emphasizes more traditional and structured teaching.

Low-income students who qualify for subsidized lunches make up 54 percent of charter enrollment but only 29 percent of district enrollment. Minority students make up 52 percent of charter students but 20 percent of district students.

The state has approved more than 30 new charter schools that will open in the next year or two.

Steve Brandt is at sbrandt@startribune.com

and 612-673-4438.


Article was found here... (http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5257724.html)

[Staff]

An excerpt from the link section-Directory of Charter schools...


WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?



Charter schools provide parents a choice in the education of their children--and it is a public choice. Public tax dollars are the primary funding sources for charter schools. Local, state, and federal dollars follow the child to a charter school. The schools have open enrollment with no discrimination, no religious associations, and no tuition. It generally is a small school, averaging 137 students in North Carolina. They are governed by a private nonprofit board of directors. The private nonprofit board is autonomous from the elected Local Boards of Education operating the traditional school system. Many charter schools are thematic in serving children, for example, math and science strands, a focus on character education, reading/literacy-centered instruction, special methodologies in teaching, etc. Others focus their work on serving at-risk or other special populations.


Read more...
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/charter_schools/background.html

[Staff]

Each charter school has their own school board for EACH school. It is not part of CMS. It is possible for the administration to be much more focused in it's attention.

There is a cap on charter schools in North Carolina. There would be a lot more of these schools in this area but their applications are turned down. The cap for the State (I believe) is about 130 schools. There are legislators working on increasing the cap. I'll gather & post relevant info here about that initiative.

An increase in charter schools for this area is an easier and shorter term solution to the CMS crisis for families. An opportunity to opt out of CMS while still staying within public school instruction. See the charter school directory (http://www.ncpublicscools.org/charter_schools/diretory.html) for options close to you.

[Scoop]

Effect on Enrollment At Other Schools Cited

By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 3, 2005; Page B01



A charter school organization that has gained a national reputation for raising test scores among low-income black students in Washington, Baltimore and elsewhere was turned down yesterday by the Anne Arundel County school board in its effort to start a new school in Annapolis.

The board's denial of Knowledge Is Power Program's Harbor Academy underscored the uphill battle facing even established groups that wish to open charter schools in Maryland, which has been slow to embrace the charter education movement.


Charter schools are tax-supported but operate largely outside the school district bureaucracy.


Read the rest of the article here... (Registration Required) (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2483-2005Mar2.html)

[Scoop]

ED kicked off National Charter Schools Week, May 1-7, with Secretary Spellings and other administration officials visiting 8 charter schools across the country.

http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/05/05022005.html

[Staff]

Edison Awarded 2 More Philadelphia Schools

Company Claims Gains, but Still Has Critics

By Robert Strauss
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, May 16, 2005; Page A03



PHILADELPHIA -- Maxcine Collier had been principal of the 400-student Anderson Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia for five years when, in 2001, she was told that a for-profit company, Edison Schools Inc., was going to take over the school's management from the Philadelphia School District.

Parents and teachers were apprehensive, she said. But more than three-quarters of Anderson's students were performing below grade level, according to Pennsylvania state testing standards. The school, in a neighborhood that borders suburban Upper Darby, housed many special-education students from other parts of the city.


http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/largerPhoto/images/enlarge_tab.gif (javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2005-05-16/index.html?imgId=PH2005051500892&imgUrl=/photo/2005/05/15/PH2005051500892.html',650,850)))
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2005/05/15/PH2005051500890.jpg (javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2005-05-16/index.html?imgId=PH2005051500892&imgUrl=/photo/2005/05/15/PH2005051500892.html',650,850)))Teacher Barbara Ann Scott Himmons works with her first-grade class at Kenderton Elementary School, one of the Philadelphia schools operated by Edison. Edison has run 20 schools for three years, with grade-level proficiency up from 6 to 21 percent of students. (By Jim Graham For The Washington Post)

"There was no cohesiveness. Many of the children were from elsewhere, and they didn't bond, which hurts education, especially in urban settings," Collier said. "We knew something had to be done better."

Three years later, Collier said, Edison's curriculum, particularly in math and writing, has doubled the number of children who reach state proficiency levels and has unified her teachers. "We still have a long way to go, but I can see already we are on the right track," she said.

Last month, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, which runs the nation's fifth-largest school district, awarded contracts to Edison to operate two more public schools, in addition to the 20 it gave the company three years ago. The 20 schools were considered among the worst performing elementary and middle schools in the city -- many with less than 10 percent of students at grade level -- and the district was seeking ideas on how to improve them.

Though six other organizations, including Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania, were given contracts to manage schools, it is Edison that has taken the lead and come under the most scrutiny as the third academic year of Philadelphia's school "privatization" trial ends next month. Edison, which manages five charter schools in the District of Columbia, has the largest number of Philadelphia schools under its supervision and is the only provider to be offered more by the commission this year.

It has been loudest at proclaiming its purported successes and, perhaps only because it is the largest, taken the brunt of the criticism. It almost went out of business in 2001 when Wall Street traders dropped its stock to less than $1, contending that Edison could not survive managing a mere 20 schools. Edison has since been taken private and asserts that it is solvent.

"I think a lot of people in public education around the country have been watching us," said Chris Whittle, Edison's chief executive. "It is in Philadelphia where the movement of outside management of schools is most advanced, and Edison is in the lead here. It is our most high-profile commitment ever, and we accept the criticism and praise that will come."

The privatization movement in Philadelphia was an outgrowth of an agreement between then-Gov. Mark Schweiker, a Republican, and Mayor John F. Street, a Democrat, that the state would offer more funding for the city's schools if it had more control over how they were run. The state appointed the School Reform Commission, which essentially runs the district, with James Nevels, an influential attorney and head of an investment firm, as its chairman.

Critics, including the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which represents most of the unionized employees in the district, complained that Edison would reassign teachers willy-nilly. After much wrangling, Edison did not get the exclusive contract it wanted, and the teachers union continued to represent teachers and principals. Though many experienced teachers transferred out of the Edison schools, all the schools began that first year fully staffed.

"There was a concern at the time that Edison wouldn't be solvent, but I am a pension manager and did the due diligence and determined they would be viable," Nevels said. "It has turned out marvelous, too. There was a lot of outcry at the beginning, which isn't all bad. But when we awarded the two schools to Edison at the April meeting, there was nary a peep."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/15/AR2005051500809.html

[Dave Pinard]

Why do charter schools work? Because they live and die by the numbers. Literally. Here's the deal: Charter schools are public schools that function largely free of suffocating bureaucratic rules and union contracts. The nonprofit boards that run them sign five-year agreements - charters - that spell out precise goals for test scores, attendance rates and safety. If a school meets its targets, it gets another five-year pact. If it doesn't, the school is kaput.

"Succeed or die" is the charter school credo. Brutal but effective. Proof? Take a look at the stunning test results these schools posted last week and you'll see a small miracle in the making. The city school system's fourth-graders reading at or above the state standard jumped 9.9 percentage points. Impressive. But charters did a third better, with their pass rate soaring 13.2 points.

Just as striking were the charters' reading test results for eighth-graders. While the rest of the system saw its pass rate droop 2.8 percentage points, charter school eighth-graders gained a solid 5points on the same exam. Those numbers make a hugely compelling case for more charters. But there's a brick wall: Albany allows only 100 charters. For the entire state. By fall, the city will just about max out with 47 of those charters, representing a puny 3% of all city schools.

That's not nearly enough for Chancellor Joel Klein, who trekked up to Albany this month demanding that legislators obliterate the 100-school state cap. How many charters does Klein want? Sky's the limit. Sans cap, said one school official, the city could have 200 to 300 charter schools up and running within a few years. Translation: Hundreds of thousands of children, most of them disadvantaged and from the inner city, would get vastly better educations.


Read the rest of the article here... (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/313033p-267802c.html)

[Staff]

from the July 12, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0712/p11s01-legn.html

A forced conversion to charter school

By Amanda Paulson (http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=C1EDE1EEE4E1A0D0E1F5ECF3EFEE) | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor DENVER - The decision to shut down Cole Middle School this year was not a popular one in northeast Denver. No matter that the school was consistently the worst performer in the state, with reading and math proficiency levels generally less than half the state averages. Parents still worried that reopening it as a charter school would be traumatic for their kids. They saw signs of improvement, they insisted. And they felt that state officials didn't give sufficient weight to their views when choosing to let the nonprofit group KIPP (the Knowledge Is Power Program) administer the new charter school.

Many of those parents have slowly been won over by the tireless efforts of the new school's director to explain the charter and the fact that they can choose to send their children elsewhere. Still, when Cole College Prep opens this summer, a lot of people will be watching.

It's the first forced charter conversion mandated under a new Colorado law for schools that don't show improvement over three years. It's also an early example of what will occur in many more states as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements kick in: Schools failing to improve enough after five years will be replaced by charters or other new schools.

Critics are skeptical, saying such school reforms are relying too much on the largely unknown record of charters. Even charter supporters are split; some see the coming school conversions as a wonderful opportunity, while others say that forcing the schools on a community might destroy the tenet of choice that's so pivotal to their movement.

"The fear is that ... there will be quite a number of schools opening up in the next several years that are called charter schools, but have a totally different history and different culture within them because of the way they were started," says Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

That's exactly what KIPP officials have tried to avoid in Denver. For starters, they quashed the idea early on that students of the former Cole would have to attend the new school. "We said, 'That's not how we work. One of our pillars is choice,' " says spokesman Stephen Mancini. "We don't consider it a takeover; we consider it a transformation."

New leader makes house calls Chris Clemons, director of the new school, has been making door-to-door visits to students' homes to explain the school and its unique requirements - like a 9.5-hour school day, alternating Saturday attendance, and extra weeks in the summer. "There were all these rumors - that we're militaristic, that kids speaking Spanish can't come," says Mr. Clemons, a friendly man with glasses and a goatee. "My job is to tell parents what will and won't be happening."

At Petra Castorena's home, he has the help of an interpreter as he talks to her children Thomas and Angelica, who attend Cole. "Do you guys know what a commitment is?" Clemons asks. "How about a promise? I'm promising to educate you. But for me to be successful, I need you to promise certain things."


Read more...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0712/p11s01-legn.htm

[Scoop]

Excerpts from an Idaho Statesman article announcing a grant received from ED to start new charter schools in Idaho.

http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/extracredit/2005/08/0808.html

[Staff]

A charter school of your own is latest in home amenities

By Jamie Francisco
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 22, 2005

The standard subdivision amenities used to be Olympic-size swimming pools, golf courses and bike trails. But in a dramatic shift, a developer in Kane County proposes to lure home buyers with an $18 million charter school within easy walking distance.

On Monday, Community Unit School District 300, based in Carpentersville, will discuss what could be the first charter school in Illinois built by a developer. School board members will consider whether to give the developer more time to answer their financial concerns about the school or possibly pass on the proposal.
.....

Read the article...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0508220109aug22,1,4346014.story

[Staff]

Marchers Urge Remaking L.A. Campus Into Charters

By Jean Merl and Joel Rubin, Times Staff Writers

Armed with about 10,000 signatures from South Los Angeles parents, students and other residents, hundreds of marchers converged on school district headquarters Tuesday, calling for the district to relinquish control of struggling Jefferson High School and transform it into six independent charter schools.

Los Angeles school district Supt. Roy Romer countered with his own plan to reform the troubled, overcrowded campus, proposing to remove 800 students next fall in order to return the school to a traditional, two-semester calendar and divide it into six "small learning communities."

"We share your urgency," school board President Marlene Canter told the enthusiastic crowd after she, board member Mike Lansing and Romer stepped outside the district's Beaudry Street headquarters to address the marchers.

Steve Barr, founder of Green Dot Public Schools, the charter company pushing to take control of Jefferson, said he was encouraged by the reception the crowd received Tuesday and board members' promise "to work with us."

But Barr said he would push ahead with his plans for the six charter schools and next week will begin recruiting for the fall's ninth-grade classes. Charters are publicly funded, independently run schools.

Romer reiterated his opposition to Barr's plan.

"His deal is he wants to take over the whole school and I'm not into that," Romer said in an interview.

Instead, Romer said he expects to relocate 800 Jefferson students to four other area campuses. The move would lower enrollment at Jefferson to about 3,000 students, enabling the school to switch from the multi-track, year-round calendar it now uses to a traditional schedule, Romer said. The superintendent also called for the campus to be divided into six smaller units. Four would be run by outside education companies and one by Green Dot or another charter group. The sixth would be a joint effort between the district and the teachers union.

Although he does not need the board's approval to enact the plan, Romer laid it out to the board members in a closed-door meeting Tuesday and said he expected the program to be refined with input from board members over the coming weeks.

Lansing said Romer's idea was well received at the meeting, but questioned whether the superintendent was pushing aggressively enough on reform for other low-performing high schools in the 727,000-student district. "We do not want to look at Jefferson out there by itself," he said. "We need to look at what we have to do to bring in some bold reform for all our troubled schools."

Unless the two reach a compromise, Barr and the district could be headed for a showdown over Jefferson. If the board turns down Barr's charter applications, he could appeal to the state Board of Education. On Tuesday, Barr said he would prefer to work out "a local solution."

Marchers began their spirited but orderly two-mile march at a church parking lot south of downtown. Police closed off streets as marchers moved through traffic, waving signs in Spanish and English and chanting, "What do we want? Small Schools!" and other slogans. Barr held his 3-month-old daughter in a carrier strapped to his chest, while many others pushed their children in strollers.

Former Mayor Richard Riordan, long an advocate of small, self-governing campuses, joined in, telling a post-march rally that the alliance plans for Jefferson "can turn around these schools in half the time" it took to rebuild the Santa Monica Freeway after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Riordan was widely credited for leading efforts to get the collapsed freeway reopened in five months.

http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-lausd16nov16,1,5103906.story?coll=la-news-learning&ctrack=1&cset=true