On average, the funding gap between charter schools and traditional schools is 22 percent, or $1,800 per pupil. The average charter school ends up with a total funding shortfall of nearly half a million dollars.
Source: Charter School Funding: Inequity’s Next Frontier
|
|
 |
|
|
Creating Strong District Choice Programs
Public school choice - letting parents decide which public school is the best place for their child and allowing and enabling the transfer to that school - is a key strategy in current federal legislation aimed at improving educational outcomes. This handbook examines the choice options provided by some of the nation's districts, including open enrollment, magnet schools, alternative schools, concurrent enrollment, and charter schools. It is designed to help districts implement choice options more effectively, and draws on the experiences of five districts that have had a history of implementing choice prior to NCLB. It provides ideas that have been implemented in these districts and elsewhere, as well as relevant research and resources.
Education Resources for Spanish-Speaking Families
This new website features free education-related reports and resources for Latino parents, community leaders and advocates. It offers Spanish-speaking parents access to information about educational opportunities, outcomes, advocacy, accountability systems and school reform initiatives, such as charter schools. Also included are tools for parents to help them understand their rights and advice on how to get more involved in school improvement efforts. The site is also available in English.
Charter Schools Benefit Community Economic Development
This paper examines how charter schools are making an impact on community economic development. Community-based organizations are starting their own schools, and charter schools are expanding their services, growing into comprehensive community organizations. As neighborhood schools improve, fewer urban families are moving to the suburbs in search of quality public education. Charter schools are purchasing or leasing and renovating vacant and dilapidated properties. The author provides numerous examples of the connection between existing charter schools and community economic development.
Special Education Accountability: Structural Reform to Help Charter Schools Make the Grade
California school districts are withholding as much as 37 percent of the funding for special education students attending charter schools. As a result, the majority of California charter school directors surveyed in this study say they are not satisfied with the special education arrangements between their charter schools and school districts. The study makes several recommendations to boost the performance of special education programs in charter schools, including: 1) let special education funding follow the child; 2) use special education cooperatives and insurance; 3) employ value-added testing; and 4) connect explicit financial incentives directly to student performance.
Parents Network for Better Education
This organization, supported by charter school groups, seeks to unite the parent populations in Southeastern states by providing information and training about their rights in public schools. The goals of this project are to provide parents with the tools they need to understand their state's accountability, their opportunities for charter schools and other public school choice options, services under the No Child Left Behind act, and to generate more choices in school districts and states. The project will be managed by the Center for Education Reform, in partnership with four major statewide groups that focus on parents and public school choices: the South Carolina Association of Public Charter Schools, the Florida Consortium of Charter Schools, Georgia Charter Schools Association, Inc., and North Carolina School Choice, Inc.
Charter Schools Program: Non-Regulatory Guidance
This updated version of the Charter School Program (CSP) draft non-regulatory guidance addresses questions regarding student admission to charter schools, the use of lotteries, private school conversions, and the involvement of for-profit organizations in charter schools. It also addresses how businesses, faith-based communities, and other community-based organizations and individuals associated with them can be involved in the development and operation of charter schools.
The Impact of the New Title I Requirements on Charter Schools: Non-Regulatory Guidance
This updated version of nonregulatory guidance provides guidance regarding the impact of Title I requirements on charter schools (under the No Child Left Behind Act). It describes the accountability-related responsibilities that the authorized public chartering authority, or another entity designated under state law, must carry out when a charter school has been identified as in need of improvement under Title I. It highlights the resources that may be available to support the authorized public chartering authority (or other entity) in carrying out those responsibilities. It also clarifies that a charter school that receives assistance under the Department's Charter Schools Program may use an admissions lottery that gives extra weight to students seeking to change schools under the Title I public school choice requirements.
Summary of Recent State Policies and Activities
This site offers a summary of education policies enacted in each state this year. Separate summaries are available for cyber charters, charter districts, charter evaluations, charter school finance, and charter schools in general. The items are collected from state web sites, state newsletters, StateNet, and Westlaw; the site is updated monthly.
Built for Quality: The Capacity Needed to Oversee Charter Schools
This brief examines the human, organizational and financial resources needed for effective authorizing. It explores the challenges commonly encountered in securing these resources, and discusses capacity-building strategies used by leading authorizers.
Charter School Laws and Partnerships: Expanding Opportunities and Resources
This policy brief investigates the provisions in state charter school laws that facilitate or inhibit schools' ability to partner with for-profit, nonprofit, and public organizations.
The researchers found that state policies have a noticeable effect on both the prevalence and types of charter school partnerships that exist. States with permissive partnering guidelines are fostering a wide range of charter school partnerships with nonprofit, for-profit and public entities. The study also shows that states with established charter school resource centers tend to have more partnerships. The brief suggests that partnerships hold promise for leveraging resources, enhancing the delivery of educational services and, ultimately, for improving student achievement.
Suggest resources for this newsletter:
http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/n/index.htm.
To unsubscribe:
To be removed, send an email:
FROM: your email address
TO: cs.unsubscribe.a.19@email.edgateway.net.
Or you can manage your subscription via your user profile. For assistance, please contact us at uscharterschools@wested.org.
To subscribe:
Get your own subscription to Charter Schools Resource Update at: http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/n/index.htm.
We respect your right to privacy. Please read our privacy policy. To subscribe or contribute news items you will need to register with USCharterSchools.org.
Charter Schools Resource Update is sponsored by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and distributed by WestEd.
|
