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
|
|
 |
|
|
Taking a Closer Look: A Guide to Online Resources on Family Involvement
The Harvard Family Research Project has compiled and categorized recent resources about family involvement, including resources about parenting practices to support children’s learning and development, home–school relationships, parent leadership development, and collective engagement for school improvement and reform. The guide represents the work of 126 national organizations, as well as many state and local organizations whose family involvement initiatives have gained a national reach in terms of training activities, research, and program replication. Charter school founders, leaders, and teachers can use it to find resources to strengthen family–school–community partnerships. The guide is designed to help inspire capacity building and provide ideas for adapting family involvement activities and resources for more effective and relevant practice.
The Coolest School in America: How Small Learning Communities Are Changing Everything
This book discusses the development of the Minnesota New Country School (MNCS), a 7-12 charter school that has no formal classes, but rather supports student-directed projects. The school focuses on individual responsibility and developing skills in resilience, persistence, reflection, and relationships. The book offers a series of essays about learning communities, experiential learning, and place-based learning, and examines how these initiatives are producing positive outcomes. While it can be purchased from booksellers, Education/Evolving offers an online excerpt that discusses the experience of students who attend schools with project-based learning programs. One MNCS student sums it up: "All the annoying stuff is gone: bells, seats, mind on and mind off every forty-five minutes. Nine teachers a day, lockers, all of it gone. . . [and in its place is] a different environment so that learning is relevant and interesting."
Closing the Achievement Gap
The documentary, Closing the Achievement Gap, is now available on VHS and DVD. Originally broadcast on PBS last year, this award-winning film tells the story of Amistad Academy, a public charter school founded in 1999 by a group of Yale Law School students who enlisted the help of local leaders. Amistad serves about 250 primarily minority students in grades five through eight who enter school, on average, more than two years below grade level. By the time they leave the school at the end of the eighth grade, most of the students perform as well or better than their white suburban counter parts. "America’s biggest public education challenge today may be the persistent and dramatic achievement gap between black students and white students. If we could close that gap … and truly equalize educational achievement between the races, most of our other socioeconomic debates would just go away," says journalist Clarence Page, the film’s narrator.
Expanding the Circle: Charter Schools and the News Media
This handbook is designed to help charter school leaders and faculty identify key messages to share with the public, select spokespersons, work with reporters and editorial boards, write opinion pieces, and become generally media-savvy.
Dollars & Sense II: Lessons from Good, Cost-Effective Small Schools
This study and accompanying website provide additional evidence that good small schools can be more affordable and successful even when compared to larger schools in the same district. It offers analysis of data from over 3000 school construction projects, and practical strategies for cost-effectiveness that have been field-tested by small schools. The website allows online viewing and searching of all content of the report. It also provides profiles of successful small schools, and supporting documents such as test scores, budget information, site and floor plans, photos of each school, and other relevant resources.
Show Me the Money: Tips and Resources for Successful Grant Writing
This online guidebook provides practical tips to help grant writers get the grants they need for their education programs.
Texas Charter Schools: An Assessment in 2005
This study, written by two economics professors, found that elementary and middle school students who have remained in Texas' public charter schools for several years achieved significantly higher academic gains in math and reading than their peers in traditional public schools. The authors found that students enrolled in at-risk charter schools had larger achievement gains than their counterparts in traditional public schools. The achievement gains findings did not hold for charter high school students, who were found to under-perform in math and reading compared to high students at traditional public schools. Students at traditional public schools facing charter competition generally achieved significantly higher gains in reading and math than schools that did not compete with charters.
Study: California's Charter Schools Keeping Up
A new analysis finds that California's public charter schools are showing stronger student achievement gains compared to non-charter public schools. According to the study, which looked at Academic Performance Index (API) scores and growth gains from 2004 to 2005, the state's charter schools, on average, improved their API score by 30.0 points, compared to 20.4 points for non-charter public schools. Also, 57.0 percent of charter schools met their federal AYP targets under No Child Left Behind, compared to 55.8 percent of non-charter schools. Charter schools' strongest gains are being demonstrated in the state’s urban areas, where student achievement has traditionally lagged state averages. One in four California charter schools showed significantly high growth rates (50 points or more) on the state’s accountability system compared to one in 10 non-charter public schools.
Special Education and Charter Schools Workshop DVD
This two DVD set of a four hour California Charter Schools Association workshop is designed to address key issues related to charter schools and special education. It discusses the following: who qualifies for special education; which special education students must charter schools serve; how to identify special education students; the Individual Education Plan (IEP); and the charter school’s responsibility in meeting the needs of special education students. "Special Education and Charter Schools: It Doesn't Have To Be Square Pegs and Round Holes" is available for a fee from the Association.
2006 National Charter Schools Conference
U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is now scheduled to participate live, via satellite, on March 2 at the 2006 National Charter Schools Conference (to be held February 28 - March 3, 2006 in Sacramento, CA).* In a conversation with John Merrow (host of PBS' Learning Matters), she will discuss the impact of what is happening in New Orleans on the overall charter school movement. Other featured speakers include Bill Nye the Science Guy and a host of national charter experts and advocates who will share their perspectives on the state of the charter movement. View programming (over 170 sessions and table-talk discussions to choose from) and speaker details, as well as register and make hotel reservations at the conference web site at http://www.charterconference.org. To register by phone, call 800-280-6218. *Participation subject to Senator Landrieu's schedule.
Fall 2005 Charter School Leadership Summit: Blazing the Trail
The Charter Schools Development Center and CharterVoice have announced a 2005 Charter School Leadership Summit to be held in Berkley, CA on November 1-3. The conference is designed to provide charter school developers, operators, and grantors from California and around the nation with guidance on how to develop, lead, and oversee charter schools. Pre-summit "mini-boot camps" offered on November 1 will include "Advanced Charter School Governance," "Start Smart: Charter School Development," and other topics. Ted Kolderie is the featured keynote speaker.
Moving Forward Conference
The 5th Annual Moving Forward Conference will be held at PACT Charter School in Ramsey, MN on October 20. The conference will highlight schools whose best practices have been successful with students in academic and/or non-academic areas. The primary focus will be on the following 3 R's: rigor, relevance, and relationship.
Call for Proposals -- 2006 Wisconsin Charter Schools Conference
A call for proposals is out for presentations for the 2006 Wisconsin Charter Schools Conference. Growth and sustainability through collaboration and partnerships is the theme of the 6th annual charter schools conference to be held April 2-4, 2006 in Appleton. Presentation proposals can be submitted online by November 30, 2005. Questions should be addressed to Sue Steiner at ssteiner@kiel.k12.wi.us.
National Association of Charter School Authorizers Conference
This year's conference of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) -- October 24-25 in Denver, CO -- will engage several hundred charter school authorizers and other education leaders. The conference will feature 40 highly interactive and practice-oriented workshops and roundtables on issues of importance to charter authorizers and others interested in charter schools. Alan Bersin, California's Secretary of Education and formerly the Superintendent of San Diego City Schools, will deliver the keynote address, sharing his vision for strengthening public education through charter schools, choice and competition. In addition, the conference will feature a grand finale by Spark Creative, a professional comedy troupe.
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.
|
