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
|
|
 |
|
|
Quantity Counts: The Growth of Charter School Management Organizations
For-profit education management organizations (EMOs) and nonprofit charter management organizations (CMOs) represent a small but growing portion (approximately 9 percent) of charter schools nationally. Based on interviews with 10 CEOs of organizations managing 10 or more schools, this report explores lessons from the experience of EMOs and CMOs and examines the common challenges and coping strategies of these organizations. The authors find that the work of management organizations is proving more difficult and more expensive than anticipated, in part because charter opponents have been able to impose high political and legal costs on them. The report suggests ways that management organizations can begin to address these barriers and offers recommendations for funders and policymakers interested in ensuring the long-term viability of management organizations.
The Mind Trust: Education Entrepreneur Fellowship
The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit, has announced an Education Entrepreneur Fellowship that will provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to develop and launch initiatives with great potential to transform public education. With two years of full-time pay, essential seed funding, and links to the expertise and community partnerships they need to succeed, fellows are given the freedom and tools necessary to develop their initiatives. The selection process for the Fellowships will be highly competitive. Applicants must submit a Statement of Intent online no later than January 15, but are encouraged to submit one as early as possible.
Engaging Parents in Education
This federal guide can be used by charter schools to improve or expand parental involvement programs. It profiles the strategies of several Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) designed to successfully increase parental involvement in education. The document emphasizes the power of strong parent-educator partnerships to improve schools and raise students' academic achievement.
Summary of District and Charter School Performance in the Ohio 8: 2006-07
This analysis, released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a charter sponsor, compares the performance of public charter schools with that of non-charter public schools in Ohio’s eight largest urban districts. Across the eight districts, which house the majority of the state’s charter schools, overall performance levels were similar. Six in 10 charter and comparable district students were proficient in reading. In math, about half of charter and comparable district students were proficient. Dayton’s charter schools outperformed district schools by about eight percentage points in reading and math. In the other seven districts, non-charters outperformed charters (by between one-half and twenty percentage points).
New York Charter Schools Conference, November 9-10
The New York Charter Schools Association will hold its annual conference, November 9 and 10 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. Registration is now available online.
National Association of Charter School Authorizers Conference, October 22-23
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers will host its seventh annual conference October 22-23, 2007, at the Hyatt Regency Savannah on the Historic Riverfront in Savannah, GA. Steve Barr, Founder and CEO of Green Dot Public Schools, and James Forman, Jr. of Georgetown University are keynote speakers. With the theme of "Cultivating the Charter Garden," the conference will offer numerous interactive and practice-oriented sessions.
Waiting for the Tipping Point: Why School Choice is Proving to be So Hard
In this article, Paul Hill, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, explains why the choice movement, despite its tremendous potential, is moving so slowly. He finds that schools of choice have had a tougher time than expected finding leaders and teachers, getting the funds they need to be run effectively, proving that their programs work, and creating stable parent clienteles. He suggests some strategies to ease the process, including: forming partnerships between and among charter associations and business schools to identify better ways to attract teachers and manage staff turnover in schools of choice; building oversight capacity in charter and traditional school systems; and experimenting with new forms of charter management organization that cost less and rely more on existing financial-services and staff-training organizations.
Religious Charter Schools: Legalities and Practicalities
This book explores the constitutionality of religion-based charter schools. The author concludes that charter schools present an opportunity for parents and communities to form charter schools that will accommodate their beliefs and is sensitive to the culture and mores of the religious group. He also states, however, that the constitution does not allow them to form schools that endorse their beliefs.
School Turnarounds: A Review of the Cross-Sector Evidence of Dramatic Organizational Improvement
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools that have had inadequate progress for five years are required to restructure. Converting to a charter school is one of the significant reforms that leaders can pursue. This paper reviews the considerable literature from the business, nonprofit, government, and education sectors on what factors make turnarounds most likely to succeed, including the actions turnaround leaders take and the environment in which they work.
The Charter School Flood
The September 10 issue of The Nation profiles the state of public education in post-Katrina New Orleans. The author finds that "the option to charter is often seen as necessary to getting a neighborhood back on its feet." He interviews both conservatives and progressives who see chartering as a way to rebuild New Orleans and to improve the educational opportunities for the city's public school children.
School Choice: The Findings
Author Herbert Walberg, a project investigator at the Vanderbilt University Center of School Choice, Competition, and Achievement, provides a helpful overview on the effectiveness of charter schools, private schools, and voucher programs.
Arizona Charter Schools Association, Annual Conference, October 10-12
The Arizona Charter Schools Association will host its annual conference at the Glendale Renaissance Hotel & Spa in Glendale, Arizona, October 10-12, 2007. Conference information and exhibitor/sponsorship information will be available on the organization's website.
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.
|
