2007 National Charter Schools Program Showcase, April 5-6, Washington, DC  

This event, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, will bring together educational professionals committed to expanding high quality charter schools and increasing the national understanding of the charter school model. The purposes of the showcase include: expanding the national dialogue about how states can use chartering as an intervention in low performing schools; identifying successful state practices using chartering to comply with NCLB; providing local and state leaders with current knowledge about successful charter school models and practices; and sharing information about available partnerships, initiatives, and technical assistance. Registration for the April event is limited.

2007 Richard Riley Award  

The American Architectural Foundation, in partnership with KnowledgeWorks Foundation, invites charter schools to enter a submission for the 2007 Richard Riley Award. Charter schools which provide a "center of community" that demonstrate community collaboration and innovative design ideas could win a $10,000 prize. The award is open to all elementary and secondary public schools and entries will be accepted between now and July 9, 2007.

2009 National Poll on Public Charter Schools  

According to a new national opinion poll, nearly three-quarters of voters support President Barack Obama's call on states to lift the limits restricting the growth of public charter schools. The poll also found strong support (83%) for the President’s plan to create “Promise Neighborhoods” that use public charters as the centerpiece of integrated services ensuring safe and healthy student development. Thirty-seven percent of voters said they strongly or somewhat favored public charter schools, while 12 percent said they were strongly or somewhat opposed. The poll showed significant public endorsement for key characteristics of the public charter school model, including “holding students, teachers and parents accountable for improving student achievement” (93%) and “giving schools more autonomy in exchange for greater accountability for improved student achievement” (83%).

Arizona Charter Schools Conference, Carefree (November 10-11)  

At its 2008 conference,“Excellence by Design,” the Arizona Charter Schools Association is hosting more than 40 educational sessions led by state and national experts tailored to the needs of public charter leaders, administrators, business managers, teachers and board members. Attendees are encouraged to join round-table discussions, build peer-to-peer networks, and share best practices. The conference features Entrepreneurial Leadership Specialist Gregg Vanourek, Director of School Leadership Development for the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence Glenn Liebeck, Rebecca Gau of the Arizona Charter Schools Association and Dr. Yvonne Chan, who has consistently pushed the limits of education for nearly 40 years as an educator, school leader, and the founder of the first conversion charter school in the nation.

Back to School: Ten Things You Should Know About Charter Schools  

This brief presents ten facts for charter advocates to share with community members, the media, and local and state policymakers to illustrate that charter schools are public schools. Facts include "58 percent of charter school students are minority and 52 percent are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch" and "many charter schools are helping to close the achievement gap for low-income and minority students."

Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement  

( 2000, National Education Service )
This book is a comprehensive implementation guide on the national parent/family involvement standards which are designed to provide the foundation for developing a quality parent involvement program.

Charter School Information: Just For Parents  

This site serves as as comprehensive resource for parents interested in charter schools. It provides information about the charter school movement, tips for finding and selecting a charter school, and ways families can support learning.

Charter School Partnerships: 8 Key Lessons for Success  

Partnering with other organizations can provide charter schools with important financial, human, physical, and organizational resources. This guide offers a variety of lessons learned by over 20 charter schools across the nation about how to form and sustain mutually beneficial partnerships with nonprofit, for-profit and public organizations. It walks charter developers through critical issues and challenges and offers a series of recommendations, including details about the following eight lessons that create the structure of the guide. (1) Weigh the costs and benefits of partnering. (2) Do your homework and choose your partner well. (3) Clearly define the partnership. (4) Create structures for partnership. (5) Leverage your resources; create new ones. (6) Be flexible and prepare for compromise. (7) Check your progress. (8) Lead. The authors caution charter school developers and leaders to choose their partnering opportunities cautiously.

Charter School Press Center  

This website is designed to help charter schools develop positive media relationships. Sample press releases and a PowerPoint presentation on how to talk to the press are available. Also, very helpful contact lists of distribution services, national publications, and charter school and education reporters by state are provided.

Charter School Ratings  

This project of Greatschools.net is designed to help parents and members of the public to better understand the performance of charter schools in their communities. Site users can search the online database to learn what charter schools are located nearby, how well they are performing on state tests and other key measures, as well as access parent reviews of the schools.

Choosing A School for Your Child  

This guidebook provides details about the school choice options families have under the federal No Child Left Behind act and lists the different types of public schools (district, charter, magnet, virtual, etc.) and nonpublic schools from which they can choose. The document is also a workbook designed to help families select a school that will be the best fit for their child by identifying the student's learning style and matching it with the school that will best meet their needs. Several lists of questions for families to consider about an individual school’s environment, faculty, curriculum, approach to learning, academic performance, safety, behavior policy, facilities, services, and extracurricular activities are provided.

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.

Community Development Block Grant  

The State CDBG Program provides states with annual direct grants, which they in turn award to smaller communities and rural areas for use in revitalizing neighborhoods, expanding affordable housing and economic opportunities, and/or improving community facilities and services.

Community Renewal Initiative  

The purpose of HUD's Initiative for Renewal Communities, urban Empowerment Zones and urban Enterprise Communities (RC/EZ/EC) is to create jobs and business opportunities in the most economically distressed areas of inner cities and the rural heartland. HUD re-energized this initiative in December 2001 by designating 40 urban and rural RCs and 8 new urban EZs. These new designees are able to use a remarkable $22 billion tax-incentive package to open new businesses, provide thousands of new jobs, rehab and build new housing, and change lives in urban and rural areas throughout the nation.

Contracts with Parents and Students  

Dozens of charter schools enter into contracts with parents and students. The form and content of these agreements vary widely. In some schools, these contracts are quite general in nature and merely outline some of the expectations of the school regarding student conduct and parent involvement in their children's education. In other schools, these contracts may be quite specific and contain very specific support or involvement requirements. Still other schools enter into contracts with parents and students that outline the obligations and responsibilities of both the school and the parent/student. Though some people criticize these contracts, others view them as an essential ingredient of an effective parent and student involvement policy. Following are examples of parent participation contracts from several charter schools: Charter Learning Center, Jingletown Charter School, Linscott Charter School, Mueller School.

Corporations, Chambers, and Charters: How Businesses Can Support High-Quality Public Charter Schools  

This report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for a Competitive Workforce calls for businesses and local chambers of commerce to actively support the expansion of public charter schools to help meet the national need for a highly educated workforce. The report, "Corporations, Chambers, and Charters: How Businesses Can Support High-Quality Public Charter Schools," recommends five key actions: build a robust supply of high-quality new schools in the communities that need them; fuel the pipeline of human capital needed to operate new schools; address critical operational challenges the schools face; define and improve the quality of schools; and forge charter-friendly public policies through state and local lawmaking.

Creating an Effective Charter School Governing Board (Summary)  

( 2000, Charter Friends National Network )
This summarizes a resource guide offering strategies for meeting the numerous critical challenges that charter school governing boards must meet to build and maintain effective charter school boards. Access the full guide in HTML here. Many online tools, including sample policy statements, self-assessment questionnaires, and sample evaluation forms are available, as are directions for accessing additional resources.

Creating and Sustaining Family Friendly Charter Schools  

( 2000, Charter Friends National Network )
This resource guide offers strategies for involving families and other community members in the design phase and on a day-to-day basis once the school is up and running. The document highlights ways to communicate with parents and other community members about the school as well as ways to improve continuously the school's responsiveness to stakeholders.

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.

Culture formation in charter schools: Two case studies  

( 2001, Rutgers )
The process of culture formation in two inner-city charter schools with different educational philosophies and different approaches to school leadership is examined in this dissertation.

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.

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.

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.

Florida Charter School Conference, Orlando (November 20-21)  

The Twelfth Annual Florida Charter School Conference, hosted by the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice, will take place November 20-21 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Orlando. The theme is "Charters: Providing Choice, Creating Change.”

Full-Service Community Schools Program, Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply March 17  

The federal government's Full-Service Community Schools program encourages coordination of educational, developmental, family, health, and other services through partnerships between (1) public elementary and secondary schools and (2) community-based organizations and public or private entities. That collaboration is designed to provide comprehensive educational, social, and health services for students, families, and communities. The federal Charter School Program encourages charter schools considered a local educational agency (LEA) to work in consortia which consists of an LEA and one or more community-based organizations, non-profit organizations, or other public or private entities in meeting the purpose of this program. New awards for FY2008 are available. Details available online.

HOPE VI  

The HOPE VI program was developed as a result of recommendations by National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing, which was charged with proposing a National Action Plan to eradicate severely distressed public housing. The Commission recommended revitalization in three general areas: physical improvements, management improvements, and social and community services to address resident needs. The activities funded by HOPE VI Revitalitalization grants include the capital costs of major rehabilitation, new construction, and other physical improvements; demolition of severely distressed public housing; management improvements; planning and technical assistance; and community and supportive services programs for residents.

How Community-Based Organizations Can Start Charter Schools  

( 2001, September, Charter Friends National Network )
The emergence of the public charter school movement has contributed new energy and vitality to the emphasis on school-community collaboration. A growing number of charter schools are being designed, launched and operated by community-based nonprofit organizations. This guide addresses creating and sustaining a healthy relationship between a new charter school and a founding nonprofit, leading to the creation and operation of a highly successful school. The guide draws on the latest thinking about building effective partnerships and alliances. It also relies heavily on interviews with the leaders of 15 charter schools founded by pre-existing nonprofits, the leaders of several state charter school support organizations, and representatives of some of the national nonprofits that are actively supporting charter school start-ups by their local affiliates. Several sample documents are included. The document is sponsored by the Charter Friends National Network and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

How to Finance a Charter School Purchase and Construction: A Case Study  

This five-page case study of a Minneapolis charter school, El Colegio Charter School, examines the complex processes for initial financing and refinancing of a charter school building. The founders of this school believed it was important to build equity in the community by owning rather than renting a building. Initial financing through lease revenue bonds, while costly and unsustainable, gave them the opportunity to open their doors and begin to meet their missions. The refinancing process through more traditional means was achieved at minimal costs and great long term savings and gave added capacity both in the short and long-term to meet their missions and goals.

Illinois Charter School Developer's Handbook: Getting Your Charter School Off the Ground  

( Leadership for Quality Education )
While this guide was developed for Illinois' charter schools, charter school leaders in other communities will find that this resource offers practical, valuable advice for the phases of planning, designing, and operating a charter school. Important guiding principles and tips for several areas are provided, including: drafting a charter proposal, gaining community support, developing an educational program and accountability standards, recruiting and enrolling students, designing a school governance structure, recruiting and selecting staff, making personnel policies and contracts, fundraising and budgeting, finding and financing facilities, and complying with laws that apply to charter schools.

Inside the School Choice Crusade  

Kentucky School Updates: A Parent/Citizen Guide  

( 2000, Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence )
The state of Kentucky requires that every public school offer a family resource center. Review suggestions for providing support and learning opportunities for your students in this guide.

National Charter Schools Conference  

The National Charter Schools Conference will be held in Sacramento, February 28-March 3, 2006, in conjunction with the 13th annual California Charter Schools Conference. Online attendee registration & hotel reservations will be available beginning August 15, 2005.

National Charter Schools Week Toolkit  

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has prepared a free online tool kit to help public charter school advocates celebrate charters in their communities in honor of National Charter Schools Week. Tips for planning events, media strategy suggestions, and sample materials including talking points, sample letters, news releases, and fact sheets are provided. While the Toolkit was prepared with National Charter Schools Week in mind, public charter school advocates will find the suggestions for engagement, media tips, and advocacy ideas useful anytime.

National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education  

This collaborative organization advocates for the involvement of parents and families in their children's education.

National Green Charter Schools Conference, Madison, WI (November 7-9)  

The Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin and the Green Charter Schools Network invite the public charter school community to learn about environment-focused public charter schools at the first national Green Charter Schools Conference on November 7-9, 2008 in Madison, Wisconsin. Conference goals include professional development for educators, opportunities for collaboration among environmental scientists and green school operators, and information on public charter school-based environmental education that supports high levels of academic achievement for all students and fosters citizenship and stewardship.

National Public Charter Schools Week, May 5-9  

National Charter Schools Week will be celebrated May 5-9, 2008. A primary purpose of this annual event is to connect public charter school students, parents, teachers, and leaders to policymakers, so they can experience the schools and the enthusiasm of the people supporting them. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools encourages public charter schools to participate in a dynamic video campaign called "See Us Growing Excellence" - go here for more information.

National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs  

( 1998 )
Affirming the significance of parent and family involvement has been a priority of the National PTA since its founding. Over the past 100 years, National PTA has consistently demonstrated that effectively involving parents and families in support of children and their education produces meaningful and lasting results.

New Jersey Charter School Resource Center Handbook  

( New Jersey Charter School Resource Center )
This handbook for charter schools in New Jersey offers information on certification, enrollment, laws and regulations, and parent involvement.

North Carolina Alliance for Public Charter Schools  

Following several years without an active state public charter school association, North Carolina now has a new organization in place that seeks to support high quality public charter schools and expand the public charter school movement throughout the state. The organization will host a state public charter school conference and plans to offer advocacy and technical assistance to member schools and the larger public charter school community. North Carolina has a legislated cap of just 100 schools which it has already reached. With increasing demand from families seeking other public education options, one of the first goals of the organization is to push the legislature to lift the cap. The organization has an online presence as well as a Facebook page.

Outline for a Charter School Annual Report  

( DC Public Charter Schools Board )
This outline guides users in how to craft a description of a school, provide details on student performance, and create an audit report.

Parent and Family Involvement  

( North Central Regional Educational Library )
This website offers an impressive range of resources on family and community involvement in the schools, including "Critical Issues" summaries of research on topics including parents centers in schools and establishing collaboratives and partnerships with community based organizations.

Parent Brochure  

( Arizona State Board for Charter Schools )
While created by a state authorizer, this brochure provides broad guidance to families in how to learn about charter schools for their children. It encourages parents to consider their roles in the education marketplace and offers a list of questions families should ask when interested in specific schools. Examples include: What is the school's mission? What is the organizational structure? What is the school's teaching philosophy? The brochure also offers information about charter school basics and includes a list of additional charter school resources for families.

Parent Institute  

This organization offers resources for parents on a variety of education-related topics.

Parental Involvement Pledge  

( Project Appleseed )
Project Appleseed has developed the Parental Involvement Pledge in effort to help schools increase the amount of parental involvement in education. It a learning compact in which parents take written personal responsibility for their child's education and pledge to volunteer 10 hours each year in their local public schools. Parents may individually complete the pledge on-line or schools may order a package of them for distribution to the entire school community.

Parental Involvement Report Card  

( Project Appleseed )
Project Appleseed has developed a Parental Involevement Report Card to help parents rate their contributions to their child's success at school. The repord card is available on-line and in print, as part of the Parental Involvement Toolbox.

Parental Involvement Toolbox  

( Project Appleseed )
Project Appleseed has developed this toolbox, containing a master copy of the Parental Involvement Pledge, permission to copy the pledge, suggestions for using the pledge, and a copy of their newsletter, Appleseed Today, to help schools increase parental involvement. You may order and purchase the toolbox on-line.

Parental Involvement: Title I, Part A: Non-regulatory Guidance  

This "nonregulatory" guidance details how states, districts, and schools should communicate with parents under the No Child Left Behind Act. The guidance focuses on parents of students who qualify for the $12.3 billion Title I compensatory education program. A timeline of parental-notice requirements that details when parents should receive information on such measures as Title I meetings and school district progress reviews is provided. The document suggests what information individual student assessments and school report cards should provide and how to set up Parental Information and Resource Centers, which the law says should provide training, information, and support to parents. It also recommends that schools provide translations of printed information to parents who do not speak English. In addition, it provides advice and resources on drawing parents into the school improvement process and includes samples of parent-information policies.

Partners in Closing the Achievement Gap: How Charter Schools Can Support High-Quality Universal Pre-K  

This policy brief encourages pre-k advocates and state policymakers to seize the opportunity to include public charter schools in the development of high-quality public pre-k programs. The author highlights that public charter schools are well-positioned to combine the benefits of both community- and school-based pre-k providers. Focusing on pre-k as education rather than childcare, public charters can deliver a seamless educational experience from pre-k through the early grades. At the same time, public chartering allows an increased diversity of providers to enter the pre-k public education space, supports parental choice among pre-k providers, and offers promising new strategies for improving early childhood accountability and better aligning pre-k with early elementary instruction. Several policy recommendations are outlined, including eliminating state policies that bar public charter schools from offering pre-k; allowing public charter schools equitable access to state and federal pre-k funds; ensuring state pre-k programs provide adequate funding to support; including pre-k public charters in the Federal Charter Schools Program; and eliminating caps on the numbers of public charter schools that can be opened.

Partnership for Family Involvement in Education  

This is a good resource for information about building and sustaining family involvement in public and charter schools.

Picky Parent Guide: Choose Your Child's School with Confidence, the Elementary Years (K-6)  

This book, written by a national charter school expert, was created to help parents match their unique combinations of child and family needs to the best available schools of any type (charter, public, private, etc.). It explores how to discover each child's unique set of learning strengths, challenges and styles as well as other capabilities, social needs and other factors important for choosing the right school. The book helps parents address their own values about curriculum and discipline, as well as practical matters like transportation and money. Readers can create customized lists of questions to ask principals, teachers and other parents when visiting schools based on their own unique needs and they can develop a personalized profile of a Great Fit school. The accompanying website PickyParent.com includes additional free tools, such as Group Action Guides for parents wanting to choose or improve schools together and an e-newsletter.

Principal Blogging Project  

The University of Minnesota's Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education was created to boost the number of school leaders who know how to effectively use technology in their schools and districts. The organization has started a Principal Blogging Project to encourage school leaders to create their own blogs to share news and events with the community, to market their schools, and to build community investment. Principals are finding blogs to be good vehicles for community building and charter school leaders, in particular, may find it a strong tool for marketing and public relations.

Reaching All Families: Creating Family-Friendly Schools  

This publication is designed for school administrators & teachers in their efforts to involve parents & families as more active participants in their children's education. This resource takes the reader through the steps school people can take, e.g. preparing handbooks, carrying out home visits, how to do conferences, "positive phone calls," and parent workshops.

School Development Program  

This organization provides a well-known education model that seeks to mobilize all available resources, including families, to support student learning.

Seven Strategies for Success: School-Business Partnerships  

Business is becoming increasingly involved in charter and other public schools. The Daniels Fund has researched why some school partnerships are more effective than others. The report highlights seven strategies for successful partnerships based on the findings. These include: ensure student learning and achievement are the focus of every partnership; create a meaningful process for communicating about the program and recognizing the contributions of business partners; and, regularly monitor and evaluate each partnership and the overall program. Best practices, success tips, and barriers to avoid are also included in this online guide.

Smaller, Safer, Saner Successful Schools  

( 2001, September, Center for School Change, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota )
The federally-funded report shows how urban, suburban and rural communities have modified existing buildings or constructed new elementary, middle and high school public buildings to help increase student achievement and safety. The report was written by Dr. Joe Nathan, who directs the Center for School Change, and Karen Febey, a Humphrey Institute graduate student. The report offers twenty-two case studies illustrated by dozens of color pictures, and a summary of research showing how shared facilities and small schools have increased achievement and safety, while developing stronger community support and involvement in the schools. The case studies describe how schools have used small size or shared facilities (or both) to dramatically improve achievement, attendance and behavior.

Students Describe Their Charter School Experiences  

At the Charter School Student Summit held in St. Paul, Minnesota in December 2004, students discussed their charter school experiences in small groups. This document summarizes their discussions. Students said they were attracted to charter schools because of the small communities and additional attention provided. They liked that they were more likely to be able to work independently and at their own pace. They said their teachers care about them and motivated them to work harder. Relationships with both teachers and other students were significantly better than those at their previous schools.

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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."

The Emancipatory Promise of Charter Schools: Toward a Progressive Politics of School Choice  

Some charter school opponents mistakenly claim that charter schools are solely the territory of the political right. The editors of this new book argue that those with more progressive politics can and do embrace charter schools. They present charter schools as a powerful tool for reviving public participation in education. Charters are seen as a way to expand opportunities for progressive methods in the classroom and to generate new energy for community-based, community-controlled school initiatives. Contributors include well known school choice advocates and education leaders, including Mary Jiron Belgarde, Nina Buchanan, Robert Fox, Herbert Gintis, John King Jr., Melissa Steel King, Alex Medler, Eric Rofes, Stacy Smith, Lisa Stulberg, and Patty Yancey.

The Lottery: Feature Length Documentary  

The Lottery, a feature-length documentary, examines the struggles and dreams of four families from Harlem and the Bronx in the months leading up to the lottery for Harlem Success Academy, one of the most successful public charter schools in the nation. The four families cast their lots in a high-stakes draw, where only a small minority of children emerges with a chance at a better future. The vast majority of hopefuls will be turned away. The film will have limited theatre release beginning May 7; it will be available on DVD beginning May 30.

The School Transformation Plan: A Strategy to Create Small, High-Performing College-Preparatory Schools in Every Neighborhood of Los Angeles  

Green Dot Public Schools was founded in 1999 with the vision of transforming education in California by creating a number of high performing charter high schools. Its schools serve students who have struggled in district schools and now are achieving significantly greater results than comparable schools. This document details the organization's proposed set of strategies to restructure overcrowded and low-performing schools. It is intended to be a whitepaper for Los Angeles to transform its public education system, using chartering as a foundation. Basing its findings on successful charter schools, the document details attributes of high performing schools, which include: (1) small, safe, autonomous, and personalized schools; (2) high expectations; (3) local control with extensive professional development and accountability: (4) more dollars directed into the classroom; (5) parent participation; and, (6) schools kept open late in day.

Tips for Charter Schools in Community-Building  

This document, part of a presentation on "Successful Parental Involvement Models," a session at the 2004 National Charter Schools Conference, offers a three page checklist of ways to include parents, enlist community support, celebrate students, and improve staff morale. The document also offers ways to "get noticed," such as reaching out to the local media and promptly responding to requests for information.

Tools for Marketing Your Education Outreach Program  

U Play! Workshop, February 8 – 10 in New Orleans  

KaBoom, a not-for-profit organization focused on creating great playspaces across the nation, is inviting charter school community members to attend a 3-day training workshop in New Orleans to learn how to build high quality playspaces in their schools. The organization is offering scholarships to cover the $195 registration fee as well as up to $400 to help defray costs of travel. Five thousand dollar challenge grants to apply to the purchase of equipment will also be awarded to over 100 organizations planning to use the KaBOOM community build model to complete playspaces in 2007.

USCS Start-Up Brief: Creating a Family-Friendly Charter School  

This piece provides information and resources on how to create charter schools that are deeply connected to their communities.

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What Should Parents Know About Charter Schools?  

In this audio clip from National Public Radio, Paul Hill, a professor at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, talks about the benefits and potential drawbacks of charter schools.

Wisconsin Charter Schools Conference, Madison, March 22-23  

The 10th Annual Wisconsin Charter Schools Conference will be held March 22 - 23, 2010 at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison. With the theme of "Quality Happens," the conference will host sessions on topics critical to public charter school operators, developers, and faculty and will provide great opportunities for vendors and sponsors to network with charter school leaders.