NEA: Charter Schools In the first half of 2002, the california State Board of Education reduced fundingto 46 charter schools after an audit found the schools failed to follow http://www.nea.org/charter/
Extractions: For and About Members Help for Parents Press Center Legislative Action Center ... Vouchers Updated: Mar 27, 2003 Research NEA Resources Other Resources NEA policy embraces high standards, accountability and strong local control for charter schools. It also offers guidance in the form of various criteria that can significantly improve the chances for success of these programs, which after 10 years are still in the experimental stage. Among other things, NEA firmly believes that all affected public education employees must be directly involved in the design, implementation and governance of these and other educational programs. Charter schools are part of the landscape of public education. According to the Education Commission of the States, as of August 2001 there were more than 2,300 public charter schools serving more than 500,000 students nationwide. The Commission reported that 37 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have laws providing funding and permitting charter schools to operate. However, many of those statutes are being revisited and revised in light of a number of charter school failures, some with disastrous consequences for students. NEA's position on charter schools is necessarily general. State laws and regulations vary widely, and NEA state affiliates have positions that are appropriate to the situation in their states. For example, accountability for meeting high academic standards is an essential component of successful charter schools. But not all state charter laws have strong accountability requirements. In addition, not all state laws require charter schools to develop programs conforming with state or local academic standards, and many charter laws do not require charters to participate in the state accountability system.
Extractions: State: CA, Country: United States CSDC's workshop schedule through summer of 2001. While many of the workshops do focus on issues of special relevance to California charter operators, several are of broader interest as well. Click here for more categories for Southwestern and Western US Click here for more Charter Schools categories
Extractions: Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY. How Well Are Charter Schools Serving Urban and Minority Students? ERIC/CUE Digest, Number 119. THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC Charter schools have become popular because many people believe that they can provide a high quality education to public school students without the regulatory constraints imposed on conventional public schools. Charters are created and managed by an entity comprised of parents and/or teachers, community and/or business leaders, non-profit organizations, or for-profit businesses. The District of Columbia and 25 states now have laws permitting these independent public schools to be chartered by school districts or the state Department of Education, and thus they can receive public monies for their operation. The autonomy granted the schools varies widely, however. Urban areas are particularly fertile ground for the development of charter schools because there is a great need to find ways to improve education in the face of poor resources and overcrowding in the public schools. However, since most urban students are either disadvantaged or members of minority groups, there are concerns that charter schools may "cream off" the students identified as easiest to teach (frequently white or middle class children), leaving the remainder to founder in arguably inferior conventional public schools.
ED422600 1998-02-00 Charter Schools. ERIC Digest, Number 118. 1. charter schools in california, Colorado, and Minnesota have had their contractsrenewed because they produced measurable achievement gains, including that http://www.ericfacility.net/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed422600.html
Extractions: Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management Eugene OR. Charter Schools. ERIC Digest, Number 118. THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC In seven short years, the U.S. charter-school movement has produced about 800 schools in 29 states and the District of Columbia, enrolling over 100,000 students. Charter schools reflect their founders' varied philosophies, programs, and organizational structures, serve diverse student populations, and are committed to improving public education. Charter schools are freed of many restrictive rules and regulations. In return, these schools are expected to achieve educational outcomes within a certain period (usually three to five years) or have their charters revoked by sponsors (a local school board, state education agency, or university). WHAT EXPLAINS CHARTER SCHOOLS' GROWING POPULARITY?
SCOE Charter Schools! 476 COMMUNITY MIDDLE COLLEGE california charter School No All schools sponsored bythe Stanislaus County Office of Education Martin G. Petersen, Superintendent. http://www.valleybusinesshighschool.net/
Extractions: Filed April 04, 2002 There are only 214 days left until the midterm election, and, like Diogenes going door-to-door in search of an honest man, Democratic Party strategists, desperate to win back the House, are wandering across the political wasteland in search of an issue to run on. They seem so lost: the economy is bouncing back, fear of an energy crisis has dimmed, Enron's stink has proved bipartisan and President Bush's wartime popularity has Republican candidates feeling smug enough to question the patriotism of any dissenters. (The only question is: when will the first "Can you trust your family's safety to Dick Gephardt?" ads hit the airwaves?) For some reason, politicians on both sides of the aisle, normally slavish poll-watchers, are choosing to ignore what voters, in poll after poll, are telling them: that education is among their top concerns often at number one. But finding a politician willing to talk about fundamental reform of America's education system beyond the presidentÂ’s anemic Education Act is harder than locating a flat chest or a real one at the Playboy mansion.
National Hispanic Business Association WEB SITE. ARIZONA charter schools, HBSA @ Arizona State University, californiacharter schools, LBSA @ california State Polytechnic University Pomona, http://www.nhba.org/CHARTERS.html
Extractions: Fax: (512) 495-9730 CHAPTERS BY STATE WEB SITE ARIZONA CHARTER SCHOOLS HBSA @ Arizona State University CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOLS LBSA @ California State Polytechnic University- Pomona HBS @ California State University, Los Angeles LBA @ California State University, Northridge LBSA @ Santa Clara University HBSA @ San Diego State University LBA @ University of California, Santa Barbara ILLINOIS CHARTER SCHOOLS LABS @ University of Illinois, Chicago INDIANA CHARTER SCHOOLS HBSA @ University of Notre Dame MICHIGAN CHARTER SCHOOLS NAHBS @ Michigan State University NEW MEXICO CHARTER SCHOOLS HBSA @ New Mexico State University OHIO CHARTER SCHOOLS HBSA @ Ohio State University TEXAS CHARTER SCHOOLS HBSA @ Southwest Texas State University HBSA @ Univeristy of Houston HBSA @ University of North Texas HBSA @ University of Texas at Austin Home About Us Alumni Career Center Chapters Leadership Conference Membership National Hispanic Business Association
Cyber Charter Schools: Session Notes he notes. Currently, onethird of california's charter schools offersome form of independent or cyber education program. So far http://www.ncsl.org/programs/educ/CyberChartSch.htm
Extractions: (Co-sponsored by the ASI Education and the Communications and Information Policy Committees) A growing number of states are authorizing cyberschools for K-12 and higher education, providing greater opportunities for students to learn in an environment not limited by time or location. This session examines how states are funding, staffing and measuring success in this new world of cyber education.
SCCAC Resources - Resources For Charter Schools Join us charter schools Office, california Department of Education Importantinformation from the california Department of Education on charter schools. http://sccac.lacoe.edu/resources/charter.html
Extractions: The California Network of Educational Charters (CANEC) is a statewide nonprofit, non-partisan association of individuals and groups who share the belief that charter schools provide exciting options for meaningful educational reform and allow communities to invent the type of schooling that meet their unique needs. The Center for Education Reform's Charter Schools Chester E. Finn, Jr., Louann A. Bierlein, and Bruno V. Manno, January 1996. The Hudson Institute launched the Charter Schools in Action project in the summer of 1995 to study problems in starting a charter school and solutions to such problems. Its researchers takes a look back. Charter Schools: The Northwest Experience
Not Getting It Quite Right On Charter Schools While Freedom and Innovation in california's charter schools, edited by Ronald G.Corwin and John F. Flaherty, is useful in some minimally descriptive ways, it http://www.edexcellence.net/library/notget.html
Extractions: July 1996 A new report on charter schools in Californiaincluding a special analysis comparing them to charter schools in other statesis a good example of how the charter school world is quickly becoming the latest arena for politicized education policy research. While Freedom and Innovation in California's Charter Schools, edited by Ronald G. Corwin and John F. Flaherty, is useful in some minimally descriptive ways, it has both methodological and analytic problems. Not the least of these problems is the fact that the report reaches some overzealous conclusions that either overlook or contradict information contained in the report itself. This leads one to suspect that parts of the analysis are more the result of an establishment-style political agenda than of close attention to the facts as those were known to the authors. Since 1991, 20 states have passed laws permitting a form of public elementary and secondary education known as charter schools. While publicly financed and accountable, these schools usually are not run by local school boards or other government bureaucracies but instead are governed by an independent board of trustees.
Charter Schools Spur Public Reform approximately 370,000 students. california's 240 charter schoolsenroll nearly one in three (around 105,000) of these students. http://www.edexcellence.net/library/charspur.html
Extractions: The Plain Dealer , November 19, 1999 More and more Americans are becoming acquainted with charter schools: independent public schools of choice, free of the usual rules but accountable for results. There are now nearly 1,700 such schools in 32 states and the District of Columbia, enrolling approximately 370,000 students. California's 240 charter schools enroll nearly one in three (around 105,000) of these students. Yet, for all the attention they receive, charter schools are dwarfed by the behemoth of U.S. public education, enrolling only about three-quarters of 1 percent of all public-school students. Consequently, many see them as scattered specialty shops for the families who choose them. Charter schools, according to this view, are not true agents of change in the larger public-school system. Rather, they may retard change by easing the demand for reform and giving dissidents an outlet. The public-school establishment reacts to charter schools four ways: stopping them cold; keeping them few and weak; fighting back and outdoing them; or embracing them. The first two reactions are the most common. Yet, the charter movement has gained enough momentum to challenge this kind of opposition.
WestEd - Charter Schools Education by charter Restructuring School Districts From Paper to Practice ChallengesFacing a california charter School More on charter schools Issues at a http://web.wested.org/cs/wew/view/top/4
Extractions: Creating Excellence for All Students: Transforming Education in Los Angeles Creating Working Relationships: How Can School Districts and Charter Schools Work Together Effectively? Education by Charter: Restructuring School Districts From Paper to Practice: Challenges Facing a California Charter School ... WestEd Resource Catalog 2002
ERIC Digest 118 - Charter Schools charter schools in california, Colorado, and Minnesota have had their contractsrenewed because they produced measurable achievement gains, including that of http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/digests/digest118.html
Extractions: Clearinghouse on Educational Management Previous (Digest 117) PDF Version Next (Digest 119) By Margaret Hadderman In seven short years, the U.S. charter-school movement has produced about 800 schools in 29 states and the District of Columbia, enrolling over 100,000 students. Charter schools reflect their founders' varied philosophies, programs, and organizational structures, serve diverse student populations, and are committed to improving public education. Charter schools are freed of many restrictive rules and regulations. In return, these schools are expected to achieve educational outcomes within a certain period (usually three to five years) or have their charters revoked by sponsors (a local school board, state education agency, or university). What Explains Charter Schools' Growing Popularity? Some members of the public are dissatisfied with educational quality and school district bureaucracies (Jenkins and Dow 1996). Today's charter-school initiatives are rooted in the educational reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, from state mandates to improve instruction, to school-based management, school restructuring, and private/public-choice initiatives. Many people, President Clinton among them, see charter schools, with their emphasis on autonomy and accountability, as a workable political compromise and an alternative to vouchers. The charter approach uses market principles while insisting that schools be nonsectarian and democratic. For founders, starting a brand-new school is an exhausting, yet exhilarating experience that "stirs the creative and adaptive juices of everyone involved" (Ray Budde 1996).
Washington Charter Public Schools The results of this study showed that, on average, california's charter publicschools outperformed their conventional public school counterparts at every http://www.wacharterschools.org/old_updates/junefifth.htm
Extractions: Dear Friends, In 1999, the California Legislature enacted accountability legislation which required that all public schools be rated on a performance index. An analysis of the performance ratings for the 1999 school year was recently prepared which compares the performance of charter public schools with other public schools. The results of this study showed that, on average, California's charter public schools outperformed their conventional public school counterparts at every level elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The California Network of Educational Charters (CANEC) is the association which represents California's 250+ charter public schools. CANEC 's announcement about the newly released study is below. For a copy of the study, or for more information, contact CANEC's Helen Wallquist at (916) 448-0995 or visit the CANEC web page at www.canec.org THANK YOU for all you do to bring the CHOICE of charter public schools to the children, families and educators of Washington!
Charter Schools Work Harder To Fulfill Broad Expectations Shasta County charter school. charter schools are new to pubic education,particularly in california. charter schools are different http://www.redding.com/news/speak/past/20030316speak050.shtml
Extractions: Recently at breakfast, I bought a S.F. Chronicle, mainly to read the Sporting Green about Cal Bears basketball. On the front page was the headline, "Bankrupt Dreams," about Oakland public schools being the biggest school district bankruptcy and state bailout in California history. This reminded me about the recent closure of Pathways.com, a Shasta County charter school. Charter schools are new to pubic education, particularly in California. Charter schools are different because they are given flexibility from thousands of regulations in the education code in order to build a new system based on student performance instead of legal compliance.
Hawaii Association Of Charter Schools: News california charter School Conference 2001 A charter Odyssey March 1517, 2001. HawaiiAssociation Of charter schools Conference 2001 The Rising Tide November 9 http://www.k12.hi.us/~bwoerner/hacs/news.html
Parents Advocating School Accountability Information Page charter schools are public schools that operate largely unshackledby the 12 massive volumes of the california Education Code. They http://pasaorg.tripod.com/charters/charters.html
Extractions: The Fresno Gateway lost its charter in January after the Chronicle revealed its $1.3 million in debt, uncredentialed teachers, employees without criminal background checks and falsified attendance records. Allegedly, its 14 satellite schools illegally taught religion, charged tuition and reported bogus students.
Extractions: by Dr. Mark H. Shapiro "Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.".... ...Rita Mae Brown Commentary of the Day - July 21, 2001: Charter Homeschool Funding - The California Debate. Right now there is a bit of a "dust-up" taking place in the California State Legislature over the issue of funding for homeschool charters. For those readers who may not be familiar with all the various incarnations of charter schools, homeschool charters are schools that have been chartered by a school district or county board of education to provide services for students who are being home schooled (usually by a parent). Under the California charter laws these homeschool charters have been receiving the same amount of per pupil funding from the state as other schools based on the "average daily attendance" figures for the operation. This amount, typically, is about $5,000 per student. A number of critics have pointed out the potential for profiteering inherent in this arrangement. Since these homeschool charters have no school sites to maintain and do not need to hire teachers, they can operate with far lower overhead than either regular public schools or site-based charter schools. State senator Jack O'Connell, a Democrat from San Luis Obispo who has been active in school reform efforts, added an amendment to this year's state budget legislation that would reduce the funding for homeschool charters by 30%. This money would be transferred to site-based charters in low-income neighborhoods. If this amendment receives final approval approximately 90 charter schools (about one-third of all the charters in California) would be affected.
Extractions: Home Members Only What's New Site Map ... Jobs Charter Schools Are Here to Stay Alex Medler Alex Medler is a policy analyst with the Education Commission of the States in Denver, Colorado. C harter schools have landed on the education scene with a splash. As the numbers of these independent public schools and the attention they are receiving continue to grow, it's time to step back and ask what have we learned about them so far. Although states and school districts shape their charter schools differently, some common elements are found in all of them: They are independent public schools, formed by teachers, parents, and/or community members. They are freed from state and local laws and policies in exchange for written contracts or charters that specify certain student performance results that must be met. Those that fail to meet their contract terms can be closed by the board or agency that approved them.
Harvard University Press/Inside Charter Schools Inside charter schools takes readers into six strikingly different schools, froman evangelical homeschooling charter in california to a back-to-basics http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/FULCHA.html
Extractions: Contributors: Jennifer Jellison Holme, Luis Huerta, Eric Rofes, Amy Stuart Wells, Ash Vasudeva, Edward Wexler, Patty Yancey, and Kate Zernike Deepening disaffection with conventional public schools has inspired flight to private schools, home schooling, and new alternatives, such as charter schools. Barely a decade old, the charter school movement has attracted a colorful band of supporters, from presidential candidates, to ethnic activists, to the religious Right. At present there are about 1,700 charter schools, with total enrollment estimated to reach one million early in the century. Yet, until now, little has been known about the inner workings of these small, inventive schools that rely on public money but are largely independent of local school boards. Inside Charter Schools takes readers into six strikingly different schools, from an evangelical home-schooling charter in California to a back-to-basics charter in a black neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan. With a keen eye for human aspirations and dilemmas, the authors provide incisive analysis of the challenges and problems facing this young movement. Do charter schools really spur innovation, or do they simply exacerbate tribal forms of American pluralism? Inside Charter Schools provides shrewd and illuminating studies of the struggles and achievements of these new schools, and offers practical lessons for educators, scholars, policymakers, and parents.