Center For Education Reform Advocacy, statistics, resources and guidance on education reform issues and action at the school, district, state and national levels, from School http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Center For Education Reform The Center for Education Reform, the nation's leading authority on school reform, is dedicated to making schools better for America's children by http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
About Charter Schools From The Center For Education Reform California Charter School Legislation, Laws, Schools Websites. Texas Charter School Legislation, Laws, Schools Websites http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
California Department Of Education School Directory. Staff Directory more California Department of Education 1430 N Street Sacramento, CA 95814 Contact Us Web Policy http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
EdSource Online Spotlight on California High School Performance http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Manhattan Institute Graduation puts charter school on map By Nicole Gelinas, New York Daily News California A Report on the Lawsuit Industry in California, 2005 http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Charter School Accountability Update California Charter School California Charter School Accreditation Program The California Network of Educational Charters (CANEC) has announced what it is calling the first http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
The Tubman Report From Paper To Practice (Full Text) This document provides a brief overview and summary of From Paper to Practice Challenges Facing a California Charter School, a Technical Report http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
National Association Of Charter School Authorizers - California authorizers implement a sound petition process. Special Education. Our Reference Guide to Special Education Law for Charter School http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Julian Charter School Julian Charter School a K-12 public school designed to help parents educate their children with State adopted standards as guidelines. http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Charter School Overview the same state standardsbased tests taken by all public school students. The first official step in creating a charter school in california is the http://www.edsource.org/edu_chart.cfm
Extractions: In fewer than a dozen years, Californias charter schools have grown from a handful of schools to 459 schools (with 68 charters pending) in 200304. These schools serve about 2% of California public school students. Although affecting only a small number of the states students, charter schools raise complex and provocative education policy questions for California. California became the second state in the country (after Minnesota) to enact charter school legislation when lawmakers passed the Charter Schools Act of 1992 Charter schools are public institutions, planned and organized by groups of educators, community members, parents, or others. In California, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, universities, and other agencies may operate these schools. A charter school runs independently under a performance agreement that spells out its educational program and goals and is funded on a per-pupil basis. A school district or county office of education (COE) is usually the sponsoring agency (or chartering authority), though in limited circumstances the State Board of Education (SBE) can play that role. Some charters begin as public schools that convert to charter status (called conversion schools), and others are start-up schools. Charter schools must be nonsectarian and nondiscriminatory, with enrollment by lottery in cases where the demand for pupil slots exceeds the supply.
California Charter Schools Association Our work on behalf of member schools and the charter school movement to leadthe articulation of industry accepted standards for charter school quality http://www.charterassociation.org/cnt_quality_programs.asp
Extractions: Quality Statements Questions and Answers Quality Statement Return California Charter Quality Institute ... Teacher Network By fostering an innovative culture of student achievement, the California Charter Schools Association seeks to drive the development of high performing charter schools in California.
Charter Schools Development Center california s charter schools legislation,SB 1448, moves the regulation of schoolsfrom a system progress on school standards;. Ô CLAS results; http://www.cacharterschools.org/charteraccount.html
Extractions: Home Charter School Resources Accountability and Assessment School Reform, Accountability, and Charter Schools School Reform, Accountability, and Charter Schools Making Charters WorkStrategies forCharter School Developers Brief No. 2 Spring1994 By Linda Diamond Editor's Note: This charter schools policy andpractice brief discusses the importance of establishing meaningfulstudent outcomes and reliable assessments in order to implement andevaluate charter schools. California's charter schools legislation,SB 1448, moves the regulation of schools from a system accountablefor compliance with regulations to accountability based onperformance. Charter schools must identify their student outcomesand develop assessments which authentically measure thoseoutcomes. Few schools have the experience of technicalexpertise to ensure that the effective and powerful instructionalprograms and will provide credible accountability information. Evenfewer schools have established benchmark outcomes as indicators ofstudent progress; nor have they developed clear performance criteriafor making important decisions, such as student promotion. This brief discusses the ways some Californiacharter schools have tackled this issue and provides suggestions forfuture charter developers.
CANEC-In The News charter school standards, Accreditation Editorial, The Orange County Register.This week the charter school movement in california took a long step forward http://www.canec.org/inthenews.html
Extractions: Although most people still don't even know they exist, charter schools remain the best hope for reforming public education. Not surprisingly, the people in the trenches of this 10-year-old experiment keep finding themselves fighting rear-guard actions against the education establishment. Now they are going on the offensive. Charter schools are public schools set up free from most state and local regulations. They are usually created by parents and teachers, and hew to a charter spelling out their purpose, goals and rules for operating. They get the same amount of tax dollars as traditional schools, but the campus, rather than the district administration, controls the money. Accredited Status Taking on Cachet in Charter Schools Education Week The California Network of Educational Charters hopes its new accreditation program will serve as a tool to help charter sponsors - which in California are mostly local school districts - do a better job of holding such schools accountable. In that way, network leaders aim to blunt the impetus for further legislative restrictions on charter schools. A dozen schools are piloting the program, and the charter network hopes to enroll as many as 100 more next spring. The network, which has offices in San Carlos and Sacramento, represents about 70 percent of California's 436 charter schools, which together enroll 166,000 students.
USCS - USCS NEW Reports And Research The author reviews evaluations of charter schools in Arizona, california, higher percentages of charter school students meeting state standards, http://www.uscharterschools.org/cs/r/query/q/1558?x-title=New Non-Federal Resear
The Center For Education Reform: California's Charter Law Indepth analysis of california s charter school law, and legislative policy charter schools shall meet all statewide standards and conduct the pupil http://edreform.com/charter_schools/laws/California.htm
Extractions: Profile of California's Charter School Law Note : The following ranking and analysis reflects the state's law as of 2001. For the most recent state law profile, please contact the Center for Education Reform or order Charter School Laws Across the States: Ranking Score Card and Legislative Profiles from our Publications page California (1992; last amended in 2001) The 11 th strongest of the nation's 38 charter laws General Statistics Number of Schools Allowed 550; increases by 100 each school year Number of Charters Operating (As of Fall 2001) Approval Process Eligible Chartering Authorities Local school board or state board of education (if first denied by local school board) Eligible Applicants One or more persons Types of Charter Schools Converted public, new starts, home-based schools Appeals Process Applications denied by the local school board may be appealed to either the county board or state board of education. Applications denied by the county board may be appealed to the state board of education. The board that ultimately approves the application becomes the charter's sponsor. Formal Evidence of Local Support Required 50% of teachers at school must support for conversions; 50% of teachers and 50% and parents/guardians must support for new start.
Extractions: Home Look at your children and think back to the day they were born and your life changed forever! Do you remember counting all their fingers and toes, looking deep into their eyes, examining every part of their body? And what did the doctor and nurses do? They weighed, measured, examined, evaluated, and tested does "APGAR" come to mind? How did this baby, your baby, measure up compared to the health indicators of other babies born? As they grew you looked for their first smile, their first grasp, their first crawl, their first steps, their first word and you have not ceased to watch them develop and grow. At each stage of development you have looked for the indicators of growth, checking with the pediatrician for confirmation or diagnosis. Why? Because you want them to grow into healthy, mature adults reaching for the stars! And if their development is not on track you want to know why and what corrective actions can be taken to promote their growth. Assessment, evaluation, examination, testing and other methods of appraisal are expected parts of human activity. We may not use those terms, but we all engage in the process. We are always comparing to some implied standard or benchmark of child growth and development.
Accountability And Equity In Charter Schools charter school opponents contend that the standards that charter schools must meet Studies also show that in california charter schools both cream and http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/pbriefs/97/97-1acct.htm
Extractions: Look at Chicago's Plans by Heidi Hulse Mickelsen, NCREL Heidi Hulse Mickelsen has worked on research and evaluation projects for NCREL and provided technical assistance to the Chicago Public Schools. She has an M.A. in educational policy from Stanford University and has worked in a teaching and training capacity in France. She began teaching at the Triumphant Charter Middle School in Chicago, Illinois, in the fall of 1997. Seven new charter schools with designs and missions as varied as their students opened this fall in Chicago, Illinois, joining 428 other charter schools nationwide (RPP International and University of Minnesota,1997). Legislation passed in Illinois in 1996 allowed for 15 charter schools in Chicago, 15 in the surrounding suburbs, and 15 in the rest of the state. Proposals for 38 charter schools were submitted in the city of Chicago, and 10 were approved. Three schools will not open this year due to obstacles such as a lack of resources, difficulty procuring a site, and resistance from surrounding communities. The seven schools that opened in the fall of 1997 are the Academy of Communications and Technology (ACT), ACORN, Built Environment, Chicago Prep, Perspectives, SABIS International (two school sites), and Triumphant. Charter school proponents see these new schools as opportunities for educational innovation, which they believe is desperately needed in Chicago. Opponents of charter schools, however, are concerned with the issues of accountability and equity. They fear that charter schools will not be required to meet the same standards as traditional public schools, while supporters of charter schools argue that new performance standards must be developed for these new types of schools. Opponents also warn that charter schools may attract a disproportionate number of students from a higher socioeconomic background, while leaving low-income students, at-risk students, and students with disabilities behind in the regular public schools.
Extractions: Archived Information A Study of Charter Schools: The First Year - May 1997 Chapter II Numerous commentators have proposed that charter school legislation be based on key principles, though people differ on specific recommendations. For example, Ted Kolderie, a leading advocate of charter reform legislation, proposed in 1990 several specific features for state charter school reform legislation, including the following: States should permit more than one public organization to sponsor public schools. Thus, local school districts would no longer have the "exclusive franchise" to sponsor public schools. The charter school should be a public nonsectarian school and be prohibited from using an admissions test or charging tuition beyond what the state and local community provide. The charter school should be independent of local labor/management agreements, and could develop its own working conditions. The charter school should have an explicit contract (or charter) for performance. Its continued existence should depend on whether the school's students achieved the goals set out in its contract. In exchange for this explicit accountability, most state rules and regulations should be waived for the charter school.
SDEA Charter School This goal will be met through a standardsbased and performance-based curriculum The curriculum of Kwachiiyoa charter school is based on the california http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/Pages/charter.htm
Extractions: San Diego State University History of Kwachiiyoa Charter School The San Diego Education Association (SDEA) Kwachiiyoa Charter School was granted charter school status as #134 by the State Board of Education on January 7, 1998. Kwachiiyoa Charter School reflects the vision stemming from a collaborative project with the National Education Association, the California Teachers Association, the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education and the College of Education of San Diego State University. These entities articulated their common goals and innovative model in the SDEA/CTA/NEA Charter School Proposal pursuant to the Charter Schools Act of 1992, approved on September 9, 1997. The fiscal agent (LEA) for the Charter School is the San Diego Unified School District, which served more than 136,000 students in 1997-1998 at 169 school sites. The collaborative was awarded a two year implementation grant in the amount of $150,000 to complete planning and begin operations of Kwachiiyoa Charter School by the Department of Education in June 1998. The school began operations in September 1999 at the site of Cleveland Elementary School at 6365 Lake Atlin Avenue, San Diego, CA 92119 with a student body of 125 K-5 students. Students from the Mid-City/City Heights neighborhood will be bused to the site until a site within the neighborhood is secured.