Dec. 9, 2008
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December 2008 E-Rate Workshops
Through participation with eTech Ohio and the E-Rate program, schools can receive significant discounts on their telecommunications services and technology equipment purchases. eTech Ohio is proud to announce E-Rate workshops to be held across the State in December to provide up-to-date information on e-Rate program changes for the upcoming funding year, as well as a line-by-line review of Form 471. Recently held fall sessions addressed updates to the program, a review of the application process through Program Integrity Assurance, as well as what to expect during an audit. Since many districts will need to update their technology plan this year in order to file for E-Rate, we will also cover the E-Rate critical components of the Technology Planning Tool (TPT).
December sessions will be offered in the morning and afternoon. Morning sessions will be held from 9:30 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. and afternoon sessions will be held from 1:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. Workshop presenters will be a combination of educational technology consultants with district responsibilities and E-Rate staff. In order to most effectively manage time and travel, some components may be held via videoconference. Please contact eTech Ohio, to be connected with your Technology Consultant and register for the workshops.
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Opportunity for OAPCS Members
A central Ohio school has 100 middle school-sized desk/chair combos. These are available to any charter school at a minimal fee. Interested? Contact Kelly Buskirk for additional information. Please note that you will be responsible for picking up the desks in the Hilliard area.
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School Visits
The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools (OAPCS) is committed to visiting Ohio's charter schools during the next few months.
If your school is hosting a activity that you would like for the OAPCS to come and be a part of, or you would just like to share a typical school day, please contact Kelly Buskirk to make arrangements for a member of the OAPCS staff to visit your school. As your state association, it is important for us to see - first hand - the accomplishments you and your team are making with students on a daily basis.
A special thanks to Horizon Science Academy - Cleveland and Mansfield Elective Academy for hosting our two most recent school visits.
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Grassroots Advocacy
The clarion call to advocacy is clear as the state biennial budget process approaches. If you are interested in getting involved in the OAPCS grassroots advocacy campaign, please contact Catherine West at the OAPCS office.
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Happy Holidays
The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools wishes you and your family a safe and happy holiday season. To keep your inbox managable, Insight Online will not be sent out again until January 2009.
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Contact Us
Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools
33 N. Third Street,
Suite 600
Office: (614) 744-2266
Fax: (614) 744-2255
www.oapcs.org
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Tough Economic Times, Charter Schools and Just Plain Hard Work… Carpe Diem!
Bill Gates made the rounds in Washington, DC this past week with much on his mind. Media types, policymakers and pundits all wanted to get his views on the economy and the depth of the recession. Gates remained focused, saying that during this time period we must, “continue to make the key investments that have improved life so dramatically, the investments in education that are key to equality in this country and the investments in helping other countries get to the same type of prosperity that we take for granted.”
During a Q & A after his speech at George Washington University, Gates weighed in on charter schools:
"It's fair to say that the charter structure has been fantastic to allow for new models to be tried. And, so these high-results high schools are, a very high percentage of them are charter schools. There are some non-charters. In New York City, a number of great things were done where they used a charter-like approach in terms of simplifying the administrative requirements and simplifying some of the personnel practices to put the principal in charge, and they showed benefits there as well. There're really two things that the charter movement can do for schools in general. One is that we can increase the number of great charter schools, and that requires an investment. And the second is we can take the lessons from these charter schools and start to move them into the schools at large.”
Later in the day, Gates went on to say in a CNN interview with Wolfe Blitzer that, “the president-elect has said a lot of important things about education, about focusing on teachers who really do the job well, allowing charter schools to be expanded, both because there are some great ones and because they serve as a model. He's talked about being data-driven… We are saying that we believe strongly that even in this tough time, these investments in education are very, very important.”
In a deepening recession, things may get even worse, making spending choices tough. Bill Gates is right when he suggests that a recovery must be built on a sound educational system that isn’t afraid of “new models.” But he’s also right about the responsibility of school leaders and teachers to “do the job well,” and about “being data driven.”
Key to having the kind of achievement impact on each and every child in our schools is the willingness of educators to commit to student-level interventions that make use of available student data to diagnose real student achievement levels and then proactively build learning plans for those students, monitoring gains or lack thereof at regular intervals.
Why is it hard to get more movement on this obvious path to student achievement gains? Learning about and understanding current student-data systems and how to manipulate these data to use them effectively is one reason. The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools is working aggressively on this front through professional development trainings and scheduled demonstration projects.
But let’s be frank; there’s another reason- it’s just plain hard work. Let me say that again. This kind of student-by-student intervention is just plain hard work. As the country rolls up its collective sleeves to pull our way out of this deep recession, charter school leaders need to roll up their sleeves and lead the way.
It is about “focusing on teachers who really do the job well,” aggressively tackling student achievement, demonstrating not only how these data systems work, but how hard charter-school leaders are working to lead the way to genuine student progress.
In these times of challenges and change, the moment has come for charter school leaders to make an earnest statement about our commitment to the reform movement and the imperative of acting on data-driven, measurable student achievement. Carpe diem!
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"Watch Parties” an Important Opportunity to Participate
Governor Ted Strickland hosted the first of six forums to solicit Ohioans' input on school funding on November 20 in Columbus. Upcoming forums include:
Cleveland – Dec. 11, 4:30-6 pm
Toledo – Dec. 12, 4:30-6 pm
Mansfield – Dec. 18, 4:30-6 pm
Cincinnati – Dec. 19, 4:30-6 pm
Athens – Dec. 20, 2:30-4 pm
Although most seats allocated to charter school stakeholders have been filled, the OAPCS encourages parents, teachers, students, administrators, sponsors, board members and other supporters to coordinate and/or participate in local "watch parties."
The forums will be web cast (and some aired on local PBS TV stations), and a facilitators guide (available at www.conversationoneducation.org) provides instructions on how to lead group discussions and submit feedback to the Strickland Administration.
Watch parties represent a great opportunity to ensure that charter school children's interests are represented in the "education reform" process which will ultimately be reflected in the 2009 state biennial budget!
For more information on charter school involvement in this important process, contact Catherine West, OAPCS, at 614-744-2266, ext. 203.
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A New Report from the National Charter School Research Project
Charter schools are much more likely than their standard public school counterparts to bring a college-prep focus to inner-city kids, a trend with potentially important implications for minority students.
An analysis of national public school programs and practices by Betheny Gross and Kirsten Martens Pochop indicates that urban charter schools are more likely to employ college-oriented curricula, a focused instructional design, smaller classes, greater time on task, and offer customized support for struggling students.
These findings are part of the annual Hopes, Fears, & Reality report published by the National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP) at the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell. The report is edited by Robin Lake, Executive Director of NCSRP.
“Unlike urban public schools that teach watered-down math, science, and literature, and track less capable students into vocational courses, these schools teach what college-bound students are expected to know,” writes Paul Hill, director of the Center. “Students often struggle, due to weak elementary school preparation, but they are motivated by the fact that the material they must learn is rich and interesting.”
The report finds that among urban schools serving high concentrations of minority students:
• Two-thirds (66 percent) of charter schools report offering at least one college-focused program, compared to just 48 percent of traditional public schools.
• Only 19 percent of charter schools offer school-to-work (vocational) curriculum without including a college component, while 41 percent of traditional public schools do so.
Another emerging area for charter schools is special education. Robin Lake and Joanne Jacobs highlight three charter schools that are serving special-needs children in unique or effective ways. “Special-needs families need a wide range of public school options,” say Lake and Jacobs, “… and charter schools are filling an important niche, especially for students with less severe needs.”
The authors urge the broader education community to learn more about innovative and successful special education practices that are coming out of the charter sector. The report also deals more broadly with how charter schools are performing academically.
According to Julian Betts and Y. Emily Tang, there is “strong evidence” from the most rigorous studies done to date that charter schools are “outperforming other public schools in many ways.” Charter school performance varies, however. In some states charter schools do much better than regular public schools serving similar students, but in other states, such as North Carolina, charter schools do worse. "This poses a challenge to the charter school community: how to make sure low-performing schools improve or close swiftly and high-performing ones are imitated or expanded, " says Betts.
In the report’s final chapter, Frederick Hess and Bruno Manno present an argument for “mapping and unbundling choice” as a growth strategy. They argue that understanding what various types of students, parents, teachers, principals, school districts, and others want and need could allow greater targeting of charter schools and would also give focus to philanthropic investments and policy changes.
Hopes, Fears, & Reality 2008 will be released December 8 at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.
The National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP) brings rigor, evidence, and balance to the national charter school debate. NCSRP was established at the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education in the fall of 2004 with funding from a consortium of foundations.
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