April 07, 2010
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Articles of Interest...
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Funding Opportunity:
The Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD)
For the full article click here
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Funding Opportunity:
Grants for the Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems program
For the full article click here
Winning Back Homeschoolers
With the defection of local families causing a steep dip in its enrollment, a rural Ohio district goes virtual to stem the tide. For the full article click here
New Appropriations for Charters
For the full article click here
Congress Ties Federal Charter School Spending to Quality Controls
For the full article click here
Horizon Science Academy Cleveland Named Best High School by U.S. News & World Report
For the full article click here
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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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Notes from CEO Bill Sims
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As most of us know by now, Ohio’s application for $400 million in Race-to-the-Top (RTTT) money fell short. While there was skepticism concerning Ohio’s chances of winning first-round money, few anticipated Ohio would actually drop in the rankings. My take on what happened differs little from what most analysts have already concluded.
Secretary Duncan and his staff were looking for big reform and big commitment from in-state stakeholders, including departments of education, school districts, teachers’ unions and charter schools. It was a disappointment from the beginning of the process that only 43% of Ohio’s school districts signed up to the required ODE memorandums of understanding to participate in RTTT. Charter school participation in the MOU process was more robust at 67%.
Ohio’s application lost the most points of any state from the time the application was first reviewed and scored to the re-scoring after the face-to-face interviews with state leaders in Washington, DC. Ohio did well on standards and assessments, but the lack of willingness to participate by districts crippled the application for the first round of funding. Further, the issue of geographic caps on charter schools in Ohio is sure to come up in the second round applications.
Ohio does intend to apply for the second round of funding. The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools has been asked to participate in the “Race to the Top District Outreach Committee” which is being lead by the Ohio School Boards Association. It's purpose is to try to increase stakeholder participation in the second round application.
Once again the OAPCS will encourage charter schools to sign the second-round memorandum of understanding. Why? Because millions of dollars are at stake if the state is selected as a winner. Ohio charter schools with their low per-pupil funding, lack of access to local property tax revenue, and lack of state facilities funding can use every dollar available for school improvement and student achievement. It’s important for Ohio charters to be on board. So, you can expect to hear from us again about getting your MOUs into the Ohio Department of Education for this second crack at the Race-to-the-Top federal funding.
– Bill Sims
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OAPCS Workshop 7: Know Your Accountability Data
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OAPCS is repeating it's highly acclaimed "Know Your Accountability Data" workshop July 1, 2010. At this workshop, participants will review their submitted end of year EMIS data and preview how their Local Report Card rating will be determined. Marianne Mottley, of the Ohio Department of Education, will be the key presenter, and Karlyn Geis, from the Office of Community Schools will be on hand to answer questions about the school closure provisions. The workshop is scheduled for 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.
Goals of the workshop are:
1. Use the Secure Data Center to access the Accountability Workbook
2. View your Preliminary Local Report Card
3. Understand Where Kids Count and the Accountability IRN
4. Drill down into data to illuminate areas that affect your school rating
5. Calculate your Performance Index, AYP subgroups, and Safe Harbor
6. Understand the School Closure provisions
7. Know how to show key data to teachers and board members
Use the Secure Data Center to access the Accountability Workbook
2. View your Preliminary Local Report Card
3. Understand Where Kids Count and the Accountability IRN
4. Drill down into data to illuminate areas that affect your school rating
5. Calculate your Performance Index, AYP subgroups, and Safe Harbor
6. Understand the School Closure provisions
7. Know how to show key data to teachers and board members
Use the Secure Data Center to access the Accountability Workbook
2. View your Preliminary Local Report Card
3. Understand Where Kids Count and the Accountability IRN
4. Drill down into data to illuminate areas that affect your school rating
5. Calculate your Performance Index, AYP subgroups, and Safe Harbor
6. Understand the School Closure provisions
7. Know how to show key data to teachers and board members
Use the Secure Data Center to access the Accountability Workbook
2. View your Preliminary Local Report Card
3. Understand Where Kids Count and the Accountability IRN
4. Drill down into data to illuminate areas that affect your school rating
5. Calculate your Performance Index, AYP subgroups, and Safe Harbor
6. Understand the School Closure provisions
7. Know how to show key data to teachers and board members
To register, please go to the OAPCS website at www.oapcs.org, and click on the events link. The cost of the workshop is $100 for members and $200 for nonmembers.
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OAPCS Workshop 8: Submitting a Successful School Improvement Grant
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ODE has recieved $132 million to distribute to schools in School Improvement status. Schools determined to be in Tier 1 or Tier 2 will be given funding preference, but Tier 3 schools are also encouraged to submit a grant application to compete for these funds. Schools can be awarded up to $500,000 a year for three years.
Schools eligible to apply for the School Improvement Grant are invited to attend OAPCS Workshop 8. The workshop will be held Monday, April 12th, at the State Library of Ohio, 274 E. 1st Avenue, Columbus, OH near the Short North/Arts Districtfrom 9 am to noon. The workshop agenda will be:
1. Provide an overview of the Grant Purpose, Requirements and Timelines, including the Title 1 School-wide Requirement and coordination with the OIP
2. Review allowable expenditures & reporting requirements, using the Implementation Monitoring and Management Tool
3. Understand the Evaluation Criteria – what makes a fundable request?
4. Work through the entire CCIP Grant Application, section by section
Participants should bring a wireless capable laptop & their CCIP logon information. The cost is $25 for OAPCS members, $50 for nonmembers. For registration information, please contact DeEdward Robinson, OAPCS Administrative Assistant, at (614) 744-2266 or drobinson@oapcs.org.
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Arts & College Preparatory Academy receives $69,000
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Arts & College Preparatory Academy receives $69,000 from State Farm Grant for Equality Project
On Monday, February 22, State Farm's Youth Advisory Board witnessed a performance of The Equality Project by ACPA students, and awarded the school a grant of $69,000 for their anti-bullying campaign. The Equality Project teaches a message of acceptance, tolerance, and cultural diversity to middle school students in the greater Columbus area.
Working collaboratively with outside partners, community members, students, parents and current staff including theater, creative writing, language arts and social studies teachers, ACPA students created single act, minimalist stage productions of plays titled 'Discrimination', 'Diversity and Acceptance,' 'Bully!' 'Grow' and 'Change.' The ultimate objective is to perform these plays as a series to student audiences in elementary, middle and high school. Accompanying each presentation will be age-appropriate unit and lesson plans specifically researched and written by ACPA students that will promote meaningful reflective thinking on issues pertaining to each play. Add-on lesson plans will include directions for teachers in participating schools to enable students to create their own plays and performances. State standards for language arts, social studies and theater/drama will be incorporated into accompanying unit and lesson plans.
Ultimately, ACPA intends to professionally produce, market and sell The Equality Project as an education program to sustain the program beyond this grant.
Check out the news footage at http://www.artcollegeprep.org/ACPA_in_the_news.
Congratulations to Arts & College Preparatory Academy!
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Was charter-school score too generous?
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By Catherine Candisky
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH – Some charter-school advocates say federal Race to the Top reviewers were misled about Ohio's commitment to the privately operated, tax-funded schools. Ohio - which did not win first-round funding in the competitive grant process and plans to re-apply - probably should have scored lower in this area, they say.
"It seems that the reviewers took what Ohio said in its application at face value," said Bill Sims, president of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Sims said he was amazed by the five reviewers' comments about Ohio's charter-school laws, including four who suggested that Ohio has no cap on charter schools. Ohio scored 34 points of a possible 40 for "ensuring successful conditions for high-performing charter schools and other innovative schools."
One reviewer noted that "there is no cap on the number of charter schools allowed in Ohio, no inhibitors, nor a limit on the number of students allowed to be enrolled in charters."
But Ohio does have geographic caps on charter schools and a moratorium on e-schools.
According to the Ohio Department of Education, there are no limits on the number of charter schools, but they can only be opened in one of the eight largest urban districts or in any district in academic watch or emergency. There also is a ban on opening new e-schools, although there is no limit to the number of students enrolling in the ones that now exist.
ccandisky@dispatch.com
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eTech Technology Spring Institute
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The Technology Spring Institute 2010 is a one day opportunity, sponsored by eTech Ohio, which will take place on Thursday, May 20. This education centered, technical training event will be held in Columbus at the Quest Business Center. The purpose of the Technology Training Institute is to foster a community of learners amongst school and university technical staff by offering technical professional development. This technical professional development event provides attendees access to training and resources that support their roles and responsibilities in leading, planning and supporting their organization's technology systems. More news and information will be forthcoming about featured speakers, hands-on learning stations, and topical listings of sessions being offered by your technical peers.
Registration Details: Registration is just $50.00 a person.
Registration for the event is now open at www.etech.ohio.gov/go/tech-institute-registration.
Participants are required to register for each individual session through eTech Ohio's Hall Pass System. Each session is limited to 25 participants for Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) sessions and 15 participants for Hands-on lab sessions.
Registration for each session will open on April 14
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New Program at Harvard: Closing the Achievement Gap
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Closing the Achievement Gap: Strategies for Excellence with Equity will help you to understand the the key elements for raising achievement and closing gaps — and to create a coherent strategy for doing so. When you return to your school or district you will be able to organize key stakeholders around a vision that is manageable and makes sense. We invite you to apply online today and join our community of learners.
Application deadline: May 14, 2010 Click here for more details
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School Specialty partners with OAPCS
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OAPCS and School Specialty are working together to offer a discount when ordering products. All member schools of OAPCS will receive 5% off the Educator Net Price in the following School Specialty catalogs with free shipping on orders over $69:
• School Specialty Education Catalog
• School Specialty Art Education Catalog
• School Specialty Physical Education Catalog
• School Specialty Early Education Catalog
• School Specialty Special Needs Catalog
Help outfit your school through their Projects by Design group also!
Contact Jennifer Brzoski at jbrzoski@oapcs.org or at (614) 744-2266 ext. 205 for more details.
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News from an associate member: The O'Neill Group
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Thomas P. Van Auker, head of the Charter School Insurance Division of the O’Neill Group, recently designated as a Certified School Risk Manager (CSRM)
Wadsworth, Ohio, March 23, 2010. Thomas P. Van Auker of The O’Neill Group has recently received the prestigious insurance designation of Certified School Risk Manager. Tom heads the agency’s Charter School Insurance Division, which supplies custom-designed Property, Auto, and Liability insurance packages as well as Group Life and Health to schools in Ohio and other states across the country. The CSRM designation implies that Tom has further committed to excel in the area of Charter School Insurance and to provide the highest quality professional insurance programs to Charter School clients. The designation is conferred upon insurance professionals who complete all five courses in measuring, handling, funding and administering school risks, pass all of the course examinations and commit to meeting annual continuing education requirements to stay up-to-date with the ever-changing needs of charter, public and private schools. Tom is currently one of only an elite few nationwide to have earned the CSRM designation from The National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research.
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OAEP Conference April 25-27, 2010
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OAPCS strongly recommends attendance at the 2010 Spring Ohio Association of EMIS Professionals (OAEP) Conference. The Conference will be held at the Renaissance Hotel, and registration is available at the OAEP website – www.oaep.net. This conference provides the opportunity to learn invaluable information about EMIS processing requirements and to network with peers. Sessions specific to Community Schools are included.
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School Improvement through Collaboration
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Call for Best Practices
In this time of unprecedented attention to education reform, we invite you to add to the national dialogue.
The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Ohio Grantmaker’s Forum, KnowledgeWorks, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and KidsOhio, with support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are seeking
Best Cooperative Practices between Charter and Traditional Public Schools.
Fifty best practices will be selected for publication and wide dissemination throughout the education community and to national and state opinion leaders and policymakers.
In order to find these transcendent cooperative practices, we have issued a national Call for Papers. If your organization has a good example of charters and traditional schools working together, please contact Amy Black, National Conference Manager at ablack@oapcs.org, for information on how to make your submission.
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Robust Growth!
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In the past month, OAPCS Associate Membership is robust! We have increased our members to 31 in the past month. Please help us welcome our newest members to OAPCS.
• Achieve 3000
• Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc. – CharterSafe
• Hertz Furniture
• Nicola, Gudbranson and Cooper, LLC
• Oswald Companies
To find out more about each of these companies, please visit their website.
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New Associate Member: Hertz Furniture
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New Associate Member, Hertz Furniture, is happy to offer to all our school members at 10% discount off their catalog and web pricing on all orders of $1,500.00 Hertz Furniture specializes in Early Education Furniture, Computer/Technology Furniture, Gym/Locker Room Furniture, and Chalk/Markerboards, to name a few! Please contact Izzy Katz, Regional Manager at 888-700-6635 or at izzy@hertzfurniture.com. To start ordering today, please visit their website at www.hertzfurniture.com or contact Jennifer Brzoski at jbrzoski@oapcs.org for a catalog.
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Parent Membership Program - "Be A Brick"
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The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools (OAPCS) firmly believes that quality performance is the key to the healthy growth and sustainability of the community charter school movement in Ohio.
Quality performance cannot be achieved without parental engagement. Parents deserve to be able to choose the best school for their child, and they need to be involved, informed and active with organization that can help with school choice. So it stands to reason that we want charter-school parents to be knowledgeable and engaged on matters that relate to their children’s schools. So parents: “Be a Brick.” If every parent becomes a “brick,” we can build strong walls that stand firmly for charter schools.
OAPCS is now offering a Parent Membership program that allows individuals to join our organization. Benefits of being an individual member:
• An association of quality values
• Legislative “Updates” and “Alerts”
• Bi-monthly newsletter
• Content-rich website
• Parent Networking/Newsletter
• Discount on products at all Staples Stores
• E-mail bulletins
• Access to OAPCS Community Boards
Please contact Jennifer Brzoski at jbrzoski@oapcs.org or at 614-744-2266 ext. 205 to become a Parent Member.
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