Media Round Up

NAPCS in the News

• “Mississippi Coalition for Public Charter Schools Calls for Smart Legislation in 2013,” advocacy efforts by a coalition including the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Mississippi First, the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, and the Mississippi Association of Realtors cited in PR Newswire, Dec. 13
• “New 'Trigger' Law May Increase Number of Charter Schools,” David Hoff (Vice President, Communications) quoted in Kansas City Infozine, Dec. 13
• “Charter Schools Continue to Grow,” David Hoff quoted in North County Times and U-T San Diego, Dec. 11
• “Charter school leaders urged to educate Legislature on their mission,” Nina Rees (President & CEO) cited in Reporter-News, Dec. 9

News to Know

• “Charter School Expansion Top Priority for Mississippi Lawmakers,” Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Dec. 14
• “High-Performing Charter Schools Wooed by Districts,” StateImpact, Dec. 13
• “Harmony Charter Schools, IDEA Charter Network, and KIPP DC Win in Race to the Top-District Competition,” Houston Chronicle,  Monitor, and Washington Post,  Dec. 12
• “Brookings Ranks New Orleans, New York, D.C. Best Cities for School Choice,” Washington Post, Dec. 11
• “Arkansas Lawmakers to Consider Changes to Charter School Law, Republic, Dec. 10

Audience Favorites

Facebook—What's your dream for charter schools and how can we help you deliver on it? Share your dreams here, and then in person at the National Charter Schools Conference. http://www.publiccharters.org/conference

Twitter— @Ninacharters I dream of a day when public charter schools can meet the demand to provide a quality education for all children who need one. #ncsc13

You can stay up to date on all the developments in the public charter school sector by subscribing to our regular news updates…Sign up here.

NAPCS Congratulates recipients of the Race to the Top District Grant

Three public charter school networks were big winners in the Race to the Top–District grants. 

The U.S. Department of Education announced that the Harmony Public Schools won $30 million, IDEA Public Schools will receive $29.2 million, and KIPP DC was awarded $10 million in the highly competitive grant program. 

The other 13 winners were traditional public school districts.

NAPCS congratulates all of the winners and will share more details about the charter applicants and how they will invest the money from the program.

Media Round Up

NAPCS in the News

• “Grants Back District-Charter Collaboration,” Nina Rees (President and CEO) quoted in New York Times, Dec. 5
• “Texas Charters Look to Legislative Agenda,” Nina Rees cited in San Angelo Standard-Times, Dec. 5

News to Know

• “California Appeals Court Reverses Charter Facilities Decision,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 7
• “Gates Foundation Gives $25 Million to Help Charters, Traditional Schools Cooperate,” Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Dec. 6
• “Boston Wins Gates Foundation Grant for District-Charter Collaboration,” Boston Globe, Dec. 5
• “Editorial: In Chicago, Build On Successes of Charter Schools,” Chicago Sun-Times, Dec. 4
• “Op-ed: Public Charter Schools Save Taxpayers Money,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 3

Audience Favorites

Facebook—  Washington State is official on our Public Charter Schools Dashboard! Check out this comprehensive data resource to learn more about public charter schools in 42 states and D.C.
http://dashboard.publiccharters.org/dashboard/policy/page/overview/year/2013

Twitter— @JBernalYESPrep: @Ninacharters says charters are advancing the cause through talent, passion, innovations, and accountability. #tcsaconf

You can stay up to date on all the developments in the public charter school sector by subscribing to our regular news updates…Sign up here.

Gates Foundation Awards Grants to Communities Focused on Public Charter and Traditional School Collaboration

Today, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced new competitive funding for seven cities as part of its goal to foster for bold collaboration between public charter and district schools. The cities receiving grants totaling nearly $25 million are: Boston, Denver, Hartford (CT), New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia and Spring Branch (TX).

These communities are part of a group of 16 cities that have signed District-Charter Collaboration Compacts. In these cities, public charter and district school leaders, teachers, superintendents, and other community partners, such as mayors, local teachers’ unions and/or school board members, are working together to ensure all students in their communities receive a high-quality education that prepares them for college and career.

Analysis of the Washington State Public Charter School Ballot Measure

Media Round Up

NAPCS in the News

• “Charter school group calls for tougher laws,” Nina Rees (President and CEO) quoted in USA Today, Nov. 28

News to Know

• “Michigan Bill Would Require Districts to Offer Vacant Buildings to Charters,” Livingston Daily, Nov. 30
• “A New Campaign for Public Charter School Accountability,” Education Week, Nov. 29
• “Study: New Jersey Charter Students Outperform District Peers,” Education Week, Nov. 28
• “Public Charter Schools Among Race to the Top Finalists,” Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27
• “Charter Advocates Lobby to Restore Tax Credit for Facilities,” Education Week, Nov. 26

Audience Favorites

Facebook— Congrats to Christian Sanchez, a 16-year-old Capital City Public Charter School student, who received the 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama. Learn more about Christian's award here: http://www.galatheatre.org/galita.php?cmd=loadEvent&id=124

Twitter— RT @benbwieder: Nina Rees of @charteralliance says 150 charter schools closed last year, evidence of good charter accountability #EIA12

You can stay up to date on all the developments in the public charter school sector by subscribing to our regular news updates…Sign up here.

Creating High-Performing Charters to Transform Lives

Today, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) made an important statement: it’s time to focus on quality.

In its new campaign, NACSA will support authorizers as they close failing charter schools and open twice as many excellent ones. The goal is to provide an additional 1 million students an education in high-quality public charter schools.

To accomplish the goal, NACSA will urge states to improve charter school laws so that they:

1. 1.) Set clear expectations for the performance of public charter schools;
2. 2.) Hold authorizers accountable for the schools they oversee; and
3. 3.) Create statewide authorizers, which are more likely to promote quality growth.

Several hundred public charter schools will need to close under this renewed focus on quality, but NACSA says that the changes are necessary to ensure the charter sector will grow successfully in the long term.

“The charter school idea is predicated on the notion that in exchange for autonomy and freedom from bureaucratic rules, schools would face closure if they fail to meet their academic goals,” said Nina S. Rees, the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “I fully support that and support the efforts of authorizers to get it right, whatever the numbers may be. I also support NACSA's efforts to promote growth and quality at the same time and to push policies that will help ensure that every charter public school is a high-quality school.”

Click here for more about the 1 million lives campaign – or follow #1millionlives on Twitter. You can find additional media coverage of the 1 million lives campaign at the Huffington Post, Education Week, and Atlanta Journal Constitution.


Image via NACSA website

Ten Percent of Race to the Top District Finalists are Charter Local Education Agencies

A Growing Movement: America’s Largest Charter School Communities (7th Edition)

Today we released the seventh edition of our annual market share report, A Growing Movement: America’s Largest School Communities. This year marks unprecedented nationwide growth for public charter schools. For the first time ever, 110 school districts have 10 percent of their students enrolled in public charter schools in the 2011-2012 academic year (96 in 2010-2011). A record 25 school districts have more than 20 percent of students enrolled in charter schools, and seven school districts enroll at least 30 percent of public school students in charter schools. Back in 2006, when we first released the report, there were six school districts with more than 20 percent and only one district with more than 30 percent of students enrolled in charter schools.

There wasn’t any movement in the top spots for market share and total charter enrollment: New Orleans remains number one with 76 percent of students enrolled in charter schools and Los Angeles keeps the top spot with nearly 100,000 students attending charter schools. Clark County rocketed to the top of the list of high growth with 64 percent more students attending charter schools in 2011-2012 than in the previous academic year.

The map below presents data from the three lists of school districts with the highest charter school market share, enrollment, and growth. The geographic display of the data shows that school districts with high concentrations of students enrolled in charter schools are more likely to be located in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the country (the green bubbles). In contrast, a large portion of the districts with high growth in the number of charter school students are located in the South and West regions (the orange bubbles). School districts with large numbers of students enrolled in charter schools are spread out across the nation (the blue bubbles).

Enrollment in charter schools is on the rise because they are demonstrating that success is possible even in neighborhoods where some schools have been failing for generations.


Click here for a higher resolution version of the map below.

Conference Focuses on Charter and District Public School Collaboration

“Collaboration and partnerships can be powerful multipliers of innovations.”

Last week, NAPCS was proud to co-host the second National Best Cooperative Practices between Charter & Traditional Public Schools Conference (NBCP Conference) in Denver, Colorado. One of the foundational principles of the public charter school model is that charter schools use their autonomy to serve as laboratories of innovation; road testing promising practices that would then be shared with the traditional schools for maximum impact. The NBCP Conference was designed to showcase examples of cooperative practices that serve as models for replications and spark ideas for how all sectors of public education can work together.

Schools from throughout the country shared their practices during breakout sessions on topics including: curriculum and instruction; performance and accountability; college and career readiness; facilities; operations; and services. The general and breakout sessions demonstrated:

• Examples of cooperation on a small scale
• How charters can help fill gaps to address needs in the local public education space
• Where there is strong district leadership supporting charters, there are more opportunities
• Where charters are considered equal partners in educating kids, cooperation and collaboration happen naturally

Image: Keynote speaker Don Shalvey

A panel discussion on barriers to charter and traditional public school collaboration identified the following ground rules for cooperative work:

• This work is inherently political
• Build relationships to build trust
• Educate past the myths about charter and district interests
• Focus on mutual wins

 
Image: “Anticipating and Overcoming Obstacles to Collaboration” Panel Discussion

While nobody at the conference claimed this work is easy, there was consistent testimony by both charter leaders and school district representatives that the effort to work with traditional schools broadened their impact. Further, in several instances, cooperation with district schools was an explicit part of the charter school’s mission. This seemed particularly true for successful standalone charters that wanted to magnify their impact without replicating their school. Please visit the NBCP Conference webpage to learn more about public schools working together.