CST Spring North

Spring 2009 www.charterschoolstoday.com

T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R C H A R T E R S C H O O L E X E C U T I V E S

CST CHARTER SCHOOLSTODAY

Teaching aT a higher LeveLChesapeake Science Point Public Charter School

BLazing TraiLs Through cyBerspacePennsylvania Cyber Charter School

Where FaiLure is noT an opTionSisulu-Walker Charter School

North & Mid-Atlantic Edition

Bull Run Media Executive TeamKalena Alston-Griffin, PartnerKeyla Carr, PartnerAlonzo Ellis, Partner

Publisher: Kalena Alston-Griffin, Partner

Executive Editor: Keyla Carr, Partner

Design Department: Sheryvonn McDonald, Senior DesignerJulie Hudak, Graphic DesignerAshish KansaraJay Vandewani

OperationsKaryn Dowty, Director of OperationsDaniella GonzalesKelly Matlock

Advertising Sales& Marketing Department:Bjorn MichalsWilliam Lee Yin

Letter from the Editor

Our country is witnessing a historic moment. While global leaders seek to aid the economy, charter school leaders are seeking to reform education in America. It is an exciting time for educators ; our new president, despite having inherited an economy that requires domestic and international tailoring, is elevating the importance of education and encouraging innovation in our nation’s schools.

Thanks to President Obama’s attention, education is in the midst of the discussion about how to move the country through the undeniable challenges it presently faces. Charter schools in particular are poised to have significant influence. The spring issue of Charter Schools Today delves into the successes of 7 charter schools from across the region and the ideas and philosophies that help them reach their students. It will also highlight topical issues facing the movement as we begin a new era of our nation’s history.

All through the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, our journal looks to capture those sometimes fleeting moments that can leave indelible marks on our students.

Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School in Maryland is boldly bridging the math and science gap that exists in the U.S. and their students are thriving in the challenging environment.

In Washington, D.C., Friendship Public Charter School is armed with an important mission: to serve under-privileged youth in the nation’s capital. Using some of the latest technologies available, the school makes a point to support the whole child.

We also look for those schools that are truly redefining the landscape. Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in Midland, Pennsylvania is one such school. In its 10 years since inception, the school has grown by leaps and bounds, against the national trend of decreasing and disappearing cyber schools.

We are excited to see the successful implementation of ground-breaking ideas serving students and out-growing the mold of traditional education. And yet, we know that many challenges remain; this edition addresses current issues in a discussion on how we can overcome these barriers.

From school expansion to unique learning curriculum and instruction, charter schools around the country are also listening. As a movement, we are listening and waiting to see how the new administration will re-draw education in America.

As we continue to monitor these developments, we hope you enjoy and share what we included in the pages of the spring edition of Charter Schools Today. We will continue to serve as a voice in these undefined times and we are elated to see innovative and improving trends for our students’ and our country’s future.

~CST

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Editorial Editor in Chief:Alonzo Ellis

Managing Editor:Rebecca Czarnecki

Production Director:Hayley Gold

Contributing Editors:Dr. Tiffany Griffin

Project Directors:Eric GunnHanim SamaraTodd Rodgers

Correspondents:Shelley Seyler, Senior Staff WriterHolly AlexanderJim BarlowJacqueline BodnarPrem DesaiLauren Muscarella

Teaching at a Higher LevelChesapeake Science Point Public Charter School

Cover Story

SpotlightS

6 Dealing With the Financial Crisis in Your Classroom Learning how to make the most of what you have.

7 Ipods in School-Turning Toys Into Tools Teaching with technology and making the most of it.

8 Time Management Organize your time with the building blocks of pro-

ductivity.

9 Op-Ed: American Education Is the dream slipping away?

10 Technology in Schools The back to school cell phone craze is booming.

16 Regional Spotlight: New England An overview of New England charter schools.

38 State Caps on Charter Schools Examining the argument for removing caps and the positive impact it would have on the charter school movement.

40 Spotlight on Behavior Teaching anger management and emotional control to children.

Contents

page 48

Try telling students of the Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School (CSP) in Hanover, Maryland, that Americans fall short in math, science and technology and they may laugh in disbelief. Every line but one of the school’s recap of 2008 Maryland State Assessment tests boasts in red ink that “CSP is better by…” with

success-bursting percentages in reading and math when compared with proficiencies at other state and county schools.

11 Facilities Financing Some tools for the never-ending challenge.

14 Workplace Performance Improve your workers' productivity and reduce sick days.

4 | charTer schooLs Today Spring 2009

Northeast & Mid-Atlantic

18 Where Failure is Not an Option Sisulu-Walker Charter School, NY

22 Great Expectations Freire Charter School, PA

26 Teaching Respect and Much More

Delaware Valley Charter High School, PA

29 Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, PA

42 Building Students' Minds and Characters Meridian Public Charter School, D.C.

45 Providing a Well-Rounded Education Friendship Public Charter School, Southeast Elementary Academy, D.C.

48 Teaching at a Higher Level Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School, MD

FeatureS

51 President Obama and Charters Looking at the president's stance on charters from what he said on the campaign trail to their inclusion in the stimulus.

53 American Education in a Globalizing World How the American education system measures up to the rest of the world and the influence of charter schools.

55 Spotlight: Your Charter as a Business Resolving employee morale issues so you can have a happier and more vibrant workplace.

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SpotlightS

Almost every sector is affected by the economic crisis in one way or another, and the Education sector is no exception. Classrooms all over the country if not the world are being affected by budget cuts. Teaching materials are scarce, after school services are being eliminated, and layoffs are becoming inevitable. Do you have less teaching materials to use in your classroom? Are your planned activities not as engaging as they used to be as a result? Here are a few suggestions that will help bring back the enthusiasm and a full engagement from your students in your classroom again.

The most basic thing you can do is to recycle your old teaching materials. For example, you can adapt materials that were used 2 or 3 years ago with your 5th grade class to plan activities for your current 7th grade class.

The next option is to literally raid your colleagues’ closets. Fellow teachers are a great resource for teaching materials. Teachers are known to keep all types of materials including decorative materials years after years. It is common knowledge that teachers have a hard of getting rid of their teaching materials hoping that such materials will be somehow reused in the future.

Teachers have always used their imagination and skills in their classroom. Teacher-created materials as it is known are materials that teachers create to be used in their classrooms for specific lessons. The financial crisis and the challenges that it brings is a great opportunity for you to put your imagination to use. This is a great time to pull out your construction paper, scissors, markers, etc. Your imagination is the limit.

Finally, have you ever thought about swapping or selling your teaching materials? As mentioned above, most teachers have accumulated a lot of materials over the years that are either sitting in their closets or that they no longer have any use for. Do you have any used materials that other teachers can use in their classrooms? That activity book that you used 5 years ago with your New York City 3rd grade class can certainly be of use to a 3rd grade teacher in Kansas this fall. In return, you will gain access to materials needed for your current assignment. Swap it, sell it, and use it.

The economic crisis is inevitably affecting American classrooms. Budget cuts make teaching materials more and more scarce nowadays. In order to keep your lessons interesting to your students, you need to be very imaginative. Recycle, create your own materials, swap or sell your old teaching materials.

About the Author:Gia Theodore is the founder of http://www.swapboards4teachers.com and Educationow. Educationow is a resource for educators, scholars, researchers, and others seeking to improve and raise the level of educational standards in the world.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/k-12-education-articles/dealing-with-the-financial-crisis-in-your-classroom-707931.html

Dealing With the Financial Crisis in Your Classroom: Learning How to Make the Most of What You Have

6 | charTer schooLs Today Spring 20096 | charTer schooLs Today Spring 2009

Everywhere you go in the world today, you see people with iPods connected to them. Do you ever wonder what they are listening to? Maybe you assume they have some crazy music pumping into their brain? What if they are listening to award-winning works of literature? Reading is imperative to becoming a successful and productive citizen.

Students who struggle with reading will struggle in most subject areas in school and in many avenues of life. Using audio books to improve reading fluency with all readers promotes success for students in most areas of life. Intervening early improves student achievement along with self-esteem.

Audio books are an excellent solution for teachers to use when attempting to instruct students of differing ability levels and with different learning challenges such as struggling, reluctant, below-grade readers, bilingual students, special needs children as well as those children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorders or Dyslexia.

The iPods in School program started at DeKeyser Elementary in early 2007 with 25 iPod Shuffles and some audio books. Children in second and third grades check out the book and the iPod for use outside of school. Students document whether they read along with the audio book, or just listen, and whether they discuss the book with their parent after listening. These books and iPods are in great demand within these two grade levels. The excitement for reading is immense and parents and children report pleasure in the project.

In addition to listening to books commonly found in the library, I would like to expand the program to include the textbooks from different classes and grade levels to help those students who need to either hear the text again, or are struggling to read it the first time.

Research (from Boston Public Schools) proves that audio books accelerate reading gains. Data shows that audio books can improve reading comprehension by 34% as it bridges the gap for students attempting to read text above their individual reading level. Listening to oral reading is also proven to help students acquire new vocabulary while stimulating vocabulary development by allowing opportunities

for students to hear and see words multiple times. Research tells us that effective fluency instruction begins with modeled reading. Audio-assisted reading can provide unlimited practice for students, while silent independent reading alone has not shown to increase reading fluency. Finally, audio books create motivated readers.

There are at least four ways iPods in school increases student achievement and motivation; independent reading, shared or small-group reading, whole class listening, and lending out the audio books for home use.

“Do you have any brand new audio books?” “Which one is your favorite?” “Have you listened to this one? It has a great person with lots of expression reading!” These are common questions from seven-, eight-, and nine-year old children engaged in our iPods in School program. In addition to improvement in reading scores and motivation for reading,

seeing the eager children begging for iPods and audio books to check out of the library makes the program extremely worthwhile.

With the cost of the iPod Shuffle decreasing to just $49, this cost of implementing this program is not extreme. The benefits far outweigh the cost.

Excite your students and have them begging to listen to quality literature!

About the Author:Join Kathy and a group of educators dedicated to improving student learning

through technology in the Mastermind Group of Educators http://mastermindgroupofeducators.com for continued support, resources, book discounts and community in educational technology. Kathy Cothran is an elementary media specialist committed to helping teachers engage students through the uses of technology. Her vast teaching experience ranges from preschool through Master’s level education classes. For years Kathy has been a “Gadget Girl.” She loves technology! Tie that to her extensive teaching background and she has been able to interest, invigorate, and inspire children and teachers to use technology in a rich, exciting manner.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/k-12-education-articles/ipods-in-school-turning-toys-into-tools-teaching-with-technology-727107.html

Ipods in School-Turning Toys Into Tools: Teaching With Technology

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Time ManagementOrganize Your Time with the Building Blocks of Productivity

An effective daily schedule can be constructed with three types of blocks. Structuring each day starts with locating a space for large block, followed by several medium blocks of grouped activities. How much you can pile on (your productivity) each day depends on how well you organize your time.

What lessons you can learn from small children! One day I was watching two youngsters, ages 3 and 5, playing with “bricks” constructed out of heavy cardboard. The brick blocks came in three sizes: a 10” x 16” rectangle, a 10” square, and the standard 3” x 10” brick size. Over time they spent hours creating structures. At the beginning there was no understanding of larger pieces providing a stronger foundation for the smaller pieces and so things would come tumbling down without using all of the bricks. With lots of trial and error the children discovered that if they started with the biggest size, they were more likely to be able to use all of the bricks. An effective daily schedule can also be constructed with three types of blocks. How much you can pile on (your productivity) each day depends on how well you organize your time.

Large Blocks - Your Day’s Foundation

Make your day’s foundation an uninterrupted block of time when you can focus on difficult, involved projects. The ideal length is an hour and a half, approximately twenty percent of an eight-hour day. If you cannot possibly find that length of time, try for an hour. Even with 45 minutes of uninterrupted time you can get a significant amount of work completed because you are not requiring twenty additional minutes after each interruption to get back into the “flow.” As you develop this routine, aim for the hour and a half each day.

During this time, do not answer every phone call. Turn off your general email alerts. If you want to ensure that a certain person or message gets through immediately, set up your software rules to notify you of that specific message. When you can block twenty percent of your time, you will accomplish about eighty percent of your work for the day.

You recognize instinctively that having uninterrupted time is effective when you arrive at work an hour early or stay for a couple of extra hours at the end of a day, knowing you will get so much done in that quiet time. Why not become more productive by including that quiet time within your day instead of adding extra hours in order to get the same amount of work done?

Medium Blocks (Grouping Blocks) -- Multi-Tasking Isn’t Always The Best Option

Group as many like activities as possible since you are four times more

productive when you can focus on one type of task rather than switching back and forth among assorted tasks. Constant multi-tasking slows you down. Activities that can be grouped include returning non-urgent telephone calls, processing your email inbox, filing, and reading.

The length of this session depends on the work. If you average about five phone calls at a time, you may only need to block out ten to fifteen minutes. With email, you might need to spend thirty minutes at a time. Any of these can be repeated during the day. For instance, you might quickly check your email first thing in the morning for ten minutes to handle urgent issues, then spend thirty minutes before lunch and thirty minutes again later in the afternoon. Stick to the amount of time that you have originally allotted rather than letting it trail on. That will keep you focused on the task at hand and will increase your productivity. Move what you do not complete to the next block of time.

Small Blocks - The New Items and Lower Priority Tasks To Be Handles

New items and lower priority tasks can be worked on between the other blocks. These might include requests for help from a colleague, quick answers to questions, filling out forms, and other project components that did not fit into your major blocks, but that you still have time to work on.

Structuring each day starts with locating a space for that large block, followed by several medium blocks of grouped activities. Small blocks are then added. If you do the reverse, which means coming in to work and clearing out the small items before you find a time for the most important work, you may wrap up the day without handling your priorities.

Why spend extra hours in the evenings on work that you could have fit into the day with the right construction of your schedule?

About the Author: As a productivity trainer, organizing specialist, and owner of Key Organization Systems, Inc., Denise Landers has spent years speaking, training, consulting, and coaching on the topics of time management and effective workflow. If you’d like to attend an organizing seminar but do not have the time, Landers now provides you with the full benefits of corporate training in managing time, paper, and email while listening at your own convenience. Get The Productivity Series at: http://www.keyorganization.com/cds.aspArticle Source: www.businesshighlight.org


Op-Ed: American EducationIs the Dream Slipping Away?

There was a time when each American generation thought that the next generation would do better than themselves. A good college education would lead to employment in a company for thirty years. The dream of an American education is slipping away due to the rising cost of post-secondary education. Now it seems that a college education does not guarantee sufficient income. Some college graduates are returning home because they cannot afford student loans and the cost of living.

Students who have to work to pay for college are finding it difficult to keep pace with the cost of living. It is not uncommon to have a book cost $100.00 or more. Students do not get much in return for selling their book back to the bookstore. The cost of room and board is rising steadily as the price for food, electric and gas continue to increase. The recent changes in minimum wage also lag behind the typical living expenses. Students are facing financial challenges outside of the classroom that are causing them to sit out for a semester or two.

The American Dream is also slipping in the K-12 systems throughout the country. Too few students are prepared to function in a world that is filled with computer technology. Students need exposure to technology early. Some say that analyzing the changes in the American Dream by looking at elementary school is not appropriate. The country needs to take a long term look at how each citizen is prepared for future employment demands. The types of jobs that K-12 students must fill will require different types of abilities which must be an integral part of their current education.

There is a sea of changes happening in the financial markets that provided families with funding to pay for K-12 education and college. Individuals who have a decent income are finding it more difficult to obtain a loan with a good interest rate. It is putting a greater pressure on families to save more money. Unfortunately, saving money can be difficult when a couple is living in a major city. The inability to obtain fair interest rates may force students to take out loans with higher interest rates that will last 30 years.

People all over the world still come to the United States with the expectation of the American dream. The dream that they can start new lives and have greater freedom continues to draw them to this country. They understand that having access to education will increase their children’s employability. It’s important that the country uses the talents of every citizen that is here. America needs to prepare for an increasing diversity in the workforce of the 21st century.

The American Dream is what the citizens make it. It takes everyone working together toward a common cause. Some K-12 schools and colleges are enduring difficult times keeping up with the rapid changes in society. Students are using the internet to communicate their changing perceptions of America’s commitment to their dreams and desires. They realize the amount of debt that they will accrue to pay for college. Some students are asking is it worth getting a college degree if they cannot get a basic job after graduation. America must rethink how it will invest in providing every student who wants to experience a college education with the financial aid resources to do it.

About Dr. Stephen Jones: For twenty-six years, Dr. Jones has delivered presentations on numerous topics including how to study, leadership, effective communication, and innovative management practices. He is the author of two books one is titled “Seven Secrets of How to Study” and the second is the “Parent’s Ultimate Education Guide.” The book provides an easy understanding of the seven pillars that are essential to learning effective study techniques. His URL is http://www.sevenbooks.net.

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SpotlightS

When students and parents start their shopping list for the new school year one item on the top of their list is a cell phone. How times have changed. The idea of searching for paper and pencils is taking a back seat to modern technology. The cell phone companies have caught on and they are releasing so many new cell phones each month that it is hard for anyone to catch up. Cell phones have reached epidemic proportions throughout American society. You cannot go to a city or countryside road without finding someone who is using a cell phone.

A growing phenomenon among parents and students is text messaging. The ringing of the phone has been silenced by the tapping of alphabetic keys. Messages between cell phones can be transferred instantaneously. Students are using text messaging to respond to each other and to communicate with their parents. Abbreviations are often used when text messages are sent. It represents a form of communication that has broad implications

for society. Text messaging can take up time that a student would normally spend studying. At the same time students can send a reminder that a homework assignment is due. It has become a two edged sword that allows parents to pick up a child from football practice or to plan a trip to a movie.

Communicating fast has become an even faster way of keeping parents in touch with their student. Parents realize that when their son/daughter goes back to school putting down the cell phone to focus will require real discipline. Students are too easily disrupted by the buzz of their cell phones. The speed at which a student communicates can cause a chain reaction of positive or negative results for a student who has a test on the next day. Peer pressure can even occur when one student yields to the temptation to respond to a cell phone call rather than study.

Communication by way of the cell phone is here to stay. School districts are forced to come up with strong statements about

when the cell phone may be used during the school day. Students try to find creative ways to ignore the rules. Parents are frustrated when they must go to school to retrieve their son/daughters cell phone. Learning by way of the cell phone has been a challenge for most schools. Cell phone use is not easily incorporated into class instruction like an actual computer. Some professionals have found ways to download papers to the cell phone and read them while they are traveling but this is not a priority for students.

Some students are using their cell phones to discuss assignments and presentations they are giving. Students can save some of the major points of their presentation on their cell phone. Students can send a reminder that a quiz is occurring tomorrow to a friend. Messages like it’s time to get prepared. Some students put reminders in their cell phone and the phone makes a funny noise to remind them to start preparation for a major test. The calendar can also be used as a way to manage time.

During the twenty first century technology will continue to influence the back to school journey. Schools that use laptop computers to educate students are already springing up all over the country. Cell phones do offer news, television and the internet but most students do not have access to these services. Moving forward bringing the cost down and increasing the services will make the versatility of the cell phone a total learning experience. It is apparent that going back to school will never be the same.

About Dr. Stephen Jones: For twenty years, Dr. Jones has delivered presentations on topics including how to study, leadership, effective communication, and innovative education practices. Working with students has enabled Dr. Jones to have a complete understanding of the challenges their facing http://www.sevenbooks.net.

Technology in SchoolsThe Back to School Cell Phone Craze is Booming


Facilities FinancingSome Tools for the Never-Ending ChallengeWritten by Holly Alexander

Facilities are almost always a challenge for charter schools. A high proportion are required to lease rather than own facilities, and funding is highly competitive. In addition, many districts provide little or no facilities funding to their public charter schools, so many charters need to pull some of their facilities money from per-pupil operating funds, and raise additional dollars from foundations or other sources. The unfortunate reality is that per-pupil operating funds for charter schools are almost always lower than those for traditional public schools in their districts. Currently, charter schools receive per-pupil operating funds at an average of only 73 percent of the amount given to traditional public schools in the same districts.

Only a handful of states have provided per-pupil facilities funding to public charter schools, though 26 states provide some state aid, such as the use of vacant school district buildings, while 14 states provide no facilities assistance of any kind for charters.

However, there are some bright spots in government funding and private sector partnerships and resources.

Several types of opportunities for school funding in the new economic stimulus plan, officially the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed by President Barack Obama on March 6, are of interest.

The bill first addresses the fact that there are major funding problems on all fronts as states and communities, which must operate with balanced budgets, have begun slashing education funds. The bill allots $48 billion for general education spending to state and local governments. It requires that 81.8 percent of that be used to restore recent cuts, including higher education. This may be especially important to charter schools since they already need to stretch their per-pupil funds so far.

The remaining 18.2 percent of the funding may be used to support instruction, although it can also go to other state and local needs, including modernizing schools. The report accompanying the bill recognizes charter schools as beneficiaries of the funding, so they can’t be overlooked when distributing the funding; however, it doesn’t mandate any funding, either.

Governors have been able to request ARRA funding since April 1. For the discretionary money as well as other parts of the act directed toward school facilities funding, projects that are ready to go have a significant advantage, since the goal is to stimulate the economy as quickly as possible and monies must be spent by December 31, 2010.

Some states and communities say they may prefer to spend the unrestricted portion of the stimulus money on facilities or technology upgrades rather than operating costs, because

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SpotlightS

they don’t want to increase general school funding that they won’t be able to continue after 2010.

The ARRA also offers several tax programs that can benefit public charter schools, including $1.4 billion in new funding to Qualified Zone Academy Bonds, $22 billion for a school construction bond program, $10 billion to the New Markets Tax Credit Program and $25 billion in Recovery Zone Bonds, all of which might be tapped for school facilities. These are all bond programs, not grants. They generally require a package of funding through community development agencies, who in turn work with banks and other financial institutions to issue, sell and manage the bond issues. Foundation and other grants may be combined with these funds. Administered by the U.S. Department of Education, the Qualified Zone Academy Bonds is a revival of a federal program funded in 1999 - 2004, and can only be used for schools. It may not be used for new construction, but can underwrite renovating school buildings, purchasing equipment, developing curricula and/or training school personnel.

The newly authorized school construction bonds will provide $22 billion, $11 billion in 2009 and the remaining $11 billion next year. They, along with other public-entity bonds, use a new structure with a mix of traditional non-taxable bonds and taxable bonds offering above-average returns. The bond money will be distributed to states, the 100 “large local education agencies” recognized by the federal government, and to Native American tribes based on the number of people aged 5 to 18 in their populations.

Charter schools have built facilities with funding assistance from the New Markets Tax Credits Program since its inception in 2002. Directed to building projects in low-income communities, most of the funding goes to housing, but community and business projects can be funded, too.

One such project is $14 million to refinance facility debt for the Thurgood Marshall Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., put together by City First Bank. The school says the bonds will save $50,000 per year, with a total value of $5.5 million, and allow it to begin spending all donor money on education for the first time in its history. The high school’s new building, completed in January, includes

13 classrooms, three science labs, a library and media center, and a moot courtroom. January was a great month – Thurgood Marshall was also named the most-improved school in D.C. by Business Week magazine and the Council of Great City Schools.

City First Bank put together a similar package for the E.L. Haynes Public Charter School, also in D.C., which allowed it to purchase property and build a new 46,000-square-foot building to serve 468 K - 8 students. The new $21 million facility opened in 2008. In addition to two classrooms for each grade, the building has a large cafeteria/auditorium space, regulation-size gym, a state-of-the-art science laboratory, and both art and music rooms.

View Park Preparatory Accelerated Charter Schools in the Crenshaw area of South Los Angeles were the first to be financed by the Los Angeles Charter School New Markets (LACSNM) fund. View Park’s latest funding award is for its high school, which will build a new, three-story, 19,000 square-foot building, including 12 regular classrooms plus one for performing arts, a college center, administrative offices, a cafeteria, storage areas and underground parking. View Park is one of a number of Inner City Education Foundation


Public Schools (ICEF) in Los Angeles.

Another of its partners is the New Schools Venture Fund, which raises venture capital for projects focused on low-income and minority children in urban communities, and has put together funding packages for both individual and groups of charter schools across the nation.

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, dedicated to improving urban education, has been another contributor, and donated to many more charter schools organizations, including the California Charter Schools Association, Green Dot Public Schools in Los Angeles (which opened a school in New York in 2008), Aspire Public Schools in Oakland, California, and YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, Texas.

California, the District of Columbia, Minnesota and Utah are generally far ahead of other states in funding charter school buildings because they were originally the only states eligible for a federal program called the State Charter Schools Facilities Incentive Grants Program, which awarded five-year grants in 2004, but was never funded again. Funding

was limited to the states and the District that provided state per-pupil funding for charter schools, and they were the only four that did so.

While it isn’t part of the stimulus bill, it should also be noted that some of the most significant funding for charter school facilities to date was provided by a federal grant program titled the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities, which has assisted a much broader group of charter schools since 2002. Grant funds are used to help charter schools improve their credit rating, which in turn help them borrow and leverage money for facilities.

In 2008, credit enhancement funds went to Civic Builders, Inc., which received $8.3 million to help build and renovate charter schools in New York and New Jersey. In 2007, $36.5 million in funding went to Housing Partnership Inc. in Boston, the Illinois Facilities Fund, the Low Income Investment Fund in San Francisco and the Michigan Public Educational Facilities Authority.

Previous enhancement fund winners were America’s Charter (now part of Building Hope), Center for Community Self-Help,

Charter Schools Development Corporation, Community Loan Fund of New Jersey, Inc., Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Raza Development Fund and Reinvestment Fund.

These and other organizations and businesses interested in charter schools are developing additional facilities resources for charter schools. Individual businesses have also helped charter school facility needs with resources including donated faculties, low-cost leases for buildings and direct grants to a school’s capital campaign. Some businesses have provided loans, or loan guarantees similar to the federal credit enhancement program.

The fourth bond program in the stimulus bill, Recovery Zones Bonds, will be awarded to states based on their decrease in employment as compared to the national rate. Each state will be required to allocate money to counties and municipalities with populations of 100,000 or more, based on how much their decrease in employment exceeds the state average. These bonds may be used for whatever economic recovery priorities the state, county or municipality may choose.

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Have you asked your employees what their New Year’s Resolution is? If the answers are similar to my informal survey this year, chances are that around 25% of your employees want to lose some weight and get into shape this year. Obviously, it is in your company’s best interests for them to achieve their health goal because their improved health will generally translate to improved efficiency and less sick days off. So what is your company doing to support the health goals of your employees?

To support the health objectives of your work colleagues the human resources manager just needs to get in touch with the staff and find out what their health goals are. You can do this in casual conversation or in a staff memo or email.

Have a follow up conversation with the work colleagues who do want to get into shape and ask them how your company could help them achieve their goal.

At the suggestion of this, some human resource managers defensively reply, “We already provide discounted gym memberships and health insurance.”

But is this what your work colleagues want?

Low participation rates in many so called Corporate Wellness programs seem to suggest that many corporate wellness programs are not so interested in improving the health of their work force. For one, the large majority of companies do not even measure the fitness or health of their staff. It would be easy to conclude that it is a greater priority for the company to be seen to be supporting the health of the work force than delivering actual results.

But how can you measure health results of your employees?

I suggest three ways to measure results...

The first is to have an annual physical. This could include a standard blood test (by a wellness-based doctor), fitness test (at the local gym with a trainer) and a postural assessment/spinal screening (by a chiropractor).

I recommend a doctor with training in wellness and prevention to do and interpret the blood test because they often request a more thorough blood analysis of certain biomarkers of health rather than the standard cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

It is important to monitor your fitness levels because it is a reliable indicator of how well workers will be able to maintain your energy at work. There are a variety of fitness tests that can be performed. When I studied exercise physiology at the University of Adelaide, we compared different fitness tests that estimated your fitness level (Your VO2 max) to the actual accurate measurement of your fitness (VO2 max). The problem is that this test requires you to exercise to exhaustion while being connected to all sorts of machines and monitors.

We found that different fitness tests were not an accurate measure of your actual fitness but we did find that if you continue to do the same fitness test over time, the results are an accurate indication of your fitness progress. So when you measure your fitness with these tests that

Workplace PerformanceImprove Your Workers' Productivity and Reduce Sick Days


estimate your fitness, don’t worry what fitness level it says that you are. Just use the results to monitor your progress and beat your previous result.

Getting a spinal screening and postural evaluation is one of the most important things to get measured because aches, pains and injuries are one of the most costly ailments for business. It is essential that these evaluations are performed by a chiropractor because they are the best trained in detecting potential weak spots and imbalances that can cause injury in the future.

Many companies and schools have had nurses or physical therapists do a spinal check by getting them to bend forward and that’s it. Because their training is more on rehabilitating injuries than prevention, using such professionals has resulted in failing to prevent so many injuries that have been waiting to happen.

Since back pain is one of the biggest costs to business you want to be checked by the profession that has the best record in dealing with back pain.

Secondly you should ask your employee to rate their health. I can recall many years ago that an article published in a major medical journal shocked the medical profession. The study concluded that doctors should actually listen to what the patients were saying because if you asked the patients how they were, typically their answers were quite accurate.

You just need to ask your team to rate their health on a scale of 0 -100. Then ask them what needs to happen to their health in order to get them their score to 100. This presents the perfect opportunity to ask how your company can support them in this goal.

Thirdly you should monitor their lifestyle with a simple lifestyle evaluation form. That way you can identify potentially harmful lifestyle habits and direct them to healthier alternatives and advice.

With many people making New Year resolutions to get into shape, the start of the New Year is the ideal time to assist your employees with their health goals because they are often more motivated at that time. In reality you can start any time.

The fact that you even ask your employees about their health and are interested in their health shows your employees that the company cares about them. Not only will this help the health of your employees and confer productivity benefits to your company, the fact that your company shows that you care will create loyalty and produce work productivity benefits on their own.

About the Author: Dr. Paul Lanthois is the director of The Work Life Balance Foundation, www.WorkLifeBalanceFoundation.com, that develops personalized health improvement strategies for company employees that result in greater productivity, energy, stress relief and less days absent through illness.

Article Source: http://human-resources-mgt bestmanagementarticles.com

| 15 | 15

SpotlightS

In late February 2009 during an address to a Joint Session of Congress, President Barack Obama said, “We know that our schools don’t just need more resources. They need more reform. That is why this budget creates new incentives for teacher performance, pathways for advancement, and rewards for success. We’ll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps, and we will expand our commitment to charter schools.”

Obama has consistently urged states to lift limits on charter schools and some have been more responsive than others. New England’s six states, though close in proximity, have varying levels of engagement on the issue of charter schools.

In Massachusetts, a state that boasts 63 active charter schools, some legislators see charter schools serving the inner-city, low-income, minority students and want to encourage more of the same. Others fervently disagree.

Currently, state law caps charter school enrollment in individual communities. Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty D-Mass., and Sen. Jack Hart D-Mass. both filed legislation that would lift the cap and allow more charter schools to open in high-need communities.

Another piece of legislation introduced by Rep. Karyn Polito, R-Mass., would change how charter schools in Massachusetts are funded. According to the Massachusetts Association for Public Charter Schools

Regional Spotlight: New EnglandAn Overview of New England Charter SchoolsWritten by Lauren Muscarella


(MAPCS), the proposal would shift one-half of charter public schools’ funding out of the Chapter 70 formula and into a separate budget line-item, exposing half of charter school funding to annual attacks by the teachers union, superintendents and school committees.

Taking this course of action would be a sharp deviation from Massachusetts’ consistent generosity and support of charter schools. The state currently sends money back to the districts after students leave. Replenishing the funding is a sign that Massachusetts recognizes there are fixed costs and gives those districts time to adjust their budgets or back fill seats, in which case they don’t lose state aid.

Its neighbor, New Hampshire, a state with 12 active charter schools, has been confronted by similar legislation. Recently, the House passed an amendment that would jeopardize the state’s public charter school program if it was made into law. According to the New Hampshire Center for Innovative Schools (NHCIS), the amendment limits start up funding, adds redundancy to the approval process to become a charter and extends the moratorium on state-approved charter schools for two additional years to June 2011. This amendment would harm New Hampshire’s ability to compete for federal start up grants by showing a lack of support for charter schools and further confusing or micro managing the state’s charter school law.

The NHCIS released this statement after the amendment passed, “At a time when New Hampshire is taking positive steps to streamline charter school authorization encourage local authorization and applying for potentially millions of dollars in federal aid, this amendment is unnecessary, adds another layer of bureaucracy and can be harmful to the public charter school program in New Hampshire.”

While debates heat up in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont do not have any active charter schools. With tough economic times prevailing, many public schools are losing funding and shutting down. Educators see these closings as an opportunity to open charter schools to curb high school dropout rates that have run rampant, in Maine especially. While Vermonters have been somewhat

divided on the issue, charter schools have garnered substantial support over the past few years in Maine. Maine is currently in the planning stages and will soon submit a bill modeled after the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) in Washington, D.C., to finally bring charter schools to the state. According to the Maine Association for Charter Schools, MACS, the bill will “seek to expand learning opportunities for disengaged students who are underserved by the current system,” turn failing public schools into charter schools, provide teachers with an active role and voice in students’ academic goals, grant eligibility for funding from the Federal Charter School Grant Program, FCSGP, and allow Maine to accept students from out-of-state on a space-available basis while charging them tuition.

The outcome from the varying degree of advocacy for charter schools can only be measured in time. There are, however, several studies being conducted in states that show the benefit of charter schools, especially for those in areas of distress. The Massachusetts Charter Public School Association (MCPSA) is engaged in a federally-funded, three-year endeavor called Keeping the

Promise: the Massachusetts Charter School Dissemination and Replication Project (KTP). Through KTP, MCPSA studied five high-performing urban schools, documented their keys to success, produced papers, a book, and a film, and offered study tours. The goal was documentation, dissemination, and replication of critical and common practices in high-performing urban charter schools. The results showed improved retention rates and standardized test scores, two of the several reasons many educators continue to support charter school expansion.

In some states expansion has been stunted by a resounding lack of support. Both Connecticut and Rhode Island, each with less than 20 active charter schools, have hit a similar wall of issues as their geographic counterparts regarding funding and legislation.

Despite these challenges there have been measurable successes. Many educators support charter schools because they are run by independent boards, make skillful use of longer school days and enhance curricula.

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northeaSt & Mid-atlantic

Sisulu-Walker Charter School Principal Karen Jones doesn’t mince words: She is “a big supporter of No Child Left Behind” and hates achievement tests but keeps her west Harlem, N.Y., classrooms always in the assessment mode.

“I know what it’s like to have a school in failing mode,” said Jones, who had entered Southern Illinois University to study piano but exited with a degree in early childhood education and has been principal since January 1999. “There has to be a mechanism in place that forces teachers and principals to pay particular attention to the performance levels of the students in their schools. That is absolutely the primary agenda of charter schools in this country. If our school doesn’t perform at a high level on a yearly basis, I will be replaced as the School’s instructional leader.”

Jones’ drive comes from 25 years teaching in gang-ridden west-side Chicago schools where school administrators showed little interest, at that time, in high-level student performance. She has been a charter

school leader since 1997 in three states, including Arizona, New Jersey, and New York.

Reading literacy and writing is the cornerstone at Sisulu-Walker, which has 260 first through fifth graders this year. The school now has 10 classrooms on three floors, with 27 students per class closely seated at desks or around tables. The School also uses a full-time certified teacher assistant in every classroom to provide the small-group instruction needed by this high-risk population of students.

The school opened in 1999 and was the first under the umbrella of Victory Schools founded by philanthropist Steven B. Klinsky. Victory now has nine charter schools in New York, six in Philadelphia and two in Chicago. Its mission is built around achievement, honor, and service.

Sisulu-Walker runs on a $3.6 million state-funded budget based on average daily attendance. Private fundraising is now on the table as the

Sisulu-Walker Charter SchoolWhere Failure is Not an OptionProduced by Todd Rodgers & Written by Jim Barlow


school’s Board of Trustees look ahead. “In five years, I see our school in a wonderful new site as a learning center with large, sunny classrooms, the latest technology, including interactive white boards, two foreign language teachers and a beautiful, well-appointed gymnasium,” Jones said. “I’d like a spacious playground with safe equipment, with places for students to climb, play and be physically stimulated.” She also wants a modern music center, a well supplied art room, a well stocked library/media center and up-to-date computers. Of course, we will maintain our high levels of instruction and continue our ever-increasing performance trend.

The school is named after South Africa’s Walter Sisulu and Harlem’s Wyatt Tee Walker. Sisulu, who died in 2003, was the son of a black mother and a white public servant father in South Africa. He recruited Nelson Mandela into the African National Congress. After years of political strife and imprisonment, Mandela rose to the presidency with Sisulu as deputy president. Walker, who turns 80 in August, was Martin Luther King Jr.’s chief of staff and long-time pastor of the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ. When speaking to parents of prospective students, “I tell parents about the importance of who these men were and how we are working to live up to their legacy,” Jones said.

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Sisulu-Walker, 125 W. 115th St., is located in a highly diverse community as Harlem goes through its current gentrification. About 25 percent of its students are of direct African descent. Many of their parents work long hours and most speak just enough English to participate in the work force. These parents are depending heavily on the school to educate and assimilate their children into the American school culture. Another 25 percent are from Caribbean families and the rest are considered African-American. As an all-minority school, there are also a few Asian students.

The school has 38 staff, including 10 teachers and 10 teacher assistants, all certified. Three specialty teachers for music, art, and physical education are also on staff and are not certified but are professionals in their chosen fields. Teachers receive intensive professional development, including 14 pre-service days before school begins each year and one-afternoon each month. Jones notes that the Academic Committee, as a part of the Board of Trustees, “stay on the cutting edge of instructional research, question everything, and require continuous plans of action.”

The academic approach uses multiple techniques, but the Reading First framework associated with NCLB, is crucial. The formula involves research-based strategies, which Jones began learning while working in an educational leadership role for a company producing customized

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professional development programming in Phoenix, Arizona, after leaving the Chicago schools. Her personal mantra is that if children haven’t learned, teachers haven’t taught those students well. “You must pay attention to what students need and plan toward those needs.”

Progress is measured with DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), which has roots in the University of Oregon’s College of Education. DIBELS is comprised of seven measures to function as indicators of phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy

and fluency with connected text, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. In the middle of First Grade and beyond, oral reading fluency is the primary dynamic indicator that requires that specific numbers of words are accurately read within one minute. Children are tested three times a year. By March each year, students are expected to be reading at or above their grade levels.

“The school also incorporates the tenets of Core Knowledge for all grade levels,” Jones said. “This program was chosen as the basis of our Social Studies curriculum as it covers worldly information that all scholars need to know and includes literacy, writing, and project-based learning. We use various teaching methodologies,” she said. “No one method suits the needs of all children.” Older students are moving away from basal readers and going toward a literature-rich curriculum

“We incorporate many different modalities. We attempt to reach all

of our students' learning styles."

~Karen Jones


that includes trade books, reading both fiction and non-fiction. We use a combination of old-school mathematics and a combination of inquiry-based instruction and activities from the more complicated Everyday Math instruction. We incorporate many different modalities. We attempt to reach all of our students’ learning styles.”

Students also take required state and national assessments. “We are always analyzing student achievement results as this is necessary to help teachers plan,” said Jones. “I hate all the testing, but one of the breakdowns of the past was that educators didn’t pay enough attention to testing results until the end of a year when it’s too late to help students reach instructional benchmarks. The research says if you regularly assess your students and are using the results for planning as you go through the year, you can better meet student needs and re-teach what is necessary for academic success. True learning happens when it is connected to prior learning or a foundation of information is established.”

State records show that Sisulu-Walker students are learning. Last year, 87 percent of third-graders and 78 percent of fourth-graders scored at or above grade levels on state Language Arts assessments. In math, 98 percent of students in both grades met or exceeded grade level standards.

DIBELS test data show that initial testing in 2005-2006 found 40 percent of students scoring just under or far below targeted levels. At the end of that year, only 14 percent were slightly below grade level and four percent were far below grade level, with 82 percent at or above

grade level. The 2nd year’s end results showed 88 percent at or above grade level, 10 percent were slightly below grade-levels, but only 2 percent were far below. In the final year implementation of the Reading First grant, students ended the year with 83 percent at or above grade level, 15 percent slightly below, and two percent far below grade level. The same trend is seen currently with 74 percent at or above grade level and 26 percent below grade level. “We have three and a half months to bring all of our students to mastery levels,” says Jones. The School also received a larger than usual number of new students for the 2008-2009 school year. “Students scoring below grade level receive special help from the school’s staff and weekly DIBELS assessments until they reach mastery,” Jones said.

To highlight the School’s successful implementation of Reading First strategies, after only two years of using Reading First, the school represented the state of New York at the 2007 National Reading First conference, highlighting its proficiency of small group and differentiated instructional methods.

Sisulu-Walker also requires science projects in every grade for the annual school Science Fair. Classroom projects are required for kindergarten, first and second grades; however, each student in grades three through five must produce an individual project using the Scientific Method of investigation and experimentation. The Science Fair is one of the most exciting and academically stimulating times during the school year.Sisulu-Walker students are benefitting from this uniquely founded charter school, improving academically and entering the real world well-prepared.

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In 1999, in the heart of Philadelphia, a charter school opened its doors. Today, this school oper-ates from a $4.7 million annual budget, serving 480 students ranging from 9th to 12th grades. If there is one thing that sets Freire Charter School apart from others, it is the fact that they don’t have low expectations for their students. Freire raises the educational bar, which helps guide students to academic success. The prob-lem of low standards in public, often urban, school settings is an issue that Kelly Davenport, Ed.D., the head of the school, cites as one of the biggest problems in education today.

Davenport has been with the school since its opening and is passionate about her students and the mission of the school. Graduating as a Spanish major from college, she went on to teach for two years in Portugal, and has earned a doctorate in urban education.

“The low expectations put on our kids is such a problem,” says Davenport. “The system of education itself generates low expectations for kids and teachers. And this trend has got to stop.”

A Different Approach

Freire Charter School takes a unique approach to learning, where they aim to provide all students with a quality private education. While the name of the college preparatory school may leave you wondering how to pronounce it (“Free-air-ee”), it is a deliberate choice. The school is named after the late Paulo Freire, an important educational theorist and Brazilian instructor. His ideas and educational theories influence the school’s teaching philosophy.

Freire Charter SchoolGreat ExpectationsProduced by Eric Gunn & Written by Jacqueline Bodnar


Paulo Freire believed a classical education, that being liberal arts and sciences, was not being taught efficiently in schools, and he offered a more effective method. His philosophy is based on the idea that students are not empty minds just waiting for a teacher to fill them up. Rather, he believed that a student-teacher relationship exists where both are in the process of learning from one another. His ideas are practiced at Freire Charter School, as they take on a student-centered educational approach.

Using Freire’s approach, students at the school are not treated as passive learners. They evaluate their teachers, help in designing the curriculum, and even have a representative seat at the Board of Directors table.

Learning and Beyond

“We have no tolerance whatsoever for student misconduct,” explains Davenport. “We expect students to behave appropriately. When they don’t, Freire students learn from their mistakes so that next time they do things better. It’s all about the expectations we set for them.”

With disciplinary issues resolved, the school focuses on a variety of subject areas, with college preparatory options at the forefront. The courses students elect to take at their school are what university admission offices look for when they apply for college. Students build a strong foundation of math,

biology, English, history, Spanish, and reading. Additional electives open to them include Advanced Biology, Environmental Science, African American Literature, Mass Communications, American Law, and Spanish IV.

Students have opportunities to participate in varsity and junior varsity basketball, football, softball, track, soccer, and volleyball. The school also has a wide variety of clubs and activities to enrich the student’s experience, including book clubs, dancing, art, chess, drama, singing, business, photog-raphy, and student government. Additionally, some student groups, such as the National Honor Society, take part in charity-based initiatives to help those in the community, such as holding a penny drive.

Being a college preparatory school, Freire makes sure that its students receive college counseling. They learn about college preparation and admission timelines, and are provided with a variety of tools to guide them through the process of applying to and preparing for college. This one-on-one attention from a career counselor pays off in a big way as 98 percent of the school’s students go on to college.

Behind the Scenes

Every successful school needs committed teachers who make it their mission to help their students perform to the best of their ability. Freire

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Charter School maintains quality teachers and personnel who have a thor-ough understanding of its educational philosophy and goals. It also takes routine measures to improve teacher quality and keep up with changing demands in the educational world.

“We work in small teams and bring people in from the outside for training,” says Davenport. “That way, we are able to identify any weak areas and help the teachers to address them. Another thing that sets us apart - I don’t think you will find another school in the state that cares or works as much for kids as we do.”

The school also appreciates the benefits that parental involvement brings, although they, like most schools, have not found a way to increase participa-tion over 35 percent. Thus far, they do ask parents to speak to their kids about school, offer a back-to-school night for parents, and are working all the time to build meaningful relationships with parents.

On Being a Charter School

One of the ways Davenport recommends that other charter schools help with their budget issues is to keep their kids excited about, and therefore always attending, school. This, in turn, keeps enrollment up, which is imperative for maximized funding from the state. This may take some creativity, but it will pay off in the long run.


When it comes to what Davenport would like to see changed for charter schools in Pennsylvania, she says that they need more elbow room.

“Within the state of Pennsylvania, remember to pull back on legislation and allow for educators in the field to create a path for education that is student-centered,” says Davenport. “Educators need the space to focus most on what matters most- the students. It’s a tragedy when the job of an educa-tor serves legislation more than it serves the kids.”

What’s Next for Freire

Davenport remains optimistic about the future of the school, expecting continued growth and planning to be there to lead the way.

“In five years, I see us being the best school in the city, offering the same amenities, opportunities and qualities of a private school, but funded through the public system,” adds Davenport. “We plan to forge relation-ships with the local universities and hope to build a center for new and inspiring urban teachers someday. We also have 95 percent teacher reten-tion, and we have impressive alumni and returning-student numbers. I see that continuing and even improving in the future.”

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Delaware Valley Charter High SchoolTeaching Respect and Much MoreProduced by Eric Gunn & Written by Prem Desai

“We have a safe school, almost like a little oasis in the desert,” says Ernest Holiday, CEO and Principal of Delaware Valley Charter High School in Philadelphia.

Offering safety to the students in the economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods that Delaware Valley Charter serves is exactly what attracts students to the school. “Philly has some problems. We don’t have any gang violence here. There are no weapons offenses here or teacher assaults. We have a strict respect code,” explains Holiday. That respect is an intrinsic part of their students’ education, helping to check violence at the door and allowing Delaware Valley to offer something that many area schools lack: a safe place to learn.

Holiday is in his 15th year in education and has taught at every level before moving into his current role. “My wife was teaching and I started coaching my boys in little league and following them through their trials and tribulations in basketball, football, that kind of thing. I found out I really liked working with children and decided to start teaching.”

“When I took over Delaware Valley Charter High School, it was a failing school…Right now, we are up 100 percent in reading and 450 percent in math.”

Holiday has big goals for Delaware Valley and hopes his experience will help guide the school to 90 percent proficiency in Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), with a changed focus on transition to college over the next five years. He also hopes that 100 percent of his students that graduate from high school will go to college and complete their studies to the degree level.

“We are very big on making sure students have a safe environment so we came down hard on any who were fighting. We really believe in teaching our students not only academics but also social and behavioral skills; and that’s what lets me sleep well at night.”

Delaware Valley was founded as a charter in 2000, but had been serving as a private school since 1970. It now has 710 students in grades 9 through 12, 80 staff and a budget of $6.5 million. “It was founded as a school to career - focused on preparing students to graduate from high school to go into the workforce,” says Holiday, who arrived in 2004.

The school believes in structured teaching where instructors begin modeling then move to guided practice, to collaborative learning among students, and then to independent practice. Delaware Valley also elevates the importance of an interactive classroom where students have access to hands-on projects.


“Congratulations to Ernest Holiday and the staff of DVCHS for their success and dedication to excellence!”

Also unique is the school’s internship program that begins with ninth-graders and allows them to achieve their goal of preparing students for the work world: “We have a lot of students who go out and work in businesses in the community,” says Holiday.

Delaware Valley has an impressive list of programs to offer their students that includes mandarin, culinary arts, cheerleading, sports, modeling, mock trial, computer aided design and fashion design. “We do believe in teaching the whole child,” says Holiday. We cater to any thing they may want.”

Assessment must also play a vital role in the curriculum. “We feel that as long as we know the rules of the game then we’ll be fine.” That said, Holiday goes on to explain that the school prepares its students for standardized tests, aware that for the school to achieve its goals as a charter, their students need to able to perform well on standardized tests.

Initially, the tests played a large role in shaping the curriculum because the school’s focus was to get back on track and make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). “At first we were focused on reading and then we moved towards Math once our reading scores started to increase. Now we’re increasing the math scores - pulling students out for extra help, tutoring after school, hiring additional teachers,” explains Holiday.

Holiday sees two sides of AYP: “In the short term, it’s great to have goals; teachers need goals to strive after. Ultimately, though, the goal of AYP is for 100 percent proficiency which I think is going to be difficult to achieve and may be somewhat unrealistic.” Holiday also takes issue with the definition of “highly qualified teachers,” which sometimes gets in the way of hiring who he’d like.

In Philadelphia, teachers can work towards their certification while in school; but Delaware Valley also offers uncertified teachers a Highly Qualified Teacher program which supports their quest for certification financially and through professional development.

“Our teachers are working collaboratively and that’s the keyword,” says Holiday. We have some very talented teachers here and they weren’t sharing with each other.” Teachers work together within their individual departments to assess student performance and improve their instruction. When necessary, teachers also collaborate to refer students out for intervention.

Discipline rests mainly with the classroom teacher. “We have a program called Discipline in the Secondary Classroom which involves practices like keeping behavior logs and tying behavior into grading - things that really motivate students to behave and do their work,” explains Holiday. Delaware Valley also has a Vice Principal of Student Affairs and Behavior Modification Specialists who provide support to teachers if situations get out of hand.

Delaware Valley’s team of counselors, social workers, and administrators work to intervene before behavior requires suspensions of expulsions. Thanks to their hard work, the school has relatively few suspensions and no expulsions.

“Of course,” says Holiday, “there are some major events that would

| 27


cause a student to be expelled but we see if we can find some way to pull that student back in. We don’t give up on students. Our goal is that every child in the school will succeed and they’re not allowed to fail.”

Parental involvement is another important facet of helping their students achieve success. “They have a vested interest in their child - I’ve never met a parent who didn’t want their child to succeed,” says Holiday. Involving parents makes the education process a team effort. When students are struggling, contacting the parent is the first step. And the school works closely with the parents to set up a success plan that involves the school, the student, and parents.

Working to benefit the surrounding community, the school is involved with various community service projects such as a recent Diabetes Walk, fundraisers for slain police officers, food drives and clean-up projects around the city. A couple of students are even going to Nicaragua over the summer to help build a school.

Continuing to serve the surrounding community as a safe haven, Delaware Valley’s recent and exponential growth promises continuing success moving into the future.


Pennsylvania Cyber Charter SchoolBlazing Trails Through CyberspaceProduced by Hayley Gold & Written by Dr. Tiffany Griffin

Cyber schools have sprung up all over the country over the past decade, yet one school, Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber), has achieved particular success, making it an example for online public education here and abroad. This is due, in part, to the school’s core focus on learning and student-level educational outcomes. PA Cyber uses technology to facilitate instruction, not replace it, serves a diverse student body, has high-quality curriculum, and facilitates social development.

Focus on the Students

While opponents to PA Cyber focus on its non-traditional online approach as a hindrance to instruction and social development, PA Cyber faculty, administrators, and other leadership personnel go back to what is best for the students.

The school’s inception came in the tiny Western Pennsylvania town of Midland, which had lost its high school after the local steel mill shut down and the population declined. The school’s 125 high school students were tuitioned to a neighboring school district. To give these displaced students another educational option, Dr. Nick Trombetta, superintendent of Midland Borough School District, persuaded community leaders to create an online school under the state’s newly-enacted charter school law.

Organizers hoped to enroll 50 students that first year. They got more than 500, from all over the state.

Dr. Trombetta, CEO of PA Cyber, brings with him years of experience in the educational realm including roles such as superintendent, principal, teacher, board member, and wrestling coach.

| 29

north

“The last 10 years have been very exciting. We have grown by leaps and bounds and implemented programs that never existed before,” says Dr. Trombetta.

Their unique methods and structure have won PA Cyber extensive media attention from both national and international sources. Since the school’s opening in 2000, the number of students attending their K-12 school has grown exponentially, despite declining trends in other cyber schools across the state. Currently, PA Cyber serves over 8,000 students with an annual budget of $80 million and a staff of 523.

“I think it is one of our greatest strengths that we were started from scratch. It has taken 10 years but we have learned how to run an online school,” explains Fred Miller, communications coordinator for PA Cyber. Staying focused on its students, PA Cyber instruction and technological teams are constantly looking for and implementing the best ways to reach more students, design and implement effective and efficient instruction, while using revenues in the most conscientious manner possible. Given the nature of the school’s instructional methods, technology is the brick and mortar for its implementation and benefits a diverse group of Pennsylvania youth.

The PA Cyber Student

PA Cyber students have to have high levels of self-discipline to be able to respond to the structure of a non-traditional instructional

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classroom. Other than being self-disciplined and highly motivated, it is difficult to characterize the ‘typical’ PA Cyber student. This is because students represent ethnic and racial diversity, gender, and socioeconomic diversity, and come from both urban and rural neighborhoods. This diversity creates a learning community that far surpasses many traditional public schools, which are often divided along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic homogeneity.

The PA Cyber Curriculum

Coursework at PA Cyber requires that at least one parent be home during the day with the student, although this requirement is somewhat more relaxed for high school students. For youth who want to participate in PA Cyber, but do not have a parent who can stay home, adults at church groups and community centers have provided the supervision needed to matriculate at PA Cyber.

The school’s curriculum falls into two major categories: asynchronous learning (self-paced learning) and synchronous learning (real-time learning). Asynchronous learning is best for the extremely self-disciplined student who can benefit from greater scheduling flexibility. Synchronous learning curriculum is best for the student who benefits from the structure of a regular time schedule and interaction with teachers and classmates. In synchronous courses, live instructors use a software program, AT&T Connect and the Internet to create a Virtual Classroom where students communicate both with the instructor as well as with the other students in the classroom.

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Both methods allow students to choose from over 250 courses. Students have core subjects such as English, Algebra, and science, as well as access to cutting-edge courses such as epidemiology, forensic pathology, and Mandarin Chinese. Students also take electives, participate in gym class, and attend field trips, just as they would in traditional public schools. Within both broad curriculum types, students must also complete assignments, tests, and exams. Students are provided with all of the technological tools needed to be effective learners, including a computer, all-in-one printer, the Internet and relevant software. These tools provide digital access to many students, especially youth from lower-income neighborhoods, who would not otherwise have had opportunities to take advantage of such tools. Technology support is available for all students and the turn around time for most problems is within 24 hours.

Teachers at PA Cyber monitor cheating in exactly the same way as traditional public school teachers—by tracking patterns in student assignments over the course of study and documenting drastic fluctuations in student performance. Scantron testing occurs three times each school year and PA Cyber students take the PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment), the state standardized assessment test. PA Cyber must also adhere to state and national accountability standards, including those outlined by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Student Outcomes and the Achievement Gap(s)

Similar to traditional public schools, PA Cyber has had triumphs and

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challenges making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Fully half the students enrolling in the school initially test one to two grade levels behind their peers.

“Our students often come to us with other school experience. They have already formed good habits or bad habits,” explains Dr. Trombetta.

Despite this difficulty, turnover in the student body, and other challenges related to functioning as a large school, PA Cyber met NCLB academic targets every year through 2007.

As in most traditional public schools, PA Cyber also faces difficulties with achievement gaps between racial/ethnic, gender, and ability groups. Yet, teachers actively combat achievement disparities by providing remediation work, tutoring, and special programs such as Math Blaster, Academy of Reading and Academy of Math, and Study Island. Students have responded well to these remediation and tutoring efforts and have demonstrated high competence on standardized tests.

Social Development

Cyber school critics site detriments to students’ social development as one downside to online education. PA Cyber responds to this criticism with formal and informal social networks for students and families. For example, students in the synchronous curriculum have the opportunity to interact with other students and their teacher


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virtually in real time. Many students who attend PA Cyber would have been homeschooled anyway, making this service a unique benefit for these students.

PA Cyber created Family Link, a social network that allows caregivers and families to interact with each other. Because students can attain social development from a host of different settings, schools represent only one way in which they develop the aptitude to navigate social settings PA Cyber believes cyber school does not hinder students’ social development, and that eliminating some of the distractions that may arise in a traditional school via online education may actually facilitate social development in other non-school domains, such as a student’s church or community group. Fahrenheit 451?

In 1953, author Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451, where he described the temperature at which books burn as an allegory for the demise of critical thinking because of technological change due to the increasing relevance of television in American society. In much the same way, critics of cyber education disparage the increasing frequency of online education. Yet, just as the advent of the television has not resulted in the abolition of reading or of critical thought, online education has the ability to create new and unique learning opportunities for students who often find themselves in a flawed system that has the inability to cater to the unique needs of each student.

PA Cyber creates a structure for equality and opportunities for students for whom the traditional public school has been less effective or is no longer easily accessible. By many measures, PA Cyber is a success. Students with prior achievement decrements have improved and reached their grade-appropriate learning levels; and graduates of PA Cyber articulated aspirations of attending 4-year and 2-year colleges. Despite the unique challenges of achieving AYP, PA Cyber has maintained excellent learning standards for all of its students.

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SpotlightS

State Caps on Charter SchoolsThe Argument to Remove ThemWritten by Jim Barlow

Calls for removing caps that limit start ups of new charter schools have landed support this year from two important voices, including that of President Barack Obama, who, in March, cited the innovation charter schools bring to the country’s educational landscape.

The other important voice was that of Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who in January urged New York and other states to drop their caps and increase funding. He too cited educational innovation and improved teacher effectiveness as benefits of the charter-school movement.

Charter school caps challenge these benefits. They limit the number of charter schools allowed in a state and place restrictions on individual authorizers of charters; still

other caps restrict the numbers of students a charter school can have. Considered arbitrary by professionals in the movement, caps fail to take into consideration school quality, academic achievement and progress of students enrolled in charter schools and proponents of charter schools worry that caps will stymie efforts to improve public education.

Why we Have Caps

Existing caps can be traced to early opponents of charter schools: public school boards, their administrators and financial managers feared a draining of quality students and significant loss of public funds; teacher unions worried that non-unionized teachers would gain an advantage; and politicians were concerned

about threats to the traditional public funding mission of government. All worried that students of low socioeconomic families and the disabled would be turned away from charter schools, when, in fact, the opposite is the case.

In some states, if not all, caps also exist to limit charters’ share of money. While the pros and cons are debated about the repercussions of caps, the important questions about charter schools are overshadowed, their growth and improvement stunted, and their benefits overlooked.

According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), 26 states and the District of Columbia currently have caps. The number of schools allowed in each state is often


tied to political motivations such as policy-makers being concerned with how charter schools will affect school districts as a whole.Arguments most often cited in cap debates don’t go deep enough, noted Andrew J. Rotherham in “Smart Charter School Caps,” a study published in September 2007 by Education Sector, an independent education policy think tank in Washington, D.C.

“Unfortunately, the debate about charter schools rarely accounts for such performance variation, just as charter caps do not differentiate between good schools and lousy schools,” he wrote.

Rotherham’s conclusions call for the removal of the politically and emotionally charged caps now in force and the implementation of “smart caps,” in which charter school successes and failures would be monitored. “Smart charter caps,” he wrote, would allow “for deliberate capacity-driven growth, would direct new resources to high-achieving schools and “work within today’s political reality.” Poor-achieving or financially troubled schools, under such an approach, could be shut down to maintain efficient charter-school numbers within jurisdictions.

Benefits of Removal

While arguments to maintain caps reappear repeatedly in media coverage, supporting data to do so is rarely offered that compares academic assessments of traditional public and charter schools. Such studies have provided conflicting results or failed to find significant differences.

Charter school supporters say their schools offer a diversity of schooling options, reduce public funding because they receive on average 22 percent less than traditional schools, provide comparable or superior instruction, cater to minority students and meet demands by parents. Caps have only stifled these improvements from reaching more students and led to waiting lists of thousands of students, particularly in Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Texas.

According to a national poll cited by the NAPCS and conducted in April 2008, 77 percent of registered voters favored giving parents more options for where to send their children to school. Removing caps on

charters would only increase these options as the numbers of charters grow within each state.Another surfacing argument to remove caps is that competition for students will drive overall improvement in schools across the board. This argument also appeared in North Carolina’s General Assembly in March, when a trio of Democrats, responding to a Republican call to lift or expand the state’s cap, said they would support the move if existing schools were shown to be functioning fully, reported the Durham Herald-Sun.

“It will remove some money from our traditional schools, but these are public schools,” said State Rep. Verla Insko about the proposal. “The traditional [school districts] should not be afraid of the competition from charter schools.”

President Obama’s vision for education includes the removal of caps. In his March speech to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he criticized state caps that limit new charter schools without consideration of student progress. “That isn’t good for our children, our economy or our country,” he said.

Nelson Smith, NAPCS president and chief

executive officer, praised Obama’s remarks: “With 365,000 students on charter waiting lists, there is no excuse for state laws that stifle the growth of these schools. President Obama has taken a bold step by challenging states to get on the reform bandwagon. He’s right to couple the promise of growth with a demand for accountability -- and nowhere will you find stronger support for high-quality chartering than in the charter movement itself.”

With support from our new president, charter caps may yet begin to go by the wayside. Were this to happen, increased charter school numbers would not be the only benefit. Administrators and others could then focus more energy on accountability, improving charters already innovative service to education in America.

Sources:• http://www.publiccharters.org about schools/

factsheet• http://www.publiccharters.org• http://www.publiccharters.org/node/786• http://www.educationsector.org• http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/

Pages/2009-bill-gates-annual-letter.aspx • http://cell.uindy.edu/transformingeducation/

charterschoolstudy.php

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SpotlightS

Spotlight on BehaviorTeaching Anger Management and Emotional Control to Children

These days, anger management is a hot topic among educators. More and more, we see angry students committing acts of violence against classmates. Educating the public on the topic of anger management is the best way to help children manage their anger in an appropriate way.

What is anger?

Angry feelings are normal emotional reactions to daily stresses in our lives that range from irritated to enraged. It’s natural for children to experience emotions of anger but it’s critical to teach them proper coping mechanisms so that they do not express these feelings in an uncontrollable manner.

The goal as a parent is not to completely stop the angry emotion since they are hardwired into our brain. The goal is to teach the children to develop self-control and make appropriate choices regarding how to handle these feelings.

Strategies for teach children to handling anger appropriately:

1. Lead by example – Research shows that children model their parents so if the parent blows up in fits of rage in front of a child. The child will learn to use anger as a coping mechanism for their situations in their lives.

2. Teach empathy and tolerance. Empathy is the ability to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Children that understand the feelings of others deal better with disagreements with other children.

3. Remain calm – Yelling at angry children to control themselves will only increase the intensity of the outburst. Remaining calm yourself will assist the child caught by the anger bee.

The secret to anger management is to intervene early. Most children use anger because it is their only coping

mechanism for daily stress.

40 |40 | charTer schooLs Today Spring 2009

4. Use positive self-talk – Teach children to stay in control by saying affirmations. Affirmations are simple positive messages that the child can say to themselves in stressful situations. For example, here’s a few that a child could learn: “Stop and calm down”, “Take a deep breath”, “Stay in control”, or “I can handle this”. Suggest a few to your child and practice it with them. The more you practice it with them the more likely they will use it during an anger driven situation.

5. Teach them deep breathing – During an angry episode, our breathing changes to quick short breathes. This breathing causes a cascade of physiological changes in our body that creates anger. By learning to controlled, deep breathing, children can short circuit the angry response. Teach your child to inhale to a 5 counts, then hold for a 2 counts, and exhale for a 5 counts. For young kids, I call this breathing exercise “Dragon’s breath”. Have them pretend that they are breathing out fire with the exhale and that the fire is the anger leaving the body.

6. Identify anger triggers – Most children respond to specific triggers that cause anger. Ask your child “What situations make you angry?” The answer will vary from frustrations over homework to bullying at school. Then, talk about solutions that are more appropriate to the problem situation. You can

even rehearse the scenario by role-playing.

7. Watch for the warning signs – When anger starts to arise, they will show signs. Tell your child that it’s important to listen to the warning signs. Ask your child what the specific warning signs that show that they are getting upset. Some examples of signs could be talking louder, heart pounding, face getting red, clenching fists, or breathing faster. Once you identify the signs, start pointing them out when they show signs of getting upset. For example, “I see your breathing fast” “Looks like you are getting anger” “You’re clenching your fist. Are you getting upset.” This self-awareness will snap the child back into reality and help them manage the anger early – before it’s out of control.

The secret to successful anger management is to intervene early. Most children use anger because it is their only coping mechanism for daily stress. By identifying problem situations and providing them new techniques for coping, you will keep the anger bee from grabbing hold of your child.

Author: Tim Rosanelli

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In September 1999, the Washington D.C. area witnessed the opening of Meridian Public Charter School. Their mission is to instill within their students a passion for learning and to build self-confidence and self-respect through academic achievement. As the start of their first year, there were approximately 100 students ranging from pre-kindergarten through the third grade. Today that school has grown to a student body of 515 and includes pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. With their philosophy and mission firmly in place, Meridian Public Charter School has made its mark in the area, led by an education veteran who understands

what students need to succeed, and how to help them achieve their goals.

As principal of Meridian Public Charter School, Dr. Robinette Breedlove brings with her years of teaching experience and educational tools to help her lead a team of students, staff, teachers, and parents, to ensure the school’s success. Dr. Breedlove, who holds a doctorate in education, started out as a kindergarten teacher. She has taught in several states around the country, including Pennsylvania, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Maryland. She also has other impressive experiences that aid her, including being a Persian Gulf

War veteran, and a founding principal of the D.C.-based Arts and Technology Academy.

The Standards

“I think it is problematic when it is the only measure, because there are so many other factors in determining a good school,” says Dr. Breedlove when asked about standardized tests being the primary factor of accountability for a school. She explains that at Meridian, they want to make sure they are meeting the standard and can compete across the nation, but not only based on standardized testing.

Meridian Public Charter SchoolBuilding Students' Minds and CharactersProduced by Eric Gunn & Written by Jacqueline Bodnar


Dr. Breedlove leads a team of talented teachers. When it comes to the highly-qualified standards set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), she believes that it should be seen as a minimum qualification, with all the teachers needing to have at least a bachelor’s degree. Beyond that, she believes that charter schools should be able to set their own standards, in addition to those put forth by the NCLB.

Additionally, she feels the NCLB’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) formula fosters greater awareness of criterion used to evaluate their performance: “One thing that it does is makes teachers more aware of standards and holds them more accountable,” she says.

The Philosophy and Mission

The educational method used at Meridian is one that has children learn in small groups. The school focuses on building character, along with placing an educational emphasis on achieving high reading and mathematics levels. Students are exposed to a comprehensive curriculum that includes science, social studies, the arts, technology, foreign languages, and development programs. The classrooms are set up so there is both a lead teacher and an instructional assistant, both of whom work closely with the students. Special needs or English Language Learners (ELL) students follow an inclusion model, keeping students in the classroom and bringing support services to the child.

Meridian also offers before and aftercare, which exposes the children to a variety of enrichment programs such as cultural arts, sports, and recreation. Other special programs at the school include “3, 4 and 5 On The Rise,” which aims to help third through fifth graders who are underperforming improve their language arts, reading, and math skills. A similar program called “Day 6 Academy” is held on Saturday mornings for sixth through eighth graders that have academic deficiencies. Furthermore, the school provides support with an ELL tutoring program, and a mentoring program that pairs staff members with the students who need to learn good classroom behavior skills.

In addition to offering extra support for their students, Meridian strongly supports its teachers. It aids teacher development through payment of half of the tuition for continuing education classes as well as support them while they seek their certification. The school itself provides professional development periods and offers a Teacher Excellence Academy, where veteran teachers help guide new ones.

“Our goal is to continue to create a world-class school of dedicated teachers, meeting all the standards and creating a larger Parent Center."

~Dr. Robinette Breedlove

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Parents Make the Grade

“We think the more educated and savvy the parents are, the more exposure to educational opportunities the child will have,” explains Dr. Breedlove.

At Meridian, parental involvement in the educational process is more than a fleeting wish. The school has a Parent Center, which aims to help parents improve their own education. Parents can go to school at the same time as their student. While the student is in his or her classroom, the parents attend the Parent Center, where they can engage in a variety of classes such as English as a Second Language (ESL), Spanish literacy, General Educational Development (GED), and computer courses. As the parents become more involved in improving their own education they are likely to become more involved in their child’s.

Parents are also an integral part of the discipline plan at the school. The whole discipline approach doesn’t begin when misconduct occurs; it starts by teaching character development and encouraging positive classroom behavior. If a student does go too far, the school schedules a meeting with the parents.

“We pride ourselves on being partners with the parents to make sure behavior is addressed at school and we get to the root of the problem,” says Dr. Breedlove. “We try to also teach parents about other ways to handle problems at school.”

The Future of Meridian

“Our goal is to continue to create a world-class school of dedicated teachers, meeting all the standards, and creating a larger Parent Center to service them, so they can support the student,” says Dr. Breedlove. Looking down the road, Dr. Breedlove hopes that the school will be in a new building, since they have outgrown their current one.

While the objective of Meridian Public Charter School will continue to be one that places an emphasis on helping children achieve high levels of reading and mathematics, they are also building the foundation for future and lifetime learning. Brick by brick, they use the tools they have to help guide these students to achieve more, believe in themselves, and have a strong moral character.


Friendship Public Charter School,Southeast Elementary AcademyProviding a Well-Rounded EducationProduced by Eric Gunn & Written by Prem Desai

Principal Michelle Pierre-Farid states the mission of Friendship Public Charter School simply: “To serve underprivileged children and provide them with an ethical, literate, and well-rounded education.”

Founded in 1997, Friendship Public Charter School is a not-for-profit organization that established its first charter schools in 1998 with the opening of the Chamberlain and Woodridge Elementary campuses. In just over 10 years, the school has grown to include elementary, middle, and high school students, serving 4,000 children throughout the District of Columbia. Friendship also extends its services to reach traditional public schools with its Supplemental Education Services and Saturday programs.

Friendship Public Charter School is comprised of five campuses throughout the nation’s capital: Chamberlain Elementary, Southeast Elementary Academy, Woodridge Elementary and Middle, Blow Pierce Junior Academy, and Collegiate Academy.

Friendship took over Southeast Academy in 2005 on the site of a former charter school and invested over $15 million to complete a campus expansion that added 16 classrooms, a gymnasium, dining hall, interactive library, and technology-rich SmartLab™, transforming the facility into a world-class educational environment.

Operating on a budget of $3 million, the school serves 545 students with 55 teachers. The predecessor for the school, Friendship Cares, was a social services group that proved the need for the charter school’s existence. “It all started from a social services group called Friendship Cares who showed there was a lot of need for us in local schools.”

“Friendship really believes in supporting the

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whole child,” says Pierre-Farid, “making sure they know whether they want to go to college or what they want to do in their careers. We provide mental health and physical services, so we have a therapist on staff, guidance counselors on staff, provide physical education. It’s not just the academics but the other needs of our students too.”

Their techniques in the classroom are comprehensive and varied, employing the use of balanced literacy and balanced numeracy effects. The school also does a lot of small group instruction, breaking students into pods. All classes have four to six computers and smart boards, which are interactive white boards.

The school also has classrooms called Smart Labs. “It’s much more high tech than a computer lab. They have pods, and each pod allows children to do some type of computer activity or technology activity connected to real life,” explains Pierre-Farid.

Some examples of these pods include aviation where students can learn how to fly aiplane, aeronautics where they are taught how wind affects the plane, and a media center where students create their own music and make video. There is also a center for power point and robotics team where students create robots.

Even in such a unique environment, the school must still comply with standardized tests and the definition of highly qualified teachers. “I do feel like there are some teachers that haven’t passed the test but have a wonderful rapport with children and have a strong knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy,” says Pierre-Farid, “but they might be not

good test takers. So that part sometimes frustrates me.”

Wishing there were other ways for teachers to prove their knowledge base, she does acknowledge that there needs to be a measure so schools are sure that the students have “someone good in front of them.”

She feels the same about the tests mandated in No Child Left Behind. “I do wish that we had a variety of ways to show that children are learning,” says Pierre-Farid. “Maybe we could have a student portfolio so students can show their knowledge in various ways,” she suggests. “But I still believe that we should have high standards and we should be held accountable.”

Though the tests don’t play a big part in its curriculum, the school covers what is necessary so the students are prepared when they face the test. Believing there is a role for Adequate Yearly Progress, Pierre-Farid says, “It has made everyone more accountable to meeting the needs of all types of children. And I think that’s very important because certain subgroups were forgotten about before and it was OK because they didn’t affect the student achievement. I don’t want them to be forgotten about…they should be recognized because they’re all our children.”

In order to ensure their teachers can continue to meet the needs of the students, Friendship takes professional development equally seriously and has a staff training day every month. They also have on-site numeracy and literacy specialists and a calendar of other development events based on surveys of the teachers. Those meetings also talk


about adding more to their program, and encouraging children to be more involved in their own learning, by doing things such as making learning plans for themselves.

“We know that they need to be lifelong learners and be able to articulate what they’re doing to other people,” says Pierre Farid, “and that’s why we feel like we need to have them doing this from early on.”

The school also involves parents in every major decision. The dean of students meets with them if misconduct becomes an issue; and when suspension or expulsion is called for, parents plan very carefully with the school to get their child back on track. Friendship also plans to provide classes for parents - on how to buy a house, or financial services - to draw them into the school community.

“We already do a lot of community initiatives like sending our artwork to organizations in our area. We have different activities too; like a drum line, a swim club, a track team, boys and girls basketball, flag football, and what we call “ladies of distinction” where students do community service.”

In the next few years they’ll be opening another campus that will be environmentally-friendly. “They’re looking at how to make their school green, the children are learning how to think green - our sixth graders are doing that now, says Pierre Farid, who has a clear focus for the future: “That’s what I want them to be every single day. I want them running in because they can’t wait to learn something.”

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Try telling students of the Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School (CSP) in Hanover, Maryland, that Americans fall short in math, science and technology and they may laugh in disbelief. Every line but one of the school’s recap of 2008 Maryland State Assessment tests boasts in red ink that “CSP is better by…” with success-bursting percentages in reading and math when compared with proficiencies at other state and county schools.

CSP doesn’t teach to state or federal grade-level assessments required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act and is not worried about them, says Turkish-born Fatih Kandil, principal and director of the 6th through 8th-grade school since 2006. “As a staff, we have the philosophy that we should not teach to the tests,” he said. “We teach toward the standards and

make sure that our students master them.”

Visitors to the school’s Web site, however, will see time ticking, by days, hours and seconds, to the next state test. It is important to realize, for example, that sixth-graders are taught at a ninth-grade level, so exceeding actual grade-level assessments is a “piece of cake,” Kandil said. “We don’t worry about these standardized tests, because we teach at a higher grade level.”

Scores have exceeded state standards for three consecutive years. By the time CSP students go to high school, Kandil said, they have already met high-school math requirements, and some have taken pre-calculus and high-

Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter SchoolTeaching at a Higher Level Produced by Eric Gunn & Written by Jim Barlow


school-level biology. In all, CSP students can earn five high-school credits.

Hanover is in the technology-heavy Baltimore-Washington corridor in Anne Arundel County. CSP, which operates on a $2.3 million budget with 199 students and a staff of 20, was founded in 2005 in response to parents, many of them highly educated, who were concerned about the lack of a science-focused magnet school. Another big promoter for the school’s inception was the non-profit, education-focused Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation.

CSP admits 66 students a year, but some vacancies go to siblings of current students. There were 45 spots open for the 2009 through 2010 school year with 400-plus applicants. Admissions are based on a lottery; any county student can apply, and hundreds do each year. Each fall, CSP distributes 40,000 copies of its annual fall newsletter to parents of all schoolchildren in the county.

Once accepted, one-on-one assessments determine new students’ strengths and weaknesses. The process often finds dormant potential that can be awakened, encouraged, and realized.

“Many of the parents felt their children were bored, not challenged up to their capacity,” Kandil said. “After a point, many children had lost interest and were failing or getting into trouble because they were bored. Parents have said that these problems were solved once their kids got into Chesapeake Science Point. We have the capacity to challenge all of our students.”

CSP’s mission is to exceed the school district’s SAT averages and the state’s proficiency scores on mandated testing, as well as to achieve high college acceptance rates. Part of this plan is to provide “intense, individualized instruction in science, math and technology.”

CSP clearly knows how to engage its students in this intense environ-ment. In 2008, a seventh-grader the school’s science fair and finished fourth nationally -- the highest finish ever for a Maryland student. The student was admitted to CSP as a sixth grader with no interest in science or math. The in-take assessment suggested untapped potential in science. Two years later, the child had studied environmental conditions of West Virginia streams, where he kayaked with his family. His project detailed the presence of high acidity levels and a plan to reduce them. So success-ful was this project that the student was honored with a visit to Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes’ office at the U.S. Capitol.

It could also be argued that CSP holds a science fair like none other in the state. The most recent fair had a price tag of $15,000 that was shared with the University of Maryland at College Park and CSP’s parent-teacher organization. Prizes included laptops and iPods -- “attractive awards to feed initiative,” Kandil said -- and 185 of their students, or 93 percent, competed.

The school, which is managed by an eight-member governing board, draws support from parents, nearby educational institutions, and a variety of high-tech companies. Despite that, “our resources are limited,” Kandil said. In Maryland, charter schools operate privately with public money, as well as oversight, through the county school system. That interplay, along with concerns over CSP’s first-year budget deficit and its facilities -- converted office space in an industrial park -- led to three years’ probation, which ended in March 2009.

Dedicated Teachers

Many of the school’s 16 teachers arrive by 7 a.m. and stay until 4:30 p.m. or later, do so voluntarily beyond union-defined work hours for public schools of 7:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. There are before- and after-school tutoring sessions and extracurricular activities led by teachers, including Saturday sessions from 9 a.m. to noon, attended voluntarily by teachers and more than half of the student body.

“Our teachers spend extra time with their students in relationships that are different than what they have during the day. The students interact with teachers in a less formal setting,” he said. “They know that teachers are sacrificing their personal time, and students respect them for that.”

“The most important factor in our educational approach is providing the most positive climate possible,” Kandil said. “It’s unseen, but it diffuses into everything you can accomplish in the school. The level of ownership is

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SpotlightS

amongst everyone. People aren’t mandated to come here. Everyone choos-es to come here. That generates a tremendous amount of positive energy.”

Currently, school officials are hoping that positive energy and academic successes will evolve into CSP’s expansion to include the high-school level. “This high school should be able to offer accelerated growth for the students,” Kandil said. “Our students would earn college credits. Some schools offer AP courses, but our goal is to exceed the number of credits that public schools can offer.”

Kandil envisions a CSP with “a 100-percent graduation rate and 100-percent college acceptance; our goal is to have at least 20 percent of those graduates be accepted by IVY League universities, and at least 40 percent of the total graduates to receive their acceptance with full scholarship.”

More urgent are proposed facility improvements in which CSP’s land-lord is offering $1.2 million toward construction. Pending state and local district approval, the work could be completed by fall.

Performing above the average and seeking out the challenging, Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School doesn’t have small goals; but it is certainly positioned to be successful in what they seek to accomplish.

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President Obama and Charters From the Campaign Trail to the Stimulus Written by Shelley Seyler

The long road that led President Barack Obama to the White House began what seems like eons ago. While on the campaign trail, education was certainly a important topic of debate and one in which his opponents were less apt to attack his experience: in the 20 years since he arrived in Chicago, the public school system became one of the most improved in the nation. He also pumped $150 million into the education budget and served on two education boards at the University of Chicago.

Though never untouchable on the subject, President Obama has, since the beginning, proven his knowledge of the complicated and often personal subject. Many who have listened to his speeches, whether as a candidate or as president, gained insight into why he is as intelligent and hard-working as he is. Even if one did not vote for him, these two facts do seem undeniable.

His openness revealed this story: his mom used to wake him at 4:30 in the morning, before school started, to tutor him. When young Barack complained, she said simply, “this is no picnic for me either, Buster.”

Campaign to Policy

Thus, the importance of education fostered in him since a young age, President Obama makes his deep concern with the nation’s educational system known; and he is already taking steps to correct it.

While still a candidate for president, Barack Obama promised to double federal funding for public charter schools while holding those with poor records accountable. Now that he has ascended to the oval office, recent education news is heavily in favor of charters, and concrete policy reforms are beginning to take shape.

Setting the tone in mid-December for his education reform, President Obama appointed Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. Duncan served for seven years as chief executive of Chicago public schools, the third-largest school district in the country. During President Obama’s Chicago days, Duncan and the then senator would hold frequent and inquisitive discussions on education policy.

In late February, the administration included increased support for high-quality charter schools in its fiscal year plan for 2010. The exact numbers will not be released until April but the administration’s favorable attitude toward the movement in certainly positive progress. The budget also calls for increased transparency around results for teachers and principal preparation programs.

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During a visit to a charter school in Washington, DC, the president spoke of “rewarding innovation the way it’s taking place here.”

All this positive talk is certainly reason to hope for increased federal support of this innovative and forward-thinking movement. With a president who genuinely values and understands the importance of education, the future certainly looks bright.

Sources:Brooks, David. “No Picnic for Me Either,” The New York Times. March 12, 2009:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/opinion/13brooks.html?scp=30&sq=obama%20charter%20schools&st=cse

Dillon, Sam. “Obama Looks to Lessons from Chicago in his National Education Plan,” The New York Times. Sept. 9, 2008:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/us/politics/10educate.html

Dillon, Sam. “Obama Picks Arne Duncan for Education Post,” The New York Times. Dec. 15, 2009:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/obama-picks-arne-duncan-for-education-post/?scp=44&sq=obama%20charter%20schools&st=cse

Glod, Maria. “Stimulus Billions May Spur School Reform,” CBS News. March 26, 2009: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/26/politics/ washingtonpost/main4894098.shtml

Most recently, Duncan laid out how the government hopes states will spend their stimulus money: reform. “More money will be dedicated to charters than ever before,” he said, warning that if states don’t do some innovative thinking on the money’s usage, “we’re going to come down like a ton of bricks.”

The president has also, on more than one occasion, called on those states that currently have caps on the numbers and size of charters to lift these restrictions. The administration is “promoting innovation and excellence in America’s schools,” and believes that charter schools are “one of the places where much of that innovation occurs.” Limiting their growth, the president continued, “isn’t good for our children, our economy, or our country.”

The President’s Biggest Challenge

With much of the news surrounding the president revolving around the economy, it is important to note the inclusion of education financing in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus plan, drawn up to fix the economy. With the markets in sustained disarray, many are commenting that this may be his biggest challenge.

Though the jury is still out on exactly how each dollar will be allocated, it is clear that, in the education stipulations in the ARRA, there is potential for improvement in the charter school market. Duncan has $5 billion of this fund available to shape school reform and reward states that push for classroom innovation, $650 million of which will support partnerships between schools, or schools and non-profits.


American Education in a Globalizing World: Where We Are and How Charters Can HelpWritten by Jim Barlow

How does the United States stand in educating youth for the world stage? Numerous studies in the last decade paint a muddy landscape. Americans tend to do well in reading at an early age, overall, but they barely rank in the top 25 percent among industrialized countries in math and science. In general, a review of numerous published reports says the U.S. is lagging in all areas.

U.S. fourth-graders were behind Russia, Scotland and France in reading, according to a 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Twelve percent

of U.S. fourth-graders achieved the highest performance benchmark. The results were in a report comparing the U.S. with other members of the Group of Eight countries published in March by U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Girls did better than boys in all countries. However, 70 percent of U.S. eighth-graders cannot read at grade level “and most will never catch up,” noted the Broad Foundation.In math and science, regardless of the studies reviewed, the United States is not in the foreground.

Most recent findings, released in the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), found Japan’s fourth- and eighth-graders dramatically led the Group of Eight (G8) which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These eight countries participate in international studies and meetings to compare and discuss educational performance and policy issues. The study found that 26 percent of Japanese eighth-graders achieved the highest benchmark targeted. U.S. students were in the middle, at

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6 percent, among the other countries, whose proficiencies ranged from 8 percent (Russia) to 3 percent (Italy).

In science, the TIMMS findings in 2007 found Japan again leading the Group of Eight, with their students rising to the top by eighth grade. U.S. 8th-grade boys outperformed their female counterparts Americans finished in the middle. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), in 2006, found 15-year-olds in Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany ahead of U.S. students. More troubling was one-quarter of U.S. 15-year-olds scored at or below proficiency levels on combined science literacy.

In 2005, a study by the Paris-based Organization for Cooperation and Development found that U.S. 15-year-olds were below average in their ability to apply math skills to everyday life, ranking far below Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and Belgium at the top of the rankings. The Broad Foundation’s chart on the study shows that America’s top math students, overall, rank 25th, with U.S. students falling two years behind grade level by eighth grade.

Janet Mertz’s study led by the University of Wisconsin, published in the October 2008 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society, added another level of fuzziness to U.S. performances in math. U.S. culture, she found, discourages girls from exceeding in math and the girls who do succeed are almost always immigrants or daughters of immigrants from countries where math is a priority.

Mertz’s study examined data tracking U.S. high-school students’ performance from the nation’s most competitive contests such as the International Mathematics Olympiads and the Putnam Mathematical Competition.

A common thread surfaces in the studies reviewed, including those cited here. Something happens in the transition years of middle school, showing itself through declining scores in the 8th grade in the United States.

The Center for Public Education argues that the U.S. is not failing as media coverage of international comparisons suggest. However,

a statement at the organization’s Web site notes: “Knowing where the U.S. stands is the first step. A closer look into the data will help us better understand how the U.S. compares to other countries and uncover what other countries seem to be doing well that might apply here in the United States.” The center also noted the marked performance drop.

Where do charter schools fit in? Many are putting an emphasis on exploring instructional techniques that boost students’ overall performance with the goal of seeing their students successfully go on to college. Many have special science and math programs. Their approaches and success stories surface in the profiles appearing in this magazine. Charter school administrators often note how their schools accept students who had been struggling -- many insufficiently challenged -- in traditional schools.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools recently featured two such success stories. The first took place at Independence Charter School in Philadelphia. The school this year won the Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education, which carries a $25,000 prize and recognizes efforts in cultural awareness, world history and a global curriculum. The 700-student K-12 school requires all students to study Spanish, Japanese and Arabic in addition to core academic subjects. A diverse offering of world geography courses are also among the school’s courses.

Another success story: Last fall, Luke Andraka, an 8th grader from Chesapeake Science Point (CSP) charter school, finished fourth in the nation in the U.S. Middle School Science Competition, the country’s biggest national science fair. Luke’s story rises to the top because the school pinpointed an untapped scientific potential during his

initial assessment at the school. “CSP took a boy who was unsure of himself and doubted his abilities, and gave him the opportunity to start believing in himself,” Luke’s mother told the alliance. “I know for a fact that he would never ever have been successful in math and science without the amazing staff at CSP.”

In Salt Lake City, the science-and-math-oriented Beehive Academy, provides its teachers with professional training from the California-based Accord Institute for Education Research. Concepts learned in the training help teachers prepare students for the Math Olympics and are used in after-school tutoring programs. Numerous charter schools have science and math at the top of their priorities.

“Despite its fundamental importance to our society, we’ve lost our way on education,” wrote Thomas J. Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in October. In his column, he called for more charter schools and increased funding for them. “The statistics don’t lie: 1.2 million students drop out of high school every year. Seventy percent of eighth graders cannot read at grade level. Fewer than 10 out of every 100 low-income students will ultimately graduate from college. And if that’s not enough, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2008–2009 ranked the quality of primary education in such countries as Estonia (11th), Tunisia (21st), and Slovenia (24th) ahead of the United States (25th). Something must be done to reverse this trend.”

Donohue’s comments were in response to the newly published report by the chamber’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce. He wrote that that charter schools “are designed to provide tuition-free public education for students and their parents, liberate teachers and administrators from red tape, and allow more innovation in the classroom. In exchange for this flexibility, charter schools accept high accountability, knowing that they can be closed if they fail to live up to their promises.”

Donohue urged business support of outstanding charter schools, saying that the private sector can help build a supply of high-quality new schools and help provide qualified people to lead the schools. He also called for “charter-friendly public policies” to emerge from state and local lawmakers.

Where do charter schools fit in? Many are putting an emphasis on exploring instructional techniques that boost overall perfor-mance with the goal of seeing students success-

fully go on to college.


Spotlight: Your Charter as a Business How to Resolve the Employee Morale Issue

Emerson states, "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." A majority of the issues related to worker productivity stem from enthusiasm or the lack thereof. Individuals simply go to work despite their abhorrence of their employer, the monotony, and the products. There is no passion or pride. Much of this issue stems from practices embedded within an organizational culture affecting morale and productivity. These include:

• Leadership not serving as exemplars - some leaders today are narcissists, demeaning and ruthless. More importantly, leaders’ salaries can exceed employee pay by 425 times the average worker. Leaders need to act in harmony with employees and ensure equal treatment of all. Cultures where this practice occurs frequently include McDonalds, Fed Ex and UPS where employees and management are one.

• Little or no accountability - The United States economic system is currently in financial turmoil and no one is accountable. Employees need to know that mistakes may count for learning but criminals are punished for repeat offenses.

• Career planning and succession planning is null - simply put there is no succession planning. Most CEOs and senior managers join an organization from competitive industries and companies. Whatever happened to the mailroom climb?

• Too many silos and departmental infighting - Companies are in business for one reason- to create clients. End the infighting and focus on the most vital asset! When the fighting ends (and everybody understands their reason for being employed) perhaps harmony arrives.

Causes of low morale correlate to the organization, its culture, and its management. After 25 years of research in this area, we find five factors contributing to organizational morale. A study by the Corporate Leadership Council reveals the tremendous impact managers have on an employee’s level of commitment. It is imperative to note that individuals do not leave companies - they leave poor managers. Organizational mismanagement contributes to negative morale. As recent as 2006 the Gallup Organization estimated there were 32 million actively disengaged employees costing the American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity. Such loss includes absenteeism, tardiness, and poor work. To dilute the productivity impact, research shows that taking time to build relationships with employees through personal interaction, is a key step managers can take to keep morale high. Employees need to feel trust and respect from their managers. Employees desire feedback from management to understand their work matters.

Ending the morale issue is not easy but there are cures.

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1. Begin with talent acquisition - Start with the right people. No firm we work with ever hires on a proactive basis. Most firms conduct employment searches reactively. Seek employees that fit with the organizational culture and with the obligatory skills. Never wait!

2. Hire for skill - Talent is innate. Organizations hire for personality and behavior first and skill second. Skill is not interchangeable, behavior is. A great hire might have a wonderful temperament and lack the skill to plug a socket into an outlet. I recall a five star hotel that sought advice to correct housekeeping flaws. After five minutes, it was easy enough to terminate staff and find those without flaws.

3. Look at best practices from best people - Management focuses on "fixing those that cannot" rather than "improving those that can." Icons of performance exist in your organization. Discover what they do right and encourage others to emulate it.

4. Passion - In the 1980’s Sylvester Stallone appeared again as Rocky this time with a theme, "Eye of the Tiger." What a great metaphor for valuable talent. Seek to acquire talent that truly loves work. Passion too is innate. Employees must love what they do and how they do it. When passion is high so too is morale.

5. Focus on the Customer - Managers, the organization, and the employees must vehemently focus on the customer. Remember Winnie the Pooh, try finding Eeyore amongst staff at Disney; Southwest Airlines and FedEx, all intensely focus on servicing the client.

Lastly, managers must constantly strive to provide feedback to employees. Feedback is not an annual performance review event. It is imperative that daily communication exists for good information and improvement. Coaching, counseling, and mentoring are components of organizational morale. In addition, many attend church and hear the words, "It is right to give thanks and praise." Many watch professional sports and view coaches coddling athletes. We can learn something here; simple words of thanks and praise constantly improve morale and employee relationships.

Finally, the first item terminated during economic volatility is training. Research finds that employees are assets and require that treatment. Never stop training; this improves productivity and morale at all times. Issues of low morale and productivity are onerous, volatile, and difficult to control. There is a need for management, the organization, and the individual to assist with success factors. Much is dependent on the desire to change; methods chosen and consistent follow through. However, if you do nothing you still have a morale issue. Take the time, seek remedies, and keep morale high. Doing so, lowers attrition, improves productivity, increases profitability and most importantly- reduces stress. © 2008. Drew J. Stevens Ph.D. All rights reserved.


"It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it."

-Aristotle

"A mind Once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions."

-Anonymous

"The whole art of teaching is only the art of awaken-ing the natural curiosity of young minds for the

purpose of satisfying it afterwards."

-Anatole France

"Teachers open the door but you must enter by yourself."

-Chinese Proverb

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

-Albert Einstein

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