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The Charter Blog
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Tuesday, October 09, 2012
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David Hoff Is Our New VP for Communications and Marketing
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We’re pleased to announce that David Hoff will be our new Vice President for Communications and Marketing. As the leader of NAPCS’s communications function, Hoff will be the spokesperson for NAPCS and the public charter school movement. He begins his new position on October 9, 2012.
Before joining us, David was the deputy assistant secretary for communication development at the U.S. Department of Education, where he worked closely with senior Education Department officials to develop messages supporting the Obama administration’s goal of providing a cradle-to-college education for all children. He oversaw speechwriting, publications, the Web site, and new media for the department. Prior to joining the Department in May 2009, David was a journalist for more than 20 years including more than 12 years at Education Week.
You can learn more about David’s background here. Fun fact about David: he first wrote about charter schools in 1993 while at Education Daily.
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Posted by:
NAPCS Pressroom
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6:00 AM
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Friday, September 21, 2012
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Chicago Public Charter School Graduate Featured on NPR's StoryCorps
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As an avowed addict of NPR, I love the StoryCorps series every Friday morning. Often the stories make me laugh, sometimes I fight back tears, but mostly I sit back and appreciate the way that StoryCorps provides everyday people the chance to tell their own poignant stories, stories that resonate so broadly. The story this morning was a conversation between an alumnus of North Lawndale College Prep, a charter school in Chicago, and the dean of the school when she attended. Tierra Jackson talks about her struggles in high school as a homeless teenager. When she opened up to the teachers and staff at North Lawndale, they created a support network to help her succeed. She is now a junior at Roosevelt University. In Tierra’s own words, “There's so many people who could, you know, be the next Bill Gates and change the world. But because they're poor or they're living in poverty, they're instantly written off because no one thinks they'll make it. I just want to make it." Tierra’s high school, like so many other charter schools setting high expectations for students, believed in her and didn’t let her fall through the cracks. At the start of the new school year, this story truly resonates as 6,000 charter schools work to make sure that every student reaches their potential.
Image: Tierra Jackson talks to John Horan, the president of her high school. Image via StoryCorps webpage.
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Posted by:
Anna Nicotera, Director of Research and Evaluation
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6:00 AM
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Thursday, August 30, 2012
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Gina Mahony Is Our New Senior VP for Federal Affairs
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We’re excited to announce that Gina Mahony is our new Senior Vice President for Federal Affairs. As the leader of NAPCS federal affairs, Gina will focus on improving federal support for the growth and expansion of high quality public charter schools across the country. She begins her new position tomorrow.
Before joining us, Gina was a Policy Director at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, serving as a strategist, advocate and advisor for Fortune 500 and privately-held companies, coalitions and trade associations on issues before the U.S. Congress, the Executive Branch, and federal agencies. Prior to her work at Brownstein, she spent 11 years working on Capitol Hill, serving more than five years as a senior policy advisor to Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), during his tenure as House Majority Leader and Democratic Whip. During her time on the Hill, she developed and implemented legislative strategies on a variety of policy issues, including education.
You can learn more about Gina’s background here. Fun fact about Gina: she serves on the Parish Pastoral Council at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, and has been a basketball coach at Holy Trinity School since 2002.
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Posted by:
NAPCS Pressroom
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6:00 AM
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Friday, May 25, 2012
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Spelling out Success: A Wyoming Public Charter Student’s Path to the Scripps National Spelling Bee
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When you ask the average twelve year-old, ‘what’s the hardest word you’ve ever had to spell?’ most probably couldn’t give you an answer. Then again, Lia Eggleston isn’t your typical twelve year-old. After a moment’s reflection, the poised 8th grader, who attends Snowy Range Academy—a public charter school in Laramie, Wyoming—definitively responds, “koan.” Not only do I have no idea what this word means, I have to ask Lia to spell it for me.
Lia is the winner of the 2012 Wyoming State Spelling Bee. With that accomplishment comes a next step that has been a dream for Lia: being a competitor in the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee. The event, which has captivated audiences and Hollywood (fiction and nonfiction films), will be held in National Harbor, Maryland on May 29-31, 2012.
Lia’s path to becoming a spelling bee champion was inspired at home: her brother participated in a state spelling bee, so she decided to give it a try. She admitted that her first year of competition included a few lucky guesses, such as Japanese-rooted word “koan,” and Lia ended up placing 2nd in the 2010 Wyoming State Spelling Bee. From there, she became more dedicated in pursuit of the state title. She began studying and memorizing words from Spell It!, a list of a approximately 1,150 words created in cooperation with Merriam-Webster as a study aid for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. In her second attempt, Lia placed 3rd in the 2011 Wyoming State Spelling Bee.
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Photo: Lia Eggleston's official headshot for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
With her mantra “the only place left is 1st” keeping her motivated, Lia began working with a coach, University of Wyoming student Jen Black, who was a former Scripps Spelling Bee competitor. Together, they study word origins—Lia notes that the Greek and Latin derived words are easy once you have roots memorized, Spanish and Japanese-based words are more phonetic, but words with Germanic and Slavic bases are really hard—and practice the most challenging words on the Spell It! list. Lia estimates that she spends at least a few hours on the weekend and an hour after school with Jen once or twice each week practicing, adding in a half hour a day before school doing computerized spelling tests over the past month. The study limit permitted by Scripps is four hours a day, but Lia’s eighth grade schoolwork at Snowy Range Academy Charter School, and her other extracurricular activities—cello, dance, and theater—mean that she has to make tough choices about how to spend her time.
With the support of her Snowy Range Academy and dance school classmates (see picture below), who Lia says are “pretty excited” for her, and teachers (“they already knew I had won the state bee before I could tell them”), Lia has her eye on the prize. She will just have time to finish her school year (classes end on May 25th) before flying to the East Coast for the competition on the 27th. As a representative of the public charter school movement, we will “bee” cheering her on. You can follow Lia and the National Bee on www.spellingbee.com, Facebook, or on ESPN during the week of the Bee. G-O Lia! Even I can spell that one.
Photo: Lia Eggleston (bottom row, second from right) spells her favorite word (Pfeffernuss--a German spice cookie) with help from her friends in the Laramie Dance Center's Advanced Irish Step dance class. Photo credit: Anne Brande, photographer at Ludwig Photography.
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Posted by:
Nora Kern, Senior Manager for Research and Analysis
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6:00 AM
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Monday, April 02, 2012
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March Madness: Player of the Year attended a Chicago public charter high school
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University of Kentucky star Anthony Davis has won the Naismith Trophy for men's college player of the year. Davis, who is the second freshman to earn the Naismith Trophy, has another unique line on his resume; he attended a Chicago charter high school that didn’t have a gym.
Perspectives Charter School is an award-winning Near South Side school designed by Chicago architect Ralph Johnson. The absence of a gym is one of many ways that Johnson and his clients kept costs down. In an interview, Davis explained why he chose Perspectives despite its notable absence of athletic facilities: “I didn’t go there for basketball. The academic program was great. They have a 95 percent rate of kids graduating and going to college, so my dream was always to go to college, so I decided to go there.”
We wish Davis and the Wildcats the best of luck tonight. We love to see successful charter graduates (and a KY win will give me official bragging rights for my bracket)!
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Posted by:
Nora Kern, Senior Manager for Research and Analysis
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6:00 AM
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