Monthly Archive - October 2007

Just back from Savannah and the NACSA conference (that’s the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, for the uninitiated).

NACSA chief Greg Richmond and his board take the position that the quality of charters is the ultimate test of authorizers performance...yet some authorizers push back on that notion.

Shut down those pesky “public school districts....”

New Alliance Research Deals With the Impact of Charters

The Alliance released new versions of two of its trademark research initiatives this week: Top 10 Charter Communities by Market Share: 2006-2007 and Charter School Achievement: What We Know (Fourth Edition).

Denies all but three districts "exclusivity" in chartering.

In another blow to local monopolies on charter authorizing, the Florida State Board of Education ruled yesterday that all but three school districts would lose the exclusive right to charter in their own communities. The new, state-level Florida Schools of Excellence Commission will now be able to approve charters virtually across the state.

And lessons for NCLB.

An amazing thing is happening at Shoemaker Middle School, where a "violence-plagued and low-performing" campus has turned into a "model charter school" meeting every NCLB standard - in one year. Mastery Charters took it over at the request of the Philly school district, after they did a similarly terrific job at Mastery Charter High, named by the US DOE as an "exemplary" charter school.

Check it out, here.

New US Department of Education publication highlighting seven K-8 charters achieving success at closing the achievement gap. Check it out, here.

At least, thats what seems to be happening here.