National Charter Schools Week 2008

This year, we encourage every school to participate in a dynamic video campaign to bring the faces and voices of charter school students, teachers, parents, and leaders to federal and state policymakers so they can experience the excellence of our schools and the enthusiasm of the people whose lives have been touched by them.

1) Create a short video demonstrating what makes your school great. You can feature students, parents, teachers, board members – anyone who can share why you love your school and what makes you special.

2) Post your video on YouTube on Thursday, May 8, 2008 during National Charter Schools Week. Make sure to use the tags “charter school” and “charter schools”. YouTube already features a variety of videos from charter schools – take a look for inspiration and to see the diversity of videos that can be created. Simply go to YouTube and do a Search for “charter school” or “charter schools.” Here are several examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KxMu0UBLLo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8JDdmqYObQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DriSesi_vog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6wk8Z3BQUg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTBlThj4h6s

3) Use the easy-to-use Legislative & Advocacy Portal on the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools website to email a personalized letter and link to your video to your state and federal policymakers. Go here for the Legislative & Advocacy Portal and submit your video.

We know this will be an especially fun project for our charter school students and will vibrantly bring the faces and voices of charter schools to policymakers!