The Commission On Charter Schools Commission on charter Schools called for an enhanced accountability system, includingtougher academic standards and reforms, for michigan s charter schools. http://charterschools.msu.edu/finrpt/presrel041002.html
Extractions: COMMISSION CALLS FOR TOUGHER ACADEMIC STANDARDS, REFORMS AND INCREASE IN CAP Lansing, Mich., April 10, 2002 - The Commission on Charter Schools called for an enhanced accountability system, including tougher academic standards and reforms, for Michigan's charter schools. The Commission presented its report, "Charter Schools in Michigan," to the Michigan Legislature today at the state capitol. It includes numerous recommendations ranging from annual testing for grades three through eight to raising the cap on a contingency basis. "I would like to thank Michigan State University President Peter McPherson and the members of the commission for taking on this important but difficult task," said Senate Majority Leader Dan L. DeGrow (R-Port Huron). "Their hard work will no doubt improve charter school education in the state of Michigan for many years to come."
Developing Educational Standards - Michigan had benchmarking reports for Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, michigan, Minnesota,New such prominent educational issues as charter schools and standards. http://edstandards.org/StSt/Michigan.html
6/10/98 - News: Charter Schools Struggle With Accountability who oversees charter schools for Central michigan University. The university hassponsored 46 of michigan s 108 charters. There s the standards debate about http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-17/39chart.h17
Extractions: By Lynn Schnaiberg Pauline McBeth says she has no problem being held accountable for how well her students perform. It's just part of the deal: Charter schools receive flexibility and freedom from cumbersome regulations in exchange for accepting greater responsibility for student results. But for Ms. McBeth, the coordinator of the 4-year-old Community Involved Charter School in Lakewood, Colo., figuring out just how that formula works is proving far from easy. The 260-student school is decidedly unconventional. Children learn in multiage classrooms. They do not receive letter grades or credits. Portfolios chart student learning. In Colorado and many other states with charter laws, such innovations and individualized curriculawhich some see as the very essence of the charter movementare having to contend with accountability systems based on standards and performance goals set at the state or district level. About This Series This is the eighth in an occasional series that will explore the push for accountability in public education.
Charter School Accountability Update -- July 2002 districts to meet educational standards does not Conference sponsored by the MichiganAssociation of charter school leadership issues such as strategic planning http://www.charterfriends.org/cfi-accountability-july02.html
Extractions: Michelle Godard McNiff, Accountability Consultant In this issue CHARTER SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE NEWS STATE ASSOCIATIONS ADDRESS CHARTER ACCOUNTABILITY NEEDS: AN UPDATE AUTONOMY FOR ACCOUNTABILITY IN MASSACHUSETTS AND TEXAS ... UPCOMING CHARTER EVALUATIONS FROM WESTERN MICHIGAN U CENTER OTHER ACCOUNTABILITY NEWS DEBATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACCOUINTABILITY PROGRAMS STATE ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS RANKED ACCOUNTABILITY RULED A CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY STATES EAGER FOR ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS (AYP) ADVICE ACCOUNTABILITY RESOURCES UPCOMING CONFERENCES OF INTEREST NEW BOOK ON SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY ACCOUINTABILITY AND STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES INNOVATIONS IN STATE TESTING PROGRAMS ... INTRODUCING THE CHARTER FRIENDS ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE CHARTER SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE NEWS STATE ASSOCIATIONS ADDRESS CHARTER ACCOUNTABILITY NEEDS: AN UPDATE State charter school associations in California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, and Oregon continue to make progress on developing charter school accountability programs under a grant awarded late last year by the U.S. Department of Education. The Colorado League of Charter Schools is spearheading this project and providing their existing program as a model the other four states can start with as they tailor their accountability programs to their states' unique charter school needs.
Charter School Accountability in connection with the grant of the charter or the school has violated is requiredto commission an independent evaluation of the charter under the michigan. http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/24/17/2417.htm
Extractions: StateNotes Charter Schools Education Commission of the States 700 Broadway, Suite 1200 Denver, CO 80203-3460 Fax: 303.296.8332 www.ecs.org Charter School Accountability Most Recently Updated in April 2003 This ECS StateNote examines policies across the states dealing with charter school accountability and answers the following questions: Does the state require charter schools to submit annual reports? Does the state list grounds for terminating a schools charter? Does the state specify the specific renewal terms for charters? Does the state provide an appeals process in the charter school renewal process? Does the state require the state education agency or another entity to report to the legislature on the effectiveness of charter schools? Thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico require charter schools to submit annual reports. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia list grounds for terminating a schools charter. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia specify the specific renewal terms for charters. These terms vary from up to four years, as in Mississippi, to 15 years, as in Arizona. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia provide an appeals process in the charter school renewal process.
Charter School Autonomy -- Updated March 2002 and regulations, but they do receive automatic waivers from school district laws michigan. Charterschools may seek waivers on a caseby-case basis from state http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/24/14/2414.htm
Extractions: StateNotes Charter Schools Education Commission of the States 700 Broadway, Suite 1200 Denver, CO 80203-3460 Fax: 303.296.8332 www.ecs.org Charter School Autonomy Most Recently Updated in April 2003 This ECS StateNote examines policies dealing with charter school autonomy across the states and answers the following questions: Are the states standards and assessments applied to charter schools? Are there any restrictions on a charter schools budgetary authority? What rules are waived for charter schools? Thirty-nine states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico apply state standards and assessments to charter schools. Twenty-three states do not place any restrictions on a charter schools budgetary authority. Eight states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico place restrictions on a charter schools budgetary authority. In six states, restrictions, if any, on a charter schools budgetary authority are specified in the charter. Restrictions on budgetary authority in two states, Massachusetts and Texas, depend on the type of charter school. In 22 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, charter schools receive an automatic waiver from most state and school district education laws, regulations and policies. In five states
Event Summary: The Charter School Debate laws setting minimum threshold standards, and independent a professor at Western MichiganUniversity, spoke the beneficial qualities of charter schools and the http://www.brook.edu/comm/op-ed/20040218charter.htm
Extractions: A Brookings panel of experts gathered today to discuss charter school accountability and whether current accountability standards are sufficient to make accurate, merit-based decisions. Brian C. Hassel, the president of Public Impact, an education policy consulting firm, called the outlook "both half-full and half-empty." When charter schools first appeared a decade ago, supporters celebrated them as innovative models that would ensure educational accountability, since schools failing to meet their performance targets would be shut down. However, skeptics worry that some charter school authorizers (the public bodies empowered by law to oversee charter schools) won't be willing to close failing charter schools. Hassel presented new research based on the compilation of 506 high-stakes decisions that authorizers made as of the fall of 2001, including renewals, nonrenewals, and revocations. Out of that group, 50 randomly selected cases were picked and analyzed in depth. Hassel examined how charter school authorizers are making decisions about school renewal and revocation. In addition, he examined the factors that influence their approaches, and the implications for policies and practices related to high-stakes school accountability. High-stakes decisions include those based on achieving learning goals or meeting goals specific to the charter school's mission.
Extractions: ISSUE: In the decade since the first charter school opened, an incredibly diverse array of charter schools have opened their doors to an equally diverse mix of instructional models, students, and staff. Stories of success, failure, struggle, and achievement have surfaced in this effort to improve public education. Tracking the true measure of their success will continue well into the new millennium, but there is no doubt that the dynamic debate they ignite has already had enormous impact in the educational arena. The pros and cons of charter schools have opened a dialogue, which in itself is impacting, energizing, and informing school improvement research, policy, and practice. This Critical Issue looks at that dynamic. This Critical Issue also puts charter school development in an historic as well as legislative context, posits three ongoing themes that permeate the ongoing debate surrounding charter schools, and delineates common traits among successful charter schools. Overview Goals Action Options Pitfalls ... References OVERVIEW: During the past 20 years, segments of the American public have expressed growing dissatisfaction with public education. The belief that education is failing many of our children has led to an exhaustive array of initiatives, movements, and mandates designed to improve educational offerings. All of these initiatives have taken place within the context of the traditional public school structure operated by federal, state, and local governing bodies.
Charter Schools As Change Agents does not achieve its performance standards, the charter Superintendent in Grand Rapids,michigan, noted that the students applying to charter schools weren t http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/pbriefs/97/97-1chg.htm
Extractions: Charter Schools as Change Agents: Will They Deliver? Previous section Next section Contents Pathways ... home page by Nancy Fulford, Lenaya Raack, and Gail Sunderman of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory Charter school advocates argue that these schools will lead to innovations in school management, curriculum, and instructional practice. In turn, they believe that these innovations will spread to traditional public schools. State legislation often reflects this expectation that charter schools will act as agents of change for other schools. Minnesota's charter legislation calls for the development of schools that "encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods." Wisconsin Governor Tommy G. Thompson in 1993 urged the adoption of charter school legislation "to give school districts and teachers flexibility in designing innovative schools." Charter schools also are expected to serve students who are having difficulty in the traditional public school system, including students who have already dropped out. Under Illinois's charter legislation, a top priority for charter schools is dealing with the problems of at-risk students that the system as a whole has been unsuccessful in solving. Charter schools are expected to develop "innovative educational techniques and programs" for teaching these students. Whether charter school innovations will be adopted by traditional public schools is part of the larger question of how innovations diffuse throughout a school system. In his book
Charter Similar funding problems bedevil some new michigan charters. whole point of the charterschool therefore becomes meet externally determined standards, only to http://www.capcollege.bc.ca/dept/cmns/charter.html
Extractions: by Crawford Kilian Can an idea spread like an epidemic, propagating itself from host to host the way a virus does? The concept of charter schools is certainly behaving like a virus. It's spread around the world, from Margaret Thatcher's Britain to New Zealand to North America. Charters are flourishing in the US, established in Alberta and drawing interest in Ontario. In other provinces, notably British Columbia, the government has displayed a ferocious immune reaction, rejecting the very thought of charter schools as an option for our children. According to Stephen B. Lawton of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), "The basic notion underlying charter schools is that government, through negotiated contracts, can grant the right to organize and manage schools to groups formed for the purpose; the contracts take the form of charters that specify the nature, operation and governance of the schools. Already adopted in various forms in a number of nations and several American states, the charter school is an innovation that, if done right, will revitalize education; if done wrong, it may kill hope of fundamental reform for the rest of this decade." That kind of life-or-death view of charters is common among educators and school critics alike. The public schools for at least fifty years have been pushovers for every fad that comes along, yet impossible to reform in any significant way. In the late 1980s Northrop Frye despairingly described the schools as "essentially unchanged since the fifties"; a decade later, despite intensifying changes in society, political life, and technology, the schools themselves are still unchanged.
Charter Schools Development Center Old Kent Bank in Petoskey, michigan, who has sitebase management, performance standardsand assessment, and vouchers, the charter school concept is http://www.csus.edu/ier/charter/chartrandtab.html
Michigan Teacher Network--Detailed Index standards, michigan; Career exploration; Career planning; Careers in technology;Cell Biology; Certification of teachers; CEU opportunities; charter schools, michigan; http://mtn.merit.edu/detailedindex.html
Extractions: categories Arts Education Assessment Items Best Practice Informatio... Career Education and Emp... Early Education Education Clearinghouses Educational Leadership Educational Technology Educator Learning English Foreign Languages Health, Fitness, and Lif... Math Media Centers/School Lib... Michigan Education Online Forums Organizations Parents and Community Periodicals School Services Science Social Studies Special Collections Special Education Technology Instruction Select a collection... Resource database PD Events database Michigan Teacher Network Site Index A B C D ... WXYZ - Professional Development - - Curriculum Subjects - About Michigan Teacher Network Acceptable use policy see Technology Policies Administration issues, administrators see Educational Leadership Addition and subtraction African Americans (social studies) Algebra ... Assessments/standardized tests ; administrators, see Ed Leadership: Assessment Associations Astronomy At risk students, education of
Michigan Teacher Network - Michigan Education PD Events schools Conference The National charter schools Conference will In this programhigh school art teachers michigan Science Olympiad Workshops and Conferences http://mtn.merit.edu/pdevents/michigan/
Extractions: categories Arts Education Assessment Items Best Practice Informatio... Career Education and Emp... Early Education Education Clearinghouses Educational Leadership Educational Technology Educator Learning English Foreign Languages Health, Fitness, and Lif... Math Media Centers/School Lib... Michigan Education Online Forums Organizations Parents and Community Periodicals School Services Science Social Studies Special Collections Special Education Technology Instruction Select a collection... Resource database PD Events database Educational Leadership Job Listings
National Study Finds Charter Schools Falling Behind students meeting state reading standards increased by 43 percent at michigan charters,while only increasing by 10.1 percent at the states public schools. http://www.mfc.org/contents/article.asp?id=843
Extractions: CERAI-00-07 Response to The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Report "The State Of State Standards" By Gerald W. Bracey January 2000 In 1997 and 1998, The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, under the direction of its president, former assistant secretary of education Chester E. Finn, Jr., issued reports evaluating the quality of the educational standards adopted by various states. In January, 2000, the Foundation updated these evaluations, declaring that the states were inching towards better standards. In the Foundations new report, each state is given a letter grade of A to F for each of the five areas evaluated English, mathematics, history, geography and science. Only five states make the reports honor roll, while 42 are rated negatively. The problem with the evaluations is a simple one: the states rankings for quality of standards are inverse to their performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). That is, the same states that have done the best job in the eyes of the Fordham reports authors in implementing high standards have shown the poorest performance on widely accepted national tests for student achievement, and vice versa. These states have also performed poorly when compared to other nations.
Extractions: Charter School Laws Autonomy/Regulation State Students Autonomy/Regulation Types Served Waivers Budget Standards/Assessment Staff Alaska All Some exemptions specified; others must be specified Autonomy granted Charter selects own textbooks and curricula and programs; testing may be waived by request; state standards not addressed by statute Limited Arizona All Full waiver Autonomy granted State standards and assessments apply Granted Arkansas All Waivers defined in charter Limited State standards apply Not addressed California All Full waiver from state; district waiver defined in charter Allowed if specified in charter State standards and assessments apply Granted Colorado Preference for at-risk students Waivers defined in charter Negotiated; receive minimum of 80% PPE from district State and district standards apply; assessments defined in charter Defined in charter Connecticut Preference given to applications in district in which 75% or more of enrolled students are members of ethnic or racial minorities; must provide admissions criteria to promote diverse student body Waivers defined in charter Autonomy granted Subject to statewide exams Limited Delaware All Full waiver Autonomy granted State standards and assessments apply Granted District of Columbia Preference five to schools focusing on students with special needs Full waiver Granted; must list planned or proposed contracts of $10,000 or more in charter
Extractions: NOTE: This document is also available in portable document format (pdf). To read pdf files you will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader; if you do not have Acrobat, you can download a free copy from Adobe. The charter school phenomenon that seemed radical only a few years ago is now an accepted part of public education in many parts of the country. From a slow start in a few states, the charter movement has grown rapidly: by fall 1997 approximately 700 charters were operating in 29 states and the District of Columbiaand their numbers are likely to grow rapidly over the next few years. Charter schools are public schools, but what sets them apart is their chartera contract with a state or local agency that provides them with public funds for a specified time period. The charter itself states the terms under which the school can be held accountable for improving student performance and achieving goals set out in the charter. This contract frees charter developers from a number of regulations that otherwise apply to public schools. The freedoms accorded to charter schools have raised an array of hopes and fears about the consequences of introducing charter schools into the public system. Some people hope that charter schools developed by local educators, parents, community members, school boards, and other sponsors might provide both new models of schooling and competitive pressures on public schools that will improve the current system. Others fear that charter schools might, at best, be little more than escape valves that relieve pressure for genuine reform and, at worst, add to centrifugal forces that threaten to pull public education apart.
Charter Schools IDEA find out more about the Western michigan study and advocate who wants to hold charterschools accountable you to become involved with your school district and http://www.psrn.org/Charter Schools Accountability.html
Extractions: (through 2004) Electives A/B Calendar Faculty Tutoring Hours Summit Honored as a National Blue Ribbon School The honors public and private K-12 schools that are either academically superior in their states or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement. Summit is one of 214 public and private elementary and secondary schools nationwide, and the only public middle school in Colorado
