Download or read book Massachusetts Charter Public Schools written by Cara Stillings Candal and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ongoing push to raise or eliminate the charter school cap in Massachusetts provides an opportunity to reflect upon the purpose of charter schools. When the legislature created the Commonwealth's charter school law, as a part of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA), it clearly stated a main reason for these new schools was innovation. Charters were expected to provide new curricular and pedagogical options and even experiment with existing school structures, such as grade configurations and the length of the school day and year. This paper highlights two Massachusetts charter schools that offer curricular opportunities rarely available in other public schools in Massachusetts. Both of these schools enable students to achieve exceptional results in comparison to their peers in traditional district schools. The Mystic Valley Regional Charter School (MVRCS) consistently ranks among the best schools in Massachusetts and the country. It offers two distinct but complementary curricula--the Core Knowledge Curriculum at the elementary and middle school levels and the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum at the high school level. At the Advanced Math and Science Academy (AMSA) in Marlborough, MA science and math are the "driving forces" behind much of the curricular content, but students are exposed to holistic and rigorous content in all subject areas. The curriculum is horizontally and vertically aligned and follows a logical, chronological sequence of content from grade to grade, enabling students to make intellectual connections not just within but also among and between content areas. In the current policy environment, understanding some of the important innovations that charter schools offer to students and families can productively inform the debate. The schools profiled in this white paper are providing high caliber educational opportunities and interesting curricular options to students and families in the communities that they serve.

Download or read book An Analysis of the Charter School Facility Landscape in Massachusetts written by National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring of 2012, the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, the Colorado League of Charter Schools, and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools worked to collect data that would reveal and accurately portray the adequacy of charter school facilities and the average spending for facilities out of charter schools' operating budgets in Massachusetts. As described more fully in this report, the results of the data collection efforts provide evidence that charter schools in Massachusetts pay more for facilities compared to traditional public schools, yet charter school students do not have access to many of the same facilities and amenities as compared to their peers in traditional public schools. In order to ensure that the recommendations of this effort were research-based and supported by reliable data, Hutton Architecture Studio--a leader in educational facilities architecture--consulted on the project to provide a set of reasonable expectations for school facilities' size and amenities. In order to ensure that the policy recommendations of this report are research-based and supported by reliable data, Cuningham Group Architecture, Inc. consulted on the project to provide a set of reasonable expectations for school facilities' size and amenities. Given the alignment of the Facilities Initiative and the goals and data needs of the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Charter Schools Program (CSP), ED procured additional state surveys, including Arkansas. The National Charter School Resource Center at American Institutes for Research (AIR) has been subcontracting with the Colorado League of Charter Schools to collect the research and data on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education since October of 2011. To date, AIR has subcontracted for the data collection and research of charter school facilities in four states: Idaho (ED561933), Michigan (ED561921), Massachusetts, and New Jersey (ED561926). This report is based on facilities survey and measurement data plus enrollment and operating revenue data collected for the 2012-2013 school year. The following are appended: (1) Methodology; and (2) School Facility Standards.

Download or read book Massachusetts Charter Public Schools written by Cara Stillings Candal and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent studies continue to shine light on high-performing charter schools. While Boston-area charter schools--a concentrated group of high-performers--garner more attention than others, many excellent schools outside of Boston have been quietly chipping away at the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. One of these schools is the SABIS International Charter School (SICS) in Springfield, MA, a school that has been named a "top high school". What makes SICS a "top school?" It prepares students to persist in college and enables it students, the vast majority of whom are economically disadvantaged, to "perform better than statistical expectations." That is, students at SICS not only outperform their peers in similar schools on standardized tests of achievement, they also embody the idea that "demography is not destiny." Founded in 1995, SICS was among the first charter schools established in Massachusetts. It serves students in grades K-12 and has a clear, two-pronged mission. The first part of the mission is academic: to prepare students for success in college and to be critical thinkers who are intellectually engaged and excited about life-long learning. The second part of the SICS mission is to produce ethical, responsible "citizens of the world"; people who care about their community and are engaged with social issues. To understand how SICS students defy "statistical expectations," it is necessary to understand the SABIS approach to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This report provides their best practices by data-driven instruction, answers how they meet the demand for better school options, and offers recommendations for struggling schools.

Download or read book The Public School Advantage written by Christopher A. Lubienski and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly the whole of America’s partisan politics centers on a single question: Can markets solve our social problems? And for years this question has played out ferociously in the debates about how we should educate our children. From the growth of vouchers and charter schools to the implementation of No Child Left Behind, policy makers have increasingly turned to market-based models to help improve our schools, believing that private institutions—because they are competitively driven—are better than public ones. With The Public School Advantage, Christopher A. and Sarah Theule Lubienski offer powerful evidence to undercut this belief, showing that public schools in fact outperform private ones. For decades research showing that students at private schools perform better than students at public ones has been used to promote the benefits of the private sector in education, including vouchers and charter schools—but much of these data are now nearly half a century old. Drawing on two recent, large-scale, and nationally representative databases, the Lubienskis show that any benefit seen in private school performance now is more than explained by demographics. Private schools have higher scores not because they are better institutions but because their students largely come from more privileged backgrounds that offer greater educational support. After correcting for demographics, the Lubienskis go on to show that gains in student achievement at public schools are at least as great and often greater than those at private ones. Even more surprising, they show that the very mechanism that market-based reformers champion—autonomy—may be the crucial factor that prevents private schools from performing better. Alternatively, those practices that these reformers castigate, such as teacher certification and professional reforms of curriculum and instruction, turn out to have a significant effect on school improvement. Despite our politics, we all agree on the fundamental fact: education deserves our utmost care. The Public School Advantage offers exactly that. By examining schools within the diversity of populations in which they actually operate, it provides not ideologies but facts. And the facts say it clearly: education is better off when provided for the public by the public.

Download or read book On the Rocketship written by Richard Whitmire and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-05-15 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The face of American education is evolving—and the roadmap is clear On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope examines the rise and expansion of leading charter school network Rocketship, revealing the "secret sauce" that makes a successful program. A strong narrative with a timely message, the book explores how Rocketship started and the difficulties encountered as it expands. Designing schools for children who have been failed by traditional schools is extremely challenging work. Setbacks are inevitable. Later in the book the narrative shifts to the national picture, exploring how high performing charter schools are changing the education landscape in cities such as Denver, Memphis, and Houston. The book emerges just as charter schools are running into stiff political opposition in New York City and elsewhere. Even in San Jose, Rocketship's home base, the pushback against charter schools is gaining speed. On the Rocketship becomes a valuable resource for explaining what's at stake in this battle. Lose these schools, in New York, San Jose and other cities, and low-income and minority students lose their best shot at a quality education. Written by a veteran journalist who followed Rocketship through a school year, the book explores some of the factors that make Rocketship and other charters successful, including the blended learning that was pioneered at charter schools, especially Rocketship. Many schools around the country are looking to Rocketship as a model for implementing blended learning. The interplay between charter schools and blended learning is setting a change in motion, and the American education system is ready to evolve. On the Rocketship details this phenomenon, providing insights for educators across the nation.

Download or read book Massachusetts Charter Public Schools written by Cara Stillings Candal and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years many charter public schools in Massachusetts have increased the number of English language learners (ELLs) that they enroll. A 2010 amendment to the charter school law has made it easier for charter schools to recruit English language learners. The success that many charter schools have had with this subset of students defies critics who claim that charter schools "cream" students, attracting and retaining only those who are "easiest to teach." Case studies of high-achieving charter schools with large and sometimes culturally and linguistically diverse populations of English language learners reveal common best practices. These practices include but are not limited to: individually tailored curricula that emphasize inclusive teaching practices; intentional and continuous use of high-quality formative assessments; language-enriched learning environments; recruitment and retention of teachers with knowledge of the communities that the school serves; and efforts to engage parents and community that are attuned to relevant cultural and linguistic contexts. The following report highlights three high-performing charter schools, detailing the common best practices that they continue to use and refine and highlighting the subtle but important ways each school caters to its specific student population. The case studies make clear that the autonomies that these schools enjoy because of their charter status allow them to be nimble in serving a changing student population. The same autonomies also enable these schools to design and refine approaches to serving English language learners that enhance student learning and achievement.

Download or read book Special Education and Massachusetts Charter Schools written by Jennifer C. Baribeau and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last ten years, charter schools have become a viable choice for parent's seeking an alternative to traditional public schools. However, research shows this is not the case for students with disabilities. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine special education in charter schools and traditional public schools located in Massachusetts. I examined three key areas specific to special education; enrollment, placement and compliance, to determine if differences exist between charter schools and traditional public schools located in the state. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine differences between Massachusetts charter schools and public schools with respect to enrollment for each disability category. Multiple regression was used to examine differences in placement for special education students. Lastly, descriptive statistics were used to analyze the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Coordinated Program Review (CPR) reports to determine if charter schools are compliant with state and federal regulations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Findings revealed charter schools disproportionately under-enrolled students with disabilities, specifically severe disabilities, and placed students in full inclusion placements more frequently than public schools throughout the state. Charter schools also struggled to comply with state and federal regulations under the IDEA, specifically in areas related to direct services and supports to students with disabilities.

Download or read book Massachusetts Charter Public Schools written by Cara Stillings Candal and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holyoke Community Charter School (HCCS) provides high quality educational opportunities to students and families in a city where such opportunities are not widely available. A long waitlist, high lottery subscription, and low attrition rate are all evidence of community demand for the school. Student outcomes that surpass the district of Holyoke attract parents and help to put students on the path to college success. Despite its success, HCCS has been the target of charter critics because of its association with the for-profit educational management organization SABIS. Most critics are focused on the organization's worldwide presence and for-profit status. They are unable to describe the SABIS approach or the extent to which it enables students to succeed. They also have limited or inaccurate information about why schools would choose SABIS. This white paper shines a light on Holyoke Community Charter School and the SABIS-designed systems that the school uses; systems that relate to curriculum, assessments, and the gathering of school level data pertaining to both. Drawing upon school- and state-generated data and interviews with HCCS students and faculty, this cases study describes how SABIS's integrated approach to curriculum, assessment, and data-driven instruction engages students in a way that encourages them to take ownership of their own learning--something rarely seen in schools, especially at the K-8 level.

Download or read book A Management Review of Commonwealth Charter Schools written by Massachusetts. Office of the Inspector General and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ...Review of the business operations of 24 commonwealth charter schools; this report identifies weaknesses in the contracting, procurement and financial management of some of these schools...

Download or read book Charter Schools and the Corporate Makeover of Public Education written by Michael Fabricant and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2015-04-18 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will reset the discourse on charter schooling by systematically exploring the gap between the promise and the performance of charter schools. The authors do not defend the public school system, which for decades has failed primarily poor children of color. Instead, they use empirical evidence to determine whether charter schooling offers an authentic alternative for these children. In concise chapters, they address a series of important questions related to the recent ascent of charter schools and the radical restructuring of public education. This essential introduction includes a detailed history of the charter movement, an analysis of the politics and economics driving the movement, documentation of actual student outcomes, and alternative images of transforming public education to serve all children.

Download or read book A Public School of Your Own written by Catherine Blakemore and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Charter School Landscape written by Sandra Vergari and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2002-07-19 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charter schools are publicly funded entities that enjoy freedom from many of the regulations under which traditional public schools operate. There are, however, state and local variations in charter school legislation and implementation. The Charter School Landscape is the first book to analyze and compare charter school politics and policies across a broad range of jurisdictions.The first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1992. Within nine years, there were more than 2,000 charter schools operating in thirty-four states, Washington, D.C., and Alberta, Canada. Public discourse on the charter school reform is often passionate and politically motivated. Sandra Vergari has assembled a group of experts to present a more reflective and scholarly discussion of the reform, its performance to date, and its implications for public policy.Each chapter focuses on a single state or province, and systematically addresses such issues as charter school laws, the politics of policy implementation, charter school accountability, controversies and trends, and prospects for the future. In addition, the contributors emphasize significant issues specific to each state that offer lessons for analysts and policymakers everywhere. As a whole, The Charter School Landscape suggests that charter schools are having a significant impact on the institution of public education and how we think about the concept of the "real public school."

Download or read book The Massachusetts Charter School Initiative written by Massachusetts. Department of Education and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Public Middle Schools in Massachusetts written by Source Wikipedia and published by Booksllc.Net. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 36. Chapters: Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School, Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School, Amesbury Middle School, Amigos School, Barnstable Intermediate School, Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School, Bird Middle School, Boston Latin Academy, Charles M. Frolio Junior High School, Community Charter School of Cambridge, Converse Middle School (Massachusetts), Coolidge Middle School (Reading, Massachusetts), Foxborough Regional Charter School, Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School, Freetown-Lakeville Middle School, Gates Intermediate School, Greenfield Middle School (Massachusetts), Hampshire Regional High School, Heath School, James P. Timilty Middle School, John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics & Science, King Philip Regional Middle School, Kipp Lynn Academy, Luther Burbank Middle School (Massachusetts), Mohawk Trail Regional High School, Museum Partnership School, North Attleboro Middle School, Oak Middle School, Ottoson Middle School, Peter Thacher Junior High School, Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School, Pioneer Valley Regional School, Prospect Hill Academy, Salemwood School, Somerset Middle School, South Shore Charter Public School, Spirit of Knowledge Charter School, Sterling Middle School (Quincy, Massachusetts), The Bromfield School, Trottier Middle School, Walter S. Parker Middle School, Warren-Prescott School, Wayland Middle School, Weston Middle School, West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School. Excerpt: The Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School (usually referred to as the Parker Charter School or simply Parker) is a public charter school in Devens, Massachusetts that serves students in grades 7 to 12. It was established in 1995 under the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, and currently serves 384 students...

Download or read book The Massachusetts Charter School Initiative written by Massachusetts. Department of Education and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book School s Choice written by Wagma Mommandi and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Access issues are pivotal to almost all charter school tensions and debates. How well are these schools performing? Are they segregating and stratifying? Are they public and democratic? Are they fairly funded? Can apparent successes be scaled up? Answers to all these core questions hinge on how access to charter schools is shaped. This book describes the incentives and pressures on charter schools to restrict access and examines how charters navigate those pressures, explaining access-restricting practices in relation to the ecosystem within which charter schools are created. It also explains how charters have sometimes responded by resisting the pressures and sometimes by surrendering to them. The text presents analyses of 13 different types of practices around access, each of which shapes the school’s enrollment. The authors conclude by offering recommendations for how states and authorizers can address access-related inequities that arise in the charter sector. School’s Choice provides timely information on critical academic and policy issues that will come into play as charter school policy continues to evolve. Book Features: Examines how charter schools control who gains and retains access.Explores policies and practices that undermine equitable admission and encourage opportunity hoarding.Offers a set of policy recommendations at the state and federal level to address access-related issues.

Download or read book No Excuses written by Stephan Thernstrom and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-07-14 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black and Hispanic students are not learning enough in our public schools, and their typically poor performance is the most important source of ongoing racial inequality in America today—thus, say Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, the racial gap in school achievement is the nation's most critical civil rights issue and an educational crisis; it's no wonder that "No Child Left Behind," the 2001 revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, made closing the racial gap in education its central goal. An employer hiring the typical Black high school graduate or the college that admits the average Black student is choosing a youngster who has only an eighth-grade education. In most subjects, the majority of twelfth-grade Black students do not have even a "partial mastery" of the skills and knowledge that the authoritative National Assessment of Educational Progress calls "fundamental for proficient work" at their grade. No Excuses marshals facts to examine the depth of the problem, the inadequacy of conventional explanations, and the limited impact of Title I, Head Start, and other familiar reforms. Its message, however, is one of hope: Scattered across the country are excellent schools getting terrific results with high-needs kids. These rare schools share a distinctive vision of what great schooling looks like and are free of many of the constraints that compromise education in traditional public schools. In a society that espouses equal opportunity we still have a racially identifiable group of educational have-nots—young African Americans and Latinos whose opportunities in life will almost inevitably be limited by their inadequate education. When students leave high school without high school skills, their futures—and that of the nation—are in jeopardy. With successful schools already showing the way, no decent society can continue to turn a blind eye to such racial and ethnic inequality.