SchoolView Now Available for Parents

There's a new tool available for parents to find out how their child's school is doing compared to other schools of comparable size and demographics. SchoolView was launched to allow parents to explore the state's Growth Model Data.


In announcing the launch of SchoolView, Commissioner of Education Dwight Jones said,

“The combination of SchoolView and the Colorado Growth Model provide a much
clearer understanding of school performance than we have had in the past and
invites public involvement in the urgency for improvement,” said Commissioner
Jones. “We strongly encourage everyone who cares about how well our education
system is doing in Colorado to take a look.”

On the website parents can select specific schools, different levels of schools (elementary, middle or high), districts or numeorus other groups. The opportunities to compare schools and monitor one's own children's growth is almost limitless. Watch for more options to be available on this site in the future. Plus, watch how schools begin to use this new growth model as a means of communicating with parents how their students are doing.

Early College HS of Arvada Offers New Program

In its second year of operation, Early College HS of Arvada is expanding its programming to target 15 to 17 year-olds in need of credit recovery or college credits. The school, located at 60th and Sheridan in Arvada, offers a small school environment with specialized attention for students performing below grade level.

Sarah Brock, the school's principal, started the school based on Southwest Early College in Denver. The school uses the Sylvan Learning system to remediate students, beginning at the point they're at and then moving them forward incrementally.

The new program, Excel, is designed for students with at least 20 high school credits. The first year in the program is focused on credit recovery with the use of computer and online classes. The curriculum is designed to match the student's needs.

Director of student services, Mr. Chris Gerboth, started Southwest Early College and has vast experience with the early college model. He also teaches at Early College HS of Arvada.

Unique characteristics of the early college model, producing results at Early College HS, are a small school atmosphere where all students are known by a caring adult and a workshop-type delivery model where students are more engaged in their learning. Students needing extra support get that either through one-on-one time with teachers or else using the Sylvan Learning system on computers.

Early College HS starts on August 17th. It will enroll about 100 students in the 2009-10 school year, up from about 45 students last year.

New Requirements for Charter Schools

Charter school leaders must now comply with new immigration law by documenting citizenship of employees and independent contractors. Information is online, including sample forms.

Kentucky Coming Out of the Dark Ages?

Kentucky is one of ten states without a charter school law, but that may change because a state representative has filed a bill request. A recent survey found that more than 80% of Kentucky's voters would choose a type of choice education, if they could. Choice was defined as private, charter, virtual or home schools.

Rep. Stan Lee of Kentucky said:

“In this time of ‘economic crisis’ and ‘great fiscal pain’, it seems to me the General Assembly might want to explore this avenue for additional funding for education,” said Lee. “It’s actually very simple: Are we really all for education, or are we only for education as long as it satisfies some political agenda? We need to stop using our school children as pawns in political games."

Representative Lee added, “Kentucky is one of only ten states without a charter school law and our students’ test scores and graduation percentages consistently rank towards the bottom in national ratings. Is there a possible correlation?”

States must have charter school laws in order to compete for federal stimulus Race to the Top funds. Rep. Lee has introduced education reform-type bills in the past only to have them dismissed without discussion. Maybe the incentive of possible federal money will permit Kentucky to come out of the Dark Ages.

Cesar Chavez Academy: The Story Continues

Lawrence Hernandez has certainly been in the news lately. He's been a controversial figure since he first opened Cesar Chavez Academy in Pueblo back in 2001. Most recently his salary, his wife's salary and the salary of the Chief Financial Officer have made news. EdNews has a couple of articles with more details here and here.

Charter School Governing Boards and Nepotism: Is it Ever OK?

Several charter schools in the state have been dealing with nepotism issues. This makes all charter schools look bad when the public generalizes their preceptions about all charter schools based on what they hear in the media about a few errant schools.

It doesn't matter if it's in a school district or in a charter school, when public funds are being used, people must be above repute. Having family members as board members or employees of the school almost always leads to problems. Family members should not supervise each other. This includes governing board members and administrators or even the second person under the lead administrator.

Charter school board members should not be related to each other. In fact, many consider it a best practice to have the school's bylaws stipulate that board members cannot be immediate family members of a school employee or a school employee. The potential for a conflict of interest is too great.

Some authorizers are now requiring new charter school governing boards to uphold certain standards such as no nepotism and no employees of the school on the board. Authorizers increasingly scrutinize proposed bylaws in charter school applications as a means to avert future governance issues by making sure certain provisions are addressed before the charter school is approved. Charter contracts often have proposed bylaws attached as a means of defining what is an acceptable or unacceptable change to the charter. Charter school bylaws should stand as approved by the authorizer unless an amendment to the bylaws is approved at a later date. Amending the bylaws may be a substantive change to the charter that fundamentally alters the vision and mission of the charter school.

Is it a Language School or a Religious School?

Schools officials at a Hebrew language charter school in south Florida are going to try and open three more charter schools using the same model. The Ben Gamla charter school serves 600 elementary school-aged students and has another ~135 on its waiting list. The school came under scrutiny by their authorizing school district initially and had an independent district-hired expert to examine all of the school's lessons.

One of the commenters on the Miami Herald article about the Ben Gamla charter school wondered what would happen if this were an islamic charter school? Minnesotans know. They have Tarek ibn Ziyad Charter Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. TIZA is an Islamic charter school.

While most public school officials draw the line on teaching religion, there can be a very fine (gray?) line when the school's culture is also rooted in religion. District officials in Florida were wise to have an independent expert monitor the school's curriculum. It appears district officials in Minnesota have struggled with how to provide proper oversight to this unique charter school. Earlier this year the Minnesota Americans Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against the charter school stating they were teaching religion. A federal judge later dismissed most of the case.

Last week it was revealed that a nonprofit organization associated with TIZA paid for a state legislator's trip to Mecca in 2008. Further, the Minnesota Dept of Education notified TIZA school officials that they would not pay the school any more money until all of the school's teachers were properly licensed only to say it was "an error" two days later and fund the charter school.

TIZA reports higher-than-average test scores and has been recognized for outstanding academic growth by the Northwest Evaluation Association.

Charter school authorizers and policy makers have a unique challenge with atypical charter schools that operate at the threshold of acceptable practices. A key to averting problems is effective performance contracting and transparency. Moreover, authorizers learn from each other and the challenges they face, many of which could rarely be anticipated.