October 2018 Newsletter

NCSRC Resource Round-Up: Back to School Resources for Charter Schools

The National Charter School Resource Center (NCSRC) is marking the new school year with a resource round-up, which highlights some of our top resources from past years and new resources to start the school year strong. These diverse, high-quality resources range from multimedia case studies featuring innovative charter schools across the U.S. to research reports and hands-on toolkits. The NCSRC also hosts webinars throughout the year that deal with pressing issues in the charter school sector.

A sampling of these resources is organized by focus area below.

Opening & Expanding

• Webinar: The Charter Support Organization (CSO) Role in New School Development
  This webinar explores national and state best practices and experiences in helping new charter schools open and sustain operational quality.
• New School Development: A Toolkit for Charter Support Organizations and Charter School Founders
  This navigational toolkit is designed to help CSOs and charter school founders find key resources on opening a new charter school. It provides a wide array of publicly available NSD resources from across the country.

Increasing Achievement

• Case Study: Washington Leadership Academy (WLA)
  This video case study features WLA, a technology-focused public charter high school serving students throughout the District of Columbia. Using technology to personalize learning enables students to become owners of their learning and growth.
• Case Study: Cornville Regional Charter School: Personalized Learning
  This video case study features Cornville Regional Charter School, based in rural Maine, and its learner-centric personalized learning methodology. School leaders discuss their approach for offering innovative and customized learning as well as how to implement the model in charter schools.
• Student Achievement in Charter Schools: What the Research Shows
  This report examines research and identifies common findings for policymakers, parents, educators, and other stakeholders seeking to gain a better understanding of charter schools.

Facilities

• Webinar: Facilities Supports & the CSO’s Role
  This webinar, targeted to CSO leaders and staff, provides an overview of challenges charter schools face in securing a good building and affordable financing. It highlights resources that can help charter schools solve their facilities challenges.
• Charter School Facility Landscape Analyses
  The NCSRC collaborated with several partners to collect data and information about charter school facilities and facilities expenditures in cities and states around the country.

Board Governance

• Charter School Governing Board Composition: A Toolkit for Board Members
  Charter school boards need the right mix of people who bring the skills, perspectives, experiences, and networks the board needs to achieve its goals. This resource is designed to support boards in building the best membership to ensure student success.
• Charter School Governing Board Recruitment Tools
  To recruit strategically, boards must know the qualities and skills that already exist around the table and what they are seeking. This tool provides assessments and sample board matrices for boards to understand their needs.
• Charter School Enrollment: A Toolkit for Board Members
  This toolkit explores the role charter school governing boards have in enrollment.

The Federal Charter Schools Program

• SE Webinar: CMOs, Authorizers, and the Charter Schools Program
  This webinar introduces issues that arise for Charter Management Organizations, state entities administering Charter Schools Program (CSP) grants, and charter school authorizers as they work together to provide the appropriate governance and oversight of charter schools.
• Charter Schools Program Dashboards
  These dashboards provide information on each State Education Agency (SEA) or State Entity (SE) that has received a CSP grant.
• New State Entity Grantee Toolkit
  This informal guidance for SEA and SE CSP grantees is a starting point to answer questions and to link Project Directors to key resources for successful CSP grant administration.

Leadership

• Charter School Governing Board Primer: School Leadership
  This resource provides best practices and support designed to ensure great school leadership. It also provides guidance in developing an effective relationship between the board and the school's leadership.
• Intentionally Diverse Charter Schools: A Toolkit for Charter School Leaders
  This toolkit is designed to help charter school leaders and their stakeholders design and implement intentionally diverse charter schools.
• Case Study: Deep Community Engagement at the Native American Community Academy (NACA)
  This video case study showcases how the NACA in Albuquerque, NM, is expanding its culturally-responsive, community-led model to improve academic achievement for Native American and Indigenous students.

Special Education

• Students with Disabilities Resources
  This compilation is designed to provide the charter school community with access to useful information in support of their work to effectively serve students with disabilities.
• Case Study: Brooke Roslindale Charter School
  This video case study features how Brooke Roslindale Charter School in Boston, Massachusetts integrates special education and general education, maintains small class sizes, and provides extensive professional development for its teachers.

English Learners

• English Learner Resources
  This compilation is designed to provide the charter school community with access to useful information in support of their work to effectively serve English Learner (EL) students.
• Case Study: Camino Nuevo's Kayne Siart Campus
  This video case study features the Camino Nuevo Kayne Siart Campus in Los Angeles, California, which offers local families an opportunity for high-quality education in an area where they could easily have access to their children’s school.

Policy

• Impact of ESSA Provisions on Authorizing
  Charter schools face high-stakes accountability. Federal policy influences state accountability systems for all public schools, which then affect charter school accountability. This paper explores the possible impact of new federal and state policies on the charter school sector.

State Resources for Charters

The NCSRC also provides charter school resources for individual states. Find information about charter schools that will guide you to resources and contact information for your state by using the State Resources Map.

 

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