by John Danner & J. C. Bowman
     
    Within the area of school choice, charter laws
    represent a compromise between conservative
    and liberal positions on public education. Public
    charter schools offer a proven answer.
     
    Public charter schools are motivating other
    school systems across the nation to improve the
    delivery of educational services. In addition,
    research indicates charter schools can have an
    unintended positive impact, and may contribute
    to statewide reform efforts that had no formal
    connection to charters, such as new systems of
    school accountability, drives for site-based
    management, and changes in school financing
    practices. Charters have taken care of under-
    served students, saved capital costs by taking
    overflow students in growing districts, and even
    offered options to chronically disgruntled
    parents.
     
    Charter schools offer a bridge from the
    business-as-usual mentality toward a more free-
    market approach favored by reformers. When
    we set high standards for our schools and our
    children, and when we give our schools and our
    children the support they need and hold them
    accountable for results, public education can get
    the job done.
     
    Charter schools that are solid academically
    challenge the state's public schools to improve.
    Many education reform proponents agree that
    charter schools should be the model for school
    accountability. There must be real
    consequences for failure to meet academic
    standards. Charter schools are held to the
    same standard as other Florida public schools,
    with students taking the FCAT and schools
    being issued a grade, if their population permits.
      
    Charter school proponents and standards-based
    reform policy-makers should work together to
    make charter schools the most accountable
    public schools.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Pembroke Pines Charter High School
    With the opening of the charter elementary schools
    on August 31, 1998, Pembroke Pines became the
    first municipality in Florida, and second in the nation,
    to build a charter school. Pembroke Pines now
    offers a charter elementary school, a charter middle
    school and a charter high school.
     
    The Pembroke Pines Charter Schools strive to
    provide each child with an opportunity to realize his
    or her full potential, in a setting that is safe, orderly
    and small enough that students feel recognized and
    nurtured.
     
    The schools accomplish this goal by offering a
    balanced and flexible curriculum that provides a firm
    foundation in the core disciplines, with an emphasis
    on character and an infusion of technology. Each
    classroom has six to ten computers for student use.
     
     
    Pembroke Pines Charter Schools offer smaller
    student populations than other traditional public
    schools. The elementary school and middle schools
    have 600 students per campus, while the high
    school has 1,200 students. There is a maximum of
    25 students per class at all campuses. Uniforms are
    required at all school campuses. Parental
    involvement is fostered through the thirty volunteer
    hours required for each family per year.
    Improving educational opportunities for all
    children remains paramount to reforming
    education and ending a cycle of failure that
    many children endure throughout their
    educational experience.
     
    For more information regarding Pembroke Pines
    Charter Schools, please visit their website at
    www.pinescharter.com
    .
     
     
       
     
      

     
     
     
     
    The Florida Charter School Resource Center
    Completes Summer Workshop
     
    Series
     
     
    The Florida Charter School Resource Center
    recently completed its annual training for charter
    schools in three locations. Upon request from
    charter schools around the state to provide
    training opportunities “closer to home,” the
    Resource Center went on the road to conduct
    the Summer Workshop Series in Tampa,
    Tallahassee, and Ft. Lauderdale. Session
    topics included Legal Issues, Curriculum
    Alignment, Instructional Techniques, Developing
    Positive Behavior Supports, Tips for Tracking
    Student Progress, and Special Education: The
    “Brief” Version. The evaluations from each
    location rated the workshops as “excellent,” with
    many requests for more of the same training in
    the future. Charter schools were also interested
    in weekend workshops and ongoing training in
    these areas to improve student achievement.
     
    Florida Charter School Resource Center
    Delivers updated Exceptional Student Education
    (ESE) Document to Charter Schools
     
    The Florida Charter School Resource Center
    has produced 10 ESE Steps, A “How To” Guide
    for Serving Students with Disabilities in Charter
    Schools since 1998. This guide was developed
    to help charter schools navigate their way
    through ESE processes and procedures. Each
    year, this document is updated with Florida
    Department of Education technical assistance
    memos and legislative changes. This year, the
    Resource Center abbreviated the “10 ESE
    Steps” binder to a more “user friendly” spiral
    notebook, including essential, yet more “brief,”
    information from the original binder. This new
    version, Special Education: Information Briefs,
    was distributed in the Summer Workshop Series
    and is currently being mailed to charter schools
    that were not able to attend training.
     
    The Florida Charter School Resource Center
    may be reached at
    1-800-214-4247
    , or you may
    visit their website at
    http://ari.coedu.usf.edu/fcsrc
     
     
    This article contributed by Emily Potts, Florida
    Charter School Resource Center.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Dissemination Grants, funded through the Public
    Charter Schools Federal Grant Program, provide
    assistance to successful charter schools, allowing
    them to disseminate information regarding best
    practices or a program implemented at their
    school. Successful charter schools, which have
    been in operation for at least three consecutive
    and have demonstrated overall success, are
    eligible for grant funding. Schools wishing to
    compete must show
    substantial p
    achievement
    high levels of parental satisfaction, and
    the management and leadership necessary to
    overcome initial start-up problems and to
    establish
    school.
    Nearly 100 Florida charter schools are eligible to
    , district staff, and Department of Education
    ff.
       
    ynn Turner,
    compete for these funds.
     
    During the three day 2002-2003 Dissemination
    Grant Review, 21 reviewers met in Tallahassee to
    review the 30 grant applications received.
    Reviewers included charter school operators,
    charter providers, charter developers, resource
    centers
    s
     
    Choice Office staff participating in the review
    included Dr. Rufus Ellis, Karen Hines-Henry,
    Karen Bennett, Ruben Vazquez, L
    Melvin Jones, Lisa Kammel and Kendra Lee.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    ta
     
     
      
      
     
     
    a thriving, financially viable charter
    rogress in improving student
     
     
     
     
     
    The Southeastern Equity Center has been serving this
    region for 34 years. In 1965, the Miami Center was
    designated as the "first" federally funded desegregation
    center established in the nation. Today, the Center's
    capability is best described as an appropriate approach
    to meet American society's need for educational equity
    across race, origin and gender in the 21st century. As
    the U.S. Department of Education's equity arm, the
    Center's role is unique in focusing on equal educational
    opportunity as a fundamental and legal responsibility
    for which districts and schools are accountable. The
    Center's assistance deliberately cuts across equity
    categories to help school districts develop the capacity
    to give all students equal access to the highest quality
    education programs that a district can provide.
     
    For more information, please visit the Southeastern
    Equity Center website at
    www.southeastequity.org
    .

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