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
.