Stories featured in Ohio Charter News Weekly may require a paid subscription to read in full.
The world of data
The big news of the week is release of the first ever state rankings of charter school student performance on NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The results are based on representative samples of charter school students in grades 4 and 8 who took the NAEP assessment between 2009 and 2019. 35 states and the District of Columbia are ranked. Overall, the top-performing states are Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, and New Jersey. The lowest-ranked charter performance is in Hawaii, followed by Tennessee, Michigan, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. Students in the South tend to perform above average, while students in midwestern Rust Belt states rank at the midpoint or below. Ohio ends up in the middle of most analyses. There’s a ton of additional data in the report and you can check it out in full here.
An opportunity for charter students in northeast Ohio?
The University of Akron this week announced a brand new scholarship opportunity for qualifying low-income students in Summit, Stark, Medina, Portage, Cuyahoga, and Wayne counties. Accepted students at UA can receive a grant covering the full cost of tuition and general fees for their first year at the school. Are charter school students eligible to apply? It seems so based on the information available—an incredible opportunity sometimes denied to charter families if so—but school leaders should probably contact UA to find out for sure.
A family story about the power of school choice
Here’s a fantastic story about a family in Mississippi whose four children all have needed something different at various points in their K-12 education. Marcus and Christeen Moffett explain clearly all of those various needs, how they have changed over time, and how they have worked tirelessly to find and maintain the best possible choices for their diverse kids. And at the moment, that includes a private school, a charter school, and their assigned traditional district school. Kudos to them, their thriving children, and the school communities that support them.
Lunch and learning
Kudos also to Circle City Prep, a charter school in Indianapolis, which has completed its transition from reheated, prepackaged meals served to students to producing its own scratch-made meals on site. In the process, and with the support of the local Patachou Foundation, it has also created a culinary program where students can learn kitchen and food-prep basics right in their own building.
*****
Did you know you can have every edition of the Ohio Charter News Weekly sent directly to your Inbox? Subscribe by clicking here.
