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Learning more to help students succeed
Here’s a great look at the efforts Utica Shale Academy superintendent Bill Watson is going to to provide even more opportunities for his students. Watson has just completed the Excellence in Education Executive Coaching (EC3) program, with an emphasis on connecting with other school leaders across the country to share what he’s learned as head of a career-tech-focused charter school and to learn from them new ways to educate and empower his students to learn, earn, and achieve. Great stuff.
New charter options for rural students
The Stevensville Public School district in western Montana has applied to open two charter schools in the Bitterroot Valley area, aiming to provide specialized education for high school students looking for options. One is a health science academy, partnering with a new local clinic to give students hands-on education in various medical fields. The other is an alternative program that would be “more flexible and personalized” than traditional high school courses, including some online and on-demand classes to allow students to move at their own pace. District leaders presented their proposals before the Montana Board of Public Education earlier this month and a decision should be forthcoming in January.
Parent satisfaction
Speaking of online education, a recent report from Michigan Parents for School Options indicates that 87 percent of parents who choose a virtual school option are satisfied or very satisfied with their child’s experience. “Parents who choose to send their child to an online charter public school do so for reasons very specific and personal to their family,” said organization chair Amy Dunlap. “Whether for health reasons, to escape bullying, or flexibility in learning needed for either the child or the family, this decision is personal, unique, and very important to each family.” Thirty-one percent of virtual school parents surveyed also cited the quality of the curriculum as their reason for switching and just 16 percent believed their local schools could offer these same opportunities.
Hoping for better
The Sun-Sentinel newspaper is reporting that the elected boards in Palm Beach and Broward County school districts have rejected almost all of the 197 requests they received from local charter operators to share unused space in their buildings under the new Schools of Hope rules, citing “impracticality” in their decisions. It is unclear at this point what recourse the charter operators have, but it is a sure bet that their efforts are not over yet.
The view from Indy
Charter and district co-location is just one of the proposals on the table in Indianapolis as leaders across the city try to build true collaboration around shared…everything—including buildings, buses, oversight, accountability, and money. The founder of the state’s Charter Innovation Center calls it a “grand bargain”—meaning that all school sectors will be required to give up some of their historical autonomy in return for a share of the new, collective education ecosystem being built.
Another step toward a reckoning
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti recently issued a legal opinion arguing that the provision requiring charter schools in his state to be “nonsectarian” and “nonreligious” likely violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was part of the 2002 law that first authorized charters in the Volunteer State and Skrmetti says the provision “penalizes free exercise and triggers the ‘most exacting scrutiny’.” And that scrutiny could come soon as part of a lawsuit filed earlier this month on the subject in Knox County, Tennessee.
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