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An opening
Here’s a look at the Northeast Ohio Classical Academy, scheduled to open in Copley next fall. The piece leans into the “controversial” aspects of certain parts of the school’s planned curriculum for certain folks. But, being a charter school of course, any parent uninterested in experiencing NOCA’s curriculum is easily able to avoid it for the entirety of their child’s school career. For anyone interested in experiencing the alternative NOCA provides, registration is open for grades K-5 right now!
An expansion
The Newark Advocate takes a look at the expansion of STEM learning opportunities at Par Excellence Academy. Thanks to grants from Battelle and the Ohio STEM Learning Network, the Licking County charter school’s students will soon have a well-equipped makerspace and have science and technology learning opportunities unavailable to them before. How exciting!
Some closures
This piece from Chalkbeat Indiana focuses on school closures. Specifically, the number of charter schools in Marion County which have closed since 2001. Data from Ohio, as analyzed by Ohio State University professor (and Fordham Senior Research Fellow) Stéphane Lavertu, is cited as a comparison. The bottom line seems to be that charter school closure is a complex topic with lots of players and factors involved—from finances to enrollment to academic outcomes to state and sponsor oversight—and that any discussion thereof must take all of these factors into proper consideration.
Supporting teachers
Two charter schools in Tennessee have found that supporting their teachers’ childcare needs is an innovative way to help recruit and retain staff—either by creating on-site daycares which prioritize admission for teachers’ children or by helping to pay for outside daycare costs. “I don’t know if I would be back in the classroom if it wasn’t for the daycare,” said STEM Prep Academy math teacher Hannah Rice, whose two children now attend the school’s own daycare program.
The beginning of the movement
The New Pittsburgh Courier this week republished a 2021 career retrospective in which charter school pioneer Howard Fuller discusses how he went from 1960s civil rights activist to 1990s school choice trailblazer to modern day fighter for the best education options for Black and Brown children nationwide. Still a compelling read today.
The future of the movement
Jed Wallace, founder of the CharterFolk website, published a piece in EdWeek laying out the case that the charter school movement is currently experiencing a burst of growth and momentum that flies in the face of dire predictions to the contrary being heard nationwide just five years ago. As outgoing NAPCS leader Nina Rees puts it: “If we continue making academic and advocacy headway on our current trajectory, people will look back on the 2020s as a period of progress rivalling if not surpassing any decade of impact the charter-school movement has achieved.”
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