Welcome back to our first edition of 2022, covering news from 12/17 – 12/31/21. We will return to regular weekly publication on Fridays starting tomorrow.
Life advice and career advice
Canton native Armani Sharpe has been making a name for herself as a celebrity hair braider in Las Vegas for the last few years. Just before the holiday break, she returned to her hometown and provided makeovers—and some helpful life and career advice—for Beacon Academy students at a pop up salon inside the charter school. Awesome stuff.
Injunction
Just before the end of the year, a judge in Kanawha County, West Virginia, issued a preliminary injunction preventing the opening of the first five charter schools in the state. At issue is the constitutionality of the appointed Professional Charter School Board to “create schools”. More on this in 2022.
High achiever
Newly-minted Rhodes Scholar Samantha O’Sullivan credited BASIS Public Charter School and a magnet school in the DC Public School District for helping foster her love for math and science at a young age. “BASIS DC Public Charter School is very rigorous in math and science education,” she told the Washington Informer in late December, “that school built my confidence in those skills and made me feel like I could achieve anything.” O’Sullivan is currently majoring in physics and African-American studies at Harvard University with an eye toward becoming a research physicist. Fantastic!
To the next level
Charles Alexander, former director of college counseling at the University of Chicago Charter School’s Woodlawn High School, penned an important piece for Chalkbeat which posted just before Christmas. He details the creation and operation of Men with Purpose, a cohort of 14 high school juniors whom he guided along a college preparation track intended to help them boost their GPA and put college matriculation squarely in their sights. The ups and downs the young men experienced are as vital to understand as their ultimate success.
The view from Nevada
Coral Academy charter schools in southern Nevada are in the same boat as many charters across the country: they have more applicants than available seats and thus must hold a lottery to fill open slots. In order to increase enrollment of under-resourced students in their popular schools, Coral Academy is implementing a weighted lottery for the 2022-2023 school year. Students whose families qualify for Free or Reduced Price lunch will have, in essence, four entries in the next lottery by comparison to students whose family income is above that threshold. The 74 discussed the plan in late December, including analysis of similar efforts by other Nevada charters.
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