Forward motion in West Virginia
Governor Jim Justice recently appointed five people to the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board, the new statewide board that will authorize future charter schools in the Mountain State. Among the group were K-12 and higher education representatives as well as a former U.S. Department of Education staffer. The board’s first meeting is set for next week.
Reforms lead to improvement
A new Mathematica report looks at a decade of education reform in the District of Columbia, which has included open enrollment, a growing charter sector, and overhauls to teacher evaluation and pay structures. The combination of efforts appears to have helped boost student achievement faster than in states and county districts that didn’t use these market-based education reforms.
Energy efficiency and broadband are infrastructure
The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a bill currently making its way through Congress includes funding to support energy efficiency for public school facilities and school buses as well as funding to support access to broadband internet. Both are areas of interest for charter school leaders across the country.
New resource to support English language learners
The National Charter School Resource Center recently released the second part of its extensive resource guide to help schools support their students who are English language learners. Part 2 of “English Learners in Charter Schools” can be found here and focuses on equipping teachers and school communities to help EL students return seamlessly and successfully back to in-person learning after many months of learning online and from home.
The new school year in Ohio pt 1
The community news section of Cleveland.com profiled the incoming leader of Summit Academy Community School—Parma, Saree Doyle. She has been an intervention specialist at the northeast Ohio charter, and has been assistant director for the last two years. Best wishes to her and the entire school community for the new school year, which begins next week.
The new school year in Ohio pt 2
Meanwhile, the community news section of the Akron Beacon-Journal took a look at some changes to school transportation which were signed into law by Governor DeWine as part of the new state budget. These important updates involve the timely transportation of charter and private school students by their resident district and the process by which students are deemed “impractical to transport”, thus qualifying for payment in lieu of transportation. The revised reimbursement structure around those payments—from the perspective of several area districts—is a prime focus of the piece.
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