CLN TO GO

OPERATIONS INFO

2009 New School Development Open House – May 1, 2008
The New York City Department of Education (NYC DoE) is holding an open house for educators, community leaders and partner organizations interested in developing new schools starting in September 2009 and beyond. Those attending will learn about NYC DOE new school creation, including:

The types of new schools and the city’s priorities
The application process for planning a new DOE school or charter school
The organizations supporting new school development in New York City

The open house will take place on May 1, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, at Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers, 411 Pearl Street, New York, NY, 10038. (Directions: take the # 2 train to Chambers St; 4, 5, 6 to Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall; J, M, Z to Broadway-Nassau; or R, W to City Hall. Attendees must register by April 28 at: http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/SpecialPrograms/NewSchools

SUNY’s Charter School Institute (CSI) Accepting Applications for Summer 2008 Cycle

Important Notes:

Completed applications must be received by 5 p.m. on Monday, June 2nd at the Institute's Albany office: 41 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207.
All applicants should be using the Institute's New Charter School Application Kit, Sixth Edition (see page 62 for instructions on application submission).
The Institute is currently welcoming Letters of Intent from those planning to apply during the Summer 2008 Application Submission Cycle. Details available at: http://www.newyorkcharters.org/openAppKit.htm.
The soonest that a school of a Summer 2008 applicant could open would be the fall of 2009. Note that the Institute encourages schools to take a full planning year before opening, so it would be reasonable to apply on June 2nd for a fall 2010 opening as well. Applicants should give serious consideration to setting an opening date that allows the school time, once chartered, to plan for opening, including ensuring that the school’s academic program reflects the necessary inter-connections among the school’s curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development, recruiting a school leader and staff, facilities construction or renovation and developing in greater detail the school’s policies and procedures.
Visit the Institute's Web site often for new news and updates: http://www.newyorkcharters.org/

Please contact Cynthia Proctor if you have any questions.

Co-operative for Special Education

April 15, 2008

8:30am

Location: The Center

Contact information, RSVP to: Arthur Sadoff

The Center has been working with the special education coordinators and representatives from the Department of Education to explore the possibility of establishing a Co-operative for Special Education. Preliminary meetings have generated a great deal of interest and enthusiasm and we would like to move forward to make the special education co-operative a reality. In order to do this we would like to meet with school leaders and their special education coordinators to further discuss the viability of this proposal and to get your input.

We will present the draft guidelines that were developed, explain the structure of the co-operative and the ways this will benefit each of the schools in the areas of: professional development; collaboration and IEP development with the CSE/district staff; shared services; Medicaid reimbursement; joint clinical supervision; data collection etc.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

DonorsChoose.org

The Charter Center is pleased to announce that the the Pumpkin Foundation/Joe and Carol Reich, have made a dollar-for-dollar matching grant to DonorsChoose.org of $100,000 for charter schools in New York City. This means that projects that teachers in your school submit to DonorsChoose.org will automatically be half-funded upon submission (until, of course, the matching grant is exhausted). Projects will be awarded when full funding is received.

At DonorsChoose.org, innovative teachers propose grant ideas for small projects, such as “Magical Math Centers” ($200) or “The Case of the Vanishing Pencils” ($284) or “Big Book Bonanza” ($400). Individuals around the nation can search student projects by areas of interest, learn about classroom needs, and choose to fund a project idea they find most compelling.

More than $1.4 million went to NYC public school teachers last year.

All front-line educators currently teaching in a NYC charter school can benefit this year by registering and submitting a short, creative proposal today at http://www.donorschoose.org/. (Teachers, librarians, counselors and coaches are all eligible to apply. Please view FAQs here for more details on eligibility and the DonorsChoose.org process.)

If you’re a teacher and have questions, please contact Claire Gershon, Teacher Engagement Manager, at Claire@donorschoose.org or (212)-239-3615 ext. 102

If you’re a school leader and have questions, please contact Thalia Theodore, Deputy Director, at thalia@donorschoose.org or (212) 239-3615 ext. 225

ATTENTION ALL DIRECTORS OF DEVELOPMENT/CHARTER SCHOOL LEADERS!!!

The Charter Center will be conducting Two Technical Assistance Calls for the SUNY CSI Dissemination Grants on April 15^th and 17^th for SUNY CSI Authorized Schools Only.

Once again, Jon Moscow our Government Grants Consultant is available to provide technical assistance on this specific grant to consortium schools. Please feel free to contact him at JMoscow@optonline.net or call him at 917-568-6441. If you would like to participate in the conference call please dial 1-800-882-3610 and enter code 6447052#, or feel free to contact Mark Crusante at (212) 437-8354. PLEASE ALSO RSVP by April 10, 2008!

SUNY authorized charter schools that have been open for a minimum of three years are eligible to apply to the CSI for a Dissemination Grant. Designed to foster the creation of strong schools and spur the sharing of best practices among public schools, the Dissemination awards support activities that help open new public schools (including public charter schools) or share the lessons learned by charter schools with other public schools (including public charter schools). Applications are due April 30, 2008.

Please visit the application by clicking http://www.newyorkcharters.org/documents/CSPDisseminationRFP1812Fnl_000.pdf

SED/DOE Authorized Charter Schools

The SED Office of Public School Choice Programs has announced a funding opportunity for existing charter schools. Schools can either go

to the Web site at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/psc/home or access the 2008-2010 Federal Charter Schools Dissemination Grants info on the SED Funding Opportunities website:http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/funding/currentapps.htm.

Please be sure to read the eligibility requirements prior to completing the application. Not all existing charter schools will be

eligible for such funding. As stated, applications need to be postmarked by May 23, 2008. Please submit all questions regarding this opportunity to emsccsp@mail.nysed.gov.

Jon Moscow will be available to provide technical assistance on this specific grant for consortium schools. The Center will be conducting a conference call for technical assistance in the month of May for SED/DOE Authorized Schools. Dates are to be determined and will be posted on the development listserv, the "Upcoming Events" e-letter, and the "Charter Leader News." If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mark Crusante.

CERTIFICATION

Mentoring Requirement for the NYS Professional Certificate for Charter School Teachers

Teachers employed in a charter school during their first year of employment with a NYS Initial certificate are exempt from the mentoring requirement for their professional certificate.
Teachers with two years of paid, full-time satisfactory teaching service PRIOR to the issuance of the NYS Initial certificates are also exempt (this experience includes out-of-state teaching).
Non- exempt teachers must download the Superintendent Verification of Mentoring form, have it signed by their former school principal/superintendent and mail the completed form to the SED. The form is available on the TEACH web site: http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/pdf/otmentoredexp.pdf

NYS Charter School Law and Uncertified Teachers

According to NYS Charter School Law, at least 70% of a charter school’s teaching staff must be certified by the New York State Education Department (SED).
Thirty Percent (30) of the teaching staff or five teachers (whichever is less) may be employed as uncertified teachers if they meet one of the criteria below:

Have at least three years of elementary, middle or secondary classroom teaching experience
Are tenured or tenure track college faculty
Have two years of teaching experience through Teach for America
Possess exceptional business, professional, artistic, athletic or military experience

A charter school teacher who is certified in one area but teaching in another is still considered certified via definition and is not part of the uncertified count.

All classroom teachers of NCLB core subjects must demonstrate that they are highly qualified for their teaching assignment(s).

NYS Certification Deadlines for Transcript Evaluation

As you know, the SED stopped accepting applications for the individual evaluation pathway to obtain the Initial certificate in Childhood Ed, grades 1-6 on February 1, 2007. Those who chose this pathway had to have applied and met the requirements by that date.

The SED will only accept applications from candidates applying for the Initial certificate in all other classroom titles via individual transcript evaluation if they both qualify and apply by February 1, 2009.

These deadlines do not apply to applicants for additional certificates, reciprocity, Professional certificates, Supplementary certificates, Teaching Assistant certificates or extensions.

After the deadline, candidates will be required to complete a teacher preparation program for their first Initial certificate.

Please contact Caryl Cohen, our certification consultant, if you have any questions.

CENTER RESOURCES

Center Staff Update

Claudette Anthony, the Center's Director of Administration, is leaving the Center as of April 15th to begin an exciting new role as head of a group of commercial real estate and real estate-related products companies. Since October 2006, Claudette has provided various levels of administrative support to the Center. On a typical day at the Center's offices, Claudette was the first person to arrive in the morning and the last one to leave. We thank her for her commitment and efforts and wish her well in all future endeavors.

CHARTER PORTAL

The Charter Portal is an online data management system designed for charter school leaders. Sign in to the Portal for access to these features and more!

To access the Portal:

1. Using Internet Explorer, go to our Web site and click the green box in the upper left corner called “Attention All School Leaders”.
2. Click “Log in Here” and enter your school’s user name and password. If you do not know your user name or password, please contact Nathan Hood at nhood@nycchartercenter.org.
3. Once inside, right click on the main screen, select “Create Shortcut”, then select “Yes”. This adds a link to the Portal to your desktop for easy access in the future.

One feature of the Portal is the Documents Library, a growing list of informative documents that covers everything from governance and fundraising to operations and teacher certification. Log on to the Portal to view the following new additions to the Library:

http://www.nyccharterjobs.com/ / Teachers Support Network User Manual

(category: general)

Instructions for charter interested in posting career opportunities and candidates posting their resumes on the Center’s new recruitment interface.

Spring 2008 Operations and Finance Resume Book

(category: operations)

More than 80 resumes of individuals interested in manager- and director-level administrative opportunities with charter schools.

NYSESLAT Training Presentation and Video

(category: assessment)

From the Center’s March 2008 workshop. Check out our events calendar for more exciting workshops!

CENTERPIECE

CHARTER SCHOOLS: THE CLAMOR GROWS

By JAMES D. MERRIMAN

This op-ed was published in the April 3rd, 2008 edition of the New York Post

TODAY is Lottery Day: Across Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Manhattan, thousands of parents will be crowding into school gyms, auditoriums and classrooms, hoping that this will be their year.

They're not trying to win a pool of money, new car or free vacation - they're just trying to get their child into a good school.

Thousands of city kids will be vying for spots available next year in the city's nearly 80 public-charter schools. If last year's numbers hold, only one student in three will win a coveted charter-school enrollment. The rest will go home disappointed.

Most of these families live in the city's toughest areas - the South Bronx, Harlem and Central Brooklyn. And many, to be frank, have had their fill of the regular city public schools.

That's not to say that traditional schools haven't made great strides under the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein; they have. But they're still held back by bureaucracy; they simply don't have the flexibility to innovate, as classrooms must to improve, or the accountability to ensure that such changes happen - and in the right way.

Charter schools' success largely arises from strict accountability for their principals, teachers and students. School personnel who fail to achieve often get shown the door, so the students get the best possible teachers and administrators that the schools have at their disposal.

It's simple: If you don't perform, you don't teach.

The numbers don't lie. Since New York's first charter opened in 1999, these schools have showed better results across the board. Look at the 2006-07 test results:

* In math, charter students scored 12 percentage points higher than those at their neighborhood public schools, and nearly 8 points above the citywide average.

* In English, charter students beat their neighborhood peers by 9 points and the city average by nearly 6 points.

Plus, the city's two top-performing schools in 2007 were public charters, reports the city Department of Education.

By operating outside the bureaucracy that strangles many traditional city schools, charters can give their students a more rounded education with strong curricula in science, the arts and even phys-ed.

After a decade of charter success, city parents now recognize those advantages. That's why, every spring, families living in the city's poorest areas turn out for Lottery Day, hoping that they'll be able to enroll their child in a charter school.

Again, far too many go home disappointed.

But there are solutions.

First, the state government should eliminate its cap on the number of charters allowed statewide. Why limit how many high-performing schools you'll allow?

Second, the state should institute public-facilities-financing for charter schools. Right now, where the public pays to build new schools for the traditional system, charters can't even get public aid in refitting a building: They have to come up with the cash from grants and donations.

The lack of such financing makes it especially tough to open a charter here in New York City, where adequate space is hard to find and expensive to build.

Finally, the energy that's gone to fighting to stop charter schools - to denying their merits and sowing public distrust - should be channeled toward positive efforts, toward making sure every New York school holds more promise of being a great school.

James D. Merriman is CEO of the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence, a non-profit committed to increasing the number of high-quality charters in the city.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Fundraising Consortium: Individual Giving Workshop

April 9, 2008

10:00 am-11:30 am: No Man is An Island: A Guide to Individual Giving - Morning Lecture

12:30pm-2:00pm: Transforming the Dialogue with Individuals of Wealth – Interactive Dialogue

Location: The Center

RSVP to: Mark Crusante

Take part in an exciting dual-part session including an interactive dialogue like you’ve never experienced! Discuss issues and opportunities around what it takes to build active and sustainable partnerships with individuals of wealth. Find out what motivates wealthy individuals to invest in social change and how the non-profit sector must break through traditional thinking with regard to building active partnerships with wealthy individuals. Participants and panelists include:

Jade Netanya Ullman, Threshold Foundation, Resource Generation, Young Donor Organizing Alliance
Barbara Meyer, President, Bert & Mary Meyer Foundation
Clare G. Holzman, Ph.D., clinical psychologist in private practice.
Margherita Vacchiano, Associate Director, Be Present, Inc.
Lillie P. Allen, Executive Director, Be Present, Inc.
Patty Kennedy, Principal, Kennedy Spencer, moderator

Looking At Student Work Workshop

April 30, 2008 & May 14, 2008

9:00am -12:00pm

Location: The Center

Deadline: April 21, 2008

Contact information, RSVP to: Aretha Miller

In addition to administering interim assessments, a key strategy to raising overall student achievement involves the close examination of student work. By closely examining student work, teachers and administrators are able to determine if: students are meeting or making significant progress towards grade level benchmarks; assignments reflect state standards; and, teachers are evaluating student work against grade level performance indicators.

Since looking at student work is integral to raising student performance, the Center will host a two part workshop that addresses this topic. In the workshop, participants will learn strategies for:

Implementing an effective Looking At Student Work protocol in their school
Using the information gathered from the Looking At Student Work process to identify strategies that teachers can use to reteach concepts and skills that students did not learn
Using the information to evaluate the efficacy of the implementation of their curricula
Engaging in conversations about the meaning of academic rigor in their schools

Annual Charter School Lobby Day
May 6, 2008
Location: Albany, New York
Contact information, RSVP to: Jeff Maclin
Tuesday, May 6, 2008, is Charter School Lobby Day. The Center is asking each New York City public charter school to participate by sending at least one school official (leader, trustee, staffer) or parent leader. As in the past, the Center is partnering with the New York Charter Schools Association to assist schools with scheduling, agenda items and talking points.

Establishing and maintaining relationships with state legislators and other political allies is critically-important to our survival as a movement. These annual treks to Albany are a way of engaging lawmakers on the positive impact charters are having in the communities they serve while also keeping them informed and educated on charter school issues and the needs of individual schools.

As Lobby Day draws near, the Center will provide participating schools with additional information and a full itinerary. There are no better advocates for schools than parents, so we encourage you to reach out to them and ask them to participate. The Center will provide free transportation and meals to all those who attend.

Training on the Administration of the Home Language Survey and the LAB-R—

May 7,2008

9:00am - 12:00pm

Location: TBD

Deadline: May 5, 2008

Contact information, RSVP to: Aretha Miller

Since the accurate and timely identification of students who are English Language Learners is essential for their academic success, the Center will host a training on administration of the Home Language Survey and the LAB-R for all charter school personnel responsible for conducting the initial needs assessment of these students during the intake process at the schools. The training will be done by our partners at the Bilingual Education Technical Assistance Centers (BETAC).