Volume III, Issue 16, Tuesday, July 10, 2007

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This issue of the Charter Leader News features...

 

Hoxby Study Annual Reports

SUNY Announces New Charter School Applicants

Important deadlines for SUNY schools

Dollars and Cents Forum Update

Recruitment and Retention Exit Survey Templates

Fundraising Consortium Raises $9.2 Million

Certification Workshops

DOE Job Fairs Recruitment

 

Charter Schools to Receive Hoxby Study "Annual Reports"

on Student Achievement This Week

Participating NYC public charter schools will receive their first annual reports on Wednesday, July 11 (via email) from Dr. Caroline M. Hoxby, a Harvard University economist who is conducting a five-year study of how NYC charter school students' achievement compares to that of students who were equally interested in attending a charter school but were "lotteried-out." Please note that the email will come from the name "Charter Schools Eval," the study's general email account.

To assist schools with questions on the report, the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence is coordinating two separate conference calls with Professor Hoxby and school leaders. The first call is scheduled for Friday, July 13 at 11 am. The second call is scheduled for Wednesday, July 18, at 1 pm. 

School leaders will receive conference call instructions from the Center by Wednesday, July 11. If you have any questions please contact Nadine Patterson at npatterson@nycchartercenter.org.

Public dissemination of individual charter school reports is embargoed until August 1. This means schools are prohibited from releasing data on their schools until the embargo period is over. Professor Hoxby, who is conducting her research based on a federal grant from the U.S. Institute for Education Sciences, will issue an overall report for publication that describes key findings for all charter schools in the study. Her report and working paper will be posted online at http://www.nber.org/~schools/charterschoolseval.

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OPERATIONS NEWS
   

SUNY Announces New Charter School Applicants
The SUNY Charter Schools Institute received 20 new school charter applications in response to its June 29th call for applications. Summary information about each proposed school has been posted to the Institute's Web site, along with information for future applicants with schools planning to open in 2009 or later. http://www.newyorkcharters.org/openAppKit.htm

Important deadlines for SUNY schools
For all existing SUNY Authorized charter schools, several important due dates are coming up:

• 2006-07 Annual Report: Including requirements from SED, as well as an Accountability Plan Progress Report, is due August 1st.  New annual reporting guidelines have been posted on the Institute's Web site, http://www.newyorkcharters.org.
• Applications for initial and subsequent renewal are due August 15th. Please see the Institute's new second edition of the Charter Renewal Handbook, also available on the Web site, for applications and resources.

 

Dollars and Cents Forum - Update

Thanks to the attendees and panelists for our recent discussion of charter schools funding equity. It was an engaging and informative night that sets the stage for our next advocacy agenda. A number of areas of inequity were highlighted and panelists and audience explained the AOE funding formula and debated the merits of various strategies of reform.  It is clear that many inequities are created through the funding formula.  However the greatest issue arises from the exemption of certain streams of funding from the AOE, particularly facilities aid.

 

The NYC Charter School Leaders' Advocacy and Equity Committee will continue to meet and develop an agenda that seeks equal treatment for our students on par with other public school students.  The recording of the broadcast should be available for viewing on the Charter Portal in the next month, along with guiding questions document and relevant background studies as well.

 

Special thanks to Stacey Gauthier of Renaissance and Marc Waxman of FLI for organizing the forum through the Advocacy and Equity Committee.  Please contact them if you would like to become more involved with this issue or others the Committee addresses. 

 

 

Recruitment and Retention - Exit Survey Templates
The Center has launched several exit survey templates designed to assist school leaders in creating more effective recruitment and retention strategies. The goal is to assist schools in gathering information that may shed some light on why teachers and staff members leave schools, and how best to retain them.

 

In response to numerous requests from school leaders for help on this issue, the Center recruited a statistician to design exit survey templates for teachers, administrators and school operations staff. Schools have the option of sending completed surveys back to us for analysis, or keeping them for internal purposes. The Center will send back detailed reports on all returned surveys with statistics that will hopefully assist schools in recruiting and retaining quality personnel. All survey responses are entirely confidential.

Survey Documents are available electronically via the Charter Portal. Make sure that the surveys are distributed to the applicable audience (teachers, operations specialists, or school leaders) and reach those who are leaving the school now, during the summer, or have left within the past school year. (Please see Center Resources for more information.)

If you have any questions, please contact Caryl Cohen at ccohen@nycchartercenter.org or Glenn Liebeck at gliebeck@nycchartercenter.org.

 

OPERATIONS - CURRENT EVENTS - FUNDRAISING - TRAINING - CENTER RESOURCES - RECRUITMENT

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FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

Fundraising Consortium Raises $9.2 Million

In its first year of implementation, the NYC Charter Center's Fundraising Consortium Program, a network of 18 charter schools devoted to fundraising and development collectively raised $9.2 million dollars. This is a six million jump from the previous year. Applications for next year's Fundraising Consortium will be available in late July. 

 

Membership is free to all schools and services such as coaching, grant-writing, and best practices are available for utilization. For more information, email Mark Crusante.

 

 

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CERTIFICATION TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

Certification and NCLB's Highly Qualified Requirements for School Administrators

Workshop - July 17 (4:30-6:30pm) OR August 8 (4:30-6:30pm)  

Caryl Cohen, the Center's Certification Consultant will review certification requirements, the NYS Interstate Compact for reciprocity and the No Child Left Behind teacher check lists for school leaders and HR personnel. Learn the basics so that your school can be in compliance with federal and state laws. This interactive presentation is open to school leaders and/or operations staff who deals with certification and related NCLB compliance for teachers and teaching assistants. Following the presentation, workshop participants will be given an opportunity to ask questions.  Please email Caryl Cohen at ccohen@nycchartercenter.org no later than July 10 with the specific date you are planning to attend.

   

 

Teacher Certification Workshops for Current and Prospective Teachers

August 9 (5pm-8pm) and August 14 (5pm - 8pm)

To assist charter schools to meet compliance with state and federal laws regarding certification, the Charter Center announces the Summer Certification Workshops for teachers and teaching assistants.  They will be held on Thursday, August 9 from 5-8pm and Tuesday, August 14 from 5-8pm.

 

Current and prospective uncertified teachers and teacher assistants, as well as teachers from out-of-state who need assistance with the New York State certification process, are encouraged to register for this workshop. The workshop will take place at the NYC Center for Charter School Excellence . 

 

• All workshop participants must show a photo ID to gain building access.

• All participants must bring student copies of complete undergraduate (and graduate) transcripts and any other related documents, such as proof of the Child Abuse Identification and Violence Prevention workshops, previous State Ed evaluations, etc.

• Those who possess certification from another state must bring a copy of their college transcripts as well as their out-of-state certificate.

• Each participant will be assigned a 30 minute time slot between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm to meet individually with a certification specialist who will recommend a personalized education plan leading to certification. A hard copy of this plan will be given to the participant.

• A list of participants from each school will be provided to the school leader for appropriate follow-up to ensure compliance with state and federal laws.

 

Please share this announcement with current and prospective hires and advise them that they need to register in advance by emailing Caryl Cohen no later than AUGUST 6. They must include the name of their charter school in the email. All questions should be directed to Caryl Cohen at ccohen@nycchartercenter.org.

 

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CENTER RESOURCES

Grants and Opportunities Listserv
The Center has recently created a new listserv to assist schools in applying for grants given around the New York Metropolitan area and other opportunities (including in-kind services). The listserv will announce grants and opportunities available to charter schools as well as assist schools in answering questions related to the grants process. To sign up, please visit the Grants section of our listserv Web site or e-mail Mark Crusante.

 

 

Documents Library: 

• Exit Survey Documents
• The templates for each category (Teachers, School Leaders, and Operation Specialists) are available for download in the Documents Library in a folder called "Exit Survey Templates." Each grouping of templates has a cover letter with both close-ended and open-ended components in order to give schools comprehensive human resources feedback.
• PART ONE: Please print or email the cover letter and Part One (close-ended portions) to staff members who are leaving or have left your charter school within the past year. The Center will provide those schools who have completed the surveys with a complete report including an overview, statistics and helpful information for recruitment and retention efforts.

The directions on each cover letter ask the participants to mail that letter and their Part One responses directly to:

NYC Center for Charter School Excellence

ATTN: CCOHENSURVEY

111 Broadway, Suite 604

New York NY 10006

• PART TWO: Part Two consists of open-ended questions for you to conduct with the survey participants face-to-face or by phone so that the information can assist you in future development of retention strategies.

 

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CURRENT EVENTS

 

 

Teacher Recruitment at DOE Job Fairs

The NYC Center for Charter School Excellence is co-sponsoring several DOE Job Fairs this summer. If you would like the opportunity to participate and meet prospective teaching candidates, please email Caryl Cohen at ccohen@nycchartercenter.org and indicate your preferred date and one alternate date of the fair you would like to attend. 

 

Please be advised that there will be five tables for charter schools per fair allowing for a maximum of 10 schools/EMOs/CMOs at each fair.  The school leader or designee will have ample opportunity to briefly meet candidates, schedule follow-up school visits, provide informational brochures about their school and collect resumes.  Due to space limitations, two schools will share one table (6' by 3') with one person representing each school.  EMOs and CMOs will be considered as one school and will represent all of their schools at their selected fair.

 

The Center will have a designated table in another area to collect resumes and distribute general information about charter schools.  Since availability is limited, please register now and provide a Job Fair contact for me to send specific details.  Please select your preferred and alternate dates from the following Job Fairs:

July 25        Bronx - Villa Barone Manor - all subject areas

August 7     Brooklyn Marriott - all subject areas

August 30   Brooklyn Marriott - all subject areas

 

 

BACK TO TOP

 

 

MISSION

 

The mission of the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence is to stimulate the supply of high-quality charter schools and support ongoing student excellence in all NYC charter schools, impacting the effectiveness of public education. As an independent nonprofit, the Charter Center is an advocate, bridge and catalyst for the achievement of academic and operational success and sustainability of all NYC charter schools for each young person.