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  Writers Webinar 3 Education
Section Mary Carmichael, Executive
Director Mary.Carmichael_at_SCCharterSchools.org
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Steps in Developing a Charter School
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• What are the needs
• in your community?

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• How does your proposed public charter school
  bring a high quality solution to the table to
  address those needs?

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• How will you know you are advancing your mission
  meeting needs in your community and creating
  impact?

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Education Section Move from Vision to How

• What does the first day of school look like?
• What does the school look like at year 5?
• What are the students accomplishing?
• Articulate how this school is going to create
  change in the lives of children.

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Remember the PURPOSE OF THE SC CHARTER SCHOOL
ACT

• Purpose.

•  
• This chapter is enacted to
• (1) improve student learning
• (2) increase learning opportunities for students
  
• (3) encourage the use of a variety of productive
  teaching methods
• (4) establish new forms of accountability for
  schools
• (5) create new professional opportunities for
  teachers, including the opportunity to be
  responsible for the learning program at the
  school site and
• (6) assist South Carolina in reaching academic
  excellence.

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Educational Program

• Goals, Objectives, Pupil Achievement Standards,
  and Curriculum
• This is the bulk of your writing.
• This needs to be research based and documented
  with resources just like a research paper.
• This is the piece you want to sell other
  supporters in your community on.
• Do you have an Education Committee for your
  planning group? Professors, educators,
  curriculum specialists, etcThey need to be
  meeting on this section.
• Keep track of all of the resources your are
  using. Develop a system for saving files, scanned
  copies, copy and pasting, etc
• Keep notes on who you are talking to and what
  they recommend Are they a well respected expert
  on your unique focus. Quote them in your
  application stating the need for this in your
  area of the state.

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Create Cultural Consistency

• Target student population
• Curriculum
• Instructional strategies
• Big picture long term overarching goals with
  measurable short term objectives!
• Culture Values and Beliefs
• This will be the cookbook
• for the staff and faculty to implement your
  vision.

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From Regs(D) Educational Program, Goals,
Objectives, Pupil Achievement Standards, and
Curriculum

• The charter school's educational program, goals,
  objectives, pupil achievement standards, and
  curriculum must be clearly described in the
  application and must meet or exceed any student
  academic standards adopted by the school district
  in which the charter school is located. The
  application must demonstrate that the educational
  program is designed to enable each student to
  achieve these standards.

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From Regs(D) Educational Program, Goals,
Objectives, Pupil Achievement Standards, and
Curriculum

• (1) The goals and objectives must be clearly
  stated and must provide enough detail to indicate
  specific outcomes.
• (3) The educational goals must reflect the
  school's mission statement.
• (4) Strategies to accomplish the educational
  goals must be included.

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From Regs(D) Educational Program, Goals,
Objectives, Pupil Achievement Standards, and
Curriculum

• (2) The student population must be identified by
  grade level, unique educational needs, and
  projected enrollment. A converted charter school
  must offer the same grades, or nongraded
  education appropriate for the same ages and
  education levels of pupils, as offered by the
  school immediately before conversion and may also
  provide additional grades and further educational
  offerings.

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• (5) The school calendar must be at least 180
  instructional days.
• (6) Academic standards must identify what
  students will achieve at each grade level and
  must meet or exceed the South Carolina curriculum
  standards, as adopted by the State Board of
  Education. A correlation or other documentation
  must be included or process identified to ensure
  that the school will provide an instructional
  program that meets or exceeds the academic
  standards.  
• (7) If the charter school plans to offer the
  South Carolina State High School Diploma, the
  application must set forth the method for meeting
  the state requirements for the High School
  Diploma, including, but not limited to, course
  unit requirements, seat time for Carnegie Units,
  as applicable, and passage of the required
  examinations.

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From Regs(D) Educational Program, Goals,
Objectives, Pupil Achievement Standards, and
Curriculum

• (9) The application must include an explanation
  as to how the school will comply with the
  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,
  Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the
  Americans with Disabilities Act.

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From Regs(D) Educational Program, Goals,
Objectives, Pupil Achievement Standards, and
Curriculum

• (8) Provisions must be included for determining
  if all students are achieving or attaining the
  standards, including the methods by which student
  performance information will be gathered and
  monitored.  
• (E) Student Assessment
• The application must include a description of the
  charter school's plan for evaluating pupil
  achievement and progress toward accomplishment of
  the school's achievement standards . The school's
  evaluation plan must include state-mandated
  assessments and other assessments as well as the
  timeline for meeting these standards and the
  procedures to be taken if pupil achievement falls
  below the standards.
• (1) Methods for evaluating pupil achievement at
  each grade level must be specified. These methods
  must include but should not be limited to the
  state assessments.
• (2) The timeline must identify the expected
  yearly progress toward meeting the school's
  long-term performance goals.  The expected yearly
  progress must meet or exceed the expectation of
  adequate yearly progress as established in the No
  Child Left Behind Act.
• (3) Provisions must be included to address the
  needs of students who do not perform at
  acceptable levels of proficiency in the statewide
  assessment program.

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Goals, Objectives, and Strategies

• Mission
• Goal 1 Goal 2 Goal 3
• Objective 1.1 Objective 2.1 Objective 3.1
• Objective 1.1 Objective 2.1 Objective 3.1
• Objective 1.1 Objective 3.1
• Strategies
• to reach these goals and objectives
• may be tied to each objective or all of them.

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Objectives are tied with the Assessment Section

• How you are going to collect and analyze this
  data. How much of your budget will this cost?
  Most of you are not social scientists and funders
  actually do recognize thatthink
• Your objectives are tools to help you measure
  your progress towards your goals and ultimately
  your organizations mission. They are your
  bragging rights design objectives that work for
  your individual organization

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Student Assessment

• This is where you demonstrate how your goals and
  objectives will be measured.
• Spend real time investigating how you want to
  measure student achievement at your school. This
  is not a section you want to copy and paste from
  someone else.
• Will you use both standardized tests and
  authentic forms of assessment?
• NCLB PLAN http//ed.sc.gov/agency/accountability
  /Federal-and-State-Accountability/old/fp/title_i/d
  ocuments/SouthCarolinaAccountabilityPlan.doc
• Make sure this section aligns with the rest of
  your application and your budget.

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Academic AssistanceHow are you going to meet the
needs of all students?

• Detail the procedures to identify,
  diagnose/assess, and address the needs of
  students who do not perform at acceptable levels
  of proficiency in the statewide assessment
  program.
• Describe how the school will define acceptable,
  which data sources will be examined to determine
  when students have not met an acceptable
  standard, and what strategies will be used to
  remediate those students not meeting acceptable
  standards.

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Alignment in Application
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Next steps -Formulate a Road Map stick to
deadlines to get a 200 to 400 page document
turned in by May 2012.

• Make a comprehensive list with who and when

• Who is going to help get this done?

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Who is my sponsor?

• You can be sponsored by a local school district
  or the SC Public Charter School District.

Public Charter School Alliance of SC
SC Dept of Education
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Framework for Success
Governance
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PCSASC Charter Incubator

• Supports High Capacity Planning Groups and Future
  School Leaders in Developing a High Performing
  Public Charter School.
• Tailored to meet the unique needs of each group.
• Priorities will be given to areas of the greatest
  needs and to groups with the capacity to create
  real and lasting change in their community.

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Questions You Have

• Mary.carmichael_at_sccharterschools.org
• Remember, Charter Schools
• are public schools.
• are free.
• do not have admissions tests or other barriers
  to entrance.
• are financially accountable non-profit
  corporations.
• have autonomy from their school district.
• bring innovation and resources into the
  classroom where they belong.