tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71541179230173395552024-03-13T13:29:17.201-07:00Listening Education Schooljonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-35548854047349768762012-06-09T14:16:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.028-07:00National Charter School Conference, June 19-22The annual National Charter School Conference will be in Minneapolis this year and starts June 19th. Bill Cosby will be one of the keynote speakers. Additionally, Dr. Deborah Kenney, founder of the Harlem Village Academies will speak about her new book, "Born to Rise."I will be attending the conference and be blogging and tweeting. You can follow me on Twitter @cocharters.jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-43942706487651229232012-06-04T07:34:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.028-07:00How to Write a Grant Application: Advice, Part 5There are some things about writing grant applications that are universal for any type of grant application. I've both administered a federal grant program and also reviewed federal and state grants on a number of occasions. Some applicants know how to tell their story, including the use of data, and others make the reviewer wonder if they even read the instructions. Thus, here are a few tips:jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-33636996428206965632012-05-24T07:44:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.028-07:00New LookAfter a few years of using the same look for my blog, I decided it was time for an update. Hope you like the new look!jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-63911582028451795062012-05-23T12:48:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.028-07:00U.S. News & World Report: Best High SchoolsThe U.S. News and World Report came out with their rankings of the best high schools.Four of the top ten high schools in Colorado are charter schools: Peak to Peak Charter School, Ridgeview Classical Schools, The Classical Academy and The Vanguard School. Congratulations to each of these fine schools!jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-20543018863341455442012-05-22T09:06:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.028-07:00Peak to Peak is #1 in Colorado and #29 in the Nation!Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette is the best high school in Colorado according to Newsweek's ranking system this year. No other Colorado high school made it in to the top 100 nationwide, but Peak to Peak came in at #29!One might consider this old hat for the people from Peak to Peak who every year get ranked among the best in the nation by various measures. Believe me, they're very happy jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-23302980754700934042012-05-22T08:26:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.028-07:00Put the School First: Advice, Part 4I've seen it hundreds of times and it never quits! People who step into leadership at a charter school to satisfy their own personal agendas or bolster their egos. Worst of all, in almost every situation, it's the students that lose.These are the people who get on a governing board and immediately start making significant changes to the charter school in order to put their mark on it. Or the jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-34813127810638172912012-05-18T09:26:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.028-07:00Use Data: Advice,Part 3Data should drive everything in a school. Too often school leaders react to a comment or a small group of parents who are complaining about something when they make decisions. Instead, facts should drive decision making.The governing board should use a "data dashboard" to monitor the key indicators they watch to determine if the school is on track and performance is at the level they expect. Thisjonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-86026301011989414152012-05-09T07:20:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.029-07:00Principal Reports to the Board: Advice, Part 2Principals should provide a written report for the board at each regular board meeting, usually once a month. In between those regular reports, the Principal may choose to email the board with important information that needs to be provided in a timely manner.The written Principal's report should be brief, not more than a page or two, and focus on board level information. Delving in to too much jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-37626284444675549872012-05-08T07:46:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.029-07:00Selecting a Charter School Attorney: Advice, Part 1When I'm visiting charter schools I often get asked for advice. This includes everything from how to handle a particular situation, where to find specific information or how to improve school governance. There are some things I regularly repeat such as get good legal counsel with charter school experience. It's important to find an attorney with knowledge about education laws and charter schools jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-50815490450673847842012-04-25T07:47:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.029-07:00Green SchoolsThe U.S. Department of Education recently announced their first Green Schools awards. Seventy-eight public schools were honored for their environmental impact, sustainability and "innovative school reforms."It should be noted that the presumably now-healthy students in these Green Schools could be destined for a life of low achievement, underemployment and possibly even incarceration, but will jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-68226665857781089562012-04-17T18:25:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.029-07:00What's a Million Dollars?The current version of the School Finance Act, HB 1345, has an additional million dollars for charter school capital construction. The base of $5 million was all that was left in 2004 when a new administration cut funding previously added by then-Governor Bill Owens, the original Senate sponsor of the state's Charter Schools Act.After all these years of the funding being whittled away by an jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-61463569898517283002012-04-09T08:23:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.029-07:00New America School Expands In New MexicoColorado-based New America Schools is opening a new charter school in Las Cruces, New Mexico in the fall. The school, which targets new immigrants and at-risk youth, operates schools in Lakewood, Thornton and Aurora. There is already a New America School in Albuquerque, making the Las Cruces site the second in the state.jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-722075304472016712012-04-03T08:49:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.029-07:00Charter School Management Organizations in ColoradoThe Colorado Charter Schools Act (C.R.S. 22-30.5 et seq) doesn't specify what type of an entity can be party to a charter school contract. Although it's never happened in the state, a for-profit company would be permitted to charter with a school district authorizer.SB12-067 requires that only nonprofits can charter. This could either be a founding board that has incorporated in order to start a jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-31323688538696345522012-03-26T08:57:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.030-07:00Slow and Steady Still Wins the RaceWhile reading a very interesting blog post by Robert Pondisco at the Core Knowledge site, a portion of the text struck me as being all too true! He writes that the greatest casualty of the education reform era has been patience. In the race to raise test scores and demonstrate growth, some educators have pushed students too hard or skipped some of the essential skills that are necessary for jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-12947196151770347542012-03-23T07:58:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.030-07:00Charter School Appeals in ColoradoI've been going through the list of charter school appeals to the State Board of Education and came across some interesting findings. First, Denver Public Schools (DPS) has the most appeal cases with 19. To put that into context, Jeffco has 17, Aurora seven, and Adams 12 five. This is out of 132 appeal cases.Second, there were two years, 1994 and 2006, when there were the highest number of jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-43686323280412739662012-03-13T08:51:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.030-07:00DPS Gives Green Light to Two Charter Schools After Appeals to the State BoardThe Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education voted 4-3 to let Monarch Montessori open this fall after every board member expressed their distaste for the State Board of Education ruling against them at the February charter school appeal hearings. The board met in Executive Session for almost an hour before coming out and receiving public comment on the appeal remands and then voting.Monarchjonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-7643251799888067212012-03-11T08:41:00.000-07:002012-06-09T16:55:25.030-07:00Peak to Peak Job Fair 2012Peak to Peak Charter School held its annual Charter School Job Fair on Saturday with over 800 participants and 37 charter schools. As usual, the job fair ran very smoothly with a host of volunteers from Peak to Peak taking care of everything from meals to water bottle distribution. The job fair, the only one of its kind in Colorado, is THE place to learn about openings in the state's charter jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-53986630261893206022012-03-08T07:40:00.000-08:002012-06-09T16:55:25.030-07:00Life Skills of Denver Loses Appeal to StateYesterday the State Board of Education on a split vote, 4-3, decided to affirm the Denver Public Schools' refusal to renew the contract for Life Skills of Denver. Life Skills serves 100% at-risk students qualifying for an Alternative Education Campus (AEC) designation. There are 160 students in Life Skills at present and the average student has attended 5 other schools before choosing Life jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-27582194554175547632012-02-20T14:16:00.000-08:002012-06-09T16:55:25.030-07:00Why You Should Join a Charter School BoardThere aren't enough good charter school board members out there! Repeatedly, I hear stories from charter schools that don't get enough candidates for open board positions and there are also endless stories about board members who have ulterior motives.Being on a charter school governing board is difficult, especially if you're a parent of a student in the school. That means you'll have to jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-72427329563309185712012-02-10T20:06:00.000-08:002012-06-09T16:55:25.030-07:00Monarch Montessori Wins AppealThe founders of Monarch Montessori won their appeal before the State Board of Education on a 6 to 1 vote. Only Elaine Gantz Berman, from Denver, voted against the charter school. Monarch Montessori applied for a charter from Denver Public Schools and were denied.Monarch Montessori is also a private preschool that's been in operation for two years. Now they want to add an elementary school as a jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-7356543425472907362012-02-09T12:25:00.000-08:002012-06-09T16:55:25.031-07:00State Board Hears Northeast Academy Charter School AppealCiting that Denver Public Schools (DPS) didn't have the authority to take away Kindergarten and sixth grade during the 2012-13 school year, Northeast Academy Charter School (NACS) appealed to the State Board of Education yesterday. The board backed the charter school on a 4-3 vote.DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg took the unusual position of arguing the district's case before the State Board. He jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-52634119669767476622012-01-25T07:24:00.000-08:002012-06-09T16:55:25.031-07:00New Legislation Proposed for Charter SchoolsThere are two bills this session that have already been introduced that will impact charter schools. They are SB 61, sponsored by Sen. Keith King and Rep. Tom Massey, concerning charter school authorizing. The other is Sb 67, by Sen. Evie Hudak and Rep. Chris Holbert, regarding the corporate status of charter schools.SB 61 would add to the list of charter school application components, which jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-59658715548673690812012-01-24T18:18:00.000-08:002012-06-09T16:55:25.031-07:00Prospect Ridge Academy's Grand OpeningIt was just six months ago when I wrote about Prospect Ridge Academy breaking ground on their new facility in Broomfield. Today was their first day in their new building! The celebration was even more sweet after spending the last six months in a temporary facility, a significant distance from the current school location.Principal April Wilkin used a megaphone to speak to the hundreds of parents jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-31228904975065728562012-01-18T07:56:00.000-08:002012-06-09T16:55:25.031-07:00Tim Tebow's EducationA small percentage of the nation's students are home schooled. An even smaller percentage of those were home schooled Kindergarten through 12th grade. But, widely popular Broncos football quarterback, Tim Tebow, was one of the small percentage of students who were home schooled throughout elementary, middle and high school.As reported by the Washington Post, Tim Tebow and all his siblings were jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154117923017339555.post-88603169226142950732012-01-15T07:39:00.000-08:002012-06-09T16:55:25.031-07:00Life Skills of Denver GraduationOn Friday evening I attended the Life Skills of Denver graduation for ten students who otherwise may not have earned their high school diploma. Life Skills enrolls students, many who have dropped out of 5-6 other schools before enrolling at Life Skills, who are dealing with pressing life issues and have not been successful in other environments.At graduation ceremonies, the graduating Seniors, jonatanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353221229629108025noreply@blogger.com0