In 2012, more than 73,692 students will drop out of high school based on Texas A&M projections. These dropouts will cost Texas up to $10.7 billion over their lifetimes.  As a state, we cannot afford these costs or continue to ignore the dropout crisis.

To combat this crisis, seven charter districts in Texas have opened schools dedicated to helping students that have dropped out of traditional public schools or are at risk of dropping out.

In 1999, ResponsiveEd began opening Premier High Schools to help students who are pregnant, homeless, addicted to drugs or work full-time.  For many students, Premier High School is their last chance to get a diploma.

In the last 12 years, more than 5,000 Premier students have earned a high school diploma.  We are proud of these graduates. And, we want to do more.

However, Texas unintentionally penalizes Premier High School and other dropout recovery charter schools for educating these students.

On Tuesday, the Texas House Public Education Committee debated HB 1311 by Rep. Mark Shelton. The bill would eliminate many disincentives that prevent Premier High Schools from serving a larger number of dropouts.

Rep. Shelton’s bill creates a separate designation for “Dropout Reduction Charter High Schools,” that will allow schools, which have proven themselves academically successful and fiscally accountable to expand.

This bill is desperately needed. For many years, legislative and media discussions have focused on early-intervention, such as a focus on retaining middle school students, to prevent dropouts.  While this effort is admirable, we cannot afford to abandon those who have already dropped out and wish to re-engage and return to school.

HB 1311 will allow ResponsiveEd to open more high-quality Premier High School campuses across the state.

Charles Cook, Chief Executive Officer, Responsive Education Solutions

There was excitement in the air as parents, teachers, students and community members trickled into Love Park gym across the street from Houston Heights High School on September 14th.

With the TCSA grassroots campaign off and running in other regions, it was great to see Communities United for Charter Schools kickoff grassroots advocacy in the Houston area.

Ryan Martinez, our new Houston Regional Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator, rolled up his sleeves and got to work on his first official day with TCSA. It is a running joke that TCSA staff often hit the ground running. Ryan found that this tradition lives on.

The room began to fill up with a great mix of charter school supporters representing the broad spectrum of charter school missions. We called the event to order by featuring passionate testimonials from a great Houston Heights High School student and a dedicated Harmony parent. Hearing stories of students and parents who refuse to accept anything other than the best education for their children is motivating and energizing to me.

Our discussion and Q & A session touched on relevant issues such as funding, lifting the cap, and academic results. They went on to talk amongst themselves about how they could make an impact on building support for their schools. I listened intently as teachers from Houston Gateway Academy voiced their concerns on how critical it is for us to work together to tell our stories to our communities.
As we closed the event, I surveyed the room for empty seats. I found that participants had not ‘fled scene’– as often is common at most afternoon community events. In fact, parents, students and teachers lingered to meet TCSA staff, ask more questions and offer their schools & staff support for upcoming activities.

If this event was a sign of TCSA can expect as we continue our grassroots advocacy campaign, we are in for a great year!

Jennifer D Limas
Director of Grassroots Advocacy, TCSA

• 
  By Jeffrey D. Flores
  Superintendent/Principal
  Henry Ford Academy: Alameda School for Art + Design

San Antonio’s Henry Ford Academy: Alameda School for Art + Design was one of a number of educational organizations from across the U.S. that came together to explore promising collaborations last week at the National Best Cooperative Practices Between Charter and Traditional Public Schools Conference in Columbus, OH.  The two-day conference was sponsored by The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, with support from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Across the country, public charter schools face the challenge of finding quality facilities, while urban school districts have facilities that stand vacant. At the same time, many urban school districts seek innovative programs that help students develop 21st century skills, such as innovation and creativity.  We were thrilled to be invited to showcase our partnership with San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) in both general and breakout sessions at the conference. Through our innovative partnership, HFA: Alameda School leases a portion of an instructional facility, James Bowie School, from SAISD — but there are a number of goals that take this beyond a traditional landlord/lessee agreement and into the realm of a cooperative practice.  Together, we are:

By leveraging existing resources, such as unused facilities, innovative curricula and professional development opportunities, HFA: Alameda School and SAISD are working together to advance public education for all students in the district, whether they go to a public charter or traditional public school.

We look forward to sharing more details with you at the Texas Charter Schools Association Conference this November.  In the meantime, if you have questions, please feel free to contact me via email.

By Melody Chalkley, TCSA Advocacy Chairperson

In this session, Texas legislators are facing some intense challenge in the realm of charter education.  Budget shortfalls, high dropout rates, and finding effective solutions for special needs students are just a few.

Over this past year, the Texas Charter Schools Association (TCSA) has built an unprecedented consensus around an advocacy agenda that will address the interests of all types of charter schools and that will seek to offer solutions to some of these challenges.

This year’s advocacy plan was developed by members of the Association’s Advocacy Committee; it was adopted as presented in a July 28^th meeting of the full TCSA membership.

Work on the agenda began almost a year ago, as charter holders responded to the Association’s survey of needs and committees were formed to develop solutions.

• Equity in Funding for All Students

One of our biggest priorities is equity of funding.  Public schools in Texas receive dedicated funds for facilities while public charter schools do not.  On average, charter schools receive $1200 less per student than traditional public schools and are often forced to spend money that could be used for compensating teachers or improving instruction on facilities. Since we are held to the same standards, we should receive the same funds that other schoolchildren in Texas receive.

• State Measurements Should Match the Mission

It is the mission of the majority of Texas charter schools to reach students at risk of dropping out of school. By design, many of these schools accept higher numbers of special education students, students with severe learning gaps, and students who are facing the reality of dropping out of school for the second, third, or fourth time.  Receiving lower ratings as a result of serving difficult populations is an annual reality.   In view of this, finding a way to measure charters in accordance with their mission is critical so that schools for special populations of students can develop and grow without fear and with freedom to innovate.

• Lift the Current Cap on Charters

Many parents do not have the choice of enrolling their student in a charter school because there simply isn’t one in their neighborhood.  Waiting lists at many charters exceed the number of seats available in their schools. Allowing more charters to be granted will provide a choice for more Texas students; too many charters have seen success in Texas to justify limiting their expansion.

• A Strong, United Charter Movement

Early pioneers of the movement struggled without resources to create an effective association.  Now, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates and Walton Foundations, the Texas Charter Schools Association has successfully united the voices of charter education so that all of Texas’ charter schools can work together to make strides during this legislative session.  As a strong, united movement, I feel sure that we will see these legislative priorities become legislative realities this year.

City Center Health Careers, one of our member schools, serves San Antonio students who are interested in preparing for careers in the health care industry. Their mission is twofold: to increase the graduation rate in Bexar County and to prepare graduates for post-secondary leadership in health care. Thank you, CHCC, for sharing your founding story and your success with Charting Success!  To our members and readers, what set apart your school’s first year?  What things helped you get through to make you successful in Year One? We would love to hear your comments.

________

Many people underestimate the power of positive thought, strong action, and collaborative effort, but ask any person with a vision – an idea so tremendous that they can see it – and they will tell you that it takes all three of those things, and then some, to see it through. This is how City Center Health Careers (CCHC) began.

The board members of Beacon Academies knew that they wanted to hire a leader with a vision that would foster strong academics and involve all stakeholders; however, they couldn’t have predicted the school that would be created when they found the right principal to take the lead.

In April of 2009, CCHC hired an educator with a vision as their leader. Mrs. Sherry Head knew that collaboration was the key to carrying out her vision for the school, and her first task was to find and secure a staff that would share her vision, join her positive efforts, and take strong action.

It was evident to the parents from early on that our school was going to be different. We didn’t have the 200,000 plus square feet that many new schools enjoy in San Antonio, but what makes a school great anyway? Is it the metal and walls that surround it, or the enthusiasm and passion of the teachers and students inside? Shiny new buildings and state of the art equipment soon lose their luster and newness. At CCHC, that newness is built in the learning environments of the classrooms.

With collaborative effort, the school was equipped to serve any student with even the slightest desire to do better for themselves. CCHC accepted students from all over the greater San Antonio area, regardless of their background, as long as they at least had that tiny spark. With many students, that tiny spark became a camp fire by the end of the year. We know our school will stoke into a roaring blaze by the time the students graduate because it is full of people with passion. It is a working, living organism where transformations are taking place, standards are being raised, and learning is always at the core.

CCHC has taken multiple field trips, hosted many activities, and found every way possible within a year to increase the academic motivation of its students.

When we managed to take a full campus on a co-curricular field trip that lasted 20 hours without incident, we knew we had been successful. When we learned that a student needed financial help to attend a prestigious medical forum during the summer, and other students from all age groups helped raise that money, we knew we had been successful. When at the end of the first year our enrollment was 20% higher than the day we opened, we knew we had been successful. When on the last day of school, we cried tears (from the students, mind you) as the last bell rang and everyone began to leave, we knew the success was only just beginning.

Welcome to City Center Health Careers: the start of something BIG!

- Julian Castillo, Middle School Math and Theater teacher 

- Elena Samkin, English, Social Studies, and Journaliam teacher

A few weeks ago, elected officials, educators, researchers, teachers, students, and parents discuss the state of special education in Texas before the Senate Education Committee.  I attended the hearing, and it was inspiring, compelling, heartbreaking, and invigorating all at once. It’s overwhelming to see the depth of passion that educators and parents in Texas have for students who have special needs.

The TSCA had representatives from three of our member schools on hand to provide public testimony.  They waited through five hours of testimony to share their important messages.  Talk about commitment to charter education!

-          Dr. Laura Middleton, the Chief Academic Officer of Focus Learning Academy, testified about the unique struggles Focus Learning Academy faces as a charter school with a particular mission of serving special education students.  She discussed the challenges inherent in being held accountable to a monitoring system that doesn’t take into account the unique charter mission and student population. 

-          Dr. Tom Wilson, Founder of Life Schools, spoke about his experience with his grandson, who has Autism Spectrum Disorder and who is a student at one of the Life Schools campuses.  He shared his grandson’s positive developmental and academic progress as a result of being a Life Schools student and the best practices from his school district that he feels have most aided growth.

-          In her testimony, Dr. Cheryl Washington, the Founder/CEO of Shekinah Learning Institute, expressed her gratitude to everyone in the room for the productive dialogue and emphasized the effectiveness of Shekinah Learning Institute’s inclusion program, which features data-driven monitoring of student progress every three weeks and heavy parent involvement at all levels. 

Before public testimony, five panels of experts from various state and national organizations testified, with charter schools, specifically those with a core mission to serve students with disabilities, strongly represented in the first panel.

I wanted to share some of the things that were said because I felt that they represent excellent best practices for charter schools focused on serving students with special needs.

Lauren Morando Rhim, President of LMR Consulting and co-author of Unique Schools Serving Unique Students: Charter Schools Serving Students with Special Needs, made the point that charter schools present an opportunity to rethink education for SPED students.

“As we looked at these six schools, we were able to identify several factors that emerged at each school that we believe contributed to their success.  First, and overwhelmingly, the leadership and teachers at our six case-study charter schools demonstrated a commitment to inclusion.  In addition, the schools’ staff viewed IDEA as a starting point from which to build on, not just something to comply with.  Across the board there was strong support for teachers’ professional development, a normalization of individualization, and a very purposeful culture of respect.  It was “family” oriented, and there was no tolerance for teasing or disrespect at any of the schools,” Rhim said. 

Rhim also explained that the environment in Texas was less restrictive regarding the creation of SPED-dedicated charter schools because some states strictly forbid them, and Texas does not.

After Rhim’s testimony, Ilene Lainer, Founder and Board Member for the New York Center for Autism Charter School, provided a description of the charter school she founded in Harlem that is devoted specifically to students with ASD.  The New York Center for Autism Charter School’s students are entered by a lottery that is specific to students with moderate, moderate to severe, and severe cases of ASD.

By borrowing space inside a Harlem public school, the charter school is able to provide its students with access to typically developing peers through a peer mentoring program that, according to Lainer, the high school students clamor to be a part of.  They spend a semester learning about and researching ASD, present their findings to their typically developing classmates, and subsequently earn a place as a tutor inside the charter school’s halls.      

“We use an evidence-based model with good behavioral intervention.  We discretely teach what they need to learn and track their progress weekly.  Each student’s education plan is modified by his or her teachers on a weekly basis,” Lainer explained.

Lainer also cited strong family involvement, home visits, partnerships with local universities, highly qualified teachers and a commitment to continuing the education of the faculty as necessary ingredients for success.

The Senate Education Committee was able to hear about some amazing things that charter schools across the country are doing to serve students with disabilities, and I hope they will look at charter schools like the New York Center for Autism Charter School as models of how to effectively serve special education students. 

Do you know of any schools that are doing amazing things for students with autism or other special needs?  Please comment and tell us about them!  We want to hear about the best practices out there that didn’t necessarily get air time at this particular hearing.

- Lindsey Windham

I was proud to represent Texas charter schools before the Texas Education Agency last Friday. TEA invited me to speak on behalf of the Texas Charter Schools Association about the Agency’s Performance Based Management Analysis System (PMBAS).  I was at TEA headquarters, along with nine dynamic charter school leaders who traveled to Austin from their respective school locations in Lewisville, Austin, Lubbock, Richardson, Irving, Dallas, San Antonio, and Greenville.  Each one of us had thoughtfully prepared ideas for improvements to PBMAS.  We each took our turn, sharing hard facts about the successes of students in open-enrollment charter schools, and urging the Agency to adjust certain PBMAS standards and filters to accurately measure student success and improvement, particularly for charter schools in the alternative accountability system. One dropout recovery high school shared that they had graduated over 500 students, but only got credit in the current PBMAS system for 200 of those students.

Unfortunately, the Agency was not there to hear us.  Even though the Agency had invited TCSA to provide testimony and had published the PBMAS hearing in the Texas Register presumably to invite members of the public, we left feeling like no one listened. The Agency sent an announcer and a recorder.  The announcer opened the hearing and kept watch on each speaker’s three-minute time clock.

The live PMBAS hearing took only 45 minutes. Surely someone in a policymaking role at the Agency could have spared this time.  At a minimum, an Agency leader should have walked into the hearing room to shake our hands, to look us in the eye, to thank the charter operators for their hard work on behalf of the students in their care, and to welcome us into the dialogue for improving PBMAS and for curbing the staggering high school dropout rate in our state.

Charter school operators were there—ready to dialogue, ready to shape public policy for the benefit Texas’ students and for Texas’ future and ready to propose constructive solutions.  Charters school leaders cannot help to shape and improve public education in Texas if the lead conversation partner is missing.  We live and we learn; we will keep marching forward for meaningful education improvements.

- Denise Pierce