Long Time, No Post

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me and conveniently a slow news time for charter schools.

Here's a couple of old links:

This piece from the Herald talks about charter school lottteries, which were held last week.

Scott Lehigh wrote an op-ed in support of President Obama's desire to lift the charter school cap in the Globe last week.

Six MA Charter Schools Rewarded for Achievement Gains

A short note from today's Globe.

"Six Massachusetts charter schools* were among 21 nationwide singled out for recognition yesterday by a national nonprofit that analyzes charter school achievement. The Effective Practice Incentive Community, or EPIC, grant program honored Community Day Charter Public School in Lawrence, Boston Preparatory Charter Public School in Hyde Park, Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Roxbury, Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester, MATCH Charter Public School in Boston, and Prospect Hill Academy Upper School in Cambridge. The organization will give individual principals, teachers, and instructional staff from the schools awards totaling an estimated $735,000. EPIC considered 144 schools for the award."

EPIC is a program of New Leaders for New Schools that distributes U.S. Department of Education TIF (Teacher Incentive Fund) money. TIF is the same Federal program that independently funds Edward W. Brooke Charter School's performance bonus program (which you can read more about here.)

According to the NLNS website, "EPIC award-winning schools are divided into two categories: Gold-gain schools have the highest gain; Silver-gain schools have the next highest gain. In 2009, EPIC is awarding 21 schools and distributing roughly $1.9 million in awards. Awards were based on student gains between the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years."

2008-2009
Gold-gain schools in MA: Boston Prep and MATCH
Silver-gain schools in MA: Boston Collegiate, Community Day, Prospect Hill, Roxbury Prep

(Other MA participatants: Smith Leadership, Berkshire Arts and Tech, North Central Charter Essential, and Salem Academy)

2007-2008
Gold-gain schools in MA: Roxbury Prep and MATCH
Silver-gain schools in MA: Boston Collegiate, Community Day, Smith Leadership

(Other MA participatants: North Central Charter Essential)

*While these schools were singled out for their performance, it is important to note that only 10 out of 54 MA charter schools participate in EPIC's National Charter School Consortium.

Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholars

The Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholars program just recently notified its 75 national 2008 scholarship recipients of their selection. A young woman at Kipp Lynn has been selected. Does anyone know if any other winners hail from the Greater Boston area?

Dorchester Collegiate Academy

Will DCA be allowed to open next year? There was some talk about the state not allowing new charters to open because of the economy. Does anyone out there know what's happening with this?

By the way, why is the naming thing so challenging in this city? In NYC, you have Williamsburg Collegiate, Kings Collegiate, etc. and they're all run by Brett Peiser as the "Collegiate" network of Uncommon Schools. This makes sense. In Boston, the schools that have at least some level of connection (Pacific Rim - Boston Prep; Boston Collegiate - Edward Brooke), don't have similar names. Meanwhile, schools that have similar names (Roxbury Prep - Boston Prep; Boston Collegiate - Dorchester Collegiate Academy - Excel Academy), have no relationships with each other.

I don't know how they chose their name, but Dorchester Collegiate Academy seems to have tried to get some cachet by copying parts of their name from previously existing, successful Boston charter schools. Or maybe they just liked the name...

Shovel-Ready Projects in Massachusetts

Recently, Massachusetts requested that various entities submit "shovel-ready" proposals for federal stimulus money. Charter schools have put together a number of proposals which, conveniently, are listed on the first 7 pages of this 120 page PDF.

Massachusetts is supposed to get about $1.2B in total; all entities statewide have requested $10B+ worth of funds. The total requested by charters is about $1B+, so it's clear all projects won't be funded. The state has stated that the most important criteria for funding these projects is how much of an impact the work will have on the economy. Will any consideration be given to how successful these schools are?

Many of the projects seem to fall into the "green" category. There are many window replacement and HVAC projects waiting to be funded. I wonder if these will get special attention because of President Obama's interest in making our country more energy efficient.

I've seen some complaints out in the blogosphere complaining that district schools are not nearly as well represented in the list of proposals. Perhaps this is because districts have the ability to float bonds and access other streams of building funds from the state that charters are precluded from accessing.

A couple of major Boston charter school building developments in the works according to the project descriptions. If these come through, you can add them to Boston Collegiate's purchase of a building in January.

• Excel Academy is pursuing the acquisition and renovation of a former Catholic school building in East Boston. Total cost of purchase and renovation is estimated to be approximately $7.25 million. Renovation of the site will require replacing the electrical system and wiring, wire classrooms for internet, installing bathrooms on every floor, updating interior lighting, upgrading heating/ventilation system and insulation, installing an elevator, and upgrading security and sprinkler systems. Total renovation costs are estimated at $5.5 million.
  
• The Codman Education and Health Center project will build a 30,00 sq. ft. green addition on to the Codman Square Health Center building at 637 Washington St., Dorchester. The project will create space for Codman Academy Charter Public School and Codman Square Health Center, as well as community space. The project will allow for the expansion of the Codman Academy/Codman Square Health Center health professions training program, which introduces high school student to health profession through interships/ mentorship programs. Space created will also be used for community development purposes for art and adult education programs for residents of the community. (Cost: $11M)

• Dorchester Collegiate Academy is in the process of securing a permanent location by April 2009. Our current options will require significant facilities renovation: 1) bringing the facility intocompliance with fire, health, and safety codes and 2) modifications to make the facility ADA compliant. This includes having proper egresses, proper lighting, and proper alarm systems, compliant bathrooms and proper accessibility from the building exterior and to all internal activity spaces. (Cost: $250K)

• The Boston Renaissance Charter Public School proposes to relocate their entire K-6 grade school from their current 15 story building on Stuart Street in the Back Bay to a more spacious 6 acre site in Hyde Park, MA which will have a capacity of 880 students. The new location will enable the diverse school to provide a more appropriate campus setting with greater space and enhanced amenities, including outdoor play areas, that is more centrally located to the majority of students. (Cost: $33M)

Katherine Merseth on Uphams Corner

There's a letter to the editor in today's Globe from Professor Katherine Merseth. Professor Merseth, of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, recently performed did a study of successful Massachusetts charter schools. She discusses her research here.