Aspire must open enough schools in undeserved neighborhoods to provide real choices for families and demonstrate superior academic achievement in these schools. Aspire’s “Theory of Action” describes the activities required to achieve this direct impact in Aspire’s targeted communities.Then, Aspire must leverage its success to improve student achievement for all students in California. This impact would be indirect, but broader. The “Theory of Change” describes how Aspire plans to translate its direct impact into systemic change.
In each of these geographies, Aspire must: 1) Cultivate a positive environment for starting Aspire schools by building relationships with local districts, improving the legislative environment for charter schools, and working with others to solve systemic obstacles to charter growth. 2) Create community demand for Aspire schools, by educating and informing parents, students, and community leaders about charters, the power of choice, and Aspire. 3) Deliver consistently superior results in those schools, by attracting and developing talented educators, ensuring that the education design is effective, and using data well. 4) Provide appropriate support for schools from the home office, by providing administrative and
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First, Aspire seeks to create district change within its selected geographies, by influencing, modeling or pressuring change. District change is the primary focus of Aspire’s work. In addition, Aspire seeks to build capacity among other educators, charters, and CMOs, which collectively will create a statewide network of high performing schools. Finally, Aspire will advocate for changes in educational policies, practices and institutions in California. Together, these three activities will create the changes necessary for improved achievement for all California
Public education has had a negative effect on students; it’s often because of the bigger class sizes, poor test scores, and high crime in the surrounding areas. Public schools need to revise their system to determine what’s the best fit for their student’s educational needs. All children who live in a school district have a right to attend a district school. Many parents would like more options and opportunities for their child, and would like to be involved in their child’s education. Charter schools are part of the answer for a better educational choice for children’s academic achievement. Charter schools have many successful methods and continue to pave the way for children’s education needs .
Open to all children, free of tuition, and does not have special entrance requirements, charter schools believe that children should have the opportunity to achieve at a high level. When creating charter schools, they focused on a desire to create greater flexibility for innovation within public education. It was hoped that successful innovations could be adapted to benefit public education more broadly. (NEA, 2017). Charter schools also, foster partnership between parents, teachers, and students in hopes of creating an environment in which parents can be more involved, teachers are allowed to innovate, and students are provided with structure they need to learn.
Furthermore, focus is critical to the student’s ability to succeed and the charter’s ability to educate its students. With special attention, the school can demonstrate a comprehensive strategy stressing a field of study, such as technical or artistic disciplines. In this way, getting students ready for the real world, gears them up for college, sets them up for continued success. "The charter schools' superiority was greater in states where they had been in existence longer and enrolled more students." ("The Charter Advantage," 2005) A school’s assertive actions can weed out teachers who are not performing adequately. Teachers must be able to teach in a way (not necessarily mainstream) that instructs, inspires, and motivates students to excel. Charter schools have the ability to do that. Students may not have the same abilities or interests, but the teacher must allow the student’s
We have to provide multiple opportunities for students to grow and learn. We need to be a culturally diverse school district that accepts everyone and encourages a pluralistic culture. We need to work together with our
Charter schools are unique public schools that is allowed the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. These charter schools are not private schools, they do not charge for tuition and they are open to all children within specific boundaries. Research has demonstrated that charter schools make picks up in the urban community with students who have veritably been undeserved by traditional state funded schools. Charter schools outscored their traditional school peers in 25 of the 41 cities in math, and 23 of the 42 cities in reading. On average, charter schools had no significant impacts on student’s achievement. Charter schools help enhance student learning, empower the utilization of new and imaginative educating strategies, and give schools an approach to move from a lead based to an execution based arrangement of responsibility. Public schools are like charter schools except for the freedom that a charter school has. And private school is based on tuition and that is funded by charities and tax holders in that community.
The first day of school is a rite of passage for most children. The step from home or day care to school is huge: they are a big kid now. However, sometimes the local Public School, especially in rural or economically challenged areas, can be an uncertain, questionable and scary place, and yet parents are expected to entrust them with their five or six year old child. Some years ago, when my daughter was ready to enter school, she and I had just such an experience, and we began to seriously search for an alternative school for her to attend. What we discovered was a Charter School: a possible solution for parents, enabling them to take more control of their child’s education. For my daughter and
Identifies skills, theories of change, program designs, partnerships, and ways of building schools where students achieve.
The plan outlines five goals that we have found for our school district. These goals show our commitment to provide the highest possible standards of education for all students in our district and to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of all members of our community. We consider understanding individual differences in each student and teacher so that we can adopt the appropriate programs of study for them of the utmost importance.
Closing the achievement gap is not an easy task. However, education leaders have a moral obligation to create a system of student supports and a belief system in which all students achieve beyond the standards. A superintendent's belief system and passion need to extend outward. As you move your institution toward the goal of everyone passionately believing, as a district leader, you only hire teachers, administrators, secretaries, bus drivers, custodians and all staff members who believe this as deeply as you do. By doing this, you begin to change the culture of your institution be it a school or an entire district.
The first promise of charter schools I would like to focus on is that on choice. While charter schools offer a lot of choice there is still no good choice (K Zernike 1.) Charter schools typically pop up most frequently in urban areas often where they are unneeded. Charter schools will set up wherever space is available, sometimes within blocks from each other according to Kate Zernike, “making it easier to find a charter school than to buy a carton of milk,” (K Zernike 1). A good example of this is in
Many charter schools are known for their rigorous programs that challenge students to fulfill specific requirements that are different from traditional schools. Charter schools also value the idea of cultivating students with a talent for arts, technology or music (Chen). Institutions such as charter schools may be viewed as open or loosely constructed based on the unique guidelines displayed in each school’s charter, but in reality this is untrue because the individuality of each charter is what allows each student to excel based on the personalization and attention given to every single student who attends. A charter school has the potential to reach out into the community and help children who are not able to fit in at a traditional public school and it may allow the student to learn from a new perspective. Any child is allowed to apply to a charter school and they are admitted on a first-come, first served basis or through a lottery. The decision is not made on race or sex of the child and there is a fair chance for every student. A charter school is a great alternative to private school because there is no tuition fee at a charter school which is run by the state. Operators of the charter schools are able to provide children with a school that will create new and improved services which are lacking in the public school districts (“Charter School FAQ”). A charter school can also help
Great Testimonials – We have received testimonials from a number of high profile individuals, including Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles; A.J. Duffy, former President of the United Teachers of Los Angeles; Jack O’Connell, former CA Superintendent of Public Instruction; and Caprice Young, Founder of California Charter Schools
“The strategy represented by Community Schools - of extending the hours, services and partnerships of schools and of organizing these additional resources around the goal of student success - is more relevant than ever. Most of the educational reforms of the past decade have at best produced only modest results, in large measure because they have focused almost exclusively on the instructional side of the teaching-and-learning equation. While strengthening instruction, aligning assessments and improving teacher effectiveness are all critical elements of school reform, these approaches fall into the ‘necessary but not sufficient’ category. Instructional reforms can be successful only when they are combined with the comprehensive and integrated
In looking at the numerous experiences that I have encountered where change has been more than needed and wanted, I feel that my experience working in the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center for five years and leaving to pursue change is a great example of the use of a change model. When I began working in detention in 2009, I felt empowered and validated for the work that I was doing. I also felt that the work that I was doing was making a difference in the lives of the youth I worked with. I had amazing rapport with the youth and staff alike and quickly moved up the latter. As I climbed the latter, I worked to ensure that the staff and I maintained the best interests of the youth. In maintaining a high level of integrity and fairness, we saw dramatic decreases in recidivism among the youth we served and noticed that the staff enjoyed coming to work. However, several years later the facility was sub contracted out and many of the administrative and line positions were cleared out and filled with new personnel. As the new agency filled the positions with various new staff, the change had a negative effect on the previous processes. As the changes continued so did the responses/ behavior of the youth. It seemed like the consideration for the youth and concern for their best interest were pushed aside to fulfill quotas. With the high level of stress this brought on staff, I as well as many others attempted to “Walk on” to find new alternative that would allow us to maintain our efforts, but were unsuccessful. With numerous failed attempts and meetings with admin that resulted in nothing more that frustration, I chose to “Walk out.” In walking out, I continued working with youth in an area that allows me to be a bigger part of the process where I can be more effective. Through this experience, I would say that the seven step process would be very close to the ways in which I addressed the concerns within the detention center prior to leaving and then after as I sought to empower the youth in my community. In part of this change process, I have also undertaken higher education to ensure that I can better meet the needs of those within my community and to strengthen myself so that I can work in situation were those I
All schools need leaders who are looking for ways to improve what they already have. A catalyst is insightful in research-based