More than 3,000 activists, teachers, school and business leaders (including 70 from New Jersey) came together for the ninth annual charter schools conference in Washington, D.C., June 21-24. The atmosphere was filled with enthusiasm and hopefulness over the charter school movement's growth in size and its emphasis on promoting high quality charter schools. Among the keynoters were Education Secretary Arne Duncan who said, "The charter movement is absolutely one of the most profound changes in American education, bringing new options to underserved communities and introducing competition and innovation into the education system." He also emphasized that too many of our schools are failing the "Would I send my own kids there" test and that we must focus on creating and sustaining high quality charter schools. DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee spoke about how charter schools are raising the bar and bringing excellence to public education and NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein challenged everyone to "double down on our commitment to reform efforts."

 

A rousing speech was delivered by the National Alliance's Founding Chairman, Dr. Howard Fuller. He issued a challenge to foment the political will necessary to make widespread change in education for the nation's most underserved kids.

 

NJCPSA assembled a team of advocates to meet with members of Congress during Lobby Day. Representatives from Union County TEAMS Charter School (Plainfield), TEAM Academy Charter School (Newark), Hoboken Charter School and East Orange Community Charter School met with members of the New Jersey congressional delegation and their education staff, including Senator Lautenberg, Senator Menendez, Congressman Pallone and Congressman Payne, and recounted success stories about their students and schools. The presence of these school leaders was invaluable in taking the pro-charter school message to law makers who will vote on a budget this fall that includes a significant increase in federal funding for charter schools.

NJ State Budget News & Advocacy Efforts

 

Governor Corzine Signs $29 Billion Budget
Governor Corzine signed a $29 billion budget on June 30, cutting a record $4 billion in spending to account for severe shortages in state revenues due to the economic downturn. The budget was called a "no restoration" budget and slashed funding for many social services and programs, but overall increased spending in public school classrooms by $374 million. NJCPSA is pleased that charter schools received $35 million more in this budget compared to last year, but due to steep enrollment increases and six new schools opening, per-pupil funding is not keeping pace with enrollment growth. Ultimately, no restorations were made for charter schools, despite NJCPSA's persistent efforts to restore $3.5 million in funding to those 25 charter schools facing a greater than 4 percent per-pupil cut or those expecting a year-to-year budget decrease. NJCPSA will continue to fight for fair per-pupil funding during the upcoming lame duck session and will also pursue legislative action for facilities funding. (Burlington County Times, June 26, and Star-Ledger, June 30)

 

Stars Align for National Charter School Movement
The Obama Administration continues to drive home its strong commitment to public school reform efforts and is challenging states to lift barriers that stand in the way of creating more high performing charter public schools that can help to close the achievement gap. Following up on his recent remarks made at the National Charter Schools Conference, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued a statement urging states to work with charter school operators to turn around struggling schools and provide innovation and choice to students and parents. He said, "I'm an advocate of using whatever model works for children and I want charter schools to join that work. But they won't be able to get into the turnaround business in states that restrict the growth of charters. States that slow innovation are limiting opportunities for students and are placing themselves at a competitive disadvantage for $4 billion in Race to the Top Fund grants." As a result of this strongly worded warning to states, many have since taken legislative action to get rid of caps on charter schools in the hopes of attracting additional education dollars. While New Jersey does not have a legislative cap on the number of charter schools, many believe that we have a "de facto" cap that results from an authorizing environment that has granted only a handful of approvals each year among large applicant pools. NJCPSA is working to bring this de facto cap to light and will be proposing policy and legislative solutions to the problem.

 

NJ Joins Rally Cry to Promote Charter School Quality and Growth
NJCPSA is developing a position paper -- aligned with Obama's reform agenda -- to share with the administration that addresses:

NJCPSA Participates in Parent Choice Rally in Newark
NJCPSA participated in a school choice rally on July 2 in Newark, organized by local community and faith-based groups. Executive Director Jessani Gordon was among the speakers and addressed the benefits of having public school choice options and the importance of mobilizing parents to express their rights for a high quality public school for their children.

 

NJ Governor's Race: School Choice a Hot Topic
School choice is shaping up to be a hot topic in the gubernatorial race. Republican candidate Chris Christie is voicing strong support for better educational options for parents in our poorest neighborhoods, including the creation of more charter public schools to increase competition with failing district schools, as well as vouchers. When recently asked by a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter where he stood on school choice, Governor Corzine reportedly responded that he did not support vouchers, but did say that he supported more charter or alternative public schools in poor districts. NJCPSA met with Christie's education policy team to discuss ideas for strengthening the charter school sector and we also hope to sit down with Governor Corzine and his policy team to help shape his education agenda.

 

Your Turn to Promote Quality Charter Schools
Candidate Christie is interested in visiting charter schools over the summer. If interested in having him come to your school, contact Debbie Wachspress at 609-989-9700.

 

Collection Drive Held for Food Pantry at Greater Brunswick Charter School
Volunteers from Rutgers University raised $49,000 and donated more than 20 tons of food to the Greater Brunswick Charter School (New Brunswick) food pantry. The school started the emergency pantry when they found that many students were arriving at school hungry. (Star-Ledger, June 26) The school's efforts to feed hungry students and their families was also featured in a New York Times article on July 3.

 

Opinion Piece by Learning Community Charter School Administrator Published
Shelley Skinner of Learning Community Charter School (Jersey City) addressed the impact of the governor's budget on charter schools in an op-ed that ran in MyCentralJersey.com. 

 

Robert Treat Academy Charter School Featured in USA Today
In a USA Today article about the benefits of a longer school year, Robert Treat Academy (Newark) Principal Mike Pallante called the 11-month school year a "blessing for these urban school kids and their parents. We have kids from broken homes, drugs, parents incarcerated. We have everything. More time is necessary for academic improvement."

 

Robert Treat Graduates Looking to Make Their Mark
Robert Treat Academy Charter School (Newark) graduated 50 eighth-grade students in an emotional commencement ceremony at The New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The graduates were addressed by Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, Newark Schools Superintendent Clifford Janey, state education Commissioner Lucille Davy and Essex County Superintendent of Schools Lawrence Feinsod. (NJ.com, June 27) 

 

TEAM Academy Charter School on Fox News
TEAM Academy Charter School (Newark) Leader Ryan Hill appeared on Fox News debating the merits of year-round schooling. Nationwide, KIPP schools outperform their district schools almost 100 percent of the time.

 

RISE Academy Charter School Featured in Economist
In the June 11 issue of The Economist, Newark is described as "a magnet for education policy wonks," citing Newark's high concentration of excellent charter schools and the presence of the Newark Charter School Fund as key reasons for the city's potential to set an example of school reform for cities around the country. RISE Academy Charter School Principal Drew Martin says, "More than four-fifths of our pupils are reading below grade level when they arrive aged ten. Three years later, fewer than a quarter still are."

 

Additional ARRA Sessions Scheduled
The DoE will provide two additional half-day sessions to review the principles, funding and program opportunities available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The half-day sessions will be held on July 16 (Sewell) and July 23 (Parsippany). Registration for these technical assistance sessions may be made through the Department's events calendar. For more information, contact Pam Castellanos at pam.castellanos@doe.state.nj.us or call 609-984-5717.

 

Statewide Professional Development Initiative
The DoE has designed a multi-year statewide systemic professional development initiative to support the implementation of the revised 2009 Core Curriculum Content Standards and Secondary Education Transformation. The three-phase New Jersey Statewide Systemic Model for Continuous Professional Learning and Growth offers targeted training for teachers and administrators at no-cost beginning in July 2009 and continuing through the 2011-12 academic year.

 

State Board of Education Adopts Revised High School Graduation Requirements
The State Board of Education has adopted revised high school graduation requirements and revised content standards, culminating a three-year effort to ensure that a New Jersey high school diploma reflects a level of student achievement that will lead to a successful future.

 

New Model Law Proposed for High Quality Charter Schools
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has issued a model state law for supporting the growth of high-quality public charter schools. This template is intended to assist states in crafting stronger charter school laws that emphasize the most critical elements to fostering a strong charter school sector.

 

Dashboard Available for Statewide Charter School Data
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has released its annual "Dashboard" of leading statistical indicators about the growth and quality of public charter schools nationally and state by state.

 

CREDO Releases Report on Charter School Performance
Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) released a report titled "Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States". New Jersey was not one of the states studied. The report found that thre is a wide variance in the quality of the nation's several thousand charter schools and cited the critical need for strengthening school and authorizer accountability. Questions have arisen about the methodology used in this report resulting in criticism over some of the reported findings. Nelson Smith of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools released a statement with encouraging conclusions.

 

R&L DataCenters, Inc.  specializes in charter school payroll and accounting software. For further information, please contact David Wiant, President, at info@rlpayroll.com or 908-479-1995.

 

NJCPSA's Associate Member program welcomes businesses and organizations who wish to support New Jersey's charter public schools.

Letters and invoices have been mailed out to charter schools regarding their membership in the Association for 2009-10 year, which began July 1. The Association welcomes the following schools that have joined or renewed in the past month:

• Classical Academy Charter School of Clifton
• Elysian Charter School
• Foundation Academy Charter School 
• Hoboken Charter School 
• International Charter School of Trenton 
• Lady Liberty Charter School
• New Horizons Community Charter School
• PleasanTech Academy Charter School
• Pride Academy Charter School
  
  See the complete list of member schools.

 

Events

 

The Cartel Screens at Jersey Shore Film Festival
The Cartel, an expose by New Jersey filmmaker Bob Bowden about how American public education serves its employees over the children, is scheduled to play at the Jersey Shore Film Festival. The film focuses on the educational and social benefits of charter schools and features individuals from North Star Academy Charter School in Newark and Learning Community Charter School in Jersey City. The film will be shown at these times:

 
Wed., July 8, at 8 p.m.
The Axelrod Theatre
Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth County
100 Grant Avenue
Deal, NJ

Tues., July 14, at 8 p.m.
Film Salon
Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth County
100 Grant Avenue
Deal, NJ

Wed., July 15, at 7 p.m.
The Showroom
708 Cookman Avenue
Asbury Park, NJ

Visit http://www.jerseyshorefilmfestival.com to reserve tickets.

TEAM Students Embark for Africa
Students from all three TEAM Academy Charter School campuses in Newark (RISE, Newark Collegiate and TEAM) traveled to Africa to spend two weeks in each of Kenya and Rwanda. Over the past couple years, TEAM Academy teacher Ali Nagle and Newark Collegiate teacher Faith Blasi have led a group of students in developing a program that raises money for students in a school in Machakos, Kenya. While in Machakos, they met the students for whom they raised money and learned more about life in rural Kenya.

 

Marion P. Thomas Charter School Honors NJCPSA Board Member
Marion P. Thomas Charter School (Newark) honored READS president and NJCPSA Board Treasurer Brian Keenan at its annual Fathers for Our Children event at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Keenan is the founder of Real Estate Advisory and Development Services and has been an advocate and supporter of charter schools across New Jersey. Fathers for Our Children is a presentation from students of Marion P. Thomas Charter School to men who serve as role models in the community. All proceeds from the event will provide scholarships for the graduating eighth-graders who are moving on to top-ranked private high schools.

 

NJCPSA's Newest Board Member Elected to National Alliance Board
NJCPSA board member Mashea Ashton was elected to the board of directors of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. She will serve as vice chair. Ms. Ashton is a partner with the Newark Charter School Fund, a grant-making organization that supports the quality and sustainability of Newark's charter schools. Prior to that, she served as executive director for the New York City Office of Charter Schools and senior advisor for Charter School Policy for New Leaders for New Schools. She also serves on the board of the Black Alliance for Educational Options.