Dept of Education: STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF JACK O’CONNELL ANNOUNCES GRANT AWARDS FOR CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOLS

FROM THE DEPT OF EDUCATION

November 06, 2008

CONTACT: Tina Jung
PHONE: 916-319-0818
E-MAIL: tjung@cde.ca.gov


            SACRAMENTO – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today announced the State Board of Education has approved a list of seven grantees that will share nearly $6 million in federal funding from the Public Charter Schools Grant Program. The list of grantees is attached.

             “I applaud these seven charter schools for developing wonderful programs that will serve as models of innovation for the development of even more charter schools,” said O’Connell. “The grants will help these schools share the effective practices that made them successful in terms of governance, instruction, accountability, rigorous college preparation, collaboration, and leadership.”

The California Department of Education was granted authority through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement to disseminate the grant funds through a request-for-application process. The charter schools then competed for the grants to share their best practices designed to significantly improve academic achievement with other charter and non-charter schools. The grantees were selected based on the quality of their practices:

Eagle Peak Montessori School (Walnut Creek, Contra Costa County) is working with the Charter School Development Center. They will disseminate critical governance best practices to California’s public school leaders. Activities include charter board development, development of comprehensive bylaws and minutes, and development of data-driven academic and fiscal reports.

University High Charter School (Fresno, Fresno County) is working with California State University, Fresno and California Polytechnic State University. They will disseminate their Modeling Science Instruction project, designed to create systemic change in the way students learn the sciences through intensive hands-on professional development.

Animo Leadership Charter High School (Inglewood, Los Angeles County) will disseminate its school leadership and accountability model. The model focuses on leading and managing change; improving instructional quality and learning; building seamless accountability systems; developing collaborative relationships; and creating a culture aligned with the school’s vision, mission, and values. Tripod Surveys will help evaluate the impact Animo’s training program has on the culture within each of the beneficiary schools. Tripod Surveys was developed by Dr. Ron Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, Environmental Charter High School (Lawndale, Los Angeles County) will disseminate four school-wide environmental education instructional modules that have served as the cornerstones of its environmental program. The school’s mission is to provide a rigorous student-centered college preparatory curriculum focused on solving environmental issues.

Huntington Park College-Ready Academy High School (Huntington Park, Los Angeles County) is working with Cambridge Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District. They will disseminate the school’s process of self-evaluation, effective lesson observations with data-based feedback for improvement, and targeted strategic planning.

High Tech Middle (San Diego, San Diego County) will develop graduate-level programs for middle school teachers. Its best practices will be disseminated through the High Tech High Graduate School of Education. The grant will help 100 middle school teachers obtain their teaching credential. King Chavez Athletics Academy (San Diego, San Diego County) will disseminate its best practices in governance, leadership, and school culture. The school transformed from a Year 5 Program Improvement school into a highly successful conversion school with an Academic Performance Index of 739, a 181-point increase in three years. 

During the 2004-07 grant period, the State Board of Education approved the distribution of about $4.2 million to 17 California charter schools to disseminate best practices throughout the state. This round of charter school dissemination grants is part of a bigger $101 million federal grant awarded last year for the 2007-10 grant period to help charter schools improve academic achievement and reduce achievement gaps in California’s kindergarten through grade 12 public education system. Up to 10 percent of the larger award is available to successful charter schools for activities related to the dissemination of best practices used in their schools. This dissemination grant will fund seven two-year awards totaling $5.9 million and will be disbursed in annual allocations. All remaining local assistance funds will be allocated to new charter schools to assist with costs associated with starting a new charter school.

The Public Charter School Grant Program was authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Title V, Part B. For more information about the program please visit http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cs/as/grantinfo.asp.