A Community Eager to Learn

Even with a mix of snow and rain in the forecast, nearly 600 parents came out for the first-ever Brooklyn Charter School Fair on Saturday, March 16. The Charter Center put this fair together to give parents the opportunity to speak directly with charter school representatives and learn about their…

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Michael Mulgrew’s One Percent

On Tuesday over 1200 charter school supporters came to Albany to meet with lawmakers and tell our stories. We also carried a simple message: charter schools should be eligible to compete for the full-day pre-kindergarten funding that Governor Cuomo has proposed. You would think that supporters of early childhood education…

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Charters Should Be Free to Innovate, Even in Teacher Evaluation

The Charter Center is on the record in opposition to the State Education Department's (SED) assertion that charter schools are required to submit data about teacher evaluations according to the state's categories, whether or not that makes sense given the charter school's evaluation practices. (GothamSchools covered the disagreement last month.)…

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Remembering Frank Macchiarola

In a guest post for Democrats for Education Reform, James Merriman remembers the man known by many as The Chancellor. "Frank fought hard for schools to be organized in ways that worked for children. But as he fought, he never lost his direction or way, never let his anger get…

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More Progress Reports: 4 A’s, 3 B’s, 1 C and 1 D for Charter High Schools

Yesterday, the NYC Department of Education released its 2011-12 progress reports for high schools. (See our breakdown of the K-8 progress reports.) The reports assign a letter grade to each school, based on student test scores, student progress, attendance, and "learning environment" survey results, all heavily weighted to account for…

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