Interview with Dave Angerer and Kathleen Pecic and Shirley Rodriguez on Parent/Teacher Conference

Admission to our school is based on lottery. Those students who qualify for Special Ed services have IEPs that are developed and followed. I've seen no difference from my former "conventional" public school to my current charter school in this area .

Thank you, Colleen. I have been involved in both public and private education for the past 21 years. The last 6 of these years at Black River Public School in Holland have been the most rewarding. The reason: I have had the pleasure to see many high school students earn the opportunity to pursue a college education who most likely would not have had this opportunity in traditional school settings.

Further, I believe that Black River's challenging curriculum, small class sizes and unique project term "experiential learning" opportunities offer a quality public educational choice. I also believe that the competition that our successful program has created among schools in the greater Holland area has increased the quality of education for students in many schools.

I was lucky enough to work for twenty years in a traditional public school that operated in some ways like an unofficial charter school. It was a successful school that was largely left alone because of its success.

My current (charter) school does require more work, possibly because of the smaller staff and requirements for parent involvement/conferences. We also use the Core Knowledge curriculum and, at the middle school level, that requires a lot of curriculum design and development.

My son has been in a charter school for 2 years now and I find that if he were in a public school, he may have been laid back and the teachers wouldn't have given him the "one on one" help he has gotten. I am proud to say he excels now in subjects he did not like before.

to be honest, i did not know about charter schools until my son's 4th grade teacher called me to say she thought i should have my son apply to Bronx Prep because they felt he was too intelligent for a regular public school.

Our school uses a full-inclusion model to meet the needs of students with IEP/504 modifications. These are accomplished much as they would be in a traditional public school. We're really working on differentiating for all students, but some of the specifics for current SpEd students include the following:
*Several of my students have difficulties with physical copying so they're provided with a typed outline of notes with blanks in key areas. Instead of copying down all of our notes, they follow along and fill in the blanks.
*We also have students with SLDs in written language who use Alpha-Smarts for written work.
*In addition to preferential seating for ADHD students, I'm also breaking tasks down and giving them a section of a test or worksheet at a time to keep them on task...

Although admission to our school is lottery-based, without any academic requirements, we've made AYP so far. I think part of this is because we stress parent involvement and work with parents to get our students on track/staying on track. I think another reason is because of our curriculum...Core Knowledge provides a solid foundation and a lot of background in many areas. Add that to the Georgia Performance Standards and I believe we have a really strong curriculum. And, last but not least, we work at it. We know that, fortunately or unfortunately, those test scores are important. We work at getting students prepped and psyched for the tests and confident in what they can do.

Tammy,

Black River has always met AYP. The challenge for all public schools is to take the children from where they are and move them forward. We should welcome this accountability and consider it a challenge to be met, concentrating on what we CAN do and not on what we can't.

I know that some charter schools in Michigan do work with cooperatives. At Black River, we serve all of our special needs students with in-house staff.

At our school, parents come in knowing that they are a part of the equation. Prior to our admission lottery, parents attend an open house at which our policies and charter, including our family contract, are reviewed. Attendance is mandatory in order to receive an application packet for the lottery .

Parents sign a Family Contract at our school in which they agree to support the school in attendance, behavior, homework, etc. They are also required to have two parent conferences per year and contribute 20 hours of volunteer time (10 for single-parent families)each year.

Each spring compliance to this contract is reviewed by the office, and families who have not met their obligations are not invited back to the school. This means a lot of paperwork (teachers tracking parent contacts, parents logging in volunteer hours, office maintaining accurate reacords, etc.) but it also shows just how seriously this part of our charter is taken.

Although my school is currently on the same salary scale as the rest of the county, that wasn't the case when I first came here four years ago. There was no shortage of teacher applicants at that time...

However, since we teach both the state of Georgia curriculum and the Core Knowledge curriculum (where applicable)we really don't have all that much "autonomy" in our classrooms. But we do have a reputation as a success and a great place to teach in the county. I think makes a big difference.

YES I THINK THAT THE SUCCESS STORIES ARE BECAUSE OF THE STUDENT- TEACHER RATION AND NO I DO NOT SUPPORT THE CAP.