Chancellor Beacon Academies, Inc. Type: Private CompanyAddress: 3520 Mary Street, Suite 202, Coconut Grove, Florida 33133, U.S.A.Telephone: (305) 648-5950Toll Free: 800-239-7510Fax: (305) 648-5951Web: not availableSales: $100 million (2001 est.)Incorporated: 2000NAIC: 611110 Elementary and Secondary Schools Formed when Chancellor Academies and Beacon Education Management LLC merged in 2001, Chancellor Beacon Academies, Inc., is the second largest education management company in the United States.
Through its 80 public charter schools and tuition-based private schools in eight states and Washington, D.C., Chancellor Beacon Academies serves more than 19,000 students from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. Like other players in the emerging education management industry, Chancellor Beacon has yet to turn a profit, though its hopes for the future remain undiminished. Chancellor Beacon Academies owes its existence to educational reform movements that began in the late 1980s. Blog For Arizona: Imagine Schools and charter school "ownership"
By David SafierIn September, 2008, Dennis Bakke, founder, President and CEO of Imagine Schools, sent an email to all his School Developers, National Principals and Regional Directors as well as some other individuals connected with the company. He made it clear that, when it comes to the relationship of an Imagine School to its students, parents, board and community, it is, in his words, "our school, not theirs. " The local groups can help out and make suggestions, but the headquarters in Virginia has the first word and the last word, period. Bakke has a corporate view of schools as local stores which are part of a larger chain, where the corporation owns the schools, runs them by corporate rules and thinks of the parents and students as customers who pay for a service with their the state's money. The student is the consumer of education, and the company is the provider. Before I excerpt this mouth dropping -- for me, anyway -- email, let me make one more point. . . . . . .
NCSC - National Center on School Choice, Vanderbilt University. Staff | National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Alternative Education Philosophy. Free Schools, Free People: Education and Democracy After the 1960s. Ron Miller's slim history of the 1970s American free school movement is the first work on a shockingly under-researched subject. Apart from a fair sized number of highly self-reflexive books published at the height of the movement, nothing else has been published until now.
For this reason, Miller's book is invaluable to anyone curious about free schools as he compiles an exhaustive bibliography, even capturing the handful of related theses and dissertations, and makes the first bold move at analyzing the free-school phenomenon. The free school movement was a student and parent-initiated effort to build small alternative schools where students participated equally in governance if not ran the school themselves as well as enjoyed complete control over curriculum.
Miller estimates between 400 to 800 such schools opened between 1967 and the late 1970s. What gets lost in Miller's history however, are the racial tensions that drove the American education reform movement. Kathleen McConnell. Resources on Minnesota Issues: Charter Schools. Last reviewed July 2012 This guide is compiled by staff at the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library on a topic of interest to Minnesota legislators. It is designed to provide an introduction to the topic, directing the user to a variety of sources, and is not intended to be exhaustive.
The charter school movement began in 1988 when Albert Shanker, American Federation of Teachers President, called for the reform of the public schools by establishing 'charter schools'. The basic charter concept is simple: a group of teachers or other would-be educators apply for permission to open a school. In 1991, Minnesota was at the forefront of the nation in passing legislation to create the first legislated charter school.
In 2008, several analyses of Minnesota charter schools raised questions about the schools' administration and performance. Over the years the law has been amended several times. Accountability Report 2009: Charter Schools. Charter High Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap. Closing the Achievement Gap . Charter School FAQ. Part B - Public Charter Schools. "educational equity in a shambles" Despite the unending lip service offered by NCLB advocates for closing achievement gaps, those gaps remain gaping. And in the process of NCLB's bombing of the public school system, the dying embers of the school integration movement have been snuffed out by a testocratic education policy that uses tests to sort children based on family income, discourages diversity by penalizing schools with weak test performers, and encourages the creation of urban chain gang charter schools such as KIPP that no middle class parent would consider for their own children.
The question now is whether or not the Obama team with call-me-Arne at the helm of ED will continue the Bush neo-eugenic policies that pay tax-dodging corporations and their foundations to create charter schools that segregate and intellectually sterilize those now deemed defective based on their test scores. Here are clips from the press release on a new study of the resegregation phenomenon in schools by the Civil Rights Project: Summerhill School. Summerhill School is an independent British boarding school that was founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill with the belief that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than the other way around.
It is run as a democratic community; the running of the school is conducted in the school meetings, which anyone, staff or pupil, may attend, and at which everyone has an equal vote. These meetings serve as both a legislative and judicial body. Members of the community are free to do as they please, so long as their actions do not cause any harm to others, according to Neill's principle "Freedom, not Licence.
" This extends to the freedom for pupils to choose which lessons, if any, they attend. History[edit] Summerhill School was founded in 1921 in Hellerau near Dresden, Germany by Neill as part of Neue Schule ("New School"). After Neill died in 1973 it was run by his wife, Ena, until 1985.[1] Philosophy[edit] Classes are voluntary at Summerhill. Academics[edit] Ombudsmen[edit] A. The open classroom: schools without walls became all the rage during the early 1970s. Were they just another fad? - Whatever Happened to …? | Education Next. Comer Process. How it Works The Comer Process provides a structure as well as a process for mobilizing adults to support students' learning and overall development.
It is a different way of conceptualizing and working in schools and replaces traditional school organization and management with an operating system that works for schools and the students they serve. The following three structures comprise the basic framework on which the Comer Process operating system is built: The School Planning and Management Team develops a comprehensive school plan, sets academic, social and community relations goals and coordinates all school activities, including staff development programs. The team creates critical dialogue around teaching and learning and monitors progress to identify needed adjustments to the school plan as well as opportunities to support the plan. Members of the team include administrators, teachers, support staff and parents. Why KIPP Charter Schools Are Obsessed With College | Newsweek Politics: The Obama Presidency | Newsweek.com.
Conservatives Create Opportunities, Not Programs: Education - NightTwister’s blog - RedState. This is the first in a series of conservative solution proposals. I have no idea how many more I will do. I just know that we have to have an answer to the programs the liberals and conservatives have been implementing for the past couple of decades. For the past eight years (some might say twenty), conservatives in government have been acting like democrats. We’ve seen program after program implemented, give more and more control of our lives over to the government. This flies in the face of the true conservative principle of limited government. This, I believe, has been our greatest failure, and has resulted in being marginalized and beaten at the voting booth. We will never be able to out-program the Democrats. Too many students continue to fail to meet minimum standards in basic subjects, even with this dramatic increase in federal spending.
You’ll note in the graph that local spending has risen at a more reasonable and consistent rate. Opportunity Opportunity begins with choice. Odyssey School - Newnan, GA. Analysis of Georgia Charter School Law. Georgia Virtual Academy. Investor Relations: Investor Overview. Private-style public schools. By Pat Kossan - Dec. 6, 2008 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic Arizona public-school districts are creating a new system of schools that operate more like private academies within their districts. Not everyone can get in the door. Potential students must apply and typically must get teacher recommendations, take placement exams and even interview for a spot.
Creating these exclusive yet public schools is a way for districts to attract students from across the Valley and turn around their stagnant or declining enrollment. When schools lose students, they lose the education money attached to each of them. The demand is there. "The political reality is: If you don't accommodate, you're going to lose kids," said Calvin Baker, Vail School District superintendent.
More than 10 years ago, the suburban Tucson district opened two small specialty charter schools, and in 2005, it opened the state's first laptop high school. "Offering choices in programs always brings up issues of fairness," Baker said. History of Charter Schools. Senate passes Charter Systems Act | Fresh Loaf. You gotta have faith. Parents know what's best for their kids. Not the bloated bureaucrats. Not the feds. Not the supers. Not the institutionalized automatons. Friday morning at the Statehouse, Sen. This was legislation with advocates in high places. On the campaign trail last year, Casey Cagle talked about increasing local control, and expanding charter schools in Georgia.
The bill would create a charter advisory committee, which would work with the state Board of Education and local school governing councils. "Parents have the power over their own governing council," Weber said. As presented, one of the problems with Weber's argument is an intrinsic rejection of government mandates, even as it relies on current federal mandates to gain credibility when doubters challenge the lack of state and local mandates that go along with charter schools. In any case, it was a seeming contradiction lost on the Senate, which overwhelmingly passed Weber's bill -- but not before Sen. -- Max Pizarro. Lake Wales Charter Schools Seek Ways To Save Money | theledger.com | The Ledger | Lakeland, FL. Chief Financial Officer Brian Fisher told charter trustees this week that "we're trying to figure out whether to take a machete or scalpel approach.
" The six-school charter system has an annual budget of $25 million. Two percent equals $500,000 and the entire 4 percent, if the additional cuts are made, means a total of $1 million would have to be trimmed. The cuts come in addition to a reduction caused by a reduced student enrollment. Fisher said the 3,800-student system fell about 60 students short of expectations this year. State funding is based on student population. Charter Superintendent Jesse Jackson said the decision is "programming or personnel - obviously we're going to have to cut somewhere. " "Anything we can do to salvage people, we'll do first," he said. At Babson Park, Principal Ken Henson said teachers have even begun cleaning their own rooms to save on costs. Jackson noted that schools have reduced energy use by 33 percent to 50 percent through conservation programs.
Article. Democracy is a learning theory. This is cross-posted from my own blog, Technopaideia, because it seems relevant to Education Policy Blog as well. -Craig If you ask most Americans about the meaning of democracy, you will likely hear the response: “Democracy is when everyone gets a vote.” You might also hear about representative government, “one man, one vote,” or something about elections of executive, legislative, or judicial authorities. The American public thinks that democracy is the political system that the American revolutionaries fought England for—replacing its monarchy with our constitutional “democracy,” and why the United States has been the “leader of the free” world since at least the beginning of the twentieth century. Etymologically, “democracy” in ancient Greek meant rule by the “demos,” or "people," implying the possibility of participation in “rule” by “regular people,” rather than by the elite, as in an aristocracy or oligarchy.
In this way, Glickman tells us, democracy is a learning theory. Www.kansascity.com | 11/06/2008 | Charter school for high school dropouts may open in KC next year. National Charter Schools Institute. Research Center: Charter Schools. Published: August 3, 2004 Updated May 25, 2011 Although they serve only a fraction of the nation’s public school students, charter schools have seized a prominent role in education today. They are at the center of a growing movement to challenge traditional notions of what public education means. Charter schools are by definition independent public schools. Although funded with taxpayer dollars, they operate free from many of the laws and regulations that govern traditional public schools.
With their relative autonomy, charter schools are seen as a way to provide greater educational choice and innovation within the public school system. Since the first charter school was founded in 1992, shortly after Minnesota approved the first charter-school law, charters have fanned out across the country. One appeal of charter schools is that they are typically smaller than their more traditional counterparts, advocates say. Increasingly, such issues are coming to the attention of state leaders. Where Did Charter Schools Come From? US Charter Schools Home. The Facts About...Supporting Charter Schools. EPAA Vol. 11 No. 32 Frankenberg & Lee: Charter Schools and Race: A Lost Opportunity for Integrated Education. Defining Democracy in the Neoliberal Age: Charter School Reform and Educational Consumption -- Wells et al. 39 (2): 337 -- American Educational Research Journal. Abstract In this article Wells, Slayton, and Scott draw on data from their charter school research to question the extent to which “democratic” and “market-based” schools are dichotomous.
They argue that in the current political and economic climate, free-market and deregulatory educational reforms such as charter school laws are perceived to be highly “democratic” by their neoliberal advocates and by many of the suburban school board members and superintendents in their case studies. Thus the authors call on progressive supporters of charter schools and public schools to couch their arguments for democratic schooling in a call for social justice and equity as opposed to greater “liberty” for educational consumers, whereby the more economically empowered consumers remain highly advantaged. Article Notes ↵Amy Stuart Wells is a Professor of Sociology of Education, Department of Human Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, Box 118, New York, NY 10027. Creaming Versus Cropping: Charter School Enrollment Practices in Response to Market Incentives -- Lacireno-Paquet et al. 24 (2): 145 -- Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
Abstract Proponents of school choice present market-based competition as a means of leveling disparities between race, class and performance in public school systems. Opponents see school choice as threatening to exacerbate this problem because competition for students will pressure individual schools into targeting students with the highest performance and the least encumbered with personal and social disadvantages. We suggest that some charter schools, by background and affiliation, are likely to be more market-oriented in their behavior than others, and test the proposition that market-oriented charter schools engage in cream-skimming while others disproportionately serve highly disadvantaged students. Article Notes ↵NATALIE LACIRENO-PAQUET is a Research Fellow at the Center for Washington Area Studies and a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy at The George Washington University; lacpaq@gwu.edu.
How Are School Districts Responding to Charter Laws and Charter Schools?