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Sample Charter Application Section Summary Template

 

Name of Charter Section

 

Applicant Instructions

 

Evaluation Criteria

 

Which pages does this refer to in our application?

 

Our Big Picture Thinking / Rationale for our Approach:

 

Standard Practice or Bold New Step?

 

What are the key things every board member should know about this section?

 

What if anything is the board role in this area of the school? Where is the governance / management line?

 

Key Issues / Questions to Discuss

  

Example follows

  

Name of Charter Section

Educational Plan

A.1 Educational Philosophy

Applicant Instructions

State the school’s educational philosophy and present an overview of the alignment with the program of instruction and any related research or experience that indicates why you have chosen to use this approach with your target population.

Evaluation Criteria

A response that meets the standard will:

a) Provide a detailed description of the school’s philosophical approach to improving pupil achievement in the target population.

b) Incorporate the principles or concepts fundamental to the school’s proposed program of instruction.

c) Present a rationale for the selected approach for the target population, including research and/or experience.

d) Ensure the Mission Statement on the Target Population Page

Which pages does this refer to in our application?  32 -47

Our Big Picture Thinking / Rationale for our Approach:

The goal here is to ensure that we as an organization understand the need for a school that serves an all male population.  The focus on math and Business may raise questions concerning the overall curriculum, so we think that it is important as we talk about the philosophy that we are not discounting the remaining components of the college prep curriculum.  

Standard Practice or Bold New Step?

This is probably considered a bold approach to education.  Same sex schools as well as schools that focus on a particular area more so than other areas are considered uncommon.

What are the key things every board member should know about this section?

There is much literature around the hard fact that black males are not performing at levels of other male students or black female students in school.  One such print, The Odds are Against Them: The Black Male Education Debacle, mentions the facts below – all of which speaks to the urgency of educating black male students:

  • Just 18 percent of black men ages 20-21 are enrolled in college, according to the Census.
  • Only 34 percent of the black students who earn bachelor's degrees are male
  • Black men have the highest unemployment rates of any ethnic group. One in four do prison time. Nearly half never marry, leaving 43 percent of black women to run households alone.
  • The co-founders have had success with same gender classrooms. 

What if anything is the board role in this area of the school? Where is the governance / management line?

·      Ultimately over the lifetime of the organization it will be the board’s decision to remain a single-sex institution.

·      Board members need to read up and better understand the single sex movement in this country and particularly in urban settings

·      Ideally it would be fantastic if the board could visit successful single-sex charter schools (and other types of schools) in NYC and Chicago

·      Other than that the means to deliver a high quality single sex program to young men in New Orleans is completely on the management team with the Board approving and monitoring annual goals. 

Key Issues / Questions to Discuss

·      Let’s continue to process out the potential issues our single-sex application is going to raise – both legally, politically, etc.

Updated

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