Vol. 4, No. 48
November 26, 2002

* STANDARDS: Results from the latest National Geographic Survey reveal that Americans, ages 18-34, are geographically challenged. National Geographic surveyed young people in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Italy, and Sweden about their attitudes about geography, sources of information, and, most importantly, geographical knowledge. The news is not encouraging for the U.S., which placed second to last overall in geographic literacy, beating only Mexico. This follows revelations from the recent NAEP Geography study released in June that showed roughly half of all students in grades 4, 8 and 12 had only a basic knowledge of geography.

* CHARTERS: 

FLORIDA: Responding to competition and parents' desire for alternatives, the Miami-Dade County school board announced plans to open the district's first commuter elementary school. The school will be open to children in neighboring counties whose parents work in Miami. The district school will be Miami's second designed to serve students whose families work in the area. The first, the Downtown Miami Charter School, opened in September.

OHIO: Lawmakers have compromised on a charter school bill that, while not as expansive as its original version, will most definitely revitalize the state's charter school movement. The bill calls for several improvements to the current law, including the unique and unprecedented opportunity for all private, non-profit education organizations to authorize charter schools. Additionally, charter schools can now be created solely to serve gifted students and to provide single-gender instruction. A revolving load fund will be created to help charter leaders secure suitable facilities, and charters can now be created not only in the 21 urban districts, but also in 100 additional "watch" districts. Charter opponents fought hard to restrict the current law even further, by limiting sponsorship only to local districts and by tightening the cap. Despite the current lawsuit pending against the charter school law, it's encouraging to see that changes were made that will enable the further development and success of many more charter schools in Ohio.

ILLINOIS: A bill that will raise the charter school cap in Chicago will be presented to the Illinois legislature this week. SB 1240 is actually a labor bill that just happens to have a few charter school provisions inserted. The cap, which now stands at 15, will be raised to 30. This appears to be good news to Chicago reformers who have serious demand for charters but no open spaces. But with this one improvement comes several sacrifices: For example, the number and percentage of certified teachers in charter schools is raised even though certification is not a barometer of quality. Additionally, charters will now be restricted to one campus per charter. There is also language within the bill that puts a 2-year moratorium on charters from contracting with for-profit management companies.

WASHINGTON STATE: Charter school activists in Washington are cheering the final results of the election that puts charter-friendly Republicans in charge of the state senate with a one vote margin. For four years in a row, charter legislation that passed in the House was left for dead on the senate education committee's floor because its chair, Rosemary McAuliffe was a union-supported charter school opponent. Now a new chairperson will be elected to head the education committee, making it possible that the state of Washington can now become the 41st state in the nation to have a charter school law.

* SOLUTIONS TO THE BIG CITY COMMUNICATIONS PROBLEM: Last week we asked people to submit good suggestions for how New York City -- and others -- can get the word out to parents that there are "supplemental" or tutoring services available for children in schools that are failing. The number and quality of the responses were overwhelming and we're pleased to share with you some of the best recommendations we received. These are not only ways to inform parents and the community about tutoring, but also about their choices, period. The moral to this story is that there is no end to the good people can do when they put their minds together:

· Have churches announce it. Put up fliers where people hang out -- McDonald's, the Mall, Blockbusters, Welfare/Unemployment offices. Announce it at local sporting events. Tell businesses who employ teenagers about it. Have local TV and radio do public service announcements. Announcements at movies before the movie starts.

· In this day of technology, schools should be able to send system-wide communications either via phone mail systems, or electronic mail.

This would require schools to collect or use data from the emergency contact sheet (asking for best method of contact) email/phone, and be able to automate messages such as the tutoring offered in New York. It seems that the district databases could support something like this, as my daughter's district can circulate messages regarding registration, absences, and/or tardies through an automated system. The same should be true for email (sorting by grade, homeroom, etc.)

· Have the tutorial information distributed directly to the families through the social service organizations with whom so many of the eligible families are involved.

For example...Public Welfare can put notices in their Public Assistance check or better yet do a targeted mailing touting "Free Tutoring for Your Children" providing information on how a child can sign up for the assistance. You could even have the mailing sent out from the US Department of Education to all Welfare recipients touting the President's No Child Left Behind benefits for eligible families and kids.

Also...allow providers to do targeted mailings to eligible kids offering their services. School folks will say that the lists are confidential but...you don't have to give out the lists...have the school or social service organization process the mailing -- even allow vendors and providers to do joint mailings if they are interested...

· Reaching families with school information isn't just a problem in big city schools. I live in Napa and the teachers do a lousy job of informing parents of upcoming events. They depend on children to be postmen. I would suggest a number of methods including using the local congressman's ability to frank the mail and have his office send out notices with receipt verification to those with addresses. The other method is to deal with all of the issues around programs face-to-face with parents either prior to the start of school or when the child starts school (ASAP).

· Plan a day when parents are required to pick their kids up at school. Give them the notice then.

· I think that big city school systems can try to use all the available resource to get their message out to the parents. They can ask radio stations, local T.V, the News, newspapers, to announce these funds, as a public announcement, to tell their audience, if the parents want more information to call the schools their children go to. There so many ways to get parents informed that is a shame things like this happen.

· (1) Contact the parents directly. Have parents give contact information at the start of each year. Have them give one or two alternate names to contact.

(2) Have the neighborhood churches get involved in getting the word out. They help when it's time to vote -- why not for this?

The real solution is not having a deadline...Good Luck!

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