Charters in the News

Prepare, Perform, Progress…“A training program for aspiring teachers who are seeking to enter the teaching profession.”

We regret the unfortunate instance of alleged financial mismanagement that has reportedly taken place at Latin Academy in Atlanta. After speaking with several members of the school’s governing board, the Georgia Charter Schools Association is confident that students and academics at the school did not suffer as a result of the mismanagement. We congratulate Latin Academy’s board for swiftly launching a full-scale investigation, which uncovered the alleged fraudulent financial dealings at the hands of its former school leader. This underscores the importance of having properly trained school governance boards at every Georgia charter school. Those boards need to be well trained and fully involved in all aspects of school and financial oversight.

The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement has just selected Drew Charter School as a recipient of its “Fiscal Year 2016 Innovation Fund Grant Award.” The school will receive a $700,000 implementation grant for a project that aims to eliminate summer learning loss, increase teachers’ content knowledge, support more rigorous and creative project-based learning and accelerate students’ skill development.

The Georgia Charter Schools Association is writing this open letter to express our deep concern regarding the new charter policy adopted by the DeKalb County School Board on September 14, 2015. We believe the district’s new policy is at odds with the State Board of Education and could be in violation of state law. We’re also fearful this signals decreasing support for start-up charter schools at a time when the district wants to become a charter system.

As the calendar runs down to the opening days of school, many are asking where Georgia’s newest startup charter schools will be opening?

The Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA) has released four Impact Papers that explore some of the ways charter schools have changed educational outcomes, policies and attitudes in the state of Georgia.

Increasingly, Georgia voters express support for public charter schools. The more voters learn about what charter schools are and how they operate, the greater the support, regardless of the voters’ political party affiliation, race, gender, or age.

Nearly 2,000 Georgia public school students – most of whom are minorities – are learning in single-gender classrooms that use research on the emotional, physical and intellectual development of children to create a culture and curriculum that inspires students to achieve. These creative same-sex classrooms are housed in urban public charter schools in metro Atlanta.

One of the great education stories in Georgia has been the success of a distinguished group of charter schools dedicated to serving low and mixed-income students. This includes schools focused on closing the achievement gap for low-income students, like KIPP. It also includes schools with missions to educate diverse, mixed-income populations, such as Drew Charter School, Kindezi, and Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School. These and other high-performing charter schools have provided a path to success for thousands of low-income students in Georgia.

One of the most innovative developments in American education during the last decade has been the reconceptualization of school districts and how they should be organized and managed. Neerav Kingsland, former CEO of New Schools for New Orleans, described this as a movement of “relinquishers.”

In May 2015, GCSA presented to Dr. Charles Knapp, chair of the Education Reform Commission’s Funding Committee. Susan Andrews, Director for Education Reform for the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, and two members of the Funding Committee were also present.

On May 4 2015, GCSA and other education advocates were asked to make a presentation to the School Choice Subcommittee of Georgia’s Education Reform Commission. GCSA’s president and CEO, Dr. Tony […]