Two other Georgia public charter schools are also winners.
Atlanta, GA, September 5, 2012 – The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement has awarded the Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA) one of nine Race to the Top innovation grants. The grant will be shared with Lake Oconee Academy, a preK-7 public charter school in Greene County, GA.
GCSA’s winning proposal, Building the Pipeline of Highly Effective Charter Teachers and Leaders, establishes a collaboration between The Georgia Charter Schools Association and Lake Oconee Academy to attract, support and retain highly effective teachers and leaders in the charter school sector. Seventy aspiring educators per year, impacting more than 3,600 public charter school students will be reached over the course of the 2 year grant.
The initiative is designed to attract and retain strong teachers, improve succession planning, and address the unique programming needs of charter schools. The collaboration with Lake Oconee Academy will help to build a stronger pipeline of highly effective teachers and school leaders who will have an impact on student achievement.
GCSA has already pioneered a nationally recognized non-degree program called CharterLeader, designed to cultivate strong leadership in charter schools. “This initiative takes leadership training to a new level, adding in mentoring and coaching components where seasoned teachers at highly successful charter schools actively train and groom exceptional young teachers now entering the sector,” said Kelly Cadman, V.P. of School Services for GCSA.
The two other public charter school winners were:
Drew Charter School Partnership for Expansion – Drew Charter School, the Georgia Tech Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (GT CEISMC), the Georgia State University School of Music and others will expand Drew’s highly successful pre-K-8 STEAM curriculum to grades 9-12, creating a true cradle-to-college pipeline serving inner-city students.
Museum in a Box – The Museum School of Avondale Estates will work with Zoo Atlanta, the Georgia Aquarium, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, the Atlanta History Center and others to expand the school’s highly successful museum-based learning strategy to metro-area schools.
“All three of these grant awards demonstrate the innovative thinking that is coming out of Georgia’s public charter school sector,” said Tony Roberts, President and CEO of the Georgia Charter Schools Association. “We’re very proud that fully 30% of the winners in round three of Race to the Top were Georgia charter schools.”
