Funding will help drive quality and accountability in Pennsylvania charter schools The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools (PCPCS) announced today that it has received a $1.14 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation. The three-year grant was made with the goal of expanding efforts to drive quality and accountability in Pennsylvania charter schools, and [...] More »
Update from the Compact Committee - Meeting #9 Mar 30, 2012 The Committee addressed questions and concerns of charter schools relative to current charter modification and expansion policies. These included a lack of clarity about the timing and criteria for decisions on charter modification and inconsistencies in the criteria used to make modification decisions in recent [...] More »
The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools is very pleased to report that on April 3, 2012 the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld the March 4, 2011 decision of the Secretary of Education which previously awarded the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partner Charters School $1,253,225.82 in its enrollment cap dispute with the School District [...] More »
Meeting #8—March 14, 2012 1. The School District gave an update on the School Performance Index (SPI) appeals process, in response to concerns raised by charter schools regarding the latest SPI scores: a. Schools for which there are no parent or student surveys will receive an “N/A” for those items, a change that will alter the [...] More »
Joined by Philadelphia education, business and philanthropic leaders, Mayor Michael A. Nutter announced today that he and other education leaders have signed a historic agreement to increase the number of high-performing schools in the City. The Philadelphia Great Schools Compact unites the mayor, school district and charter school leaders in a bold, collaborative plan to focus [...] More »
After 14 years of operation and experience in Pennsylvania and from educators in 39 other states, we know what makes for high-performing charter schools – dedicated teachers, involved parents, individualized attention, exceptional curriculums, enlightened leadership, and strong authorizers. None of this is surprising, and with the exception of the strong authorizer, every one is identical [...] More »