In partnership with Charter Choices and the attorneys that are members of our Legal Advisory Council, the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools (PCPCS) is hosting this training VIRTUALLY so that we may be directly involved in the accountability and success of all Pennsylvania charter schools.

The training is free of cost for PCPCS members. There will be a $80 per person cost for non-PCPCS members to attend. If a school would like to have an on-site training, the cost is $500 for 2 hours or $1,000 for 4 hours.

If you are unsure if your school is a PCPCS member or not, please contact Brandie Karpew.

This event will take place Wednesday, October 21, 2020, from 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM.

A ZOOM link will be provided in your registration confirmation.

Click here for more information and to register for ACT 55 Board Training.

The rules have changed, but student needs are bigger than ever. At a time when your school has to adapt to a whole new teaching paradigm, how can you expand enrollment and grow your school? In this webinar we’ll explore enrollment strategies to help you thrive in a virtual environment, and the funding tricks to get you there.

Click here to view a recording of Achieve Growth in a Virtual Environment: Enrollment Marketing & Funding Growth in this Weird and Wacky Time.

We know. 2020 has been a challenging year. We’ve all had to adapt to the societal changes that have resulted from COVID-19 and we’ll most likely have to continue to adapt throughout the school year as new information about COVID-19 emerges. Is your reading program flexible enough to give you the results you need? Does it offer teachers a quick and efficient way to assess their students at any point in time? Does it allow for personalized instruction—anywhere—so that students can learn from home and school? Does it offer a level of engagement that will keep students focused and on task, regardless of what challenges they encounter at home and at school?
Join us to learn more about Reading Plus, an adaptive literacy program proven to help students achieve 2.5 years of growth in just 60 hours of personalized instruction. Reading Plus has been implemented by 200 charter schools in 27 states, serving 50,000 students.

“Agora has looked for a reading supplemental program to meet the needs of middle and high school students for years. After reviewing students’ success using Reading Plus with a pilot group of high school students, we expanded this exemplary program across all students in grades 6-12 as our benchmarking tool and supplemental program to support intervention and enrichment instruction. Reading Plus is engaging for students, provides teachers with meaningful resources to support differentiated instruction, and has tools to promote student accountability.”  

Click here for more information and to register for Does Your Reading Program Have Enough Flex?

School leaders are charged with ensuring that instruction, policy, practice, and culture work to support the success of all students. Yet, frequently, data show that sub-populations of students continue to struggle. In this session, we will unpack the ways in which school leaders can review their current practices and procedures to ensure that all students are receiving equitable support and resources. We will review the process of conducting an equity audit to ascertain current opportunity gaps as well as how to develop an equity agenda that comprehensively supports underperforming student groups and increases student achievement. There’s the potential for equity audits to be all-consuming for schools to undertake, if they address multiple areas, such as instruction, curriculum, human capital, professional development, etc. This session will work to simplify the process for schools; school leaders will identify those areas that are most critical and develop a process for working through each area, before moving on to the next (if necessary). Equally important is the movement from audit to equity agenda – of putting into action what was uncovered. Ideally, this equity agenda is embedded within the school’s strategic or improvement plan and becomes part of the day-to-day for the school leader and her colleagues.This session will also address the cyclical nature of this work – of the need to regularly reassess progress of an equity agenda, to conduct new audits that identify new data to be collected, and to identify new action steps from the audit and data collected.

Click here for more information and to register for The Equity Audit and Closing Opportunity Gaps.

This session can be taken to fulfill the advanced, two-hour training required by Act 55 for experienced board members! If you have any questions about the requirement, contact Brandie Karpew.

Mission imperatives, budgetary demands, operational realities, and political pressures routinely compel successful charter operators to scale their proven models. Too frequently, however, operators struggle to maintain quality as they grow. As operators attempt to reconcile fidelity of implementation with responsiveness to shifting circumstances, they risk diluting the efficacy of their existing programming and diminishing the overall caliber of a community’s educational landscape. In this interactive session, participants will explore the competing considerations that operators face when contemplating growth and will develop a critical understanding of how research can inform efforts to meet demand without compromising quality.

Click here for more information and to register for Attaining Scale Without Sacrificing Quality

Since 1974 and the United States Supreme Court decision in Lau v. Nichols, public educators should understand that EL students if they cannot understand what is being taught – are not being provided with an equal education. Presenters will discuss the how and whys of true and successful implementation – equality means meaningful engagement and interventions which includes culturally responsive measures, socio-emotional supports, along with acquisition goals across all academic subjects. There will also be a discussion regarding the provision of equity with the EL population in a cyber environment. Presenters will provide participants with the legal framework which informs compliance with EL mandates including Office of Civil Rights guidances, the Equal Educational Opportunity Act, Title III, the Every Student Succeeds Act, etc. Finally, the presenters will discuss how the ever-evolving dialogue on immigration EL students and their families in terms of adverse consequences and how schools can be student-centered in terms of resources and response.

Click here for more information and to register for Coming to America: The EL Experience in the 21st Century.