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	<title>Charter School Monthly</title>
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	<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com</link>
	<description>Published by ReSolutions, your BEST source for Arizona charter school news...</description>
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		<title>Charter School News Roundup</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/charter-school-news-roundup-5/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/charter-school-news-roundup-5/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:12:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jan Krygier</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8234</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Congratulations to The STAR School in Flagstaff, one of just 8 charter schools and 78 schools nationwide to be named as 2012 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools. This first-ever award honors schools that “demonstrate compelling examples of the ways schools can help children build real-world skillsets, cut school costs, and provide healthy learning environments.” These schools have created “green” environments through reducing environmental impact, promoting health, and ensuring high-quality environmental and outdoor education. The STAR School is the first solar-powered charter school in the United States, serving students in pre-school through grade 8 who live in the Southwest corner of the Navajo Nation and the surrounding rural area. The only other Arizona school to be recognized as a Green Ribbon School is Roadrunner Elementary School in Phoenix. The Rose Academies’ superintendent, Kelly Hurtado, and director of Research, Innovation, &#38; Outreach, Dr. Amy Schlessman, presented April 17th at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association (AERA). Their “Comparison of State Alternative Education Policies and Frameworks” looks at the highest ranking six state models for alternative education accountability. AERA is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholoarly inquiry related to education and evaluation, and by promoting [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Help Wanted – Charter High School Looks to Its Students to Help Drive Hiring Process</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/help-wanted-%e2%80%93-charter-high-school-looks-to-its-students-to-help-drive-hiring-process/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/help-wanted-%e2%80%93-charter-high-school-looks-to-its-students-to-help-drive-hiring-process/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:11:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jan Krygier</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Features]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8237</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The group interview. The what-if scenarios. The psychological testing. The reference checks. The peer review. Any well-run charter school has no doubt employed at least some of these tools in its hiring process. But what about input from the school’s most important consumers? At IntelliSchool Charter High Schools, all potential job candidates must run perhaps the toughest gauntlet of all: an interview conducted…by the students. Involving students in the hiring process is a no-brainer, explained IntelliSchool sites coordinator Mick McElhinney in a recent interview. “It works twofold: It gives you input from the students on what they think and things they pick up on – and believe me, they perceive stuff that we miss – and it displays the prospective employee’s ability to relate to the students. There are some that look great on paper, and you get them in a room with teenagers and you find out, this just isn’t going to work, they’re uncomfortable.” To ensure diverse feedback McElhinney will draw on a wide cross-section of students to form interview teams at each of the charter high schools four sites, typically consisting of three students. “I threw it out to some kids I knew first of all,” McElhinney [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Helping Children Form Connections Through Field Trips – Part 2</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/helping-children-form-connections-through-field-trips-%e2%80%93-part-2/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/helping-children-form-connections-through-field-trips-%e2%80%93-part-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:10:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sandy Houston</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Features]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8240</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Editor’s note: This is part 2 of an article on the value of field trips for students. Part 1 ran in the April issue of the Charter School Monthly.] As a charter school director for many years I encouraged my staff to take field trips. In Montessori we refer to these excursions as “going out.” These excursions are wonderful ways to extend what is learned in school to the greater world outside our doors. They help children better understand their community by allowing them to experience learning firsthand and can open up new ideas and ways of thinking for children. One benefit of field trips that is often missed is the experience children have in expanding their connections to their environment and their community. In his book The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., describes a five-part process designed to help children develop into confident, secure, and happy adults. This cyclical process begins with feelings of connectedness to people, one’s community, and, in a larger sense, humankind. Hallowell believes that helping children form connections is the single most important thing we can do; it is the precursor to all other steps in the cycle. According to Hallowell, [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Superintendent Views</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/superintendent-views-5/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/superintendent-views-5/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:09:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Huppenthal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8246</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As the school year begins to wind down, it’s not too early for parents and summer school teachers to start thinking about how to engage students in reading activities throughout the summer. Research shows that the more a student reads, the more he or she becomes proficient at reading. A typical fifth-grade student who reads only one minute a day reads at the 10th percentile in proficiency, while the student who reads 20 minutes a day is at the 90th percentile. With this research in mind, I encourage school administrators and teachers to offer parents reading programs and reading lists for their children to ensure students are reading and intellectually involved all summer long. Library summer reading programs are another great resource available to families. In the coming months, I will continue to share with you more details on Arizona’s important education reforms, Arizona’s college- and career-ready standards, teacher and principal evaluations, and changes to the A-F school accountability model. We must all become agents of change as we prepare our students to be college and career ready with the skills they need to succeed in a 21st-century economy where the careers of tomorrow demand even greater flexibility, tech savvy, [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Don’t Neglect the Nice Kids</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/don%e2%80%99t-neglect-the-nice-kids/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/don%e2%80%99t-neglect-the-nice-kids/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:08:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>John Waddey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8249</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In most classrooms a teacher will be confronted by a variety of students who, if allowed, will demand virtually all of his or her time and attention. There are the undisciplined rowdies who create problems in class. These range from students who are noisy and interfere with your instruction to the troublemaker who is surly, a bully to other students, or aggressive toward you, the teacher. There are students who have absolutely no interest in learning. They are in school only because the law demands it. They are happy in their ignorance, and their parents are apparently also content for them to be that way. They pay no attention in class, they do not do homework. You could spend every class session with them, and they would remain stuck at the bottom. There are the students who have a need to be noticed by others. They are not mean or destructive, but they do keep others from learning. They are the pranksters, the talkers, the ones who attract attention by their cute little actions. There are students who are starved for attention and affection. They want and need all of your attention. They don&#8217;t think about the other 25 students [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Miracle Workers</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/miracle-workers/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/miracle-workers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:07:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Clement Czaja</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8252</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Because my stories and lectures tend to celebrate what is positive in life – and especially what is so wonder-filled about children, I tend to be thought of as somewhat “Pollyanna-ish” – not so! I am Polish, and I am an existentialist, but I don’t accept “Pollyanna-ish.” I have learned during all my years as an educator that personal love is not only about feelings. It is practical, very practical. The loving care I have for children (and for their elders as well) means putting up with their shortcomings and not feeling surprised when I see their weaknesses. After all, I know clearly that I too fall short and am at times weak. I am human, and so nothing human is strange to me. It is because I have learned that when I look coldly at my life of success and failure I am encouraged by my every finding of evidence of goodness still radiating there at my core. And so I guess it is easy for me to rejoice more than bemoan over the behavior of those who surround me. For when I look earnestly at them I always perceive a light shining out from their deep too – [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>A Year in the Life of a Charter School Director…Policy Teamwork Pays Off</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-charter-school-director%e2%80%a6policy-teamwork-pays-off/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-charter-school-director%e2%80%a6policy-teamwork-pays-off/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:06:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Betsy Fera</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8255</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I want to celebrate a major milestone this month! At the beginning of the school year, my administrative team (director of finance, secondary principal, and elementary principal) met to set our team’s goals for the year. One of those goals was to revise our school policy – long overdue! I didn’t realize what we were getting into when we set the goal, but nonetheless we charged ahead and planned out the entire process. It turned out to be one of the greatest on-the-job trainings and team-building experiences so far this year. Our first step was to reach out to the Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA) and have them send us our old policy with all of the potential changes we needed. When I received the documents back after a few weeks, I began to realize that this would not take just a few meetings but rather would be a long process of reading old policy, referring to new or revised policy, and making sure our team was on the same page in understanding of the policy. We mapped out several meetings at school but quickly realized that this was ineffective due to the many interruptions that occur during the day. [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-charter-school-director%e2%80%a6policy-teamwork-pays-off/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<title>Association Update</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/association-update-5/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/association-update-5/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:05:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eileen Sigmund</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8264</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Starting a charter school is a rigorous process that requires a team effort, diverse skills and talents, commitment, and hard work. A gap exists between skilled teams ready to apply for a charter and aspiring leaders with the talent to build those teams. That’s why we have partnered with Teach for America and the Arizona Department of Education to create the Aspiring Leaders Fellowship, designed for educators passionate about closing the achievement gap in low-income communities. The six-month fellowship, beginning in June, will help highly motivated leaders develop the skills and networks to start their own high-performing schools in low-income neighborhoods. Using evenings and weekends to allow participants to continue their current work or study, Fellows will attend workshops and site visits at some of the best urban charter schools throughout the country in order to develop their vision for an effective school model. There is no fee to participate, and most travel expenses are covered. Candidates for the Aspiring Leaders Fellowship will enter the program at all levels of readiness, from curious aspiring leader to committed founding leader, and end the program having crafted a vision for their own schools. Fellows will graduate from the program with skills and [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Employee Interviews and the Discrimination “Minefield”</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/employee-interviews-and-the-discrimination-%e2%80%9cminefield%e2%80%9d/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/employee-interviews-and-the-discrimination-%e2%80%9cminefield%e2%80%9d/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:04:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jill K. Osborne</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8267</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The interview process is one of the best ways to gain knowledge about future employees. Typical interview questions will measure applicants’ abilities, their qualifications, and whether they have the necessary skills to be successful in your charter school organization. An interviewer must be aware that federal and state laws limit the questions that can be asked during an interview, in an effort to prevent discrimination in the hiring process. As an employer, it is important to know which questions can be asked and which subjects should be avoided. Marital/Parental Status During an interview, an applicant should not be asked about marital or parental status. These questions include talking about pregnancies or family planning, familial obligations, or relationship status. Problematic inquiries include questioning whether applicants are married, divorced, single, separated, or if they have children. Although the intention behind these questions might be to gauge the commitment level of the potential employee, the question could also force applicants to reveal their marital status or sexual orientation, which have been areas of contention in discrimination claims. National Origin and Race Employers are not authorized to ask about the nationality of an applicant but may ask if an applicant is authorized to work [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/employee-interviews-and-the-discrimination-%e2%80%9cminefield%e2%80%9d/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<title>The Education Innovation Summit 12: Down with Incrementalism, Up with Innovation</title>
		<link>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/the-education-innovation-summit-12-down-with-incrementalism-up-with-innovation/</link>
		<comments>http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/2012/05/01/the-education-innovation-summit-12-down-with-incrementalism-up-with-innovation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 12:03:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ted Kraver</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.charterschoolmonthly.com/?p=8270</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Education Innovation Summit 12 at ASU SkySong was an outstanding success. The dozens of sponsors, 100 presenting companies, and a host of investors and venture capitalists brought the attendance to 800. The annual Summit has shown about 50 percent year-over-year growth since 2010. The rich depth of presenters included Jeb Bush, founder and chairman of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education and former Florida governor; Jim Shelton, U.S. Department of Education; Susan Patrick, president and CEO, International Association for K-12 Online Learning; Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University; Michael Crow, ASU president; Michael Horn, co-founder and executive director of the Education practice, Innosight Institute; Michael Moe, co-founder of GSV Asset Management and GSV Advisors; Michael Milken, chairman of the Milken Institute…you get the drift. Hats off to Julia Rosen, associate vice provost, ASU Online and her staff and Michael Moe. Innovation has replaced reform as a means to improve education. We have been reforming education since the 1970s with little impact on academic performance. According to Michael Crow, it’s time for massive change. And he is right. Down with incrementalism and up with bold [...]]]></description>
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