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Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools President, Bill Sims, briefs Columbus City Mayor Michael Coleman and City Council President Andrew Ginther on charter schools in Ohio, their relative place nationally and their role in education reform and innovation, November 1, 2012.  Video of the briefing is HERE and a copy of the PowerPoint presentation is HERE.

At this year's State Charter School Conference at the Greater Columbus Convention Center Michelle Rhee of StudentsFirst joined Ohio Alliance president Bill Sims in conversation about the importance of challenging conventional thinking when it comes to public education and how critical it is for education stakeholders to be earnest in making sure that what we do is genuinely in the best interests of students.  She also reminded the charter school audience of how important it is to be proactive in the political and policymaking arena.

 Also keynoting the event was Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). Richmond praised Ohio for its progress in addressing quality issues in the charter school sector, encouraging Ohio’s charter community to continue to demonstrate leadership  through quality initiatives.

 The 2012 Charter School Teacher of the Year award went to Lynnly Wood, KIPP Journey Academy; and, the 2012 School Leader of the Year award went to Chad Carr, Columbus Preparatory Academy.  Congratulations Chad and Lynnly!

Each year over the past six years, the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools has done an analysis of Ohio’s community school value-added results, comparing their growth results to the growth results of district schools in geographic proximity in the so-called “Big-Eight” urban districts. Excepting e-schools, the “Big Eight” urbans are the territorial grounds in which community schools are allowed to operate in Ohio.  This year’s analysis (2011-2012) is now available on our website.

Breakthrough Schools, working with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, has transformed the former Arthur Roth and Woodland Hills schools into part of its network of public charter schools.

"We are just extremely excited to go into a neighborhood, literally and figuratively take the boards off of closed schools and reopen it as a high performing school for kindergarten through 8th, and be a rock in this community," said Chris O'Brien, Head of School at E-Prep Woodland Hills.

He says the new schools will replicate the successful model of the Breakthrough Schools, which has been developed over more than ten years.  See the video and full article.