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At its May 12 meeting, the State Board of Education (State Board) adopted a methodology for calculating student growth for students in grades four through eight. The new “growth model” is based on the change in an individual student’s scores on the California Assessment of Progress and Performance (CAASPP) from the prior year to the target year.

June 14, 2021

This year, for the first time, Local Education Agencies (LEAs) must report local indicators on the California School Dashboard (Dashboard) to their governing boards in conjunction with Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) adoption. Local indicators now have particular significance to charter renewal decisions. Current statute requires authorizers to consider Dashboard state and local indicators, and, in many cases, “verified data.” As such, charter school leaders may want to consider local indicators through the lens of renewal.

June 08, 2021

Assemblymember O’Donnell moved his anti-charter legislation, AB 1316, to the Inactive File in yesterday’s Assembly floor session. This likely means the bill is “dead” for this calendar year, but technically could be taken up next year in the second year of the two-year legislative cycle. Meanwhile, budget committees in both houses of the Legislature reached an unusual, early agreement on a budget package with several significant differences relative to the Governor’s May Revise proposals.

June 04, 2021

The Assembly Education Committee heard and passed AB 1316 (O’Donnell—D, Long Beach) this morning. Among other provisions, this bill cuts funding for nonclassroom-based charter schools by 30 percent, triples the cap on school district oversight fees for all charter schools, and imposes a long list of burdensome mandates on charter schools.

April 28, 2021

Confusing recent guidance from the US Department of Education (USDE) and the California Department of Education (CDE) may shift how charter schools consider testing flexibility this spring. During the first week of April, the two departments articulated what strike many as different standards for test administration. 

April 15, 2021

CSDC recommends that charter schools strategically select testing options that ensure their school(s) can demonstrate growth in student achievement.

April 05, 2021

The Education Audit Appeals Panel (EAAP) released updated, “supplemental” audit guidelines intended to instruct auditors in their mandated reviews of K-12 public schools. This mandate was released through an emergency rulemaking process in response to sweeping changes to how all California public schools, including charter schools, track instruction time, attendance, and offer instruction in the 2020-21 school year.

March 31, 2021

The governor and Legislature reached accord over the weekend on a $6.5 billion school reopening package that will compel most schools to offer at least some form of in-person instruction starting April 1. The plan calls for prioritizing, but not requiring, vaccination of school staff as a condition of school reopening and partially softens some of the sharp corners in prior reopening proposals. 

March 01, 2021

Although more than half of states currently authorize vaccines for K-12 school staff and childcare workers, and keeping in mind that priority distribution is underway in more than 35 California counties, yesterday California health officials issued this new and cryptic guidance. 

February 26, 2021