Creating a charter school to meet students', teachers', and parents' needs.

The 2005 Annual Theme issue of Childhood Education focused on schools that students and teachers deserve. Guest Editor Sue Grossman located too many excellent articles on that important topic to include in one issue. Therefore, she will continue to provide these theme-related articles, here and in, a future issue.

"These are they who have come from the great tribulation and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

This quote appears above what was the altar area of the former St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Buffalo, New York. Over 110 years after it was constructed, the church building now houses one of the first charter schools in western New York state, educating 105 inner-city children. Although the school has no religious affiliation, the I quote describes the way many feel about the nurturing and support I children and their families receive as they enter the building. The following article describes a real community effort and collaboration that resulted in a positive learning environment for children, teachers, and families in one of the most economically disadvantaged sections of the city of Buffalo.

In 1985, the Diocese of Buffalo announced its decision to tear down the church building. Robert Kresse, a member of the parish, heard the outcry from the community to save the historic building, and he set about raising the funds for restoration while working with the community to define a reuse for the building. As groups met to discuss possible reuse, the most common request was for more effective educational opportunities. Under Kresse's leadership, the King Urban Life Center, consisting of a group of community leaders and neighborhood residents, initiated the restoration and renovation work and began to address education concerns. In 1993, a pilot project with Buffalo Public School No. 90 began a dynamic relationship among college and university faculty and administrators, public school teachers and administrators, parents, students, and community members. As in most urban areas, a majority of the students in this east side Buffalo neighborhood were not acquiring the skills needed for long-term academic success nor the social skills they would need later in their working lives. Many parents were not involved in their children's schooling because of their feelings of disenfranchisement and alienation concerning their own educational experiences. Teachers often seemed like pawns in the struggles between their union and the school board, with little power to determine how to meet the needs of students. Administrators often struggled to satisfy teaching staff as well.

The pilot project at Buffalo Public School No. 90 attempted to involve parents more fully, extend the school day and the school year, hold instructional staff accountable, and engage the community more. None of these efforts succeeded, primarily as a result of bureaucratic challenges. The hope of creating a holistic educational program required a more flexible governance structure, one that became a possibility when the New York state legislature passed charter school legislation in 1998.

After years of trying to create a developmentally appropriate learning environment, the King Urban Life Center chose to support the development of a charter school to be housed in the newly renovated former church building. The King Center Charter School was approved by State University of New York trustees in January 2000 and opened its doors to 80 students in August of 2000. The original applicants for the charter included the retired principal of BPS No. 90, community representatives, a parent from the neighborhood, higher education faculty and administrators, and a representative of a local foundation.

What It Means To Be a Charter School in New York State

Charter schools are public schools that operate under a contract, or "charter." The expectation is that these schools will meet the terms of their charter or face closure by their authorizing bodies. As public schools, charter schools also must meet the accountability requirements of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).

Each year, King Center Charter School is required to submit an Accountability Progress Report to the Charter Schools Institute (CSI), which was created by the SUNY Board of Trustees to assist in fulfilling their responsibilities as an approval board under the Charter Schools Act. In addition, each year, representatives from CSI and the state department of education visit the school and conduct on-site observations and interviews to ensure that all students are actively engaged in learning. During the third and fifth year of operation, an intense evaluation occurs; a team of educators, along with CSI staff, spend three days observing in classrooms, and interviewing teachers, students, parents, board members, and staff. These data are used extensively in making the renewal decision.

Key People in the Life of Our School

Governing Board. The King Center Charter School Board of Directors actively seeks information from staff and parents. Besides educators, a lawyer, and business people, the board also includes a teacher and two parent representatives. In addition, parents and teachers are frequently invited to speak to the board about special topics in an effort to keep the board fully informed.

As a result of the fifth-year evaluation at King Center Charter School, the board recently created three committees to provide a more thorough governance structure for the school. The committees include an Education Committee, charged to work closely with the school director in making curricular and instructional decisions; a Policy and Procedures Committee, charged with overseeing the legal functioning of the school; and a Finance Committee, charged with overseeing the budget to ensure fiscal stability.

Students. The school has grown to serve 105 students in grades K-4. Ninety-three percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch. Currently, 17 students are identified with special needs, and a full-time special education teacher and a part-time speech teacher ensure that all additional activities are coordinated with the regular classroom teachers.

The King Center Charter School has two unique features built into its admission policy: 1) a two-tier lottery system, which reserves 70 percent of all new admissions for children whose families qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch, and 2) an early admissions program, in which 3- and 4-year-olds are admitted one or two years prior to their actual enrollment.

Our early admissions program makes it possible to offer a school readiness program to 2- to 4-year-olds. Parents may choose to participate in the Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP, a national model), a home-based school readiness program in which home visitors spend two 30-minute sessions each week with children, introducing essential literacy skills through an educational toy or a book. Support for the program is provided from local foundations and the Tower Foundation.

Each year, PCHP serves about 32 families. The opportunity to work with children and their families in their homes, beginning when the children are 2 or 3 years old, makes us hopeful for the future success of our students. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the program, the nine kindergarten students who had participated in the PCHP during the 2003-04 period outscored the 11 kindergarten students who had not participated in the program by 10 points on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. They maintained this advantage through the school year.

Staff. The King Center teaching staff includes five classroom teachers (K-4), five assistant teachers (four of whom are certified), a full-time reading coach, a fulltime technology coordinator and assistant, a full-time special education teacher, a part-time speech teacher, and part-time specialists (including a library coordinator, and a health and fitness teacher). Staffing for assistant teachers and specialists has been made possible through an Urban Teacher AmeriCorps Program, coordinated through the West Seneca Youth Bureau and Houghton College.

King Center Charter School hires classroom teachers who are certified by the state of New York. The school also has hired certified teachers for four of the five assistant teacher positions over the past two years. We believe that it is essential for staff members to agree with the philosophy of the school. During our operation, some teachers have been removed from the program due to their inability to deliver a developmentally appropriate early childhood program.

In addition to teaching staff, we have several specialists who manage many of the other school functions. These include a home connection coordinator, a research/special projects director, and a part-time nurse. The University at Buffalo School of Nursing also provides a nurse practitioner/professor, who places her students here for a weekly practicum. They complete physicals for those students who need them, and provide healthy living classes for our students and teachers.

Parents. Our Home Connection Program was created to provide access to resources for families in need. The home connection coordinator is available to meet with parents to discuss any issues that may prevent their child from being successful in school. Such issues frequently include being homeless, not having adequate food or clothing, or parents' financial problems. The school also provides immediate holistic support to families in the case of such calamities as a family losing their possessions in a fire.

In addition, our school places a high value on parent involvement in the education of their children. Activities include: parent/teacher conferences, which are held three times a year; parent involvement in homework projects; and various volunteering opportunities at school. Parent participation at conferences is very high, averaging 93 percent over the past two years. At conferences, parents are able to view multimedia portfolios to gauge their children's reading and speaking skills, which helps spur further parent participation. Many parents express eagerness to come to conferences to see the updated entries in their children's portfolios, and many believe that such an authentic look at their children's progress, and the teachers' mediation of the reading and speaking samples, gives them the opportunity to better help their children at home.

Community Partners. The school also benefits from the collaboration of the following community partners: The Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Museum of Science, Houghton College, Buffalo State College, Canisius College, WNED Public Television Station, the West Seneca Youth Bureau AmeriCorps Program, and the Center for Applied Technology in Education (CATE).

Creating the Environment for Teaching and Learning

Since the school occupies a historic building, many of the distinctive architectural features were retained, from the stained glass windows to the massive vaulted ceilings to the choir loft. In this unique setting, classroom spaces are defined by eight-foot walls; the design creates a sense of permanence within an adapted space. The building was awarded a Silver Citation in the American School & University Educational Interiors Showcase, and received the Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects Exemplary Learning Environment Program. Since the walls do not completely enclose separate classrooms, teachers use wireless microphones feeding into directional speakers so they can be easily heard by their students without disturbing other classes.

Creating/Adapting a Curriculum That Meets All Children's Needs

Social/Emotional Development. The King Center Charter School believes that besides needing strong academic development in all subject areas, students also need well-developed social and emotional skills. Consequently, the school has been implementing the Responsive Classroom model, a program developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children. This approach to teaching and learning fosters safe, challenging, and joyful classrooms. Through practical strategies, the program brings children's social and academic learning together throughout the day. Students' social development is measured each year by the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990), based on student, teacher, and parent ratings; interventions are provided when necessary.

Academic Learning Experiences. Our holistic approach to education incorporates a variety of learning experiences, designed to meet the diverse needs of our at-risk students. Being a small charter school, we can offer small class sizes with a classroom teacher and an assistant teacher. The curriculum is academically rigorous and developmentally appropriate, with lots of hands-on and exploratory activities.

We made several improvements in our curriculum after evaluating the program reflection at the end of the third year. The math/science program was improved by creating content grids utilizing the New York State Learning Standards and designating content to be taught at each grade level. These became official tools to measure students' math and science progress, ensuring that all requirements are taught in an appropriate developmental sequence. Teachers and assistant teachers continuously plan their lessons to utilize hands-on activities and higher level thinking skills that are based on the grid. Instruction is differentiated through a variety of student grouping formats. Children identified as having difficulties with initial instruction receive immediate intensive intervention.

In the fourth year of operation, the school received the Reading First Grant, which made it possible to provide children with high-quality, scientifically based reading programs. Students' progress is continuously measured by the reading coach and the teachers. Such ongoing progress monitoring makes it possible to provide immediate intensive or strategic interventions for students in need.

Technology Integration. Each classroom is equipped with the latest computer and video technology; therefore, students and teachers really do have the opportunity to apply higher order thinking skills. In addition to utilizing software programs, the King Center recently has partnered with the local public television station to explore more effective use of technology to deliver rich, standards-based lessons. A full-time technology coordinator and an assistant make sure that the technology is appropriately integrated into the everyday curriculum.

Assessment. Although we had wanted to stay away from standardized tests, over the years we learned that the existence of our school basically depends on high standardized test scores--such as the 4th-grade New York State Test scores in ELA, math, and science, as well as the TerraNova scores for grades 1-3. As Table 1 indicates, our school faced a major challenge in its efforts to remain developmentally appropriate and focus on the social/emotional needs of our students while providing the necessary academic rigor for our at-risk students. While we have been criticized regarding the achievement of our students, we always knew that real change takes time. We have remained true to our philosophy and continue to believe that our work will pay off in the future.

The academic success of our students, as demonstrated on standardized tests, is testament to the dedication of teachers, students, and parents. Our academic and social/emotional growth earned the respect of not only the educational community, but also most everyone who has worked with children at or below the poverty line.

Additional Learning Opportunities for Children

The school provides a variety of expanded opportunities for learning after school, including on Saturdays and in the summer. Outstanding programs have introduced students to local cultural organizations and to global educational experiences through distance-learning technology. Our students have been recognized beyond the school for their artistic and writing ability. Two students won a regional poster art contest; our school received a gift of $1,000 and the poster was displayed on billboards around Buffalo and then featured on an electronic billboard in Times Square. For the past three years, the school's 4th-graders have been recognized as 1st- or 2nd-place winners for their essays on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Six Steps to Nonviolence, a contest sponsored by the New York State Commissioner of Child and Family Services.

What Does It Mean for Us To Be a Charter School?

The Principal's Thoughts. The King Center Charter School has been an extraordinarily exciting place to be over the past five years. Our goal of developing a caring community of learners proved a more difficult task than we had imagined. However, our commitment to make no excuses (never blame the children and parents), but rather to assume responsibility for finding "another way," helped us stay focused on the whole child while working toward our goal of helping all children learn. We have found ways to balance social and emotional development with the pursuit of academic success as defined by classroom performance and standardized test scores. The flexible governance structure of the charter school has allowed me to surround myself with a staff totally committed to helping all children learn and willing to invest the time as well as the emotional and creative energy necessary to make that happen. We rejoice in the challenge and opportunity to maintain this dynamic caring community of learners that the King Center Charter School has become.

Imagine a school with only five classrooms being observed over a three-day period during the fifth-year evaluation. The teachers and students were under a microscope; however, they functioned in a fairly normal manner, even though the observers were coming and going and teachers were leaving their classrooms for prescheduled hour-long interviews. Parents and board members showed great commitment to the school as they arranged their schedules to participate in afternoon or evening sessions. When it was over, we agreed that it had been a challenging experience, but we had been propelled to new levels of commitment as teachers. We complimented the students on their performance during the observations. In many ways, we renewed our collective commitments to the school, agreeing to learn from the written documentation that was to follow the on-site evaluation visit.

The Grade 1 Teacher's Thoughts: The most appealing attribute of this school is its respect for the teachers' point of view. Teachers are involved in decisions about school practices, routines, curriculum, and scheduling. Teachers are encouraged to speak candidly about what works and what does not. Teachers are also given the freedom to utilize creative approaches to academics and classroom management. Our school has made a commitment to teacher salaries as well, which are comparable to the traditional Buffalo Public School System pay scale. I was a teacher in a Buffalo public school for 13 years, which was a moderately successful school. I made my decision to accept a position in the charter school over my tenured and union-supported position because I saw a unique opportunity to meet the needs of children. I have always been committed to supporting and nurturing urban and minority students. Smaller class sizes and a full-time assistant in each classroom were additional elements considered in my choice. I now teach 21 students in Grade 1 with a full-time assistant, rather than 30 with barely a part-time one. Such a change means individualized and consistent instruction, which is imperative for the wide range of student abilities and deficiencies characterized by children from urban, low-income communities. In addition, teacher stress levels have decreased, which means more positive energy directed to children. Teachers constantly receive professional development opportunities based on needs and are encouraged to remain reflective about their practices.

A Parent's Thoughts: My opinion about the school as a whole is very positive, and I would recommend the school to anyone. I believe that the teachers and the staff do an admirable job of putting together a curriculum that facilitates and is geared towards each individual student's learning and individual needs. The parent/teacher conferences are always extremely helpful because they not only evaluate our children but also help us, the parents, assist our children in achieving their educational and social goals.

Two Students' Thoughts: I like it at the King Center because we have nice teachers and they teach us lots of things that we can know for the rest of our lives. They care for us and they are nice. There are nice children here. And everybody at the King Center is very kind.

It is an honor. You can make lots of friends. You can go to the playground. And the teachers give you hard and challenging questions. When we went to Houghton College Math Camp, we learned some really hard math and I learned to do complicated problems.

Conclusion

During the King Center Charter School's five years of existence, the school has evolved into a unique 21st century laboratory school, soliciting meaningful parental involvement to help close the achievement gap for our students. As indicated, students' academic achievement and social/ emotional competency have increased over the years, and we are hopeful that they will continue to improve enabling all of our children to be successful in their further schooling and later on in their lives.

Reference

Gresham, F. M., & Elliott, S. N. (1990). Social skills rating system. Circle Pines. MN: AGS.

Online Resources:

King Urban Life Center: www.kingurbanlifecenter.org

King Center Charter School: www.kingcentercharterschool.org

The Parent-Child Home Program: www.parent-child.org

Charter School Leadership Council: www.charterschoolleadershipcouncil.org

Online Support for Social/ Emotional Development:

Responsive Classroom: www.responsiveclassroom.org

American Guidance Services: (Social Skills Rating System): www.agsnet.com

Online Support for Reading Development:

Reading First: www.ed.gov/programs/readingfirst/ index.html

Waterford Early Reading Program: www.pearsondigital.com/waterford or www.waterford.org

Claity P. Massey is Principal/Executive Director, King Center Charter School, Buffalo, New York. Judit Szente is Assistant Professor of Early Childhood, University of Central Florida, Orlando. Carol A. Stewart is Grade 1 Teacher/Assistant Principal, King Center Charter School, Buffalo, New York.

Student Achievement Scores Over the Years

Test             First Year of   Percentage  Most Recent     Percentage
                 Administration  Proficient  Administration  Proficient

NYS Fourth       2002            11%         2005            59%
Grade ELA

NYS Fourth       2002            5%          2005            88%
Grade Math

NYS Fourth       2002            16%         2004 *          76%
Grade Science

TerraNova        2004            63%         2005            83%
Grades 1-3
ELA

TerraNova        2004            44%         2005            85%
Grades 1-3
Math

* 2005 scores have not yet beers released.