Two charter schools with reputations for strong academic performance and two sponsors touting model formats that have succeeded elsewhere in the country are seeking authorization to expand or launch new programs in Delaware.
They are among the eight proposals filed with the Charter School Office of the State Department of Education by this week's Jan. 2 deadline. These proposals will be the first to be subjected to a revised application and review process approved in September by the State Board of Education.
Since the passage of legislation in 1995 enabling the creation of charters as independent public schools, their number and impact in Delaware has grown steadily. There are currently 22 charter schools in the state (three authorized by the Red Clay Consolidated Board of Education, the rest by the State Board of Education), enrolling 9,584 students, about 8.4 percent of the state’s public school population. Three more charters had been approved to open for the 2013-14 school year, but all of them now plan to delay their openings until the fall of 2014, according to John Carwell, the state Department of Education’s charter schools officer.
Kuumba Academy, an elementary school program on Market Street in downtown Wilmington, is requesting approval to launch a middle school, adding a sixth grade class in September 2013 and seventh and eighth grades in the following two years.
The MOT Charter School, a K-8 program in Middletown, desires to add a high school that would model its academic programs on those offered by the Charter School of Wilmington and the Cab Calloway School of the Arts, which currently share space in the old Wilmington High School building. If approved, the MOT Charter high school would open in the fall of 2014.
Organizers of two high schools based on successful national models are also seeking authorization to open in the fall of 2014. Both had filed applications last year for anticipated 2013 openings but withdrew their requests after evaluators found shortcomings in their plans.
Camera by Karl Malgiero. Edited by Benjamin Szmidt.
WDDE talks with Scott Kidner of the First State Military Academy.
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The First State Military Academy, to be located in the Smyrna area, would incorporate the discipline of a Junior ROTC program, much like the Delaware Military Academy charter near Wilmington, with the “New Tech” concept of project-based learning, which emphasizes technology and partnerships with local businesses.
The Delaware MET High School, which is scouting locations in downtown Wilmington, would offer a “Big Picture” learning model originally developed at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Providence, R.I. Students devote three days a week in classroom activities and two days in internships with local businesses associated with their career interests.
First State Military and Delaware MET sponsors have developed their plans with the support of Innovative Schools, a nonprofit resource center in Wilmington that identifies successful school models nationwide and works with local educators to replicate them in Delaware.
Also being filed with the Charter School Office are proposals for the Delaware Design Lab High School, the Pike Creek Charter Middle School, the Academy of Dover and the Gateway Lab School, The Design Lab high school, to be located in Wilmington, would incorporate the discipline and creativity inherent in design work into its curriculum. The middle school, which expects to be housed in the Delaware Swim and Fitness Center of Pike Creek, would enhance its curriculum with additional classes and activities focused on healthy lifestyles and good nutrition. Academy of Dover is proposing to add a fifth grade program to its K-4 school and Gateway Lab School is seeking to incorporate an at-risk population at its school.
Shot and edited by Karl Malgiero.
WDDE talks with Cristina Alvarez, Founder and CEO of the Delaware Design Lab High School
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Kendall Massett, executive director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network, said she was excited by the applications. “The expansions will add more high quality seats, increasing the number of excellent educational choices for Delaware’s children, and the new applications embody what charter schools are all about, whether it is modeling after a proven successful school or offering new and innovative ideas,” she said. “These applications, if approved, represent what could be a significant step forward for the public school system here in Delaware.”
The Charter School Office will review submissions and hold preliminary meetings with applicants in January. After a series of meetings, responses to questions and reports in February and March, public hearings on each application will be held the week of April 14. The State Board of Education is scheduled to vote May 16 on which applicants will be granted charters.
Here are some highlights of the charter proposals:
Kuumba Academy, which now enrolls 249 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, wants to create a middle school program by phasing in sixth, seventh and eighth grades, starting in 2013, said Sally Maldonado, the head of school. Kuumba has been approved to use space in the Community Education Building, which will become home to three or four charter schools in Wilmington when it opens in 2014. When it relocates, the school plans to boost enrollment to about 855, from preschool through eighth grade, Maldonado said. To accommodate the sixth grade next year, some classes will be held at the nearby Christina Cultural Arts Center, she said.
The middle school curriculum will build on an arts focus as well as Singapore math programs that have been successful at the elementary level and add an “expeditionary learning model” that emphasizes group work on projects, enabling students to dig deeply into a topic while integrating learning in math, reading, social studies and science.
MOT Charter, which now has 644 students in its K-8 program, plans to launch a high school program in 2014. It would eventually serve about 720 students, according to Head of School Linda Jennings. To reach that level, it would have to attract about 100 students per year beyond the number served in its elementary school program.
“We will not be a big, comprehensive high school,” Jennings said, but there will be no skimping on academics. Students would select either an “Academy of the Arts” or an “Academy of Science and Technology,” with course offerings similar to those at the Cab Calloway School of the Arts and the Charter School of Wilmington, she said.
MOT Charter aims to construct a high school building near its current site but is likely to start by using modular classrooms at the elementary campus, Jennings said.
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First State Military hopes to enroll about 500 students, starting with freshman and sophomore classes of about 125 each in the fall of 2014 and adding a grade in each of the two following years, said C. Scott Kidner, head of the founding board of directors. The board has contacted the Army about operating a Junior ROTC program, he said.
The “new tech” learning model, a format advocated by Innovative Schools and introduced last year at Seaford High School, will emphasize work in small group projects with an emphasis on technology and lots of collaborations with local businesses, Kidner said.
The combination of JROTC and new tech, he said, will create “a school culture focused on discipline, strength, responsibility and respect and team it with a curriculum that drives home those very points as our cadets work in groups.” Organizers are close to securing a site in Smyrna for the school, he said.
The Delaware MET, with a curriculum that would combine three days of classroom work with two days of internships, is looking for a Wilmington location, either downtown or on the Riverfront, that would offer easy access to a wide range of internship opportunities, said Nash Childs, chairman of the board of directors. He visited the Met Center in Providence, the inspiration for the school’s curriculum, and came away impressed.
“Starting in ninth grade, each group of 10-12 students has a counselor, like a lead teacher, that they meet with every day as a team, for all four years,” he said. “All the kids [in Providence] had a wonderful attitude. They’re polite and courteous and enjoy going to school.”
Delaware MET’s plan calls for starting with about 260 students in ninth and tenth grades in its first year, then adding an additional grade in each of the next two years, bringing total enrollment to about 530 by 2016-17, Childs said.
The Delaware Design Lab High School, proposed by a group led by Cristina Alvarez, would develop a curriculum that emphasizes the discipline and creativity needed in architecture and design professions but without the narrow focus of those subject areas.
“We’re not looking to create designers,” says Alvarez, a former principal at Philadelphia’s Charter High School for Architecture and Design, “but by learning how to think like a designer, by learning how a designer solves problems, the kids will become better learners and have higher academic outcomes.”
Alvarez hopes to win a spot in the Community Education Building — “we’re going for broke on that,” she says — because she wants the school to serve lower-income Wilmington residents and to establish partnerships with professionals in the design community, who might be able to teach occasionally or support the school in other ways.
Pike Creek Charter Middle School would layer an array of elective classes and extracurricular activities focusing on wellness, fitness and nutrition on top of a standard curriculum for grades six through eight, founder Michael Smith said. Lunches will include a salad bar and classes will select healthy foods that would be included in their meals, he said. Physical activity will be incorporated into lesson plans and the school will adapt principles from First Lady Michele Obama’s “Let’s Move” fitness campaign, he said.
The school would open with sixth and seventh grades in 2014 and add an eighth grade the following year, with an anticipated enrollment of 125 to 130 per grade. It is negotiating to take over the current Delaware Swim and Fitness Center, owned by state Rep. Mike Ramone, which is planning to move into larger quarters, Smith said.
The three charters that had been approved for 2013 openings and now plan to delay their launch for a year, Carwell said, are Academia Antonia Alonso, a dual-language elementary program in Wilmington; First State Montessori, an elementary program in Wilmington; and the Early College High School, planned for the Delaware State University campus in Dover.
