July 2019 Newsletter - The Center for Learner Equity

July 25, 2019

Partnership and collaboration are critical to achieving the Center’s mission. We hope that our newsletter helps inform and empower you to take action in your area. Email info@centerforlearnerequity.org to discuss how to improve education for students with disabilities in charter schools near you.

The Center is Growing

Are you proactive, positive, and intellectually curious? Do you have a passion for social justice and, ideally, experience in the field of education, charter schools, and/or working with students with disabilities or do you know someone who is?

The Center is excited to announce that we are beginning our search for a Communications Specialist – who will assist in creating strong content, coordinate refinement and execution of the communications strategy, and work to maximize the Center’s profile and impact by raising our voice to targeted stakeholder audiences in pursuit of our mission. Checkout our website for more information on specific responsibilities, qualifications, and more! Speaking of organizational growth….

We are excited to welcome Simone Hall to our team as the Center’s new Policy Specialist!

As the Policy Specialist, Simone will monitor and analyze legislative and regulatory developments at multiple levels of government related to students with disabilities in charter schools. Prior to joining the Center, Simone worked in the policy shop of a small business advocacy organization in Washington, DC. Simone received her bachelor’s degree in Communications and Political Science from Florida Atlantic University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Policy at the George Washington University.

Summer is in full bloom – we hope you are all enjoying a somewhat slower pace and opportunities to disconnect from work and reconnect with loved ones, as have many of us here at the Center. We are grateful for the time to dive more deeply into our longer projects, such as our analysis of the Civil Rights Data Collection, as well as preparation for new work examining how charter school leaders cultivate their commitment to students with disabilities and how parents of students with disabilities navigate school choice options.

Wendy Tucker, The Center’s Senior Director of Policy, reflected on her experience at the National Charter Schools Conference in Las Vegas in a recent blog post, focusing on themes that emerged throughout the conference’s strand of special education-related sessions. Over 300,000 students with disabilities are currently enrolled in charter schools. She applauds the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools for recognizing the need to focus on how to educate students with disabilities in the charter sector and for curating a strand of sessions focused on this need.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities partnered with teachers to publish “Forward Together: Helping Educators Unlock the Power of Students Who Learn Differently.” The report focuses on specific critical teacher mindsets and key practices that can improve outcomes and learning for students with learning and attention issues, and for all students. Policy makers, teacher preparation leaders, district, network and school administrators, general educators, special educators, and caregivers can use this report to break the silos that ultimately hinder student learning and development.

Innovate Public Schools, a California nonprofit organization, published “An Advocate’s Guide to Transforming Special Education,” which highlights “what research and the highest-performing schools have found are the best practices to help students with disabilities achieve at high levels.” This guide will equip advocates — parents, educators, caregivers — to work together, and includes questions advocates should ask in their school or community, as well as practices and policies for which they can look and push.

Education policy and consulting firm Public Impact published a new report, “Better Together: Why Charter School Champions and Parent Advocates Should Partner to Better Support Students with Disabilities.” The report details how charter schools and parents can work and innovate together in partnership, to achieve better outcomes for students with disabilities through more effective advocacy, access to quality school options, and equitable policies. The report documents how the charter sector can take steps to start the process and drive collective action.

The Center on the Road

If you will be at any of the following upcoming events, please come find us. We love to connect with our partners and stakeholders.

July 25 – 27 in Washington DC: National Center for Education Statistics’ STATS DC Data Conference

August 5 – 6 in Nashville, TN: National Governors Association Education Bridge to Incubating Innovation Learning Collaborative

August 6 -7 in Providence, RI: Eye to Eye Convening

September 6 in Denver, CO: Colorado Charter School Institute Equity Convening