Polk County Voluntary Public School Choice 2008

Magnet and Choice

Goal 2 – Based on national models, create a comprehensive, sequential model for the development and implementation of career academies and middle school pre academies at traditional public, choice and charter schools, currently serving 114 academies and expanding to 195 over the next five years in 9 central Florida districts.

This project includes primary partnerships between Polk, Osceola and Hillsborough Counties as well as expanded partnerships to also include Indian River, Lake, Manatee, Orange, Pasco and Sumter Counties.

Magnet and Choice Best Practices

This project includes primary partnerships between Polk, Osceola and Hillsborough Counties as well as expanded partnerships to also include Indian River, Lake, Manatee, Orange, Pasco and Sumter Counties.

Best Practices shared at the 2008 Choice Summit held in Daytona Beach, FL

• AYP Sarasota County School Choice Report
• Brevard Presentation on Strategic Planning: Linking District Planning to School Results
• Duval Presentation on Magnet Tool Kit: Avoiding a Marketing Train Wreck

Magnet and Choice Performance Goals & Outcomes

Goal 1 – Increase the opportunities for meaningful choice both within the district and via interdistrict transfer by creating viable choice options for students to access within their district or to move between the districts of Polk, Osceola and Hillsborough Counties via Interdistrict Agreements.

This project includes primary partnerships between Polk, Osceola and Hillsborough Counties as well as expanded partnerships to also include Indian River, Lake, Manatee, Orange, Pasco and Sumter Counties.

• Create and post interactive web based training modules for the development, implementation and support of choice options such as district and interdistrict transfers, career academies, charters and other choice options to assist in serving all students with an emphasis on at-risk and underachieving students with a particular focus on minority students and those students experiencing language barriers.
  
  
  1. Identify, obtain and disseminate materials to implement research based strategies and powerful book review activities designed to provoke thoughtful discussion and self evaluation on the part of choice advocates at the school and district level with regard to choice and challenging student populations.
  2. Complete self evaluation with choice schools and/or district representatives in the nine districts in order to identify barriers to choice at student, school and district level.  Develop specific strategies to address these barriers at a series of choice workshops.  Once this document is complete, expand to other districts to identify and develop effective practices for meeting the needs of the school and low performing students within these schools.
  3. Based on the strategies and information gathered from objectives 1 and 2, work with nationally recognized experts, including but not limited to, Coalition of Effective Schools, NACSA, FPSCC, Bill Daggett, Learning Focused Strategies to develop and implement on-line interactive training modules posted on the FPSCC website.

Outcomes:

1. This website was developed in September 2008 to be used as a tool for all districts in the State of Florida to disseminate materials and best practices gathered and developed throughout the full Polk VPSC project.
2. An informal self evaluation was completed by all nine districts during the 2008 Choice Summit through the provisions of the Polk VPSC project.  A formal self evaluation will be conducted in year 2 of this project.

 

• Provide a minimum of four specific best practices workshops to provide targeted training to career academy staff, choice staff and charter authorizers with an emphasis on strategies to assist traditional and charter public schools in serving under represented and low performing students.
  
  
  1. During planning phase, gather data on schools with grades of D or F, schools not making AYP, career academy and charter school closures and non renewals to determine the causes. Develop strategic partnerships with high quality traditional public and charter schools as well as organizations to identify causes and the type(s) of assistance needed to proactively address these issues with these schools. 
  2. During years 3 and 4 develop a series of intervention plans for specific issues based on the research indicating why traditional public and charter schools falter and/or fail.  For example, the first intervention plan will develop preventative steps and positive involvement by district staff when initial indications of academic, leadership or financial difficulty is indicated. These intervention plans are designed to help other schools become successful and will be posted and updated on the FPSCC and FACSA website.
  3. During year 2, create and implement a peer review process for coalition districts’ support practices to ensure high quality choice schools.  Develop and post on the website a compilation of specific strategies to assure high quality choice options.
  4. In year 3 and following, develop, refine, implement and post web options providing opportunities for low performing students in traditional and/or charter schools to transfer to higher performing schools. Considerations include Inter-local agreements with schools required to offer Title I choice as well as transportation options provided to students wishing to attend charter schools through Title I choice.

Outcomes:

 

Goal 2 – Create a comprehensive, sequential model for the development and implementation of career academies in Florida based on national models and best practices as modeled in central Florida.

• The current FPSCC annual workshop will include 3 strands of training that will focus on career academies, effective charter schools practices and other choice options, as well as assisting students from lower performing schools to select higher performing choice schools with an emphasis on high need students.
  1. Self evaluation and needs assessment materials developed and implemented through this proposal will be shared in these workshops during years 1 and 2.
  2. Workshop strands during year 3 of the annual workshop will focus on teacher training resources available via the career academy model in this proposal, as well as implementation of interdistrict student transfer agreements, transportation options and solutions as well as choice school intervention plans.
  3. In years 4 and 5 the coalition training strands will focus on high yield strategies to recruit and retain students, particularly high need students, in high performing choice options such as charters, career academies and traditional schools via transfer agreements.
  4. These workshops will continue beyond the proposal funding period to assure the sustainability and continued refinement of the products and training.

Outcomes: