The Future of Change Preparatory Charter School

1. The Future of Change Preparatory Charter School By: Melanie N. Joseph Date: April 19, 2014 EDU:505

2. Introduction to Change Prep. Charter School • Change Preparatory Charter School located in Queens, New York . • Dr. Glenn Austin-Smith is the Founder • Change Prep. Charter School currently serves Kindergarten through Fifth grade, however it is schedule to extend to eight grades at full capacity. • 7:15 am to 4:15 pm Monday to Friday; and has an extended year of 190 school days. • The student population consist of 75% Black or African American, 20% Hispanic, 2% Asian and 3% other. Total enrollment is 432 students with over 78% of the population-received free lunch (NY Charter School).

3. Current State of Change Preparatory Education • Vision of the school demonstrates that student’s will acquired content knowledge and character traits vital to becoming independent. • Two teachers in each classroom, one head teacher and one assistant teacher. • 18 classrooms they are no more than 25 students. • Current enrollment 432 • The school offers two hours of enrichment everyday in English, math, art and music. • The vision also states that students will understand the world through knowledge of science, math and social studies and become more competitive with other students from various backgrounds. These skills will help students to become critical thinkers Change Preparatory Charter School ensure that the faculty uses 21st Century education with a stimulating mix of research, academic rigor, and innovation. • The school main purpose is to prepare students to gain admission to and succeed in competitive public and private high schools. Change Prep’s educational philosophy encourages high levels of academic achievement and tailoring instruction to ensure that academic needs of all students are met.

4. Current State of Change Preparatory Education cont. • Change Prep's model delivers balanced, NYS-aligned curriculum in all subjects. This model has been selected because it supports the School’s balanced educational approach and builds capacity in teachers to differentiate instruction in a classroom of heterogeneous learners. The model facilitates differentiated instruction, and it has been highly effective in supporting academic achievement for at-risk populations, including ELL, Title I and special education students, as well as for academically gifted students. • Change Prep. mission is to prepare students to “excel academically and compete successfully for admission to high-performing public, private and parochial high schools in NYC. Change Prep. offers a rigorous academic curriculum within a safe and supportive school environment. • To cultivate intellectual, social, emotional and ethical development of students and support them in achieving mastery of the 28 NYS Learning Standards.

5. Futuring in Education • Futuring is a term used to attempt to forecast a particular event that has not occurred. • In futuring, one may attempt to control how or direct how an event will happen. Since the future is unknown, we can only come up with possibilities of what we think may or may not happened. • “Futuring is an anticipatory decision-making process that leads to planning and program development” (Sobrero, P. 2004). • Effective futuring will lead to better decision-making and also by locating current and future assets to address developing issues.

6. Scenarios, and Scanning at Change Prep. Charter School • “Scenarios are consistent and coherent descriptions of alternative hypothetical futures that reflect different perspectives on past, present and future developments, which can serve as a basis for action” (van Notten, 2005). • When developing scenarios, the message should be clear and in a written format that includes details. • One main fact to remember is to ensure that you target the issues in which change is more likely to occur. • In each scenario different assumption must be made, such as if the future will be desirable or undesirable. This will be effective because you will be able to function in both areas within the organization. • Here at Change Prep. Charter School preparing for both the bad and the good is essential for the organization in the long run. • Change Prep. will benefit in ways that they can allocate the best employees and resources for the future.

7. Scenarios and Scanning at Change Prep. Charter School Cont. • One pitfall in scenario planning is developing scenarios in education that is not interesting and relevant to the issue at hand. • Scanning the different situations can help this organization to have better scenarios when forecasting. Scanning and monitoring the environment around you will help you identify the issues and help to repair any defects within your scenarios.

8. Trends in Educational Technology • The future of education is significantly influenced by the world of technology, which is being used to improve our educational experiences. • Data-Driven Learning and Assessment is on of the tools that Change Prep. Currently uses. These technology tools help teacher’s to evaluate and assess each student individually. • Tools such as Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy skills or for shorts DIBELS. This tool keeps a running record of each student assessment. It allows teachers to test each student literacy skills by using short stories. The assessment can be administered from Kindergarten through sixth grades. This program measures, phonemic awareness, accuracy and fluency in connection text words, reading comprehension and vocabulary. • DIBELS is an early intervention program that targets problems in literacy in children, but the best results are when problems in literacy are caught at an early age. This program is an essential part of the organization, because it helps teacher and administrators to run various data to help improve student academics by pin pointing the target areas. 

9. Trends in Educational Technology Cont. • Gaming is a big way that students can take in and process information. Today’s students are mostly interesting in a variety of gaming. Games are now used to support many types of teaching method and its is know to help aid students with disabilities. Studies shows that games can provide motivation and help develop skills to encourage student collaboration. • “The motivating power of games and their ability to encourage cooperation were felt to support the work of schools in developing independent but social individuals” (kirriermuir, John). • Change Prep. Charter school now implements learning activities that can be use with any handheld devices; this is done to encourage and promote student learning. These handheld base activates are math and literacy games that can be played on any smartphone, Kindle, Tablet or I pad. One important thing to remember is that technology is changing and here at Change Prep. Charter school the curriculum is altered to keep up to date with current events in education.

10. Economic, Budget and Public Policy • E-rate program to help with school technology funding. Funding by the government; with strict rules and long application process • E-rate helps bring funding to public and charter school including libraries. • “Section 504 is a part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that prohibits discrimination based upon disability. Section 504 is an anti-discrimination, civil rights statute that requires the needs of students with disabilities to be met as adequately as the needs of the non-disabled are met” (greatschool.org). Public policy is the action taken by government to address a particular public issue. Local, state, federal, and international government organization all craft and implement public policy to protect and benefit their population. • One of the biggest contacts is with Apple technology ensuring that all students have the abilities to use MacBook Pro Laptops.

11. Threats Trends and Literature Review • Class size in public schools are extremely high • Change Prep. class size is less than 25 student in a class • Diverse population and the rise of ethic groups

12. Five-Year Vision • Increase partnership with local and state community members • Continued to focus on updated technologies • Commitment to teacher professional development • Uses technology to help student with disabilities

13. Challenges • Population growth • Admiration not willing to adapt to the changes of new technologies • Not enough professional development

14. Opportunities • Preparing students to be college ready • More funding are now allocated to fund charter with-in the next couple of years • Common Core State Standards and enabling students to be high performance • Technology uses to empower teachers

15. Call to Action • The call to action for Change Prep. Charter School is to be able to build a firm foundation now and in the future. • Support partnership by creating a better learning environment in the communities; and other organization within the public and private charter sectors that would invest in our school and the lives of the children. • Our school is to ensure that every child gets a world class education, and ensuring that elected officials is committed in delivering the resources that will better the lives of our students. • Change Prep focuses on employing high-quality teachers now and in the future.

16. References Van Notten, Ph.W.F. (2005), “Scenario development: a typology of approaches”. Retrived from: http://www.oecd.org/site/schoolingfortomorrowknowledgebase/futuresthinking/scenarios/37246431.pdf Sobrero, P. (2004). The steps for futuring. Journal of Extension, 42(3). Retrieved from http://www.joe.org/joe/2004june/comm2.php New York City Charter School. School Facts Retrieved from: http://www.nyccharterschools.org/sites/default/files/resources/FACTS082713.pdf World Future Society. (n.d.). Scenarios. Retrieved from http://www.wfs.org/node/404 Bruner, Anneliese. (2013, September 10). School Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.edtrust.org/school_leadership NCES. 2000. Teacher’s tools for the 21st Century.Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. Mietzner, D., & Reger, G. (2005). Advantages and disadvantages of scenario approaches for strategic foresight. International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 1(2), 220-239. Retrieved from http://www.lampsacus.com/documents/stragegicforesight.pdf Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Estrada V., Freeman, A., and Ludgate, H. (2013). NMC Horizon Report: 2013 K-12 Edition. Austin;Texas: The New Media Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/horizon-project , U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2013).The Condition of Education 2013 (NCES 2013–037) Decker, Geoff. (2014). Pre-K funds, charter school protections, and common Core changes in state budjet. Retrieved from: http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2014/03/29/charter-school- protections-pre-k-funds-and-common-core-changes-part-state-budget-deal/ West, Darrell, M. (2013). Five ways teachers can use technology to help students. Retrieved from: http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2013/05/07-teachers-technology- students-education-west-bleiberg Nagel, David. (2013). Technology challenge facing education. Retrieved from