Charter schools are public schools created by parents, educators and communities and run by a Board of Directors. Charter schools strive to provide innovation in the classroom and give families an alternative choice to traditional public schools. Los Angeles Unified School District today has more than 160 charter schools, many of which are out-performing traditional public schools and comprise the top-ranking schools in the district. A "charter" is essentially a contract with the school district in which the school is given some freedoms in how it operates, but is in turn held to higher standards. Students at charter schools must participate in the same standardized testing that all public school students must take, and are taught by certified teachers. Unlike traditional public schools, if charter schools do not meet and exceed performance standards, they are shut down.

Charter schools provide an alternative to traditional public schools. Currently, public school options in central Hollywood are almost all under-performing. The California Department of Education evaluates all public schools in California using, among other measures, an Academic Performance Index (API). On this 1,000 point scale, the state expects each school to reach a minimum score of 800. Schools that fail to make adequate progress toward their "growth target" each year are placed on "Program Improvement" status. Currently four of the seven elementary schools, and both middle schools in Central Hollywood, are in Program Improvement status.

LAUSD SCHOOLS IN CENTRAL HOLLYWOOD	# of Students	Program Improvement Status?	Met School-wide Growth Target	2008 API score	2009 API Score	API +/- Change
Cheremoya (K-6)	292	No	No	786	783	-3
Grant Ave. (K-5)	676	Yes	No	734	744	+10
Selma Ave. (K-6)	389	Yes	Yes	731	741	+10
Hollywood Primary Ctr. (K-3)	231	No	Yes	823*	868	+45
Santa Monica Blvd. (preK-6)	912	Yes	No	705	723	+18
Vine Street (K-5)	568	Yes	No	716	742	+26
Valley View (K-6)	218	No	Yes	764	827	+63
Le Conte Middle School (6-8)	1,703	Yes	No	677	694	+17
Bancroft Middle School (6-8)	1,270	Yes	No	693	703	+10
Source: www.cde.ca.gov/ds
By comparison, Larchmont Charter School, with a similar curriculum to CWC's, had a 2009 API of 889 in just its fourth year of operations, and has more than 1,000 families on its waiting list to enroll. Open Charter Magnet School, the first charter school in Los Angeles and another of our model schools, had a 2009 API of 883; similar examples of charter schools out-performing traditional public schools abound.

After a rigorous search process, we are very pleased to welcome Marissa Berman to the team as our Founding Principal. more info can be found on the Staff page.

While we will not require parents to volunteer time as a condition of enrollment, we do hope that all of our parents will want to participate actively in our school. CWC values parents as integral partners in their children's academic success.

Virtually every public school today relies on parents to assist with fundraising activities, and we will be no different. As an inclusive community, we also will welcome parents' involvement on campus, whether volunteering in the school office, participating in committees or leading the Family Council (comprised of all parents of enrolled children), participating in student-planned service-learning activities around the community and on campus, chaperoning field trips, helping with school lunch or in the school garden, and volunteering in the classrooms.

No. CWC is a FREE public school.

That said, CWC will engage in a number of fundraising activities throughout the year, just as virtually every public school does these days. We will write grant applications to foundations, we will solicit individual donors, and we will host fundraising events, planned largely by the parents. Parents will be asked to participate to the extent they can (both as donors and as volunteers in fundraising), but we will also be very diligent to include all families in our events, regardless of their ability to pay. Our vision is to create a wonderful, welcoming community for all of the members of our diverse neighborhood.

Our curriculum is based on the best thinking in education today about how children learn. We do not believe that one single strategy works with all children, rather, we believe that education, in order to be successful, must take a truly child-centered approach and focus on each individual child's needs and abilities. While one child may learn to read using a phonics-based approach, another may rely more on context and sight-words. One child might see a math problem in her head while another needs to manually decipher the problem with manipulative objects or fingers. We do not believe that there is any right or wrong way, rather, we want each child to understand how he or she processes information and learn how to employ those techniques to develop a true passion for learning.

While CWC will not "teach to the test," all of our students will learn the necessary skills needed to succeed on state standardized tests. Most importantly, our school leaders will be constantly evaluating data derived from weekly, monthly and quarterly assessments - formal and informal -- about students' performance. They will look at individual students, sub-groups (e.g., Special Education, Gifted and Talented, English Learners), and classrooms to see how each is doing in relation to both the state standards and our school's broader goals. Teachers will refine curriculum continuously to meet individual and group needs, and the Principal will ensure that each teacher has the skills and support he or she needs to help each child reach his/her full potential.

Service-learning is community service that is structured in a way that ties the service projects to academic curriculum, has clearly stated learning objectives tied to state standards, and includes a period of reflection or analysis of the activities in which students discuss, write about and make presentations about their activities. Thus, while the performance of community service addresses demonstrated needs in the community, the students simultaneously learn academic skills embedded into their community service projects. CWC's youngest students will engage in thoughtfully planned service-learning activities each week that inspire them and allow them to make a tangible impact on their community, such as conducting a penny drive (and utilizing math skills to track their progress) to make a donation to Children's Hospital. As our school grows and we enroll older youth, these students will engage the entire school community in more complex projects, perhaps helping to create new park space in Hollywood.

Numerous studies have documented the profound impact that high-quality service learning activities can have on young students, particularly those most at-risk, including improved student achievement, increasing students' sense of "belonging" and efficacy, development of moral and civic identity, and meaningful connections with adults and peers.

The following is just one example from our charter petition of the type of project CWC students will engage in over time:

Students might first learn about different sorts of neighborhoods: an urban housing project, a miles-wide rural neighborhood united by a way of life rather than physical proximity, or two parallel rows of identical houses that face each other along a tree-lined suburban street. Children might engage in small groups learning about different types of neighborhoods and how they each encapsulate human life and reflect their inhabitants' social, cultural, political, and artistic endeavors - as well as natural life - flora and fauna.

Students might then engage in an in-depth study of the diverse patterns of life that characterize their own school neighborhood. To achieve common ground, students would study the neighborhood that surrounds the school and assume multiple research perspectives. As cartographers, they can build on their growing sense of place and spatial relationships, develop new geographical understandings, and apply their knowledge of geometric formulas to calculate area and proportionality in looking at structures in the community. As economists, they can discover how neighborhood workers and businesses help residents meet their basic living needs. Middle school students may calculate income, project income and property taxes, and determine what financial resources a city needs to contribute to ensure that the needs of the community are met. As architects, the children can document the different building styles that provide shelter for neighborhood residents, building models to portray their learning about the surrounding area. As artists, children can study how neighborhoods have been depicted by famous artists through time, and create renderings of their own neighborhood. As ethnographers, they can investigate the cultural diversity of their neighborhood, and appreciate the many different people who live and work together. As naturalists, the children can closely observe the plant and animal life of the neighborhood, and learn how human inhabitants impact the delicate balance of nature, the consumption of natural resources and influence the community has on global warming. As historians, the children can learn more about how their school neighbors came to live in the neighborhood, and how and why neighborhoods change over time. As politicians, children can analyze current policy to determine what impact they have on community residents. Finally, the children can consider their own place and role in the neighborhood. They can examine how others influence neighborhood life, and come to understand how they can make a difference as well. Now they are ready to contribute and work as good citizens and good neighbors.

Through this project, students can investigate and come to understand how different, diverse people choose a particular neighborhood and help shape and determine neighborhood life; how neighbors must cooperate and work together; how neighbors can learn from, and care for, one another; how neighborhoods change over time; and how a neighborhood's physical environment affects the way people live (weather, location, physical environment and their impact on food, shelter, clothing, transportation and recreation).

Building on their knowledge, children work as independent researchers and in collaborative groups to identify existing and potential problems in the neighborhood and become problem-solvers. As part of their service-learning, students might engage in historic preservation activities for a neighborhood landmark, or design a community resource guide for the community that highlights and celebrates the neighborhood's businesses, cultural institutions and residents, run a voter registration drive to ensure community member's voices are heard, or perhaps participate in a the "greening" of the neighborhood by helping create or improve much-need park space in their community.

Finally, as reflective learners, children connect what they've learned to their own lives and to important issues of contemporary society. Thoughtful questions and activities help children synthesize their new knowledge and apply it to new situations. Students:

• review what they've learned about their neighborhood
• reflect on their own learning process and how well they worked individually, with one another and with other members of the community
• examine the artifacts of their learning and what they reveal about themselves, as learners raise new questions that lead to future activities and projects.

Have additional questions? We'd like to hear them! Email us: info@citizensoftheworld.org.