Charter Petition for Alain Leroy Locke College Prep Academy California Public Charter Schools

Charter Petition for Alain Leroy Locke College Prep Academy California Public Charter Schools 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS GREEN DOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 AFFIRMATIONS 17 ELEMENT 1: EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 23 ELEMENT 2: MEASURABLE PUPIL OUTCOMES 68 ELEMENT 3: MEANS TO ASSESS PUPIL PROGRESS 74 ELEMENT 4: GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE 78 ELEMENT 5: EMPLOYEE QUALIFICATIONS 90 ELEMENT 6: HEALTH AND SAFETY OF PUPILS 100 ELEMENT 7:MEANS TO ACHIEVE RACIAL AND ETHNIC BALANCE 104 ELEMENT 8: ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS 107 ELEMENT 9: ANNUAL FINANCIAL AUDITS 109 ELEMENT 10: SUSPENSIONS AND EXPULSIONS 112 ELEMENT 11: RETIREMENT SYSTEM 122 ELEMENT 12: ATTENDANCEALTERNATIVES 123 ELEMENT 13: RIGHTS OF DISTRICT EMPLOYEES 124 ELEMENT 14: MANDATORY DISPUTE RESOLUTION 125 ELEMENT 15: EXCLUSIVE PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYER 127 ELEMENT 16: CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSURE 128 APPENDICES A. FINANCIAL PLAN B. COURT-ORDERED INTEGRATION FUNDING C. ATTENDANCE ACCOUNTING D. SCHOOL CALENDAR E. SERVICES FROM GREEN DOT F. FUNDING MODEL – DIRECTLY FUNDED G. DISSEMINATION OF PRACTICE H. TEXTBOOK LIST I. TEACHER’S UNION CONTRACT J. ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION & BYLAWS OF GREEN DOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS K. PARENT STUDENT HANDBOOK 2 GREEN DOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Strategy for Transforming Los Angeles Secondary Public Education Green Dot Public Schools, a non-profit charter management organization, is leading the charge to transform public education in Los Angeles and beyond so that all children receive the education they need to be successful in college, leadership, and life. Green Dot’s efforts are helping to implement a small schools model for all schools and are raising the public's awareness about the need for high quality, small public schools. Ultimately, Green Dot’s success will help ensure that all young adults in California receive the education they deserve to prepare themselves for college, leadership and life. Green Dot operates 18 successful charter schools, serving over 10,000 students, in some of the highest- need areas of Los Angeles. Our schools are located in the following communities: South Los Angeles, Watts, Boyle Heights, Inglewood, Lennox and Venice. Through our work at the high school level we have recognized the need to enter students into our program earlier in their educational careers in order to ensure they are academically prepared for our high school program and ultimately college, therefore we made the decision to open our first Green Dot Middle School in 2010. New School Model for Urban High Schools Every Green Dot school will graduate young adults that are life-long learners, prepared for college, responsible, and culturally aware. To ensure great results, all schools are opened and operated using Green Dot’s proven school model: Small Schools: schools of 550 - 700 students, with target student/teacher ratios of 25:1. Quality teaching and instruction: Consistent use of core instructional strategies and our Administrators are focused on instructional leadership Master Scheduling that meets the needs of students: Demanding college prep education aligned to University of California A-G requirements for all students with intensive interventions built into the school day. Data-driven decision-making: Results and accountability are demanded from all schools and employees and frequent assessments of students to measure growth. College-and career ready: Backwards planning from college expectations to drive the rigor of instruction and the expectations for students and explicit actions taken by staff to ensure that a college- for-certain culture permeates throughout the school community. Substantial Family Involvement: Parents and guardians are integrated into the management of schools and must participate actively in their children’s education. All schools that Green Dot opens and operates are based on the school model that Green Dot has developed over the past twelve years. Green Dot’s school model has been created to ensure that Green Dot can consistently open high-quality schools in which students are being prepared for college, leadership and life. There are two main components of a Green Dot’s school- our core values and school model. Our core values are: an unwavering belief in the potential of all students, a passion for excellence, a culture of respect for each other, for our school community, and for the community at large and active involvement from all stakeholders (parents, students, teachers and administrators). Our school model has 4 elements for a successful school: 1.) quality teaching and instruction, 2.) master scheduling focusing on student needs, 3.) data-driven decision-making and 4.) college going culture. All schools must follow our core values and all components of a successful Green Dot schools. 3 Results of Existing Schools Green Dot has opened 18 charter schools in the Los Angeles area, beginning with Ánimo Leadership in the fall of 2000. Green Dot has a proven track record of successfully serving the highest-need students in Los Angeles. All eighteen schools are addressing the needs of students who have traditionally struggled in the public school system, and they are achieving far greater results than comparable schools in standardized test scores, graduation rates, and college matriculation. Graduation and College Acceptance Green Dot schools have produced outstanding results: 76% of our graduating seniors are attending two-or four-year colleges. The graduation rates from our schools significantly outpace those of the schools where our students would have gone including Fremont High School and Washington Preparatory High School. Working with Teachers Union to Drive Change: As part of a comprehensive strategy to drive change, Green Dot is practicing union reform with its teachers in hopes that it will help provide an example of cooperation in public education. Teachers at Green Dot’s schools have organized as the Asociación de Maestros Unidos, which is its own bargaining unit, but an affiliate of the California Teachers Association (CTA). Green Dot management and the Asociación signed a three-year contract that is a clear example of union reform. Key reforms written into the contract and agreed to by the union were: no tenure, teacher performance evaluations, professional work days (no defined minutes) and flexibility to adjust the contract over time. Green Dot management also has an agreement with the Ánimo Classified Employees Association (ACEA), a CTA affiliate that is the collective bargaining unit of classified school staff. The Locke Transformation Project In 2008, Green Dot Public Schools embarked on our most complex and challenging project – the transformation of the chronically underperforming Alain Leroy Locke School. Alain Leroy Locke was founded in 1967 in response to the Watts riots with the goal of providing families with a safe and secure place for learning. It was initially a source of the pride for the community but forty years after its founding, Locke had become one of the worst performing schools in California. The Locke Transformation was an unprecedented challenge for Green Dot Public Schools. It was twenty times the size of any of our previous school launches, served a very-high need student population that included approximately 300 severely credit deficient 10th-12th graders, up to 100 juvenile justice returnees per year and youth with significant barriers to learning including strong gang-affiliation, and mental health issues. Additionally, the existing culture that permeated the school was a culture that was not about going to class, let alone to college. In 2008 we took on the challenge of the Locke Transformation to drive significant achievement gains and transform the school into smaller high performing schools to fulfill the promise originally made to the Watts community and prepare students for college, leadership and life. As a learning organization we are consistently reflecting on our data, celebrating our strengths and implementing efforts to tackle the area where we must do better for our students. We have taken proactive efforts to restructure our original Locke model to ensure that students were receiving the quality education they deserve. Our original model was nine small schools but because of severe California budget cuts, declining enrollment at the Locke feeder schools, and poor academic performance, the Locke Family of Schools is now comprised of 5 small high schools: Ánimo Locke I College Preparatory Academy, Ánimo Locke II College Preparatory Academy, Alain Leroy Locke 3 College Preparatory Academy, Ánimo Locke Tech Charter High School and Ánimo Watts College Preparatory Academy. 4 As we reflected on this year’s data, it became clear that it is time for another phase of transformation at Locke. In order to improve academic performance faster, and to meet the unique needs of our incoming 9th graders, we are proposing to restructure Animo Locke 1 Charter High School and operate the entire campus under the Animo Locke 1 charter and change its name to Alain Leroy Locke College Prep Academy. The school will consists of a 9th grade academy and 3 separate 10-12th grade academies to increase personalization in the upper grades, all governed under a single charter. While the new 10-12th grade academies will operate under a single charter, each academy will continue to fully implement the Green Dot model, be measured independently, have separate administrators, and be separately held accountable for their academic progress. We will continue to serve the entire attendance boundary,

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