While charter schools and
traditional public schools operate side by side in many school districts, there
hasn’t been a notable history of sharing among them. That may be about to
change in Arizona
The Arizona Charter Schools Association (the Association) has entered into a partnership which will allow
public schools across the state – both charter and district – to access the
Association’s “Success Center Online,” a “one-stop shop” for educators,
administrators, students and parents.
Through the partnership and
Success Center Online, K-12 public schools will have access to research-driven
curricula, assessments and best practices. The package includes data-driven
decision making features, state standard-aligned assessments, and access to a
professional learning community that will provide professional development and
support to educators and administrators state-wide.
The Association’s partner,
Spiral Universe, focuses on modernizing classrooms with user-friendly design
following the Web 2.0 paradigm.
“Our products adapt to the
way schools do things; we don’t expect schools to adapt to our way of doing
things,” says Reuben Kerben, CEO and founder of Spiral Universe, which has
customers in 44 countries.
The school management suite
includes intuitive data analysis tools, integrated student and parent
communication features, a reporting engine with support for state and federal
standards, teacher grade books and schedules, a framework for remediation, and
detailed medical records.
“We are thrilled to be
working alongside a company that keeps each individual school’s needs at the
forefront,” says Eileen Sigmund, CEO of the Arizona Charter Schools
Association. “It is our sincere hope that every public school in the state will
take advantage of this invaluable resource.”
The most unusual feature to
the Success Center Online will be access to individual student-level growth
charts (www.azcharters.org/growthpercentile). With the charts,
teachers will be able to administer an interim assessment aligned to state
standards and assess interim growth percentile scores, allowing quick response
to students’ needs - instead of having to wait months for the results of
standardized tests.