"Affiliated charters" refers to schools that are independent from traditional public schools but still receive public funding. These schools are usually managed by a private organization or institution, and they have more autonomy in terms of curriculum and administration. They are affiliated with the public education system but have certain freedoms and flexibility to operate differently.
Full definition
When charter schools first came on the scene, block grants for an additional $ 400 per student were added
for affiliated charters.
Becoming affiliated charters allowed these schools to qualify for charter categorical block grant funds when they were still in effect, helping them to recoup the lost Title 1 revenues.
CCSA also presented numbers comparing LA's independent charters to traditional schools, but removed
affiliated charters from the equation.
«And I think having
affiliated charters allows you to test out different things that you don't get to do [with] some of the independent charter schools.»
Martinez is also chairman of
Valley Affiliated Charter Schools, a coalition of 43 charter schools in the San Fernando Valley who are working together to meet state and federal funding guidelines.
Los Angeles district leaders view
affiliated charters as a triumph of experimentation, offering parents choices in addition to traditional district schools, magnet schools and independent charter schools.
Although school districts control major operations
on affiliated charters including employment decisions, the school gains access to the charter categorical block grant, which expands spending flexibility and can be used to reduce teacher layoffs in a given year.
Also contributing to the jump in
affiliated charters between 2011 and 2013 was a 2011 decision by L.A. Unified to raise the minimum percentage of low - income students schools had to have to receive federal funds through the Title 1 program, going up from from 40 percent to 50 percent.
You could argue that many (8) of these schools
are affiliated charter schools, that have older staffs — staffs that were hired when the LA area was more white.
The Musical Theatre and costume design classes at Millikan MS
Affiliated Charter Performing Arts Magnet are truly unique and culminate in participation in major productions and statewide competitions.
The district has assembled a team with members from six offices including Budget Services and the Office of Instruction to
help affiliated charter school leaders navigate the new process.
A lack of oversight and confusion among several departments with little experience in understanding
how affiliated charter school...
A full 10 % of the charter school advantage over LAUSD was caused
by affiliated charters, but independent charters still do 10 % better than LAUSD as a whole.
Also affiliated charters tend to have fewer English - language learners, 7 percent, compared with 22 percent for traditional schools and 19 percent for independents.
Some teachers checked with other teachers at the three
affiliated charter high schools in the Valley — Chatsworth, Taft and Cleveland — and teachers at those high schools reported that they didn't notice any differences from traditional schools.
Next year, the district expects a decline of 13,728 traditional and
affiliated charter students, while independent charter enrollment will increase by about 5,984.
Newly elected Los Angeles Unified school board member Kelly Gonez said that
because affiliated charters are part of the district, any innovations in curriculum that they come up with can more easily be shared with other traditional schools.
In sharp contrast to independent charters,
affiliated charters receive services from LAUSD and their teachers continue to work under existing labor contracts.
This trend holds not just for the
wealthier affiliated charter schools, but also for the independent charters that operate in low - income neighborhoods.
A bureaucratic mistake at LA Unified has led to a degree of anxiety
among affiliated charter schools in the West Valley, which will begin paying for classroom basics they had previously gotten for free from the district.
On July 1, the newly named Sylmar Charter High School will become the
54th affiliated charter of all LA Unified's 1,274 schools.
Students from
affiliated charters accounted for only 22,750 of the district's 267,228 students — about 8.5 percent — who took the tests, but they tend to skew the comparison because their racial and economic demographics do not match up with the district averages.
The affiliated schools in the valley created their own guild of sorts, called The
Valley Affiliated Charter Schools, that represents the schools on matters unique to them.
Ranking one of LAUSD's top five middle schools, a California Distinguished School, and a National School to Watch, Millikan
MS Affiliated Charter Performing Arts Magnet exposes students to culturally and relevant arts content across the curriculum.
The new analysis differs from a previous one by CCSA, in that it removes LA Unified's 53
affiliated charters from the comparison, as the state does.
A lack of oversight and confusion among several departments with little experience in understanding
how affiliated charter school should operate, including school operations, school management services and budget services, lead the district to purchase textbooks, classroom furniture and other supplies for years on behalf of the autonomous schools.
Another way
for affiliated charter schools to channel money to Relay is to set aside a portion of their budget to subsidize graduate education — but only at Relay GSE.
At the start of the school year, 22 teachers from 19 LAUSD and
affiliated charter schools met at Skylight Studios in Los Angeles to participate in a teacher training for the third annual Games for Change Student Challenge.
The affiliated charter schools have governance councils made up of teachers and parents, but the councils act only in an advisory capacity.
Affiliated charters can purchase textbooks and instructional materials not used by the district but that are aligned with The California State Board of Education standards.
Newly elected school board member Gonez said the school's success illustrates that
affiliated charters may still be a model worth sustaining in districts like Los Angeles.
Converting to
an affiliated charter status boosted Carpenter's revenue to $ 400,000 a year, thanks to the state block grant for charters available at that time.
Since then, there has been no financial advantage to converting to
an affiliated charter, and only two L.A. Unified schools have done so.
Unlike independent charters, also known as «fully autonomous» charters,
affiliated charters» student discipline policies match the district's.
For
the affiliated charters, «there is quite a bit of boilerplate language... because they have to follow the district policies,» Perry said.
«I think there are a lot of district - run schools out there that run perfectly well, but with just minor changes in the relationship between the school and the district, they (
affiliated charters) can do things better.»
While independent charters are free to hire their own teachers and other staff,
affiliated charters must follow district policies in their hiring decisions.