Charter Schools Today - CST Spring 2009 digital edition

SOUTH
school-levelbiology.Inall,CSPstudentscanearnfivehigh-schoolcredits.
Hanover is in the technology-heavy Baltimore-Washington corridor in
Anne Arundel County. CSP, which operates on a $2.3 million budget
with 199 students and a staff of 20, was founded in 2005 in response to
parents, many of them highly educated, who were concerned about the
lack of a science-focused magnet school. Another big promoter for the
school's inception was the non-profit, education-focused Chesapeake
Lighthouse Foundation.
CSPadmits66studentsayear,butsomevacanciesgotosiblingsofcurrent
students.Therewere45spotsopenforthe2009through2010schoolyear
with 400-plus applicants. Admissions are based on a lottery; any county
student can apply, and hundreds do each year. Each fall, CSP distributes
40,000 copies of its annual fall newsletter to parents of all schoolchildren
in the county.
Once accepted, one-on-one assessments determine new students'
strengths and weaknesses. The process often finds dormant potential that
can be awakened, encouraged, and realized.
"Many of the parents felt their children were bored, not challenged up
to their capacity," Kandil said. "After a point, many children had lost
interest and were failing or getting into trouble because they were bored.
Parents have said that these problems were solved once their kids got into
Chesapeake Science Point. We have the capacity to challenge all of our
students."
CSP'smissionistoexceedtheschooldistrict'sSATaveragesandthestate's
proficiency scores on mandated testing, as well as to achieve high college
acceptance rates. Part of this plan is to provide "intense, individualized
instruction in science, math and technology."
CSP clearly knows how to engage its students in this intense environ-
ment. In 2008, a seventh-grader the school's science fair and finished
fourth nationally -- the highest finish ever for a Maryland student. The
student was admitted to CSP as a sixth grader with no interest in science
or math. The in-take assessment suggested untapped potential in science.
Two years later, the child had studied environmental conditions of West
Virginia streams, where he kayaked with his family. His project detailed
the presence of high acidity levels and a plan to reduce them. So success-
ful was this project that the student was honored with a visit to Maryland
Congressman John Sarbanes' office at the U.S. Capitol.
It could also be argued that CSP holds a science fair like none other in
the state. The most recent fair had a price tag of $15,000 that was shared
with the University of Maryland at College Park and CSP's parent-teacher
organization.PrizesincludedlaptopsandiPods--"attractiveawardstofeed
initiative,"Kandilsaid--and185oftheirstudents,or93percent,competed.
The school, which is managed by an eight-member governing board,
draws support from parents, nearby educational institutions, and a variety
of high-tech companies. Despite that, "our resources are limited," Kandil
said. In Maryland, charter schools operate privately with public money,
as well as oversight, through the county school system. That interplay,
along with concerns over CSP's first-year budget deficit and its facilities --
converted office space in an industrial park -- led to three years' probation,
which ended in March 2009.
Dedicated Teachers
Many of the school's 16 teachers arrive by 7 a.m. and stay until 4:30 p.m.
or later, do so voluntarily beyond union-defined work hours for public
schools of 7:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. There are before- and after-school
tutoring sessions and extracurricular activities led by teachers, including
Saturday sessions from 9 a.m. to noon, attended voluntarily by teachers
and more than half of the student body.
"Ourteachersspendextratimewiththeirstudentsinrelationshipsthatare
different than what they have during the day. The students interact with
teachers in a less formal setting," he said. "They know that teachers are
sacrificing their personal time, and students respect them for that."
"The most important factor in our educational approach is providing the
mostpositiveclimatepossible,"Kandilsaid."It'sunseen,butitdiffusesinto
everything you can accomplish in the school. The level of ownership is
46 | CHARTER SCHOOLS TODAY SPRING 2009

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