Family & Community Alternative Learning
Charter Schools Best Practices

Community Day Charter Public School

Online Professional Development Program

Topics:	Instructional Practices
Mission:	The mission of CDCPS is to provide a Kindergarten through grade eight school that will draw upon our considerable experience in working together as a community to develop and implement a curriculum that discovers and supports the special characteristics and unique learning styles of each student. We will engage that student in meaningful learning experiences for the purposes of clearly stated goals in the areas of understandings, knowledge, skills, habits and social competencies. The curriculum will be embedded in the reality of city life and will reinforce the positive aspects of our city: its culture, art and economy, its working class history and strong work ethic. Our educational philosophy, curriculum and teaching methods are informed by an understanding that learning takes place in the context of family and that family must be supported in ways that make learning for the child possible.
Goals:	1. Participants in the online professional development course designed a curriculum unit incorporating key elements from the online course. CDCPS teachers designed and used a rubric to determine whether participants met the stated goal of the course.
Summary:	Partnership for Online Professional Development. Teachers from Community Day Charter Public School participated in an online professional development course focused on research and instructional practices related to the development of students’ number sense. A team of teachers from CDCPS and Lawrence Public Schools then revised the course to incorporate additional practices from CDCPS. This federally-funded dissemination project was planned and implemented by the development director and curriculum director at Community Day Charter Public School. After teachers participated in an online professional development course focused on research and instructional practices related to the development of students’ number sense, they worked in teams with teachers from Lawrence Public Schools to modify and enhance the course to include additional practices from CDCPS. The revised online professional development course was taught to over 20 educators from various school districts across Massachusetts. As a culminating activity, participants in the course designed a curriculum unit incorporating key elements from the course.
Partner(s):
Dates:	01/01/2007
Contact:	Laura Richane, Director of Educational Initiatives (lrichane@thecommunitygroupinc.org/978.682.6628)
Resources:	Online Professional Development Course. Contact the school for more information.
Federal Charter Schools Program Funds?	No

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