Event Recaps
Charters Under Threat Panel
Bluum hosted a panel of national experts on charter public schools to discuss the recent challenges to the charter sector and offer advice to Idaho’s school leaders and policymakers. The panelists included Thomas Franta, Washington State Charter Schools Association, Chris Korsmo, League of Education Voters, and Todd Ziebarth, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Moderated by Terry Ryan, panelists explained their four-year journey. See the video and read more here.
ICSN Policy Summit
Thank you to all of our charter leaders and members who attended the the Network's meeting this week. We shared an update on ICSN's and Bluum's "20 in 10" efforts.
As a 501(c)4 organization, ICSN does not receive any philanthropic dollars. Membership dues and fees for service support our advocacy and technical assistance programs. Learn More.
 Terry introduced Angel Gonzalez, Director of Research at Bluum. Angel shared some current research projects including preliminary results from the charter school leader survey. ICSN members who complete the survey can expect to see final results in mid-Feburary. Emily McClure, ICSN's lobbyist updated members on our current policy efforts and priorities for the coming year.
Staying up to date on the 2016 Legislative Session with our weekly Capitol Update E-Blast.
Charter News
Kevin Richert, Idaho Education News -Idaho’s STEM Action Center awarded its first round of grants Tuesday — and the new center had no shortage of applicants.
 The $48,175 will go to 23 teachers across the state, covering projects in fields ranging from robotics and drones to hydrogen fuel cars and 3-D design and printing. Projects will launch this spring. Read More.
Charter school grant recipients included North Idaho STEM Charter Academy, Sage International School, and Idaho Arts Charter School.
Partner News
The Family Engagement Collaborative
Ember Reichgott Junge, Zero Chance of Passage Blog - A research team at Johns Hopkins University recently evaluated the impact of home visits that occurred in a partnership between Flamboyan Foundation and a dozen Washington DC elementary schools in which 95% of students were eligible for free or reduced lunch, and 96% of students were of color. Their findings?
“Students whose families received a home visit were absent on average 2.7 fewer days (24% less) than students whose families did not receive a home visit,” they concluded. They also had better reading comprehension scores than similar students whose families did not receive a home visit. Read More
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