CCEA Newsletter September 2003, Page 2

Text Box: Education Coordinating Council. This is a group made up of the leadership from all the organizations and state agencies involved with alternative education. Individually, each organization represents from 3,000 to 100,000 students. Together, though, we represent close to one million students who are enrolled in some kind of alternative education! There is power in numbers! One of the major concerns of this Council has been advocacy for our schools and programs. This is our greatest need at the present time. I recently read an article in USA Today that characterized alternative schools as “holding tanks until the students aged out of school, where there was little in the way of meaningful instruction and certainly not much accountability.” To say that I was dismayed is certainly an understatement. Nowhere in this article was there any reference to what we, in California, are doing in the alternative education arena. My conclusion was that we must do a better job of marketing our programs. You have all heard me say this

Text Box: over the last several years. Today, we have reached the critical point. If we don’t start allocating time for this all important PR area, we will find ourselves a “thing of the past.” Our programs will go away. With mandates like the CAHSEE, No Child Left Behind and other legislation, many superintendents are using this as an excuse to eliminate or decimate alternative educational programs in their districts. Because they do not understand our mission, they do not think it matters. We must educate them and we must do it now! Please make marketing your program/school a part of your weekly, if not daily, duties. Remember, we are fighting not only for our own lives, but also the lives of our students! I look forward to meeting and visiting with you during the coming year. If you have something special going on in your district or school, please let me know so that I can try to come. I will make every effort to visit as many meetings and schools as I can during the coming year. Good luck in the days, weeks and months ahead!

Text Box: August 8, 2003. The application is also available online at the CCEA website, www.cceanet.org and the CDE website, www.cde.ca.gov. Applications are due by November 3, 2004 to allow for our new, improved application evaluation system.
A major change is a waiver system for the Pupil-to-Teacher Ratio. Quality Indicator C-10 requires that the applicant school's pupil-to-teacher ratio be 15:1 based on the ADA enrollment average of 20:1 with seventy-five per cent attendance. However, schools that exceed the 15:1 ratio, but believe that they offer an exemplary program, are invited to submit a one-page explanation that

Text Box: CDE News from Dennis Fisher,
Continuation Education Consultant
The Model Continuation High School recognition program is a partnership between the CDE and the CCEA that recognizes continuation schools for the excellent work they do for students. The Model School Program will be undergoing some refinement. These changes include an earlier application deadline, a waiver for the pupil to teacher ratio requirement, and better training and procedures for evaluators. The Model School application for 2003 - 2004 was mailed to Superintendents and continuation high school principals on

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