Now You Have 3 Ways to Receive Parent Power!By Internet: Log onto the Parent Power! listbot at www.edreform.com/parentpower/signup.htm, and receive a free electronicissue each month via e-mail.By mail: Subscribe for a full year for only $9.95, using the coupon below. Subscribe now (or extend your current subscription),and we’ll include a FREE copy of Charter Schools Today: Changing the Face of American Education – a $14.95 value.In bulk: Arrange for your school to distribute Parent Power! to all the parents in your school. Schools can receive bulksubscriptions for mere pennies per issue.Order today!____YES! I want to receive the next 12 issues of Parent Power! by mail. Enclosed is my check for $9.95, payable to“Center for Education Reform.” Please send me myFREEcopy of Charter Schools Today: Changing the Face ofAmerican Education____Please contact me about how my school can receive copies of Parent Power! for distribution to the parents.NAME ____________________________________________________________________________ADDRESS__________________________________________________________________________CITY _______________________________________ STATE ___________ ZIP _________________TELEPHONE _________________________________ E-MAIL ________________________________CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2DOES ACCREDITATION OF YOUR SCHOOL MEAN QUALITY?with the teachers’ performance in the class- room. Our main mission is to educate children and the Middle States evaluation has nothing to do with that.” Further illustrating the gap between accredi- tation and educational quality, two inner-city high schools in Philadelphia accredited by the Middle States Association were deemed so bad a couple of years ago that they were “reconsti- tuted” with a whole new staff. Both Audenreid and Olney High Schools continue to struggle. As recently as 1998, more than 90 percent of students at both schools tested below the basic (lowest) level in all subjects on the SAT-9 (Stanford Achievement Test-Ninth Version). Prodded by all the activity in the states around standards, assessments and school reportcards, the regional accrediting bodies have recog- nized that to justify their continued existence they must reinvent themselves and target acad- emic issues instead of concentrating primarily on facilities and administrative procedures. Meanwhile, among the best ways for parents to evaluate education at a school is to examine the school report cards issued by the states. The report cards show how well students performed on standardized tests and how they compare with other schools in the district and state. Report cards also display demographic data that can offer insights into educational outcomes. They are not always very user-friendly, but can often tell you more about whether your child’s school is performing than a stamp of “accreditation.”Parents interested in the home school option for their children can find a wealth of information on these three websites – including information on how togetstarted,curriculum informa-tion,support group lists,legal and legislative information,college information,and more. They,in turn,provide a wealth of links to other information resources.www.hslda.org–The Home School Legal Defense Association,whose website is a particularly rich sourceof information for parents approaching home schooling from a Christian or religious perspective.www.nhen.org–The National Home Education Network,which links a diverse group of home- schoolers using the internet and other forms of electronic networking.www.calvertschool.org–Home page of the renowned Calvert School,which offers a homeschool curriculum widely in use.Good Websites for ParentsDid YouKnow???•37 states have charter school laws•More than 2,050 charter schools currently operate in the U.S.•More than 400,000 students attend Charter Schools•Charter Schools are in high demand, with 66% having waiting lists•Fifty-five percent of charters are elementary schools; 20% are high schools, and 24% contain both
