Rocklin Academy
Dissemination Grant Overview
Read the Dissemination Grant Here

Rocklin Academy is a high quality charter public elementary school. It has earned an API score of 916 and a statewide rank of 10, The Academy has been the highest performing school in the Rocklin Unified School District since its inception in 2001, is the highest performing public school in Placer County and is the highest scoring elementary charter public school in California. The foundation of the Academy's success is its Core Knowledge curriculum, the expertise and commitment of its faculty, and it partnership with parents.

PURPOSE: The focus of the Dissemination Grant is to share how Rocklin Academy has been very successful in implementing the research validated Core Knowledge based educational model in order to promote the creation of more high performing charter schools. It is to assist others with the planning and start-up of new schools using the Core Knowledge curriculum, and to assist them in the use/replication of other critical aspects of our program.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOCUS: In the more than 12 years of experience of the Academy's Executive Director with charter schools, a consistent and critical impediment to the development of high quality charter schools has been the difficulty faced by charter developers in implementing high quality, effective and research-validated educational programs in their schools. The Dissemination Grant will allow us to assist individuals, community groups and other organizations with the evaluation of the Core Knowledge curriculum (as well as other research-validated models) as being very effective in meeting California State Standards and an effective educational program for their proposed school and student population.

ONGOING SUPPORT: The approach to dissemination we are proposing, specifically the web-based resources and teacher conferences, will also be the catalyst for an on-going, self-sustaining peer support structure for these and other new schools. It will be an important vehicle for new schools to benefit from each other as well as existing schools, in order to most effectively and quickly improve student academic achievement.

EFFECTIVENESS AND TARGETING: Core Knowledge is recognized as being effective in working with a very wide range of student populations, including those most at risk. The Dissemination Grant will specifically target its outreach activities to charter school developers and interested community organizations in areas where traditional public schools have been identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under Title I, Part A of the ESEA, These dissemination efforts will be an important catalyst for the creation of high quality charter schools that can provide a high quality public school choice for families in these communities. Our faculty and the collaborators we have assembled are very effective in working with these communities.

Dissemination Grant Collaborators We Will Work With to Increase Our Impact

Core Knowledge Foundation
The non-profit Core Knowledge Foundation is the source of the Core Knowledge Curriculum and a wide array of instructional support materials. It also offers a wide array of high quality professional training and development for those who decide to implement Core Knowledge (www.coreknowledge.org).

National Core Knowledge Coordinator of Colorado
The National Core Knowledge Coordinator of Colorado has created a strong peer support structure in Colorado. The Coordinator is committed to supporting the development of the same types of structures in California (http://www.ckcolorado.org/index.asp).

William Jessup University
A four year college that recently relocated to the Rocklin area, William Jessup University is implementing one of California's first SB 2042 teaching credential programs. The University is interested in creating a Core Knowledge Resource Center in its Library. The University's faculty provide important teacher training resources and its facilities provide an excellent low-cost location for workshops, conferences and training (www.jessup.edu).

California Charter Schools Association
The California Charter Schools Association (the "Association") is the membership and professional organization serving California's charter school community. Its mission is to increase student achievement by strengthening and expanding public charter schools throughout California. The Association will provide important publicity and outreach resources to the Dissemination Project (www.charterassociation.org).

Grant Supported Dissemination Activities
School Year 2005-06 (with 2006-07 activities noted)

Conduct Outreach throughout California
*Conduct Five to Seven Seminars Annually in Communities (San Diego, 2 Los Angeles, Fresno, Sacramento, Bay Area and Northern California)

Introduces Core Knowledge as a research-based and
successful curriculum Explain how Core Knowledge is a curriculum that supports California State Standards

Review other aspects of our educational program (e.g., Saxon Math, Open Court Phonics, Junior Great Books, Core Virtues)

Review two "Developers Rubrics" to help developers determine if Core Knowledge (and/or other approaches) are high quality and meet the vision and needs of the schools/students

Provide tailored outreach to local educators, community groups/organizations, faith community, parent groups, local foundations, and media and editorial boards

Provide Spanish language outreach materials and presentations

*Actively promote Rocklin Academy as a visitation site, giving developers an opportunity to observe a Core Knowledge school

*Present at statewide and regional educational conferences

Sponsor Core Knowledge conference(s) in state for new and existing teachers based on Colorado model

*Focus on supporting new and developing teachers at Core Knowledge based charter schools

*Support for Administrators /Governance members at Core Knowledge based charter schools

*Replicate very successful Colorado conference model

*Make the conference self-sustaining after two years

Web-based Outreach and support tools

*Replicate very successful Colorado web site

*Provide teacher to teacher support

*Provide administrator to Administrator support

*Link to resources on the Core Knowledge website, to CDE and other key resources.

Written materials

*Tailor or customize existing Core Knowledge materials for California needs, and specific communities, i.e., Hispanic, Afro-American

*Provide materials detailing Core Knowledge alignment with California Standards

*Articles for publication in journals, newsletters and other venues

Support for developing Core Knowledge schools (2nd Year Activity)

*Create a California based Core Knowledge resource center at Rocklin Academy and/or William Jessup University (WJU)

*Become self-sustaining after 2 years

*Serve existing schools - teacher to teacher support

*Offer and coordinate new Core Knowledge school and new Core Knowledge teacher training

Training Center for Core Knowledge Teachers and Administrators

*Create collaboration with Core Knowledge for high quality training

*Create collaboration with University (WJU) for site and other Higher Education support

*Create collaboration with the California Charter School Association for contacts, outreach, training and publicity support

Read the Dissemination Grant Here

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