Envision Schools featured in the San Francisco Chronicle
Today the San Francisco Chronicle featured an article on Envision Academy in Oakland. Chip Johnson reports about several students' goal of college success, which is the mission of Envision Schools. To read the full article, click here.
Updated: 10/13/09
Four Envision Schools Students Awarded the Koshland Young Leaders Award
Four of the eight students awarded the San Francisco Foundation 2009 KoshlandYoung Leader Award recipients attend Envision Schools. All four attend City Arts & Technology High School: Christian Castaing, Janette Marquez, Sha'Nice Patterson, and Carly Tello.
Click here to watch a video of the award receipents.
Updated: 10/13/09
Watch a video of our second Speaker Series featuring Milton Chen.
ABC News Reports from the Halls of Envision Schools!
On the eve before election day, ABC aired a two-minute spot focusing on our Voter Information project, in which students produced multi-media campaign ads for or against presidential candidates and California's state propositions. ABC news reporter, Lyanne Melendez, reports from the halls of Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School, one of our San Francisco schools. See for yourself how Metro rocked the vote!
Envision Schools featured in KQED Documentary!
According to a recent study, California ranks second-lowest in the U.S. in fourth and eighth grade science achievement. Since a large part of California's economy is devoted to technology, it is vital that California get its students up to speed. How bad is the problem? And what are schools doing to fill the gap?
Find out how Envision Schools' educational model is a solution by watching:
Impact Academy Featured in the Bay Area's Daily Review
In an article about campus safety in public schools on InsideBayArea.com, charter schools are found to be safer, quieter places for students to learn. Envision's Impact Academy, in Hayward, CA, is cited for its outstanding adviser program, with each student checking in with their faculty adviser at least once a day. Principal Jen Davis-Wickens says in the article, "We get to know our kids and their families very well. So we're able to form deep relationships."
Metropolitan Arts & Tech High Featured in the San Francisco Chronicle
Columnist C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle visited the campus of Metropolitan Arts and Tech on Thursday, October 11, observing the school in operation and interviewing staff and students. His report, published in the October 14 Sunday Chronicle, focuses on the exceptionally diverse student body at Metro and the unique combination of students from urban neighborhoods and former MSAT students from Marin who take the bus into San Francisco each day to attend Metro. Nevius also highlights Metro's successful academic model and rigorous college placement expectations.
In the October 22 San Francisco Chronicle, Envision co-founder and chief education officer Bob Lenz published an editorial about education policy, focusing on the failings of the No Child Left Behind Act and suggesting that the policy should be re-framed to define college preparation and graduation as its principal goal.
Marin Independent Journal Report on Marin School of Arts & Technology's Former Landlords
From 2003 to 2007, Marin Community College housed the Marin School of Arts & Technology on its Indian Valley campus. Last spring, the college declined to renew Envision School's lease, claiming it would need the space, and MSAT was forced to close. The Marin Independent Journal's Dick Spotswood recently visited the college campus to determine whether the college followed through on its plan.
Envision Schools Deploy Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays to Support Personalized Learning
Envision Schools has selected Xirrus Arrays for complete Wi-Fi coverage across each of its campuses. Envision uses the latest in technology to support its progressive project-based instructional model, which utilizes a personalized learning environment and workplace learning. Arts and digital technology are integrated across all content areas as tools for understanding and expression. To read more click here. CAT featured on Gates Foundation Homepage
The Gates Foundation website currently features Envision's City Arts & Tech High School. The article discusses the Envision Schools' educational model of project-based learning and how art and technology empower students to learn.
What's impressive is that they've helped a diverse population of students master critical concepts to prepare them for college. They're also succeeding in helping students make connections across disciplines and 'learn how to learn.' - Greg Sommers, Senior Program Associate, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The Gates Foundation is a principal funder of Envision Schools, investing over $10 million dollars in support of its Bay Area schools and expansion into new areas of California. To learn more about this landmark investment, click the links below:
Metro Students Show San Francisco's Biggest Growth in Academic Performance Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School (Metro) scored an astounding 93 points higher than last year in California's Academic Performance Index — the state's measure of school performance. Metro's gain was the single biggest improvement among all San Francisco Unified School District schools. For more on these outstanding test results, click here.
Bob Lenz on Edutopia
Bob Lenz, co-founder of Envision Schools and the organization's current Chief Education Officer, has been keeping a weblog on Edutopia, the homepage of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Bob's latest entry discusses the August professional development on Angel Island for new Envision Schools faculty.
New Public Charter School Opens in Oakland
At the end of this month, a new free, public charter school open its doors in Oakland. Funded primarily by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the California Department of Education, Urban Renaissance School of Arts & Technology (often referred to as Urban but not to be confused with the San Francisco private school of the same name) is committed to preparing kids for college and having a small school community. Urban is dedicated to small class sizes, with no more than 25 students per class. The high school is open to students in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
"We want our kids to go to college," said Co-Principal John Oubre. "All of our classes are aligned with the UC and CSU standards."
MORE Urban Renaissance in Oakland: Charter Schools Show Shift in Education Byron Williams, Oakland Tribune, January 19, 2006
There is a long-held belief that too much of something is not good.
While I don't necessarily disagree, I would offer that the education choices in Oakland haven't met the threshold whereby students are besieged by an excess of alternatives.
Envision Schools, which already opened three schools in the Bay Area, will start a new Oakland charter high school in the fall called Urban Renaissance.
Envision schools, regarded as one of the leading charter schools management organizations in California, is not only a major player in the movement ot reform public high schools, but its work has caught the attention of the Bill *Melinda Gates Foundation, which has awarded the organization roughly $4 million since 2003. MORE
MSAT Offers Peek At The Future: Mark Phillips, Marin Independent Journal, June 22, 2006
Most high schools depress me. Even the best, with structure, curriculum and instruction that are little different from those of the high school my father attended in 1923, seem obsolete and largely unrelated to the lives of today's adolescents. So I made a decision a couple of years ago to reward myself for my 40 years of service in the public education by only devoting time and energy to schools that give me hope.
One of these schools is the Marin School of Arts and Technology in Novato.
The key watchwords of MSAT are rigor, relevance, relationships and results. But it's how each of these is spelled out that makes the school a special place. MSAT is doing everything that I think high schools of the future should do to reach and effectively educate adolescents.
Second Charter High School Coming to Hayward in 2007 Katy Murphy, The Argus, June 30, 2006
A year after Hayward school officials fought unsuccessfully to keep Hayward's first public charter school out of the city, a second charter organization sailed through the process this week.
By the fall of 2007, Hayward will be the home of two charter high schools: Leadership Public Schools-Hayward, which opened last fall, and a small arts and technology-based high school started by the San Francisco-based Envision Schools charter organization.
"I am a supporter of charter schools, public schools, private schools ˜ all schools, as long as they provide a good education for students," Hayward Unified board member Jeff Cook said Wednesday, shortly before voting to approve the petition. MORE
Marin Students Improve on Test Scores: Jennifer Gollman, Marin Independent Journal, September 1, 2005
{Excerpt} The most marked improvement in API was shown by the Marin School of Arts and Technology, where the score jumped to 802 this year, up 133 points from last year.
"MSAT's scores grew dramatically because MSAT continued to deliver a relevant, standards-based curriculum focused on college preparation," Principal Stewart Fox said. "MSAT has a terrific faculty - this kind of growth doesn't happen without a dedicated, talented teaching staff."
MSAT is a 'leap above' Cameron Ghazzagh, Marin Independent Journal, June 29, 2006
I am a student at the Marin School of Arts and Technology and I believe that our school is more than a school.
MSAT is a safe learning environment where students can be creative without being ridiculed for expressing their ideas or feelings for a certain subject. It is also a place where mature debates take place, involving different subjects, such as a recent chapter of a book read, or an opinion on a history subject.
MORE (middle of the page) Envision Receives Additional $800,000 From Gates Foundation: Heather Knight, SF Chronicle, December 9, 2005
Envision Schools has received an additional $800,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its charter high school network by creating eight more schools for 4,000 Bay Area students by 2008.
Envision Schools received $3 million from the Gates Foundation in 2003, which helped it open its first charter high schools: Marin School of Arts and Technology in Novato, and City Arts and Technology High and Metropolitan Arts and Technology High, both in San Francisco.
Charter Schools Outperform Public Schools: Jennifer Coleman, AP, May 25, 2005
California's charter schools are 33 percent more likely to meet their academic goals than traditional public schools, a study released Wednesday found.
Classroom-based charter middle schools stood out in particular, with 81 percent meeting the state-set goals for student improvement, compared with 54 percent of traditional schools, according to EdSource, a Palo Alto-based nonpartisan organization that studies public education..
Celebrating charters: Heather Knight, SF Chronicle, May 6, 2005
This week has been National Charter Schools Week. To celebrate, Susan Patrick, director of the office of educational technology for the U.S. Department of Education, was scheduled on Tuesday to visit Gateway High.
The U.S. Department of Education will Honor City Arts and Tech (CAT) with a Presidential Proclamation on Tuesday, May 4th, 2005 at 10AM.
CAT is one of 12 exemplary schools in the United States - one of four in California - that the U.S. Department of Education will visit during National Charter Schools Week.
On May 4th, Michael Petrelli, a senior Official from the U.S. DOE's Office of Innovation and Improvement, will present the Proclamation to CAT during a Community Meeting. CAT staff and students will welcome Mr. Petrelli and two students will speak about their experience during CAT's innaugural year.
All friends of Envision Schools are invited to attend.
Alameda County Board of Education Approves Envision's Fourth School, to open in Oakland in the Fall of 2006!
On Tuesday night, April 26th, 2005, the Alameda County Board of Education approved Envision Schools' charter appeal, the first time that Board has ever approved an appeal. Their vote for Envision's fourth school to open in Oakland was 6-0.
CAT to get $14 million from bond Heather Knight, SF Chronicle, March 5, 2005
City Arts and Technology High, a charter school within the San Francisco Unified School District, will receive $14 million in state money to build a new facility or renovate its current one.
Twenty-eight charter schools around the state were chosen to receive portions of the $278 million allotted to charter schools out of the $12.3 billion school facilities bond measure, known as Proposition 55, passed by California voters last year.
City Arts and Technology High is run by the nonprofit Envision Schools, which also runs a Novato charter school and has received approval from the San Francisco Board of Education to open another charter high school in the city for the 2005-2006 school year.
Marin's Charter Schools Steve McNamara, Pacific Sun, February 23, 2005
Three of Marin's four charter schools are strictly local, one-off endeavors. Not MSAT. The game plan is for Envision Schools to grow beyond its current two operating high schools in Marin and San Francisco, adding four more in the Bay Area. One of the four, a second school in San Francisco, was just approved. Unlike Marin's other three charter schools, Envision has a robust administrative staff geared up for expansion. The founders and high-energy top dogs at Envision are Daniel McLaughlin and Bob Lenz. McLaughlin has degrees from Yale and Harvard, taught junior high, worked on Bank of America educational programs and was at WestEd, the national educational research center. Lenz harvested awards as the driving force for educational reform at Drake High in San Anselmo. He founded Academy X at Drake, an acclaimed project-based program that prepares students for a wide range of leadership roles.
Mayor's visit energizes Ingleside charter school's inaugural class Heather Knight, SF Chronicle, December 24, 2004
Mayor Gavin Newsom and the students of a new charter school, City Arts and Technology (CAT), had a lovefest last week when the mayor toured the Ingleside school and chatted with its inaugural class of adoring ninth-graders.
The students told him about their studies -- from integrated math involving algebra, geometry and statistics to philosophy and government involving Buddhism, Confucius and South African apartheid.
CAT is run by Envision Schools, a nonprofit that also operates a Novato charter school and has plans to expand around the Bay Area. The charter schools are overseen by the local public school district and need approval from local school boards.
Small-scale school enthuses students By Maggie Shiels, BBC News, June 10, 2004
At the Marin School of Art and Technology in northern California things are done differently from most other establishments.
There is no bell. The class roll is checked off from a laptop computer. Every student has access to a gleaming Apple Mac computer. Classes last 90 minutes instead of the usual 45 minutes. They start and finish later. There are fewer holidays. There are no more than 22 students in a classroom. And the teachers know the name of every single pupil.
No doubt for some this sounds like hell, while for others it sounds like Nirvana. Fortunately for the founders trying to get this charter school off the ground, enough parents and pupils believed in the latter to have enrolled.
Small, focused charter schools Envision firm has Marin campus -- S.F. program to start up in fall Heather Knight, SF Chronicle, May 26, 2004
Every new high school needs a mascot, and the inaugural class of Marin School of Arts and Technology voted for the Phoenix over the Falcon by a count of 50 to 45. After the vote, a ninth-grader used a computer program to imagine less-traditional mascots and presented the kooky mini-movie to the rest of the school at a recent morning meeting.
There was the Baboon With Big Lips. There was the Bat Cat, a cat with wings. And then there was the Bob. That one was just the floating head of the school's principal, Bob Lenz, garnering an eruption of laughter from students sitting in the school's computer lab amid lava lamps and models of the solar system.
