California has 687 charter public schools serving approximately 240,000 students. The California Charter Schools Association is the membership and professional organization serving to advance the charter school movement while advancing quality education. Among its quality initiatives, the Association launched the nation’s first Certified Charter Schools program and continually seeks ways to assist member schools with resources that they may not otherwise have access to due to their size and funding limitations.

After conducting a membership needs assessment survey, the Association developed the ZOOM! Data Source program to provide members with economical access to customized training, technology and online tools to more effectively gather, store, use, manage and report student achievement data. The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation committed three grants, totaling near $3.65 million over six years (2005-2011), to support the development of the program and to accelerate the culture of performance management among California’s charter schools.

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