Author: Grow Schools, formerly Charter School Capital
It’s Almost National Charter Schools Week—Are You Ready?
Get ready for it! National Charter Schools Week is May 12-18, 2019 and we’re excited to take this opportunity to help recognize and raise public awareness for charter schools, school choice, student success, and the charter school movement as a whole. This is a time for charter school leaders, students, parents, and advocates to come together and showcase the amazing things that charter schools are doing.
About the Charter School Movement
The charter school movement has been growing steadily since the first charter law passed in 1991 in Minnesota and the first charter school opened in 1992. To date, 44 states (D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico) have charter laws, 3.2 million students attend charter schools, and there are over 7000 public charter schools nationwide receiving $400 million in Federal CSP Funds. Charter schools currently employ 219,000 teachers.
This Year’s Theme
This year, during National Charter Schools Week, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools theme is “Charter Schools Are…” because each charter school is unique in how they serve their students, families, and communities—and because we all have a different definition of what charter schools mean to us.
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is encouraging schools and advocates alike to join in the celebration by hosting/attending local rallies, inviting elected officials to classroom visits, and sharing your voice through blog posts, media outlets, and social media posts. Learn how you can get involved with some great ideas and templates from the National Alliance here.
Get some shareable facts and learn about the state of the charter sector in this recent information-packed blog post!
Get Social and Start Sharing!
Our team will be following along and featuring some of these National Charter Schools Week activities on our social channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
We invite you to join the conversation as well by using the hashtags #CharterSchoolsWeek and #WeLoveCharterSchools so we can help amplify your voice and the voice of the movement!
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
Tips on Building Better Relationships with Charter School Authorizers
For this episode of our CHARTER EDtalks, Ryan Eldridge, one of Charter School Capital’s Charter School Advisors, had the honor of sitting down with Mike Limon, Executive Director at Orange County Educational Arts Academy (OCEAA), to discuss actionable tips for building better relationships with charter school authorizers.
To learn the tips on how to build better relationships with your charter school authorizers, please watch the video or read the transcript below to get the full story.
Building Relationships with Charter School Authorizers
Ryan Eldridge: Hello there and thank you for joining us in this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. I’m Ryan Eldridge, Charter School Advisor for Charter School Capital, and I’m honored to be joined by Mike Limon, Executive Director at Orange County Educational Arts Academy (OCEAA). And we’re going to be discussing building better relationships with charter school authorizers. Mike Limon: Great. Eldridge: So, thank you, Mike, for joining us. We appreciate it. Limon: Thanks for having me. Eldridge: Why don’t we just jump right into it. Limon: Sure.
Breaking Down Barriers, Collaborating, Accountability
Eldridge: The first question is, “Can you define what building better relationships with charter authorizers means to you?” Limon: Sure. So before even I dive into that, I want to give a big thank you to the Santa Ana Unified School District. They’ve been great at getting me up and running because this is year one for me as executive director.
So, I’m definitely excited to dive in, learn, and build relationships. And so, with that, the bigger topic is the students. We’re here to educate all students, whether they’re in a public charter school, a traditional school, a private, a Catholic school, etc., whatever. We’re here to educate them together. And so, with that, the word in my mind that pops up is collaboration. Let’s break down those barriers and truly collaborate together as the authorizer and the public charter school.
We want to work beyond just our traditional responsibilities that board members have. There’re responsibilities that they’re held accountable to, and I have my responsibilities that I’m held accountable to. Let’s not lose sight of how we can go beyond those responsibilities and build a tighter relationship to educate all our students in our district.
A lot of folks have this very transactional process or experience with their charter school manager or their authorizers, or the board themselves—very transactional. I want to break beyond that and truly build a partnership with them to figure out how to elevate our students to the next level.
How to Build Those Relationships
Eldridge: What does effective relationship-building look like?
Providing Feedback
Limon: People traditionally just go in and submit interim budget reviews or attendance reports, just check the box off. For me, again, I want to break down those barriers, get to know who these people are that sit on the board, and also the folks behind the scenes. The assistant superintendents, the charter school manager, or whatever their title is, breaking that down and building processes together, because I know that the school districts are also trying to systematize their processes.
And even, for example, in Santa Ana, they just started using this new tool called Epicenter, and so I think its year one for them, if I’m not mistaken. But I know that they’re also trying to figure out how it works, how to systematize it, how to make it better for both users. I know that it’s a brand new tool, so for them, they want to go in and try to customize things.
If you don’t give them constructive criticism or feedback on how to elevate their processes, we’re not going to get anywhere versus just submitting your traditional transactional paperwork, etc.
One of the things I’ve learned in working with them … and I call them. I email them. I text them when I need something or just education as well, because we’re cross-educating each other.
They don’t know what our challenges are either because they’re not in our shoes every day throughout the year. They come in maybe twice a year, check out the school, that kind of thing. But if we’re not giving them feedback, we can’t help them help us make our jobs easier.
Because at the end of the day, charter school teams are pretty small, and so to be able to have another informal colleague on the other side supporting you and cheering you on, you can’t really get anywhere. Again, it’s a very fast-paced environment as well. If you’re not creating constant touchpoints or conversations, you can’t really elevate processes.
Build relationships at the city, county and state level
Limon: The other thing, too, that came up with this conference—and this was only day one—is the notion … because my authorizer is Santa Ana. We’re in Santa Ana, so for us, it’s easy to just quickly build relationships with them.
But also, at the county level, that’s something that is a best practice. You should be building relationships with them as well if you have a city authorizer. We forget.
We focus all our energies on developing those relationships with the city, but we lose sight that we also should be building relationships at the county level and even at the statewide level as well because sometimes, even in Santa Ana, they may not have answers to some of your questions.
To be able to have someone that you can call at the state level, at the county level, that you already built relationships with … because sometimes you might be down to the wire trying to get some things done, and you definitely need that support to try to answer that question.
Just building processes together to be more effective in the long term. You’ve got to plant the seed to gain the results a year later. If you start now and have those meaningful touchpoints and help them help you, it’s definitely very effective.
If you build it, will they come?
Eldridge: Can you give me a few examples of how you can collaborate with a charter authorizer in the school board? Limon: I’ll start off with very simple things first, and then I’ll dive into some recent things that have just come up as far as opportunities for me.
You know your traditional site visits; have coffee, get them to come to your events. Constantly invite them out. It’s going to be really hard to get them on your calendar because, especially for Santa Ana, our district is pretty large and there’s constant events happening at their schools. And there’s fundraisers and “munch and learns” and etc. I see all kinds of formats of events.
Just get them to come out to your school, let them get to know who your students are, who your teachers are, who the families are … because there’s all these misconceptions about the people that we serve at our charter schools. And for our school, for example, we’re about 86%, 87% Latino/Hispanic students that we serve. The misconception in the community is that it’s the other way around, very low Hispanic rates that we serve, which is completely wrong.
For us, to get them to come out … and it doesn’t have to be a school board, it could be some other staff, maybe even some other teachers to come out and see who we are so that as they’re telling the story about OCEAA in the community and they have a good understanding [of who we are].
They’ve been in the classrooms. They’ve seen the parents. They’ve engaged with them. That’s definitely something I’m going to be really pushing for the next year.
It’s going to take a lot of work because even just for you guys as service providers, to be able to educate people in your programs and get people to come in and learn about the services you offer, it takes a lot of work. It’s kind of that similar situation, so I’m going to have to work my butt off to try to get them to come into our buildings.
One other thing that, for me, I’m lucky I’m in downtown Santa Ana, we have food, great food, throughout the city that we’re in. Just trying to get them on the calendar to come to break bread with me would also be an easy ask. They’re breaking bread at a very yummy place that’s maybe not so hoity-toity. And that builds that relationship a little further.
Do your homework, get involved, and get connected!
Limon: A lot of them are also very involved with community organizations or non-profits in the Orange County area. For example, the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Latina Business Women Association. There’re these ethnic organizations that these board members of Santa Ana support and maybe even have leadership roles in, which I’ve been doing for the last decade or so. I’m on the board of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce here in Sacramento. And there’s all this synergy happening to elevate Hispanic youth or even leaders already in the community supporting each other, paying it forward.
Doing some homework with regards to where you are in the nation or California on where these board members spend the rest of their time.
Do they support other organizations?
Figure out what interests them and work with them to build that relationship aside from your day-to-day responsibilities, like I was mentioning earlier, get to know them on a personal level and start to build that relationship, because, as we all know, we’ve got those interim budgets, the renewal. There’s all this compliance that we have to do. If you start building those relationships and even planting the seed or even asking, “Okay, so for this year, for the renewal this time around, what are the things that we need to start preparing for?”
Because it’s probably a good time to start preparing for that renewal. You never know with all the laws that come up and those constant changes. To be able to have someone to call on really quickly versus at the last minute, 30 days coming up, you’re probably scrambling, and you don’t really have any relationships that you’ve established, that’s going to be a huge challenge for these folks.
Again, community relationships, building those processes, those collaboration opportunities, get to know who they are.
And then something that just happened recently with me is the school board president just invited me to be a principal for the day at one of their schools, and I feel so honored. So, thank you, Santa Ana. But to get that opportunity to go and be an admin at one of their schools as a charter leader, I think that’s a home run right there. Eldridge: Absolutely. Limon: And it goes back to all the work that I’ve been doing over the last few months and trying to build relationships with them, supporting them. Of course, there are only so many hours in the day, and I would love to duplicate myself and get out to more events and support them. But you have to have that balance because you don’t want to burn yourself as well at the end of the day.
It’s been quite the ride so far, and I’m looking to see what the future holds in partnership with you guys. You guys have been great as educators, educating our school on different opportunities and how we can focus on our facilities because that’s a big challenge as well for other organizations out there. I didn’t realize that.
Even for us, for example, we had a short-term challenge with flooding with all these rains. And so, you quickly get a reminder about the importance of facilities. And so, we’ve been chatting just recently about how we can elevate our school with your support. Eldridge: Well, great. Well, that wraps up this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. Mike, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it. Limon: Thanks for having me. Eldridge: And hopefully it was beneficial to you viewing out there. Take care.
The Ultimate Guide to Charter School Facility Financing:
In this CHARTER EDtalk, Mike chatted about potential upcoming facilities projects he’s considering. Are you thinking about a new facility for your charter school or enhancing your current one? This guide shares straightforward and actionable advice on facilities planning, financing options, getting approved, choosing a partner, and much more! Download it here.
Charter Schools Are A Better Investment Than Traditional Public Schools
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published here on April 9, 2019 by the New York Post. It was written by Patrick Wolf, a distinguished professor of education policy and holds the endowed chair in school choice at the University of Arkansas and Corey DeAngelis, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. It examines which type of public school — traditional or public charter — delivered the most academically cost-effective education.
We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support charter school growth and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.
Case closed: Charter schools deliver more education ‘bang’ for the buck
Polls show that most Americans think our public schools deserve more funding. Meanwhile, each year, states and school districts make choices about how to spend the education funds that they have. Doesn’t it make sense for them to invest in schools that work — schools that help students learn the most with the lowest burden on taxpayers?
Several years ago, we began researching which type of public school — traditional or public charter — delivered the most academically cost-effective education. In a 2018 report, we examined eight cities: New York City plus Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, San Antonio and Washington, DC.
While their sizes and demographics vary widely, each city has a substantial concentration of students enrolled in charter schools. In every city, we found that charter schools were more productive — that is, they yielded more learning per education dollar spent than traditional district schools.
Students enrolled in New York City’s charter schools scored roughly 12 points in reading on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, for every $1,000 invested in those schools.
By contrast, students in the city’s traditional public schools produced about 9.5 NAEP reading points per $1,000 invested, generating a cost-effectiveness advantage of 24% for charters in the Big Apple. The results for math were similar: More than 13 NAEP points per $1,000 of funding for charters compared to almost 10.5 points for traditional schools.
We also discovered that Washington, DC, charters were 67% more cost-effective than traditional schools. Indianapolis charters bested their traditional counterparts by 65% on the productivity measure.
This year we revisited the same eight cities to see if the trend had continued. It had. Once again, the charter schools in each city proved more cost-effective. Public charter schools in New York were 25% more cost-effective than the city’s traditional public schools in producing 2017 NAEP reading scores and 26% more cost-effective in generating math scores.
San Antonio charter schools, to take another example, were 29% more cost-effective in math and 30% more cost-effective in reading than traditional schools. Washington charters were 43% more cost-effective in both subjects. The results for each city are detailed in our report, “A Good Investment: The Updated Productivity of Public Charter Schools in Eight U.S. Cities.”
We recognized that NAEP scores represent only a snapshot of academic performance. So we were curious what long-term academic results would reveal.
By calculating the average amount of learning at traditional and charter schools, the economic returns to those learning levels over the average lifetime, as well as each type of school’s total per-pupil funding over the course of a K-12 education, we were able to calculate the return on investment, or ROI, delivered by each type of school.
In all eight cities, we found that charters delivered a greater lifetime ROI. For each dollar invested in a student enrolled in traditional schools, that student secures $4.41 in lifetime earnings. The same dollar invested in a student enrolled in charter schools yields $6.37 in lifetime earnings for that student.
Public charter schools’ ROI exceeded that of traditional public schools by an average of 53%. Atlanta charter schools yielded an ROI that was 102% greater than traditional schools. Indianapolis came in second, with charters’ ROI 73% greater than traditional schools, followed by Washington charters at 58% and Boston charters at 53%.
The ROI for learning generated in New York City charters was 29% higher than the ROI in the traditional public schools in the city.
Elected officials and policymakers have a choice about where to invest educational resources and a responsibility to invest wisely. Charter schools are, simply put, a good investment. Our findings are just one more reason why lawmakers in Albany should raise the cap on charters in New York City and give the more than 53,000 Big Apple families on charter waitlists the chance to get the sound education they deserve.
If you are trying to meet operational expenses, expand, acquire or renovate your school building, add an athletic department, enhance school safety/security, or buy new technology, complete the online application below and we’ll contact you to set up a meeting. Our team works with you to determine funding and facilities options based on your school’s unique needs.
Your Ultimate Guide to Charter School Facilities Financing
If you clicked from somewhere to read this blog post, you probably already feel that finding charter school facility financing finding or locating the perfect facility for your charter school is a huge, complicated undertaking. Not to worry, you’re in good company. We understand that most charter school leaders aren’t financial or real estate experts, and for a good reason—you’re focused 100% on educating children. And, you want the best for them. Planning and financing any facility project is complex, time-consuming, and has the potential to distract your team from its core mission: serving your students.
Across the U.S., accessing charter school facilities is, by far, the greatest challenge faced by charter schools. In addition, planning and financing any facility project is complex,time-consumingg, and has the potential to distract your team from its core mission: serving your students.
We’ve created this manual to share our insights and perspectives on the charter school facilities landscape market and also share advice on planning—and realistically balancing—your team’s facility dreams with budget realities.
In it, we also cover the four primary funding structures that charter schools use to finance facilities: cash, banks, bonds, and long-term leases.
It can indeed be a complicated endeavor and that’s a key reason as to why it’s so important to find the right funding partner to help guide you through the process and help you succeed. Charter School Capital is 100% dedicated to charter schools and has years of experience in navigating the unique needs and challenges they face. We have helped schools achieve their facility goals using each of those methods—and we’ll help you determine which options might be the best fit for your school’s unique situation.
Over the past ten years, we’ve invested almost $2 billion in more than 600 charter schools to help them grow, finance facilities, and achieve academic excellence and operational stability. We view ourselves as a long-term partner of charter schools and a strong advocate of the charter school movement.
Download this free guide to get all of your facilities questions answered!
In it, you’ll get straightforward, actionable advice on:
If you are trying to meet operational expenses, expand, acquire or renovate your school building, add an athletic department, enhance school safety/security, or even buy new technology, complete the online application below and we’ll contact you to set up a meeting. Our team works with you to determine funding and facilities options based on your school’s unique needs and mission. Contact us, we’d love to get to know you.
How to Build Positive Charter School Culture: Toolkit for Schools and Network Leaders
Editor’s Note: Building a positive school culture in your charter school can help students achieve more, build morale among both staff and students, and attract and retain exceptional teachers, among other key benefits. This outstanding content is from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and was originally published here on February 5, 2019. If your goal is to implement or improve the school culture in your charter school but don’t know where to start, this toolkit will be an invaluable resource to get the ball rolling.
We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support charter school growth and the advancement of the charter school movement as a whole. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.
SCHOOL CULTURE TOOLKIT: PRACTICAL RESOURCES FOR SCHOOL AND NETWORK LEADERS
CULTURE IS KEY
Positive culture is a key ingredient in any school’s success. A strong culture helps schools hire, develop, and retain more great teachers; avoid challenges with staff morale; and inspire students to reach greater heights. But we’ve found many charter schools are unsure where to begin in understanding or improving their culture.
This toolkit contains practical resources to help school and network leaders build stronger cultures at their schools—starting tomorrow—so that they become places where the best teachers want to build long, rewarding careers. Many of the tools were created and curated by TNTP, a national nonprofit with more than two decades of experience working with public charter schools and traditional district schools.
SCHOOL CULTURE OVERVIEWS
These resources provide a high-level overview of the most important elements of a strong instructional culture.
Greenhouse Schools in Boston: School Leadership Practices Across a High Performing Charter Sector: A case study of charter schools in one city that have successfully incorporated the elements of strong instructional cultures.
RETAINING GREAT TEACHERS
A key part of sustaining a strong school culture is holding on to outstanding teachers who embody it. These resources can help school leaders do just that.
Teacher Retention Roadmap: A overview of retention best practices, with tools to support them (such as a retention planner).
Retaining High Performing Teachers: A presentation that shows how several school systems have implemented best practices for retaining top teachers.
Long-Term Retention Planner: A template that helps school leaders create long-term retention plans for their best teachers.
Teacher recognition email templates: Suggestions for short emails school leaders can send to recognize their high-performing teachers—a simple step that makes them more likely to stay.
Avoiding Teacher Burnout: A guide to help schools create cultures that minimize teacher burnout.
COMPENSATION AND CAREER PATHWAYS
Salaries and career advancement matter to teachers as much as they matter to other professionals—and both are an important part of how teachers perceive their school’s culture. Network and school leaders can use these resources to help ensure their compensation and career pathway policies reinforce strong cultures at the school level, and give their best teachers more opportunities to shape policies and practices beyond their own classroom.
Every teacher hiring decision sends a message about what a school truly values in its culture. Those new hires, in turn, help shape the school’s culture for years to come. Building a selection process around a clear vision and set of expectations can help schools hire the teachers who best fit their culture—and reduce morale and performance challenges over the long run. These resources can help school and network leaders take stock of the standards they want to set when hiring teachers and implement them consistently.
Recruitment and Selection Guide: A sample blueprint for a teacher recruitment and selection process—including resources to help clarify a school’s vision and expectations—that can be customized to fit any charter network and school.
Teacher Recruitment Roadmap: A roadmap for recruiting a pool of highly qualified teacher candidates (with several embedded guides on marketing, job posting, and recruiting in rural areas).
Sample Job Description (Uncommon Schools): An example of a teacher job description from a charter network.
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
Charter School Facts: The State of the Charter Sector Today
Editor’s Note: Bellwether Education Partners published the first The State of the Charter Sector in 2015. They have just recently completed the second edition, The State of the Charter Sector: What You Need to Know About the Charter Sector Today, in January of this year. It includes the latest available information on the charter sector (data on growth, geographical trends, school performance, etc.)
Because charter schools and the charter school movement continue to be a topic widely debated across the country, we are consistently working to dispel myths by sharing the facts. Similarly to the sentiments of the team at Bellwether, “Our goal is not to persuade but to inform. Rigorous debate — based on accurate information — is necessary for thoughtful policymaking and, ultimately, to ensuring all students have access to a high-quality education.”
The State of the Charter Sector: What You Need to Know About the Charter Sector Today
General Summary
Schools: There are 7,039 charter schools
Enrollment: 3 million charter students
Enrollment Share: 6% of total public school enrollment are charter students
State Charter Laws: 44 states and D.C. have charter school laws
Growth
After years of rapid growth, the number of charter schools and students is starting to level off, though school closures understate the pace of new school openings
The majority of schools opened since 2005 are in 16 states; 40 percent of all new school growth during that time occurred in California, Texas, and Florida
Growth in high-performing CMOs far outpaces overall sector growth
Performance
The latest available research shows that, nationally, charters outperform traditional public schools in reading and underperform in math
National performance masks strong performance across many regions, locales, & student groups
Charter performance is improving over time
More recent sector-wide research is necessary to understand charters’ impact nationally
Challenges
Charter schools face challenges in seven areas: state policy, authorizers, facilities, human capital, funding, public opinion, and
State laws do not allow or set a cap on charters, restrict authorizers, and limit access to funding and facilities
Authorizers are a key driver in charter performance, but there is wide variation in effectiveness
Charters have limited access to appropriate facilities, but some state and federal policies help
Charters face human capital issues, including shortages of teachers of color, unequal compensation, and low staff sustainability
Charters receive 27 percent less in per-pupil funding than TPS
Public support for charters has gone down in recent years
Charters, like many TPS, struggle to ensure that all students have equitable access to high-quality schools and experiences once enrolled
The sector has made progress on these challenges in recent years, but none have been truly solved
For the purpose of this blog post, we’ve just highlighted some top-level numbers and facts, but you can read the complete report here.
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
Do You Know the Four Pillars of Charter School Sustainability?
Editor’s Note: For this CHARTER EDtalk, our own Charter School Capital Advisor, Ryan Eldrige, was honored to be joined by Jeff Rice, Founder and Director of APLUS+, The Association of Personalized Learning Schools & Services, to discuss the Four Pillars of Charter School Sustainability. Jeff is passionate about the charter school movement and because of his dedication, APLUS+ has been a leading voice to raise awareness and understanding of the critical need for parent and student choice in public education, and specifically for a personalized learning option in education for the growing number of students for whom a rigid, classroom-only model is not a good match for success.
To learn more about the Four Pillars of Charter School Sustainability, please watch the video or read the transcript below for the full story.
Ryan Eldridge:Hello and thank you for joining this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. I’m Ryan Eldridge, Charter School Capital Advisor, and I’m honored to be joined today by Jeff Rice, director and founder of the APlus+ Personalized Learning Network Association, and we’re going to be talking about building strong community engagement. So, welcome Jeff. Thank you for joining us. Jeff Rice: Well, thank you. It’s an honor to be here as well. Eldridge:Why don’t we just kick it off. I’ll ask you a couple of questions, and we’ll just dive right into it. So, can you tell us a little bit about APlus+ and the APlus+ network and your theme for this year?
About APLUS+ and Personalized Learning
Rice: APlus+ is the first and currently the only association whose mission and vision is to advance personalized learning and to support all schools, but particularly charter schools whose mission and vision is to personalize learning.
When we talk about personalized learning, because that tends to be a phrase that can be used to represent a wide variety of things, we’re talking about a model of education that provides choice and flexibility in how, what, when, where and with whom each student learns. So, it is incumbent upon every school, who supports that mission and vision, to provide a wide variety of choices. Sort of a buffet menu that can be matched to the needs of each and every student.
We were founded 17 years ago in 2002, so this is our 17th year in operation, and we have built a strong reputation as the pioneers in education for personalizing learning in the 21st century. Our theme for this year is Strengthen That Which We Can Control, and the reason we chose that theme is obviously because of the consequences of the 2018 elections and the choice (of some within the status quo education system) to use charter schools as scapegoats for all of the financial troubles, the academic issues that the district schools are experiencing, and they’re using charter schools as the reason for their fiscal mismanagement and academic failures, of course, all of which is false.
But what we can control is to strengthen our schools in four particular areas, which we call the Four Pillars of Sustainability. If you’d like me to-
The Four Pillars of Charter School Sustainability
Eldridge:That was my next question. Now, I was just going to ask you can you go into the Four Pillars of Sustainability? Rice: I jumped right into it. Eldridge: That’s great. Please do. Rice: Okay. So, the Four Pillars of Sustainability, which are the four primary areas in which we have direct control over are as follows.
PILLAR 1: Accountability and Transparency
Rice: Obviously with the recent signing into law of SB 126 by [California] Governor Newsom, requiring charter schools now formally even though most charter schools were already complying with these requirements, but formally, legally, to comply with the Brown Act requirements, the Public Records Act requirements, the Political Reform Act requirements, and sections of Government Code 1090. It has intensified the requirements for charter schools to be very transparent in those areas. So, with regard to governance, charter schools now really have to step it up to make sure that they are following all the requirements now that are being required of them.
In addition to, of course, what they’ve been required to do all along, and that is make sure that they follow their charter school petition in their administration that they meet their LCAP goals and do their reporting mechanisms as they are required to do to make sure that their finances are in order and that they are fiscally responsible and prudent that they have the required reserves set aside as well as legal compliance to make sure that they are very familiar with charter school law, very familiar with all the areas in which they are required and being scrutinized to follow. As we know, the scrutiny has intensified in the last couple of years. And as a result of the 2018 elections, has intensified even more. That is the first pillar, accountability and transparency.
PILLAR 2: Student Data, Growth, and Achievement
Rice:The second pillar has to do with student data, growth, and academic achievement. Of course, student data is an area in which we can significantly improve, particularly around student intake data. In my nearly 20 years of experience, I hear countless stories about how students who have been struggling in district-operated public schools are coming to charter schools, and their first or second year state testing results, of course, are far below proficient, the reason being because they are inheriting the failures of those district schools with those particular students who upon enrollment with the charter school are several grade levels behind, are credit deficient, are having all kinds of challenges that are not the fault of the charter school at all.
The Importance of Data to Demonstrate Growth
Rice: But the charter schools can do a much better job of documenting that information and translating it into a reportable document that shows that they didn’t start on an even ground when they enroll that student. Well, to use this starting gate analogy, they weren’t at the starting gate. They were hundreds of furlongs behind the starting gate and had to play several years of catch-up in order to bring those students to proficiency in all of the core subject areas. But yet the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) results don’t show that. CAASPP results do not reflect that at least until year three or year four.
If the student stays that long with the charter school, the students’ testing results start to reflect the great work that the charter school is doing. So, we need to do a much better job of documenting data and then recording data and reporting it. In addition to that, we need to do a better job not only on the CAASPP results and the dashboard indicators but also using internal assessment data to show internal growth. There are a number of effective tools out there that every charter school should be using regardless of the type of model the charter school is to be able to document internal growth where a one-year snapshot test by the state does not provide all of the story.
Then in addition to that, we want to make sure to use other types of indicators that demonstrate success, college and career indicators and so forth, some of which the state is finally after all these years adopting formally, but to the degree to which the charter school can show those additional indicators. Even post-secondary placement indicators will help in the mix of demonstrating success.
That is the second pillar. Those are more internal pillars by the way. The other two pillars are more external. I believe that charter schools across the board need to recognize that they assume the role of dual educators.
They are equally responsible for showing positive successful results with their students as they are in educating their greater communities and the public.
PILLAR 3: Brand Identity and Sharing Your Success Stories
Rice: We know that still after 26 years of being a movement in California, that the majority of the public still doesn’t know what a charter school is. When most of you say, “We are from a charter school,” the first question out of their mouth most of the time is, “How much does it cost?” That is a mirror that reflects back to you their lack of knowledge in what a charter school is.
In fact, it tells you that the majority of the public still after 26 years believes that charter schools are private schools because how many people in the public think that there is a tuition fee for a public school?
Unless they’ve been living in a cave, they know that public schools are tuition free. So, for them to say, “How much does it cost?” tells you that they believe that charter schools are private schools.
Unless they’ve been living in a cave, they know that public schools are tuition free. So, for them to say, “How much does it cost?” tells you that they believe that charter schools are private schools.
That is a huge public relations disaster for the charter school movement where the majority of the public still doesn’t recognize that charter schools are part, an integral part, of the public school system. Now, our opposition is taking advantage of that by going out and using false propaganda and talking points to say that charter schools are stealing public school students. Charter schools are stealing public school dollars from the public education system.
Rebranding Charter Schools
Rice: So, they’re using that lack of knowledge in the public to their advantage to use charter schools as a scapegoat and to demonize charter schools and to sway the public against charter schools even though charter schools are an integral part of the public education system. In order to turn that around, not only do we need to educate the public about charter schools being an integral part of the public education system, but charter schools need to adopt a strong brand identity. A brand identity is a way to, in layman’s terms, describe who you are, what you do, and how you do what you do.
What is the end result? The end goal is to create value and distinction in the mind of the public, so they recognize that you are an essential part of a vibrant and healthy public school system in their community that you are serving students whose needs are not being effectively met by other types of public schools. Now, that’s not to say that we should get rid of all district schools and go all charter. This is not about charter schools versus district schools. This is about having a healthy and vibrant and diversified public education system that provides equal access and equal opportunity to all students, to find the school and the program that is best matched to them to ensure their best chance at succeeding and going on to a productive life through career and college pathways.
This is about having a healthy and vibrant and diversified public education system that provides equal access and equal opportunity to all students, to find the school and the program that is best matched to them to ensure their best chance at succeeding and going on to a productive life through career and college pathways.
To establish a brand identity is to succinctly describe who you are, what you do, and how you do what you do in a way that the public understands and recognizes the tremendous value to society and to the public education system that they’re currently not seeing by not even knowing that what a charter school is. So, it’s incumbent upon every charter school to establish a strong brand identity, and from that foundation to then tell your success stories and tell your success stories through a wide variety of avenues, from social media, to traditional media, to developing relationships in the community, which gets, then, to our fourth pillar of sustainability, and that is to develop strong relationships and allies out in the community.
PILLAR 4: Building Community Relationships and Allies
Eldridge:Please elaborate on this one. This is important, I think, for a lot of charter schools. Rice: That’s right. Because charter school leaders wear so many different hats, they tend to really have little or no time to reach out to their greater communities, and yet that is equally as critical as serving the needs of their students, especially in today’s very contentious climate where we’re really facing some of the most anti-charter legislation and anti-charter perspectives and sentiment and downright attacks that we have experienced in 26 years of existence.
So, the heat has been intensified. It is incumbent upon charter school leaders to reach out, not operate in isolation, not operate as separate islands, but to reach out and develop strong relationships with community leaders and community organizations that make a difference.
And in so doing to build allies so that when we are challenged by the status quo system that believes in a monopoly ahead of the best interests of students and ahead of parent and students’ school choice, which should be the foundation that everybody agrees on.
But yet that is not what we’re currently facing. We need to have those local allies to influence decision-makers and elected officials are responsible for making policy at the state level, to remind them that the most important focus is what is in the best interest of students, and how can we together create a vibrant and healthy education system that offers diverse choice and opportunity for all students to ensure that all students succeed? That should be the goal for everybody, but yet it’s not.
So, developing those community relationships by reaching out to individuals, engaging with them, educating them, inviting them to be a part of your school community, of your greater concentric circles of influence, makes all the difference in the world, and that needs to be integrated into the culture of every school as vitally as important as is integrated into the school, the goal of academic excellence. Eldridge:Yeah, can you provide some specific tips on how they can actually engage the community and create those allies? Is that inviting authorizers out to board meetings? Is it holding community events? How do you suggest they do some of those things? Rice: Well, I think first and foremost, it’s to invite them to be part of your interview informational distribution network. Get them on your email distribution list. Develop an email newsletter or other ways of distributing and disseminating information on a regular basis, some of which may include invitations to all school events whether those events are open house events; they’re events that honor and recognize community leaders for their support, which are very important. Community leaders love to come and receive awards, and to find excuses and reasons to honor and recognize their leadership and their support in your school and in what you’re doing is vitally important.
Rice: That also includes events that may showcase student talents and student achievements and student results, everything from theater to spelling bees, to robotics team results and those kinds of things. Use those opportunities to reach out to your community and invite folks to join you. Also, use organizations such as Chambers of Commerce and rotary clubs and Elks lodges and other organizations that are parent-driven, that work with troubled youth and teens, that work with families such as real estate agencies, such as church groups and so on. I have a whole list here. I’m trying to remember off the top of my head what a lot of them are. Eldridge:You’re doing great. Rice: But certainly, elected officials. Go out and meet with elected officials, staff at the regional offices. Go visit them in Sacramento. Bring students along to tell their success stories. In addition to the newsletter, use social media outlets. Use traditional media outlets to talk about your student success stories, to talk about your academic results and how you’re making a difference for students who otherwise would not have been successfully served had you not been in existence.
That is what ultimately creates value and distinction. You are providing a school model and results that other types of public schools and even private schools are not able to offer, which means you are an essential ingredient and component to a, to contributing to a healthy and vibrant public school system. Eldridge: Great. Jeff, always passionate. Really appreciate it, it’s great information. Appreciate you coming again today. Rice: Thank you so much for having me. Eldridge: And hopefully everybody else out there enjoyed it, and that wraps up this episode of CHARTER EDtalks. Thank you.
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
Top Ten Insights into the National Charter School Authorizer Pipeline
Editor’s Note: This information was originally published here, by NACSA. For those interested in getting a charter school up-and-running, these charter school authorizer insights might just mean the difference in getting a charter approved … or not.
NACSA’s first-ever analysis of the national charter school pipeline reveals a sector with a tremendous variety of applicants and educational models—a more diverse sector than the common narrative would suggest. It also reveals the significant impact authorizers have in shaping the public education landscape across the country. Ultimately, communities get the schools that authorizers approve.
Top 10 Charter School Authorizer Insights
School Models
1. A wide variety of educational models are being proposed and approved.
2. Authorizers are more likely to approve some types of educational models than others:
3. The “No Excuses” model is becoming much less prevalent, with the approval rate of 40% in the last five years.
Operator Types
4. The proportion of proposals from freestanding operators is at a five-year high.
5. Historically, authorizers are much more likely to approve schools affiliated with CMO or EMO networks.
6. Proposals from for-profit operators have declined sharply, dropping 50% since 2013.
7. Operator types vary between states, with EMO-affiliated schools representing a significant number of approved schools in only four of the states studied. Only 4 states with EMO approval rate higher than 30%.
External Support
8. The vast majority of proposals did not identify support from an incubator, philanthropy or community partnership.
9. Applicants with more than one form of external support are much more likely to be approved.
Local Context Matters
10. Widespread variation exists from state to state, and as a result, there is not a “typical” charter school proposal or state.
For the full infographic, click here.
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
Announcing the 2019 Charter School Honor Roll Winners!
Charter schools help create educational choice. That’s why Charter School Capital only works with charter schools – we believe in the power of charter schools and their leaders to deliver quality education. We created the Charter School Honor Roll in 2018 to celebrate the achievements of exceptional charter schools across the country.
We were humbled and inspired by the hundreds of worthy submissions we received for this, our second annual, Charter School Honor Roll. Our team was so moved by the passion and pride that ALL of our submissions shared about the hard work their students and school leaders have been doing. And, because the caliber of schools who shared their stories with us was so exceptional, selecting the winners was no easy task for our panel of judges.
The stories charter parents shared about their children blossoming; feeling included; feeling at home; being supported; being recognized for their achievements; being part of a larger family, were all so deeply moving.
School leaders shared their immense pride in student accomplishments; state and local recognition; the dramatic academic improvement due to the hard work and dedication of students and teachers; supporting the professional development of their staff; school service and outreach and how it has impacted their communities; beating the odds … just to name a few.
We carefully read each submission and selected schools that we felt best exemplified exceptional accomplishments in any of the following categories:
School growth
Student achievement
Community service
School leadership
Positive school climate
Thank you to everyone who sent in amazing stories and photos for consideration. Your hard work and dedication are truly awe-inspiring. Reading each and every one of these stories has reinvigorated our belief in what we do here at Charter School Capital—helping charter schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources they need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most—educating students.
To see the list of 30 outstanding schools (from 17 different states) that made the grade for this year’s honor roll, click here!
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
Four Charter School Growth Tips from Experienced Charter School Leaders
We hope the four key strategies here provide useful tips for you and your team to develop a strong charter school culture, empower your staff, individualize instruction, and create operational efficiency—all in support of your growth.
1. Nurture your school’s culture as much as you nurture your students
Ultimately, culture is always a product of the people involved with your school. It can be tough to retain quality leaders and teachers, especially because many charter schools have longer days and academic years than public schools. Teachers have to truly believe in the mission from the outset in order to put in those extra days and hours for years to come. To nurture a rich school culture, it’s essential that the people you hire are aligned with your mission.
2. Prioritize continuous professional development and leadership training
In order to have motivated staff committed to continuous improvement, professional development has to be front and center. This is also an investment in continuity. When people feel like they are getting better at their jobs and have room for growth, they are more likely to stay.
3. Focus on providing individualized instruction to your students and on data analysis
These aren’t contradictory! Every educator knows that one of the best ways to improve the data is to meet each student where they are and provide them with the support necessary to improve and succeed—regardless of your school’s curriculum and goals. Of course, school-wide metrics are the best evidence that individualized instruction is working. Review the metrics frequently, share them widely, and make them everyone’s responsibility.
4. Develop systems to maintain operational consistency and efficiency
Researching, investing in, and mastering new systems is time consuming and expensive. The efficiencies you’ll realize down the road will more than make up for the pain of adoption. If you think you don’t have time to figure out a new software to manage your finances, you really don’t have time to wrangle all the Excel spreadsheets you have been using.
Download the PDF of these four tips here.
The Charter School Growth Manual
Whether you’re just beginning the process of starting up a charter school, looking to expand, or trying to prioritize your next steps, download this guide to get expert tips and pitfalls to avoid as you grow.
For this charter school resource guide, we turned to our wide network of charter school experts for best practices and strategies for success at every stage of maturity. All of the advice in this book comes from experienced charter school leaders who have been where you are now—they understand what you’re facing and the pitfalls to avoid.
Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We provide growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. Our depth of experience working with charter school leaders and our knowledge of how to address charter school financial and operational needs have allowed us to provide over $1.8 billion in support of 600 charter schools that have educated over 1,027,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
