Author: Grow Schools, formerly Charter School Capital
Charter School Resources: Introducing Our New Client Portal
Our mission is to support charter leaders by providing charter school resources and tools you need to thrive. We pride ourselves on finding innovative solutions to your financing challenges and having the ability to be as creative and flexible as possible to meet your specific needs – when and how you need the support.
Because we specialize in taking on all the administrative pieces of your financing (so you can focus on your mission of educating your students) we recognized that anything we could do to make the process easier would be a win for everyone.
Enter our new Client Portal.
How could we make the process of working with us more simple, coherent, streamlined, and transparent for our clients? How could we provide clients a more holistic view of their unique funding journey? When we began to develop our Client Portal, these are the challenges and questions we aimed to address.
The Idea
A few years back, our Client Services team set out to find a way to efficiently:
• Relay to our school partners what their specific funding requirements are;
• Support clients in being able to easily comprehend those requirements; and,
• Make it easy for them to take action.
School leaders always have a lot on their plate so we wanted to make this process easier for them, but we also wanted to build a solution that – in the future – could offer even more value than just being a transactional tool (read more on this below). The idea of the Client Portal was born from one core aspiration—to deliver a higher quality customer experience to our school partners.
A Team Effort
The Client Portal project was led by our IT Manager and Senior Salesforce Specialist, John Caughie, along with our COO, Kirt Nilsson. But every one of our departments weighed in on the design, navigation, and content requirements—while working alongside our internal Salesforce Team (as well as our external consultants) to implement the Client Portal. Once the project was underway, it took approximately five months of hard work and dedication to see it to today’s first phase of completion.
The Challenges and Lessons Learned
According to our Salesforce Administrator, and a key leader on the project, Jennifer Day, “Deciding what design to go with was by far the biggest question that needed to be answered. Determining what information we wanted clients to see and interact with was easy in comparison to isolating a design that worked within the constructs of the platform but delivered an intuitive and appealing experience for clients. We’ve come a long way since our first user interface designs and are looking forward to streamlining the Client Portal as new features become available.”
One thing we learned was that timelines should never take priority over design and usability. We struggled with that at the onset (our initial timeline was two months), but we extended our deadline to craft a clean and well-designed user experience for our clients.
When rolling out any new “product”, testing is key. So, we beta tested the portal with some courageous clients. Four of our existing clients used the new Client Portal for two months to complete fundings for their schools. During that time, we had some initial bug hiccups when we pushed the Client Portal live, but those were resolved quickly in just a few days. Because of our amazing client and internal staff “testers”, we were able tosuccessfully address all the concerns and suggestions that were made in the first month, and fortunately, the second month ran more smoothly.
The Result
Our new Client Portal means clients can now see what actions need to be taken (e.g., documents that need to be signed, delivered, or returned), on a detailed timeline, to help them more efficiently and more easily finalize their transaction. With this portal, we’re offering our school partners a ‘funding journey’ – from start to finish – that provides more transparency and clarity into what can be a very-opaque process.
“When we first started out in 2014, we had to print out all of the documents, and scan and email, and we had to hurry up and get those things in. And now we have the online portal which really positive. The online portal makes it all much, much easier.”
~Dr. India Ford, T2 Honors Academy
Want an inside look at our Client Portal in action? Watch this short tutorial video!
What’s on the Horizon?
While the Client Portal is ready for all of our clients (currently utilizing our working capital and facilities products) to transition into by the end of the year, we do have much bigger dreams for it. Our ultimate goal with the Client Portal is to provide more than just transactional information. In the future, we intend to provide clients with the ability to:
• Manage all aspects of their transactions (including servicing)
• Discover other products and/or services that support growth and success
• Access all of our handy charter school resources (such as this blog).
One thing that is certain: you have a dedicated, innovative team here at Charter School Capital who will continue to deliver the very best charter school resources, products, solutions, and services that we possibly can to continue our support of charter schools, their leaders, and the movement as a whole.
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 educate 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!
In this CHARTER EDtalk, we were fortunate to be able to sit down with Amanda List from A List Consulting to learn more about the Texas charter school landscape.
Amanda has extensive state government affairs and public charter school experience including strong ties to the Texas Capitol and the Texas Education Agency. She is currently working with the Texas Charter School Association Advocacy Team and the elected member advocacy committee as the association prepares for the next Texas state legislative session in 2019.
Listen as she shares the state of Texas charters with regards to the application process, the three strikes rule, and some amazing success Texas charters are seeing due to the state’s rigorous oversight. The transcript can be found below the video.
Janet Johnson (JJ): Welcome to the next CHARTER ED talk. We are at the National Charter School Conference in Austin, Texas where it’s nice and muggy. We have Amanda List from Alist Consulting who has specialized in charter schools for quite a while and she’s here to answer some questions about specifically Texas. And Ryan Eldridge from Charter School Capital will be assisting and asking the questions of Amanda. Ryan Eldridge (RE): Thank you, Janet. JJ: Good morning.
Why do you love charter schools?
RE: Good morning. So Amanda, we’re actually here at the National Charter School Conference as one of the main sponsors and we’re doing a campaign called “We Love Charter Schools”. What is it about charter schools that you love?” Amanda List (AL): What I love about charter schools is that not every child learns the same. Charters give options for kids. In Texas—and I’m not familiar with other states obviously as I am with Texas.
In Texas, we have different missions and different styles of charters. So, we have the high performing charters which you’ve heard of (IDEA Public Schools and Harmony Schools, etc.). Those are considered our college prep schools. And then you have schools that focus on dropout recovery, credit recovery. Then you have some schools that focus on elementary science, etc.
What I love about it is allowing kids these options that they have because again not everyone learns the same. And it’s personal for me because I went to private school and it was not a model that I learned on. I just didn’t learn. I struggled through school to a point where I graduated high school, I didn’t think I was smart enough to go to college. Going to college and having that direct teach changed my life and I graduated on the Dean’s list.
So it’s very personal for me because I don’t want a child to be struggling in school. Not because they’re not smart which is not the method that they learn, so that’s why. I know that’s a long response, but that’s fine.
The Texas charter school landscape
RE: Can you give us an overview of the Texas charter school landscape? AL: Yes. Currently, there are 675 charters in Texas. There are 185 operators and so sometimes these two numbers confuse people. So in Texas, you have an agreement with the state and then with that, you can have multiple campuses. So there are 675 charters serving more than 272,000 students with a wait list of about 140,000. So definitely, there is a demand for more charters here in Texas.
What is the “three strikes and you’re out rule”?
RE: What is this “three strikes and you’re out” mean for charters? AL: Three strikes and you’re out was back in our legislative session of 2013. We had a huge bill passed, Senate Bill 2. It was a huge reform bill. So Senate Bill 2 put the teeth into closing poor performing charters and in that, also created the three strikes and you’re out rule. So three strikes and you’re out means that if you fail the financial ratings which is School First here in Texas or accountability, either of those three, in three consecutive years, then the Commissioner of Education will close you.
Editor’s Note: During the 83rd legislative session, the Texas Education Code was amended to include a statutory provision for the revocation of charter schools that failed to meet academic or financial accountability for the three preceding school years. The law states that failure to meet these standards will lead to mandatory revocation of a school’s charter. Through that, it really got a lot of teeth into closing bad charters. We are all advocates of choice and we’re all advocates of quality schools, but as you know, there are some people out there that are not running quality schools.
There has been some pushback since that of “Wait a minute. There should be a little bit of lead room in there.” I can see it both ways, but for now, it stands as three strikes and you’re out. So, I think it’s one of the most strict laws in the nation when it comes to closing poor performing schools.
On getting Texas charter schools authorized RE: Absolutely. And we’ve heard you have a rigorous application process. Can you describe that for us? AL: Yes. Also in Senate Bill 2, it changed the way that charters were authorized in Texas. As advocates for Texas charters, we want the process to be rigorous. We just don’t want anyone to get a charter. But at the same time, it’s kind of gone to the extreme in that it’s almost so rigorous now and there is a bias towards out-of-state charters coming into Texas.
I’ve actually just completed a paper with Excellence In Education and we’ve covered this topic on how do we look at the Texas landscape and what are the policies that we can put in place to attract the out-of-state performers coming in and then also just attract folks locally or throughout Texas to start schools. But for right now, the process. The application easily 5-700 pages in length and takes months to complete.
Texas charter school success
RE: Now, we’ve also heard you have some of the best charters in the nation. Is that because of all the rigor? AL: Yes. I think so and just us being Texans, so we’re pretty proud of ourselves. There’s that. But we do. We have seriously some of the best charters that U.S. and World News Report just came about a month ago or so and– up in Round Rock, Texas – Meridian World Charter School was ranked sixth in the nation when it comes to the best high schools.
And, over 70 Texas charters either received the Silver or Gold rankings. So we are very proud of the success that we’re having here in Texas. RE: Well, now that sounds really great Amanda. Thank you very much for coming today. We really appreciate you sitting down with us. AL: Thank you both for having me. JJ: Thank you. It’s been great.
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 $1.6 billion in support of 600 charter schools that educate 800,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
Is Charter School Expansion Supported by Strong District-Charter Partnerships?
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published here, by The Rivard Report out of San Antonio, Texas and written by Inga Cotton, a parent activist and blogs at San Antonio Charter Moms about school choice and local educational activities for families.
As we continue to support the efforts around charter school expansion across the country, we always seek to bring you articles that help ask the question, “What can help the charter school movement continue to thrive?” This charter parent discusses how charter partnerships with traditional district schools can strengthen the entire public school system by raising the quality of education and, thus, creating benefits for our nation’s children. But, both opportunities and risks lie in bringing partnerships into our neighborhood public schools. Read on to hear her perspective.
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.
A Parent’s Perspective: District-Charter Partnerships Strengthen Public School Systems
Put yourself in the shoes of San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) leaders earlier this year: faced with a perpetually failing campus, they chose to enlist the help of charter operator Democracy Prep to transform Stewart Elementary into a school that offers high-quality education and a brighter future for its students.
Now put yourself in the shoes of a Stewart parent: the forthcoming district-charter partnership is almost certain to have brought on both change and uncertainty.
A recent commentary on the topic mentioned my blog, San Antonio Charter Moms, but did not accurately describe its mission. It is not an “advocacy group for charter expansion;” rather, it aims to give parents tools and information to make informed decisions and raise the overall quality of education in our city.
The blog started in 2012 with a small group of moms curious about some of the new charter schools that were coming to San Antonio. While the “charter moms” name has stuck, the purpose has expanded to include all types of schools.
School models tend to be secondary to parents as governance systems usually work in the background. That is, unless there is a breakdown and a school is faced with closure or new management. At the end of the day, parents want a school where their child is happy, feels safe, and makes progress in learning.
Charter partnerships, such as the forthcoming one at Stewart Elementary in SAISD, can strengthen the public school system by raising the quality of education and, thus, creating benefits for San Antonio’s children. But from a parent’s standpoint, both opportunities and risks lie in bringing partnerships into our neighborhood public schools.
Looking to charter schools for expertise makes sense. The Texas charter school sector as a whole is successful. According to Charter School Performance in Texas , a study published by CREDO at Stanford University in August 2017,
” … on average, charter students in Texas experience stronger annual growth in reading and similar growth in math compared to the educational gains of their matched peers who enroll in the traditional public schools … The impact on reading gains is statistically significant. Thinking of a 180-day school year as ‘one year of learning,’ an average Texas charter student exhibits growth equivalent to completing 17 additional days of learning in reading each year.”
Those are averages – meaning, some schools do better than others. Public school districts must select successful charters with expertise in serving certain types of students, such as low-income students or those who have too few credits for their age. When those charter schools bring proven expertise to help a district school succeed, students benefit.
Charter schools can learn from district schools, too. Neighborhood schools experienced in supporting groups like English-language learners and special education students must pass that knowledge on to charter operators. Democracy Prep is tasked with accommodating all students assigned to Stewart Elementary.
Not all charter schools are doing a good job. Like failing district schools, failing charters should be closed, too. Resources and students should go to the successful schools, but ensuring that happens requires thorough analysis on behalf of leaders and parents.
This raises the broader issue about school quality and parental choice that applies to all public schools: Parents need support to make good decisions. They need objective information about school quality, like the TEA’s school report cards, and forthcoming letter grades for districts and campuses.
There should also be limits on choice: Parents should not be allowed to choose a failing school, either district or charter. Why would parents want their children enrolled in a failing school? A child’s lag in academic progress often does not become apparent until there is a serious problem.
But parents may like intangible things about their kids’ school – friendly people on campus, a feeling of safety and belonging, a sense of tradition, a location within walking distance from their home – and we must have compassion for families who make the best decisions they can with the information and resources available to them. Many parents have told me that transportation, application processes, deadlines, and wait lists are all major limiting factors in choosing a different school.
That’s why every neighborhood needs a high-quality public school. In neighborhoods where public schools have been failing, the tendency to cover up the problem has eroded parents’ trust. SAISD is working to fix the problem of failing schools through innovative partnerships, but the district must now also work to rebuild trust with its constituents. While there is a lot of uncertainty among Stewart Elementary parents, experiences at other campuses give reason for hope.
Ogden Elementary, for example, has been a residency lab school of the Relay Graduate School of Education for one year now, and both teachers and school leaders there have said parent engagement has increased because children are talking about the changes in their school.
Part of rebuilding trust is reassuring parents that, in the new world of district-charter partnerships, the community’s most vulnerable students will be taken care of. The system needs safeguards to ensure it is fair and improves – not worsens – inequality in our city.
To ease the discomfort of change and uncertainty, SAISD must communicate clearly and compassionately with affected families and ensure its most vulnerable students still get the attention they deserve.
These are difficult times, but there is the potential for SAISD to emerge as a stronger district and a true leader in the region and the nation.
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 $1.6 billion in support of 600 charter schools that educate 800,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
How Is Charter School Expansion Challenging the Status Quo?
This video was originally published here by PragerU. It asks the question if every other sector of the American economy has the opportunity to benefit from the ability to compete and improve, why not the education sector? And, is it unfair to hold minority parents and students hostage in underperforming public schools? Overall, charter school expansion has provided an entrepreneurial challenge to the status quo and delivered results that make it worth continuing to expand this educational option for parents.
Our mission is to see continued charter school expansion, the overall growth of the charter school movement, and more students better served by having educational choice. 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 post that we curate—both interesting and valuable. Please watch the video and read the transcript below to learn more.
Are Charter Schools Better Than Traditional Public Schools?
Historically, education in the United States has been split between private schools and traditional public schools. However, this dynamic changed in 1991 when Minnesota passed the first law establishing charter schools in the state. Since then, a majority of states have some kind of charter school system. But what exactly is a charter school?
What are Charter Schools?
• Charter schools offer education ranging in grades K through 12 without charge to students.
• Charter schools are funded with tax dollars but are generally subject to fewer rules and regulations than traditional public schools and they usually receive less public funds per pupil than public schools.
• Charter school students typically take the state required standardized tests as public school students.
• Depending on state law, these schools can be started by parents, teachers, nonprofit groups, corporations or even government organizations.
• Charter schools may focus on specific skills and subjects like math or science or may be aimed at students who require alternative learning methods such as teaching lessons that use visual or more hands-on approaches.
But these entities just can’t start one whenever they please. They must first obtain authorization from either the school district, city or state, depending on how the charter school laws are structured. And the charter school model has achieved various levels of success.
Charter School Expansion
Over the past 25 years, the number of charter schools in the US has skyrocketed, forcing more competition and faster improvement among existing public and private schools. As of 2016, there are almost 7,000 charter schools serving three million students and since 2000, charter school enrollment has increased by 600%.
But as charter schools have become more popular, opposition has grown. Teacher unions and other public school activists argue that charter schools take money away from traditional public schools. However, it’s unfair to hold minority parents and students hostage in underperforming public schools.
Challenging the Status Quo
Overall, charter schools have provided an entrepreneurial challenge to the status quo and delivered results that make it worth expanding this option for parents. According to a 2015 Stanford study, not only do charter schools provide significantly higher levels of growth in math and reading for all students, but minority and low-income students benefit disproportionately more.
Charter schools are becoming a bigger part of the US education system every year and for millions of American families, they offer a much-needed choice that’s different than a one size fits all public school.
Every other sector of the American economy has benefited from the ability to compete and improve, why not education?
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 $1.6 billion in support of 600 charter schools that educate 800,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
What Do Voters Want? 7 Takeaways From New Education Reform Poll
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published for The74 on August 6, 2018, here and written by Taylor Swaak.
With midterm elections just around the corner, we thought this article and poll by the Democrats for Education Reform both timely and interesting. Most notably, an overwhelming number of those polled believe our children deserve a better education, that there should be a ‘variety’ of public school options, and schools should be held accountable. We couldn’t agree more.
Our mission is to see continued charter school expansion, the overall growth of the charter school movement, and more students better served by having educational choice. 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. Please read on to learn more about the poll’s findings.
Democrats for Education Reform Release New Poll Suggesting Most Voters Are ‘Education Progressives.’ Here Are 7 Takeaways
New poll findings released by Democrats for Education Reform on Monday found that a majority of U.S. voters believe in reform policies such as expanding public school choice and rewarding quality teachers and hold that funding alone won’t push the needle forward on helping struggling schools.
For DFER, a left-of-center political action committee, the findings demonstrate that most Americans are what they call “education progressives” — a result that would seem to contradict reports of a splintering within the Democratic party over issues like school choice and merit pay.
Pollsters from the Benenson Strategy Group and 270 Strategies interviewed more than 2,000 voters between May and July.
The poll, on top of informing a new social media campaign, anchored the organization’s latest announcement that it will spend more than $4 million this year — an exponential hike from the reported $83,456 it spent in 2016 — on “priority races.” These include gubernatorial contests in Colorado, New York, and Connecticut and the superintendent’s race in California. Certain beliefs of “education progressives,” such as charter school expansion, may put them at odds with other self-described progressives within the party.
“Being an education progressive means doing anything and everything we can to improve public schools for all — especially for poor students and students of color,” DFER President Shavar Jeffries said in a statement. Here are seven main poll findings:
1. A large majority of voters believe children deserve a better education
Seventy-eight percent of all voters — 93 percent of Democratic primary voters — strongly agree that “we need to do everything we can to ensure every child has a fair shot to succeed, no matter where they are from.”
The finding is underscored by stark achievement gaps. Black students, for example, were more than 1.5 academic years behind their white peers in 2017, according to NAEP data. Reforms such as free, high-quality pre-K have amassed support across the political spectrum as a way of narrowing the gap, while Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has also pushed for expanding charter schools.
2. The majority of Democratic voters say money isn’t the sole answer to fixing schools
Sixty-nine percent of Democratic voters say fixing schools “will take more than just additional money … we need new ideas and real changes to how schools operate.” Among African-American voters, that percentage spikes to 73 percent, but it drops to 56 percent when put to all voters, regardless of party.
Opinions (and research) remain split on whether funding is linked to student performance. While some research has found that student test scores can rise following long-term, stable financial investments, critics have pointed to the Obama administration’s $7 billion program to overhaul chronically low-performing schools — which yielded no significant impacts on test scores — as evidence that funding isn’t a panacea.
3. However, voters believe schools should still get the funding they need
The vast majority of voters — 89 percent — believe that every public school should still “get the funding that it needs, even in disadvantaged areas.” These voters gave this issue a 6 or 7 on a 7-point importance scale.
Per-pupil spending nationwide is not equitable, according to many critics. Across the country, districts with the highest rates of poverty receive about $1,000 less per student than those with the lowest rates, the Education Trust reported in February. State-to-state fluctuations reveal the scope of the problem: New York, for example, spends more than $22,000 per student, while states such as Utah and Idaho spend less than a third of that.
4. Most voters say we should be doing more to reward ‘great’ teachers
Seventy-six percent of voters, including 90 percent of black voters and 80 percent of Latino voters, strongly agree that “we need to do more to identify and reward great teachers who make a difference.”
The idea of evaluating and rewarding teachers remains contentious, however. The Obama administration’s calls for merit pay and tying teacher evaluations to student test scores spurred backlash from teachers unions.
Educators themselves are some of the most fervent critics, with 78 percent opposed to merit pay, according to a 2017 Education Next survey. Research is mixed on whether merit pay correlates with improved student performance.
5. Ensuring a ‘variety’ of public school options is a top priority
About 65 percent of voters said access to public charter schools, magnet schools, and career academies “no matter where [people] live or how much money they have” is a very important priority (a 6 or 7 on the 7-point scale). Latino and Democratic primary voters closely aligned with this percentage, compared with an overwhelming 86 percent of black voters.
All but six states have laws allowing charter schools. But support of traditional public education hasn’t necessarily waned. Most Americans oppose channeling public funds to for-profit school tuition, and nearly three-quarters say all schools “should have to meet the same state education standards as traditional public schools,” according to a Harvard poll.
6. More than 60 percent of voters want schools held accountable
Nearly two-thirds of voters, or 66 percent, rank “holding schools accountable for making decisions based on what works to educate kids” as a very important priority — a 6 or 7 on the 7-point scale.
Increasingly localized control of education policy has diminished the role of the federal government in school accountability — a shift evident in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the main U.S. education law that replaced No Child Left Behind in 2015.
“There seems to be a lack of commitment to any meaningful federal role in terms of accountability,” DFER’s president told Chalkbeat last year. “We’re very worried about what we’re going to see coming out of the ESSA accountability process.”
7. More than two-thirds of voters want increased financial aid for college
Sixty-eight percent of voters say “increasing the availability of financial aid for college” is a top priority (a 6 or 7 on the scale).
A lack of financial aid has resulted in about $1.52 trillion in student loan debt among 44 million borrowers in 2018. The class of 2016 alone had an average loan debt of $37,172, according to Forbes.
The polling reflects a disconnect between voters and the policies of the Trump administration. Trump earlier this year proposed slashing nearly $4 billion in annual funding for student aid programs in the 2019 fiscal year budget. DeVos in July also made moves to repeal the 2016 Obama borrower defense regulation, which supported waiving federal student loan debts for students who were ripped off by “predatory” colleges.
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 $1.6 billion in support of 600 charter schools that educate 800,000 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 Capital Funding Allows School Leaders to Stay Focused on Their Students
With so many choices for where go to access financial resources for your school, it’s important to select the right one for you. We believe in the power of charter schools and their leaders to deliver quality education to families across the country. And we’re proud to provide the reliability and stability charter leaders require as they walk their journey to better educate more students today—and in the future.
Please listen as Ricardo Mireles, Executive Director, Academia Avance shares his experience working with Charter School Capital.
This video was originally published Jul 17, 2014. We are proud of our continued partnership with Academia Avance. We are honored to support them in continuing their mission of setting a standard for public charter school excellence and inspiring a lifetime of learning and leading.
Charter School Capital Funding Helps Academia Avance Sustain Thier Growth
Academia Avance is a charter public school in the northeast community of Highland Park in Los Angeles. We serve grades six through 12. We are on track to having 500 students for this upcoming fall charter funding.
[The way that we can access] charter funding makes it very difficult for schools that increase their enrollment [because] you don’t see those funds until the spring. But the relationship that we had built with Charter School Capital allowed us to say, look, this month I need this much money.
Another challenge that charter schools have, is the need (in any kind of financial transaction) to provide some kind of collateral. And so, for new schools, small schools, they don’t own a building. They don’t have assets that they can pledge just for collateral. It’s just very difficult.
I’m really appreciative of how Charter School Capital was able to understand what our need was. We looked at this as a very different way of getting funding based on the one collateral that we do have – and that’s our students.
Charter School Capital has allowed us to work with a product that is flexible in terms of the amount, in terms of the timing. In all the conversations I’ve had with the leaders of Charter School Capital and their entire staff, they always understand what we’re trying to do with our students and how they’re joining us in making it work for our students.
We’ve been working with Charter School Capital now for four years and throughout, they’ve been flexible, and they’ve been very professional, and they’ve allowed us to stay focused on our students.
Starting the relationship with Charter School Capital is different from what we have experienced with other financial institutions in that they are very focused on the viability of the school going forward relative to the charter.
Without Charter School Capital, Academia Avance wouldn’t exist.
Learn more about Charter School Capital Funding
Our team works with you to determine funding and facilities options based on your school’s needs. 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.
Charter School Financing: Your Guide to Budgeting Best Practices
The Charter School Leader’s Definitive Guide to Budgeting Best Practices
Over the past decade, we’ve reviewed thousands of charter school budgets and helped guide countless schools through their charter school financing processes.
Year after year, we see many charter schools make the same mistakes when budgeting for the academic year. We put together this guide to share best practices and call out common pitfalls to avoid. (This guide won’t teach you how to put a budget together—you’ll need to call on your finance team for that.)
Whether your school is growing student enrollment, expanding facilities, or implementing new educational programs, your annual budget should serve as an essential tool to help you achieve your goals as quickly—and as realistically—as possible.
In this guide, we discuss budgeting strategies for the various stages of charter school development including:
Planning for long-term financial health
Implementing best practices for achieving buy-in and setting
internal controls
Understanding key financial metrics to watch
Utilizing tips on cashflow planning and more
At Charter School Capital, we believe in the power of charter schools and their leaders to deliver quality education and foster success in their students. Over more than a decade, we’ve invested over $1.6 billion in more than 600 charter schools to help them grow, finance facility projects, and achieve operational stability. We view ourselves as a resource and partner of charter schools and a strong advocate of the charter school movement as a whole.
This manual is intended for charter school leaders who want to be more strategic about charter school financing and budgeting and avoid short-term mistakes that can lead to unintended long-term consequences. This manual is only for informational and planning purposes. If you’re seeking financial advice or support, please seek out the guidance of a qualified professional organization such as Charter School Capital.
Download your free copy here! GET THE RESOURCE
Is U.S. Education on the Wrong Track? One Study Says Yes
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published here, by The 74. The most intriguing finding from this study about how U.S. education affects industries was that 85 percent of business leaders surveyed said one or more market-driven reforms must take place: implement greater school autonomy (59 percent), replace underperforming schools (39 percent), and expand charter schools (34 percent). Just 15 percent of respondents said traditional school management models should remain intact.
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. Please read on to learn more.
Exclusive: New Survey Shows a Majority of Business Leaders Believe U.S. Education ‘on the Wrong Track,’ Many Fear Poorly Performing Schools Could Harm Their Industries
Source: Business Forward
Cities and towns looking to grow their economies are likely misdirecting their efforts if their priorities are not centered on education, a new national survey of business leaders suggests.
In canvassing 234 local business leaders on the state of their public schools and how they could be improved, Business Forward found that a majority believe that American K-12 schools are “on the wrong track” — and 1 in 4 are concerned that poorly performing schools will negatively impact their businesses.
“When considering relocating, good schools are a primary consideration for both companies and prospective employees,” P. Morgan of San Antonio, Texas, said in response to the survey.
The leaders surveyed represent a wide spectrum of industries, business sizes, and more than 40 U.S. states and territories. Two out of three also have children who either graduated from or are currently enrolled in public schools. Business Forward is a national nonprofit that works with local business leaders across the country for networking, programming, and advocacy.
“My children have graduated. The schools seem worse since then,” E. Karle of Lexington, Kentucky, said in the survey. “We need a strong commitment to education across the country or we will have trouble finding qualified employees. … Whatever else we must skimp on to save money, we must not skimp on our schools.”
Half of those executives surveyed said American schools are underfunded, and half of those business leaders were more concerned with poor students than their own. Many called for increasing funding for the state’s neediest schools as a means of closing the opportunity gap between rich and poor districts, reducing income inequality, and supplying integral talent to their businesses.
Source: Business Forward
This trepidation comes as the U.S. economy surges, readying itself to expand in the second half of this year at the fastest rate since the Great Recession. The rapid growth has allowed employers to continue to hire, driving the unemployment rate — sub-4 percent — toward its lowest level in 50 years.
But there’s a widening gap between the rising number of job openings and the number of workers with enough education and skill to fill them, which could debilitate economic growth in the long term, according to a paper released last week by President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Proposals in the House and Senate seek to allocate more federal funding toward workforce training in fiscal 2019 — albeit at lower levels than advocates have hoped.
Overall, 3 out of 4 business leaders surveyed expressed the need for one of three issues:
Greater accountability and autonomy for teachers and principals
Practical skills and technical training
Equitable and more funding for schools in poor communities
While there is support for greater accountability, the leaders surveyed expressed caution in handling schools like businesses. A number of respondents denounced reforms that create schools modeled like factories, treating students as “outputs” or “widgets.” Instead, they said, schools should act as service providers in which students are the “customers.”
To improve schools so they can provide skilled workers, 85 percent of business leaders surveyed said, one or more market-driven reforms must take place: implement greater school autonomy (59 percent), replace underperforming schools (39 percent), and expand charter schools (34 percent). Just 15 percent of respondents said traditional school management models should remain intact. Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provided support to Business Forward for this survey and provides support to The 74.
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 $1.6 billion in support of 600 charter schools that educate 800,000 students across the country. For more information on how we can support your charter school, contact us. We’d love to work with you!
WEBINAR: SECURITY FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS
The Five Layers of School Safety
If you missed this important live presentation, we wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to watch the slideshow and listen to the recording at your own pace, and when it fits your schedule. In this webinar, we covered important topics around safety and security for schools, specifically looking at security challenges in charter schools. We were honored to be joined by Gary Sigrist, a nationally known speaker, consultant, author and expert on emergency preparedness. His career spans more than 30 years as an educator, administrator and police officer. His background in both education and law enforcement gives him a unique perspective on safety and preparedness, which he brings to his work with clients of Safeguard Risk Solutions.
Watch this free webinar to learn about school safety measures, emergency planning, threat assessment, and more!
How Charter School Associations Can Help Their Schools Succeed
Editor’s Note: For this CHARTER EDtalk, we were honored to be joined by Eileen Sigmund, the President, and CEO of the Arizona Charter School Association as she generously shares some of the things the Arizona Charter School Association is doing to ensure the high-performance of Arizona charter schools. And, with 70 percent of their charter students sitting in A or B rated charter schools, compared to 56 percent of their district peers, they must be doing something right.
As the voice of Arizona’s charter schools, the Arizona Charter Schools Association engages a diverse coalition of policymakers, school leaders and community members for a fair, transparent policy landscape that allows quality charter schools to flourish throughout Arizona.
They work hard to advocate and strengthen the autonomy, equity, and quality of Arizona’s diverse public charter schools and are driven by the belief that all Arizona students should have access to a high-quality public school.
Watch the video below or read on to hear how the AZ Charter School Association is achieving such outstanding results.
Janet Johnson (JJ): Hi, I’m Janet Johnson from Charter School Capital and we’re here In Austin, Texas for the National Conference for Charter Schools. We are lucky to be here today with Eileen Sigmund who is President and CEO of the Arizona Charter School Association, and Marci Phee from Charter School Capital as well. And today we’re going to be talking a little bit with Eileen about academic performance. Thanks for joining us. Eileen Sigmund (ES): Happy to be here. Marci Phee (MP): Thank you. So we’re doing a campaign called “We Love Charter Schools”. Can you tell us in two sentences or less why you love charter schools? ES: Charter schools meet the unique needs of our children so they can academically thrive and flourish. JJ: Beautiful, you’ve done that a few times. ES: I’m a charter school parent.
Measuring Growth Rather Than Just Performance
MP: The state of Arizona recently altered the rating system for charter schools to emphasize improvement and growth of the students rather than just strict performance. Can you discuss the benefits of measuring growth over performance? ES: So the benefits of growth are really in the K-8 sector. In 9- 12, there’s also the completion of courses. So there are differences as you look at the academic performance for A-F measurement. The benefit of growth is not saying kids need to come to kindergarten already ready, already verbal, already knowing how to hold a pencil, because many of our kids don’t. And so what growth does is it allows to show educator impact on that individual student as compared to their academic peers. And so the growth is really showing how are you moving a child forward to proficiency who may not be at proficiency, who may not know two plus two equals four but is grasping that one, two, three, four. So it’s trying to value a child where they start, and then where they’re going, instead of how ready and prepared they are at a proficiency level. Does that make sense? MP: It does make sense. It sounds like it allows educators to meet the students where they are and create progress. The progress over the perfection of things. ES: Correct, correct. And we use in growth, we use the Colorado growth model. The growth model has been used in other states and actually, the Charter Association was part of the federal grant back in 2007, 2008, and the Charter Association was the main catalyst in getting the growth model to Arizona and that growth model has been used consistently for the last decade, the same growth model. So it’s also something educators are aware of, educators have learned. So it was used in our A -F back when we started in 2011.
Using Data to Coach Staff
MP: That’s helpful, thank you. How can charter schools better develop and support their teaching staff to support this model that you just talked about? ES: Sure, teachers are no different than any other profession, that coaching continuously, constantly. The use of coaching and the use of data. So the use of data to know exactly where your students start, measure again halfway through the year, see their progress, measure again right before they take the state test. And so it’s the coaching around the use of data and then figuring out the academic strengths and weaknesses of each individual child.
Achievement with Accountability
MP: In Arizona, the majority of charter school students are sitting in “quality seats.” Can you tell us a little bit about what that means? ES: The 2017 letter grades came out, 2018 will be out shortly. The students that were measured were our traditional students. We didn’t measure our alternative students, our online students, or our small schools. So 70 percent of our charter students are sitting in A or B rated charter schools. JJ: Wow. That’s very impressive. ES: Right, that’s compared to 56 percent of their district peers. JJ: Can you say that again? ES: So 70 percent of our charter students on the 2017 letter grades are sitting in A or B rated charter schools, compared to 56 percent of their district peers. And the reason for this is that our charter schools, the A through F is the reason they’ll keep their doors open. All F rated charter schools have signed agreements that either they’ll improve their academic rating over the next three years, or if they get another F in the next three years, they will be closed. JJ: Wow, that’s commitment. ES: Right. And so there were eight F rated charter schools. Three were already closing or are in the process of closing. Five signed a consent agreement. And some may have transferred or surrendered, but those are the ones, the eight is the number I’m consistently stuck on. MP: Well, and from my experience with schools that have consent agreements in any state, typically I’ve noticed that if they’re going to sign it, they have approval from the board that they are committed to making those changes. ES: Correct. MP: I think that’s a great tool for driving improvement. ES: Correct. And we have a manager of a separate affiliated partner, it’s called the Center for Student Achievement, an LLC under our charter school association, and we actively do professional development with our schools. And we’ve seen schools go from D to A. So there’s commitment and there’s the great leader, the great teachers and then this coaching to move things forward. We’ve seen this improvement. So all of our students benefit.
AZ Charters Outperforming Traditional District Schools
JJ: So the association is a very active, active body in development, professional development, et cetera, et cetera. ES: And data. Yes, yes. So when I came onboard at the end of the legislative session in 2007, I had some experience with the charter sector, but I’m mainly a litigator, lobbyist, journalist and charters are created to provide student achievement and provide the communities a choice. Improving student achievement is where we’ve spent the last decade to make sure the quality is there for families because it’s our statutory mandate and then choice is also there in all the communities.
So, the charter sector in Arizona is in every one of our 30 legislative districts. If charters were their own state, they would outperform almost every other state except Massachusetts, and our charter sector is bigger than Delaware, Rhode Island. So we are large. And finally, if you look at eighth-grade math, based on the 2017 national report card, our charter students performed first in the country on math results for eighth grade and second in the country for reading results for eighth grade. So we have quite a bit of quality bragging rights.
And then for the last three years that we’ve had a new test, it’s called AZ Merit, our charter students have outperformed the state average in every grade, in every subject for the last three years. So our goal was the improve the quality, working collaboratively with our leaders and our authorizer, we have absolutely delivered on those results. So it is something that Arizona is very proud of. MP: It should be. ES: And our leaders are to be thanked because the work they’ve done has been extraordinary. Them and our teachers. It’s amazing.
An Active and Experienced Association is Key
MP: Well, I’ve noticed in my experience with your association, you’re very integrated with the schools and a part of the school and part of the movement, non-negotiable kind of feels like you’re just there. So my experience with other associations is that the membership school has to sort of reach up and self-serve the benefits that are part of their membership. But with the Arizona association, you really push them out and become partners with the schools and I just think that that’s a huge benefit and that other associations could probably model after that. ES: Well, thank you. We have a team of 20 and we understand how busy our leaders are. They’re there to educate their students. Every Friday, we do a consistent email communication. It comes out at 6:30 in the morning. It’s a summary. Then, as different issues come up, we’ll bring in legal expertise, we’ll do webinars, we actively reach out to our schools based on their letter grades to make sure that they have the training they need, they can customize it, and we try to bring in experts on our team.
We had one of our charter leaders who won the MLK Award, she’s won different awards, she started or turned around three different high-poverty charter high schools and had outstanding academic results. We brought her on as our Director of Innovation. For operations, we had somebody who opened seven schools and so we brought him on our team. We brought on the former head of accountability for the Department of Ed. She’s our Chief Academic Officer.
We really try to bring the expertise and deliver that out to our schools and make them aware of the benefits. We have a 90 percent membership. Well, it’s probably about 88 percent, so it’s almost 90 percent. So we really try to work with our schools.
Now, we’re about to take things to the next level as we build up even stronger our communications around advocacy, as we move forward to the next election, the next session, because whether we like it or not, charter schools and choice has been under attack and even though there’s huge parent demand, we need to proactively get out the message about the benefits of parents being able to choose the right fit for their child. And so that’s going to be a campaign we’re moving forward.
We actively work with the National Alliance, other states, vice chair of the State Leaders Council. So my goal is to strengthen charter school organizations because we’re still a nascent industry and the miss and detractors are starting to increase. So you really need to get out that positive message and I think this conference and the work that Charter School Capital does really helps to get out that positive message.
On Working with Charter School Capital
MP: Can you share a little bit about your experience working with Charter School Capital? ES: Yes. So I actively brought in Charter School Capital into Arizona. Charter School Capital fills a need that our schools wanted because obtaining financing is difficult. The public markets and bond markets or banking markets won’t always provide the financing our schools will need to get through a difficult situation. So for example, one of my schools, one of my great leaders in Tucson worked with Charter School Capital to buy their building. And it was a really positive experience for our school leader in Tucson.
But even prior to that, I worked with Stuart [Ellis], I had seen the need that was filled, and it’s a unique need and our schools definitely need to make sure they have all financial options because just as our students are unique, so are the school models for creating … We have 550 school models. And as we move forward, all the school leaders are in different places and Charter School Capital can meet the needs of those leaders. MP: We’re very grateful for Arizona and being able to serve the leaders and the students there and partner with your association. JJ: And we’re honored to have you here today. Thank you so much for spending time with us. We really appreciate it. ES: Happy to do it.
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 $1.6 billion in support of 600 charter schools that educate 800,000 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 Resources: Introducing Our New Client Portal
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 educate 1,027,000 students across the country.
