Schools have always been the heart of community connections. From a young age, so many pivotal relationships are forged in school, whether between peers or between teachers and students.

Bruno V. Manno reports in a recent article for The74 that there’s renewed interest in another important feature of these relationships—opportunity and upward mobility.

The idea of “social capital” has been around for a long time—the term describes the way relationships contribute to a functioning society. Of particular focus in a recent Harvard study by economist Raj Chetty are relationships that span socioeconomic lines in workplaces and schools.

Researchers are interested in these relationships because they go against “friending bias”—the idea that people tend to be friends with those from similar backgrounds to themselves. The idea is that friendships that cross class boundaries lead to more awareness of careers, lifestyle options, and ways of interacting in society.

Of particular interest to charter leaders will be an analysis of how charter schools enter this conversation. According to Manno’s article, an analysis of 214 charter schools in the Harvard study’s public database found that “charter schools tend to perform better than 80% of traditional public schools on friending bias.” This certainly suggests that further study would yield compelling data to inform the school-choice movement.

This finding raises important questions for Manno related to charter schools: “do the autonomy and community-building aspects of charter schools contribute to this? If so, are there lessons learned that district schools could emulate? Should charter school growth limits be lifted so more of these schools can be created?”

These are questions that many voters are considering this fall. The idea of social mobility and cross-class relationships may be another reason we are seeing increased support for charter schools in some states, and it supports an aspect of charter school education that we see in many of the schools we support: programs that actually strengthen cross-class bonds, including career-focused programs and language learning.

Manno believes these kinds of programs “acquaint learners with employers and workforce demands, engaging students and adult mentors from diverse classes and backgrounds.” Such engagement will only strengthen social networks and bonds and students mature and choose career pathways. Manno believes these types of programs can even lead to faster and cheaper routes to careers.

The great news here is that serving diverse communities and fostering these types of relationships is a “baked in” feature of most charter schools. As Manno points out, with the return to face-to-face learning we can hope to see relationships like these flourish even more.

As we approach midterm election season, some are foreseeing education voters becoming the new “swing” voters. The National Alliance of Public Charter Schools reports that in a recent national survey of more than 5,000 guardians of school-aged children, education has taken on renewed importance when it comes to voting. The survey found that many families who are members of both major political parties want more charter schools in their areas, and would even cross party lines when voting if it meant supporting certain education policies.

As for the “why” behind these numbers, many have speculated that when families got a front row seat to their child’s education during the pandemic, they grew inspired to change things. School closures, safety issues, and ongoing debates about approaches to subjects like diversity and history have also stoked the flame of familial concern. With the midterm election including state school board positions along with races for governor and legislators, the election’s outcome will have a direct effect on schools and what happens in the classroom.

All signs point toward growing support for charter schools, as further evidenced in CCSA’s recent survey. Jeffrey R. Henig, a Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, called this shift a “major movement” toward charter schools in a recent interview, where he also stressed the number of issues facing education voters this election.

While education is always on the ballot, it is likely to feel more important this year than ever—and is a great reason to get to the polls. You can learn more at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools “Be an Education Voter” Portal.

For a more in-depth discussion of NAPC’s survey results, watch the Numbers Don’t Lie panel from the 2022 National Charter Schools Conference, recorded on June 21, 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything, especially the way we think about school. And while educators have been asking important questions about how to measure school success, they are asking these questions with more urgency as they face enrollment, budget, and logistical challenges in late-pandemic times.

Karega Rausch, the president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, is asking these questions, too. “These questions have always been at the heart of schooling,” he writes, but stresses that they are even more important to ask now that relationships between families and schools have undergone so much change due to the pandemic. NACSA strives to advance charter school authorizing to support students—especially those who have been historically underserved. In his recent article, Rausch offers 10 ways to measure successful schools post-pandemic. Let’s take a closer look at what his organization’s research has found.

State testing in reading and math. “These tests are essential to understanding how students are recovering from the pandemic,” Rausch writes. He also argues that they help confirm that students are coming back strong after the pandemic, with particular focus on lower-income students, students with disabilities, and children of color (all of whom, Rausch says, have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic).
Families make great schools. Rausch believes that engaging families “must go deeper.” They should have a say, for example, in what they want and need schools to do for students, and schools should respond to those needs and wants.
Schools should help students holistically. From staying healthy to fostering extracurricular interests, schools should be a pathway to students’ futures. Rausch calls these “rigorous measures of quality,” and gives examples such as opportunities for student leadership and mental health support.
Cultural competency matters. “Deeply valuing family and community perspectives — especially those from marginalized groups — has another critical benefit: avoiding culturally incompetent ways of defining quality,” writes Rausch. While it’s important to teach students to interact with others of different backgrounds, schools need to be mindful of unintentional bias.
Create customized measures of school quality. All schools are different, even if they are in the same district. Rausch argues it’s better to design measures of quality by school rather than to universally apply them. “Student outcomes will look different in different places, and a unilateral measurement may not respond to what families in that community need,” he says.
Customized—and rigorous. Having customized measures of quality invites the possibility of lower standards, or, as Rausch puts it, “bad schools finding new ways to avoid consequences.” New measures must be robust, reviewed, and developed with many key stakeholders.
Not every goal or initiative should be a part of a formal accountability plan. Rausch provides some frameworks for thinking about the distinction at the federal/state levels and important cautions.
Education leaders need to think critically about how they perform and evaluate measurements. Rausch speaks about NACSA’s development work with the SUNY Charter Schools Institute and the National Charter Schools Institute. “NACSA learned it’s hard work to figure out the best sources of evidence to demonstrate progress (or not),” he writes. He believes the school or authorizer needs to design “its own valid and reliable data collection method…[and] community partners, assessment experts and cross-school collaboration can be helpful partners here.
There must be an understanding of how measures of school quality will be used. When a school needs an intervention, it shouldn’t be a surprise to the school or the community. Designing a calendar of well-structured performance reviews and clear outcomes for the results goes a long way. “This avoids ‘gotcha’ scenarios, which force schools to spend unneeded time responding to non-performance compliance issues at the expense of teaching and learning,” Rausch says.
Make information public and easy to understand. “Providing public access to student performance, student and staff backgrounds, performance frameworks, accountability reports, financial performance and school initiatives, for example, is best practice and something great charter school authorizers do,” Rausch believes. This can help families choose the best school for their student’s needs.

Above all, Rausch argues that what makes a school excellent needs to evolve as the educational landscape shifts. Read more from NACSA’s CEO and learn about what the organization is doing to support schools here: “10 Steps Toward Measuring Great Schools During and after the Pandemic.”

The charter school movement is growing stronger every day. This summer, the California Charter Schools Association released a statewide survey, stating that support for charter schools is at an “all time high.” This level of support is great news, especially in an election year for the state, when voters will be deciding what legislators will have an important impact on education in the future.

In the survey, CCSA found that:

CCSA also broke responses down by region within the state. Take a look at the numbers below.

What CCSA concludes from these numbers is that families want to see “urgency, personalization, responsiveness, and results,” and that many are seeing those results from charter schools. “A state that is the fifth largest economy in the world needs more public education choices that provides students with the opportunities to help them succeed in school, career, and life,” stated CCSA President & CEO Myrna Castrejón

For a closer look at CCSA’s survey, you can find their presentation on the numbers here. For more details on how the study was conducted, take a look at the CCSA Newsroom here.

At CSC, we partner with charter schools nationwide, and have strong relationships with many in California. We’re thrilled to see California voters understand the worth of the innovative education these schools provide.

Though there are still votes to be tallied we wanted to get you an early election update on some California races. Over the next week or so as additional ballots are counted some of these races will change. As expected, Joe Biden carried California in the Presidential race so we will focus on other races of note.

The two biggest fights in the state were over Proposition 15 and Proposition 22. Proposition 15 was an effort to increase property taxes on businesses to fund education and other programs in the state. It was supported by a number of labor unions, elected officials and liberal advocacy groups. It was heavily opposed by the business community and other groups. Proposition 15 is currently headed to defeat with a 48.3% – 51.7% margin. Going in the opposite direction Proposition 22 is headed to passage with a 58.4% – 41.6% margin.crowd hands raised

Proposition 22 was pushed by Uber, Lyft and the gig companies as an answer to AB 5 which passed the legislature last year. AB 5 mandated that a number of companies make their workers employees and not contractors. As a result Uber and Lyft led a coalition of companies in sponsoring the ballot measure which changes the law. It was a huge win for them and a bigger loss for the legislature which refused to carve certain companies out when passing AB 5.

In the State Legislature the Democrats will continue to hold super-majorities in both the State Assembly and State Senate. In the State Assembly Democrats will actually lose a seat as two Republicans were running against each other in the 38th district where Christy Smith ran for Congress instead of reelection. In the 38th Suzette Martinez Valladares will be the new Republican member. In the State Senate Republicans are threatened with a possible loss of up to 4 seats. The 23rd district is an open Republican seat where Republican Rosilice Ochoa Bogh is tied at 50% of the vote with Democrat Abigail Medina. In the 21st Republican incumbent Scott Wilk is barely ahead of Democrat Kipp Mueller 50.1% – 49.9%. In both the 29th and 37th districts Republican incumbents are trailing their Democratic challengers. Former Democratic Senator Josh Newman is up 51.6% – 48.4% over Republican Ling Ling Chang in the 29th. In the 37th Republican incumbent John Moorlach is trailing his Democratic challenger Dave Min 48.1% – 51.9%. If these Senate results hold it could leave the Republicans with only a handful of members in the body.

As stated earlier there are still votes to be counted but these are the state of some of the races at the current time.

You can use this website to locate which Assembly and Senate district that you reside in: FindYourRep.Legislature.ca.gov.

As schools reopen and students once again fill the nation’s classrooms (physically and remotely), charter schools in all states are facing the challenging task of keeping kids safe.

We’ve assembled a list of resources – from the NEA, the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools and from other authoritative sources – all designed to empower charter school leaders to make sound decisions and put effective measures in place to create safe environments.

As we pore through these materials, several key pieces of guidance emerge:

Prepare the school campus for physically-distanced learning
- Smaller groups per classroom,
- Barriers and distance markers in place,
- Plenty of sanitizer and cleaning tools available,
- Improvements to air circulation and indoor air quality
Set up protocols for contingencies
- What to do if a teacher or staff shows symptoms,
- What to do if a student shows symptoms or tests positive,
- What to do if the school needs to close again.
Empower teachers and students with the right tools
- Ensure there’s PPE, sanitizer, cleaning stations
Set up protocols and educate students to follow these
- Teach students to avoid physical contact,
- Teach students not to share phones, toys, books, etc.,
- Teach students to properly keep physical distance

Additionally, guidance includes aspects of social equity and inclusiveness.

Ensure all remote students have access to the proper equipment and connectivity,
Ensure special-needs students have needed accommodations,
Ensure masks don’t impede hearing-impaired students from understanding teachers

This is not an inclusive list. Please refer to this previous post for links to comprehensive sources. What we aimed to accomplish in this post is to give you a contextual view of the areas to address, and key things to keep in mind.
Also, depending on how badly-affected the area and city around the school might be, measures would of course become more stringent. The goal is to facilitate learning while doing our utmost to protect the health of our students.

We hope this has been helpful. Make sure to click here for more.

This year when the California Legislature passed their budget they did not provide funding for growing schools, both traditional and charter schools. In the education budget trailer bill, SB 98, the CA Legislature held school district and charter school funding harmless at the 2019 – 2020 levels which essentially capped funding and provides no new dollars for additional students enrolled in the 2020 – 2021 school year.

This created a lot of acrimony and opposition from different sectors in the education community. Governor Newsom acknowledged the issue, in a message to the legislature, when he signed the budget trailer bill urging them to craft a targeted solution for the funding issue.

Due to this lack of funding four charter schools have filed a lawsuit against the state and numerous education reform groups are lobbying the legislature to address the issue. The legislature adjourns for the year on August 31st so the race is on to enact a fix.

The Department of Finance has released their first draft of language to provide a legislative fix. Though it might work for some traditional schools it is not an ideal fix for charter schools. Additionally, the language specifically leaves non-classroom based charter schools out of the fix. There is no policy rationale to cut off funding for students deciding to change schools during this pandemic that is gripping the nation.

Many non-classroom based charter schools experience growth throughout the year and the COVID – 19 virus has seen these numbers increase for the 2020 – 2021 school year.

I urge you to call your legislator and advocate that they fund all students in California, regardless of what public school they attend. It is an issue of equity and fairness that should not be taken lightly.

You can use this website to locate which Assembly and Senate district that you reside in: FindYourRep.Legislature.ca.gov.

10 Great School Resources for COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

As promised, we’re going to try to keep you as informed as possible and continue to provide school resources for COVID-19 (coronavirus) preparation and response. These recent articles come from several trusted resources including Education Week, National Association of Independent Schools, UNESCO, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are 10 great articles with school resources for COVID-19 (coronavirus). Take a look!

Symptoms of Coronavirus

2. Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in Communities

3. COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response

4. How to Respond to Coronavirus: 6 Steps for Schools

5. 9 Things Educators Need to Know About Coronavirus

6. Coronavirus and Schools

7. 6 Lessons Learned About Remote Learning During the Coronavirus Outbreak

8. Understanding Coronavirus: What Schools Need to Know

9. Coronavirus (COVID-19) Guidance for Schools

10. Talking to Children About COVID-19 (Coronavirus): A Parent Resource

We will continue to keep a pulse on the situation and share information as it becomes available.

Stay tuned to our Events page to attend our upcoming webinars on this topic and find any we’ve recorded here on demand.

Since the company’s inception in 2007, Charter School Capital has been committed to the success of charter schools. We help schools access, leverage, and sustain the resources charter schools need to thrive, allowing them to focus on what matters most – educating students. 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 $2 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!

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Editor’s Note: This article about the RAND Corporation’s new school district and CMO surveys was written by Linda Jacobson. It was originally published here by Education Dive on January 10, 2020.

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 school choice, 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.

RAND Corp project to survey districts, charter groups

Dive Brief:

Building on its American Educator Panels, which have provided a glimpse into teachers’ and school leaders’ thoughts on issues such as school discipline and instructional methods, the RAND Corporation is launching a new set of surveys for school districts and charter management organizations.
With $4.8 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the research organization will work with the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, Chiefs for Change and Kitamba, a consulting firm, to develop and administer the American School District Panel over a three-year period. According to a press release, the project will be “the first nationally representative, longitudinal panel of school districts” in the U.S.
The surveys will collect feedback from districts and CMOs on issues such as procurement, professional development and services for students with disabilities. RAND is also forming an advisory board made up of district and CMO leaders to guide the project.

Dive Insight:

Results from the surveys will provide another source of comparison between traditional districts and CMOs on current educational issues and trends. While the researchers won’t survey individual charter schools, they will collect data from CMOs.

One early topic is expected to be how districts and CMOs “identify, select and implement curricula as well as the supports they provide for school-level curriculum implementation,” said Laura Hamilton, who directs RAND’s Center for Social and Emotional Learning Research and co-directs the AEP program.

An initial study will be released this fall, and the first round of results from the survey is expected next winter or spring. In a separate press release, CRPE said the goal of the project is “to understand how districts help school leaders innovate and solve problems, and to learn what barriers they face.” Qualitative studies will also dig into how politics and implementation issues affect efforts to improve districts.

In addition to releasing the reports, the research team will hold “State of the District” events to discuss findings. “School systems have a critical role to play in making sure students, especially the most vulnerable, get the educational opportunities they so urgently need,” said Robin Lake, the director of CRPE.

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School Choice Poll: 70% of Voters Support Charter Schools

Editor’s Note: This survey was published by the American Federation for Children on January 21, 2020. 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 school choice, 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.

American Federation of Children’s Sixth Annual National School Choice Poll Results

The American Federation for Children released its annual education survey today. Support for charter schools is at 70 percent, with just 26 percent opposed. Perhaps even more encouragingly, “a majority of voters [58 percent] are less likely to support candidates who want to eliminate federal charter school funding.” Among subgroups, 65 percent of Latino voters, 62 percent of African Americans, and 56 percent of Democratic primary voters would be less likely to back a candidate who wants to de-fund the CSP. This despite Sen. Elizabeth Warren making Charter Schools Program elimination a central plank of her presidential education proposal and other candidates attacking charter schools in various ways. Perhaps hostility to charters isn’t quite as firmly set as we’ve feared. The Obama-Clinton position on charters may ultimately carry the day.

Download Survey Results