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!

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Editor’s Note: This post was written by Philissa Cramer and Monica Disare. It was originally published here on April 19, 2018 by Chalkbeat. As the election season is upon us, there is no better time to think about how some charter school solutions could potentially make students more civically minded. I think we’d all agree that our young people – our future voters – should understand that their voices and their votes both matter and count. This interesting article asks (and answers) the question, “Can schools encourage students to be more involved citizens?”

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.

Can schools encourage students to be more involved citizens? A new study suggests yes they can.

In a city of roughly 1,800 schools, many have names that have little to do with what students experience.
Not so for Democracy Prep, a network of charter schools that a new study concludes makes students far more likely to vote once they turn 18.
The study, conducted by independent researchers commissioned by Democracy Prep, took advantage of New York City’s charter school admissions rules to examine the impact of applying to, getting accepted to, and enrolling in the network’s schools on later civic participation.
Looking at more than a thousand students who applied between 2007 and 2015 who were old enough to vote in 2016, the researchers found that just being selected in the admissions lottery was correlated with a slight increase in voting rates. Students who were chosen voted 6 percentage points more often than students who were not.
The impact was much greater on students who were chosen and actually enrolled: They voted 24 percentage points more often than students who applied but never got a chance to attend.
The findings suggest that Democracy Prep is achieving its explicit goal of promoting civic participation. They also offer one answer to the question of whether charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed, undermine democracy.
“Democracy Prep provides a test case of whether charter schools can successfully serve the foundational purpose of public education—preparation for citizenship—even while operating outside the direct control of elected officials,” the researchers write. “With respect to the critical civic participation measures of registration and voting, the answer is yes.”Seth Andrew, who started the network with a single middle school in Harlem in 2006, said he was pleased by the findings — and unsurprised because the network has baked civic participation into its culture and academic program. Students must take on a personal “Change the World” project and pass the U.S. citizenship exam to graduate.
“This idea of ‘change the world’ was very central to what we were trying to get our kids prepared and excited to do,” he said.
Creating more engaged citizens takes more than just adding a civics class, said Katie Duffy, the CEO of Democracy Prep. Schools have to make democracy a part of the daily culture, she said.
“The more you talk about the importance of voting, the importance of elections, the importance of advocacy,” she said, “the more it becomes ingrained in our kids.”
The network has also long used Election Day — when district-run schools are often closed so their buildings can be used as polling stations — as a teachable moment.
In 2008, Democracy Prep students spent the day working to get out the vote in their neighborhoods. Four years later, Democracy Prep schools were among the few housed in city space that got special permission to stay open — and the network sent students out to advance the “Vote for Somebody” campaign it had kicked off in a catchy viral video. The next year, students promoted a different message — “I can’t vote but you can” — in an effort to boost the city’s 11 percent primary election voter participation rate.
The network’s influence extends far beyond its students. In 2012, six years into the network’s existence, officials estimated that students had helped 5,000 New Yorkers register to vote. Now, the network runs 22 schools in five states.
Andrew said the study’s findings about the impact of the network — which he left in 2012 to work on other civic engagement initiatives, including at the White House — offer only a start at a time when the United States lags behind other developed countries in voter turnout.
“I was thrilled with the outcome,” said Andrew. “But then as the guy that founded Democracy Prep I feel like there’s a whole lot of room to grow.”
Correction: A previous version of this story described the increase in voting caused by Democracy Prep as a percent figure, rather than in percentage points.

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We’re thrilled to share some fantastic news with you about the inspiring facility growth of one of our charter school customers, Genesee STEM Academy. Genesee STEM Academy is located in Flint, Michigan and is a top-tier K-9 Charter School authorized by Saginaw Valley State University. Last year, we worked closely with Genesee STEM Academy to complete their Phase I charter school expansion and now we’ve just helped them complete Phase II of their facility growth, adding an additional 14,300 square feet! This newest phase increases their available space with 13 classrooms, four administrative offices, student and faculty bathrooms, and upgrades to their auditorium.
We’re always thrilled to be a part of the growth and success of charter schools and help them better serve students – and their communities. We also know that they’re ecstatic about taking control of their own destiny.
This successful charter school expansion would not have been possible without the strong partnership between Charter School Capital and the dedicated team at Genesee STEM: including—but certainly not limited to—Laura Legardye, Rita Cheek, and Pasquale Battaglia.
At Charter School Capital, we understand that access to adequate charter school facilities continues to be one of the top challenges facing charter leaders today. There are currently more than 1 million students on charter school waitlists around the country and a relative lack of accessible financing options for charter facilities needs. In order to reach and teach more students and reduce these waitlists, charter schools require state of the art facilities that allow them to continue to build quality educational programs for student success.
It’s our mission to help charter schools with growth capital and facilities financing. Because we partner exclusively with charter schools, we understand the operational challenges their leaders face and can deliver financial resources charter schools need to maintain stability and grow. By leveraging the support of our team, charter leaders can stay focused on the school’s most important mission – educating students.
All of us at Charter School Capital are sending Genesee STEM Academy our heartfelt congratulations on their inspirational growth and success!

Do you need to expand, renovate, or move your charter school? We’d love to support you. It’s our mission to help you educate more students, so we focus on providing products and services that enable you to meet – and exceed – both your growth and facility goals. When you succeed, we succeed—it’s that simple.
We’ve reached out to our network of charter school experts for best practices and strategies for success at every stage of maturity. So, whether you’re just beginning the process of starting up a charter school, looking to expand or trying to prioritize your next steps, download our Charter School Growth Manual to get expert tips and pitfalls to avoid as you grow.

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Everyone has someone – that inspirational teacher that got you to believe in your abilities and in yourself. Who said, “You can do this!” and never let you forget it. Who left that indelible impact on your education.
As we celebrate Charter School Capital’s 10^th year supporting charter schools across the country, we want to hear from you about that inspirational teacher who positively impacted the trajectory of your life.
For our President and CEO, Stuart Ellis, that teacher was Mr. Dewey. We’re betting you have that standout teacher too. And you know exactly who it is.
In honor of Mr. Dewey and other inspiring teachers out there, we want to give recognition and thanks to the teachers who positively impact our lives. Tell us about that teacher who changed your life and inspired you to be who you are today.
Starting today, send us your Stories of Inspiration. We’ll be sharing your stories on our Stories of Inspiration page, our blog and on social media. Our review committee will select the 10 most inspiring stories and we’ll donate charter school grants of $1,000 to the author’s charter school of choice.
Submit your Stories of Inspiration by October 31, 2017. Our review committee will select the 10 most inspiring stories and then we’ll announce these stories after November 17, 2017. We look forward to reading your Stories of Inspiration!

The Charter School Capital team sends congratulations to Olive Grove Charter School’s expansion in San Luis Obispo, California. Open since the beginning of the 2016/17 school year, this learning center joins Olive Grove’s five other Southern California locations.
Olive Grove Charter Schools have roughly 300 students enrolled including a mixture of home-schooled and independent study students. The mission of Olive Grove Charter School is to plan, monitor, and assist in the education of students K-12 in a home or blended school learning environment enabling them to speak, read, write, use technology, and calculate effectively to become self-motivated, competent, and life-long learners. The Olive Grove Charter Schools will provide students with the necessary resources to achieve success and meet state standards in core academic subjects appropriate to their level. Additionally, students will become career/college ready upon completion of the program. This will be achieved in a collaborative effort with parents as primary deliverers of the educational program, certificated teachers and the community.
Charter School Capital is excited to work with Olive Grove to meet their expansion goals by utilizing our working capital that aids in charter school financing.
“I have been working with Laura Mudge and her team at Olive Grove for almost a year to make this happen,” explained Donna Kopman, Client Relationship Manager at Charter School Capital. “We are so happy to see all their hard work come to fruition and see the positive outcomes from our charter school financing tools.”
You can read more about Olive Grove Charter Schools’ expansion in a recent article from The Tribune and images below of Olive Grove students.

When Emily and Ian McVey decided to open a charter school, their primary focus was to bring an innovative education approach to their hometown. As they worked to turn their dream of Foothill Leadership Academy into a reality, they faced the same challenge many new or expanding charter schools face – a funding gap. They had to open the school’s doors before receiving state per pupil funds needed to operate. They immediately turned to Charter School Capital to accelerate their PENSEC funding to aid in growth.
“We wouldn’t be here without Charter School Capital. That’s really the bottom line,” says Emily McVey, founding director of Foothill Leadership Academy.
As a new school based in Sonora, California, Foothill Leadership Academy had access to California’s Pupil Estimates for New or Significantly Expanding Charters (PENSEC) reporting program, which allows new or expanding charter schools to gain access to expedited federal and state funds. But even this program required them to prepare for opening months before they would receive charter school funding. Using Foothill Leadership Academy’s PENSEC report, Charter School Capital was able to step-in and deliver working capital to the school well in advance of California’s release of available funds.
“Without Charter School Capital, we would’ve never been able to open our doors because we weren’t getting any funding,” McVey says of her 130-student charter school. “As such a small school, the amount of funding we get is so small compared to other schools, but that funding made all the difference.”
Foothill Leadership Academy draws on a few innovative educational techniques, which combined make for a wholly unique educational experience for their students. “We’re a Leader in Me school, with a curriculum based off of Stephen R. Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” McVey explains. “We’re also an arts integrated school, so our students are fully engaged, not just sitting and listening.”
This approach has been so effective that Foothill has been operating at capacity since opening nearly three years ago, with a waitlist nearly as long as their attendance sheet.
The McVeys believe that operating a smaller school, with high teacher-to-student class ratios and small class sizes is a major component to Foothill’s success. As such, their charter school growth path includes opening additional locations, while keeping the footprint of each individual school fairly small. To keep their organization on this track, they’re going to continue to rely on PENSEC funding and an ongoing partnership with Charter School Capital.
With Charter School Capital, “it’s not just about the charter school funding,” McVey says, “It’s about the relationships I’m creating, and how I feel safe, and that what I’m doing is important to Charter School Capital. It’s very important to me, to feel that I can trust that relationship.”
Are you with a new charter school in California? Existing charter school expanding grades? Give us a call about your growth needs and we can help you tap in to accelerated PENSEC funding to fuel your growth. Email us at GrowCharters@charterschoolcapital.com or call 877-272-1001. Our team is waiting to learn more about your school!

Charter schools face multiple challenges from Year 0 inception in establishing the school and a different set of challenges once in operation through their growth. What are the charter school growth strategies that will help your school succeed? What are your plans for charter school replication? How do the challenges faced by charter leaders change as they expand?

Join us for a webinar focused on charter school growth strategies. We’ll feature the challenges schools face during various phases from start-up, expansion through to a mature school as well as highlight best practices schools use to achieve success.

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Speakers:

Marshall Emerson, Co-founder & CEO, I CAN SCHOOLS
Marshall the Co-founder and CEO of I CAN Schools, overseeing seven charters and more than 2,000 students. I CAN began in 2010 and the schools have been one of the country’s most successful charter school concepts in closing the achievement gap for low-income students.

Stuart Ellis, President & CEO, Charter School Capital
Stuart is the Co-founder and CEO of Charter School Capital, the nation’s leading provider of growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. The company has provided in excess of $1 billion in support of 500+ charter schools educating more than 500,000 students across the country.

What you will learn:

Best practices for growth and replication
Funding options specific to your growth stage
Lessons learned from charter school leaders

Join us for our upcoming webinar – Building a Growth Strategy for Your Charter School on Tuesday, September 22 starting at 9:00 a.m. PST / 12:00 p.m. EST. This one hour webinar session will feature challenges schools face during various phases of growth from start-up, expansion through to a mature school as well as highlight best practices schools use to achieve success.

Register today!

Speaker: Stuart Ellis, President & CEO at Charter School Capital. Stuart is one of the founders of Charter School Capital, the nation’s leading provider of growth capital and facilities financing to charter schools nationwide. The organization has provided in excess of $850 million in support of more than 500 charter schools educating 500,000 students across the country.

What you’ll learn:

Best practices related to growth strategies for charter schools and charter school replication
Charter school funding options specific to your growth stage
Lessons learned from charter school leaders

Register now.

We are so excited to learn that Mosaica Education was selected as the highest performing Education Management Organization (EMO) in Ohio, out of 41 organizations. This honor comes on the heels of Columbus Preparatory Academy, a Mosaica school, receiving a 2014 National Blue Ribbon designation by the U.S. Department of Eduaction. Columbus Preparatory Academy was recognized in the category of Exemplary High Performing Schools.
The ranking was published by Beacon Journal in a report that analyzed the overall performance of all EMOs in Ohio.
Mosaica Education is a valued partner of Charter School Capital, and has previously won awards for Columbus Preparatory Academy and Lorain Preparatory Academy. They operate over 100 schools worldwide, including 17 schools in Ohio, serving a total of 3,774 Ohio students.
“The staff at the Mosaica schools in Ohio are tremendously dedicated to building high performing academies, and that’s evidenced by the remarkable growth of the schools and academic achievements of the students,” said Cris Worrel, Charter School Capital Client Services Representative for Ohio. “We look forward to many more successful years as partners to Mosaica Education.”

When Jason Wall decided to open Young Scholars Academy, he wanted to focus on kids that everybody else had given-up on. Experienced in charter school administration, Wall and his wife decided that they needed to “put our money where our mouth was” and open a school specifically geared towards high-risk students that were struggling in public school.
“We opened Young Scholars in South Linden, Ohio which is probably the roughest area in all of Columbus,” explains Wall. “In the past six months, there have been 19 homicides within a two-mile radius of our school.”
Young Scholars started out as a very small school with only 30 students the first year. They received a Federal Startup Grant that helped them get started. As word spread about Young Scholars, the school found their enrollment nearly tripling the following year.
Despite having to staff for 80 students, Young Scholars was allotted funding based on their previous years enrollment numbers. That’s when Wall reached out to Charter School Capital.
“I truly don’t know how we would have been able to staff for that many students if it weren’t for Charter School Capital,” Wall says. “I probably would have had to come up with the money myself, or try to take some sort of outside funding that would have been far more complex and convoluted.”
Access to reliable funding has empowered Young Scholars to offer a very low teacher-to-student ratio and purchase 40 new computers for their students.
They also have adopted a unique staffing model to best serve their challenging student population; teachers are trained for months before the school term begins in order to receive in-depth training, at a considerable expense.
“A school is only as good as its teachers,” says Wall. “We’re able to have that model because we were able to get that extra cash flow from Charter School Capital.”
The school’s rigorous model, which focuses on creating individual educational “playbooks” for each student and imparting socially acceptable skills, also demands constant parental involvement and asks for rigid behavioral standards.
It’s not just educational growth that Young Scholars is tackling. Their goal is to actively engage with, and improve, their community in South Linden, including partnering with a local civic center, nearby churches, and sponsoring anti-violence events.
Wall describes the positive impact they’re having on their community. “When I pulled up the first day to hang the school sign, there were 15 gang members peddling drugs in front of the building. Since we’ve been open and having a presence in the community, they’ve taken their business elsewhere.”
Three years after opening their doors, Young Scholars has increased enrollment to 100 students. Once again they’ll be working with Charter School Capital to help finance their growth.