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Category: Promising Practices in Charter School Governance

Authorizer-Initiated Peer Reviews to Facilitate Open Communication, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan. Charter schools were originally conceived as laboratories of innovation. Yet they often face challenges when it comes to information sharing, positioning charter schools more as “islands” than “lighthouses.” In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights charter school authorizer Eastern Michigan University’s peer review process that facilitates open communication between an authorizer and its charter schools and lateral learning among the schools. Leadership teams from the eight charter schools the university authorizes come together seven times per year for a peer review process that provides a forum for sharing information in order to improve the schools’ instructional practices.

Creating Education Partnerships to Meet the Needs of Businesses and Their Employees, JFK Medical Center Charter School, Palm Beach County, Florida. Employee-sponsored child care is a popular strategy for improving employee morale and retention and for increasing community goodwill. Recognizing these connections, hospital officials at the JFK Medical Center in Palm Beach County, Florida, decided to open a charter school in 2002 that offers priority enrollment for its employees’ children. The charter school founders hoped the new school would help address Florida’s high turnover rate of nurses and health care technicians by enhancing employee satisfaction. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights the JFK Medical Center’s workplace charter school.

Developing Training Programs for Charter School Governing Board Members, Nevada State Department of Education, Idaho Charter School Network, Minnesota School Boards Association, Charter STAR (Straight Talk And Resources). Charter schools offer an opportunity for teachers, parents, and other community members to be actively involved in the governance of public schools. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that malfunctioning charter school boards are common, reflecting a lack of board experience and a tendency to manage rather than govern. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance describes efforts in four states to train and support charter school governing board members. An infrastructure has been--or is being--developed to provide sustained assistance to develop high-quality governing boards so members understand what their responsibilities are and how to fulfill them, enabling charter schools to focus on supporting students according to their mission.

Empowering Parents to Be Change Agents in Charter Schools and Communities, Parent Leadership Institute, Washington, D.C. Parent involvement is a stated purpose of the law in many of the 40 states and the District of Columbia that have enacted charter school laws. This involvement can range from allowing a group of parents to submit an application to open a charter school to requiring parent members on charter school governing boards. Although charter school laws often include provisions on parent involvement, they are mostly silent on training parents for these enhanced roles. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights the Parent Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C., which trains parents to become change agents in schools and communities.

Empowering Teachers Through a CMO-Created Union, Green Dot Public Schools, Los Angeles, California. A long-standing tension exists between teachers unions and charter schools. The former see charter schools as a threat, eroding union membership by luring teachers to break away from traditional public schools without providing job stability or collective bargaining. Conversely, charter schools contend union regulations are anathema to the charter concept and believe union contracts are a barrier to innovation. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights a strategy to resolve this conflict--a charter management organization-created union to serve the teachers of Green Dot Public Schools in Los Angeles, California.

Enhancing Charter Schools Through Parent Involvement, Amy Biehl High School, Community Montessori, East Mountain Hight School, Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools, Pacific Collegiate School, Taos Chater School, and Timpanogos Academy. Charter school laws in numerous states require charter schools to involve the parent community. However, most laws require only peripheral participation, such as garnering parent support for the school during the application process or keeping parents informed of student performance. These participation requirements do not take full advantage of charter schools’ potential to draw on the knowledge and expertise of their parent community. In response, some charter schools have taken a proactive approach by establishing programs that incorporate parent involvement systemically into school operations. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights innovative methods for harnessing meaningful parent involvement. Practices range from creating a parent governing board to requiring parent participation at school events. In each case, parents play an active role in school decision-making, taking on responsibilities that include school financing, facilities acquisition, and accountability for student learning.

Harnessing Resources through Mayor-Authorized Charter Schools, Office of the Mayor, Indianapolis, Indiana. Charter schools often struggle to amass the essential goods and services they need to survive and thrive. While some charter schools have succeeded in expanding resources through partnerships with public, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations, others lack the knowledge, connections, and/or time to form partnerships on their own. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights the Mayor’s Office in Indianapolis, the first city in the nation whose mayor was able to authorize charter schools. The unique position of the Mayor’s Office has enabled it to harness myriad public and private resources to benefit the charter schools the office authorizes and oversees.

Implementing a Constitutional Model for School Governance, Avalon School, St. Paul, Minnesota. Many public schools—both charter and district-run—have site councils and/or student councils to provide participatory decision-making. Yet these advisory bodies, which may include parents, teachers, and students, generally are given a voice but not a vote. They provide an opinion to the school or district governing board, which ultimately determines the policies the staff are expected to enforce and the students are required to follow. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights Avalon School’s innovative model of school decision-making that reflects the U.S. constitutional government. The school’s student-created constitution dictates that school rules be developed and amended through a student legislature and enforced by a staff-run executive branch. Any disputes are settled by the judicial branch.

Implementing an In-House Approach to Teacher Training and Professional Development, High Tech High, San Diego, California. Charter schools, like all public schools, often have trouble attracting and retaining high-quality educators who subscribe to their mission and educational vision. One innovative solution is to offer teacher training and professional development on site. This enables schools to incubate aspiring teachers for a range of career options, from teaching positions to leadership and administrative positions. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights the Teacher Intern Program and newly established Graduate School of Education of High Tech High (HTH), a charter school development organization in San Diego, California. The programs enable HTH to train educators in house to prepare them to work under the guiding principles that defi ne the organization's schools.

Preparing for the Inevitable: Planning for Leadership Succession at the School, Charter Management Organization, and State Agency Levels, New Orleans Charter Middle School, Rose Management, and Delaware State Department of Education. Charter schools are often unprepared when the founding school leader leaves, especially if this individual was the one to design and implement the school’s vision. Transitions can be tumultuous as the new school leader works to engage the staff and sustain community ties, and the school may falter if too much institutional knowledge leaves with the founding leader. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance describes efforts to plan for a smooth leadership succession from three different perspectives: a school site, a charter management organization, and a state department of education. By planning for leadership succession early on, charter schools can avoid problems when a leader leaves and can use the opportunity of his or her departure to advance organizational growth.

Running Charter Schools Through a Teacher Professional Partnership, EdVisions Cooperative, Henderson, Minnesota. Charter school laws in many states contend that one of the purposes behind the establishment of charter schools is to "create new professional opportunities for teachers," but many charter schools have not involved their teachers in decision-making in significant ways. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center highlights EdVisions Cooperative's method of putting teachers in charge of school governance, a model that departs from the traditional management and labor dichotomy. Teacher-members of EdVisions Cooperative formally and collectively accept responsibility for the success of the schools they run by taking on duties that include determining the curriculum, setting the budget, hiring staff, monitoring performance, and setting their own salaries.

Taking the Guesswork out of Vendor Selection: Minnesota's Charter School Consultant Survey, Center for School Change, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota,. Unlike traditional public schools that rely on the district’s central offi ce for the delivery of essential goods and services, many charter schools have to make these decisions and manage operations on their own. Although a growing number of service providers offer everything from curriculum packages to accounting services, charter school leaders often are hard pressed to know which one provides the best goods and services. In this promising practice profi le, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance highlights the biannual Charter School Consultant Survey conducted by the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. The survey provides charter school leaders in the state with information on vendors used by charter schools, including a numerical ranking of the quality of services provided.

Using a Board Bank to Match Board Members and Charter Schools, New Schools for New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Training governing board members often is cited as a critical factor in developing high-quality charter schools. Yet charter schools must first find board members with the skills, time, and aptitude to serve, which is an equal if not greater challenge for many charter schools. In this promising practice profile, the National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance describes the board bank established by New Schools for New Orleans to recruit, train, and place governing board members in the city’s charter schools.