How Do Charters Find Great Leaders?

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) understands supporting the growing number of high-quality charter schools takes a huge commitment.  It means finding and developing a great number of talented leaders.  At NAPCS, we think we can help by sharing some of the promising practices in place at public charter schools across the country. “ASSESS, Coordinate, Execute: How to ACE an Executive Director Search” describes how you can find the next leader for your charter school and is the second publication in our year-long “Charter People” campaign to spotlight and address human capital issues in the charter movement. 

We kicked off the campaign with an issue brief detailing how charter schools hire teachers.  We hope these publications are useful to those of you working out in the field. We also want to hear from you.  We want to know about your school, your job, your greatest successes, your biggest challenges and your ideas for how to improve public education.  Help us by telling us about a great charter school leader you know.  Post a message on our Facebook wall or send a tweet with the hashtag #charterpeople.  We’ll continue to share what we learn.

CMO Recipes for Success

A recently released analysis, Unlocking the Secrets of High-Performing Charters, states that while there is no “secret sauce” that explains the success demonstrated by the 18 “no excuses” charter management organizations (CMOs) in the New Schools Venture Fund portfolio, there are common ingredients. Like contestants in Iron Chef, these CMOs all use the same ingredients: a laser focus on literacy and numeracy to establish an academic foundation; a pedagogy favoring direct instruction and differentiated grouping, especially in the early grades; and comprehensive student assessment and performance management systems. But like any good cook, these CMOs add plenty of other seasonings into the pot to create a unique and tailored school culture. If you’re hungry for more details about these CMOs’ recipes for success, you can read the full article here.

We at NAPCS strongly support the tremendous work happening in these high performing CMOs, and have aggressively pursued additional funding for the replication and expansion of quality charter schools through the All Students Achieving through Reform (All STAR) Act and the Empowering Parents Through Quality Charter Schools Act. Additionally, the US Department of Education just announced a new Replication and Expansion for High-Quality Charter Schools grant competition through the Charter Schools Program (Keep an eye out for NAPCS comments on the grant competition’s priorities in Ed Week’s upcoming article on the subject). We hope that these federal funding opportunities continue to be on the menu so more and more students can access high performing charter schools.

New Keynote Speaker Announced for 2011 NCSC!

The NAPCS is thrilled to announce that President Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States, has just been added to the star-studded keynote speakers lineup at the 2011 National Charter Schools Conference (NCSC).

For some background on his charter-related activities, the Clinton-Gore Administration supported the growth of public charter schools, which increased from only one charter school in in 1992, to over 2,000 schools in President Clinton’s second term! While in office, President Clinton commemorated National Charter Schools Week, increased funding for the Charter Schools Program, and released an Executive Memorandum directing the Secretary of Education to develop guidelines for businesses and faith-based organizations to help charter schools succeed.

If you haven’t already signed up for the NCSC in Atlanta, from June 20-23 (What are you waiting for???), register here.

Celebrations, Proclamations and Acknowledgements of National Charter Schools Week

David Kearns

We lost a giant last weekend. David Kearns blazed a trail of innovation as CEO of Xerox and then answered a plea from former President George H.W. Bush to serve as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education. There, among many other accomplishments, he created New American Schools, the non-profit that fostered “whole-school” models such as Expeditionary Learning and Modern Red Schoolhouse – and in doing so, served as a seedbed for the charter movement.  Here is yesterday’s eloquent floor statement by his former boss, now U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander. Note the history he traces, as well as his testimony to the respect and fondness Kearns inspired in everyone who knew him.

Harriett Ball, RIP