February 1998 NWREL Offers Charter School Assistance
Charter schools are an increasingly important choice in America’s mix of options for elementary and secondary schooling, which already includes the traditional neighborhood school, magnet schools, alternative schools, private schools, special-focus schools, and home schooling.
Founders of charter schools tend to be small groups of six to 10 parents, teachers, community members, and sometimes administrations. Charter schools are public schools that are granted a specific amount of autonomy to develop and implement their own type of structure, curriculum, and educational emphasis.
But experience is showing that in many cases, the founders do not possess all of the technical know-how to handle the administrative, financial, and public relations duties that go hand-in-hand with the operation of a successful charter school over time.
Providing needed training and technical assistance to charter school founders can minimize the barriers to successful operation.
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory has launched a three-year effort, with support from the U.S. Department of Education, to develop, evaluate, and disseminate a Model Leadership Training Program for charter school founders.
"Charter schools face numerous difficulties and impediments to successful start up and integration," notes Dr. Joyce Ley, program coordinator. "Intensive instruction and assistance directed at charter school founders and leaders will contribute to the early success of charter schools and allow them to focus on the instruction and teaching of students."
NWREL’s training model will focus on five key content areas:
- Start-up logistics, such as establishment of a legal entity and acquisition of a facility
- Curriculum standards and development, such as development of student and school evaluation
- Governance/management, such as formation of the governing body, hiring of personnel, and financial management
- Public and media relations, such as dealing with interest groups and community relations
- Regulatory policy issues, such as special education requirements, insurance and liability issues, and assuring health and safety
A nine-person team of nationally recognized experts and experienced operators of charter schools spent a week at NWREL February 18-21 developing a detailed design for the model training program. This summer, the training will be tested with 12 teams of present and potential charter school founders. Following revision on the training based on results of the trial, the training academy will again be conducted in the summer of 1999 in preparation for presenting it across the nation.
For more information, visit NWREL’s charter school Web site at http://www.nwrel.org/charter/.
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