October 1998 Training Guide Offers Help to Charter School Leaders
Addressing concerns both practical and theoretical, the Charter Schools Leadership Training Academy Workbook is a comprehensive, user-friendly guide to the leadership issues faced by people who are converting or creating new charter schools.
"Charter schools are about improving public education through innovation and competition. This requires thinking out of the system of mainstream public education and considering how best to use the increased flexibility and autonomy afforded by a charter school," says author Brett Lane of NWREL. "This increased autonomy demands that charter school founders and leaders take on diverse tasks and responsibilities that are not familiar, even to some of the most knowledgeable teachers and school administrators."
This workbook stemmed from the Model Leadership Training Program for charter school founders and leaders that is being developed by NWREL through a three-year contract with the U.S. Department of Education. The first year’s training culminated in the Charter School Leadership Training Academy held in Portland last July, and the workbook contains the materials that were used in the training sessions (see the Flashback section of this newsletter for more on the academy).
Although The Charter Schools Leadership Training Academy Workbook is a draft version of the final product that will be published during the contract’s third year, feedback from academy participants indicated an immediate need for making these materials available to as many charter school leaders and trainers as possible.
Developed through extensive research, pilot training of individual sessions, and recommendations from an eight-member design team of charter school experts and practitioners, the material in the workbook is based on five core content areas in which charter school developers should have expertise. Following are the core content areas and some of the details they encompass:
- Start-up logistics—assessing the political environment, determining fiscal feasibility, sustaining energy, writing an effective application, allocating resources, creating a power structure, implementing instructional changes, building an organizational vision, forming a founding group, establishing a legal entity, acquiring a facility, and developing a business plan
- Curriculum standards and assessment development—developing an academically rigorous curriculum, measuring performance, weighing curriculum options, and renewing the charter
- Governance and management—creating an organizational structure, handling personnel issues, developing internal policies, evaluating the governing board, managing growth, dealing with liability issues, and contracting for services
- Community relations—dealing with controversy, juggling interest groups, coordinating media relations and relations with the district or sponsoring agency, communicating parent expectations, and marketing the school
- Regulatory issues—special education requirements, health and safety issues, individual rights, religious issues, student records and freedom of information, civil rights regulations, requirements for parent involvement, state laws and regulations, different types of charter schools, and legal options
Each of the five sections of the workbook describes key issues, goals, instructional resources, and curriculum for that particular topic. The curriculum components include detailed lesson plans that trainers can use to develop a conference or training session, and charter school developers can use to research a particular area or find additional resources. Copies of mission statements and other documents used by established charter schools, topical articles, a bibliography of relevant resources, and an appendix of related Web sites are also included.
Although these materials were designed to be used as a five-part training, each section of the workbook can stand alone and be used in individual training sessions. When used as a whole, the training descriptions in the workbook cover all five of the core content areas that charter schools must address.
The workbook materials are a collection of loose-leaf, three-hole punched papers with cover pages for the separate sections; a binder is not included. To order a copy of the Charter Schools Leadership Training Academy Workbook, please turn to the Document Order Form in this newsletter.
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