In this report by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, author Andy Smarick breaks down some of the top performing charter schools and charter school networks to see what has contributed to their success and growth. This report opens the doors to discourse on the supply of alternative schooling options and the need for growth in the private sector.

1. THE CHARTERED
COURSE
Can Private School Choice Proponents Learn
from the Charter School Sector?
breaking down

2. @edchoice
As demand for private school choice grows,
STUDENT PARTICIPATION
IN SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAMS
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
2000
36,000
2005
106,000
2012
212,000
2013
260,000
2014
+314,000

3. @edchoice
it’s imperative we examine ways to improve
not only the diverse supply of schools but
also the quality.

4. @edchoice
Charter schools have been experimenting with both
for more than two decades and their market share
is growing faster than any other school type.
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0
1999-00
1% 1% 1% 2% 2% 3% 4%
89% 89% 89% 89% 88% 88% 88%
10% 10% 10% 9% 9% 9% 8%
2001-02 2003-04 2005-06 2007-08 2009-10 2011-12
Charter
Traditional
Private

5. @edchoice
Indeed, many charter schools have coupled innovation
with best practices from private and public schools with
great results.
are low-income
and
of graduates
matriculated
to college
86%
83%
are low-income
and
of graduates
matriculated
to college
83%
100%
are low-income
and
of graduates
matriculated
to college
72%
100%

6. @edchoice
So what can the private school sector learn
from some of the top charter schools?

7. @edchoice
Researcher
Andy Smarick

8. @edchoice
• a partner at Bellwether Education Partners,
• former Deputy Commissioner of Education of New Jersey and
Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education,
• former COO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools,
• hot sauce aficionado,
• and fanatical blues guitarist,
analyzed charter
schools to produce
this synthesis of
best practices.

9. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools
Structure Themselves

10. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
To date, there are now about 6,000 charter
schools serving nearly 2.3 million students.

11. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
In fact, student enrollment in the charter sector has
outpaced enrollment in private schools of choice.
2,400,000
2,000,000
1,600,000
1,200,000
800,000
400,000
0
2008 2009 2010 2011
Private School Choice Enrollment
Charter Management Organization Enrollment
Charter School Enrollment
Sources: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, “The Public Charter Schools Dashboard: A Comprehensive Data Resource from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools,”
accessed Apr. 4, 2014, http://dashboard.publiccharters.org/dashboard/schools/page/mgmt/year/2013; The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, The ABCs of School Choice: The
Comprehensive Guide to Every Private School Choice Program in America, 2014 ed. (Indianapolis: Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, 2014), http://www.edchoice.org/ABCs.

12. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
How have top-performing charter schools
expanded so quickly to meet the demand of
families?

13. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
Many created Charter Management
Organizations (CMOs), which develop
new schools, all structured upon a
unique educational model, and help
those schools operate.

14. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
Students enrolled in schools overseen by
CMOs have increased by more than
174 percent since 2007.

15. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
What makes CMOs effective?

16. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
Economies of Scale
def. – the consolidation of support
functions for all CMO network schools in
one place.

17. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
Single-campus charter schools’ employees
must often wear multiple hats, spreading
their efforts thin...

18. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
...whereas CMOs might hire a few
specialists that utilize their expertise
for multiple schools, ensuring:

19. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
Back-Office Support
def. – the freeing up of school principals’
time spent handling recruitment,
fundraising, budgeting, data processing,
and facilities management so they can
spend more time mentoring teachers.

20. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
What’s the most important
back-office support?

21. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
Human Capital
def. – the process of competing to recruit
the best new talent and grooming the top
teachers for leadership positions.

22. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
How can CMOs compete with the
dominant public school system and
higher union wages for the best
potential talent?

23. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
External Partnerships
def. – establishing relationships with
organizations that cultivate teachers
outside the fairly uniform colleges of
education.

24. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
Teach For America and TNTP are
examples of such organizations.

25. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
But CMOs don’t just recruit and cycle
through new teachers as critics claim.
They focus significantly on:

26. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
Internal Investments
def. – fostering continuous improvement
by providing individualized professional
development programs for existing
teachers and grooming the best to be
principals.

27. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
The biggest driver of whether we
could open more schools—and
of how successful those schools
went on to be—was the strength
of the school leaders.
– Dacia Toll,
co-leader of the CMO

28. @edchoice
1. How Charter Schools Structure Themselves
We have retained 100 percent of
the school leaders who[m] we grew
from within the organization, and
we’ve retained 40 percent of the
ones we brought in from outside.
– Don Shalvey,
founder of the CMO

29. @edchoice
2. How Charter Schools
Identify Where to Open
New Locations

30. @edchoice
2. How Charter Schools Identify Where to Open New Locations
A charter school incubator is a nonprofit
organization that identifies opportunities for
opening new charter schools based on the
needs of communities in a specific area.

31. 2. How Charter Schools Identify Where to Open New Locations
@edchoice
Incubators encourage the growth of the
charter school supply in a few ways:

32. 2. How Charter Schools Identify Where to Open New Locations
@edchoice
1. building relationships with great school
leaders and educators to launch and run
new charter schools in their area,
2. convincing existing CMOs to open
schools in their area, and
3. providing support, such as:

33. 2. How Charter Schools Identify Where to Open New Locations
@edchoice
Leadership Pipelines
def. – a program strategy or service that
provides rigorous training for educators
by preparing them to become strong
future school leaders who can start and
run a new, successful school.

34. 2. How Charter Schools Identify Where to Open New Locations
@edchoice
Start-Up Capital
def. – money to pay for new school
start-up costs, such as creating leader
training programs; purchasing books and
materials; and constructing, renovating,
or leasing a facility.

35. 2. How Charter Schools Identify Where to Open New Locations
@edchoice
Strategy Guidance
def. – expert consultation to ensure soon-
to-be school leaders know how to: pass
school proposals through authorization
checkpoints, develop a local governing
board, build relationships with
communities, plan performance tracking
strategies, and otherwise map out key
steps toward a successful school launch.

36. 2. How Charter Schools Identify Where to Open New Locations
@edchoice
Political Advocacy
def. – the process of staying up to date on
legislative changes that affect the charter
school sector, discussing developments
with school leaders, educating the public
on the effects issues will have on their
communities, and advocating for policies
that promote the growth of high-quality
schools.

37. @edchoice
3. How Charter Schools
Set Goals and Hold
Themselves Accountable

38. @edchoice
3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
A charter school authorizer is responsible
for writing and submitting charter contracts
typically to the state, and then holding
its charter schools accountable for their
performance according to the terms of
those contracts.

39. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
That means an authorizer is also
responsible for shutting down its
charter schools that fail to meet certain
performance goals.

40. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
Authorizers can have few or many
schools in their portfolios, and they
come in a few forms:

41. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
LEAs, SEAs, HEIs, NEGs, NFPs, and ICBs

42. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
Got it?

43. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
Just kidding.
We’ll explain:

44. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
LEA – a local education agency, which is usually
the local district public school board
SEA – a state education agency, which is the
state’s department of education
HEI – a higher education institution
NEG – a non-educational government entity, such
as a mayor
NFP – a not-for-profit organization

45. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
Most of those authorizer types serve many
other functions, spreading their skills and
time thin.

46. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
Utilizing independent chartering boards
(ICBs) as authorizers is one way to ensure
greater thought and time are put into
planning which metrics schools track,
how they’re tracked, and whether they’re
successful.

47. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
ICBs are what we call...

48. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
Independent Agencies
def. – an organization run by a staff of
experts in accountability models, finance,
and other areas with a single purpose—to
authorize charter schools.

49. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
ICBs have practical perks, too.

50. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
1. They are not dependent upon the
political interests of a district board or
SEA.

51. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
2. They can set longer, staggered terms to
further insulate themselves from
constantly changing political leadership
and the personal interests that follow.

52. 3. How Charter Schools Set Goals and Hold Themselves Accountable
@edchoice
3. They are less inclined to place the task
of evaluating charter schools on the back
burner for other institutional tasks.

53. @edchoice
Conclusions

54. @edchoice
The growth of school choice is inevitable,
and demand for diverse, high-quality private
schooling options is on the rise.

55. @edchoice
We’ve got to look for and be willing to test
strategies that will expand the supply of
private schooling options.

56. @edchoice
“The Chartered Course” is one way, but far
from the only one, private schools can or
should take.

57. @edchoice
This report simply aims to open the doors
for collaboration between sectors.

58. @edchoice
Got different ideas?
We’d love to hear them.
Reach out on Twitter @edchoice,
on Google+ +edchoiceorg,
or on Facebook /edchoice.

59. @edchoice
For more details, real life examples, and
resources from the charter and private
sectors, read the full report at
edchoice.org/CharteredCourse.