|
|
Okay, here’s a pop quiz for board members. No need to break out in cold sweat, the quiz consists of just one question (and you don’t have to tell anyone how you did). Here’s the question:
What kind of school do you govern?
If you answered, “A charter school,” this article will challenge you to put on your thinking cap, sharpen your pencil and pay close attention because that answer is incorrect—at least in terms of the most important thing about any school: student achievement. In that context, simply being a charter school says nothing about the kind of school you govern.
Yes, it’s true that charter schools have to compete in market-like ways because students are not assigned to attend on the basis of their zip codes. And charter schools are accountable to an authorizer or sponsor. As unique as these things are to public schools, however, they aren’t the essence of your school.
Remember that a charter is simply a legal vehicle or a mechanism by which your school operates as a public school. Thus, as charter school pioneer Dr. Ted Kolderie rightly emphasizes, the word charter, when used to refer to schools, would be more accurately used as a verb, not as an adjective. To help clarify the distinction, he proposes—and I think there is merit to this—that we begin referring to charter schools as chartered schools. In this way, it becomes clearer that the word charter does not define a school.
So how should you define the kind of school you govern? Some people include the grade range served by the school e.g., elementary or secondary. Others include the particular population of children served, e.g., inner city kids, or at-risk teenagers. Still others define it by the mission of the school or a particular instructional approach, e.g., performing arts, college preparatory, the Great Books Approach™, Core Knowledge™, Project Based Learning, or phonics.
These are helpful definitions, particularly to parents seeking information about the kind of school they want for their children. From a governance perspective, however, they come up short of what a school’s true defining characteristics ought to be: what students are achieving and how well they are achieving it.
When a school is defined by student achievement, the answer to the question, “What kind of school do you govern?” might look more like the following:
• a school in which every child reads at or above grade level
• a school in which 80 percent of graduates enroll in college
• a school that for the third consecutive year performed in the top quartile on the state’s reading and math tests
• a school in which every student discovers and maximizes his or her unique performing arts talents
• a school in which kids develop an appreciation for Western Civilization as the foundation of free and civil societies
• a school in which kids excel in literary pursuits
• a school in which three-fourths of our students complete their probation and successfully enter the job market
Besides using characteristics like those in the list to most accurately describe the kind of school a school is, there is a huge value-added proposition for doing so by the board. Defining the kind of school you oversee using things like the bullet points above brings unprecedented focus and clarity to the work of the board.
To picture one of the ways this adds value, imagine yourself putting together the board’s agenda. If your board has defined the kind of school you are governing by what students are to achieve and how well they are to achieve it, a substantial portion of the agenda would naturally be devoted to examining data or other evidence that indicates how well the school is actually doing.
Compared to a typical agenda by which boards waste time discussing, say, the protocol for classroom parties, an agenda that allocates time to assess the progress being made by the students is superior. The former agenda item is, in fact, board interference with management; the latter is board governance.
As with most things, defining a school is a matter of focus. The message for boards is, don’t focus on the fact that you’re a chartered school. Instead, focus on evaluating how well the kids are doing. Then, when someone asks what kind of school you govern, it will be more likely that you can confidently reply, “One of the highest achieving in our state.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Brian Carpenter is CEO of the National Charter Schools Institute and author of Charter School Board University: An Introductory Course to Effective Charter School Board Governance and soon to be published, The Seven Outs Model: Strategic Planning Made Easy for Charter Schools.
©2008 National Charter Schools Institute
|
