Public Impact report profiles charter-to-charter restarts as an intervention strategy for low-performing charter schools. The report offers recommendations for board members and charter authorizers interested in pursuing a restart strategy, drawing on lessons learned from the school profiles and discussions with leaders in the field.
Camden Press Release Announcing Restarts Schools in March 2015
The Camden City School District released this press announcement in March 2015 to communicate its decision to “transform” five of its lowest performing schools through restarts with high-performing school operators.
Growing a High Quality Charter Sector: Lessons from Tennessee
This case study tells how Tennessee evolved from being one of the most inhospitable states for charter schools to one of the most favorable for charter expansion and the lessons from that evolution.
Building Family and Community Demand for Dramatic Change in Schools
Public Impact report highlights the benefits, challenges, and effective practices for building family and community support for school turnarounds.
Replicating Quality: Policy Recommendations to Support the Replication and Growth of High-Performing Charter Schools and Networks
This report identifies a set of key authorizing policies and practices that can accelerate the replication and growth of high-performing charter schools and charter networks.
NACSA’s 12 Essential Practices for Every Authorizer
Culled from NACSA’s Principles and Standards guide, the 12 Essential Practices reflect the five domains of effective authorizing: agency commitment and capacity; application process and decision making; performance contracting; ongoing oversight and evaluation; and revocation and renewal decision making.
Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing
NACSA’s Principles & Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing serves as a formative development guide for charter authorizers at all stages and levels of experience.
Core Performance Framework and Guidance
To assist authorizers in developing high-quality Academic, Financial, and Organizational Performance Frameworks, NACSA developed the Core Performance Framework, which includes frameworks for each area of performance that authorizers can customize to meet their local needs and context.
Continuous Improvement in Education
This white paper for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching describes how continuous improvement has manifested in education. The authors map the continuous improvement landscape through identifying and describing organizations engaged in continuous improvement, highlighting commonalities and differences between them.
Mapping Business Ecosystems
This tool provides a process for mapping business ecosystems based on Verna Allee’s Value Network Analysis (VNA) methodology.
Cultivate Your Ecosystem
This article by Bloom and Dees describes an ecosystem framework to help social entrepreneurs create long-lasting and significant social change.
What’s Trust Got to Do With It
Public Agenda report is designed to help schools leaders take a positive and proactive approach to engaging families and communities in a school turnaround process.
Community Collaboration for School Innovation Toolkit
The Community Collaboration for School Innovation toolkit helps districts shift away from a community engagement model that centers on pushing information out, to a new community collaboration model that pulls guidance and directives from the community. The free guide includes real-world case studies from Colorado school districts, video tutorials, and templates, and aims to accelerate school improvement efforts that authentically reflect community priorities.
UP Student Enrollment Network Guide
Document developed by UP Education Network (restart operator) to provide guidance to school leaders on how to recruit and enroll students.
UP Example Enrollment Policy
This document describes the student enrollment policy for a restart school operated by UP Education Network.
UP Education School Takeover Announcement Guide
This guide provides a detailed protocol for coordinating the announcement and immediate actions following the public communication of a decision for UP Education Network to restart a school.
UP Autonomies and Local Conditions Required to Greenlight Restart
This “Greenlight” document describes the autonomies and operating conditions that UP Education Network considers when deciding to takeover low-performing (Level 4 and Level 5) school in Massachusetts.
Renewal of Bronx Preparatory
This renewal recommendation from SUNY is an example of an authorizer renewing a previously approved charter-to-charter takeover.
SDP Renaissance Schools Initiative Policy
Philadelphia’s School Reform Commissions (SRC) adopted its Renaissance Schools Initiative Policy in 2010. The policy establishes specific guidelines for key aspects of the school turnaround (restart) initiative.
SRC Presentation on Process and Matching Recommendations 2010
Document is the May 2010 presentation by the School District of Philadelphia during a public school board meeting to announce school-operator match recommendations.