Lisa DiGaudio
Founding Board Member & Principal, New Dawn Charter School

Well, you can’t have a school without students now, can you? Your enrollment policy is so important at this time because it must be reflective of what you put in the charter. Remember, you were chartered based on certain “promises” you made to the state/authorizer when you wrote the full application. You can’t write your application for high school students and then decide that you’re going to be an elementary school. It doesn’t work that way. In fact, if you were to change your enrollment policy, you might have a deal breaker on your hands. Stick to what you wrote! (To see what we wrote for New Dawn Charter School, download a copy of our application.)

Make sure that your enrollment policy is aligned with state guidance and laws as well as your enrollment and retention targets listed in the charter. Be sure to include targets for English language learners (ELLs), students with disabilities and students eligible for free or reduced lunch. Even if it is not formally required, it is best to submit your enrollment policy to your authorizer prior to beginning the enrollment process in order to ensure full compliance with your charter and state laws/regulations.

Hand-in-hand with the enrollment policy should be your recruitment plan. As a charter school, you must perform outreach to your entire community, including  the ELL population as well as the Special Education population. So, where do you go and how do you effectively recruit students? Part of the process in getting your charter was reaching out to the community. The same needs to be done for recruitment. This means handing out flyers, attending school fairs, going to local churches, meeting local representatives, and attending community board meetings. All of these activities will put your school on the map. Radio spots, newspaper articles, interviews, anything you can do to get the mission and vision of the school out there for the public to see will help you make your numbers. Stick to your recruitment plan outlined in your charter. This will help you stay on course. Social media like facebook and twitter are also two methods to get your name out there. In many instances, you can connect all of these on your website, enabling visitors to see any kind of activity happening with the school. Check out the websites from some of the Model Schools in the Network of Independent Charter Schools to see how they provide materials and information to help in the recruitment process:

Academy of the City Charter School

Bridge Boston Charter School

Broome Street Academy

Challenge Pre Charter School

Heketi Community Charter School

Inwood Academy for Leadership

John W. Lavelle Preparatory Charter School

Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School

Lefferts Gardens Charter School

New Dawn Charter School

Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation

Staten Island Community Charter School

Tech International Charter School

Do not forget to make sure your recruitment materials are in the languages that dominate the community in which you seek to open. Handing out flyers in English will not encourage non-English speaking applicants to come to your school. By distributing flyers in many languages, community members know that you are in tune with the entire community living in the neighborhood who will benefit from having a charter school in the area. Again, this includes reaching out through local media (newspapers, radio and TV stations, etc.) but in multiple languages. I know of several schools that have weekly spots on different local radio stations, have had camera crews come in to do small spots advertising the school for websites and local TV stations, and have written small articles for the local papers in the languages spoken within their neighborhood. Making sure that your website is available in the predominant languages within your community is key to successful recruitment. See, for example, the Boston Bridge Charter School website, which uses the Microsoft Translator tool to allow users to translate pages in their website into various languages. There are a number of other translation tools available for free on the web, including Google Translate and Free Website Translation.

Reaching the special education population can be a bit tricky, as some potential parents do not want to entrust their children in a new school if they have special needs. One of the myths about charter schools is that special education students are not serviced in the same way as traditional public schools. It’s important to reach out to local supports for special education. (In New York State, you should contact your local Committee on Special Education). Establishing a relationship with local resources agencies is paramount to ensuring your students receive the proper services. It’s also important that parents see that you are active in implementing the goals set forth in a student’s individualized educational plan (IEP) and helping that student be successful in achieving those goals. These small steps speak volumes to parents and community members who may be skeptical of a charter school’s effectiveness in teaching students with IEP’s.

If you begin thinking about recruitment as soon as you are chartered, then you will be on the right track. Once again, there are many resources available to you for help. Authorizing agencies typically provide you with the timelines in which certain activities must be conducted. The Network for Independent Charter Schools, particularly through the Online Hotline, is available to help with questions and training that you may want to receive. Don’t be afraid to ask for help--it is there for the taking and is intended to help your school be successful! When we’re successful at recruitment, we are successful at helping more kids achieve their dreams.

Outside of writing the full charter school application, preparing for the interview with the review committee is one of the most stressful parts in the chartering process. This is the job interview of all job interviews, folks. It seems like a huge task, the applicant group sitting with the review committee around a table, needing to answer their questions on point. For some board members who may have expertise in banking or real estate, for example, they may have a hard time understanding the nuances of the instructional program. On the other side of that, educators may have a hard time fielding responses related to the budget over the five-year period or the impact of using a private facility instead of shared space. Either way, the committee needs to be comfortable with each other, be able to jump in and respond where appropriate and most of all, be confident with the panel and the team.

The New Dawn applicant group was at an advantage, as most of us had worked together in various stages on the PICCS program, which helps charter schools implement a series of tools to help drive performance forward for all students. With the experience and training in our PICCS school improvement engine, we were already aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the group, and we all took pieces of the charter that would showcase our strengths. We spent hours upon hours studying and building a “go-to closet” of resources that we could cite when responding to questions. For example, if a question came from the panel regarding our accommodation of the projected ELL population in the school, not only should any one of us be able to answer that question, but we should be able to cite curriculum and other resources to support our response. This meant studying a great deal of information over a very short period of time.

Slowly, we built out our sections of expertise. Each of us took our areas of expertise and worked on these elements, making notes, practicing answering questions with each other, and then having a conversation about our responses. Like following a Peer Review protocol, we each gave warm and cool feedback to increase our ability to respond and improve the level of ease in which we could answer questions in our field of comfort, and out of our field of comfort.

The New York City Charter School Center was so helpful in this regard. We scheduled a meeting with the center as a “mock interview.” The panel asked us very tough, very pointed questions, and if we did not respond in a way that completely answered the question, they would redirect and force a response out. After the question and answer period, the panel gave us feedback on every aspect of our responses. If you don't have such an ally organization in your area, then reach out to other charter schools that are already open and see if members of their founding team would be willing to hold a "mock interview" for you.

This process was extremely helpful! They critiqued our opening statement, the way we actually looked when we answered questions, and whether we smiled or showed we were nervous. They were even able to show us how to look confident when we might falter on a response. They advised us on where to sit (which of the panel should sit next to each other to show unity) and how to sit. It actually reminded me of a funny seen in Ocean’s 11, when Brad Pitt’s character is telling Matt Damon’s character to do all of these things in his performance with Andy Garcia, “Don’t say three words when two will do, don’t keep your hands in your pockets, don’t look away, he’ll think you have something to hide.” The depth to the feedback really gave our teams the ability to further prepare, and to prepare well. So thank you so much, once again, Charter School Center staff!

Having that vital feedback then gave us the chance to go to work. We made notes, we read the charter inside and out. We practiced with each other. The more you practice, the better you get at responding. It really gives you the confidence walking in to the real thing that you've “got this.” The other factor was the level of trust that our team had in each other. We all had each other’s backs. During the interview we would support each other, filling out answers when needed, and each of us had a chance to respond to the panel. Thanks to the rigorous mock interview we had with the Center, when we met our review panel, the entire meeting just flew by. We were able to answer the questions with ease, we were able to be comfortable with the panel (who were very inviting and supportive in their own right), and after it was all said and done, the panel warmly thanked each of us, noting the preparation we had brought to the table.

Just like the public meeting, there a few things to be absolutely ready for: 

• Treat your appointment like a job interview. DO NOT show up in jeans and a sweater. Suits only folks!
• Make sure you remember everyone’s name on your panel. People tend to make very silly mistakes when they get nervous. Write everyone’s name down by creating a very simple seating chart, so you can mention your reviewer or colleague by name when you need to speak.
•  Smile. It really shows confidence and ability.
•  Write the key words of the question down, and take your time responding. Showing that you are thoughtful and not just pulling information out of a hat so to speak will win points.
•  Make sure when you leave that you shake every reviewer’s hand and thank them. They spend a lot of time reviewing your application and your interview. Ultimately their feedback is the key in getting your application chartered.

It was quite an accomplishment for New Dawn making it through this process. We are lucky to have a close knit group of educators dedicated to building student achievement. We work together on various levels and share many of the same ideas on effective instructional practices. We took the time to be organized, to practice, and to be super prepared. In the end, all of these elements truly helped us be successful.

Next up…Hooray we’re chartered! Now what do we do?

The views expressed in Charter Notebook blogs represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association or the U.S. Department of Education.

According to New York State Law (as well as charter law in most other states and localities), the public must be sufficiently informed about charter schools in their community throughout the process. One of the last steps before the interview process is the public hearing. The purpose of the application hearing is to provide the public a chance to ask questions of the charter group, namely the lead applicant and founding team. Many concerns are raised during these hearings, particularly when charter schools are seeking to share space with district-operated public schools. Prospective charters may have to delay their openings because at the last minute if the district-operated school works to prevent the charter school from entering the building. These discussions can be extremely contentious, and just because there may be open space in a district-operated school does not mean sharing will be welcomed or even tolerated.

The public meeting usually takes place in a location that is common to other schools that are seeking to open in the district. The prospective schools arrive with materials that describe the mission and vision of the school. Each school has the opportunity to speak about the mission and vision of their school, and then respond to public comment. We treated this hearing as a “practice” of our interview with the review panel. One of the most important things to demonstrate to the public and to the review committee is the unity you have with your founding team. You must be in full agreement on how the school is going to run. Your responses should be able to flow seamlessly from one person to the next. You have to show confidence, sincerity and knowledge. You have to respond to tough questions with the same grace. It’s a good place to put that to practice, as the public hearing, though not a factor in getting the charter (in New York State), can cause the review committee to raise questions if there is a serious outcry from the public hearing.

Our public hearing for New Dawn Charter School's application took place shortly before our interview with the review committee. Fortunately, there were no concerns raised at the meeting about our school. This was in great part due to our outreach and engagement of the community in the process of developing the charter application (see a discussion of how to identify the right founding team members to assist with this process in my post on Writing the Letter of Intent). In fact we were honored to have a community member speak positively on our behalf.  But this isn’t always the case. I have attended meetings in the past where charter applicants have to come to these public meetings and not taken them seriously. Follow these easy points, and this hurdle can be easily cleared:

• Dress professionally. While this may seem obvious, it is important to share this point with all of the individuals representing your team. The public hearing is your chance to show you are a professional group.
• Speak clearly and answer questions directly.
• Make eye contact when you speak (I’m not kidding. I watched a presenter never lift his gaze from the floor. This does not project confidence or trust.)
• Do not show you are flustered by tough questions. Getting defensive or giving wrong answers can happen when you get nervous, but this only makes the audience angry.
• Be humble. I’m a big believer that when you are dealing with children, your ego has to get checked at the door. Everyone has an opinion when it comes to teaching and learning, and you must be open to hearing every single one. It’s about the children, not you.
• Be gracious. Thank the audience for the time, be accessible after the meeting convenes if it seems that there might be other questions.

Transparency is the key to being in control. If you show you are willing and able to show the community the ins and outs of your school organization, the more trusting they will be of your presence in the community. Know your charter in and out, and be able to speak to every element in it. Community members will feel good knowing that the applicant group knows their stuff and  are comfortable with each other and their community!

Next time…the big “show”! The Interview.

The views expressed in Charter Notebook blogs represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association or the U.S. Department of Education.

Lisa DiGaudio
Founding Board Member, New Dawn Charter High School
Curriculum Coordinator, Lefferts Garden Charter School

In an earlier blog post, I introduced this blog series as a means of talking about how to implement the common core into your curriculum. For immediate reference, I want to point out three sources that I found very helpful when writing the curriculum for Leffert Gardens Charter School:

• The Network of Independent Charter Schools Resource Library entry on Common Core: http://indiecharterschools.org/commoncore.php
• The New York State Education Department: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/
• The Gates Foundation Common Core Maps: http://commoncore.org/maps/index.php

You can actually purchase additional maps and lessons for all grade levels via the Gates Foundation site; it was $20 well spent!  Not only does the site membership include maps, but in the maps are additional resources that are free of charge. These lessons can fit just about any school curriculum, and they are written by teachers in the field.

Now back to the "how" on implementing the common core. There are two things that must be considered when you start. The first, and probably the most difficult for me, is looking at the standards and figuring out which ones would be most often tested on the State Assessments. The test is changing each year, in an effort to accommodate the push on informational text, yet at the same time, the skills being tested are not consistent like we were accustomed to in the past. When I prepped my students for the New York State ELA exam prior to the change in cut scores (2009-2010 school year), it was easy to go back into the old tests and look at the item analysis provided by the State. I was able to look at each exam, record the performance indicator tested and compare its frequency from year to year. In this way, I could adapt the level of practice I would impose on my students in a variety of ways, from the “one passage” drill, to packets of skill practice and writing within that skill. We don’t have that luxury currently in grades 3-8. The pitfall for me in writing the K-2 curriculum at LGCS is anticipating the level of frequency of the common core standards and the shifts that are required from the state standards year to year. (The state website again is very helpful on this topic, directly addressing the shifts, though basically every school must be fully using CCSS by the 2013-2014 school year.) As I looked over this timeline, I made the decision with my principal, Marc Magnus-Sharpe, that our best bet would be to just jump right into CCSS and implement it fully into our curriculum now. This gives us the entire school year to ready our second graders for the state assessment next year, which will use the CCSS entirely for 2012-2013.

With that determination, the next point is to figure out how to get alignment going in the curriculum. I am going to focus on social studies in this blog entry, mostly because it’s what I used to teach and it’s an easy connection to ELA instruction. The first thing I did for my level of students (grades K-2 right now) is to lay out the topics of study. Our school follows the New York City Department of Education curricular alignments as close as possible, along with a focus on environmental science.  I looked at the curricular units for the grades throughout the school year.  Let’s look at a topic for November in Kindergarten as an exemplar:

Unit of Study for November in Social Studies: Myself and Others

Overarching Question: How are people unique?

Performance indicator: All people share common characteristics (3.1d)

Common Core connection: Read to the children Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China (Ed Young)

Teaching point: Compare and contrast Little Red Riding Hood stories. Have the students make connections on how people from far-away places can have many things in common with us.

Kindergarten students, with assistance, will be able to compare and contrast the attributes of people from China and the United States via Lon Po Po.  This is the intent of common core, using different texts to learn content. It’s important to note that the common core is not a set of standards that spoon feed teaching and learning to students and teachers. It is a framework to take these learning experiences and deepen them for our students. Is it easier for our Kindergartners to learn cultural diversity through a textbook, or by being engaged in a Read Aloud, and then taking that content and applying it to their own classroom? The experience should set the bar for more learning experiences in the future.

This is not the be-all, end-all of how to implement the common core. I hope that this blog will serve as a vehicle to talk about all of the ways that we can not only just teach the standards, but to deeply engage our students in learning experiences that matter. It’s funny, but I just finished reading John Dewey’s Experience and Education (1938!) about that very thing--quality experiences are the basis to learning. Here we are almost 75 years later, and that element--the quality of learning experiences--remains the basis for how our students should learn content.  I look forward to sharing ideas and experiences of my own, as well as learning from and sharing your comments to improve our students’ learning experiences within the Common Core and well beyond it.

The views expressed in Charter Notebook blogs represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association or the U.S. Department of Education.