On a cold-dreary night in December, I attended a board meeting for a charter school of which I am a board member. I have served on this board for the past four years. Five years ago, this school was identified as failing by the authorizer (governance board who “approves” the school). At that time, the school was given an option, drastically improve or “close your doors”. In four years, this school has made tremendous growth. As a matter of fact, the school was highlighted for making the largest academic gains in the city. As I reflect on the progress of the school, I would be remiss to overlook the fact that each month’s board meetings are well-structured with a sole focus on issues that matter. The board understands the importance of maintaining a professional relationship with staff, but never oversteps or interferes with the authority of school leaders. While serving on this board has been a tremendous experience, there are hundreds of charter boards serving underperforming or failing schools. How do you know if your charter school is failing? I have included 5 Sure-Fire Ways for you to determine the status of the school.
#1 Teacher/Staff Turnover
If you want to understand the overall health of the school, pay particular attention to staff retention rates both during the school year and annually (school year to school year). To gain a comprehensive understanding of the issues, I recommend the school board/school districts have a process in place to conduct exit interviews. Ultimately, if teachers are resigning at high rates, the board needs to understand the rationale behind their decision to depart. In my experience, when a school is performing well, very few staff will resign from their positions.
#2 Leadership Turnover
If there is a revolving door of school leaders, chances are, your school is either struggling or failing. Effectively leading a school is a difficult job that typically takes a person more than one year to understand all the factors needed to be successful. This is not only the case with new leaders, but can also be applied to veteran leaders. When leaders resign or are terminated every year or every other year, the school never benefits from sustained growth. With the school remaining at “phase 1” on the spectrum of success, it is one bad decision from officially being in a state of disorder, disarray, or disaster. If a school has a difficult time retaining talented leadership, it could be indicative of an ineffective board, executive management, or central office.
#3 Fiscal Uncertainty
When the budget or flow of money does not pass the “smell test”, potential dangers are lurking. This is especially true with small local education agencies (LEA) where the budget should be easier to track. Small LEAs would include small school districts, charter schools, independent schools, etc. It is very common for a school business administrator or CFO to deliver budgets at public meetings. If the budget presentation fails to result in a clear understanding of financial transactions and spending plans, there could be potential issues. If you do not possess a non-financial background, don’t assume that you cannot understand the presentation due to the financial jargon being spewed. The job of the presenter is to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the budget, even for a layperson. When in doubt, ask clarifying questions. Budgets are not rocket science and should not be treated as such.
#4 Student Retention
Students and parents are the clients of schools. When students transfer from the school at high rates, there are issues within the school. Generally speaking, effective schools retain 90% of their students from one year to the next. As a parent, you understand the hassle involved in trying to find a school that is a “good fit” for your child. A parent would never want to endure this process unless the current school is failing to meet the needs of the individual students or is a “bad” school. To gain insight into the issues at a school, conduct “transfer interviews” with families transferring from the school. Please understand, when conducting these interviews, you will be engaging a population that will likely share a biased perspective against the school.
#5 Unclear Presentation Of Information
Effective schools possess a clear future and past, inclusive of the leader’s ability to clearly articulate both. Like with the budget, when information about the school does not make sense, there are potential issues. You should not need an undergraduate degree in education to understand information regarding activities, class placement, grading criteria, etc. In my experience, I have seen educators using educational jargon in an attempt to hide the problems within a school. Beware of the overly chatty presentations, laced with educational language, designed to “throw you off the trail” of the truth.
#6 Constant Presence By The Authorizer
This point specifically addresses charter schools. If the authorizer is overly involved in your school, your school has issues. While the role of the authorizer is to ensure a high-quality educational program is being delivered to students as stated in the approved charter application, this should not require the authorizer to be a regular presence in your school. When the authorizer begins to poke around, request documents, or conduct unscheduled visits, their intent is not to provide support. Actually, I would argue the authorizer’s intent is to build a case to close the school.