District-Charter Collaboration Compacts
Supported by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, more than 20 school districts across the country have begun to formalize a new strategy to serve all students in their communities through District-Charter Collaboration Compacts.
These compacts take many forms:
- In the Recovery School District of New Orleans, Louisiana, district and charter schools have begun using a single school application for all students. One application should reduce the burden on parents and families of searching for the right school for their children.
- In Denver, Colorado, two charters and one district middle school of Denver Public Schools have created a common enrollment zone. All students living within the zone are guaranteed a spot at one of the schools.
- The Arizona State Charter Association and Department of Education have begun to measure and publish median growth percentiles for grades four through eight of every district and charter school in the state.
The collaboration compact initiatives are at varying stages, from initial trust-building through fine-tuning of the partnership. Most compacts tend to incorporate at least one of four themes: enrollment and special populations, facilities, finances, and performance management.
CRPE supports the initiative by collecting and publishing the compacts on their site. The initial draft compacts are also made available here on the National Charter School Resource Center’s website in our Collaboration focus area. By making the compacts available to the public, interested communities can use the materials to craft their own documents.
