Focus Sharpens on Need for Charter School Leaders

Research shows that leading a high-quality charter school requires a unique blend of skills, energy, and determination. This month's National Charter School Resource Center (Resource Center) newsletter focuses on developments in charter school leadership. It provides current context, leadership resources and references, and a profile of a leader in a Latino community in Houston, Texas, who developed a charter school that now serves about 1,250 students.

Recent studies and developments in K-12 public education indicate that the demand for effective charter school leaders is great and likely will become even greater. For example, a 2010 study by the Center for Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington-Bothell found that 71 percent of charter school leaders surveyed expected to leave their schools within five years. You're Leaving? Succession and Sustainability in Charter Schools also found that many of these schools do not have succession plans. At the same time, there are calls for more aggressive growth of the most successful charter school programs. A 2011 report from the Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, and Public Impact, a Chapel Hill, North Carolina, education policy group, suggests that the best charter school organizations could greatly expand their reach by adopting high growth as a top priority and using the methods of businesses that have grown dramatically. Going Exponential: Growing the Charter School Sector's Best urges successful charter leaders not to let concern about expansion's impact on quality get in the way of "fresh thinking and the will to grow."

One budding site of demand for charter school leaders is in Detroit, Michigan. A plan is being developed to convert dozens of public schools to charter schools and build leadership capacity to improve an ailing public school system, according to a report in The Detroit News . But the demand for school leaders also impacts places where charter schools are well established, including Washington, D.C., where nearly 40 percent of the public school students attend charter schools. In an April 2011 Hechinger Report article titled "Shortage of Qualified School Leaders Imperils Charter Movement," the departure of a charter school principal in Washington, D.C., illustrates an example of the strain on the supply of school leaders. The article covers a variety of views about this issue.

Efforts to improve school leader development programs and meet increasing demand are not new. In 2004, a report by the Office of Innovation and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education focused on the need to develop a better school leadership pipeline. Innovative Pathways to School Leadership highlighted six programs, including programs related to charter schools in both rural and urban settings. The report notes the relative newness of the programs and the hope that they will provide useful ideas and strategies. Some charter school organizations have their own programs to develop leaders. Over the past 10 years, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) School Leadership Programs have trained more than 100 principals to open and operate KIPP schools in 20 states and Washington, D.C., according to KIPP. Developing such programs is an ongoing process supported by the Department of Education. For example, in 2010, the Department of Education announced $9.2 million in grants for 14 programs to develop and expand innovative efforts to recruit, train, and provide professional development opportunities for principals.

Leading a Charter School to Success in Texas

Working in the Houston, Texas, juvenile justice system as an education liaison, Richard Farias saw firsthand what he considered to be a critical problem in the public schools. "Kids were systematically being shown the way to failure," he said, adding that the dropout rate among Latinos was especially high. "I felt I needed to do something." His desire eventually led him to start the Raul Yzaguirre School for Success (RYSS), which opened in 1996 as one of the first 20 charter schools in Texas.

After working with young people through the court system for 16 years, Farias changed course. In 1986, he became the executive director of an alternative high school for dropouts, primarily Latinos. Farias had no formal training in running a school. His college degree from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, was in social rehabilitation and social services. The master's degree coursework he completed focused on criminology and corrections.

"Ready or not," he said, "I became in charge of that school." He said that he read everything he could about education and attended conferences. "I just became acquainted with what it took to run a school," he said, calling the period the "most meaningful years" and a time that "gave me the feeling that I could do this."

In 1992, Farias started the Tejano Center for Community Concerns, a social services, education, and community development organization, to serve neighborhoods on the east side of Houston. The center also became the foundation for the school Farias had in mind, a school that would be deeply integrated with the community and promote mutual achievement.

Farias had noticed that many students were dropping out in the 9th grade. So he decided to start a middle school to better prepare students for the challenge of high school. It was 1995, and Texas had just passed its law allowing charter schools.

"When charter schools became law, it was the first time that the community itself had a say-so as opposed to just griping about the system," Farias said. He already had spent four years in the community. "I got to meet a lot of people in education who felt the same way I did."

Yet more than a feeling was needed.

"They were all basically comfortable in their regular jobs, but given the opportunity to actually start something and try to make a difference from what existed was something that people wanted to make happen for themselves and for the community," Farias said.

He hired a teacher from the public school system to serve as the principal. She was young, smart, and energetic and lived in the community.

"What I loved about her was that she had a real passion for the well-being of children," he said. "That's always been one of the most important things that any educator should bring to the table, wanting to see every child succeed."

Farias already was familiar with her work, having hired her previously to run a family literacy program and observed her success interacting not just with young students but their parents as well.

Yet charter schools were new and had abundant critics. "We were under the gun," he said, to not only hire the best teachers but also pay the bills. To get started, the school needed to come up with its own funding to cover the first 90 days of operation, a feat the school could accomplish through borrowing because the Tejano Center had already established a credit record.

In its first year, RYSS drew 100 students for 7th and 8th grade, enough to pay staff and lease space. In the second year, there were 200 students, and 6th grade was added. In the third year, there were 400 students, and the school covered PK-8. By the fourth year, the school enrolled 650 students and went through 12th grade. The momentum continued. The school, in 2000, landed an Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, which Farias said was difficult to get but has aided student discipline. In 2003, RYSS opened an elementary school in Brownsville, Texas. The elementary school enrolls 300 students, part of the RYSS total enrollment of 1,250. And the Houston site recently gained a new school building, financed with a $25 million education bond issue. RYSS is named for the founder of the National Council of La Raza, the Washington, D.C.-based Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization.

Almost all of the students are Latino, almost all qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, the majority has limited English proficiency, and most face circumstances that put them at risk for dropping out of school. The school touts a dropout rate of less than 2 percent, and almost all of its graduates go on to higher education. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) gave the school a 2010 rating of "recognized," the second highest designation. In 2007, TEA rated the school's dropout prevention program as "exemplary."

Gayle Fallon, President of the Houston Federation of Teachers (HFT), calls herself a fan of Farias and RYSS. She was a founding member of the school's board and still serves on the governing board of the Tejano Center, which sought the charter.

"We got help from the national union in drafting the charter," Fallon said in an interview with the Resource Center. "Richard's idea was something that we could buy into."

At the outset, the teachers were union members, which Fallon said was a carryover from their jobs in the Houston Independent School District. Now, only a few are HFT members. Farias said there is no collective bargaining, but the union members can, for example, receive HFT support if they have a complaint.

Fallon said nothing is standing in the way of RYSS teachers joining the union. She said that Farias's attitude is, "If we want to go organize, then go organize them."

What Farias has accomplished is admirable, according to Fallon. "He doesn't cherry-pick kids. He takes what walks in the door," Fallon said. "Those kids go to school; they graduate; they go to college."

Who Has the Authority to Lead?

Farias's own beginning is not so different from that of the students at RYSS. Farias grew up in Brownsville, Texas. He moved to the Houston, Texas, area at age 14, when his father got a job in a grocery store making $7 per hour, a dollar more an hour than in Brownsville. Farias went from a community that was nearly 100 percent Latino to being the only Latino at La Porte High School in a town of about 5,000 near Houston. "My English was really, really broken," Farias said. "I became very much of a loner, except for playing sports," he said. Still he did not feel discriminated against. "I did not see the kind of discrimination that I saw later here in Houston," he said.

He graduated from high school and served in the Air Force as an aircraft technician, spending a year in Vietnam. He had stints at two junior colleges before earning his degree at Sam Houston State University.

Farias also attended a three-week charter schools program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he was introduced to Leadership Without Easy Answers , a book by Ronald A. Heifetz. "It talks about trying to lead when you're going into an area that nobody has travelled before," Farias said, which is similar to the circumstances with charter schools when they were started in Texas. "Sometimes you wonder who has the authority to lead. And sometimes we don't have any authority. We lead because we must be leaders, so you go at it and try different things. I think what really matters is that you have a belief in yourself. That doing the right thing you can, in fact, move forward without hurting people and make a difference."

As superintendent, Farias, 62, oversees RYSS as well as the Tejano Center, which is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. RYSS has a staff of 120, which includes the staff in Brownsville. The Tejano Center has a staff of 80.

For the first time, Farias has an assistant superintendent this year to free up more of his time for fundraising and legislative affairs, two important issues at the moment, because he has asked the school staff to prepare for 5, 10, and 15 percent budget reductions in anticipation of state budget cuts. "We really don't know where we're going to end up," he said.

Despite his administrative duties, Farias has not removed himself from the students. "I still work very closely with students, particularly those that might have discipline issues," he said. "We do everything possible not to expel kids, with the exception of bringing a weapon or drugs on campus," he said. "Other than that, we bend over backward to work with the kids and parents."

"Sometimes I surprise myself," he said. "I love working with kids, and I love to find ways to open avenues for them."

"The students feel that they really do matter," Farias said, adding that the small scale of the school helps. "We're able to give great attention to each and every child."

Farias said he is certain that he has not done everything perfectly right. "What I have done," he said, "is surround myself with people I felt were successful and that knew their business and that I had confidence in and would help me bring this project forward."

News

Charter Schools Program Updates Nonregulatory Guidance

The Charter Schools Program (CSP) of the Department of Education has updated its nonregulatory guidance. The document clarifies or adds to guidance involving allowable expenses, lottery exemptions, school governing boards' relationships with for-profit management organizations, factors that determine whether a school is new or an expansion, and the relationship between public charter schools and private schools.

The guidance addresses questions the Department of Education has received regarding the CSP authorizing statute (Title V, Part B of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act). CSP's primary purpose is twofold: (1) to expand the number of high-quality charter schools by providing federal financial assistance for charter school planning, program design, and initial implementation; (2) to evaluate the effects of charter schools, particularly on student academic achievement.

NAPCS Report Identifies Best Practices for Charter Schools' Access to Public Facilities

Five best practices for improving charter schools' access to public buildings are described in an April 2011 report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) that highlights "innovative, affirmative policies" in seven cities.

Making Room for New Public Schools: How Innovative Districts Are Learning to Share Public Education Facilities With Charter Schools outlines conditions in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, D.C. "Enlightened superintendents and school boards are instituting policies and creating practices that allow charter schools to take over or occupy underutilized and unused public buildings," states the report, which was prepared by Maria C. Sazon, the NAPCS Senior Director of Facilities Initiatives.

The best practices urged by report are as follows: the right of first refusal to lease or purchase public school buildings, an objective and transparent process for assessing available facilities, no or low-cost leases, long-term leases, and access to available nonschool public facilities. NAPCS conducted a webinar focused on the report's findings and recommendations.

Authorizers Playing Catch-Up With Online Charters, Best Practices Few, Report Says

Authorizers responsible for the oversight of online and blended learning charter schools "know they have not caught up" with swift growth in the field and that there are "very few established best practices," according to a report backed by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA).

Quality Authorizing for Online and Blended-Learning Charter Schools , the first in what will be a series of reports about authorizing and online learning, involved interviews with authorizers in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Utah. NACSA engaged the Evergreen Education Group and the Donnell-Kay Foundation, both of Colorado, to prepare the report. NASCA plans additional publications and webinars to help authorizers address the new opportunities and challenges related to online learning. Read more.

Citing High Attrition and Funding, Study Challenges KIPP Model; KIPP Rejects Report's "Core Conclusions"

A new study from Western Michigan University says that KIPP has high student attrition, low enrollments of special-needs children, and high levels of public and private funding--all circumstances that challenge whether it is a model that "can or should" be replicated.

What Makes KIPP Work? A Study of Student Characteristics, Attrition, and School Finance reports that an average of 15 percent of originally enrolled students "disappear from the KIPP grade cohorts each year," and 40 percent of African-American males leave between Grades 6 and 8; the percentage of KIPP's enrollment of students with disabilities is half that of local school districts; and KIPP's combined public and private 2007-08 revenue per pupil, on average, of $18,491 is $6,500 more than local districts received.

KIPP  released a statement saying that it found "significant shortcomings in the methodologies used and must therefore reject the core conclusions" of the study.  Read more.

Better Access Needed to Abundant Bayou State School Data, Cowen Institute Report Says

Louisiana and New Orleans school data are abundant. But a better way of channeling the information into the hands of the public is needed to maximize its value in guiding decisions about education, according to a new report from Tulane University's Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives.

Public Education Data Transparency and Accessibility in New Orleans and Louisiana, dated April 2011, credits Louisiana with doing more than most states in its collection and storage of a "large and varied amount of data from schools and districts." The problem, the study says, comes in trying to use it. Read more.

Resources

Teacher Leadership as a Key to Education Innovation . This 2010 brief from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality describes the role of teacher leadership in improving educator quality. It provides strategies for educational leaders to develop formal teacher leadership opportunities to attract and retain talented teachers.

Taking Charge of Choice: How Charter School Policy Contexts Matter. This January 2011 research brief from the National Center on School Choice at Vanderbilt University discusses the confluence of events, policy, and leadership that led to passage in 2001 of a charter school law in Indiana and mayoral authority over charter schools in Indianapolis.

Charter School Leadership. This training guide from the Division of Risk Management of Utah's Department of Administrative Services outlines the key competencies of charter school leaders, identifies red flags, and includes a risk-management checklist.

Working Without a Safety Net: How Charter School Leaders Can Best Survive on the High Wire . This Center on Reinventing Public Education report draws from a six-state survey to identify the challenges facing charter school leaders, including facilities, finances, recruitment, and strategic planning. Citing leadership succession as a critical issue, the report calls for planning for leadership transitions and new training and support options.

What It Takes: Starting a Charter School. This case study by the Policy Support & Studies Program at WestEd focuses on the development of Leadership High School in San Francisco, including the charter school's design and approval process, finding a facility and establishing a board and a budget, recruiting students and staff, and a summary of lessons learned.

Charter School Leadership in Colorado. This February 2010 study focuses on the leadership landscape in Colorado's charter schools and includes the results from an extensive survey of charter school administrators.

Ready and Able: Preparing Principals to Lead Our Schools. This March 2010 report by Robert C. Hughes, CEO of the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL), and Richard Moglia-Cannon, CFO and Director of Strategic Partnerships for NISL, covers what K-12 public education leadership development efforts might adapt from military leadership training methods. The report, which appeared in The State Education Standard, a journal of the National Association of State Boards of Education, provides a context for the importance of leadership in education and describes differences in the identification and training of leaders by the military and public education systems.

Charter School Executives: Toward a New Generation of Leadership. This November 2008 report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools includes an assessment of the charter school leader landscape and issues related to expanding the pool of high-quality charter school leaders.

School Turnaround Leaders: Selection Toolkit. This report from Public Impact, while presented in the context of school turnaround, provides guidance for hiring school leaders who can succeed in adversity. It also includes information about interviewing techniques and rating and comparing candidates.

Improving Charter School Leadership. This 2008 issue brief from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices identifies policy approaches to increase the number and quality of charter school leaders, including supporting training programs and partnerships, providing benefits for charter staff, and supporting charter board member training.

Institute for Educational Leadership. The Institute for Educational Leadership, based in Washington, D.C., focuses on helping individuals and institutions address leadership issues, leverage resources to foster reform, and build partnerships.

New Leaders for New Schools. The website of New Leaders for New Schools includes publications focused on evaluating principals and principal effectiveness and a guide to principal actions that improve student achievement.

Key Issue: Identifying How Highly Effective Leaders Support Teachers. This 2008 report from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality focuses on leadership issues that impact school performance, including the use of data, staff development and relationships, workloads, and school culture.

Administrators. This Department of Education website provides a wide array of resources and references focused on school administration, including leadership, management, and best practices.

Events

May 12: A full-day conference in New Orleans focused on strategies for high-quality urban public school reform will be held by the Department of Education and the National Charter School Resource Center. "Transforming Urban Public Education: Exploring the Potential of City-Based Strategies" will feature presenters with deep experience in school reform. There is no registration fee to attend. Register now for this event.

June 20-23: The National Charter Schools Conference 2011, themed "Because Every Child Can Succeed," will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Registration is open, and information about the program, accommodations, and discounts is available.

August 1-3: The Office of Special Education Programs of the Department of Education will hold its 2011 Leadership Mega Conference in Crystal City, Virginia, located just outside Washington, D.C. A wide range of sessions is planned to increase opportunities for collaboration and networking.

October 24-27: NACSA will host its 2011 Leadership Conference on Amelia Island, located near Jacksonville, Florida.

Next Month

Key developments involving charter schools.