Wednesday, November 23, 2011

What's going on in Colorado that affects charter schools

What's going on in Colorado that affects charter schools

Doug Hering's photo

, Colorado Charter Schools Examiner
November 16, 2011 - Like this? Subscribe to get instant updates.

As a charter school follower, you're probably interested when things happen that could affect charter schools. There are a number of things that have happened over the past few months that while not earth shattering could change the charter school landscape significantly. I'll just focus on three.

First, it looks as if legislation will require that charter school authorizers judget their charter schools according to a set or rubrics set up by the Charter School Support Initiative. (Note: I have served on a CSSI team.) The CSSI was originally set up as a move to support charter schools. This initiative focused on new schools who received the federal charter school start up grant. Usually in the second year of a school's operations, a team would spend two or three days reviewing the school's operations and evaluate the school and provide a report. This consulting effort was designed to assist the school in improving all aspects of its operations. It now appears that this list of best practices will be the law that charter schools must follow.

Second, Denise Mund has left her post as the leader of the Schools of Choice Unit at the Colorado Department of Education. Ms. Mund has been in that post for years and has led a successful effort in educating schools in order to make them more successful. Her efforts have led to meetings such as the Business Manager's Network Meeting (which I have been a part of). These meetings assist the business office of schools, providing education in a variety of topics from Human Resource legal issues to proper use of the state chart of accounts in accounting.

In some ways, this could be a good thing. Charter schools will have to assess itself and authorizers will insist that charter schools be judged according to best practices. On the other hand, it could be used as a stick that requires charter schools to adopt "best practices" even if the school has good reasons not to adopt those practices. In other words, best practices may become absolute standards. This is not a good thing. What works for some doesn't always work for others. In some cases the standards and adherence to the standards is subjective. In many cases, adherence to these standards will not dictate what is or is not a successful school. It is possible that if not implemented well, these standards could be used against schools rather than for them.

Third, Mark Hyatt will be leaving the Charter School Institute at the end of December. He is leaving shortly after the board's adoption of a new strategic plan. Hyatt's vacancy leaves an open question for schools currently authorized by the Institute as well as schools seeking to be authorized by the Institute. Will the process become more difficult? CSI has already told its schools that its role will be changing. It's not completely clear if those changes will benefit schools or not. It's quite possible that schools will incur additional costs if CSI reduces its services to schools. It also appears as if CSI will not approve any new schools for the 2012-13 school year. It's difficult to tell if that is due to CSI raising the bar or if this is a temporary measure due to the changes in strategic plan and the upcoming change in leadership. (Note: I formerly worked for Mark Hyatt and I am currently assisting a school that was seeking authorization through CSI for the 2012-13 school year.

These changes leave open questions about where Colorado charter schools stand and what changes they may have to make to their current way of operating. It also leaves questions for those who are considering opening under the banner of the CSI. It's difficult to say when the picture will become clearer, but it's clear that these changes will have an impact on all charter schools

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