PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS

PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP
COOL SCHOOL STORIES
INSPIRING PEOPLE
MODEL SCHOOLS
PROMISING PRACTICES
THE CHARTER BOARD
IN THE CLASSROOM

performance leadership

What does it take to lead a charter school to sustained greatness?

Elevate Performance Leadership methodology's core principle is that to achieve the highest levels of performance, charter schools must be in balance and in alignment throughout each area of the school -- from school culture and academics, governance and leadership, finances, operations, compliance, to community and parent relationships.

The highest performing schools share several other common attributes.

Great schools have powerful relationships and culture.
Great schools set the highest standards and achievement expectations and purpose of school ("failure is not an option"). There is clear alignment end to end from the boardroom into the classroom including students, parents, and broader community.
Great schools practice continuous improvement--with understanding the school is only as strong as its weakest links.
Great schools have intense and deliberate focus on student experience and success end to end. Improving the student experience and success is the focus of all decisions and in how resources are allocated.
Great schools operate in a well-organized manner. They are purposeful in their actions, their facilities are neat and clean, and they consistently deliver on their promises and commitments.
Great schools understands and meets all their regulatory and compliance requirements. They view these requirements as an imperfect minimum bar and sets much higher goals for themselves.
Great schools have a understanding and awareness how they are interconnected with their community, public school system, charter school movement, and economy at the local, state, and national level and how and their actions impact everyone.

In addition, high performance schools look in the following areas to evaluate for the weakest links and gaps as part of their continuously improvement process:

A: ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE

A strong charter school has solid leadership that leads ethically with transparency, responsibly, effectively, and with expertise. School leaders are focused on delivering the school's mission and vision for student success and a healthy organization.

B: FINANCIAL INTEGRITY AND SOUNDNESS

A healthy charter school manages its public-entrusted fiscal resources effectively and with integrity, and it fulfills its mission and vision in a financially stable manner.

C: OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND COMPLIANCE

Great charter schools are able to operate their school in an organized manner with efficiency and effectiveness. They are always in compliance with all legal requirements.

D: COMMUNITY AND PARENT RELATIONSHIPS

Vibrant charter schools have active, meaningful connections to their community stakeholders from local neighborhood organizations, school districts and the business community to the parents of their students.

E: SCHOOL CULTURE AND ACADEMICS

A quality charter school delivers and puts as a top priority high student achievement; has a well-defined and well-implemented academic program; and has a strong school culture that creates engagement, trust, and responsibility.

performance leadership highlights

Cool School Stories

Harlem Village Academies – Delivering on the promise of charter schools – 100% proficiency in math and science, 91% and 96% in reading and social science.

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Link to School Web Site

Oakland Charter Academy (Oakland, CA) – Blue Ribbon School

For more information visit: www.oaklandcharter.net

Synergy Charter Academy (Los Angeles, CA) – Highest Performer in South Los Angeles

Started by teachers, this school increased its Academic Performance Index (API) by 104 points, from 709 to 813, making it the highest performing school in all of South Los Angeles.

For more information visit: www.wearesynergy.org

Inspiring School Leader – Yvonne Chan

Brian Bauer, 2008 CA Charter School Leader of the Year

Dennis Littky Honored with Harold McGraw Prize in Education

Harlem Village Academies – Delivering on the promise of charter schools – 100% proficiency in math and science, 91% and 96% in reading and social science.

View this video story:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Link to School Web Site

Idea Public Schools (Texas) – Ranked by U.S. News and World Report 13th Best High School in the Nation

IDEA College Preparatory has been named the 13th best high school in the nation according to the 2010 U.S. News and World Report list of Americas best high schools released December 10. This ranking placed IDEA College Prep for the second consecutive year on the Gold list, the highest distinction given to the top 100 [...]

Chime Charter School (Los Angeles, CA ) – High Performing Special Education School

For more information visit: www.chimeinstitute.org

Atul Gawande Reads from ‘Better’

Rituals to Reinforce Culture and Create Alignment Around Purpose

High performance schools have powerful cultures…which support high expectations…from the top all the way to the student. Rituals are one way cultures are maintained. This video shows some of the rituals used to reinforce culture and alignment for expectations. (North Star Academy, RISE Academy and TEAM Academy (the former is part of the Uncommon Schools [...]

Best Practices – Ritz Carlton Culture

Ritz Carlton currently has 32,000 ladies and gentlemen, as they call their employees. They plan to bring on 30,000 more within three years. Primarily, the growth will be abroad (e.g. 7 Chinese hotels), which raises a great concern for the retention of a traditionally deep-rooted culture.
Though the culture at Ritz Carlton has always been strong, [...]

Whitepaper: Failure is an option: It’s just not your best one.

How Charter School Boards and Executives Can Avoid Train Wrecks and Raise School Performance
Dr. Brian L. Carpenter (Adapted from Brian’s soon to be published third book by the same title)
According to the Center for Education Reform, as of 2009–less than two decades after the chartered school opened its doors–657 schools have closed. Computed as a [...]

performance leadership

What does it take to lead a charter school to sustained greatness?

The highest performing schools share several other common attributes.

In addition, high performance schools look in the following areas to evaluate for the weakest links and gaps as part of their continuously improvement process:

A: ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE

B: FINANCIAL INTEGRITY AND SOUNDNESS

C: OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND COMPLIANCE

D: COMMUNITY AND PARENT RELATIONSHIPS

E: SCHOOL CULTURE AND ACADEMICS

performance leadership highlights

Cool School Stories

Harlem Village Academies – Delivering on the promise of charter schools – 100% proficiency in math and science, 91% and 96% in reading and social science.

Oakland Charter Academy (Oakland, CA) – Blue Ribbon School

Synergy Charter Academy (Los Angeles, CA) – Highest Performer in South Los Angeles

Inspiring People

Inspiring School Leader – Yvonne Chan

Brian Bauer, 2008 CA Charter School Leader of the Year

Dennis Littky Honored with Harold McGraw Prize in Education

Model Schools

Harlem Village Academies – Delivering on the promise of charter schools – 100% proficiency in math and science, 91% and 96% in reading and social science.

Idea Public Schools (Texas) – Ranked by U.S. News and World Report 13th Best High School in the Nation

Chime Charter School (Los Angeles, CA ) – High Performing Special Education School

Promising Practices

Atul Gawande Reads from ‘Better’

Rituals to Reinforce Culture and Create Alignment Around Purpose

Best Practices – Ritz Carlton Culture

The Charter Board

Whitepaper: Failure is an option: It’s just not your best one.

Quiz: Is Your Charter School Board Effective? by Marci Cornell-Feist

The Top 10 Mistakes of Charter School Founding Boards by Marci Cornell-Feist

In The Classroom

Rituals to Reinforce Culture and Create Alignment Around Purpose

Designing the School Leader’s Portfolio – Mary E. Dietz