Network helps with charter start-ups

When Lauren Tucker read about start-up problems at a nearby charter school,  she says she was especially thankful for her network.

Tucker is director of Aristotle Preparatory School,  a charter that opened in August on the outskirts of uptown Charlotte.  It's one of 14 schools that make up TeamCFA,  a network created by the Colorado-based Challenge Foundation.

Aristotle Prep

As charters expand in our area,  I'm getting a crash course in the organizations that are shaping them.  There are nonprofit charter chains like KIPP,  which has a school in Charlotte,  and for-profit management companies like Charter Schools USA,  which opened Langtree and Cabarrus academies this year.  Then there are charter networks such as TeamCFA and Prestige Preparatory Schools,  which provide support to area charters while those schools maintain independent identities.

TeamCFA has schools in Phoenix, Indianapolis and western North Carolina  (Aristotle Prep is the easternmost school in that group) and is working to expand.  Tucker was a math teacher at Piedmont Community Charter School,  a network school in Gastonia,  and the network trained her to launch a new school.

Tucker says the network has provided support with everything from governance to getting the building ready to creating a web site.  The Challenge Foundation also provides $100,000 grants for the first three years to help with starting expenses. The network has some requirements for all schools:  Students wear uniforms,  and all schools teach the Core Knowledge curriculum and use MAP testing to size up student progress.

Aristotle currently has almost 100 K-3 students in converted Sunday school classrooms at Christ Presbyterian Church.  "Support in the network is vital,"  says Tucker.

Individual schools have different specialties.  Piedmont has a fine-arts focus,  while Brevard Academy is breaking out grammar and Latin classes to improve writing,  says Tony Helton,  southeastern regional director for TeamCFA.

I don't claim to fully understand what chains and networks will mean for charter education in our area.  The liberal-leaning N.C. Policy Watch,  for instance,  has raised questions about the conservative political affiliations of Challenge Foundation founder John Bryan.  But as new schools continue to open,  affiliations such as Aristotle's with TeamCFA will help provide families some guidance in what to expect  --  and examples to check out nearby.

CarolinaCAN targets N.C. teacher pay, tenure

A national education-reform group is launching a North Carolina branch to push for changes in teacher pay, tenure and evaluations.

The N.C. Campaign for Achievement Now, or CarolinaCAN, is the seventh state spinoff from 50CAN, a national group trying to create like-minded organizations across the country. CarolinaCAN will formally debut today with an analysis of shortcomings in student achievement,  followed by a "Year of the Teacher" push for evaluations,  pay and layoffs to be linked to student results and other measures of effectiveness (find the issue brief at the CarolinaCAN web site above).

"Our state has an honored tradition of education leadership,"  the introduction says. "But there is so much more needed to support and leverage our great teachers. Three reforms will help us get there: improving our statewide teacher evaluation system, reforming the state’s outdated tenure and layoff systems, and creating meaningful rewards for excellence. This brief outlines the shortcomings of the current evaluation, tenure, layoff and compensation policies, and proposes reforms to re-position North Carolina as a national leader in teacher excellence."

Kowal

Julie Kowal,  a North Carolina native formerly with the education consulting firm Public Impact,  is the new group's executive director. Public Impact is working with the Charlotte-based Project LIFT to design new "opportunity culture" jobs that give highly effective classroom teachers higher pay for taking on more responsibility.

Figuring out how local this new group is takes some teasing out.  50CAN,  which originated in Connecticut,  has a plan to spend almost $7 million on education policy campaigns in the seven states (Rhode Island,  Minnesota,  Maryland,  New York,  Pennsylvania and New Jersey are the others).  That money comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,  the Walton Family Foundation and other major donors,  says Fiona Hoey,  the group's media and marketing director. So far the site lists no donors specific to North Carolina,  and the advisory board has yet to be named.

The CarolinaCAN site says the national group recruited "a group of independent, nonpartisan organizations dedicated to top-notch schooling to consider joining forces to help improve the education landscape" in North Carolina, with those organizations helping 50CAN  "and local partners" create CarolinaCAN and launch "The Year of the Teacher."  The N.C. founders,  in addition to Public Impact and Project LIFT, are  listed as KIPP charter schools in Charlotte and Gaston; the Charlotte office of New Leaders (recently joined by former CMS Chief Operating Officer Millard House);  Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina; and Teach For America offices in Charlotte and eastern North Carolina.. Teach For America President Matthew Kramer chairs the 50CAN board.

In other states,  including Minnesota and Rhode Island,  CAN political action groups have pumped money into state legislative and local school board campaigns.  Hoey says there's no plan for CarolinaCAN to get involved in this year's Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board race,  though she says she's not in a position to rule anything out for a group that's just getting off the ground.

KIPP ready to grow in Charlotte, state

KIPP,  a national charter chain that strives to prepare low-income and minority students for college, is poised to expand its presence in the Charlotte region and at UNC Chapel Hill.

The Knowledge Is Power Program,  founded in 1995 in Houston and New York City,  has 125 schools across the country,  including a Charlotte school that opened in 2007.  Tiffany Flowers,  co-founder of that school,  was recently named executive director of KIPP Charlotte as the chain prepares to launch more schools in the region.


"As a KIPP regional organization, KIPP Charlotte will be eligible to grow and add more schools, serving hundreds more students in underserved communities in the Charlotte area,"  Flowers wrote when the new position was announced.  Proposals for new KIPP schools, like all other new charters,  must go through the state charter screening process.

Meanwhile, UNC has partnered with the national organization to recruit and support five KIPP alumni each year, starting with 2013-14.  For now, the focus is on KIPP Gaston,  the state's first KIPP school  (it's in the town of Gaston,  near the Virginia border,  not nearby Gaston County).  The oldest "graduates" of KIPP Charlotte,  which serves grades 5-8,  are still in high school,  but KIPP Gaston has alumni who are moving into college each year  (KIPP Gaston has its own high school).

Officials from UNC Chapel Hill and KIPP Gaston say the partnership meets a goal of both organizations:  Helping students from underserved communities complete college.  Chapel Hill is pledging to "address the full financial need"  of accepted alumni,  help them find housing and match them with mentors and other support. UNC Chapel Hill already has 19 KIPP alumni enrolled,  with one who graduated last year.  Nationally,  KIPP has partnerships with 22 other universities,  but this is the first in North Carolina.

For the most recent academic results from all the KIPP schools,  check the recently-released 2012 report card.