How to Find Effective Charter School Management Services
Table of Contents
Green Flags and Red Flags for Any Charter School Management Service
The charter school landscape can be complicated, especially with the wide variety offerings in the educational marketplace today. As more charter schools are built, the more services meant to assist these schools seem to have cropped up as well.
This growth of management services can be thought of in two ways: one, that a charter school has ample opportunities for support and assistance from talented individuals that provide charter school management services. On the other hand, a school must be wary about who it is partnering with.
Any charter school needs to consider the types of charter school management services available and thoroughly research and vet them, so that they can be assured the services provided will benefit the most important stakeholders: students.
How We’ve Divided the Field of Charter School Management Services
A practical way to determine whether a charter management service will be effective and useful is to consider the “red flags” and “green flags” that other schools have experienced. A red flag is something to watch out for, as it may indicate a business you may not want to partner with. A green flag, however, represents a quality that is highly-desirable in a management service. A comprehensive list of these green and red flags, then, will be instructive to anyone who is considering charter school management as part of a comprehensive plan to ensure their school’s success.
Red Flags
Charter Management Services that Overpromise
Anyone who has been in education for a short time knows that while goals and objectives should be aspirational in nature, change on the ground is often incremental. Do all schools want to revolutionize education for all stakeholders? Ideally, yes. In implementation, however, progress should be considered from a practical standpoint. If a charter management organization promises big things right off the bat, on one hand, you can assume that marketing is at play, and this isn’t a flaw by any means. However, if a management organization seems to have big plans, but a less specific road map for enacting them, you may want to steer clear.
Charter Management Services Lacking a Depth of Experience
A charter school management service should always be transparent about its experience, or the lack thereof. While there is something to be said for a new organization that hasn’t yet cut its teeth in the charter school industry (sometimes the newest teams can identify strategies and efficiencies that seasoned organizations may have missed), a charter school management service should be able to present measurable results. These include a wide variety of partnerships, as well as evidence that these partnerships benefitted the school. Be wary of a team that’s been around for a while, but appears to be operating in a liminal state R they may not lack experience working with schools, but they may not be able to present a narrative of their successes, either.
Green Flags
Charter Management Services that Know Business and Education
A charter school management service should be an effective business partner. From operations and management, to finances and governance, charter school management services can provide the necessary oversight, insight, and support to keep a school’s business-end running effectively while key stakeholders focus on what they love most: taking care of teachers, implementing an excellent curriculum, engaging their community, and R most importantly R ensuring that students are being prepared for their future lives.
An excellent charter school management service, however, shouldn’t limit itself to business expertise. When interviewing a potential partner for management services, look for the ones that seem to understand education R and have a depth of experience within the walls of a school.
Charter school management services that have built a team of business-leaders and educators, then, are likely to be your best bet, as the services they provide won’t only include business-centered support, but student-centered support. Remember, a charter school is not so much a business as a place to use effective organizational, operational, and management tools that are available to businesses, and merge these with outstanding educational practices to ensure one outcome: students who are learning.
Charter Management Services that are Student-Centered
As mentioned above, a charter school management organization should focus on its strengths R both in the business world and in the educational space R to ensure that students are getting an excellent education. A school that is successful will, of course, be financially sustainable and attract key talent. However, the best indicator of success is in student retention and outcomes. If data reveals that students are learning, and that the number of families who are opting to take advantage of a charter school is growing, it is very likely that on the business end, the charter school is thriving as well.
However, any management service must present itself in action as having a student-centered approach. Key decision-making R even when it appears to be remote from student learning (accounting, for instance) R should always be applied with a vision for how this will affect the lives of students. If not, you may have selected a “business management service,” and not one that is focused fundamentally on the most important asset that any school has: its student body.
A Vision for Your Partnership with Charter School Management Services
There are specific ways that a charter school management service can be assembled to benefit schools, such as not-for-profit and for-profit, called Charter Management Organizations (CMOs), and Education Management Organizations (EMOs) respectively. Both of these organizational bodies, however, have very similar strengths when they are effective. These strengths are evidenced by looking at the red and green flags above, summarized by the following questions:
- Does a management service overpromise, or set realistic, measurable goals?
- Does a management service have a depth of experience and understanding?
- Is the management service simply business-focused, or education-focused as well?
- Is the management service truly driven by student success?
These questions are based on the experiences of schools who have had successes and disappointments when working with charter school management services. You can use these questions as guiding principles when trying to select a charter school management service, and your desired outcomes are far more likely to be realized.