In partnership with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Public Impact profiled several geographically and racially diverse charter schools to see how they used their flexibility and resourcefulness to respond quickly to the needs of their students at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in spring 2020.
Serving Students with Highest Needs
Profiles of Leaders of Color: Building an Effective Staff
How has being a person of color affected the ways in which successful charter school leaders built schools where students, families, and staff learn, grow, and thrive? In this first of a three-part series, produced in partnership with National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Public Impact profiled three such leaders about how they trained teachers in empathy to fight biases, developed a leader training program, and founded an alliance to develop future charter school leaders of color.
Profiles of Leaders of Color: Engaging Families
In this second of a three-part series examining how being a person of color affects the ways in which successful charter school leaders build schools where students, families, and staff learn, grow, and thrive, Public Impact profiled three leaders who involved parents in creating a more inviting campus, reset expectations for parental involvement, and adjusted systems and structures to make it easier to engage families. This series was produced in partnership with National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Profiles of Leaders of Color: Building a Strong School Culture
In partnership with National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Public Impact produced a three-part series looking at how being a person of color affected the ways in which successful charter school leaders built schools where students, families, and staff learn, grow, and thrive. This third in the series profiles two such leaders who use language to bring together students from diverse backgrounds and communities, and provide students with opportunities to follow their dreams by learning to code, traveling, and being exposed to a wide array of extracurricular activities.
Better Together: Why Charter School Champions & Parent Advocates Should Partner to Better Support Students with Disabilities
While the charter sector has much to celebrate, the country can do more to put great schools—including excellent charters—within reach for our most vulnerable students. Students with disabilities represent one such group. The best solutions start by partnering with the parent groups that advocate for students with disabilities, and have been doing so for decades. As partners, charter school champions and organizations working with parents of children with disabilities can collectively improve outcomes for students with disabilities, create better school options for them, and advocate for better policies. This call to action for charter champions to launch and deepen their partnerships with parent advocates explains how they are better together—why such partnerships are needed, the forms they might take from partnerships highlighted in Washington, DC, New York City, and Los Angeles, and how to get started.
Newark Opportunity Youth Network: A Collective Approach to Transforming Lives and Communities
Led by Newark Opportunity Youth Network (Newark OYN) in New Jersey, key public and private organizations in Newark came together to focus efforts on supporting disconnected youth and transforming how they are educated and prepared for life, postsecondary learning, and careers. This report describes how Newark OYN emerged and is charting its path of engaging community partners, implementing direct education services to reengage disconnected youth, and providing supports to organizations supporting these youth. Throughout the report, Newark OYN youth reflect on their experiences of disengaging from school or coming close to disengaging, and how Newark OYN’s intentionally designed educational programs and schools set them on a path to opportunity. The report also shares Newark OYN’s early achievements, impact, and lessons learned after two years of implementation.
