An Interview with Hilary Moore: Empowering STEAM Educators Through Grant Opportunities

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Hilary Moore is a STEAM Coordinator at Cirrus Academy Charter School in Georgia and a recent grant recipient of the Teacher Innovator Institute at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.! After receiving the Winter 2022 EdTec Grants Newsletter, which her school’s founder forwarded to her, Hilary was encouraged to apply.

The Teacher Innovator Institute is a professional learning community of middle school STEAM teachers who spend a two-week intensive in Washington, D.C., working with education and STEAM experts to explore the connections between informal STEAM education and authentic learning.

We reached out to Hilary to learn more about the process of applying for the grant, her experience participating in the National Air and Space Museum Teacher Innovation Institute, and the impact that her experience will have in the classroom!

 

EdTec: Please tell us a little about yourself and your role as STEAM Coordinator at Cirrus Academy Charter School.

Hilary: I love science and technology. I have worked in science/STEM education for almost ten years from tutoring and camps to schools. I’m in my fourth year of classroom teaching. As a STEM coordinator, I teach STEM/STEAM as well as share resources with my teachers, and plan STEAM events. I am always on the lookout for new technologies, strategies, and resources in STEAM.

EdTec: How did you learn about the Smithsonian grant? What was the proposal process like?

Hilary: The founder of my school recently received the Winter 2022 EdTec Grants Newsletter. He forwarded the newsletter to me and encouraged me to apply to the program. Applying to the program at the time required a video introduction, signed principal approval, two recommendation letters, and professional learning goals. Applicants were also required to provide responses to short answer questions about their school, community, and teaching goals. During the program, I learned applicant criteria varies every year.

EdTec: How did it feel to be awarded such a prestigious grant? What was your first reaction?

Hilary: Like many others, initially, I was shocked that I was accepted into the 2022 cohort. Afterwards, I was thrilled and had moments of hesitancy knowing I would be away from family for two weeks during summer break, but my family gave me their full support. Their push helped me own this accomplishment and bask in it.

EdTec: What are some of the most valuable experiences or lessons from the National Air and Space Museum Teacher Innovation Institute that you are excited to bring back to the classroom? How do you plan to incorporate the inspiration into your work with students this school year?

Hilary: I gained so many valuable experiences from attending NASM TII this summer. It’s almost too many to count. First, having the opportunity to network with teachers from around the country was huge. I was able to learn about different perspectives in education, collaborate on ideas and projects, and gain long-distance friends. The second most valuable experience was exploring our nation’s capital. We were able to explore the museums through authentic object-based learning. There were also downtime opportunities for us to tour on our own and fun group outings built into our schedule. Lastly, taking STEM classes and learning about and/or receiving STEM resources at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center took the cake. Teachers are always in need of new strategies and tools to educate our diverse learners.

This year, I created a STEM pacing guide that includes many of the resources and strategies I discovered at TII. We were given an Ozobot and other coding software. I’ve used my Ozozbot to help with literacy by creating a story using cloze notes/maze. My students are learning about color codes. The Ozobot starts at the beginning of the story and makes it to the finish line by following the codes students create. One of my other TII inspired projects involves Chibitronics paper circuitry. All my classes will complete a Chibitronics project with materials I received from my funded Donors Choose paper circuitry project. I also learned about Donors Choose while attending TII. I plan to incorporate more TII fundamentals in the years to come.

EdTec: What advice would you give other charter school teachers and leaders when it comes to the value of grant opportunities and making time to pursue them?

Hilary: The advice I would give to other charter school teachers and leaders is to get the news out about these awesome grant opportunities! Programs such as TII are here for the betterment, appreciation, and advancement of educators. I not only gained valuable experiences, but I also truly felt valued for what I do and who I am. So, I think it’s extremely important for teachers and leaders to spread the news about the types of grants and programs being offered. These opportunities are easily missed if you are not in the loop. In addition, I would tell any educator thinking of applying to these types of programs to be confident in their impact and let it show in your application and goals. They want to know what fuels you, who you are, and how you think. Finally, be open and ready to receive your new adventures.

We would like to thank Hilary Moore for sharing her wonderful experience and the impact she has as an educator!

If you are interested in signing up for EdTec’s Grant Newsletter to stay up to date about upcoming grant opportunities you can do so here. EdTec also provides support with grant research and writing for schools interested in pursuing funds for special projects. In addition, we work with developing schools to complete applications for the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP). If you are interested in learning more about these services, please reach out to our grants team.

 

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Charter Leader Spotlight Series: Gayle Nadler, Executive Director, Multicultural Learning Center

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April 28, 2022

Last month, the Multicultural Learning Center received the California Charter Schools Association’s (CCSA) Hart Vision Award for Charter School of the Year (Southern California). The Hart Vision Awards, established in 1995, are named in honor of Gary K. Hart, the former California State Senator and former California Secretary of Education. The prestigious Hart Vision Awards are given annually to individuals and organizations with outstanding records of leadership and excellence in furthering California’s charter public school movement. The award recognizes​​ the work and achievements of exceptional charter public schools, leaders, and advocates.

We’re proud to work with MLC as a longtime client and admire their steadfast commitment to students and families. As a part of our Charter Leader Spotlight Series, we interviewed Gayle Nadler, the co-founder and Executive Director of MLC, to learn more about MLC, how it feels to receive such a prestigious award, and why developing global citizens is such a critical part of the school’s mission and vision!

 

EdTec: How does it feel to be the winner of the CCSA Hart Vision Award  for Charter School of the Year (Southern California)?

Gayle: It’s an honor to receive an award in Gary Hart’s name. I heard him speak at the CCSA conference many years ago and was inspired by him, the movement he started, and his brave work to get charter schools on the map in California back in 1992. He passed away in January this year, so it’s even a little more heartfelt to receive the award in his name.

I was very excited that receiving the award had to do with not only our growth academically but also our innovative dual immersion program along with our emphasis on developing global competencies in our students.

To be honest, the timing was really incredible, coming out of the two years that we’ve just experienced. To be recognized when we have felt so vulnerable shows the impact of the hard work and determination of our community. It really comes down to who you are as an organization and your values, your team, and your community especially in the toughest of times.

It’s MLC’s time to share what we’re doing, and the outcomes we’re achieving. We’re willing to share all the work that we do so that other schools and students can benefit from what we’ve learned. It’s been 20 years of innovation, creation, development, and making mistakes and fixing them. There’s a lot that we can share with developing charter schools and other organizations.

 

EdTec: Have you ever been approached by other charters for advice?

Gayle: We’re frequently working with other schools on different levels. We’re approached by a lot of developing dual language schools. These schools usually want to hear about how we teach in two languages, what curriculum we use, and where we find bilingual teachers. We’ve also been approached about different things that we do in terms of organizational culture, special programs, instruction, planning, development, and strategy.

MLC is not in this movement for solely our own benefit. We want our school to do well and be successful for the community we serve, but we’re in this movement to improve education for all students, families, and educators in California.

 

EdTec: What has been the most rewarding part of this 21-year journey for you?

Gayle: The thing that always makes me smile most, is our alumni. It’s most rewarding to hear from the alumni in terms of what they’re doing with their lives, how they furthered their education, and the impact MLC has had on who they have become as global, bilingual citizens.

 

EdTec: What has been your most valuable lesson learned over the past 21 years?

Gayle: I say this to new charter leaders all the time, the most valuable lesson you can learn as a charter leader is this: there will always be obstacles – that is the job! Don’t hope or wait for the day there will be smooth sailing because it won’t come! The job is riding the waves and sticking to your vision and mission and the reason you opened in the first place. There’s always going to be challenges in front of you and because your vision and mission is so powerful, you have what it takes to overcome them.

 

EdTec: What is it like working with your mom?

Gayle: For the first eleven years, my mother was the Executive Director and I worked under her as the Program Director. She retired in 2012, so for the last 10 years, I’ve been running the show, although she is on the board and she volunteers in the classrooms. Without her knowledge and powerful ways of making things happen, I don’t know that we would have opened. She got us going, so that I could take the reins one day and take it to the next level.

Honestly, the work is so hard and so demanding, especially in those first 10 years of running a charter school  that you don’t even have time to think about anything else! We definitely had to create boundaries and have very clear delineations – “Okay, am I talking to you as your employee or as your daughter?” So, there was a lot of that in the beginning. We were excited to build something together. It really came from our experiences as mother and daughter when I was in public school. The fact that we took this really deep experience from my childhood, and her experience as my mother, and turned it into something that would fulfill us and the community, is a very powerful thing.

 

EdTec: As a charter school leader, you need a strong support system in place. What kind of support has been key to your success?

Gayle: On the ground, it is having an operational and instructional team that is completely committed to the school, to the vision, to the purpose. You need instructional leadership that is extremely talented and focused on outcomes for students, social, emotional, and academic.  And the operations team must have wide knowledge and experience with facilities, finance, and human resources.

Beyond your staff team, you need partners like EdTec!  Having a strong, trusting relationship with our back-office provider has been essential because it’s such a fluid relationship. Our relationship with EdTec has been essential in overcoming some of those hurdles that we face on the back end of things, so that the school can operate and have all these outstanding outcomes for kids.

Other community partners and the LA philanthropic community play a critical role. And of course, our parents – they know their students best, they are true partners in their education.

It’s also important to allow an opportunity for all folks, whether they’re administrators, teachers, teaching assistants, after school tutors, custodial staff, to have a voice in the organizational operations, policies, procedures. Your supporting community should have a strong voice and a seat at the table where they can express themselves, where they can share ideas, give feedback, make suggestions, and make decisions. The key to having a strong school organization is a collaborative approach in the truest sense. This requires a lot of listening and a lot of empathy on the part of leaders. It takes a lot to create that in an organization, but that’s a key element in our success.

 

EdTec: Why is developing global citizens is so important to you?

Gayle: It’s very important for young people to know how to navigate and live in a world with diverse thinking, diverse backgrounds, diverse cultures and language. For young people to be successful in a diverse world, they must be raised in an environment where they not only are taught to be respectful to people who are different, but to live and breathe and share space each day with people who come from diverse backgrounds. The experience at MLC enables young people to think more critically when they’re adults and to look at all sides of a story, to see different perspectives and points of view. Our students can also speak in more than one language which creates greater compassion and understanding. It’s also about having the confidence and the commitment to create change when it’s necessary. Those are the skills that we’re building when we talk about global citizens.

 

EdTec: What is your vision for the future? What is something you hope to accomplish in the next few years?

Gayle: Right now, we’re working on recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. I see us bouncing back and getting back into the groove of what we do. Then it’s about what can we do to take us to the next level because we never stop growing. I’d like to see us become more involved in creating change and spreading the word about some of our successful initiatives to influence others and perhaps policy.

I also want to bring in more partners, to engage more folks in the community and perhaps document our work. One of the benefits of being a charter is you’re this little incubator of innovation. But you’re so busy doing it, that you don’t really have time to sit down and document all the wonderful things you’ve done or put it into a guidebook.  It would be great to document some of the things that we’ve done so that it can be more easily shared, studied, or developed to influence equitable access to high quality education for all students.

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Thank you to Gayle, and congratulations to the MLC community!

CCSA produced a special video series featuring the exemplary charter school leaders who received the 2022 Hart Vision Award. You can view the MLC video here.

The Multicultural Learning Center (MLC) is a K-8 public charter school in Los Angeles founded in 2001 by mother and daughter team Toby Bornstein and Gayle Nadler with the vision to “bring together a diverse community of learners where cultural and individual differences are the building blocks of academic, social, and intrapersonal success.” MLC achieves this vision through the school-wide implementation of a dual immersion program (Spanish/English) and a focus on global and social-emotional competencies.

Tune into Education Strategy with EdTec’s Partner, Friday

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EdTec’s Jeremy Divinity, a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice at Loyola Marymount University, was joined by Friday’s Annie Crangle and Dr. Jeffrey Hunt to discuss the power of strategic planning during a crisis in a recent podcast episode titled, “From Crisis Management to Strategic Planning“.

During the podcast episode, Annie and Dr. Hunt talk insights from FORWARD, a recent strategic planning cohort designed to support charter school leaders in developing solid reopening plans grounded in a long-term strategic vision. As partners, EdTec’s experts participated in the cohort by providing school leaders with additional expertise in operations, finance, and student data analytics. In addition, in the podcast episode, Annie and Dr. Hunt emphasize how incorporating student voice from an equity lens through their equity tool, Highlight, positively impacts school planning.

Tune into the episode now by listening below!   

Disclaimer: This podcast is not sponsored by any outside organizations and was recorded as part of a project for a program of study.

Do you need guidance generating a new strategic plan in today’s rapidly changing environment? Don’t worry, as Friday is launching more cohorts this fall!  Sign up here to stay informed. 

Leading in a Crisis: Spotlight Our School Partners During School Reopening

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April 28, 2021

As school reopening continues to be a main topic of conversation and debate across communities nationwide, school leaders face the challenges of determining when students will return and what a typical school day will look like. Re-opening hasn’t been uniform across the country, and the guidelines and strategies vary by state (EducationWeek). Some states have implemented thresholds that must be met for in-person learning to resume, while others have left the re-opening decisions to local school districts.

EdTec supports charter schools across seven states. Although re-opening looks different everywhere, there is a common theme amongst our school partners of continuing learning in a safe, fun, and engaging way for all students. Read on for a few highlights of all the great work happening in classrooms across the country.

California

Before re-opening, schools in California must first meet critical thresholds in health metrics. The California Department of Education launched the California Safe Schools for All Hub to consolidate key resources and provide support and guidance for reopening. continues to update reopening guidance. For parents and students who are not comfortable returning to the classroom for in-person instruction, distance learning is still an option. Check out how our school partners are adapting:

Heartwood Charter School – Schools tours are back! Heartwood Charter School is now offering limited in-person on-campus school tours for prospective families.

The Academies – The Academies Charter Management Organization has welcomed students back on campus and is prioritizing safety and learning in the classroom.

Sunrise Middle School – Sunrise Middle School is now offering their after-school program for 5th and 6th graders with fun activities such as gardening, cooking, art, and sports!

Para Los Niños – Virtual events are still bound to draw a much larger crowd and are more accessible for families, so Para Los Niños plans to host a big virtual party to celebrate the accomplishments and perseverance shown over this incredibly difficult year!

High Tech LA – A picture is worth a thousand words! The seniors at High Tech LA were welcomed back to campus for their senior portraits. They also received their senior sweatshirts and swag.

Grimmway Academy – The Grimmway Academy students celebrated their return with fun activities as a part of their EGG-stravaganza!

Everest Value – The staff at Everest Value School are excited to see students in the classroom again as they transition from distance learning to a hybrid model in the upcoming weeks.

East Bay Innovation – The students at East Bay Innovation came back to campus a little taller and with new haircuts! The administration at East Bay Innovation welcomed students with fun, collaborative, in-person activities.

Aspire – Aspire is providing critical support by offering in-person instruction for their most vulnerable students.

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Georgia

The Georgia Department of Education, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Public Health, has developed guidance to support districts and communities in determining their plans and strategies for reopening schools. Georgia’s Path to Recovery for K-12 Schools provides considerations, recommendations, and best practices for reopening, and is designed to help districts prioritize the health and safety of students and teachers. This guidance is not mandated, or state required. Local school districts have the authority and flexibility to meet their individual needs and be responsive to their communities. See how our school partner in Georgia is tackling re-opening:

Ethos Classical – Our school partner, Ethos Classical Charter School, is currently operating with their scholars onsite or on a virtual basis based on family choice.

Louisiana

Individual school districts can decide when to re-open for in-person learning, although the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted minimum health and safety standards for reopening. The Louisiana Department of Education put together a resource guide that includes health guidelines, best practices for reopening, templates, and a reopening checklist.

Élan Academy – Teachers are essential workers! The teachers are more appreciated than ever for their hard work throughout the pandemic. They have shown up for their scholars and are being vaccinated for a safe return to the classroom.

Nevada

In February, Governor Sisolak signed an emergency directive to ensure all students had safe and equitable access to in-person learning, whether full- or part time. The Nevada Department of Education also requires schools to develop distance learning plans.

Nevada Rise – Effective April 5, Nevada Rise began operating with a hybrid model, offering both in-person and online instruction. School leadership prepared a helpful FAQ sheet for parents to help families prepare for the transition. Staff was excited to welcome students back to campus with signs and balloon!

New Mexico

The New Mexico Public Education Department’s Reentry Guidance provides requirements, recommendations, and best practices for reopening. Local district and charter school leaders have the authority to decide to keep schools closed. Discover how our school partners are re-opening:

Solare Collegiate – With scholars back on-campus, Solare Collegiate is prioritizing safety and learning in the classroom while making learning fun and engaging for all students. For example, they hosted a cooking activity where students could participate either in-person or online.

Altura Prep – Altura Prep is taking advantage of being back in person as an opportunity to live up to their core values and give back to the community!

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New York

In New York, all K-12 schools can remain open for in-person learning as long as the in-school positivity rate is lower than 9%. The decisions to open or close schools are made by local school district officials. The New York State Department of Education has published extensive school reopening resources to help guide schools as they plan for a return, including requirements and best practices. See how our school partners in New York are embracing re-opening:

Creo College Prep – The teachers at Creo College Prep are introducing mindfulness into the classroom through yoga practices!

Valence College Prep – The show must go on! Although in-person learning has resumed, Valence College Prep continues to offer a balance of in-person and virtual events. The students kept the performing arts alive from a distance by hosting a virtual musical performance.

Brooklyn RISE – Brooklyn RISE is bringing the school spirit back to campus! What better way to celebrate the return to in-person learning than a spring spirit week.

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Tennessee

In Tennessee, school districts can decide whether to open school buildings based on guidance from the Tennessee Department of Education to assess the risk if it is safe to re-open. Our school partners in Tennessee have embraced a mix of in-person and hybrid instruction:

Grizzlies Prep – The students at Grizzlies Prep are back in the classroom, with school administrators emphasizing safety and learning.

Memphis Merit – Who doesn’t love a friendly competition? To celebrate being back on-campus, Memphis Merit hosted a Teachers vs. Scholars basketball game!

Rocketship – Rocketship has also resumed in-person learning, with their schools in Tennessee fully transitioned back into the classroom.

STRIVE Collegiate – STRIVE Collegiate is now embracing a hybrid model in which a percentage of students will remain virtual, and another percentage will return in person. They are also offering an in-person physical education program to give their students a physical outlet to excel in life.

Susie King Taylor Community School – The first-grade class at Susie King Taylor Charter School kicked off the spring with a fun science and engineering project that asked, Can your Peep float on your boat?

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As some form of normalcy returns to our school communities, re-opening strategies must follow applicable guidelines to ensure a safe and successful learning experience for all students. How is your school handling reopening? What has been the biggest challenge? Is there something that worked well for your school community that you would like to share with other schools? Let us know in the comments!

Promoting Equity in Education: Five Takeaways from RAPSA For Charter School Leaders & Educators

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By Jeremy Divinity, Marketing Specialist
December 2020

Last month, I attended a virtual conference, RAPSA Forum, hosted by the Reaching At-Promise Students Association. The event focused on leading educational accountability and providing equitable education solutions for ‘at-promise’ students. These students are typically minority, black and brown, and come from a background of poverty. These same students are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and risk further learning loss. The recent racial injustices are also at the center of the discrepancies faced by ‘at-promise’ students across the nation. The objective of the conference was to provide a forum for educators and educational advocates, along with students, to learn from each other and collaborate on how to combat these inequities.

While the conference included representation from charters, districts, and private schools, charter schools are uniquely positioned to implement changes and initiatives to better serve ‘at-promise’ students. Here are five takeaways from the conference on ways charter school leaders and educators can work to improve outcomes and promote the success of ‘at-promise’ students:

#1 Equity is the Destination but Healing is the Driver

The goal of equity is to provide more for the most vulnerable students. While equity was a central theme of the conference, there was also a heavy focus on mental health and wellness topics. We are all experiencing a prolonged state of uncertainty and anxiety, which has brought to light the importance of professional wellness, self-care, and critically reflective practice.

To sustain the positive work they do in the long run, educators need to do the internal work and take care of themselves first as no one can pour from an empty cup. Self-care for educators can take many forms, including exercise, yoga, meditation, sleep, and therapy. During this time of crisis, there is also a strong need for healing connection in our schools, which educators can facilitate through restorative practices, a framework for building community in the classroom while deepening human relationships between teachers and students. Restorative practices in your school can take the form of mindfulness, restorative circles, and collaborative class agreements.

#2 Address the Mental Health of Students of Color

As your school shifts more towards a social justice mindset, it is critical to support the mental health of students of color. Although it may seem like a taboo topic, educators must prepare for the pandemic’s mental health effects on their most vulnerable students. In addition to the trauma triggered by the pandemic, many students of color also face the consequences of generational trauma from poverty, racism, and adverse childhood experiences.

As a school leader, it is critical to understand the impact that these realities have on students of color and how they may influence their experience in schools. For example, trauma has a long-lasting effect on cognitive development and learning which may present itself in many different ways in the learning environment, including flight, fight, or freeze. Instead of disciplinary actions, educators can take an asset-based approach to education. An asset-based approach is key to achieving equity in the classroom and sees all students’ potential by focusing on their talents. By implementing an asset-based approach, educators will build relationships with an understanding of students rather than punishment.

#3 Equity is Access, Opportunity, and Belonging  

Many students of color feel isolated, misunderstood, and seen as ‘defective products.’ This feeling of not belonging has led to students of color dropping out mentally and physically, resulting in lower graduation rates that we see in the widening achievement gaps. Although the term ‘at-promise’ was coined to do away with some of the stigmas attached to these students, as one student pointed out in a conference session, it is still a label that categorizes them as ‘other’ or ‘unwanted’ or ‘unachieved’, which is furthest from the truth. The fact that these students are showing up in the face of poverty, trauma and racism speaks to their resilience and potential.

It is the job of educators and education leaders to nurture an environment of community, belonging, respect, identity, and worth, so that all students feel empowered to reach their potential. An equitable learning environment facilitates a feeling of belonging – of being connected to the community. Schools can foster this belonging by hiring more teachers that look like students as representation matters. Educators can also create a support system and a ‘safe space’ or ‘brave space’ to encourage dialogue and foster a sense of belonging. Most importantly, it’s essential that educators talk, listen, and connect with students. Be in their corner.   

#4 Education Equity Requires A Strong Foundation for All Learners

Quality education must be accessible to all members of society. Across the country, there is a history of segregation in our school system that continues to impact BIPOC students today. Students from marginalized communities are prone to second guess their belonging and worth, leading to many students having ‘impostor syndrome’ – where they ask, am I good enough, and do I belong? 

Impostor syndrome is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments. Education leaders can empower these students to step into their greatness by providing access to quality education and educating them on the history, contributions, and impact of communities of color. One way to do so is by including ethnic studies in the curriculum. Representing students of color in the school’s curriculum through ethnic studies can positively impact how students of color view themselves. 

#5 Zoom Fatigue and Anxiety is Real 

Students, just like educators, also have Zoom fatigue and anxiety. This Zoom fatigue hinders learning. Engaging virtually looks different for every student and comes with many challenges. Some students may not be comfortable showing their home environment and some students may not feel comfortable being on camera. For teachers, it is important to remember that cameras on doesn’t guarantee that learning is or isn’t taking place.

Equity within teaching and learning during the pandemic means meeting the needs of students where they are at, attending to their socio-emotional needs, and providing multiple pathways of engagement. This may mean that your school will have to broaden its definition of engagement and rely on multiple sources of information to document and verify student engagement.

The pandemic has revealed that we are at a reckoning point on how we are going to transform society, and education, to be equitable for all children. As advocates for high-quality, flexible education options, charter school leaders are uniquely positioned to play a prominent role in creating an equitable learning environment for future generations!   

From Crisis Management to Strategic Planning: A Four-Step Framework (Part II): Insights & Exercises

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(Part Two of a Two-Part Series)

By Guest Blogger Annie Crangle, Partner, Friday

October 2020

Four months ago, as the Friday team prepared to spend the summer taking school leaders through a strategic-planning bootcamp, the following questions were top of mind:

  • Will a short-term crisis turn into an everyday reality? 
  • Can long term-strategic planning be valuable in a crisis? 
  • Could a pandemic actually present a unique opportunity to innovate? 
  • Will the level of overwhelmedness and uncertainty decrease for school leaders, students, and families?

After helping 15 school leaders develop strong reopening plans grounded in a long-term strategic vision, we have more clarity on these questions, as well as some guidance and resources for schools in need of support.

Unfortunately, the crisis has turned into our everyday reality as many school leaders returned to school by extending their distance-learning model. And school staff, parents, and kids are exhausted from the continuous scramble. On the flipside, strategic planning has proven its worth in times of crisis, revealing “lightbulb moments” and helping leaders get a clearer understanding of their ultimate goals.

“The connection between short-term planning and long-term planning is now clear in my mind—and becoming more clear in our strategic plan. Now, when I think about reopening our school, I have a much better sense of both the forest and the trees.” —Stacy Emory, Executive Director, San Carlos Charter Learning Center

Before we share more about our process and provide you with tools to start your own planning, here are some takeaways from our summer cohort:

  • Long-term planning provides short-term motivation: Leaders were able to get out of survival mode by establishing a vision for what’s possible on the other side of the crisis. Leaders’ confidence was restored by connecting short-term decisions to long-term solutions, and leaders felt empowered to seize the opportunity presented by the crisis to not only respond, but adapt and re-invent. 
  • A design thinking approach to strategic planning provides structure and flexibility: With frameworks for continuous evaluation, leaders were encouraged to reflect on past circumstances and plan for the future. For example: What did we need before that we don’t need now? What do we need now that we never needed before? What do we have that we can re-purpose in new ways? 
  • School leaders need a space where they can be vulnerable about failures, open with questions, and generous with resources: During and after the cohort, school leaders reported lower levels of anxiety, a high degree of learning, and access to a wealth of new resources and knowledge.  
  • Engaging staff in strategic planning exercises enriches the process and outcomes: After modeling strategic-planning exercises with the leadership group, we discussed how they might adapt these exercises to engage their staff. Many reported repeating the exercises with staff, and those diverse viewpoints strengthened their planning even more. 
  • Strategic planning is a meaningful way to train new leaders: Schools participated in teams of 3-4, some of whom were newly appointed vice principals early in their leadership career. At the end of the cohort experience, these new leaders reported greater awareness of the skills and responsibilities of school leadership and they felt more equipped to step into the role.
  • It’s possible to build relationships and community virtually: Our entire process was facilitated in a virtual environment—through the use of breakout rooms, virtual whiteboards, and play, we were able to collaborate and communicate effectively and build enduring relationships. Our summer cohort requested 3-, 6-, and 12-month check-ins to stay updated on each other’s progress.

As noted in our last post, our process was structured around a four-question framework. For inspiration, here are some sample insights that our cohort participants reported at each phase of the process. And for guidance, we’ve also included some of the tools we developed to help you guide your own strategic planning exercises:

1. What opportunities and challenges do we face? Develop a clear picture of our new reality and identify the most pressing challenges and risks to our model and the communities we serve. 

We asked school participants to complete a PEST Analysis: a summary of opportunities and threats due to Political, Economic, Social, and Technological forces.

We then asked schools to assess how their organization is equipped to respond to these changes by completing a SWOT Analysis: What are the strengths and weaknesses of our program (S&W)? How are we positioned to capitalize on opportunities (O)? How can we mitigate threats (T)? Lastly, we asked schools to put it all together: Based on our external analysis (PEST) and our internal assessment of our organization’s readiness to respond (SWOT), identify our top five strategic priorities.

Through the exercises, one school identified the challenge of redirecting parent volunteers while campus was closed. The school team established a strategic priority to revamp family and community engagement, ultimately developing a system for parents to teach enrichment classes via Zoom.

Another school reflected on their community’s differing views on social justice issues in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter protests. Leaders identified the need to create and implement (in whatever medium) an engaging and effective curriculum aligned with a learner-centered approach, through the lens of social justice and critical consciousness.

2. How will we adapt? Sharpen your focus on critical academic model and operational shifts, and opportunities for innovation. 

We guided school leaders through the essential shifts in developing a new academic plan, illustrating how to: be responsive to students’ changing academic and social-emotional needs; support clear communication and progress monitoring; maintain a commitment to the school’s instructional philosophy and approach; and adhere to new compliance requirements.

“Circumstances may be changing, your process may be changing, but your vision remains the same.” —Jennifer Reyes, EdTec, Guest Facilitator 

Through these exercises, one leader recognized the importance of keeping grade-level learning top of mind, adopting a “high expectations and high support” approach. Another school team reiterated that students craved feedback, so they decided to use formative assessments, hoping students would be motivated by seeing their own progress.

Second, based on their new academic plans, we walked school leaders through three steps to understand the operational and financial implications, asking them:

  • What new people, materials, resources are needed?
  • What existing people, materials, resources can be leveraged in new ways or redirected? 
  • What existing people, materials, resources, can be eliminated or reduced?

“The program drives the budget.” —Dena Koren, EdTec, Guest Facilitator  

School leaders saw opportunities to redirect robust professional developments budget to technology needs. Existing resources such as noise-canceling headphones used in Special Education classes were made available for students to check-out for home use. Another team decided to leverage classroom instructional aides to assist with implementing new health and safety protocols.

3. What’s our plan for making it happen? Map a realistic and financially viable short-term action plan; brainstorm near-term opportunities and long-term vision.

We asked school teams to reflect on five design-thinking questions to ensure each organization not only responds, but adapts, and reinvents through this period of change. (Many leaders repeated this exercise with staff using a virtual whiteboard—something we recommend for every school.)

One school team recognized that moving to a distance model has given them the opportunity to re-envision some foundational instructional approaches.

During week 6 of the 8-week process, we helped leaders collect their planning efforts into a 2020-2023 Strategic Plan Framework, with a focus on what makes their school unique, three-year core goals, key strategies, and vision for success.

4. How will we communicate effectively? Develop your message and communicate key shifts to your students, families, staff, and partners.

Communication is foundational to effective change management. We helped school leaders to engage in a stakeholder-mapping exercise to generate communications strategies and tactics that emerged from the following questions:

  • What is our compelling vision for each stakeholder group? How is that message communicated and reinforced? 
  • Where are people now, and where do we want them to be? 
  • What are the range of perspectives in each stakeholder group? 
  • What initial and ongoing communication is needed to support desired changes?

“Put yourself in the mindset of the stakeholder, what’s the first question a teacher is going to ask when you announce a new change?” —Elise Randall Hill, Rocketship Public Schools, Guest Facilitator 

One school team decided to establish weekly one-on-one check-ins with teachers who were struggling with distance learning, as well as more frequent all-staff meetings for greater communication, camaraderie, and support.

It was a whirlwind eight weeks, but we agree with the school leader who commented at the end of our final session, “Can we start again from the top next week?”

We hope these resources and insights are helpful. And if you need more help to generate a new strategic plan in the midst of this constantly changing landscape, call us. Friday is launching more cohorts this fall, and we invite you to join us.

An 8-Week Process 
to Help K-12 Schools Move from Crisis Management to Strategic Planning

Four Ways School Leaders Can Promote Equity-Driven Distance Learning

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September 4, 2020

Equity is a driving force for charter schools in their quest to provide high-quality education options for all students, regardless of zip code. The COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures have created new challenges in this quest. As we learned this past spring, low-income students are at a greater disadvantage due to disparities in access to infrastructure needed for distance learning. Many schools across the country are starting the new year with either distance or hybrid learning, putting pressure on school leaders to determine how their school will continue to provide equitable learning opportunities for all students and families.

We’ve been following what charter schools are doing in this area and put together a list of suggestions for how school leaders can practice equity-based distance learning in the upcoming school year.

1. Check-in on Students and Families to Ensure Needs are Being Met

The students who are most in need are less likely to have access to a conducive learning environment, technological devices, internet connectivity, and parental supervision. Schools can play a role in helping to connect families to organizations that provide access to technological devices and internet service for reduced or no cost. You might want to check your state department of education’s website for a list of local companies providing discounts. For example, the California Department of Education shares information about special offers by various internet providers across the state. Common Sense Education also shares information about organizations helping to facilitate access to low-cost and free internet service, devices, and educational content.

Schools can also provide families with information about community organizations that can help to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, and childcare. For example, schools can create a list of community resources with instructions on how to initiate contact and make the list easily accessible to all families by sharing it in newsletters and posting it on their website. Alpha Public Schools created a microsite Alpha Family Resources Hub to provide families with information about resources related to distance learning, housing, food, and more.

2. Prioritize Staying Connected with Students to Support Academic Success and Mental Wellness

During distance learning, regular live interaction between teachers and students is important to maintain connection and encourage stronger learning outcomes School leaders are tasked with overseeing the quality of communication between students and teachers while ensuring check-ins are done regularly with different modes of communication such as text, phone, video, small groups, and social media. Maintaining a consistent, open, two-way communication between your school and students and families will allow insight into how students are adjusting to the new learning environment and coping with other issues.

School leaders can create a space for informal and formal conversations with students by implementing virtual advisory groups or individual online meetings. For example, Memphis Merit Academy created a hotline for parents and students to call for help with schoolwork, LifeWork Hotline | Virtual Teacher, to support students’ academic success. A similar model could work to connect students to counselors to support students’ mental health and wellbeing and help students cope with the stresses brought about by the pandemic. School leaders may also call upon social and mental health services by directing families to their teletherapy services while emphasizing mindfulness, playtime, and exercise to help parents and guardians structure time at home.

3. Provide Flexibility That is Responsive to Students’ Unique Needs and Abilities

It’s important to consider students’ unique needs and experiences when planning your school’s distance learning strategy for the 2020-2021 school year. School leaders might consider distributing surveys that solicit student and family feedback on digital learning experiences as well as their home environments. This feedback will make you aware of any barriers to learning such as access to technology, home language, caretaking responsibilities and/or the presence of caregivers, and can help to inform your distance learning strategy and tailor your approach to serve different groups of students. For example, the survey results can help to identify which students have familial obligations during the day and need access to asynchronous instruction, as well as those who require synchronous instruction to keep them engaged and on track.

A survey can also help improve family and student engagement. For example, at the start of distance learning and after noticing that only a few students were engaged in daily learning, Rocketship Public Schools surveyed their families each morning to inquire what students needed to learn at home and worked to address those needs throughout the day. By the end of the school year, nearly every student was engaging in daily learning.

4. Focus on Mitigating Learning Loss

A recent study by NWEA predicts that students will experience a learning loss of 30 percent in reading and 50 percent in math due to school closures related to the COVID-19 crisis. To help mitigate potential learning loss, school leaders can focus on strategies that accelerate student learning. Accelerated learning strategies require that students consistently receive grade-level materials, tasks, and assignments while making the work accessible. This Learning Acceleration Guide might be a helpful starting point for planning your strategy. To make up for the learning loss, the accelerated student learning plan should start as soon as possible, and ideally should be put together by a diverse team of teachers, administrators, and school leaders in a series of planning sessions. It is helpful to plan several instructional delivery scenarios and have a high-level plan for each scenario. You’ll also want to identify what unfinished learning needs to be addressed, and when and how. This document from Achieve the Core helps educators identify instructional content priorities in math and ELA in order to stay on grade level while addressing related prerequisite skills.

School leaders across the country are tasked with the challenge of developing strategies that maximize equity outcomes and address the diverse needs of their students during this unprecedented time of school closures. Equity-based distance learning helps to ensure that the most vulnerable students are supported during and beyond the pandemic. The resources cited here can help school leaders to implement school policies and processes that support equitable learning outcomes, as well as to train teachers to diagnose unfinished learning while providing acceleration support to the students most in need. What is your school doing to achieve equity in distance learning? Let us know in the comment section below!

Leading in a Crisis: Charter School Leaders Share Their Experiences

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June 25, 2020

Here at EdTec, supporting charter schools to succeed is at the heart of everything we do, day in and day out. As we navigate this difficult time together, this blog series will address various topics to help school leaders identify the tools, resources, and support they need to lead effectively.  

This time, we reached out to our charter partners to learn more about their experiences over the past few months, including how they’ve tackled distance learning challenges and supported their school communities, as well as what they expect for next school year. We’re grateful to share insights from school leaders at two of our partner schools: Ms. Jade Rivera, Founder/Executive Director of Albuquerque Collegiate Charter School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Dr. Hassan Dornayi, Principal of Para los Niños Charter Middle School in Los Angeles, California.  

 

What has been the biggest challenge of implementing a distance learning plan? How is your school tackling this challenge?

Ms. Jade Rivera: I think the biggest challenge of distance learning that we’ve faced is not being able to maintain the same systems, routines, and structures that are so integral to our school’s overall culture. Our teachers have worked hard to create and implement strong and predictable routines for Kindergarten-2nd grade students, which help our students experience that positive success every day, even if on an online platform.  

Dr. Hassan Dornayi: The uncertainty.  Things are constantly in flux and often you don’t know what things are going to look like even a month ahead, let alone the next school year. For us, this means that we need to be flexible for whatever might come our way.  We have a vision and plan moving forward, but also have in mind how we can change and update if and when we need to, while still ensuring our students and families have what they need to succeed. 

 

What has worked best for you when it comes to managing faculty and staff remotely? Do you have any tips for other school leaders who might be struggling to lead their team from a distance?   

Ms. Jade Rivera: In the normal school setting, we start every day with a quick 5-10 morning huddle. In light of the pandemic, we’ve shifted this to a beginning and end of week huddle. It’s certainly not perfect, but it gives us an opportunity to check in with one another, share wins and highlights from the week, as well as brainstorm how to tackle challenges together. We’ve also held a few informal Zoom happy hour chats, where we can just hang out as friends and share updates from our personal lives. I’ve certainly missed seeing my teammates every day. We’re so much more than just colleagues, they’re some of my closest friends. Connection, now more than ever, is so important.   

 

Are there any resources that have been especially helpful to your school during this time, that you would recommend to other school leaders? This could be an online learning resource but does not have to be – we’d also love to hear about other online tools, community resources, nonprofit organizations, etc.  

Ms. Jade Rivera: Our co-teaching model has lent itself well to collaboration and multi-pronged support for distance learning. Teachers were already used to working in tandem, so team teaching on Zoom with 2 adults per class was a fairly easy transition. Furthermore, it has been a huge help to have co-teachers for online lessons, with one teacher able to focus solely on instruction and the other teacher able to help with technology needs, of both students and teachers.   

 

Are there any unique actions your school is taking to support teachers, students, and/or families that you would like to share with other schools?

Dr. Hassan Dornayi: We are constantly pushing for ways to not just support our students, but also how to support their families.  A student can’t succeed if they don’t have safe, stable, and secure homes. Our integrated services work to ensure our students and families thrive – through education and wraparound support to address concrete needs, and build sustainable growth. These times have been challenging for students and families in a number of ways and we can’t expect students to be academically successful if we haven’t supported their other needs as well.  

 

What has worked well for your school when it comes to supporting students with learning disabilities?  

Ms. Jade Rivera: Our special education teacher maintains very close communication with our special education students and ancillary providers, which helped a great deal when transitioning to online provided services. Continuous communication and flexibility have been absolutely necessary to ensuring our scholars maintain their provided services and learning opportunities.   

 

How do you think the extended school closures will impact “business as usual” once schools reopen? What will learning look like then?

Ms. Jade Rivera: One thing is certain, school will look and feel different come the fall. Our hope is that we are able to continue to implement a strong academic program for all students, while being incredibly thoughtful about the safety and health measures we put in place for everyone in our building.  

Dr. Hassan Dornayi: I think everyone will need to take on the approach of doing whatever is needed to meet a student where they are and address their needs, whether it be fully online or a hybrid model.  I think for our teachers, because many of them are already going above and beyond to help our children, this will be an easier adaptation. Schools that don’t already have an integrated model like ours in place might need to have more preparation to determine where the students’ needs are and how they can help them persevere. 

 

Have you been able to connect with other school leaders during this time to share resources or advice? How has this helped you to work through challenges?   

Ms. Jade Rivera: I’ve been really fortunate to be able to connect with both local New Mexico leaders, as well as leaders from charter schools across the country. These connections have been tremendously helpful as we worked to design our distance learning plan, and as we begin to think about a hopeful return to school in the fall. Beyond the practical sharing of resources and ideas, it has also been a great support to have a network of colleagues who fully understand the challenges of the work.  

 

Share something good that has come out of this for your school.  

Ms. Jade Rivera: Our families have been so supportive throughout this entire process. From ensuring students stay engaged in their learning, to helping us creatively celebrate our teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week, they have never wavered in their backing and care for our school community. We are lucky to have them.

Dr. Hassan Dornayi: This crisis and transition to remote connection, has shown what an amazing culture we have at the middle school.  We started teaching the Monday after we went on ‘shelter in place’ and our teachers haven’t looked back.  We have virtual classes, assemblies, and connections with our students that keep our positive attitudes and collaborative spirit alive. It has been incredible to be part of this effort.  

While every charter school is different and what works for one school might not work for another, many charter school leaders have found it helpful to hear from their peers to get a fresh perspective and be inspired to try news ways to serve students and families during this challenging time. We hope you found these insights to be helpful, and we would love to hear what has worked well for your school, too – please share your thoughts in the comment section below! 

Leading in a Crisis: Engaging with Prospective Families During School Closures

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June 18, 2020

Here at EdTec, supporting charter schools to succeed is at the heart of everything we do, day in and day out. As we navigate this difficult time together, this blog series will address various topics to help school leaders identify tools, resources, and support that can help them lead effectively. This time, we’re providing a few ideas about how schools can utilize virtual and online tactics to engage with prospective families and drive enrollment for next school year and beyond, and have included a few examples of how our school partners and others are already doing that. We are not recommending or endorsing any particular tools or products, but simply sharing a few ideas for inspiration and further discussion among school leadership teams.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, charter schools relied heavily on in-person enrollment strategies such as school tours and special events that showcase student life and the programs and activities the school has to offer. But what happens when prospective families can’t get to campus?   

Like organizations in other fields, there is an opportunity for charter schools to tell their stories and keep their audiences engaged through the use of creative virtual events and other online tactics. We’ve pulled together a few ideas for how your school can focus on digital efforts to move prospective families from consideration to enrollment. Please note that like any other school activities, these ideas and approaches all have to be planned and carried out in accordance with all school policies and legal/ regulatory requirements.  

Social Media

Now is the time to use social media to connect with current and prospective families and the community at large. With many establishments closed for business as usual, folks are using social media now more than ever, and there is an opportunity for school leaders to use the tools at their disposal to foster engagement.  Before sharing photos or video content on your school’s social media accounts, website, or any other online medium, make sure you reference your school’s media release policy to ensure you are in compliance and only sharing content featuring those students whose parents or guardians have given the appropriate permissions. 

Keep Up with Posting

Rather than curtail your use of social media or scale down on posting, use it as a tool to tell your school’s story and provide a sense of connection within your community. You can use social media to share how the school is handling distance learning and supporting students and families, as well as to highlight what makes the school unique. As one example, Para Los Niños shared quotes from teachers about why they enjoy teaching at the school during Teacher Appreciation Week. These posts serve to both celebrate teachers as well as communicate the school’s strengths to prospective families.

If you could use some inspiration to help you create visually-appealing social media posts, Canva is a free, user-friendly graphic design tool that offers fun, customizable templates and the ability to design communications sized for multiple social media platforms and other uses. You can also upgrade to a paid model to unlock additional graphics and upload your organization’s official colors and logos for easy reference. Canva can also be used to design and order printed materials.  

Utilize Video

Video on social media is a great way to introduce your school to prospective families. You can ask current students, teachers, and administrators to record short clips about their experience at the school using their phones; these clips can be shared on their own or combined into a longer video about the school. Video is a great way to bring your school to life during this crisis. Albuquerque Collegiate put together videos celebrating their teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week. The videos not only highlight the school’s great teachers, but also touch on why the students like their school. Your school’s videos don’t have to be tied to a specific holiday; anytime is a good time to share stories about how your school community is staying connected, engaged, and inspired during this period of distance learning.  

Go Live!

Going live presents an in-the-moment opportunity for your school to engage with families. Your school can utilize live features on either Facebook or Instagram to host Q&A sessions with prospective families. During this series of live sessions, school leaders can answer questions from prospective families about the school’s mission and vision, academic and extracurricular programs, and how the school is responding to the crisis. Buffalo Creek Academy, a school scheduled to open in Fall 2020, holds a twice-daily broadcast on Facebook Live and Instagram Live to share information about their mission and academic programs as well as answer questions from participants. Synergy Academies hosted a live event on Instagram’s IGTV video app the night before college signing day to announce where their seniors would be attending college in the fall.  

Create Facebook Groups

Your school can use Facebook groups to connect current and prospective students and families. As a moderator of your school’s private Facebook group, you can share important updates while creating a safe place for prospective families to ask questions. It is important that you set guidelines at the start regarding the goal of the group as well as expectations for conduct.   

Virtual Events

Across the country, schools are finding unique ways to tap into virtual events to promote their enrollment efforts, such as hosting virtual school tours. In the absence of campus tours and in-person interactions, virtual events provide an opportunity for schools to continue their enrollment efforts. Below are a few ways that your school can use virtual events to meet families where they are and give them the information they’re looking for.   

Virtual Tours

Virtual tours are the new school tours during this time of school closure. It is a great way to engage prospective families and provide an on-campus experience without asking anyone to leave their homes. Success Academies used a sophisticated web-based application to put together this virtual tour of an elementary school. For schools looking for a quicker or less expensive option, a virtual tour can be recorded by anyone using a phone or video equipment, and they can even narrate the tour to include examples of activities that take place in each part of the campus. If your school doesn’t have access to this equipment or the campus is not open for access right now, you can utilize existing photos to put together a presentation that describes the campus so that prospective parents and students can visualize what it might be like to attend school there.  

Virtual Information Sessions

Your school can organize virtual information sessions or town halls by using a video conferencing platform you are familiar with, such as Zoom.  These town halls can follow the format of a typical school information session,  where an administrator gives an introduction to the school and moderates the event, and other staff or school ambassadors (including teachers, students, and parents) participate by sharing their experiences and taking questions from the audience. Always make sure to check your video conference platform’s security recommendations to minimize the risk of unwelcome guests and other concerns.   

To help ensure the event runs smoothly, require folks to register in advance; this way, you can manage crowd size and know what to expect. You can also request that participants submit questions in advance so you and your team can assign them to the person most equipped to answer and prepare to have the information needed to provide a meaningful response.   

Ethos Classical Charter School gives prospective families the option to set-up a one-on-one information session by using the Calendly scheduling tool. A callout is included on their home page, along with an email address for those with questions. The sessions are led by members of the school’s leadership team.  

To advertise the event, post the details on your website and share it on social media. Include links to additional information and prompt folks to sign-up, if applicable. You can also record these town halls and post them on your school’s website and social media to both build your content bank and share it with those who weren’t able to participate live.  

Just like with in-person events, it’s important that everyone who represents the school during virtual events has had the training to ensure consistent and appropriate messaging. 

Other Virtual Sessions

Beyond more formal virtual events such as town halls, some schools are planning virtual office hours or “coffee chats with the principal”. While most of these events target current families who may have urgent questions about the school’s distance learning plan, they can also be used as a fun, informal way to engage with prospective students and parents. 

Schools may also want to consider thematic virtual events that target specific interests. For example, school leaders could partner with a few coaches to organize a “virtual sports chat” to share information about the school’s athletic programs and accolades as well as take questions from prospective students interested in joining sports teams.  A similar event could be organized with college and career counselors to discuss the school’s track record with college admissions and spotlight a few students who were recently accepted into the colleges of their choice.  

Website

Your school website is a primary source of information about your school, and it’s the first place many current and prospective families go when they have a question. Families are likely looking for information about how the school is responding to the current environment and how it might impact the school’s plans for next school year. It is important that your website includes a section about how learning continues at your school, and that your home page includes a straightforward link to this section, so visitors don’t have to dig for it. 

Create New Landing Pages for Virtual Events

Since your school’s website is a primary source of information, it is an ideal place to include details about all your public-facing virtual events. A good way to make the event information easily accessible is to create a new page dedicated to promoting your virtual events. This page would host the event details along with registration information, if necessary. You can also use this page as a media hub and post photos and videos that highlight your school’s mission, culture, and achievements. Method Modern Public Schools has an events page that also includes links to virtual tours of universities, museums, and other sites with no specific dates attached.  

To encourage attendance at your virtual events, include them in the newsfeed on your home page for increased visibility, and link to them on your social media. 

Provide Enrollment Information

To make things simple for parents and students looking to submit an open enrollment form, include all relevant deadlines and information on your website and link to it on your homepage so it is easy to find. You can also provide a form on the website where parents can submit questions and get answers regarding enrollment and/or address this information on a frequently asked questions page (more on this below). 

Create a Frequently Asked Questions Page

Create a Frequently Asked Questions page to address the most common questions you receive from parents. You could include questions about enrollment, academic and extracurricular programs, and school culture, and also use this as an opportunity to highlight what makes your school unique so that parents don’t have to search for it elsewhere. Rocketship Public Schools has a robust FAQ page that also includes questions and answers about charter schools to address common misconceptions.  

Protect Yourself! 

While there are lots of creative ideas and easy–to–use technology tools for virtually engaging with current families in your school community and prospective families, it is always advisable to step back and to evaluate in advance what is to be shared online by your school, and by representatives of your school, for appropriateness, compliance, and security.  Leverage the appropriate legal and related expertise, including recommended training for your team, for smoother virtual family engagement. 

While school doors are closed for the remainder of this school year, now is the time to look ahead and think about how you will make next year a success. Although using in-person events as an enrollment marketing tool is unlikely for the near future, there is still a tremendous opportunity for your school to use digital tools such as social media and virtual events to build up your enrollment pipeline.

From Crisis Management to Strategic Planning: A Four-Step Framework

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(Part One of a Two-Part Series)

By Guest Blogger Annie Crangle, Partner, Friday

In the last few weeks, I’ve spoken with school administrators, lawyers, financial advisors, and educational consultants about the new realities that K-12 schools are about to encounter. As you can imagine, these conversations have felt overwhelming. This pandemic has underscored our vulnerability, the inequities that persist in our society and education system, and outdated elements in the way some of our schools are designed.

Teachers are finding it hard to give kids the consistency and structure they need to thrive from a distance. One school leader is finding that Montessori’s hands-on principles aren’t easy to adapt to an online platform. And critical social-service nonprofits are cutting their workforces, putting additional stress on schools that can’t be addressed by digital learning curriculums.

It’s not surprising to see education leaders hustle, scramble, and innovate in response to the crisis. You’ve worked hard to provide equitable transitions for the children and families that you serve, and have, in many instances, overcome challenges surprisingly fast. But as the immediate crisis turns into our everyday reality, some of the long-term challenges seem even more daunting: How will we transition students back into a daily school routine that will look much different from before? How will teachers make up for lost learning? How will we plan for 2021 and beyond knowing budget cuts are inevitable and health protocols will fluctuate?

Having spent the past seven years guiding schools in strategic planning processes, I’ve seen first hand the value in this type of planning (pre- and post-pandemic). While a school’s charter outlines your commitment to the students you serve, a strategic plan allows you to brainstorm where you want to go next without worrying about compliance requirements. Make no mistake: A strategic plan is a serious document, but the process and outcome provide much-needed freedom to explore what’s working well, what isn’t working well, and what you aspire to achieve long term.

In the midst of all of this change, schools have a unique opportunity to innovate: Whether by choice or out of necessity, we’re likely to see a fundamental redesign of the school model, including tech advancements, more equitable digital access, smaller class sizes, adjusted school calendars, even dramatic restructuring of teacher and staff time.

 Based on strategic planning best practices, we encourage school leaders to:

  • Analyze what’s likely to change your students’ and families’ lives and the education sector at large;
  • Consider your school’s anticipated needs and evolving demands, the relevance of your current model, and overall capabilities;
  • Create a list of threats and opportunities; and
  • Identify your long-term vision for the next 5-10 years, then plan the steps you need to take each year to reach that destination.

From our experience leading strategic planning for public charter schools across the state of California, we’ve developed a framework to help schools emerge on the other side of change in a way that’s aligned to their identity and responsive to the needs of their community.

Let’s jump in.

Gather your leadership team and answer four broad questions to develop the essential building blocks of an effective plan:

1. What opportunities and challenges do we face? Develop a clear picture of our new reality and identify the most pressing challenges and risks to our model and the communities we serve.

For example, in addition to tracking economic, health, and policy trends and potential implications for your school, can you also say with certainty how the needs of your students, families, and staff have shifted? Perhaps some staff, students, and parents in your community are struggling to use the technology needed to sustain remote learning; or maybe some students need more social-emotional support.

2. How will we adapt? Sharpen your focus on the critical model and operational shifts and opportunities for innovation.

In other words, how must you change to respond? For example, given your learning targets, and the challenges of distance learning, identify new methods of teacher collaboration and professional development to equip teachers with new skills.

And how might you change to creatively meet the shifting needs? For example, for your most vulnerable students, how could you tap into young people in your community who are temporarily out of work or school to volunteer, as a way to increase individual and small group tutoring and/or mentorship for students? 

3. What’s our plan for making it happen? Map a realistic and financially viable short-term action plan; brainstorm near-term opportunities and long-term vision.

Map three potential scenarios based on different projections of health and financial status. Prioritize action steps in terms of urgency (i.e., How likely are we to need to do this?) and impact (i.e., How much will this impact our ability to serve students and families?). 

A high-priority item might be re-structuring staff given budget shortfalls, or developing a new calendar and facility plan to accommodate social-distancing requirements; a medium-priority item might be identifying donors for needed technology resources; a low-priority item might be reaching out to local colleges or universities for volunteers.

Think about what it will take to implement fundamental changes and introduce new programming (staff time, scheduling, possible stipends, etc.), while also planning for various possible financial and health scenarios. Before launching any new initiatives, also consider scheduling a focus group with your target audience to make sure the program is designed effectively.

4. How will we communicate effectively? Develop your message and communicate key shifts to your students, families, staff, and partners.

How will you keep your community informed of critical updates? How will you let them know about new opportunities and resources? (Newsletter, social media, website updates, etc.) You should also think about how you will measure the results so you can revisit periodically and make adjustments as needed.

While we recognize it is impossible to plan for every change, we believe if schools are supported to plan, they will emerge stronger on the other side of this crisis.

In our next post, we’ll help you answer each strategic question in-depth and share key insights from our experience guiding a cohort of schools through an 8-week planning process.

If you need more immediate support and you’re interested in doing this work with other school leaders facing similar challenges, consider joining Friday’s strategic planning cohort, launching the last week of May. Over an 8-week period, our team and network of expert advisors in the areas of operations, finance, legal, and school performance will guide school teams through a step-by-step process to systematically address the complexity of challenges your school is facing and to organize your team’s response.