Welcome everyone! Tell us where you are zooming in from.

I'm Carrie, coming to you from DC

48% of DC public school students currently attend charters, FYI

Supply for dual language models in DC will not meet expected demand in the next 5 years for example

Full disclosure: We work with charter schools, networks, and Boards.  That said, I've been encouraged by Boards that honor the very real, current workload being put on network and school leaders, which seems to be stifling "innovation."  It's been great to see Boards create a pathway for the (co)-design process to be done with strategic partners (e.g. external), so as to honor the leaders' current bandwidth and allowing the leaders to then focus on tweaking and implementing said innovative solutions.In terms of the innovative solutions we have been fortunate enough to co-design, to address acute COVID issues AND historical barriers to teaching and learning is a whole other topic :)

There is a caveat for innovation without a balance of morality. I know one ED is compensated well over $300k and another is about to face a difficult transition without proper succession planning. An important mitigation tool is to mandate Board training like Education Board Partner. Board members generally do not see the underlying issues which led to the closure of a charter school in 2015/16 for the Board violating fiduciary responsibility for not monitoring fiscal mismanagement. How do we ensure integrity as we pursue innovation? There is a time lag between test scores, as a school that reached the Charter School Hall of Fame has languished but the reputation is delaying the inevitable demise until another "savior" comes along to reverse the demise.

We find it's key that those that will be IMPACTED (e.g. students, families, and educators) as well as those that will IMPLEMENT (e.g. educators) have to: (1) be a part of identifying and connecting with the challenge as well as (2) designing the solution.

Can D.C. charter schools be innovative in pedagogy when having to face high stakes reviews based on PMF results?

Innovation should impact (directly or indirectly) ALL outcomes, both the traditional ones (e.g. student achievement outcomes) as well as the more nuanced and unique ones (which authorizers rarely value).

Maverick Insurance https://eduwonk.substack.com/p/maverick-insurance?s=w

^ this is what Carrie is referring to.

Feel free to drop questions here in the chat

ENGAGEMENT is right.... Board needs to be passionate about the school beyond just hiring the ED. How to recruit ENGAGED board members?

Yes--starts with recruiting, but then also nurturing ongoing engagement

There is also a strange dynamic in education (charter and traditional public) where Board members often default to "but I'm not an educator" where as in the private sector, Board members are recruited for their outside and divergent perspectives.

^YES

It's adjacent to the accountability question, but I'm curious: In my work directly supporting charter school leaders as a consultant, the biggest reason so many do not pursue innovation a la the Transcend deisgn principles Mia mentioned is that they fear how authorizers will react to "unapproved" changes in their model or approach, even when these are co-created with students/families. How much of this is their perception v reality? How do you recommend helping leader navigate locally-responsive continuous improvement with their fears of how authorizers will react (esp for single site schools)?

Great question Trevor -- authorizers as the arbiters of innovation and constraining schools from innovations that can impact outcomes

We should definitely be leaning on authorizers.

Thanks, all!

Thanks! I wish the boards have a way to be exposed to underlying issues such as the trend over time, instead of just the current year performance. Appreciate all the insights. Charter Schools need engaged board members!

Thank you all.

Thanks!