Identifying Indicators of Distress in Your Schools: A Guide for Charter School Authorizers

By Aimee Evan, William Berry

Description

Charter schools that are struggling to sustain high-quality education can course-correct by identifying indicators of distress—the characteristics and patterns that occur early in a charter school’s decline. By identifying these indicators early, charter authorizers can provide timely intervention to prevent school decline and ensure positive educational experiences for students.

This self-paced, multimedia guide enables authorizers to identify indicators of distress with tools and resources divided into three modules:

Identifying Indicators of Distress – Understand the indicators of distress and how you can use your data collection practices to identify indicators across groups of schools.
Auditing Data Collection and Analyzing Indicator Data Trends – Review indicators of distress and analyze which indicator categories appear most frequently in your portfolio.
Assessing and Embedding Indicators Into Data Collection Activities – Review and reflect on your charter school data and create an action plan for integrating the indicators of distress into your current data collection and review mechanisms.

Get started with the guide today, and be sure to view the companion piece Mapping Assets for Charter Schools: A Guide for Charter Authorizers.

Put the Guide into Action with the A-GAME Community

Developed by the National Charter Schools Institute, Momentum Strategy and Research, and WestEd, A-GAME: Measure What Matters is a community of education leaders from schools, boards, districts, authorizers, and state education agencies who convene to predict and prevent schools from declining and create innovative, customized school improvement goals.

To join the community and access additional resources, create a login at the A-GAME Community Dashboard at CharterNetwork.org. After joining, sign up to attend the next A-GAME Convening, which will take place at the National Association for Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) Conference on October 21, 2024.

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Related Resources

Identifying Indicators of Distress in Charter Schools: Part 1 – The Role and Perspective of Charter School Authorizers

This report can help charter school authorizers and other sector stakeholders recognize signs of distress in schools in their unique contexts and take action towards the goal of school improvement.

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Identifying Indicators of Distress in Charter Schools, Part 2: The Roles and Perspectives of Charter School Leaders and Board Members

This report aims to support charter school authorizers in recognizing early warning signs of early school decline from the perspectives of school leaders and governing board members.

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