The Preopening Process

The Academy Charter School's founder and CEO Bishop Barrington Goldson and his team join the podcast for an engaging discussion on The Academy's Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, their process for recruiting instructional expertise and aligning curricula with industry standards, and how they are using feedback from families, students, and the community to design future plans. The conversation concludes with advice for public schools seeking to replicate The Academy's CTE program success. 

Ascend Charter Schools is a not-for-profit charter school education corporation with authority to operate 10 charter schools rooted in Brooklyn. Beyond a reputation for rigorous inquiry-based curricula and a responsive school culture, Ascend is known for its robust professional growth and development. CEO Recy Dunn joins the podcast to discuss Ascend’s approach to PD, the Science of Reading, and what advice he has for public schools seeking to develop a strong internal leadership pipeline. 

Erin Allen, Senior Analyst, SUNY Charter Schools Institute, joins the podcast to discuss the Institute's new white paper, Accelerated Learning in Practice: 
Promising Practices from the SUNY Charter Schools’ 2021-22 School Visit Season.  Allen discusses the four exciting and promising strategies, the strengths and weaknesses of each, and the hope that these strategies affirm and inspire work to address unfinished learning.

Kristie Swanson, Experiential Learning Coordinator at Finn Academy Charter School, joins us to discuss introducing hands-on activities in the classroom to connect academic learning to real-world situations and build cultural competency. 

Central Queen Academy's Executive Director Ashish Kapadia joins the podcast to discuss the new school year, partnering with community groups to deliver critical services and supports, and addressing unfinished learning through targeted SEL. He also talks CQA's new state of the art facility, working with an architect on the design, and more. 

Marsha Gadsden, Executive Director of PAVE Academy Charter School, joins the podcast to discuss what makes PAVE Academy Charter School different than other public schools, lessons learned from the pandemic, and more. 

Maureen Foley, Director of New Charters, joins the podcast to discuss the preopening process leading up to the first day of instruction and how schools should prepare for a pre-opening visit from the Institute team. 

Andrew Kile, Director of School of Evaluation, joins the podcast to discuss the importance of the school evaluation visit, the types of evidence the team collects and evaluates, specific on the ground activities, the purpose of reports, and more. Then Danielle Bruno, Principal / Director of Elmwood Village Days Park, reflects on the school’s most recent visit, sharing how administrators both prepared for the evaluation team and used the experience to improve school practices.

Charter schools in New York trade greater operational autonomy for greater accountability for academic outcomes. We call this the “Autonomy for Accountability Bargain.” But what does this look like in practice? Jeff Wasbes, Executive Deputy Director for Accountability at the SUNY Charter Schools Institute, discusses the renewal process, quantitative and qualitative benchmarks, evidence collection, what it means for a school to be an academic success and more. 

Maureen Foley, Director of New Charters, discusses everything you need to know about the SUNY application process, including the RFP, collecting and documenting evidence of community need, working with Institute staff, submitting a high quality application, and preparing for the capacity interview. Then Dr. Christopher Manning, Executive Director of Buffalo Creek Academy, which was approved for a new charter in October of 2019, talks about how he and the board set themselves up for success.