For five consecutive years, The Learning Collective has conducted the third-party evaluations of all applications for new schools submitted to New Orleans Public Schools (NOLA PS). New Orleans is the only public school district in the country comprised entirely of charter schools. Here are some lessons we have learned from this important work:
New Orleans is a unique city, culture and educational system. For that reason, we always have a local reviewer as part of our larger review team. In fact, we now ensure the majority of our review team are based in New Orleans.
We have also learned through our work in New Orleans, Mississippi and Washington that video-based (rather than in-person) applicant capacity interviews can produce sufficiently robust information to enable us to fully vet applicants.
Our work evaluating charter school applications across multiple states has also reminded us of the importance of a true team effort in developing a robust charter school plan. Even if approved, schools designed primarily by 1-2 people may not result in places of successful and supportive learning experiences for students.