Giving Compass' Take:

• The authors offer advice to public charter school boards that are run similarly to nonprofit boards, in which they have various expertise and flexibility, but might not know the educational landscape as well as others in the field. 

•  What are benefits to having a nonprofit-like board for charter schools? What are the potentially harmful aspects?

• Read about the challenges in fulfilling the charter school promise in regard to oversight and accountability. 

For the past nine years, Arizona State University and venture capital firm GSV have hosted an educational technology conference that looks at future trends and connects investors to educators, with the ultimate goal of improving student outcomes.

From our different seats in the education ecosystem, the four of us work closely and interact regularly with charter schools–their leaders, staff, board members, and stakeholders across the sector. We were energized by our time at ASU+GSV, but were also struck by a disconnect between the urgency, energy, and excitement in the room and the daily work going on in many charter schools.

Unlike traditional public schools, most public charter schools are governed by a nonprofit volunteer board. This is perhaps the most disruptive, innovative feature of charter schools: they operate outside the political incentives and boundaries of traditional school systems, and they are governed by groups of citizens who are accountable to the authorizer, the taxpaying public, and most importantly to the students and families in their school.

Empowering board members to gain this perspective and expertise will deepen the partnership between board members and staff, and allow schools and CMOs to hone their vision of what is possible, as well as set a strategic course to get there.

Because they are not part of large and often unwieldy systems, charter schools can be more innovative, more nimble, and more responsive to both the needs of their students, and the changing nature of the world into which those students will graduate.

Read the full article about nonprofit charter school boards by Nina Rees, Tom Vander Ark, Nick Driver, and Carrie Irvin at Getting Smart