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School Quality and Accountability Services

What are CSDC School Quality and Accountability Services?

CSDC's Charter School Quality and Accountability Services are designed to evaluate a charter school's performance in both educational and operational areas. CSDC has evaluated hundreds of charter schools over the past decade. Our services and tools were developed over several years with generous input from dozens of charter schools, school districts and county offices of education. Our services are intended for use by both charter schools and charter-sponsors and can be customized to the particular needs of our clients.

What types of services are offered?

Annual and Renewal Review
CSDC offers a comprehensive evaluation of a charter school’s performance and quality for annual and renewal review. The school review includes an in-depth, multi-day site visit with expert evaluators, as well as a detailed follow-up report of findings on the school’s performance. The review team includes experts in all key areas of charter school operations, including finance, education program, personnel and governance. The renewal review follows a similar protocol to that of the annual review, with the addition of a more long-term look at the school’s performance history and future goals.

Charter Review
CSDC’s charter reviews include a detailed analysis of the charter elements, as well as other supplemental materials as requested. Using CSDC’s “Charter Review Rubric,” reviewers will thoroughly assess each charter’s educational, operational and fiscal soundness in accordance with the most up-to-date changes to state-specific charter school requirements.

Charter Review and School Review Rubrics
For schools and granting agencies that prefer to conduct a self-directed review, CSDC provides evaluation criteria and scoring grids (rubrics) which serve to guide individuals through the process of evaluating the quality of a charter petition or a charter school.
Training option: For schools and granting agencies looking for guidance on how to effectively use the rubrics, CSDC offers personalized training to individuals or groups opting to conduct a self-directed review.

Dispute Resolution Services
In instances where conflicts arise between charter schools and charter-granting agencies, CSDC offers expert facilitation services to help resolve issues related to school performance and evaluation, as well as disagreements concerning the ongoing operating relationship between a school and its charter-granting agency.

Why School Quality and Accountability Services?

In these times of high stakes school performance and oversight, accountability and how it is measured is a top priority for charter schools as well as charter-granting agencies. Charter school revocations and non-renewals are on the rise. Charter-granting agencies are facing increasing political scrutiny regarding their oversight capacity. In addition, more and more charter school boards and staffs are recognizing the importance of evaluating their own performance as a means to improving the quality and effectiveness of their schools.

To assist charter schools and charter-granting agencies in meeting the increased demand to measure and monitor charter school performance, CSDC has developed a highly effective accountability system that provides clear guidelines, criteria and evaluation tools.

How School Quality and Accountability Services can benefit you:

• Promotes clear communication between schools and charter-granting agencies
• Reduces oversight costs and provides increased oversight capacity to charter-granting agencies
• Reduces the paperwork burden for charter schools by streamlining accountability reporting requirements
• Mitigates conflict due to unclear goals and expectations and reduces the risk of unnecessary revocation or non-renewal
• Provides manageable reporting tools and clear, up-to-date performance data
• Assists schools with internal assessments and strategic planning
• Fosters a system of high quality, high-performing charter schools

Why partner with CSDC?

CSDC has extensive experience in the areas of accountability, charter-granting and oversight. Our expert staff has been working with charter schools and charter-granting agencies throughout California and across the country for more than 11 years. We have consulted to school districts, county and state departments of education, as well as new and experienced charter schools on such issues as:

• developing accountability policies and procedures
• implementing annual and renewal reporting tools and processes
• aligning curriculum to the state standards
• developing alternative assessments

Representing a wide range of expertise in business, finance, education and policy, our staff is well-trained to provide in-depth evaluation of charter school performance from every perspective.

For more information about all of our Accountability services, contact us at (503) 249-3712 orCSDC@chartercenter.org.

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