The presenter (Cynthia Millinger of CSS) was highly effective; her tone was friendly, helpful, and conversational. [She] made this look easy, and I know it is not. The big surprise was that people were as engaged online as they would have been in person."
—Mark Cannon
President, Greater Capacity Consortium
Former Executive Director,
National Association of Charter School Authorizers
Envisioning the ideal charter school in theory and articulating how it will work in practice are two very different tasks.
Charter School Startup develops and delivers interactive Education Plan workshops that are tailored to each state's/district's petition process to assist applicants in understanding and sorting through the myriad issues that must be addressed in a charter school application.
Workshops provide opportunities for founding groups to discuss their challenges with the seminar leader and brainstorm possible resolutions.
Workshop topics include, but are not limited to:
- Articulating Your Charter School Mission and Philosophy
- Analyzing the Educational Needs of Your Target Student Population
- Understanding the Common Core State Standards
- Utilizing Benchmark and Guiding Assessments
- Evaluating Resources: English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, & Social Studies
- Creating a Dynamic Curriculum Cycle
- Planning Effective Professional Development
Photo Credit: Vanessa Jones
CSS Provides In-Person Seminars
and Online Webinars
Workshops can be delivered in-person at a site of your choosing, or they can be held online. Both options offer a distinct set of advantages:
- In-person seminars:
- allow founding groups to have important face-time and
- enable founding groups to directly interact with other applicants to share challenges and solutions.
- allow founding groups to have important face-time and
In-person seminars are ideal for localized urban communities, and they have been very successful in New York City.
- Online webinars:
- offer tremendous flexibility regarding the timing of workshops and
- are very cost effective since there is no need for:
- finding a space,
- offering refreshments, or
- providing hard copies of materials.
- finding a space,
- offer tremendous flexibility regarding the timing of workshops and
This option is ideal for rural and suburban communities that are spread out across a large region; participants must only have a computer with an internet connection and a phone line to dial into a conference call.
Applicants in Maryland appreciated this approach, especially during a major ice storm when all in-person meetings were cancelled, but founding groups were still able to participate from the safety of their own homes.