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National Charter Schools Week 2025 Archives - North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools

May 13
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Dave Machado op-ed: The power of innovation and choice in education

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Coalition Executive Director Dave Machado has a new Carolina Journal op-ed out for National Charter Schools Week about the power of innovation and choice in education. K-12 education today faces complex problems, but empowering parents and experimentation can provide a “path through the chaos,” he writes.

Here’s an excerpt from his article:

Scanning through the education policy and political headlines is an exercise in chaos.

“Early stats don’t support school cellphone bans.” “Want high schoolers to read books?” “Preventing hazing is harder than you think.” “Is your online student a bot?” “Stop generation Alpha’s brain rot.”

It’s a litany of problems with precious few solutions, and the solutions that do make it into the mix face immediate second-guessing. It’s apparent to me that no single authority can possibly resolve all of the problems plaguing K-12 education today. And even if that authority somehow did exist, nobody would believe them anyway.

With no obvious national policy solution to stuttering national test scores and literacy rates, it seems clear that experimentation — together with empowering parents to choose among an array of schools with different teaching and curriculum styles — is the best path through the chaos.

There are three reasons for this. First, and most obviously, children are not all alike and they never have been. Some learn best in strict, highly predictable environments; others flourish in less structured, Montessori-style settings. This is obvious even for very young children, which explains the multitude of preschool philosophies from which parents can choose. Bizarrely, granting parents an array of choices for preschool is not controversial, but granting them the same array of choices for K-12 school is controversial.

Pressing all K-12 students into the same educational environment may have made good sense when the option was simply school or no school. But that’s no longer the case and hasn’t been for many years. Parents deserve options for their children’s schooling because not all children flourish in the same environment, and the more options the better.

Read the rest of the article on Carolina Journal.

May 12
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Sallie B. Howard School’s innovative study abroad program

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Pinegrove School in India. Photo courtesy of Sallie B. Howard School/EdNC.

As part of its National Charter Schools Week coverage, EdNC has published a new article highlighting Sallie B. Howard School‘s innovative, semester-long study abroad program.

Kristen Blair, the Coalition’s communications director, wrote the article following interviews with students and school leaders.

Here’s an excerpt below:

Just two years ago, Sallie B. Howard School of Arts & Science (SBHS), a charter school in Wilson, launched a pioneering study abroad program at India’s Pinegrove School. The semester-long experience, occurring amid the verdant Himalayan foothills of Himachal Pradesh in North India, has proved transformative for participating students.

High school juniors Blanca Orozco-Perez and Angela Sangabriel lived and studied at Pinegrove last fall, two of four SBHS students selected to go. Both returned to the U.S. having experienced seismic shifts in their self-perceptions, worldview, and habits.

Prior to studying abroad, Orozco-Perez was reticent and unsure of herself. “I wouldn’t talk to a lot of people,” she said. “I was very timid. I was very shy. I couldn’t express myself right.”

But study abroad in the East, with its immense cultural difference, stretched and emboldened her. Along the way, something remarkable happened: Her view of herself and her engagement with the world changed.

“I learned overall that you can’t hide yourself in a box and expect everything to come to you,” said Orozco-Perez. As she navigated new relationships, customs, and food, she became more expansive and expressive. Upon her return to Wilson, her mother remarked, “You talk a lot more!”

For Sangabriel, travel itself was a novelty. “I had never been outside of the country until then, so it was my first time on a plane,” she said.

A folk musician, Sangabriel was transfixed by the deeply evocative quality of Indian music. “I had my eyes on the beautiful way that Indian classical music expresses itself,” she said. “That was one of my … driving factors the second I heard about it.”

In her study abroad application, Sangabriel promised to learn at least two songs in Hindi. She did that and more, performing and singing solo before a crowd of over 1,000 people at Pinegrove. Musical immersion abroad helped her bridge language and culture.

“Music is really a universal language,” she said. “You don’t have to understand what someone is saying to be able to understand their emotions.”

Read the full article on EdNC.

Apr 24
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National Charter Schools Week is May 11-17, 2025

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National Charter Schools Week 2025 is coming up soon–on May 11-17! We have some ideas and resources to help you celebrate the many contributions of NC charter schools.

Invite your lawmakers to visit your school

Whether you’re on a first-name basis with your state and local lawmakers or you’ve never met them, this is a perfect time to build and grow your relationship with elected officials. Why does this matter? North Carolina’s political climate is favorable to public charter schools right now. But, we can’t count on that always being the case. The time to build trusting relationships, and to show elected officials the amazing things happening at public charter schools, is right now.

We strongly encourage you to invite your state and local representatives to tour your school, meet your faculty, and engage with your students. View this template for a short and simple invitation letter to elected officials.

Itinerary options for a lawmaker tour include:

  • Showing off your facilities: This is a great time to explain that facility funding for public charter schools comes out of your educational allotment. So, your school is by definition doing more with less.
  • Introducing your faculty: This can be a meet-and-greet in the faculty lounge or a formal sit-down with the team. Your educators are probably constituents of the lawmakers, too.
  • Speaking in a civics class or reading to students: There are many age-appropriate options for a legislator to engage with students. This can include talking politics to high schoolers to reading from a picture book to kindergartners.

Have students write letters to lawmakers about why they love their charter school

The Coalition and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools have brainstormed a number of creative ways to both celebrate public charter schools and engage with state lawmakers. Public charter schools are of course authorized and funded by the NC General Assembly, so showing lawmakers the amazing things happening at your school should always be a priority!

One practice that’s been successfully deployed here and elsewhere around the country is encouraging students – especially elementary schoolers – to write letters to their elected officials. The theme of the letter should be nonpolitical and positive. For example:

  • Why students love their school.
  • What subject students like most.
  • What book students enjoy the most.
  • What students are learning about this week/month/semester.

Celebrate NCSW on social media

Be sure to promote NCSW on your school’s social media platforms. Here are some ideas from the Alliance for your social media posts:

  • Happy National #CharterSchools Week! We’re proud to be one of the 8,150 charter schools bringing innovative and high-quality public education to students across the country.
  • At [SCHOOL NAME], students have the opportunity to learn in an environment that meets their unique needs. We’re proud to serve our community and grateful to our incredible educators, students, and families for being a part of this journey! #CharterSchoolsWeek
  • Don’t forget to tag your state lawmakers and members of Congress! Find out who represents you here.

Above: Shutterstock photo.