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Office of Charter Schools Archives - North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools

Mar 03
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Summit panel deep dive: CSRB Trends & Your School

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We’re continuing our deep dive segments around panels at our upcoming Charter Advocacy Summit on March 25. Today, we share an overview of our panel on Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB) trends and your school. 

You won’t want to miss this important and informative panel featuring three CSRB members as panelists, along with Ashley Logue, the head of the Office of Charter Schools (OCS). Another CSRB member, Shelly Shope, will moderate the panel. We share more details about what you can expect below!

What are Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB) members seeing as they speak with and hear from the state’s charter leaders? In this highly informative panel, leaders from the CSRB and the North Carolina Office of Charter Schools (OCS) will spotlight and discuss recent charter school trends in North Carolina.

Our panelists will also share what YOU can expect for your school and the state’s charter movement regarding renewals, applications, expansions, remote academies, and more.

Panelists include:

Moderator: Shelly Shope, Vice Chair, Coalition Board of Directors; Member, CSRB; CEO, Pinnacle Classical Academy

You won’t want to miss this timely and informative discussion with the state leaders who discuss and approve charter school renewals and amendments!

  • View the official Summit invite HERE. 
  • See the Summit agenda with speakers and other panels.
  • Click here to register for the Summit.

Above photo: Shutterstock

Feb 10
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New 2026 Summit invite with speakers including NC Lt. Gov. Hunt

By News

Over 240 charter stakeholders convened last February for the Coalition’s most recent Summit.

We’re very excited to share our new 2026 Summit invite with you. Access it here or by clicking on the invite image below. We’re pleased to see spots filling up–so don’t wait to register!

At this year’s Summit, you’ll hear from an incredible line-up of confirmed speakers, including:

  • Lt. Governor Rachel Hunt
  • Hayley Sanon, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
  • Bruce Friend, Chair, Charter Schools Review Board
  • Matthew Tilley, Partner, Womble Bond Dickinson, and Coalition Counsel
  • Ashley Logue, Executive Director, Office of Charter Schools (OCS)
  • Donald Bryson, CEO, John Locke Foundation; Publisher, Carolina Journal

You’ll also hear from state policymakers, industry experts, and the Coalition’s own Government Relations Team. Below, we share bios for two confirmed Summit speakers.

North Carolina Lt. Governor Rachel Hunt

Rachel Hunt began her career as an attorney in domestic law, helping families navigate complex challenges through mediation and practical problem‐solving. Seeing a need for greater support in education, she later founded Hunt for College, LLC, a consulting firm that guided students and parents through the college application process.

During the years she stepped back from full‐time work to focus on raising her children, Rachel remained deeply engaged in her community. She spent more than a decade volunteering with Charlotte‐Mecklenburg Schools and serving on the boards of several nonprofit organizations.

Her commitment to public service led her to seek elected office, where she served in the state legislature and worked to support the people and communities she represented in Charlotte. Today, as the 36th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, she brings forward the values instilled in her by her parents, former Governor Jim and Carolyn Hunt—service, integrity, and a belief in the power of education.

Rachel’s career reflects a lifelong dedication to strengthening schools, supporting families, and building thriving communities. As Lieutenant Governor, she has launched her Future‐Ready North Carolina agenda to address the child care crisis, bolster community colleges, and invest in workforce development—ensuring a strong and prosperous future for our state.

As you likely know, Lt. Governor Rachel Hunt also serves on the North Carolina State Board of Education. What you may not know is that she served on the board of her son’s charter school. You can see a longer bio for Lt. Governor Hunt here.

Hayley Sanon – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Chief Strategist, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

Hayley Sanon most recently served as the K-12 Education Policy Advisor for the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Previously, she was the Program Manager of the American Enterprise Institute’s Conservative Education Reform Network. She started her career in education as a 7th grade math teacher in Greensboro, NC. She holds an M. Ed. in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Public Policy and Political Science, with a minor in Education, from Duke University. She is a proud North Carolina native, born and raised in Winston-Salem.

In addition to sharing remarks, Ms. Sanon will also take questions from the audience. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to hear more about the national K-12 landscape and what’s next for charter schools–as well as where charter schools fit, given the recent restructuring of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education with the U.S. Department of Labor. We’re also so pleased that Ms. Sanon is a former teacher and North Carolina native!

See the Department of Education’s fact sheet outlining the interagency agreement with the Department of Labor.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Coalition Member Schools

  • Register early and receive a discount. Cost to attend before March 3: $125.
  • Cost to attend after March 3: $150.

*Multiple attendee discount: For every two leaders who register from each member school, a third leader may attend for free.

Non-Member Schools

  • Register early and receive a discount. Cost to attend before March 3: $175.
  • Cost to attend after March 3: $200.

*Membership incentive: Charter schools that join the Coalition before February 24 will receive the member discount on registration.

Hotel and registration

  • The Coalition has reserved a block of rooms at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley Hotel ($169/night). Book your hotel room here. Rooms are available until March 10; however, last year’s hotel block filled up, so don’t wait!
  • Click here  to register for the Summit. View the reception invite here.

Learn more about the Advocacy Summit or the Coalition.

Jan 08
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Q&A: Meet Ashley Logue, who oversees and supports NC charter schools

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Ashley Logue is the executive director of the state’s Office of Charter Schools, a position she has held since 2022. In that role, she oversees and supports North Carolina’s system of public charter schools, providing technical assistance and guidance for currently operating charter schools as well as training for new charter schools. In addition, she serves as a key staff liaison to the North Carolina Charter Schools Review Board.

 She thus has a critical vantage point for assessing and monitoring the success and sustainability of the state’s charter school movement.

 Kristen Blair, the Coalition’s communications director, spoke with Logue about changes in North Carolina’s charter sector, student enrollment challenges, recent mid-year charter school closures, and more. We share the interview below.

Coalition: You’ve been the director of North Carolina’s Office of Charter Schools (OCS) since 2022. How have you seen the state’s charter movement change during your time leading the office?

Ashley Logue: My overall feeling is that the environment continues to become more challenging and complex.

Both from surveys of school leaders and from observations and discussions with leaders, several challenges are frequently noted. Budget constraints remain a primary concern for many schools. This includes serving Exceptional Children within state funding caps, budget instability on state and federal levels, and high costs in general. Facility challenges continue. Finding land and facilities is difficult, but even for long-established schools there are stresses, particularly regarding the costs of expansion and ongoing maintenance. Staffing difficulties—specifically recruiting and retaining quality staff—represent an ongoing challenge across the sector. These issues consistently appear in our conversations with schools and show no signs of diminishing.

As you’ve pointed out before, new charter schools in North Carolina are finding it harder to meet their student enrollment targets. Why is that? 

Logue: Honestly, it’s not just new schools. We’re seeing some more established schools also have a harder time with enrollment. I believe the primary reason is competition. There are a plethora of options now, whether that’s more choice schools, like magnet or charter schools, voucher availability, or more parental interest and openness to things like homeschooling or microschooling.

So, I think parents have a lot more choice, and therefore the schools that might be struggling in some regards are impacted. Maybe they don’t have the facility that the parents prefer or they’re having a lot of teacher turnover. Whatever the case may be, parents are more willing to try an alternative and have more ability to do so than ever before.

What do new charter leaders need to know about the state’s current K-12 landscape? In your view, what needs to change—to the Ready to Open process or in other areas—to position new charter schools for success and sustainability?

Logue: One thing I think [aspiring school leaders need] is better knowledge about what it takes to run a school in today’s environment. I would love to see new schools get funding earlier and schools receive greater funding overall. But I don’t have any control over those things.

What’s probably more actionable is for boards that want to start charter schools to understand how complex it is. We see a lot of new schools where one person wears multiple hats. I just think that’s harder and harder to do because of the complexity of operating and leading charter schools and the sheer volume of things that need to be handled internally with staff and students. Then you also have all of these state-required policies, procedures, and surveys. I’m sure for school leaders, this seems like never-ending paperwork. The regulatory burden has without a doubt increased since I started in this office nearly eight years ago. And to be clear, it is not coming from DPI [the Department of Public Instruction] or OCS. We simply follow legislation or administrative code as to how and what must be submitted to the General Assembly or collected by our office.

I don’t think the boards at some of these newer schools understand that if you put an academic leader in there as a principal with no additional administrative support, they are actually going to spend most of their time managing operations and not have enough capacity to lead teachers or academic programming. That’s not an effective or sustainable model for running a high-quality school.

As you know, the Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB) was forced this year to close two charter schools mid-year, because these schools were operating outside the parameters of state law. There’s a lot of media coverage when schools are forced to close. What’s important for the charter sector and the public to know about these closures?

Logue: It’s important for them to know that while closing a school is never easy, CSRB closely reviews these decisions, always gives boards an opportunity to be heard, and only closes schools when it’s in the best interest of the public. It preserves public taxpayer dollars and ensures that students are in safe, excellent learning environments. Just like OCS, CSRB is required to follow state law regarding charter operations whether that is related to enrollment, financial governance, or academic performance.

So, while it might look negative or chaotic from the outside, I think it shows that the processes we have for accountability and for monitoring charter schools actually work. And hopefully, we continue to learn from closures in a way that leads to better policies and procedures in the authorizing and monitoring of charters.

When we talked in 2022, you mentioned the heightened visibility of the charter movement and the need for accurate stories about charter schools. What would you say now—is that still relevant?

Logue: Yes, it’s definitely still relevant. The majority of media coverage that I see tends to be negative. And that goes for probably all public schools, but definitely for charter schools. There needs to be more highlighting of all of the great work that’s being done, not only with really difficult circumstances—like kids still trying to recover from Covid learning loss or increased mental health and disciplinary issues in schools—but also insufficient funding. Research shows that North Carolina is one of the lowest-funded states for public education. And yet, charter schools are serving diverse student populations, across vastly different geographical regions (and local resources), with unique programming and innovative ways of operating and teaching.

So, I think highlighting the amazing things that schools are doing under those circumstances is really important, rather than constantly picking out the negative. School leaders, teachers, and students deserve to see more of the positive that takes place every day at over 200 charter schools across this state. I also think it’s important for school leaders and board members to understand the role of the General Assembly and be vocal in that regard. Often complaints or concerns I hear from school leaders stem from decisions of our state government. Elected representatives should hear directly from our charter leaders who should advocate for policies and funding that would be beneficial from their unique perspectives.

What still needs to happen in North Carolina’s charter movement to remove barriers to educational opportunity?

 Logue: Access is still hard in some areas. I really think most of that comes down to funding. I’m a big proponent of comprehensive transportation and child nutrition programs in charter schools as avenues of access, and that requires funding and staffing to make work.

So, any way we can try to improve those programs will help give more kids the opportunity to attend great schools.

What do you see as the opportunities ahead for North Carolina’s charter schools?

Logue: There’s an opportunity for collaboration with districts, especially with the challenges that schools are facing now in the way of funding and staffing. I’m not wearing rose-colored glasses, and I don’t necessarily think that’s an easy thing to do. But I do think it’s possible, and that there are ways that districts and charter schools could collaborate.

There’s also an opportunity for continued innovation, whether that’s with our new schools or our established schools that are trying new programs and new processes. All of those represent areas where there’s a lot of space to think of creative out-of-the-box ways of doing things in schools.

We talked about challenges for new schools, but what are some ongoing challenges for the overall charter movement?

Logue: Broadly, funding and staying competitive with their programming. Schools will need to be creative in solving challenges and attracting families with high quality programming.

Read the Coalition’s 2022 article about Logue when she became the OCS director.

Oct 09
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Report to Charter Review Board shares new academic data for charter schools

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At this week’s Charter Schools Review Board meeting, Brandi Gill of the Office of Charter Schools (OCS) shared a new report with disaggregated data on charter schools’ 2024-25 academic performance. “The data represents a collective performance of our charter schools across the state, highlighting both achievements and areas for continued focus,” Gill said. View her presentation.

Report figures reflect data from 206 of 213 charter schools. (Alternative charter schools and schools with insufficient data were excluded.)

Here are highlights for charters’ school performance grades:

  • 30% of charter schools earned A or B grades.
  • Almost 41% received C grades.
  • 29% earned D or F grades.

This screenshot and others in this post are from the OCS presentation, “Academic Data Review: North Carolina Charter Schools 24-25 SY.”

Altogether, 71% of charter schools earned a school performance grade of C or better.

These are the five-year trends:

Here are some highlights on academic growth:

  • 29% of charter schools exceeded growth.
  • 44% met growth.
  • 28% did not meet growth.

These are the five-year growth trends:

Gill also shared “Top 10” lists for school performance grades and growth. We include both of those below.

Here are the trends for continually low performing and low performing schools:

We see quite a few Coalition member schools on the Top 10 lists! Congratulations to our amazing charter schools for their strong performance and growth last year.

Jun 24
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Annual charter report reveals NC’s diversifying charter sector

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This year’s new Annual Charter Schools Report from the Office of Charter Schools (OCS) reveals a diversifying charter sector in North Carolina. (Read an earlier post about the 6% annual uptick in charter enrollment.) Ashley Baquero, the executive director of OCS, shared highlights of the draft report with the Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB) at the CSRB’s monthly meeting on June 9.

Here are some enrollment findings from the report and CSRB presentation:

  • Compared to district schools, charter schools serve a higher percentage of White, Black/African American, and Asian students as well as students of two or more races.
  • Charters serve a lower percentage of Hispanic students. They are similar to district schools in the percentage of American Indian and Pacific Islander students that they serve.
  • Charter students serve a smaller percentage of students with disabilities compared to district schools (11.74% compared to 14.58% in 2024).

Source: Office of Charter Schools, 2024 Annual Charter Schools Report presentation to the CSRB.

Trends in the state’s charter sector

Long term trends outlined in the report show changes in several demographic groups. As the report notes:

In 2010, charter schools primarily served White and Black students (88% combined). By 2024, this had shifted to a much more diverse student body, with significant Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial representation. This transformation suggests that charter schools have become more accessible to or preferred by diverse communities.

The data tells a story of a charter school sector that has fundamentally changed its demographic composition over 14 years, becoming significantly more diverse and reflective of broader demographic changes in the student population.

Source: 2024 Annual Charter Schools Report presentation.

While charter schools still serve lower percentages of economically disadvantaged students than district schools, the gap is narrowing.

Source: 2024 Annual Charter Schools Report presentation.

The annual report provides some explanations for why the gap is narrowing:

The data shows charter schools experienced a much more dramatic increase in economically disadvantaged enrollment (71% relative increase) compared to district schools (10% relative increase). Charter schools are serving a significantly more economically disadvantaged population than they did five years ago. The difference between charter and district schools’ economically disadvantaged populations has decreased from 22 percentage points in 2019 to about 10 percentage points in 2024. Charter schools may be becoming more accessible to lower-income families, or economic conditions may have shifted the demographics of families choosing charter options. It is also very likely that this shift is due to intentional targeting of economically disadvantaged and educationally disadvantaged students through the now-concluded Charters Schools Program grant and the use of weighted lotteries, as well as an emphasis on ensuring that charter school applicant boards intending to serve a diverse population are well-positioned to market to those students and provide access through services such as school nutrition and transportation.

The draft annual report goes next to the State Board of Education for discussion and approval, and then to the N.C. General Assembly.

Read EdNC’s deep dive coverage of the June CSRB meeting, including the annual report.

Above: Shutterstock photo.

Jun 17
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State’s annual charter report shows 6% increase in student enrollment

By News

This year’s Annual Charter Schools Report from the Office of Charter Schools (OCS) is newly out, with important updates and information about the state’s charter school movement. One key data point: The number of students served by the state’s charter schools grew by 6% last year.

OCS shared the draft report with the Charter Schools Review Board at the CSRB’s monthly meeting on June 9. The report goes next to the State Board of Education for discussion and approval, and then on to the North Carolina General Assembly. Read more about the report from the News & Observer.

What are some key findings from the report, and how will they inform political discussions and debates about charter schools? Here’s one key data point that you may see addressed in different ways: For the first time in a number of years, the number of charter schools operating statewide has declined. During the 2024-25 school year, for instance, 208 charter schools served students; the year before, 211 charter schools did.

However, does this mean the state’s charter school movement is diminishing in scope and size? Not at all. The number of students served by charter schools increased from 144,635 students in 2023-24 to 153,480 students in 2024-25. In addition, more than 74,000 students were on charter school waitlists at 161 charter schools at the beginning of this school year.

So, the charter movement continues to grow. Based on the CSRB’s vote last week, at least seven new charter schools will open in the fall.

Here’s a look at some of the school and enrollment data from the report presentation given by Ashley Baquero of the Office of Charter Schools:

Source: “2024 North Carolina Charter Schools Annual Report,” Presentation by Ashley Baquero to the Charter Schools Review Board, June 9, 2025.

Source: “2024 North Carolina Charter Schools Annual Report,” Presentation to the CSRB.

Shutterstock photo above.

Apr 18
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Ten new charter schools are expected to open for 2025-26

By News

Ten new charter schools are slated to open across the state this fall with the advent of the 2025-26 school year.

The state’s Office of Charter Schools shared application numbers to date for each of these 10 schools at the April meeting of the Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB) last week. The CSRB will hear about actual enrollment data at its May meeting.

Here is the list of the 10 new charter schools:

With the addition of these 10 schools, 218 charter schools are expected to operate throughout North Carolina for the 2025-26 school year. This figure includes two fully virtual charter schools–NC Virtual Academy and NC Cyber Academy–that operate statewide. In addition, at least seven charter schools plan to operate remote charter academies in 2025-26, supplementing in-person offerings at their brick and mortar locations in order to meet the needs of families.

Read EdNC’s deep dive coverage of this month’s meeting of the CSRB, including information about the 10 new schools.

Above photo: Shutterstock.

Sep 02
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Ashley Baquero Named as Director of the Office of Charter Schools

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Earlier today, State Superintendent Catherine Truitt named Ashley Baquero as the new director of the Office of Charter Schools. She’ll begin September 6. The Coalition’s spotlight of Ashley is below.

Meet Ashley Baquero

A former teacher and advocate for disadvantaged students will lead OCS

Ashley Baquero is the new director of OCS.

The state’s new director of the Office of Charter Schools brings hands-on classroom experience and a diverse skillset to her role. A member of the OCS team since 2018, Ashley Baquero first began working with the state’s charter school office as an education planning and development consultant. But as she steps into the director role this fall, she’ll also draw on her professional background as a former attorney, Teach for America alum, and teacher of disadvantaged students.

 Ashley’s educational ethos is fueled by this core conviction: Everyone, regardless of background, deserves access to a good education. Her perspective has been shaped indelibly by personal experience. “I grew up with a single parent; neither of my parents was a college graduate,” she says. “I knew that education was the route to progressing as a person, from what you’re born into, so that has always been extremely important to me.”

Education for Ashley included a B.A. from Eckerd College as well as a law degree from the University of Florida. However, subsequent work as an attorney left her unfulfilled, prompting reflection about what she enjoyed. Her epiphany launched a career in education. “It always came back to teaching, which is how I got directed into TFA,” she says.

‘There is no one-size-fits-all educational program’

As a TFA corps member, Ashley taught at a Title I district school in Atlanta, later heading to a grant-funded private school in Clarkston, Georgia, to work with refugee students. In 2015, she moved to Durham, North Carolina, to teach at Maureen Joy Charter School.

Working at schools with high numbers of disadvantaged students bolstered her support for choice. “I believe parents know best, and that every child should have the chance to attend a school that provides a high-quality education,” she says. “There is no one-size-fits-all educational program.”

For charters, greater visibility—and opportunity

Across her seven years in North Carolina, Ashley has seen the state’s charter movement change substantially. The pandemic has accelerated shifts. The movement “has become more visible,” she says. “That can have its pros and cons. As everyone knows, charter schools can be a controversial or political topic. But the growth of parental choice and the movement to charter schools during the pandemic are undeniable.”

Such visibility makes accurate messaging essential. It’s even more important, she says, to ensure “we’re telling accurate stories about charter schools and highlighting the innovations and great things that are happening.” The public needs to understand why families are choosing charter schools.

Heightened visibility is also creating opportunities for charter schools. “Everyone, especially a parent, is thinking: What does education look like for my child, post-Covid, as we progress into this different phase? Charters have a really important role in that conversation—and in helping parents understand the charter community and whether it is a good fit for them,” Ashley says.

Shifting the conversation: Are you for kids?

In addition to sharing accurate information, charters could also have a role in framing the discussion. But there are hurdles ahead: “Often, especially with charter schools, the conversation isn’t about what’s impacting kids. It’s focused on adults or it’s political,” Ashley says. “But it should be about students—about how choice is opening up opportunity for them and impacting their lives.”

“I would love to see a time when the conversation isn’t, ‘Are you for charter schools? Or are you for traditional public schools?’” she adds. “Instead, we should be asking, ‘Are you for kids? Are you for student opportunity?’ I want to open doors for that kind of understanding.”

 At OCS, Ashley says she’ll work to improve access to charter schools and provide help for schools that need it. Equity for charters is also important to her. “I want charter schools to get the support they need—and ensure they’re treated fairly,” she says.

What does she wish charter operators knew about her? “One of my strengths is listening to different viewpoints and trying to find a common thread—bringing opposing viewpoints together to find commonality,” she adds.

“That’s what I want to do with charter schools.”