Overview

In 2001, as a direct response to the increasingly alarming educational outcomes of Latino students and to the growing involvement of NCLR Affiliates in offering educational services and programs to students in their communities, NCLR launched a visionary and ambitious initiative to support the development of 50 charter schools throughout the country. These 50 new schools form part of a larger network of existing NCLR-affiliated charter and alternative schools, with a total of 100 schools. As a means to significantly increase educational opportunities and high school graduation rates for Latinos, the NCLR Charter School Development Initiative advocates for the academic success of Latino students.

Founded on the notion that the community is best positioned to impact the education of children, NCLR has worked closely with community-based organizations (CBOs) to establish and strengthen a network of schools that delivers quality educational services to Latino students, are responsive to parents and communities, empower and support teachers, and result in measurable improvements in student achievement. As the engine behind the Latino charter school movement, CBOs aim to create schools that are more conducive to the success of students, where the traditional public schools have failed, by paying special attention to the linguistic needs of English language learners. CBOs provide critical academic and social services to children and adults not served, or poorly served, by mainstream schools and government agencies. They offer low-cost pre-school programs, after-school services for youth, and an array of adult literacy, ESL, and job training opportunities. NCLR believes that this holistic approach to education can best meet the unique and varied academic and non-academic needs of Latino students, including those related to language and culture.

At the end of 2005, NCLR met its ambitious goal of assisting CBOs in opening 50 new charter schools throughout the United States. Together these schools form a network of small, community-based, charter and alternative schools that embraces the low-income, Latino, and English-language-learner (ELL) students who face daily challenges of distinct learning needs and can be ill-served by traditional public schools and mainstream agencies. The NCLR school network serves communities in 16 states and the District of Columbia. This network includes a diverse mix of start-up charter schools, conversion charter schools, and alternative schools serving students from preschool to grade 12. All schools have a majority Latino population and a high percentage of ELL students; and many serve adjudicated youth and former dropouts.

Services

Charter School Start-Up Grants: NCLR has provided millions of dollars to the 50 new charter schools in its network. These funds are targeted to assist community groups during the exploratory phase of the first two years of operation.

Training and Professional Development: NCLR continues to provide numerous opportunities for the charter school network to participate in professional development and training activities. Regional as well as national events are held every year to offer information, resources, and expert instruction on issues that face the Latino student population.

Technical Assistance: When appropriate, NCLR engages in targeted technical assistance with schools. This can happen with individual schools or as part of small clusters. The purpose of this support is to not only address specific needs of individual schools, but also to develop the schools’ ability to mentor and support each other in their shared mission.

Moving Forward

At this important juncture in the network’s development, when the schools are moving from start-up phase to full implementation, NCLR aims to support their development and support the success of their students. To this end, NCLR is not currently providing new start-up school grants and is instead focusing on providing rigorous training, professional development, and technical assistance to schools with the ultimate goal of increasing Latino student achievement.