Peter Frumkin, Annie E. Casey Foundation
October 2003
Starting and running a decent charter school is a consuming labor of love. It's common for charter operators, especially the mom and pop variety, to work 80 hours a week and still not get everything done. As they must give top priority to their schools' survival, few have the time to think strategically about how their efforts are ultimately geared towards creating a viable high-performing organization. The absence of long term strategy carries a cost, however, often including a failure to develop strong management skills. This is the central point made in this excellent Annie E. Casey report by Peter Frumkin: quality management requires strategic thinking. Frumkin, a professor at Harvard's JFK School of Government, has basically created a how-to guide to effective strategic management. The report is just 32 pages in four parts: the elements of strategy, stages of school development, school management, and performance measurement. Frumkin's model is designed, in his words, "to give those interested in improving the quality of charter school management a usable model to frame and focus this important work." For a charter school to be effective over the long haul, someone in the leadership team must take the time to think strategically. For such people, this report is mandatory reading. To get a copy, surf to http://www.aecf.org/publications/data/createnewschoolspages.pdf.
