Fordham believes that a successful charter school is academically effective, fiscally sound, and organizationally viable, and that such schools should be allowed to operate freely and without interference. In return for these essential freedoms, however, charters are to be held accountable for their academic, fiscal, and operational results. Holding schools accountable for results is the sponsor's most solemn responsibility.
Fordham focuses its sponsorship efforts on overseeing and evaluating the performance of the schools we sponsor, a view of sponsorship that is also supported by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.
Fordham's Oversight Responsibilities
The essential responsibilities of Fordham as a charter-school sponsor include:
• monitoring and evaluating the compliance of each Fordham-sponsored school with all laws and rules applicable to it;
• monitoring and evaluating the educational and fiscal performance, organizational soundness, and effective operation of the school;
• monitoring and evaluating the contractual commitments that the schools have made with the Fordham, above all their academic performance; and
• providing technical assistance to Fordham-sponsored schools in complying with all laws and rules applicable to community schools.
Monitoring and Oversight
Fordham uses school site visits, regular communication with school leaders, and an online document database, the Authorizer Oversight Information System (AOIS) to execute its compliance oversight responsibilities. Fordham's compliance monitoring is also informed by the Ohio Department of Education, which conducts periodic reviews of academic and financial data reported to the state through regional data sites and shares these reviews with sponsors.
Site visits: As per state law, Fordham conducts two formal school site visits per school, per year, while classes are in session, and a third is conducted each summer prior to the commencement of classes for the new school year. Site visits consist of one to two days at the school facility, during which time Fordham’s site visit team observes classes, reviews documents, and meets with teachers, school leadership and sometimes members of the school’s governing authority. The governing authority is issued a report within thirty days that contains findings from the visit, and Fordham staff attend the next regularly scheduled board meeting to discuss the contents of each report.
Authorizer Information Oversight System (AOIS): In partnership with Corporate Computer, Inc., and Central Michigan University, in 2005 Fordham became the first Ohio sponsor to implement AOIS, a web-based document management and tracking system. Fordham customized the system for its sponsored schools, and Fordham’s AOIS system tracks the compliance status of each school and makes key documents associated with the school readily available. Schools submit documentation year-round, thereby allowing continual oversight by Fordham staff, which review the submissions for compliance. In addition to its compliance capabilities, AOIS also functions as a document archiving system for Fordham and its sponsored schools.
For additional information on the AOIS system, please see http://www.aois.us/.
Technical Assistance
Fordham encourages the schools it sponsors to solve problems themselves. It provides such encouragement via regular communications, notices, and, when necessary, limited interventions (such as putting a school on probation). In addition, Fordham offers referrals to competent sources of technical assistance. Within the limits of its resources and competence, Fordham provides some technical assistance itself, when needed and as required by law, to its sponsored schools. On occasion, Fordham has also provided modest grant support to its sponsored schools to assist them in undertaking targeted activities and programs. It has also provided schools with free sponsorship so limited state dollars can be used by the school to improve its instructional program.
Fordham, however, is a charter-school sponsor and not a vendor of services to the schools it sponsors. Thus Fordham does not require any schools it sponsors to purchase or utilize any specific services from Fordham or any specific vendors or school operators. Fordham receives no funding or payments from schools or the state beyond the sponsorship fees paid by the schools (which under state law cannot exceed three percent of a school's per-pupil funding). We believe that an inherent and improper conflict of interest arises whenever a sponsor is also a paid vendor of services to the schools that it sponsors. The sponsor's appropriate role is to point schools seeking specific services to competent providers of such services but to play no role in a school's decisions about which services (if any) to procure from which providers.