Starting a school chain:key factors to

considerSpring 2014

Introduction

This is an executive summary of our guidance on starting a school chain. It provides an overview of the key decisions you will need to make when considering the nature of your chain.

This summary should be used in conjunction with the full guidance available on NSN’s website. This provides more information about what you need to consider when making these decisions and examples of how Academy chains in the UK and Charter School Management Organisations in the US have approached them.

The full guidance has been developed by Meera Shah, MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, in association with New Schools Network and with the generous support of a number of school chains in both the US and the UK.

If you have any questions about this guidance or about how NSN can help you develop your plans further, please contact us through open@newschoolsnetwork.org

Issues to consider when establishing a chain

Before you commit to starting a chain, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons… Genuine desire to improve educational opportunities for children directly through the school system Financial sustainability Personal legacy Improved career trajectories for existing staff Greater voice in the educational debate Improved access to philanthropic funds Help build a better brand (enabling improved staff recruitment and retention)

Scale, variance and control

When starting a school chain, you need to consider 3 key issues:

Scale How large do you want your chain to become?

Variance How large do you want your chain to become?

ControlHow large do you want your chain to become?

3

You can use the decision grid in the ‘Tools’ section to help record your choices to these questions.

Your approach to these 3 issues will affect the nature of your chain and how it is organised in a number of ways (I)

Culture

Norms and behaviours in the organisation; everyone’s shared understanding of “how things work around here”

—Examples include attitudes about accountability, orientation towards students and staff, conflict resolution methods, the approach with stakeholders

Defines how work gets done; includes how people are organised, who has responsibility and accountability for results and who makes or influences decisions

—Formal structures are deliberately established forms that can be either relatively permanent or temporary (eg, organisational chart, task forces, cross-functional teams)

—Informal structures and power are garnered and reinforced through social networks; usually earned or developed through tenure, expertise or competence

Structures

Your approach to these 3 issues will affect the nature of your chain and how it is organised in a number of ways (II)

Systems

Processes and procedures through which work gets done; purpose is to increase efficiency and effectiveness in implementing strategy

—Often built around functions such as career development and promotion, compensation, student assignment, resource allocation, accountability

Organisational resources includes areas such as human capital, physical assets (e.g. technology) and finances

—People are the most valuable asset representing ~80% of a school’s budget—Technology is important both to fulfil external reporting demands as well as to

support organisational processes (e.g., enabling teachers and administrators to use data to make better instructional decisions)

Leaders must allocate the full range of resources in ways which are coherent with their organisation’s strategy in order to implement it effectively

Resources

Your approach to these 3 issues will affect the nature of your chain and how it is organised in a number of ways (II)

Stakeholders

People and groups inside and outside the organisation who have a legitimate interest in the system and can influence it’s

effectiveness—Examples includes teachers’ unions, parents, students, governors,

community and advocacy groups, local politicians and policymakers

Measure of an organisation’s success in formulating and delivering an integrated strategy

—Includes areas such as student test scores, Ofsted reportsPerformance

Scale: How large do you want your chain to become?

A Small Chain (>10 schools) — Set up as a small collection of individual

schools with limited central resource— Can operate on existing systems and

within existing structures— May have some variance from original

school(s) – eg, different grade levels, or different student needs served

Examples include:

A Large Chain (<10 schools) — Diverse set of schools (eg, different

geographies, grade levels, student needs etc.) often bound together by multiple layers of central resource

— Requires considerably more support, structures and systems than for a single (or a small number of) school(s)

Examples include:

Variance: How much do you want your schools to differ?

Key Questions

Geographic Variance— In what range of

geographic locations do you aim to establish your schools - close or disparate?

— How will this evolve as your grow?

Age Range Variance —What grade levels

will you initially serve?

—Will you only focus on these or will you expand?

—At what size will you expand?

Variance in student need— Will you aim to serve

particular types of students?

— If so, what will you focus on (eg, minority, low-income, faith etc.)?

Example Range

High variance High variance High variance

Low variance Low varianceLow variance

Disparate geographies; multiple single site operations

Few geographic clusters, each with multiple schools

Multiple grade levels served; students aged 5-18

Focused on a narrow set of grade levels

Wide array of students (eg, special education, English as a second language etc.)

Actively targeted towards a particular demographic / type

Control: How much do you want your chain to control the governance, resources and pedagogy of individual schools

aPermissive

Schools in the chain collaborate

but there is no shared governance

Each school has its own separate

governance but share governance

of some resources, services, support and leadership

Schools with shared

governance with shared executive

leadership, management,

support and back office services.

Schools with shared

governance with shared executive

leadership, management,

support and back office services and a shared pedagogical

model.

Schools with shared governance and some shared

support and services but each

separately accountable to distinct boards.

May operate on a geographical basis or may be linked by a shared educational ethos and

mission

Prescriptive

Pedagogical chainExecutive chainNon-executive

chainFamily or

PartnershipInformal

collaborative

May or may not be located on a close geographical basis

Schools either located on a close geographical basis or organised into

geographical clustersSource: National College

a

3

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Tools: Decision Making Grid

What is your proposed approach?

What are the associated

challenges?

How do you plan to mitigate against

these?

Type of network- Extension of

single school vs. multiple schools

Degree of variance- Geographic, age

range, student need

Control balance between central office and individual schools

You can use the grid below to think through how your decisions will affect the type of school chain you create:

Further Information Full Guidance This executive summary is designed to be used in conjunction with the full guidance we have produced on starting a school chain, which can be found here.Other guidance This guidance focusses mainly on the operational infrastructure of school chains. NSN has produced a number of guidance documents which you will find helpful when thinking about how the governance model which sits behind your school may need to change, including:

— Governance Structures: Multi-Academy Trusts – which sets out the key questions Multi-Academy Trusts need to consider when deciding on governance structures; and

— Governance models and challenges for Free Schools - which sets out the governance options open to those who wish to start a Free School chain.

Individual supportNSN’s operations specialists are available to speak to Free Schools in the initial stages of starting a Free School chain. Please contact open@newschoolsnetwork.org for more details. Academy sponsorshipOne way to grow a school chain is by sponsoring existing schools through the DfE’s Academy Sponsorship programme. There are also opportunities for Academy sponsors to receive funding to expand their operation through the Sponsor Capacity Fund. Please contact academies.sponsorship@education.gsi.gov.uk for more details