Implementation Description

American Renaissance School (ARS) located in Statesville, NC has a longstanding partnership with the Circle School, a local organization that provides More at Four pre-K programming and pre-school on a sliding scale based on need. Many families at the Circle school are economically disadvantaged, and at least 60% of the families enrolled are not native English speakers.  According to a report from The Century Foundation, multilingual families often are unable to take advantage of charter school options, because they lack important information about charter school options and/or charter school enrollment policies (Williams, 2019). Therefore, ARS chose to leverage their existing partnership with the Circle School to reach the Latino community and share opportunities for their children at ARS.

The Circle School has two locations within two miles of the ARS campus which allows for a variety of partnership experiences between the two schools. Prior to COVID, these ranged from ARS student visits to Circle School classrooms where they planned age appropriate learning activities and games for the preschoolers. At other times, they went to the school on workdays to help clean and sanitize toys or spread mulch on the playground or even pick up trash on the campus. The NC ACCESS grant provided an opportunity for (ARS) to expand the existing partnership. Staff from both schools met to brainstorm ways for families of rising kindergarteners to learn more about ARS. This team included a bilingual ARS parent who teaches at Circle School as well as a bilingual alumni of ARS. ARS chose these team members, because “Stakeholders are the best recruiters.” Research shows “60% of parents hear about a school by a trusted referral” (Perez, 2017; The Education Policy Center, 2015). This team decided to host an open house at ARS which started when parents were picking up their pre-schoolers. 

During the Circle School’s afternoon dismissal, families were invited to pick up their child and head to ARS for pizza, provided by Circle School. Following a pizza dinner, families attended an information session and toured the facilities. The school staff shared information in both Spanish and English throughout the event, and childcare was provided for families who needed it. Finally, bilingual ARS alumni assisted families who were interested in enrolling their children at ARS by providing iPads and technical support as they navigated the registration process. 

Results

Thirteen of the Circle School families attended the Open house at ARS and 12 of these families registered their child for kindergarten; 6 were accepted and 6 are on the waitlist. 

The student demographics have shifted considerably since the 2019-20 school year as evidenced by the data in the table to the left.

Challenges

Given that ARS already had an established partnership with the Circle School, there were few challenges. The logistics of scheduling a time that fit everyone’s schedule was likely the most complicated part of the process. The team agreed to take advantage of dismissal at Circle School as an easy way to encourage families to attend the Open House by offering dinner and the information sessions before families headed home for the evening.

Future Modifications

ARS would like to offer more than one Open House opportunity in the future while exploring the possibility of a different time slot during the day. They are considering an option during the breakfast hour in order to accommodate those parents who work third shift or have a conflict in the evening.

ARS intends to translate more of their print marketing materials into Spanish. Additionally, there are a number of other day care centers located near ARS, so it would be easy to expand this Open House model to include these centers as well.

Critical Components

Getting Started

A strong mutually beneficial partnership with Circle School ensured staff buy-in. This was important to successfully promote the event. 

The personal connection through the bilingual parent of a kindergartener who teaches at Circle School provided another way for families to learn about the school in an authentic manner.

Ongoing Supports

An intentional focus on reducing barriers that may prevent interested families from attending, such as offering child care, dinner and interpreters for non-English speaking families is essential for continued successful recruitment efforts.

Equity Connections

The NC Latino population increased by 25% in the last decade (Tippets, 2019).Therefore, charter schools seeking to respond to this growth must adapt their recruitment efforts to meet the needs of the Latino population. Intentionally diverse schools should plan their marketing strategies to build upon existing community partnerships with organizations who have already established trusted connections with the Latino population. Engaging with local organizations has been shown to be an effective way of reaching multilingual families simply because they are likely to have a detailed understanding of the social networks within these communities and therefore, are better able to support recruitment efforts (Williams, 2019). Additionally, face to face recruitment efforts are likely the best way to reach underserved populations, as they often have limited access to online resources (Safal, 2016).

Research

1.     Perez, Juan. (September 20,2017). “6 Keys For An Effective Charter School Student Recruitment Campaign”. Hybrid. Accessed on April 5, 2022. Retrieved From http://blog.highbrid.com/6-keys-for-an-effective-charter-school-student-recruitment-campaign

2.     Safal Partners: Kern, N. (2016). “Intentionally Diverse Charter Schools: A Toolkit for Charter School Leaders”. Retrieved from https://charterschoolcenter.ed.gov/sites/default/files/files/field_publication_attachment/NCSRC%20Intentionally%20Diverse%20Charter%20School%20Toolkit.pdf

3.     The Education Policy Center. (2015). “How Latino Parents Engage with School Choice”. Retrieved from https://edwp.educ.msu.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2015/04/Research-summary-2015-Mavrogordato-Latino-parents-and-school-choice.pdf

4.     Tippett, Rebecca. (December 2019). “North Carolina’s Hispanic Community: 2019 Snapshot”. Retrieved from https://www.ncdemography.org/2019/09/26/north-carolinas-hispanic-community-2019-snapshot/

5.     Williams,Connor P. (April 29, 2019). “English Learners and School Choice: Helping Charter Schools Serve Multilingual Families”. The Century Foundation. Accessed on April 5, 2022. Retrieved from https://tcf.org/content/report/english-learners-school-choice-policies-delivering-charter-schools-equity-potential/?agreed=1

6.     United States Census Bureau. “Quick Facts North Carolina”. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/NC/PST045219

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