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Supporting students with disabilities in high-quality charter schools

We want to expand the number of high-quality public charter schools that are focused on improving outcomes for Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty who also have high-incidence disabilities. We use a continuous improvement process to identify and refine promising practices that result in dramatic gains for our target student population. Our goal is to learn from emerging bright spots and to develop change packages that have the potential to spread promising practices across our pilot charter networks and beyond.

Charter Students with Disabilities Pilot Community Initiative

We support a cohort of 10 charter management organizations (CMOs) that work together with a common aim of improving the systems, learning experiences, and outcomes for their middle and high school students with disabilities.

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Public charter schools are one important tool that can improve student learning—especially when their most successful practices are expanded to reach even more students. Supporting student achievement in high-quality charter schools is a key element of success in K-12 education.
When we consider that one in five children in the United States have learning and attention issues, only 20% of students with disabilities nationally score at proficient levels on state assessments, and on average fewer than 70% earn a high school diploma within four years, it is clear that more can be done to tap into their strengths and potential. More critical is the compounding effect that race and class have on students in special education, which creates an experience gap between these students and their peers. This is why we have prioritized students with disabilities who are Black, Latino, and experiencing poverty.
We focus on shifting leader mindsets, improving data capacity, and applying principles of continuous improvement to achieve dramatic gains for our target population of students. Our goal is to identify and refine promising practices that improve outcomes for our target population of students.
While our short-term goals are for promising practices to spread within our pilot community networks, our broader hope is to affect the field of special education writ large so as to close the opportunity gaps for students at the intersection of race, class, and ability.

Investment Priorities

Our charter school investments focus on the following areas:

Expanding the Number of Student Seats

Catalyze expansion to 10,000 seats in high-quality public charter schools in communities with a high proportion of Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty.

Improving Collaboration

We are learning about new and innovative approaches to spur collaboration between traditional public schools and public charter schools using new and innovative approaches.

Learning About Effective Models and Approaches

Support our Network Improvement Community’s continuous improvement process to iterate and refine promising practices that result in positive outcomes for students with disabilities in the areas of math, ELA, student engagement, and transitions.

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