Rockford Public Schools

Case Study: Authorizer Supports and Renewal Site Visits

Rockford Public Schools (RPS) in Rockford, Illinois is a district serving approximately 28,000 students through 44 schools, including three charter schools. The district authorizer contracted SchoolWorks in 2018 to assist in developing resources and tools to support key authorizing processes.

The Challenge

• Identify areas of need, provide capacity-building support, and evaluate progress against criteria from the National Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizers.
• Expand the district’s approach to meeting all students’ needs by exploring the concept of portfolio management.
• Support the development of documented processes, resources and tools to support high-quality authorizing.

SchoolWorks Approach

• SchoolWorks experts partnered with RPS stakeholders to refine and improve the Rockford Public Schools Renewal Application and Process.
• A SchoolWorks charter school finance expert supported the creation and implementation of the following deliverables:
  • An annual audit template for schools
  • A budget/quarterly report template for schools
  • A dashboard tool that displayed multi-year annual audit and budget/quarterly information and analysis in addition to graphical representations of key ratios and totals
• SchoolWorks collaborated with RPS stakeholders to develop tools and policies to guide authorizing oversight practices in accordance with state law, resulting in an established authorizer practices handbook.
• The SchoolWorks team co-facilitated school site visits with RPS staff to support both oversight and renewal decision-making. To build capacity among the Rockford team, SchoolWorks provided training to all team members in advance of the visits.
• At the end of each visit, SchoolWorks provided a virtual debrief to RPS team members to provide guidance and feedback on the process.

Results

The partnership began with a needs assessment in 2018 aligned to national standards for charter school authorizing to understand the authorizer’s current state. In 2024, SchoolWorks administered the same assessment to understand how the district authorizer had progressed in elevating its oversight practices. Data was collected via document review, and interviews/focus groups with stakeholders.

What follows are the findings from the 2024 evaluation:

• The authorizer prioritized building relationships with its schools.All stakeholders described the strong relationships between the Authorizer and the charter schools. District leaders highlighted the intensive efforts of the Authorizer staff over the recent years to support the district in understanding and working with its charter schools.
• The authorizer established and consistently utilized its policies and protocols.The creation of the Authorizer Handbook allowed for documentation of policies and practices and communication with all relevant stakeholders. Additionally, all stakeholders reported that they consistently referenced and used the Authorizer Handbook.
• The 2024 authorizer evaluation showed significant growth from 2018 in four major domain areas,as outlined by the graph below – Staffing Capacity and Resources, Performance Contracting, Ongoing Oversight and Evaluation, and Revocation and Renewal Decision Making.

Dates: 2018-2024