A new charter school incubator is set to open in Nashville. The program will first focus on training principals who want to open schools in Davidson County. After that, it plans to expand to working with charter school applicants across the state.
The goal of the center is to help charter schools start off strong by putting their principals through intense training. Matt Candler lead a similar program in New Orleans. He’ll manage the incubator as it gets its start in Nashville.
“These principals in training will be based here for at least a year ahead of opening their doors to children.”
Candler also says a key aspect to preparing new charter school leaders is having them visit schools in other cities that have successfully raised test scores and steered students towards college.
“Those are places where we’ll send our residents, who are based in Nashville for week, two-week, three-week internships.”
The Center for Charter School Excellence will operate as a private non-profit, although it already has close ties to Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and Metro Schools. It will open with financial backing from Dean’s Education First Fund, which raises money from the private sector. The fund was created last year to gather start-up money for two teacher recruitment programs.
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