Why Charter Schools Are a Smart Choice for New Principals

As you’re working through the details of your principalship journey—which educational leadership program to consider and whether you’re planning to “learn while you earn” by continuing with your teaching job while getting your credentials—there’s another important decision to make: what environment might be the best place for me as a new principal?

At New Leaders, we’ve worked with and trained aspiring principals across various types of schools, and we’ve observed the many advantages charter schools can offer, especially for those just embarking on their school leadership journey. 

Understanding charter schools: a brief overview

For most of us, it’s safe to say that a public school education was part of our upbringing. This tracks with the most recent U.S. Census Bureau survey data from the 2021-2022 school year, which reports that 83% of the country’s roughly 54.6 million students in pre-K through 12th grade are enrolled in traditional public schools. 10% of the country’s students are enrolled at private schools, and 7% are enrolled in public charter schools. 

The charter school movement in the United States began in the early 1990s, with the state of Minnesota passing the first charter school law in 1991, followed by California a year later. Nearly 35 years later, charter schools now operate in 45 states as well as the District of Columbia. It's a corner of the education landscape that continues to grow. 

Nearly 35 years later, charter schools now operate in 45 countries as well as the District of Columbia. It's a corner of the education landscape that continues to grow. 

Charter schools are publicly funded, independently-operated schools established under a charter—essentially a performance contract that outlines the school’s mission, program, goals, and methods of assessment—with an authorizing body such as a state education agency, local education agency (LEAs), university, or independent non-profit. These schools receive public funding but operate with more autonomy than traditional school districts in exchange for increased accountability. 

Here are a few additional details about charter schools: 

• Open enrollment: As public schools, charters cannot select students based on academic ability, and typically use lotteries when applications exceed available spaces.
• Freedom from certain regulations: While still required to meet state academic standards and participate in assessment systems, charter schools often receive waivers from various regulations governing traditional public schools.
• Diverse educational approaches: Charter schools frequently offer distinctive educational models, from Montessori or STEM-focused to dual-language immersion or arts integration.

It’s this position in the educational landscape—combining public funding with operational independence—that creates opportunities for school leaders, particularly those new to the principalship. We’ll be talking about a few of those below:

Greater autonomy and decision-making

When we talk with New Leaders alumni who have gone into charter school leadership, one of the most significant draws to the work is the autonomy it affords. Unlike many traditional public schools, charter school principals often enjoy greater freedom from district bureaucracy and standardized procedures and systems. This autonomy is especially compelling when it comes to: 

• Curriculum development: Being a charter school leader means being able to implement instructional approaches tailored to student needs without having to navigate an extensive district approval process. Charter principals can select or design curriculum frameworks that directly address their student population's specific needs, whether that means adopting rigorous college prep materials, specialized literacy programs, or culturally-responsive content.
• Staffing decisions: The charter school design allows you to build a team that’s aligned with the school’s mission and vision through more flexible hiring practices, like being able to recruit teachers with specialized skills or experiences, create non-traditional roles to address specific school needs, and establish professional development that supports the school's educational approach.
• Budget allocation: Directing resources toward the school's most pressing priorities without rigid district formulas dictating spending. Charter principals can often shift funding quickly to emerging needs, invest more heavily in priority areas like technology or arts programming, and create innovative compensation structures to attract and retain top teachers and specialists. 
• School culture creation: Being able to build school norms, traditions, and values from the ground up rather than inheriting long-standing institutional cultures is another reason leaders have loved their time at charter schools. This includes designing school-wide systems for student behavior and support, creating meaningful rituals that build community, and implementing alternative approaches to family engagement.

Mission-driven school communities

As charter schools typically form around distinct educational philosophies or approaches—a STEM/STEAM focus, Montessori, arts-based, dual-language, or many more—it makes sense that schools like this are mission-centered and create strong communities based on common values.

For new principals, this means working alongside teachers and other educators who have specifically chosen a particular school’s approach. It also means that you’ll engage with families who have actively selected the school’s educational model—and therefore have a higher level of engagement. Parent involvement in charter schools extends beyond traditional parent-teacher associations or volunteers to include substantive input on school development and community outreach. 

What does this mean for you as a new school leader? It means that you’ll be able to build programs that align deeply with your own personal education philosophy, leading with an authentic commitment to a vision that’s shared by everyone in the community. It also means that when tough choices come up, you can return to your school’s founding mission as your North Star. 

What does this mean for you as a new school leader? It means that you’ll be able to build programs that align deeply with your own personal education philosophy, leading with an authentic commitment to a vision that’s shared by everyone in the community. 

Accelerated leadership development

Because of the design and size of charter schools, a principalship here means jumping into the deep end of the educational leadership pool—in a great way. Where traditional public school principals might take years to access the full breadth of on-the-job training and skill acquisition that the principalship requires, new charter school principals frequently develop skills across multiple domains simultaneously. 

Not only are charter school principals deeply engaged with curriculum and school-wide teaching methods, there’s also no shortage of operational management (overseeing facilities, coordinating transportation and food service), financial planning and development (setting and managing budgets, periodic fundraising), board governance (working directly with the governing body of your school), and strategic planning. This kind of accelerated development gives you the opportunity to build a robust leadership portfolio in the span of a few years—preparing you for a role in another school system or a future education leadership role. 

Innovation and flexibility

The charter school model’s inherent flexibility—and less bureaucratic restraints—creates plenty of space for school leaders to innovate. New principals can implement initiatives like creative scheduling to maximize learning time, pilot new instructional approaches, and establish new ways of partnering with families and community entities. 

Even better—because you’re not operating in a standardized system, it’s easier to test and make quick adjustments to these initiatives based on results. Or, when your data suggests a need, there are less layers to peel back in order to make a change—allowing you to make significant programming changes when needed. 

So, is charter leadership right for you?

A principalship at a charter school will be a great fit if you value autonomy, have a strong educational vision that you’re looking to bring to life in an accelerated way, thrive in entrepreneurial environments, and are motivated by community impact. 

As research from our partners at City Fund—a nonprofit organization that partners with organizations like New Leaders to develop leadership talent for schools in their focus cities—proves, effective leadership is a key driver of charter school success. Our National Aspiring Principals Fellowship program is an ideal way to get the specialized preparation for charter school leadership that you’ll want to have through rigorous coursework, cohort learning, and hands-on residency or internship experiences. 

Jeffrey Monroe, a New Leaders Fellowship alum and former high school chemistry teacher turned current principal at Promise Academy Hollywood in Memphis, Tennessee, credits his Fellowship experience with him being prepared to lead adults in an educational setting and drive change: “All the practitioner classes in the Fellowship are critically important…but managing change, shifting mindsets, and creating conditions for the deepest level of learning, not just for students but teachers as well, I was super prepared to do that work.”

To learn more about how the New Leaders National Aspiring Principals Fellowship can prepare you for transformational charter school leadership, visit https://www.fellowship.newleaders.org/landing-pages/city-fund-napf