Charter School Scale-Up: Managing Fidelity and Adaptation

Green Dot Public Schools (GDPS) is the largest and best-funded Charter Management Organization in the state of California serving more than 7000 economically disadvantaged children of color in Los Angeles. The original school, Ánimo Leadership, opened in 2000 and by 2004 the GDPS brand and model was scaled-up to five total sites forming the "Founding Five Schools". The next phase of expansion occurred in 2006 as Green Dot doubled in size when it opened the five "Jefferson Transformation Project" schools in East LA. One year later, the third scale-up phase added another eight schools in Watts known collectively as the "Locke Transformation Project". The GDPS model and brand was finally scaled-up across the nation in 2008 when Green Dot New York opened its doors in the South Bronx. In the context of this rapid scale-up, this case study investigated the phenomenon of the inherent tension between maintaining the fidelity of the original model school's design, culture and values with local adaptation of the brand by stakeholders at the expansion sites. 28 Green Dot stakeholders were interviewed and a co-research team composed of eight members from four different school clusters volunteered to help guide the study as well as analyze and check the validity of the emerging findings and interpretations. Ultimately, this study aimed to assist Green Dot in increasing student achievement by formulating recommended practices that will most effectively assure implementation of its core values and brand at all expansion schools. This case study should be of interest to leaders of Charter Management Organizations planning to scale-up their model and brand to multiple sites.