Aspire Public Schools
41
2
"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: Oakland, CA
Founded: 1999
Mission: Aspire Public Schools' mission is to enrich students' lives and reshape local public school systems by increasing the academic performance of California's diverse students, developing effective educators, and sharing successful practices with other forward-thinking educators.
Tags:
bay area, middle-secondary education, educational management, educational programming, family involvement, educational preparation
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
James Willcox.
In 2009, James Willcox was named Aspire’s second Chief Executive Officer. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Mr. Willcox was Aspire’s Chief Operating Officer. Before joining Aspire, Mr. Willcox was the founding Chief Operating Officer for Education for Change, a nonprofit charter management organization founded to restart underperforming district schools within the Oakland Unified School District. Mr. Willcox has also…
See full bio.
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio:
n/a
Total Revenue:
$63,399,618
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.
Contact Info
Website:
E-Mail:
info AT aspirepublicschools.org
Phone:
510-434-5000
Facebook:
Address:
1001 22nd Avenue
Oakland, CA 94606, USA
Twitter:
Story:
This is Angel’s story, a student at an Aspire Public School:
Angel’s story is typical of many students to come to EPAPA from other districts. More often than not, students like Angel are coming from a background where they are deficient in a great many areas. They are behind the curve academically, emotionally, and socially. The challenge for them is to get back on the right track and start heading towards college.
One of the safe guards to prevent EPAPA students from falling more than a week behind in school work is to attend Thursday Think Tank sessions after school. At the Think Tank, students are required to make up all missed assignments and late work. Sometimes, these students and teachers will be at school as late at 10 or 11 pm. Angel was a constant participant in the sessions during his first couple of months at EPAPA. Many times he was the last student there. “For the first three or four weeks Angel would spend most of the time crying and complaining,” Madson recounted. “Eventually, we had to bring his whole family in as a support mechanism.” Angel’s family made quite a sight at the Thursday sessions. As the youngest member and only boy, Angel had his sisters and parents hovering over him for weeks. His sisters would walk him through math while his parents would sit and help him with other incomplete class work. Despite having his sisters and parents there, little progress seemed to be made.
This particular Thursday Think Tank started out in typical fashion, with Angel fighting his way through the session – still crying and still threatening to leave the school. Until he finished all his work. Early. In fact, he was one of the first students to finish that afternoon. The entire class, realizing a breakthrough had happened, all paused for a moment before giving Angel a standing ovation for his achievement. Not to be outdone, Madson and his staff rushed to Angel and embraced him in a gigantic group bear hug.
Angel is now passing his college preparatory courses and actively talking about college. Although it is still three and half years away, Madson can see the light at the end of the tunnel for Angel. But he also realizes that there is still a long way to go to get him to the end result. “We look at it like a triangle,” Madson said. “To get these kids to college, it takes the school, the family and the students to get them there.” With support both at home and school, Angel now has the framework to continue his journey towards graduation and beyond. He is on the path to college. (Source: http://www.aspirepublicschools.org/newsletter/0309/02.html)
Expert Reviews of Aspire Public Schools
Evidence of Impact Summary:
Aspire Public Schools has produced a replicable model for the successful education of minority and low-income students. They serve thousands of students in 25 schools (in more than 92% of districts in CA), with 67% free and reduced lunch students. Data reveals year over year improvement consistently across all of their schools. Their API across the entire network is 816. When their overall API score is compared to districts with 10+ schools, and 50%+ free and reduced lunch students, Aspire ranks first out of 129 schools. Similarly, when their overall API score is compared to districts with 4000+ students, and 50%+ free and reduced lunch students, Aspire ranks first out of 131 schools. Beyond scores, respondents praise Aspire's emphasis on high-expectations and rigorous programming as drivers of higher achievement. Read their most recent results on impact here: http://aspirepublicschools.org/sites/aspirepublicschools.org/files/2009-2010%20API%20Press%20Release%20-%20Aspire%20Public%20Schools.pdfSee expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Experts repeatedly praise Aspire Public School's leadership, broad presence and efficient operations. From founding members to current leaders, down to their back-end operations, experts applaud the Aspire Public Schools team.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
Respondents believe Aspire could minimize overhead while growing their brand recognition through better marketing. Potential operations improvements were raised, as was boosting teacher recruitment and retention rates. One expert felt Aspire could have a greater impact by targeting fewer "high end" demographics.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
Select the boxes to display the results according to expert type.
Show:
Show:
X
Foundation Professionals (F)
X
Researchers and Faculty (R)
X
Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
X
Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Impact |
|||
|
F
|
Aspire Public Schools operates charter schools in the Bay Area, Central Valley, and Los Angeles. With more than 7,500 students in grades K-12, Aspire has successfully opened 25 schools in the past decade. These schools have a track record of academic excellence, continuous improvement, and huge impact on student lives. | ||
|
F
|
They run 25 schools (in more than 92% of districts in CA), with 67% FRL students. Data reveals year over year improvement consistently across all of their schools. Their API across the entire network is 816. When their overall API score is compared to districts with 10+ schools, and 50%+ FRL, Aspire ranks first out of 129 schools. Similarly, when their overall API score is compared to districts with 4000+ students, and 50%+ FRL, Aspire ranks first out of 131 schools. | ||
|
N
|
Aspire Public Schools foster high-performing charter schools that serve low-income communities of color. | ||
|
N
|
Like KIPP, Aspire has high expectations and strong metrics that have made a tremendous impact on student achievement in their schools. | ||
|
N
|
Aspire Pubic Schools in Oakland and Berkeley serve low-income students have high and exhibits improving API scores. | ||
|
N
|
Aspire Public Schools has produced a replicable model for the successful education of minority and low-income students. They are operating K-5 and 6-12 schools that are universally scoring near or above the 800 API level in neighborhoods of Oakland that have had failing schools for decades. They adjust the calendar to shorten summer break, provide for a longer school day, have a strong focus on reading and math, and are able to train their teachers and principals to meet a growing demand. | ||
|
N
|
Their students show increasing high school graduation rates and increasing numbers of graduates going onto college. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
Select the boxes to display the results according to expert type.
Show:
Show:
X
Foundation Professionals (F)
X
Researchers and Faculty (R)
X
Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
X
Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Leadership |
|||
|
F
|
Aspire Public Schools has an excellent Board, a wise and balanced leadership team, and a robust culture of continuous improvement. | ||
|
N
|
They are goal oriented and have strong leadership. | ||
|
N
|
Aspire Public Schools have an excellent staff. They're remarkable people doing the back office work and they have a clear model. | ||
|
N
|
Aspire has had inspirational leadership from its founder Don Shalvey that has now passed to a new team headed by James Wilcox. It has created an excellent staff development program for teachers and principals that allow it grow and replicate steadily. | ||
|
N
|
Leadership and vision made Aspire an early leader and they seem to be doing well. | ||
Scale |
|||
|
F
|
They have a strong, hybrid leadership team, and great reach across CA despite starting in and establishing a significant number of schools in the Bay Area. | ||
|
F
|
Aspire Public Schools have the ability to harness economies of scale that promote easier scalability. | ||
|
N
|
They have good fundraising and financial acumen to support aggressive expansion into areas of need. Furthermore, they have good leadership that works effectively with local school districts. | ||
|
O
|
They are extremely strong in terms of having developed a well-articulated educational approach and they have demonstrated the ability to scale across multiple district contexts. | ||
Strong Operations |
|||
|
N
|
Aspire Public Schools are relatively strong and well-run as charter management organizations go. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
Select the boxes to display the results according to expert type.
Show:
Show:
X
Foundation Professionals (F)
X
Researchers and Faculty (R)
X
Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
X
Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Marketing |
|||
|
F
|
Aspire Public Schools could improve upon their marketing/communications. Their brand and performance are not as well-known as they might be given their results. | ||
Management scale |
|||
|
N
|
Given their size, Aspire should have achieved some significant streamlining and economies of scale in management. These seem to be still in progress. Also, Aspire is in replication mode rather than innovating at this stage. | ||
Talent management |
|||
|
N
|
They could do a better job recruiting and retaining teachers. | ||
Invoice payment |
|||
|
N
|
My only negative experience with Aspire is that it sometimes takes a long time to pay invoices. | ||
Better target participants |
|||
|
N
|
They serve a relatively "high end" student demographic and its use of feeder patterns allows it to concentrate on a stable student population that is easier to serve than what most districts and stand-alone charter schools serve. | ||
Leadership
James Willcox
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Executive Officer
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.