You can be the solution

It’s an absolute fact: an academic gap exists between urban students and their more affluent peers. In cities large and small, on both coasts and in middle America, urban students have been under-served by our educational system.

As a Building Excellent Schools Fellow, you can be a catalyst for changing the status of urban schools. If you have the drive, capacity, and skills to successfully build excellent urban charter schools, then you’ll find a home at BES where we’ve had a simple mission since 1993: close the achievement gap for students in urban centers.

We’ve been exceedingly successful in carrying out our mission because of the critical freedom and accountability inherent in charter schools; our steadfast commitment to academic achievement as the primary driver of every aspect of a school’s functioning; and our determination to locate, train, and support those individuals who are driven to start a school and close the gap.

BES Schools are your schools

Unique among charter school organizations, BES Schools are free-standing and locally controlled. That means you’re in charge of virtually every detail pertaining to your school.

As you progress through your BES Fellowship, you’ll be trained to develop the founding board; engage stakeholder support; and make critical design decisions when writing the charter application.

With the training and follow-on support of Building Excellent Schools, you’ll learn how to build an independently managed charter school that you’ll lead once it opens. You’ll be operating with the confidence that comes from school design training at BES, rooted in the 10 indisputable, shared characteristics of every high-performing urban charter school.

Building Excellent Schools is a national organization with more than a decade of experience training leaders to found independently managed urban charter schools. BES Fellows have founded more than 40 schools across the country. Many schools founded by BES Fellows have received national recognition for outstanding student achievement.

We’ll help you build a gap closing school

Building Excellent Schools (BES) is an acknowledged leader in the national charter school movement. Since its founding in 1993, our organization has been committed to eliminating the academic achievement gap among students living in our nation’s urban areas.

BES accomplishes its work through a variety of programs, the foremost of which is the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship — a yearlong, full-time, comprehensive training program in charter school creation. Fellows are prepared and trained to design, found, and lead highly structured, no excuses urban charter schools that meet the specific needs of underperforming children.

A key to the success of BES schools is our belief that academic performance drives every element of a school, including design, leadership, culture, decisions, and governance. This core tenet has proven itself in practice at the 48 BES Schools operating in 20 cities as of September 2011.

At capacity, BES Schools will serve more than 19,500 students.

How the BES Fellowship Works

The Building Excellent Schools Fellowship prepares leaders to design, found and lead urban charter schools of uncompromising excellence.

While the process of founding a charter school may be viewed over a period of several years, in the first 12 months of the program, Fellows receive a $90,000 stipend and extensive training and support to focus on one goal — founding and leading a high-achieving, no excuses urban charter school that is independently managed.

In its first year, the Fellowship comprises 85 training days, an extended residency in a high-performing charter school, and ongoing coaching and support around board and charter application development. The culmination of the year is the submission of a well written, thoroughly researched charter application that reflects the best practices in urban school design.

Although the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship is one year, BES is committed to the success of its schools and encourages Fellows to participate in Follow-On Support for the subsequent two years or more in order to receive continued training and guidance through start-up and early operation.

Who is the typical BES Fellow?

Building Excellent Schools Fellows share common beliefs far more than they share common experiences. Our Fellows represent a vast range of professional experience including education, business, non­‐profit management, law and public policy. Classroom experience is not a prerequisite for participation in the program. Building Excellent Schools is looking for high-­capacity individuals who are deeply committed to fundamentally changing urban education.

Selection Criteria

Charter Application

The culmination of the Fellowship year is the submission of a well-written, thoroughly researched charter application that reflects the best practices in urban school design. Ultimately this application will not be the reflection of a solely individual effort. A successful Fellow will have built a Founding Board of seven to eleven equally committed people from a variety of backgrounds who fully support and believe in the proposal and pledge to receive the charter and usher the school through its first years. The Fellow will also have made real community connections in the territory in which he or she intends to found their school, ensuring that their effort is seen as integral to the community’s future. The school’s status as free-standing, locally controlled, and independent only affirms these connections.

Territories

For the 2012-2013 Fellowship, we welcome applicants who wish to start charter schools in the territories listed below. Individuals who wish to apply to a territory not listed apply as a “National” Fellow. BES priority territories are:

• COLORADO: Denver
• MASSACHUSETTS: Brockton, Fall River, Holyoke, Lowell, New Bedford, Springfield, Worcester and multiple additional cities
• NEW YORK: New York City
• TENNESSEE: Memphis, Nashville
• NATIONAL FELLOW: Additional locations

Apply to the Fellowship

The 2012-2013 Fellowship Application is now available. Start the application here.

We offer a $5,000 “finder’s fee” to eligible individuals* who nominate Fellow candidate-applicants who successfully enroll in the BES Fellowship.

Selection Process

1) Application and Resume Review: Applicants complete Steps 1-3 of the Fellowship Application. Review of the Fellowship Application will begin once all three steps have been completed. Applicants will hear of their initial application status within 10 – 14 days of submitting a completed Fellowship Application via email or phone.

2) Applicant Phone Interviews: Selected applicants will be invited to participate in a series of phone interviews with members of the Fellowship selection team.

3) In-Person Interview: Selected applicants will be invited to participate in a rigorous in-person interview with members of the Fellowship selection team.

4) Reference Checks and Fellowship Invitations: Invitations to the Fellowship are extended to selected applicants.

*Any person who supplies Building Excellent Schools with a direct referral to a candidate that they are willing to personally or professional vouch for in a written statement. Employees of Building Excellent Schools, any college or university career services office, charter school association, or executive placement services are not eligible.”