BES believes that excellent leaders approach every challenge as an opportunity to learn. BES Fellows persevere through challenges and are eager to take, give, and implement feedback with humility and resilience. They are committed to personal and professional development for themselves and their team.

BES believes that an excellent school leader demonstrates knowledge of and respect for the communities they serve. BES Fellows actively seek out and incorporate community input into the school’s design and operation, implementing practices that reflect and respond to community need. They are not only invested in ongoing listening and engagement to found a locally responsive school, but demonstrate a long-term personal and professional investment in the success and sustainability of the school and its surrounding community.

BES believes that an excellent leader demonstrates an ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. BES Fellows are dedicated to founding and leading schools that are actively anti-racist spaces and work to ensure equitable and robust support for learners of all backgrounds, needs, and abilities. They have a history of working equitably across lines of difference among families and staff to achieve common goals.

BES believes that excellent leaders have a clear vision for the school they hope to found. Their vision is grounded in the belief that all students can, must, and will achieve at high levels, if held to high expectations and provided with the academic and social supports to master rigorous, culturally relevant content. BES Fellows hold themselves and their team accountable for academic and non-academic results in order to prepare students for success in college, career, and life.

No. While experience and expertise in the classroom is common among successful Fellowship applicants, there is so much more involved in designing and building an excellent school. BES seeks candidates who have depth of experience in a variety of areas including education, organizing, public policy, law, non-profit leadership, project management, and strategic planning. The BES Fellowship focuses on three essential components of the school founding process: developing a comprehensive educational program that drives student achievement, building a founding board and garnering support for the school through community engagement, and founding a viable nonprofit organization. Deep knowledge in each of these three areas is helpful, but it is also rare. Successful Fellowship candidates typically have a breadth of experience in one discipline; the Fellowship curriculum provides training and support to build capacity in the other two.

There are many factors we analyze when determining regions for the BES Fellowship. These include, but are not limited to, (in no particular order): 

1. Authorization landscape – This includes the state of the overall market, demonstrated need, and state and local politics that may be barriers to authorization, including charter caps for the Build Track and Growth Track, as well as school and leader autonomies for the Autonomous School Track. 
2. Talent landscape – Access to a diverse talent base to identify Fellows and once authorized, a landscape in which our Fellows will be more likely to have success recruiting and retaining teachers, leaders, and staff that reflect the surrounding community.
3. Community relationships, support, and local funding – We ultimately want our Fellows to be successful in designing and founding a locally responsive school and recognize they will need education champions as well as funding for the Fellowship, school start-up, and launch. We analyze these factors to be able to assess opportunities and risk towards this goal in the geography’s education ecosystem. Variables that are considered include the presence of education advocacy groups, family champions, and philanthropic support for the Fellowship and for the school.  

This list is dynamic and is considered alongside other factors which may be uniquely local or regional. For example, turnaround plans or new initiatives at the state level due to an influx of CSP funding may create opportunities to support school leaders with fewer barriers to entry.

We are excited about supporting strong leaders to found and open schools across the country through the three tracks of the Fellowship! We assess and identify regions on an ongoing basis. This year, in addition to applying for regions that are open, interested candidates can apply for regions we are still exploring (designated with an asterisk) in order for us to identify strong talent as early as possible. While we are currently accepting initial applications from candidates interested in founding schools in these communities, application processing may take longer than the timeline outlined on the website for confirmed Fellowship regions. Depending on the factors outlined above, a region may open at any time during the recruitment cycle, though they are likely to open by June to ensure that candidates have enough time to prepare for the start of the Fellowship in August. If your region of interest does not open during the recruitment cycle, we will defer your application to the following recruitment cycle.  

If you have questions through the application process or status, please reach out to your recruiter and they will be happy to answer any questions.

Absolutely! We recognize that there are strong leaders in other parts of the country with the demonstrated competencies to successfully found or open a school. We encourage applicants interested in regions other than those listed to reach out to the recruitment team to express interest and share any available information on any support that they have already garnered for founding or opening a school in any of the three Fellowship tracks. Depending on fit, they will direct you to complete an initial application. In addition to leaders interested in the Build Track, we encourage current school founders or executive leaders interested in the Growth Track, and district staff interested in learning more about the Autonomous School Track, to reach out to our recruitment team at recruiting@bes.org.

No. The BES Fellowship only supports Fellows who are interested in launching schools in the United States.

Applying for the BES Fellowship is a five-step process that includes a phone call with a BES recruiter, an online application, a video interview, and a series of virtual interviews. Learn more here.

Nominations are an excellent way for us to discover great candidates for the Fellowship. If the person you nominate successfully enrolls in the program, you’ll receive a generous finder’s fee. Nominate a Fellow here.

Yes, the BES Fellowship is a full-time commitment. During the training year, Fellows receive a stipend that allows them to focus on the Fellowship as their sole professional engagement to design and develop their school. Joining the Fellowship is a four-year commitment composed of a training year, a planning year, a foundational year, and an operational year. Following the Fellowship, it is expected that leaders continue working toward the mission of their school, ensuring the school reaches a point of sustainability.

No. The Fellowship is a national program that requires Fellows to live in the city where they are proposing a school. During the Fellowship training year, BES covers travel and housing costs associated with Fellowship training and school study.

Fellows spend 75+ days training and studying schools across the country. Fellows can spend up to two weeks per month outside of their communities. All BES Fellows spend ample time in their respective communities building essential local support.

Both. The Fellowship incorporates a mix of independent and group work. Through independent work, each Fellow follows a tailored program that helps fill in the gaps in his or her own learning, skill set, or experience. As a group, Fellows pore over the curriculum, discuss and dissect ideas and themes, participate in trainings, and share their developing ideas and work.

Fellows complete month-long residencies at high-performing schools in the winter and the summer of the Fellowship training year. Residency sites are chosen based on the strength of their academic and organizational records, their relevance to a Fellow’s school design plans, and their ability to embrace the skills and experiences a newly-trained Fellow can offer. Over the course of the residency, Fellows complete projects that support the work of their host school, leverage their individual skill sets, and work toward their larger goal of developing an excellent school.

By the end of the Fellowship training year, the Fellow has successfully built a board of directors / trustees and submitted a charter application to the charter authorizer. Upon authorization of the school, Fellows move into the planning year, during which they work to hire staff, secure a facility, build curriculum, and enroll students. Once a charter is approved, Fellows are eligible to apply for external grants to support their work during the planning year.

Upon completion of the training year, BES continues to work closely with leaders through Follow On Support, to ensure that schools start strong and stay strong. Follow On Support addresses hands-on practical skills, strategic planning, fund development, board development, curriculum, evaluation, and much more.

Fellows are not employees of BES and receive Form 1099 for the tax years in which the Fellowship training year falls.

No, however BES will pay for an individual medical insurance plan, up to a certain amount, with costs paid directly to the Fellow’s health insurance provider. All Fellows are required to demonstrate proof of medical coverage during the Fellowship.