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.

Community Co-Design Fellows take part in the Build Track of the BES Fellowship, during which they build and lead a fresh-start public charter school alongside a community co-design team. Community Co-Design Fellows have a two-year engagement rather than the typical single year most BES Build Fellows have to design their school and submit the charter application. As with Build Fellows, Community Co-Design Fellows still benefit from three additional years of Follow On Support once the school is authorized to support them during their planning year and first two years of operation, for a total of five years of support through the BES Fellowship. Click here to learn more about this opportunity.

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.
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 two tracks of the Fellowship! We assess and identify regions on an ongoing basis. In addition to applying for regions that are open, interested candidates can submit an interest form for other regions not listed on our website.  Please note that if you are invited to begin the formal application process for a region not listed, the 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 email recruiting@bes.org and they will be happy to answer any questions.

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 an online application, a phone call with a BES recruiter, a video interview, and a series of virtual interviews. Depending on the Fellowship track and/or region, candidates may be asked to interview with local partners or funders before a final decision is made. In these instances, the selection of a candidate is a mutual decision between BES and the partner organization, with BES managing the process to ensure consistency and equity. 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 referral bonus. Nominate a Fellow here.

Yes, the BES Fellowship is a full-time commitment. During the training year(s), 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- or five-year commitment composed of a training year(s), a planning year, the first year of operation, and the second year of operation.. Following the Fellowship, it is expected that leaders continue working toward the mission of their school for a minimum of 7-10 years, ensuring the school reaches a point of sustainability after the founding leader.

View a sample calendar for the BES Fellowship.

Orientation: A four-day orientation in August to build key relationships with teammates in the cohort and begin critical coursework that frames the Fellowship learning experience.

Virtual Training: Leadership development sessions throughout the Fellowship year focused on leading with equity, leadership voice, school design, community engagement, board governance, and organizational leadership.

Coaching: Weekly responsive coaching sessions with a school design coach and a governance coach to provide ongoing targeted support with leadership development, board assembly and engagement, and charter application writing.

School Study: Week-long, in-person school visits where Fellows observe schools across the country with a proven record of excellent and sustainable practices and apply their learnings to their school design.  Fellows will spend a minimum of four weeks studying schools with diverse school models.

Residency: Hands-on, in-person residency where Fellows are embedded in the school community and gain insight into the instructional, operational, and performance management practices of successful schools and school leaders.  Fellows will spend a total of 8 weeks in residency through the Fellowship year.

Application Writing: Build Track Fellows and Community Co-Design Year 2 Fellows: Creation of a comprehensive plan aligned to authorizer application expectations that guides all design, implementation, and growth of the Fellow’s proposed school. Community Co-Design Year 1 Fellows:  Creation of a draft school design plan through the engagement of the design team to set the foundation for their formal application writing in year 2. 

Community Engagement: Opportunities to form deep relationships with community stakeholders through active listening and learning to guide the school design plan and form a mission-aligned founding team and governing board. 

Partner Engagement (for Fellows with local/national partners): Opportunities to work with an on -the-ground partner to navigate the regional educational and political landscape and collaborate on resources aligned with their school design.

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

Fellows spend 300+ hours (450+ for the Community Co-Design Fellowship) training and studying schools across the country. Over the course of the training year(s), Fellows spend a minimum of three weeks studying schools across the country, in addition to five school studies in their region. They also take part in at least two extended residencies to learn from schools with effective practices.  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.

View a sample calendar for the BES Fellowship.

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 by the local authorizer, and no more than 12 months prior to school opening, Fellows matriculate to Follow on Support as Year 0 leaders. While in the planning year, Leaders receive individualized and responsive coaching around key startup areas, including but not limited to: hiring, academic, operational, and cultural systems, enrollment, and fundraising.

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 through the planning year and first two years of operation. Follow On Support addresses hands-on practical skills, strategic planning, fund development, board development, curriculum, evaluation, creating an anti-racist school environment, and much more.

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

BES offers each Fellow a stipend of $100,000 during the training year(s). In addition, Fellows are eligible for a healthcare reimbursement of up to $6,000 for an individual healthcare plan or up to $8,000 for a family plan (for each training year(s)). All Fellows are required to demonstrate proof of medical coverage during the Fellowship. For other benefits offered to Fellows, please review the BES Fellowship job application.

Support the opening of a new charter school in your community by joining a founding board. Click here to express interest.