Fellowship Growth Track

Through the BES Fellowship Growth Track, schools expand or replicate models that are delivering strong results for students. We partner with both school leaders ready to grow and the ecosystem partners who fund and support that growth.

BES provides training and support that enable effective schools to multiply their impact – whether that means expanding into new regions, or adding campuses or grades beyond what they were originally chartered for.

The program consists of training and coaching year(s) for the BES Fellow who will lead the new school, as well as Follow On Support (FOS) to support authorized charter schools during their planning year and first two years of operation to ensure the school not only starts strong, but stays strong. BES also provides structured support to the flagship school leader as they lead the team in preparation for growth. 

As part of the program, leaders also have the potential to access cohort support. Learn more about the support BES provides below.

BES develops partnerships with the Executive Directors of schools or networks planning to grow or with education champions working to scale more high-quality seats in their region and then works to identify and/or support a Fellow to lead these efforts. Designed to support leaders to scale with quality during growth, this opportunity is open to any school across the country—even those outside of the BES network—who are ready to multiply their impact and open a new school in the next 1 to 2 years.

The BES Fellowship Growth Track may be a fit if you are a founder – or know one – who is looking to replicate and/or expand their school. BES can support with: 

• Identifying the right individual to lead the growth effort;
• Aligning closely with this person on the vision for the additional school and the network as a whole;
• Codifying the school’s systems and practices and setting up the structures and processes needed to ensure the school and the leadership team are ready for growth; and
• Accessing strong and coordinated coaching throughout the process for the new school leader and the executive director as the team prepares for growth. 
• Providing access to existing and past leaders who have replicated successfully or who are currently in the process of growing/replicating.

Whether the Fellow is referred by the network or fully sourced by BES, they must meet the rigorous selection criteria for the BES Fellowship to participate in the Growth Track. They also must be hired by the network to be placed. It is a mutual decision and part of our collaborative partnership, in which the candidate must meet both the selection criteria of BES and of the network partner.

BES provides guidance to schools to determine the most effective path of support for the school to grow. The two paths of the BES Fellowship Growth Track are:

• Design and Implementation Support: In some cases—where the expansion will support students at different grade levels than the original campus, will be in a different region, will offer a different model, and/or will require a new board and new charter—we will determine that the best placement for the Fellow is a full suite of Fellowship training and coaching, which is one-year of training followed by three years of dedicated post-authorization support (Follow On Support).

• Implementation and Execution Support: In other cases—where the charter, board, region, model, and grade bands are largely the same to the school(s) that already exist— we recommend the Fellow move directly into Follow On Support (FOS) “Year 0,” where they may receive both cohort-based and customized coaching to plan for the opening of the new campus and will continue to receive support for the first two years of operation. 

As part of the BES Fellowship, Growth Track Fellows will benefit from the following support, customized to meet their individual leadership development needs and aligned to the unique context of the expanding school:

• Fellows join guided school studies alongside a broader cohort of BES Fellows from across the country.
• Fellows participate in up to two residencies in schools with effective practices (and often schools with a similar model), in addition to extensive time studying the original school.
• Fellows receive a set of trainings on topics such as community engagement, board management, teacher recruitment, hiring, facility look-fors, student recruitment, coaching for equity, culturally responsive curriculum, operational systems, summer PD, and student orientation – all customized depending on what is most applicable to the school’s expansion plans and timeline.
• Regular coaching meetings with a school leadership coach, designed to help the Fellow operationalize their plans and make key moves towards opening  the school.
• In addition to training for the BES Fellow, the flagship school leader or executive director receives coaching that positions them to move into a network leader role.

While BES establishes Growth Track partnerships throughout the year to ensure we meet the needs of our partners, we prioritize onboarding new Growth Track Fellows at two points in the year to ensure Fellows benefit from a cohort-based learning experience: August and January.

Given the unique nature of a school’s expansion or replication, the financial investment for recruiting, selecting, training, and coaching a BES Fellow for a new school is determined based on the scope of support required and starts at $150,000 (plus a salary for the Fellow) over the course of 2-3 years. Either the school directly covers this cost or a philanthropic partner may fully cover or offset the cost.

Pre-Training Year:

• BES conducts a readiness-to-grow audit to assess the school’s leadership and organizational health and ensure the school is ready to replicate or expand
• BES and the school work together to select the Fellow to ensure he/she is a strong fit for the school and the BES Fellowship; this person may be a current school team member or a new leader identified by BES or the school
• Using the findings from the audit and knowing the strengths and growth areas for the Fellow, BES develops a tailored coaching and training plan for the Fellow based on one of the two paths outlined above

Training & Planning Year:

• Intensive training and coaching on leadership voice, school design, community engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, advisory committees (as applicable), and business acumen (as applicable)
• School studies of equitable and excellent schools across the country
• Up to two residencies in schools with effective practices (and often schools with a similar model), in addition to extensive time studying the original school
• Deep engagement with the community
• Support to write a school launch plan and develop an expansion plan for the network (as applicable)
• Support to build an advisory committee (as applicable)
• Support to hire and onboard staff and recruit students and families
• Customized support with financial planning and facilities development 

During the training and planning year, BES also provides coaching support to the flagship school leader as they prepare to take on heightened responsibilities as the leader of an emerging network. 

Year One of Operation: 

• BES supports leaders to welcome their inaugural class, train and develop staff, collect and analyze data, and create systems to effectively deliver on their mission

Year Two of Operation:

• BES supports leaders to sharpen their academic focus, manage talent, build their leadership bench, and plan for future growth

We are currently identifying schools and partners for the BES Fellowship Growth Track. If you would like to learn more about a partnership or if you are a school founder interested in support to replicate or expand an existing school, please email partners@bes.org.