Green Dot’s school model focuses on graduating students and preparing them for college, leadership and life. (In the case of our middle schools, preparing them for high school, college, leadership and life.) We align our practices to The Six Tenets of High Performing Schools:

1. Small, Safe, Personalized Schools: All Green Dot schools are small (no more than 700 students when fully developed), giving each student the best chance of success. Small schools are safe, help ensure that no students fall through the cracks, and allow students to receive the personalized attention they need to learn effectively. Classes at each school are as small as financially possible, with a target student to teacher ratio of 23:1.
2. High Expectations for All Students: Green Dot schools center on high expectations for all students and every student takes a rigorous college-prep curriculum that meets the University of California (UC) A-G requirements. Green Dot believes that all students should be prepared to attend a four-year university after high school if they so choose. Extensive intervention and support programs are offered to help students master the challenging college-prep curriculum
3. Local Control with Extensive Professional Development and Accountability: Principals and teachers own critical decisions at their schools related to budgeting, hiring and curriculum customization. Comprehensive professional development is delivered to principals and teachers to ensure that they make effective decisions related to instruction and management. Green Dot schools invest far more time and money into quality professional development than traditional public schools. Local control works in Green Dot’s school model because schools (and the stakeholders within them) are held accountable for student results.
4. Parent Participation: Green Dot is committed to actively integrating parents/guardians into all aspects of their students’ education experiences. Parents are encouraged to give at least 35 hours of service annually at all Green Dot schools and a wide-variety of service opportunities are available. All parents have the opportunity to participate in an extensive parent education program to help them learn the best ways to support their child’s education.
5. Maximize Funding to the Classroom: Green Dot’s organization centers on getting more money into the classroom to enable principals and teachers to serve kids effectively. Green Dot’s Home Office incorporates best practices from the private and public sectors to maximize efficiency and drive dollars towards activities that directly affect kids.
6. Keep Schools Open Later: Facilities of Green Dot schools are open until at least 5:00 pm daily to provide students with safe, enriching after school programs and to allow community groups offering quality services to the neighborhood to use the facilities. Keeping schools open later accommodates the schedules of working families, as they know where their children are until they get off work. Allowing community groups to use school facilities helps ensure that the local neighborhood takes ownership and responsibility for the school.

We align our model to our core values.

Green Dot schools are open to all students, space permitting. Green Dot admits students entering the sixth or ninth grades through a public random drawing. All other grade levels fill from each school’s respective waitlist. Depending on the campus, priority in the sixth and ninth grade lotteries may be given to siblings, founding families and/or to families living within the attendance area. Transformation schools are neighborhood schools, and any student living within those enrollment boundaries may attend.

Green Dot teachers must teach the content developed by our Curriculum Specialists in conjunction with teacher leaders, but there is some freedom in how that content is delivered. Green Dot’s academic model is designed to meet individual student needs, combining a rigorous curriculum with the academic counseling and support students need to succeed.

Green Dot believes in coaching, collaboration and career ladder opportunities. We are one of only a few charter management organizations nationwide, to build a data-driven, job-embedded, individualized system to accelerate teacher growth. This system includes:

• School leaders who spend the majority of their time on instruction, observation and coaching
• Content-area coaches (“Curriculum Specialists”)
• Demonstration classroom teachers and Mentor teachers
• Individual qualitative and quantitative online data for each teacher to customize their professional learning
• A research-based framework for effective teaching

Yes, Green Dot is one of few non-district public school operators in California that has unionized teachers and counselors, and a (separately) unionized classified staff. Green Dot’s California teachers and counselors have organized as the Asociación de Maestros Unidos (AMU), a CTA/NEA affiliate.