Scaling toward Utopia or Dystopia: Challenges to Preserving Organizational Values through Growth

In their nascent stages, charter schools formed under competing ideologies. In academic circles, charter schools were envisioned as pedagogical laboratories that would allow for educator- and community-driven school improvement. In other circles, charter schools emerged as a free-market reform driven by accountability, choice, and growth. Amid the neoliberal accountability era, the latter ideology has emerged as a stronger driving force across the educational landscape, particularly amid the proliferation of Charter Management Organizations (CMOs). Based on real events, a charter school founder struggles to hold onto organizational values while scaling from a small charter school to a large CMO.