Good morning, CharterFolk.
Today we are delighted to share a Contributor Column from Vashaunta Harris, Vice President of Professional Networks at the National Charter Schools Institute.
We provide a bio for Vashaunta below.
Vashaunta Harris is a national education leader, coach, and storyteller focused on how schools are designed to serve students’ lives beyond graduation. She began her career as a Teach For America corps member in Baltimore City Public Schools and has since held leadership roles across charter networks, large urban districts, and statewide authorizing, including DC Public Schools and the South Carolina Public Charter School District. She currently serves as Vice President of Professional Networks at the National Charter Schools Institute and hosts the Bold by Choice podcast, where she convenes leaders to explore design, leadership, and the future of K–12 education.
Designing Forward: What Today’s Students Will Need Tomorrow
Much of my work begins not with answers, but with listening.
Not in polished speeches or conference panels, but in quieter moments—coaching calls, one-on-one conversations, and reflections that surface when a decision didn’t go as planned or a student’s story reshaped what success really means. Holding space for these conversations has reinforced something we believe deeply: the most important insights rarely arrive fully formed. They emerge in pauses, contradictions, and stories that don’t always make room for themselves in public debate.
Over time, these moments have become data points—signals shaping how we understand what the charter movement is being called to design next.
A Moment of Design, Not Debate
This is not a moment for louder arguments.
It is a moment for design.
For years, charter schools were forced to defend their right to exist.
The early work of the movement was about survival—establishing legitimacy, proving that public schools of choice could deliver results, and pushing back against the assumption that there was only one way to educate children well.
That question has largely been answered.
Today, families are demanding choice, and it is spreading rapidly across communities and states. The issue is no longer whether charter schools belong, but what we do with the trust families are placing in us—and whether the schools we are building are worthy of that trust.
This shift changes the work.
The most important question before us now is not ideological, but practical: What are we building for young people right now, and will it hold up in the world they are entering?
The leaders shaping the future are not waiting for perfect alignment or unanimous agreement. They are paying attention to what is changing for students and families and making intentional choices about how schools remain relevant, humane, and excellent as that world continues to shift.
If the charter movement is going to meet the future with integrity, this turn toward design is essential.
Storytelling as a Leadership Practice
One of the clearest ways I’ve come to understand how leaders are designing their work is through storytelling.
Through long-form conversations on the Bold by Choice podcast …
… we’ve seen what happens when leaders slow down and share not just the decisions they’ve made, but how they arrived at them.
When that kind of reflection is present, the future starts to look different.
Stories surface assumptions we didn’t realize we were carrying. They reveal possibilities that rarely appear in strategy documents. They also make visible whose experiences tend to shape our models—and whose remain absent.
When storytelling is treated as a leadership practice rather than a branding exercise, it expands our field of vision and strengthens our ability to design schools and systems that reflect the full complexity of the communities we serve.
The Question Everyone Eventually Asks
After enough school visits, someone almost always asks the same question.
What is it, really, that makes some schools feel different?
They are often looking for something transferable. A program. A structure. A playbook they can replicate.
What I keep noticing, though, is that the answer rarely shows up as a single strategy. It shows up in the daily choices adults make about how they lead, what they expect, and how deeply they are willing to invest in young people. Choices about whether to hold high expectations with care. Whether to stay present when the work gets hard. Whether to treat students as problems to be managed or people to be developed. Over time, those choices shape the kind of schools students experience and the futures they believe are possible.
From K–12 to Life
These leadership stories point to a deeper challenge: what we are truly preparing students for, and how narrow our definition of success has become. We are still learning what it means to design schools that truly prepare young people for lives we cannot fully predict.
Academic achievement still matters. But readiness now demands more than academics alone.
Students are coming of age in a world shaped by rapid advances in technology, automation, and new ways of working. Many roles that feel stable today will look very different—or may no longer exist—by the time they enter adulthood. Preparing students for that reality requires more than proficiency. It requires helping young people build confidence, direction, and a sense of purpose that extends beyond school.
When schools take responsibility for life after graduation, students feel known not just as learners—but as future adults.
Community as a Choice
Bold by Choice is rooted in listening and design.
Through the podcast, we create space for leaders to reflect openly on how they are navigating change and making decisions that shape student futures. Our Bold by Choice Summit …
… convened each spring, carries that work forward by bringing together builders, listeners, and designers who are done debating the past and ready to create schools and systems aligned with the values, realities, and possibilities we’ve been naming.
Community, like leadership, is a choice—and choosing it together strengthens courage.
Choosing Again
What gives me hope in this moment is the number of leaders who are choosing to approach their work with care, curiosity, and responsibility for what comes next.
The future of the charter movement will not be shaped by a single argument or position. It will be shaped by the choices leaders make every day—how they listen, what they build, and whose lives they hold at the center.
If we treat leadership as an ongoing practice rather than a fixed stance, we create room for growth, relevance, and better outcomes for the students who are counting on us.