Frequently Asked Questions

Portal

• When I register my organization, am I the only one who can access our application? Each applicant designates a primary liaison between your organization and the Charter School Growth Fund. You can add additional members of your organization as contacts to access, review, and complete your application. Email correspondence between the Charter School Growth Fund and your organization will happen through your primary contact.
• Do we have to complete our application as soon as we are registered? No. Once registered, you can complete your application as necessary and can save your work based on the section of the application that you are completing. Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis; therefore, there is no deadline by when your application must be submitted.
• What are my EID and SID numbers and where are they created? Entity Identification (EID) and School Identification (SID) numbers are generated automatically by the applicant portal when you register. While you do not need to  memorize these values for your organization and schools, you will be asked to provide them as part of the application process.

Academic Data Submission 

• What if we don't administer a Nationally Norm-Referenced Test (NRT)? Do we still need to submit a student-level file? No. If you do not administer an NRT, student-level proficiency scores for the State Test are not required. Please use the tab in the workbooks titled "Other Information" to indicate that you do not administer a NRT.
• What do we do if we have difficulty generating our student-level data? If your student information system does not hold the data required in the template, you might need to reach out to your authorizer, host district, or state department of education for suggestions on how you can obtain it. Ultimately, we can only accept data in the template provided. If you have the data but do not have the resources to prepare it in the template format, you should contact us at applications@chartergrowthfund.org to explain your situation.
• What if there are inconsistencies in our test administrations? Please use the tab in the workbooks titled "Other Information" to provide the context necessary for us to understand the data provided. We make no assumptions about the data provided and will conduct our analysis on the data provided. Significant gaps in data can adversely affect the analysis of the data.
• What do the columns mean? Each template has a column definitions tab that provides a data dictionary for each column in the template. Contact us at applications@chartergrowthfund.org if you need further assistance.
• On the Cohort-Level Data Template, the layout shows K-12. We do not serve grades K-12 and/or our state test is not administered across all these grades. What should we do? The Cohort-Level Data Template provides the structure to provide cohort-level data for your school(s), district, and state. If you do not serve K-12, you can omit those grades you do not serve and exclude those grades for the district and state. You should provide data by grade level for all schools you operate and for each year the test was administered at those schools. For every data entry for your school(s), there should be a corresponding district level and state level entry.
• Our NRT does not provide us scale scores. What should we do? In some cases, you can contact your test manufacturer and see if there are alternative means to obtain your data. If that is not possible, please submit your data file with the NPR scores and leave the scale scores blank.
• We are an independent charter school and are not part of a district. How do we select the appropriate district for which to provide data? You should submit data for the surrounding district in which your students would otherwise attend school if your school(s) was not open. If your students would attend multiple districts, please use the district where the majority of your students would otherwise matriculate.
• Our district and state data only provide percentages of students in each proficiency band and not raw numbers as the template requires. What should we do? Please convert percentages to raw numbers when preparing the Cohort-Level Data file. Use students enrolled, if available, or students tested if students enrolled is not available. Please contact us at applications@chartergrowthfund.org to verify your methodology.
• The student achievement templates ask for my EID and SID numbers. Where do I find them? Entity Identification (EID) and School Identification (SID) numbers are generated automatically by the applicant portal when you register. Your EID number is located in the summary box on the login page. By clicking on the schools tab at the top of the page, you will see the ID number for each school.

Operational Data Submission

Once CSGF has received your academic data, you will be asked to submit an operational data template related to demographics, school leadership and finances.

• What if we have no applicable data for certain questions in the Operational Data section of the application?
     - Part I: The fields can be left blank if you do not have applicable data.
     - Part II: You must provide data for all questions and provide all requested documents: management team resumes, audited financials, the letter of good standing, and Charter Agreement.
     - Part III: You must provide answers to both essay questions.

• We have multiple Boards of Directors that oversee our central office and school(s). Do we need to enter that information for each central office and school Board? No. You should only provide board member information for the central office Board of Directors that governs the entire organization.
• We have multiple Boards of Directors that oversee multiple school(s), but do not have a central office and/or a central office Board of Directors. Do we need to enter all Board of Directors members fo all Boards? Yes, you need to enter all Board of Directors members for all schools.
• Do we have to submit any additional data beyond answering the questions directly in the application? Yes. You are required to submit your three most recent years of audited financial statements (Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Statement of Cash Flows) in PDF format. The audited annual financial statements should also include management letters and a Letter of Good Standing from your authorizer. There is an upload section in the application portal to provide these additional files.

Finalizing the Application

• I am not sure where to go after I complete the academic and operational sections of the application. Can you direct me? If your organization meets our criteria, you will be notified and informed of the next steps in the process.
• What if I have completed the entire application but am awaiting the letter of good standing from my authorizer(s)? Submit the application and contact us at applications@chartergrowthfund.org to let us know that you are awaiting the letter of good standing from your authorizer(s). We will begin processing your application, and will complete it once the letter of good standing is received.

Applicants can contact CSGF at applications@chartergrowthfund.org for further assistance.