In the winter of 2018, Brian Greenberg gave me a tour of sites that Silicon Schools Fund was supporting. We visited Navigator Schools, and I can remember their nascent middle school model sparking big ideas. Conversation #49 gave me a chance to check in seven years later with now CEO & Superintendent Caprice Young. It's clear that Navigator has incredible muscle for innovating, piloting, and improving.

"We are a network of charter schools on California's central coast, primarily serving the children of agricultural workers. Our scholars significantly outperform those in neighboring schools. Our strategy centers on our 5 Compass Points:

1. Culture of Excellence: We embrace failure as a learning opportunity, openly discussing incorrect answers as part of the growth process. Our evolution includes the "Squads" model for middle school, designed to address their unique needs. Group work encourages students to lead their own learning, experiment with roles, and collaborate with peers - significantly boosting middle school scores.

2. Coaching: Our success hinges on ensuring the best instruction in every classroom through continuous training and coaching. Teachers actively collaborate with their mentors in 30-minute weekly sessions to identify observation goals, fostering a low-stakes, supportive environment. Due to financial constraints post-ESSER, maintaining the ideal teacher-coach ratio across our schools has been challenging. Still, we have kept it because it is absolutely vital to student success and educator satisfaction.

3. Equity: We operate a full-inclusion Special Education model, providing every student with the necessary embedded classroom supports. However, budget cuts necessitated reducing small group instructors to half-day support in some grade levels, which is not ideal for our small group model.

4. Data-Driven: Our work is built on data cycles, utilizing five major formative assessments annually and daily exit tickets to gauge student understanding and inform immediate adjustments. On the qualitative data and decision-making side, I consult with a faculty committee  – a mix of grade levels and experience from each school who provide crucial insight into teacher perspectives. We meet every six weeks to discuss pressing issues and share ideas for potential pilots.

5. Active Use of Technology: 1:1 tech has been a cornerstone, with a focus on purpose-driven innovation. For example, recognizing the linguistic diversity of our families, we piloted Paloma for K-2, which sends custom, language-aligned books and 15-min lessons home in parents' native languages. We saw 85% of families using it, 50% at least 3 times a week, resulting in significant growth on formative assessments. We are now scaling it to all four schools.

Our social emotional learning model is tied to our certification as a Valor Collegiate Academies partner. We've integrated their work into 3 of 4 schools. We have seen incredibly high belongingness scores from students this year, a true testament to the model's impact."