This case study features Valor Collegiate Academies, an intentionally diverse charter management organization (CMO) that operates two high-performing charter schools in Nashville, Tennessee. Valor opened its first school in 2014-15 with a mission to serve a diverse student body and has made many decisions through its founding and operation to achieve that mission. Valor Flagship Academy, the first Valor school, produced outstanding academic results, including the highest standardized test scores in the city, in its first year of operation. This case study presents voices of many participants in Valor’s work.

As public schools of choice, charter schools can implement a school model that aims to recruit, enroll, serve, and maintain a diverse student body while being held accountable for student achievement. A small but growing number of charter schools have been founded with the explicit purpose and intentional design to serve an all-encompassing variety of backgrounds, including, but not limited to, racially, culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse student body (hereafter referred to as “intentionally diverse” schools).

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