ISLA @ CAPE: Gauging the National Landscape for Private Schools
ISLA’s Executive Director, Dr. Shaza Khan, represented full-time Islamic schools at the CAPE meeting in Virginia on September 11-12, 2023 and the National Private School Conference hosted by the Office of Non-Public Education in the Department of Education in Washington, DC on September 13, 2023.
Members of the Council for American Private Education at the September 2023 board meeting outside of Washington, D.C.
The Council for American Private Education (https://capenetwork.org) is “a coalition of national organizations and state affiliates serving private elementary and secondary schools.” As a board member of the organization, ISLA’s Executive Director attends biannual meetings in March and September of every year. At these meetings, private school organization leaders discuss issues facing our schools, including upcoming and current legislation that impacts our school communities.
From their website:
CAPE’s mission is to preserve and promote educational pluralism so that parents have a choice in the schooling of their children. Founded in 1971 to provide a coherent voice for private education, CAPE is dedicated to fostering communication and cooperation within the private school community and with the public sector to improve the quality of education for all of the nation’s children.
ISLA believes it is important for us to have a seat at this table. We learn about major federal and state funding opportunities, various national initiatives that our schools can benefit from, such as National History Day, and research and data that help us understand and tell the story of America’s private schools and their impact on our children and country.
Sr. Sufia Azmat, Executive Director of CISNA and Dr. Shaza Khan, Executive Director of ISLA take time to meet and discuss important issues facing our schools.
The biannual meetings are a time when ISLA’s executive director gets to network with other leading national private school organization leaders and learn about the ways in which they are serving their member schools. Sister Sufia Azmat, Executive Director of the Council for Islamic Schools of North America (CISNA) is also a member of CAPE and this is an important time where both executive directors are able to meet and discuss the unique and overlapping issues facing Islamic schools.
Federal Funding + Other Opportunities
At the September 2023 Admin meeting, Dr. Shaza Khan shared important take-aways from this meeting with member school leaders. Many federal funding opportunities were discussed. The slide deck and links to those opportunities are shared below:
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More detailed notes from the meeting can be found here.
National Private School Leadership Conference
On Wednesday, September 13, the Office of Non-Public Education hosted the National Private School Leadership Conference. Sessions provided more information on data about private school students’ performance, how to cultivate more meaningful and effective relationships with parents, and programs that can help enrich our students’ educational experiences, such as the Musical Theater Song Writing Challenge offered through the National Endowment for the Arts.
With Maureen Dowling, Director of the Office of Non-Public Education in Washington, DC
Maureen Dowling, the Director of the Office of Non-Public Education and Dr. Shaza spent some time discussing the importance of gathering data from private schools. Maureen passionately communicated the value for the principal is in being able to tell their story. Without data, the story is incomplete. In order to obtain the data, we need private schools to participate in studies, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments, better known as “The Nation’s Report Card.”
