Tools for Storytelling

Brand Architecture

The Green Dot brand, both its content and design, stems from four conceptual pillars: our mission, our vision, our values and attributes.

The details of these four concepts drive the way that we present ourself externally.

Our Mission Our Vision Our Values Our Attributes

Our Mission

Our Vision

Our Values

Green Dot’s Core Values provide an articulation of our underlying philosophy and a framework through which to approach our work. They ensure that we are consistently steered by a set of shared standards. It is not the values themselves that set Green Dot apart, but how we enact them. When discussing the Core Values, we make them authentic through personal example.

An unwavering belief in all students’ potential

Green Dot truly believes that all students, whatever their circumstances, hold the innate potential to achieve their goals and succeed in college, leadership, and life. We acknowledge that the belief may often be challenged and tested—either by personal experience in the classroom or external societal pressures—but we are unwavering in our commitment to consistently approach every student not in terms of what is lacking, but in terms of what is possible.

A passion for excellence

Good enough is never good enough. Green Dot’s success has only been possible through an ongoing commitment to learn, grow, and strive for excellence in everything we do. Self-reflection and an earnest desire to continually improve is an integral component of every level of the organization.

Personal responsibility

Achieving excellence requires that we all take responsibility for our role in the success of students, colleagues, and the larger organization. We maintain a “no excuses” culture in which we push ourselves towards developing effective and sustainable solutions. But none of us do so alone: we rise together to meet the toughest challenges. Each of us actively plays a part in removing barriers to student success or, when possible, empowering our students to navigate such hurdles themselves.

Respect for others in the community

Green Dot respects the communities in which we work and the people who live in them. We are not saviors looking to rescue students from their communities, nor are we naïve to the significant challenges that people can face. We reject the concept of a universal culture of poverty; recognizing our students and their families as individuals and valuing their contributions to the educational process.

All stakeholders are critical in the education process

Respecting stakeholders requires the inclusion of all voices and active listening. School leaders regularly engage teachers in decision-making through the creation of professional communities of practice. Community engagement teams nurture the power of our parents to demand meaningful change in their neighborhoods. Schools build sustainable alliances with high-quality community partners to help remove barriers to student learning. Senior leadership actively engages decision-makers to accurately frame education reforms issues. Across the organization, Green Dot consistently seeks to promote an environment of collaboration. We are more powerful together than we are alone: our individual impact is magnified in partnership.

Our Attributes

A brand personality helps ensure consistency in communications: avoiding being too brash, too defensive, or too abstract. It allows our audiences to relate to us. If values are the parts of our personality that we actively promote to others, then attributes are the qualities that we want others to intuitively ascribe to us as a result of our actions. We openly speak of our values, but attributes must be self-evident through ongoing behavior.

Attributes are the distinctive combination of characteristics and qualities that make us stand out from the crowd; what make us unique. Similarly, a brand personality describes the unique attributes of an organization that when combined, articulate who we are.

Courageous

The primary attribute of Green Dot’s brand personality is courageousness. It embodies the ambition of our mission and our approach to everything we do; making tough choices, innovating in the field, welcoming challenges, and doing whatever it takes for our students, their families, and our teachers to succeed. Courageousness is supported by five further attributes.

Innovative

We approach challenges with original and creative thinking, taking proven solutions and implementing them faithfully, effectively, and with excellence. Innovation is not invention. Innovation is the application of critical analysis to an existing solution and making improvements in design or implementation to radically accelerate success.

Informed

As an educational organization prioritizing a growth mindset, we embody lifelong learning. We are constantly acquiring new knowledge, greater understanding, and fresh insights; striving to know our field and making decisions based on empirical evidence and self-reflection.

Compassionate

We seek to understand and empathize with our students, their parents, and their communities by recognizing their individuality, sharing their concerns and hopes, and actively working to help them achieve their potential.

Humbled

We acknowledge that as an organization, or individually, we don’t have all the answers but are part of a larger, collective effort to enact effective solutions through continual learning and actively listening to all voices.

Purposeful

We thoroughly understand the theoretical philosophies of academia but never get lost in them; exemplifying the application of theories in action practically and realistically. Rather than following trends or bowing to outside pressures, we approach solutions deliberately, thoughtfully, and with the understanding that we are accountable to students and their families.

Common Language

There are many misconceptions about the charter school movement and many detractors looking for ways to criticize our work. It’s important that the words we use to describe charter schools, traditional schools, Green Dot, public education, and larger education reform issues, don’t reinforce stereotypes.

Essentially, we should aim to avoid language that supports the misconception that charter schools are for-profit companies with selective enrollment practices designed to erode public education. Whenever we discuss our work, we should be mindful of the opportunity to educate and clarify.

"Conversations about the organization and our work should be genuine and communicated in your own words while using shared language"

In consulting dozens of school leaders and teachers, we found the following words and phrases were most effective in authentically describing our work.

Green Dot Public Schools
Public schools
Free to attend
Open to all
Open enrollment
Publicly funded and free for ALL
High quality public school choice
for parents
Everyone knows your name
Personalized
Teaching to our students’ needs
Get it right
College-preparatory
Data-driven
Agile
Accountable
Transparent
Reflective
Culture of learning
Safe schools
Small schools

Safe learning environments
Turnaround schools
Highly-effective teaching
Bold
Social mobility
Sharing best practices
Revitalization
Economic mobility
Reversing the trend
Preparing ALL students for college, leadership and life
Belief in ALL students’ potential
Students come first
It’s all about the students
Student-centered decision-making
Student growth
Addressing barriers to learning both inside and outside the classroom
Changing lives through education
Leveling the playing field
Changing the odds

Transforming public education
Leading with support
Strong leadership
Engaged parents and communities
Teacher collaboration
Respect for teacher voice
Always learning
A learning disposition
Growth-oriented
Growth mindset
A teaching and learning organization
Equity of access
Equity of opportunity
Personal responsibility
Research-based practice
Opportunity gap
Advocacy
Non-profit public school operator
Gateways out of poverty

Avoiding Misunderstanding

Language matters.

Choosing the words with which we describe our students, their parents, and their communities presents an opportunity to actively promote the Core Value of “Respecting All Stakeholders.” Specifically, try to avoid inadvertently defining stakeholders with negative descriptors. As a rule of thumb, consider how a student, parent, or community member would feel if they were to read your characterization of them. The following examples provide further guidance in what can often be a nuanced area of communications.

Students

Ethnicity

Unless directly addressing issues of social justice or racial inequity, the use of ethnic, racial, or cultural descriptors should be carefully considered. Be especially mindful of inadvertently suggesting that a problem exists because of a stakeholder’s ethnicity.

Example: Don’t: The sentence “The student body is 65% African American and experiences high levels of truancy” may be factually accurate but wrongly suggests that students are truant because they’re African American. Do: Use “Our school experiences high levels of truancy at this time.” And elsewhere, “The students we serve are mostly—65%– African American.” Alternatively, consider if either fact is relevant to the argument and, if so, separate them to void suggesting a correlation.

Socio-Economic Status

Unless directly addressing issues of social justice or inequity of access and opportunity, avoid using socio-economic descriptors. Even in those instances when it is appropriate to discuss an individual’s socio-economic status, be respectful and avoid adjectives that suggest individuals are defined by their relative wealth: “poor,” “needy,” or “most wanting.” Instead, focus on the effects of low wages or under-employment on a family or a community. Be especially careful of inadvertently making causal relationships between socio-economic status and a perceived negative behavior.

Example: Don’t: The sentence “Green Dot operates in socio-economically disadvantaged communities with high instances of violent crime” may be factually accurate but could be interpreted as suggesting that those living in low-income communities are naturally more inclined to criminal behavior. Do: Instead, consider “Green Dot operates in socio-economically disadvantaged communities that have been heavily impacted by high rates of violent crime.”

Student Sub-Groups

Green Dot students are individuals, not data points, and should not be described in terms of statistical categories. Outside of charts and graphs and the specific context of data analysis, avoid reducing students to acronyms such as SpEd, AA, ELL, FRL, or SED.

Example: Consider a Student First approach. Don’t: “FRL students…”. We do not serve “Free and Reduced Lunch students;” we do not serve “SpEd students” Do: but we do serve “students eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunches” or “students receiving special educational support due to disability or special needs.”

Communities

Green Dot actively seeks to open schools in those communities that can most benefit from our model. As a result, the residents in our communities typically earn significantly less than the national average and are exposed to higher levels of violent crime and trauma. These characteristics, however, do not define the community and we should avoid describing people’s neighborhoods—the places they call home—in solely negative terms. Doing so promotes the idea that our communities are something to escape from, or worse, something that Green Dot aims to save people from. When discussing our communities, we should use language that highlights the underlying causes of a problem, not the symptoms, such as “historically neglected,” “under-served and under-resourced,” or “socio-economically disadvantaged.”

Example: Do describe the neighborhoods truthfully: “Students live in under-resourced communities that have been negatively impacted by high crime rates.” Don’t: But beware dangerous implications; for instance, the sentence “Students live in poor communities where violence and abuse are rife” both labels our communities as ‘bad’ and blames residents for the problem.

Green Dot Public Schools

Unions

Green Dot has embraced meaningful collaboration with its teachers since its founding and is proud to be a pioneer in labor relations within the charter movement. As we move into regions with very different labor environments, we remain committed to including teachers in our decision-making process and prioritizing their needs in the workplace. As such, the voices of teachers are respected regardless of formal union representation.

Where Green Dot teachers have joined a union, it is important to respect that the union is independent of Green Dot. In California, for example, teachers are represented by Asociación de Maestros Unidos (AMU) and our classified personnel by the Ánimo Classified Employees Association (ACEA). Both are affiliates of the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the National Education Association (NEA). They should never be inaccurately described as “Green Dot’s union” or other terms that inadvertently suggest that power lies in management and not members.

Example: The sentence “AMU, Green Dot’s teachers’ union, approved the adoption of a new evaluation system last year” should, for example, be replaced with “AMU, an affiliate of CTA and NEA that represents Green Dot teachers, approved the adoption of a new evaluation system last year.”

Talking About Our Work

Still searching for the right language?

Use any of these example blurbs to describe the work we do.

Green Dot Public Schools is a non-profit network of public charter schools, free and open to all, with a mission to help transform public education so that ALL students graduate prepared for college, leadership, and life. Purposefully locating its schools in historically underserved communities lacking in high-quality educational opportunities, Green Dot seeks to close pernicious discrepancies in access and opportunity between low-income students and their more affluent peers.

Green Dot Public Schools is a non-profit network of public charter schools transforming public education so that ALL students graduate prepared for college, leadership, and life. Green Dot schools are founded on a collaborative and replicable model of strong and empowered leadership, highly-effective teaching, a college-preparatory curriculum, meaningful community engagement, and the provision of comprehensive wraparound services to reduce non-academic barriers to learning. Purposefully locating its schools in historically underserved communities lacking in high-quality educational opportunities, Green Dot seeks to prove that it is possible to address pernicious discrepancies in access and opportunity between low-income students and their more affluent peers.

Green Dot Public Schools is a non-profit network of public charter schools transforming public education so that ALL students graduate prepared for college, leadership, and life. Green Dot schools are founded on a collaborative and replicable model of strong and empowered leadership, highly-effective teaching, a college-preparatory curriculum, meaningful community engagement, and the provision of comprehensive wraparound services to reduce non-academic barriers to learning. Purposefully locating its schools in historically underserved communities lacking in high-quality educational opportunities, Green Dot seeks to prove that it is possible to address pernicious discrepancies in access and opportunity between low-income students and their more affluent peers. Despite entering our schools in the bottom 10% of academic proficiency, our students are almost three times more likely to graduate than those attending traditional schools, achieving a level of success greater than state averages. Green Dot’s programs are purposefully designed to succeed on public revenue and are developed in full collaboration with teachers, thereby encouraging adoption by other schools and districts.

Navigate by clicking these dots

Describing the Green Dot Approach

Effective Teaching

Green Dot works to ensure that those students who most need access to excellent teachers are consistently taught by the best in the profession. In Green Dot schools, where students typically enter in the lowest 10% of academic proficiency, advancing a student a single grade level per year isn’t enough to ensure timely graduation. Therefore, we define high-quality teaching as the ability to accelerate student learning and close the achievement gap between students in low-income communities and their more affluent peers. In placing high-quality instruction at the heart of our model, we are committed to recruiting, training, and supporting the very best teachers to professional excellence.

Strong Leadership

Green Dot empowers experienced and highly trained leaders to respond to the needs of students, teachers, and parents in creating collaborative learning environments and driving long-term improvement. At Green Dot schools, principals and assistant principals are not managers or bureaucrats but instructional leaders tasked with identifying high-quality teaching and providing personalized coaching and professional support; subjects lacking in leadership preparation programs nor required of traditional school leaders.

College Preparatory Curriculum

Green Dot promotes a rigorous, college-going culture; modeling high-expectations and instilling self-confidence and personal persistence while delivering a college-preparatory curriculum and a structured program of support to and through college.

Comprehensive Supports

Green Dot actively works to remove barriers to learning. We create safe and welcoming campuses in which all students and their families are respected and appreciated. We provide a range of social and emotional supports and health and wellness services. We partner with community-based providers to address issues of gang intervention and provide a network of diverse and positive adult mentors. We enthusiastically seek opportunities to smooth the often challenging pathway to college and career success for our students.

Community Engagement

Green Dot engages parents as vital partners in student success, providing adult education programming and self-advocacy training to empower community members to be agents of long-term, sustainable neighborhood revitalization.

Follow us:

Green Dot Public Schools National

1149 S. Hill St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015

(323) 565-1600