Posted in Policy on May 22nd, 2013
Session deadlines keep coming and bills keep moving. Monday night in Nevada the Senate unanimously passed AB 205, a comprehensive authorizing bill that institutes performance-based contracts, performance frameworks for each charter school, annual reports by authorizers on school performance, and the default closure of failing schools. The bill will now head back to the Assembly [...]
Posted in Accountability, One Million Lives, Policy on May 8th, 2013
This past week has been a whirlwind in statehouses across the country, as the pace of legislative proposals picked up in the face of end-of-session deadlines. Over a dozen states are considering policies that would improve authorizing policies and practices. We are awaiting the final approval by the governors of Indiana and Florida to important [...]
Posted in Accountability, Charter School Growth, One Million Lives, Policy on May 6th, 2013
Last month, the US Department of Education and the National Charter School Resource Center hosted an Accountability Summit to explore emerging accountability challenges across the charter school sector and to discuss a variety of strategy and policy options to support quality as the sector expands. NACSA helped organize the event and almost 100 SEA charter school program leaders, [...]
Posted in Policy, Quality Authorizing, Research on May 1st, 2013
Today the Center for Education Reform published a report labeling the move toward independent, statewide authorizing commissions as a “dangerous trend.” Our conclusion based on research and experience couldn’t be more different. NACSA supports the establishment of statewide charter school commissions because they offer the best opportunity to achieve not just more charter schools but [...]
Posted in Accountability, Education Reform, Governance, Policy on Apr 25th, 2013
American public education has overcome all sorts of roadblocks in its illustrious history — but in facing the problem of persistently failing schools, our traditional systems have hit a wall. Even when given some powerful turnaround tools under NCLB — including chartering — districts typically have opted for the most cosmetic and non-disruptive options. States have generally acquiesced. A breakthrough happened [...]
Posted in One Million Lives, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Apr 17th, 2013
Governor Phil Bryant today signed Mississippi’s new charter school law, making the state the 42nd in the country to welcome charter schools. Its adoption paves the way for the state’s children to have access to more educational opportunities. NACSA President and CEO Greg Richmond issued the following statement: “Today, the future of Mississippi’s children got a little [...]
Posted in Accountability, Education Politics, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Apr 12th, 2013
Yesterday the Texas Senate passed SB 2 with a resounding 30-1 vote. The Senate should be applauded for passing a strong bill that will expand opportunity and improve the quality of charter schools in Texas. NACSA has been following this bill closely as it worked its way through the Senate Education Committee — where the [...]
Posted in Civil Rights, Policy, School Choice, Special Education, Uncategorized on Apr 12th, 2013
The interesting case of a district creating a shell charter school in order to operate a private school voucher program that includes about 25 schools is working its way through Colorado courts. The Douglas County School District approved the Choice Scholarship Program, using the state’s charter law. The program has been on hold since it [...]
Posted in Civil Rights, Education Politics, Education Reform, Governance, Policy, School Choice on Apr 11th, 2013
There has been a lot of heated rhetoric over the spread of so-called “parent trigger” or “parent petition” laws which allow parents and in some cases teachers to vote to restructure the school’s management in whole or in part. Seven states now have some form of parent petition legislation on the books and at least [...]
Posted in Accountability, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Apr 9th, 2013
In a recent article from Renee Schoof at McClatchy, NACSA’s Alex Medler weighed in on a provision in a charter school bill in North Carolina that would allow charter schools discretion over “whether and under what circumstances” to conduct background checks of prospective employees. Alex makes the case that even if background checks are not required [...]
Posted in Accountability, Governance, Policy, Quality Authorizing, Research on Apr 5th, 2013
Adam Emerson at the Fordham Institute has crafted a thoughtful analysis of governance in the modern charter school sector. I recommend it. Authorizers will probably be particularly interested in the report’s discussion of the various models of network governance that have emerged in the two decades since charters were first created and which have become more [...]
Posted in Enrollment, Policy, Research, School Choice, Special Education on Apr 3rd, 2013
Robin Lake and I wrote a commentary about special education in charter schools for Ed Week that was released yesterday. Earlier this year, Robin Lake and her colleagues at CRPE examined enrollment of students with disabilities in New York’s charter schools and traditional public schools in a study commissioned by NACSA. Robin and I discussed the study and its implications in an Ed Week [...]
Posted in Enrollment, Policy, School Choice on Mar 26th, 2013
While most of the education-related news coming out of Philadelphia lately has been about school closures similar to those just announced in Chicago, there is other work going on that has the potential to dramatically expand access to school choice for the city’s families, particularly the city’s most disadvantaged families who might otherwise be left [...]
Posted in Charter School Growth, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Mar 15th, 2013
It may still be cold and drizzly in Washington this time of year, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped everybody from rolling up their sleeves. That is good, because as people launch a charter sector, there is a great deal of important work to do in the next few months. I was making the [...]
Posted in Policy, Postcard from the Statehouse on Mar 14th, 2013
Hello from a chilly St. Paul, Minnesota! Earlier this week, the House Education Committee chose to incorporate into an omnibus bill, HF 998, legislation that would create a closure provision for charter schools performing in the lowest 25% of all public schools in the state. The authorizer would still have the ability to keep the [...]
Posted in Accountability, Policy on Mar 12th, 2013
How can we improve our ability to judge the quality of charter schools that serve high proportions of extremely at-risk kids? This article from the MinnPost does a good job of describing this complicated and difficult issue. I’m in Minnesota to talk with policymakers about accountability for schools that do badly on state tests. Part [...]
Posted in NACSA News, One Million Lives, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Mar 11th, 2013
Last week we released the second edition of NACSA’s Index of Essential Practices. Based on NACSA’s Principles & Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing, the Index is a road map for quality authorizing, articulating a set of practices for authorizers that can significantly improve the quality of their work. The 2012 Index is a great [...]
Posted in One Million Lives, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Mar 8th, 2013
This week NACSA released the second edition of its Index of Essential Practices. The Index articulates a set of practices for authorizers that can significantly improve the quality of their work—and in turn the quality of the charter schools in their portfolios. The 2012 Index also includes data on individual authorizer practices as reported in NACSA’s annual [...]
Posted in Accountability, One Million Lives, Policy on Mar 8th, 2013
Check out the new op-ed from Al Fan of Charter School Partners and NACSA’s Alex Medler on the need for greater accountability for the state’s charter schools. “A bi-partisan bill is making its way through the Minnesota legislature to close the state’s persistently lowest performing charter schools. The effort is not led by charter school [...]
Posted in Policy, Postcard from the Statehouse on Mar 7th, 2013
Greetings from Nashville! Earlier this week, the House Education Committee passed HB 0702, legislation that would create the State Charter School Panel, an independent charter board. The Panel would serve as an appellate body that could review (and, when warranted, authorize) charter school applications if they were improperly denied by local education agencies. The Panel [...]
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