Posted in Accountability, Quality Authorizing on May 21st, 2013
Charter schools may look different from state to state, but one common denominator is that each charter school has an entity that is charged with defining school autonomies and holding the school accountable. But what do we call this entity: sponsor or authorizer? When the idea of charter schools was first conceived, Minnesota legislators focused [...]
Posted in Accountability, One Million Lives, Performance Standards, Quality Authorizing on May 7th, 2013
Speaking of creating an ecosystem for charter school accountability, here is Bill Phillips, president of the Northeast Charter School Network (NECSN) with a call for clear quality standards for charter school renewal and revocation that focus on academic results. Phillips also endorses the closure of a low performing charter, a school he says was “one [...]
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 Charter School Growth, One Million Lives, Quality Authorizing on Apr 29th, 2013
Last week in New Orleans, NACSA wrestled with issues of standardization and differentiation in the charter school sector. We held our annual joint meeting of our Board of Directors and National Advisory Board in the French Quarter and, despite the festive surroundings, had a number of serious and enlightening discussions. In a dinner discussion that [...]
Posted in One Million Lives, Quality Authorizing, Research on Apr 18th, 2013
Today we released our 5th annual report on NACSA’s authorizer survey results: The State of Charter School Authorizing 2012. Its release each year leads me to reflect on how the authorizing sector is changing, how much it has improved and what challenges still lie ahead. Certain findings deserve particular attention: More of the nation’s authorizers [...]
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, Enrollment, Quality Authorizing, Special Education on Apr 17th, 2013
Via the Washington Post‘s Emma Brown, comes the news that Monday night, the DC Public Charter Schools Board (DC PCSB) unanimously denied a request from BASIS DC, one of the charter schools it authorizes, to increase its enrollment ceiling. This sort of denial is probably quite common for schools with authorizers who are not invested in seeing [...]
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 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 Accountability, Charter School Growth, One Million Lives, Quality Authorizing, Research on Mar 19th, 2013
A new report, Searching for Excellence: A Five-City, Cross-State Comparison of Charter School Quality, by researchers at Public Impact and published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute examines charter school performance in five cities, Albany, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, and Indianapolis and finds that overall the charter sector in these cities outperformed their local district schools. They also found, though, [...]
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 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, Quality Authorizing on Mar 5th, 2013
An op-ed in the Sunday Fort Wayne’s Journal Gazette, by NACSA’s President and CEO, Greg Richmond, warns people to beware of charter schools that engage in authorizer shopping. This is a serious problem for those trying to close down failing charter schools in Indiana, and nationally. “Authorizer shopping” occurs when failing charter schools try to [...]
Posted in Accountability, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Mar 4th, 2013
The Fort Wayne, IN Journal Gazette, published an op-ed over the weekend by NACSA president and CEO, Greg Richmond. Richmond warns against the dangers of charter school forum shopping whereby a charter school seeks out a new authorizer to avoid accountability. In Indiana, several charter schools that have been slated for closure by Ball State [...]
Posted in Accountability, One Million Lives, Quality Authorizing on Mar 1st, 2013
Although Ball State University’s Office of Charter Schools has faced some tough criticism in the past, it is working to set an example of how an authorizer can drastically improve its policies and practices—and consequently the strength of the schools in its portfolio. The largest authorizer in Indiana for over a decade, Ball State has [...]
Posted in Accountability, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Feb 25th, 2013
Eastern Michigan University’s Charter Schools Office Director Malverne Winborne weighs in on the recent report commissioned by the Michigan State Board of Education comparing the performance of authorizer portfolios across the state. Winborne claims that the report is flawed because it doesn’t account for the fact that even low-performing schools may be outperforming their local districts [...]
Posted in Policy, Postcard from the Statehouse, Quality Authorizing on Feb 22nd, 2013
“Postcard from the Statehouse” will provide occasional updates on the travels of NACSA’s Policy Team as they advocate for strong authorizer policies across the country. Greetings from Texas! Yesterday, the Senate Education Committee heard testimony on SB 2, a newly introduced bill that would improve oversight of–and access–to high quality charter schools. NACSA President and CEO Greg [...]
Posted in Accountability, Policy, Quality Authorizing on Feb 21st, 2013
Imagine if you were in a contractual relationship with a service provider, and the provider told you that you couldn’t end the contract. A recent case in Florida illustrates why NACSA recommends that the contractual relationships between charter school boards and their service providers clearly address important issues like how and when either party might act to [...]
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