National Association of Charter School Authorizers
| National Association of Charter School Authorizers | |
| Basic facts | |
| Website: | Official website |
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers, or NACSA, is a nationwide organization devoted to improving the performance of charter school authorizers and by extension charter schools as a whole. NACSA members include nearly half of the authorizers of the country's 5,600 charter schools as well as other charter school oversight bodies, state departments of education and education reform groups. A line from the NACSA website captures their goals clearly:
| “ | NACSA works to improve the policies and practices of authorizers—the organizations designated to approve, monitor, renew, and, if necessary, close charter schools.[1][2] | ” |
Authorizers
To understand what NACSA does, one must understand the role of the charter school authorizer. When discussing charter schools, the term "authorizer" is assigned to the organization that governs the approval, monitoring, renewal, and closing of charter schools in a given state. The authorizer is approved by a state education agency and is responsible for approving contracts, or charters, that will govern how a charter school is run. After the approval process, the authorizer monitors the school's performance to determine whether or not the school is meeting the standards agreed upon in the charter. Based on that performance, the authorizer can choose to renew the contract or deny renewal, effectively closing the school. The school may also be closed early if that is determined to be the best decision.[3]
Principles & Standards
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One of NACSA's achievements is the publication of a document called the Principles & Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing (hereafter called Principles). The Principles document is a collection of practices that NACSA believes all charter school authorizers should follow. It is the first published document that is designed to inform authorizers on a national level. As NACSA is an advisory organization, Principles is not a mandated requirement for authorizers, but NACSA reports that it has influenced some federal legislation as well as that of several states.[1]
For instance, the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network published a document discussing how best to improve charter school quality. In this document, PIE wrote about its support of NACSA's Principles, explaining how some states, such as Louisiana, have specifically endorsed Principles and have gone on to create state standards that use NACSA's document as a framework. Other states, such as Colorado, have not explicitly expressed their support of the Principles, but have worked to create other standards that use elements from NACSA's publication.[4]
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has also supported NACSA's Principles, specifically endorsing the beginning stages of charter school authorization: When a new charter school is proposed, Principles advises authorizers to use both internal staff and external experts to review the application in some way. This includes reviewing the charter, joining in on interviews, or any other part of the review process that the authorizer uses. NCSL specifically endorsed this practice, citing that it was a recommendation from Principles. NCSL has also used some of NACSA's research to describe strengths and weaknesses in certain parts of the charter school authorizing process.[5]
NACSA's methods
In addition to publishing Principles, NACSA has other methods that it employs in order to fulfill its mission of improving charter school and authorizer quality. NACSA hosts a national leadership conference each year where research and ideas are shared for the benefit of authorizers and other organizations or individuals interested in charter schools. Another significant resource made possible by NACSA is an online tool known as the "Knowledge Core." The Core is an interactive web-based program that contains resources and activities usable by NACSA members for the purposes of education. The Core not only provides general information about authorizing practices, but also shares information about NACSA standards. It includes a wealth of information that can be found in the Principles document and is one of the largest interactive tools available for the purpose of educating charter school authorizers. The tool also allows for easy networking, as users can find others involved in authorizing.[6]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term 'National + Association + of + Charter + School + Authorizers
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 National Association of Charter School Authorizers, "About NACSA," accessed October 28, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Policy Innovators in Education, "The charter school quality agenda: What comes next," accessed October 29, 2014
- ↑ National Conference of State Legislatures, "Authorizing charter schools," accessed October 29, 2014
- ↑ National Association of Charter School Authorizers, "Knowledge Core," accessed October 29, 2014
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