When authorizers do their job well, they create brighter futures for our nation’s kids. They foster public school options that wouldn’t otherwise exist, ensuring that every child has access to a great public education regardless of where they live. They have to make tough calls, often in fast-paced environments, and under pressure.
How do authorizers get better at their jobs, despite all of the challenges inherent in their roles,
especially given that many work in relative isolation?
At NACSA, we’ve continually updated our membership program. While at first our focus was primarily on tools and resources, we’ve evolved to embrace a more holistic approach. We now help authorizers nurture their strengths through the Leaders Program. We help them build professional communities at our Annual Conference and online. And most importantly, we deepen our existing resources–and expand into new areas–to meet the demands of a maturing field.
Over the past 15 years, we have worked with authorizing professionals, studied their practices, and learned side-by-side with them to create easy-to-use tools. NACSA members have access to not only our member benefits, but also to our staff experts, most of whom have been successful authorizers themselves. We are here to back up authorizers and support them when they need it most.
Membership in NACSA reinforces a simple truth: you are not alone. There are hundreds of authorizing professionals across the country dealing with similar challenges. Our membership program brings authorizers together in a supportive community so that together we may truly transform public education.
But NACSA membership is not just for authorizers. Most people who have invested time in making the charter school sector successful realize the importance of authorizing, and have become part of our community as well. Charter support organizations, departments of education, education reform advocates, charter school operators, and more join NACSA to advance quality in charter schools. By becoming members, they affirm their support for high-quality authorizing practices and policies that lead to excellent schools.
To our current members, thank you for helping us build an engaging community. Thank you for committing to serve kids by always improving your practices. And thank you for partnering with NACSA to make sure that every child can attend a great school.
To those readers who might not yet be NACSA members, we hope you will consider joining us and our community to see that every authorizer has the tools they need to be successful.
