NACSA Blog

NACSA Blog

Press Releases


Nevada Passes Legislation Creating State-Run District to Tackle Consistently Low-Performing Schools

Chicago, Ill. – Over the weekend, the Nevada legislature passed AB448, a significant piece of school reform legislation that will allow the state to transition its lowest-performing public schools to charter schools …


NACSA Says American Enterprise Institute Report on Charter School Application Process Goes too Far, Calls for Focus on Balanced Authorizing Practices

Chicago, Ill. – The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) released the following statement in response to the recommendations in a report on authorizer accountability released today by the American Enterprise …


Greater Collaboration between Charter Authorizers and Lenders Can Ease School Facility Financing Burden, Report Concludes

Chicago, Ill. – Today the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) released a joint report aimed at increasing conversation and understanding between lenders and …


Oklahoma Passes Comprehensive Charter School Reform

Unique combination of business groups, traditional schools and charter school advocates come together in the best interests for Oklahoma’s children Chicago, Ill. – Today the Oklahoma Legislature passed SB 782 , major …


National Association of Charter School Authorizers Voices Support for the Senate HELP Committee’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Reauthorization Bill

Chicago, Ill. – Today, members of the U.S. Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee reported out a bipartisan Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization bill to the full Senate. …


Innovation After the Pandemic

As students and communities emerge from the ravages of a global pandemic, authorizing faces a key challenge: embracing its fundamental role of providing high-quality educational opportunities, while evolving to meet new demands …


Closing the DEI Gap in Authorizing

According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, 68% of charter school students are students of color and nearly 59% come from lower-income households. Unfortunately, most educational organizations, including authorizing institutions, …


New School Application

What’s possible today? Who can start new, high-quality, innovative, and equitable schools? Is it possible for community members, talented educators, or the next generation of leaders to start a new school that …


Third Thursdays

NACSA provides professional development opportunities, online courses, resources, and publications that are specifically designed to help authorizers and other school leaders grow and network. Third Thursdays, an ongoing virtual learning series, is …


2022 Reflections with Karega

Agency. Acceleration. Autonomy.  You couldn’t miss these words, prominently displayed throughout the school. But these were not just words on walls: I saw how students, teachers, and administrators took those beliefs seriously. …


2022 Change Makers

Across the country, the dual challenges of an ongoing pandemic and racial inequities continue to impact our schools. But educators, school leaders, and authorizers across the country have been working to meet …


Authorizer Resource: Multiple Measures Readiness Assessment

NACSA and our partners have been working on innovative ways to evolve definitions of school quality, including Multiple Measures. Multiple Measures is a both/and accountability system: BOTH long-used and normed measures AND …


NACSA names Brian Graham as Chief Financial Officer

Dr. M. Karega Rausch, president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), announced today that Brian Graham joins NACSA as chief financial officer.  “I am honored to be …


Introducing EnTere Ed Collective, a space where BIPOC authorizers and authorizing-adjacent professionals THRIVE

By Vashaunta Harris, V. Harris Enterprises, and John Carwell Jr., Delaware State Department of Education NACSACon’s keynote speaker, Dr. Anton Treuer, remarked that, “Public education is the big assimilation experiment.” This extends …


State of Charter Authorizing Report

Authorizing is the most consequential public school governance reform of the past two decades. For the last 20+ years, authorizers have been creating a new landscape, where school autonomy—balanced by fierce accountability …