NACSA Blog

NACSA Blog

Press Releases


NACSA Announces Second Cohort of Authorizing Fellowship Program at University of Minnesota

Program continues to build pipeline of charter school authorizing talent Today, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) announced the second cohort of its Innovation in Education Fellowship at the University …


NACSA Names a Dozen Prominent Authorizing Professionals to Leaders Program

Today, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) announced the selection of the fifth cohort of its NACSA Leaders Program, a highly-selective and rigorous program providing leadership, management and authorizing training …


NACSA Applauds Passage of Washington State Bill to Save Charter Schools

CHICAGO – Yesterday, the Washington State House of Representatives passed SB 6194, a bipartisan bill allowing public charter schools to continue operating in the state. In response, Greg Richmond, president and CEO …


New Report Examines Loophole that Allows Failing Charter Schools to Remain Open

Calls to close loophole known as “authorizer shopping” in order to provide better opportunities for kids A new report released today by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) finds authorizer …


New Report Highlights Closure and Composition Trends in National Charter School Authorizing Landscape

Today, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) released its annual State of Charter Authorizing (SOCA) report through an interactive website featuring the largest amount of data about authorizing trends in …


Active Authorizing

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, …


A Step Forward for Charter School Quality in Texas

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 …


Real Parent Empowerment without a War

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 …


Playing Political Football with Kids’ Lives

NACSA’s president and CEO, Greg Richmond, has a op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times arguing that charter schools are being used in Chicago’s “school wars” in ways that only serve adult interests and harm kids. While …


Protecting Student and Public Interests

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 …


Helping Charter Schools Better Serve English Language Learners

This week the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released Serving English Language Learners:  A Toolkit for Public Charter Schools. This timely resource is designed to provide charter school leaders with clear guidance …


School Choice for All

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 …


Scaling Quality, Closing Failure

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, …


Postcard from the Statehouse: St. Paul, MN

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 …


Core Principles and Essential Practices

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 …