NACSA Blog

NACSA Blog

Press Releases


National Association of Charter School Authorizers Strongly Supports Public Charter School Program Reauthorization

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) endorses the efforts of Chairman John Kline (R-MN) and Senior Democrat Bobby Scott (D-VA) to reauthorize NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and strongly supports …


Press Statement on 1/21 US Senate HELP Committee Hearing ESEA Testing and Accountability

In response to the U.S. Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee hearing on testing and accountability, (scheduled for 9:30 am, Wednesday, January 21, 2015), Greg Richmond, President and CEO of …


Massachusetts Audit Obscures Successful Charter School Outcomes

The audit released today by the Massachusetts State Auditor of the administration of the charter school program by the Board of and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE and DESE) misses …


NACSA Launches New Communications Effort

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers is pleased to announce that Jobi Cates has joined the organization as Vice President of Communications. Cates comes to NACSA from Human Rights Watch, where …


NACSA Applauds Focus on Student Outcomes and Serving At-Risk Students

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) welcomed today’s release of the National Alliance for Public Charter School’s (the Alliance) new national report on charter school performance. “The Alliance report offers …


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 …


Accountability in Minnesota

Check out the new op-ed from Al Fan of Charter School Partners and NACSA’s Alex Medler on the need for greater accountability for the state’s charter schools. “A bi-partisan bill is making …


Postcard from the Statehouse: Nashville, TN

Greetings from Nashville! Earlier this week, the House Education Committee passed HB 0702, legislation that would create the State Charter School Panel, an independent chartering board.  The Panel would serve as an …


Charter School Authorizers Group Issues 2012 Professional Practice Index

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) today released its 2012 Index of Essential Practices, a set of professional practices to guide quality charter school approval and monitoring. Good charter school …


Beware Charter School Authorizer Shopping

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 …


One Million Lives In Action: Ball State University

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 …