NACSA Blog

NACSA Blog

Press Releases


National Association of Charter School Authorizers Elects Leaders

James N. Goenner, Executive Director of Central Michigan University’s Center for Charter Schools, was elected last week to serve as Vice Chair of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). NACSA …


Charter Schools Perform when District & Political Backing is Evident

Chicago — Charter school performance varies considerably across the nation, as indicated by today’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, but the independent public schools outperform traditional schools when political and …


Low-Performing Charter Schools Fight Closure in Indiana

Last month, the charter schools office at Ball State University announced that it was revoking the charters of seven of its lowest performing schools for failure to meet the performance expectations outlined …


Closing bad charters isn’t the only challenge

The Fordham Institute’s Adam Emerson emphasizes the critical role that new schools must play in the transformation of one million lives. The One Million Lives Campaign launched in the fall by the National Association of …


Visualizing the Need for Great New Schools

As part of its annual Call for Quality Options, the Louisiana Department of Education has launched a new interactive information center to accompany the various ways in which the department is seeking …


D.C. debates growth of charter schools

The Washington Post’s Emma Brown scratches the surface of some of the difficult issues that arise when a city’s charter schools educate the same percentage of kids as its district schools.


New schools, new opportunities—seven steps to strategic change

Crossposted at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Closing schools, district or charter, is almost always difficult and disruptive. We should not pretend, though, that the disruption that comes with closure is worse …


New CREDO Study Confirms Need for Smarter Replication and Faster Action on Failing Schools

The Charter School Growth and Replication study released last week by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) has important implications for charter authorizers. The study’s key findings–that charter school performance is …


Give Quality a Chance: Maine Commission Working to Set High Standards

One way to provide more children with an opportunity to go to a great school is to approve only those charter applicants that have demonstrated that they are ready to succeed. The …


Ball State Stands Up for Quality

Earlier this week, Ball State University announced its intent to revoke the charters of seven of its nearly 40 charter schools for failure to meet performance expectations. The authorizer had until March to …


Smarter Growth: Indiana Replicates High-Performing Schools

Careful replication of high-performers is one important method for growing high-quality schools. The Indianapolis Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation is doing just that, with recent approvals of seven new charter schools—six of which are replications. …


500 New Charter Schools, 270K More Charter Students

The National Alliance has released new numbers from its Public Charter Schools Dashboard showing that this past fall 500 new charter schools opened their doors and an additional 270,000 students enrolled in charter schools …