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 was founded in 2000 by a small group of charter school authorizers who believed that the quality of authorizing practices could have a powerful impact on the quality and growth of charter public schools. Today, NACSA influences and supports authorizers across the 40 states that have charter school laws and the 4,000 charter public schools, serving over 1 million schoolchildren across America.

Greg Richmond, President of NACSA and former director of charter schools for Chicago Public Schools, said, “CMU has developed a gold standard reputation for its quality chartering practices. Jim and his team are highly respected and their willingness to share their experience and expertise is helping to improve authorizer oversight across the country.”

“Having Jim’s expertise on NACSA’s board is a tremendous asset, and we are excited that he is willing to accept additional leadership responsibilities serving as Vice Chairman,” added Richmond.

NACSA’s board of directors is made up of leaders from some of America’s most dynamic chartering agencies. The board is composed of representatives from leading authorizers of charter public schools who are considered innovative educational leaders.

“It is an honor and privilege to be elected by my peers from across the country to represent them,” said Goenner. “As a new player on the national scene, NACSA is already helping shape better education policy and is helping ensure families have quality educational options for their children.”

CMU became the first university in the nation to charter a school in 1994. Today, CMU is the largest authorizer in Michigan and the largest university-authorizer in the nation – chartering 58 public schools, currently serving nearly 30,000 schoolchildren.

Under Mr. Goenner’s leadership, the Center for Charter Schools has matured and more fully developed its oversight model — receiving a perfect score when it voluntarily underwent a lengthy assurance and verification audit by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) last year. Auditors were so impressed with CMU’s oversight model, the MDE nominated CMU to the U.S. Department of Education for recognition as one of the nation’s outstanding authorizers.