Today, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) made an important statement: it’s time to focus on quality.
In its new campaign, NACSA will support authorizers as they close failing charter schools and open twice as many excellent ones. The goal is to provide an additional 1 million students an education in high-quality public charter schools. To accomplish the goal, NACSA will urge states to improve charter school laws so that they:
1.) Set clear expectations for the performance of public charter schools;
2.) Hold authorizers accountable for the schools they oversee; and
3.) Create statewide authorizers, which are more likely to promote quality growth.
Several hundred public charter schools will need to close under this renewed focus on quality, but NACSA says that the changes are necessary to ensure the charter sector will grow successfully in the long term. “The charter school idea is predicated on the notion that in exchange for autonomy and freedom from bureaucratic rules, schools would face closure if they fail to meet their academic goals,” said Nina S. Rees, the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “I fully support that and support the efforts of authorizers to get it right, whatever the numbers may be. I also support NACSA’s efforts to promote growth and quality at the same time and to push policies that will help ensure that every charter public school is a high-quality school.” Click here for more about the 1 million lives campaign – or follow #1millionlives on Twitter. You can find additional media coverage of the 1 million lives campaign at the Huffington Post, Education Week, and Atlanta Journal Constitution. Image via NACSA website
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