The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) has identified 12 essential practices it believes all authorizers should implement to maintain high standards, preserve school autonomy, and protect student and public interests. The best practices are detailed in a special report that also catalogs the procedures used by more than 120 charter school authorizing agencies across the nation.
Although each charter school jurisdiction is subject to local laws with different types of authorizers, including school districts, state education departments, universities and others, NACSA believes the 12 procedures identified in the Index of Essential Practices report should serve as a minimum foundation to all agencies for more effective authorizing.
NACSA recommends each charter school authorizer should:
- Sign a contract with each school
- Have established, documented criteria for the evaluation of charter applications
- Publish application timelines and materials
- Interview all charter applicants
- Use expert panels that include external members to review charter applications
- Grant charters with five-year terms only
- Require and/or examine annual, independent financial audits of its charter schools
- Have established renewal criteria
- Have established revocation criteria
- Provide an annual report to each school on its performance
- Have staff assigned to authorizing within the organization or by contract
- Have a published and available mission for quality authorizing
“If every authorizer in the nation implemented each of these 12 practices, there is no doubt that the overall quality of America’s charter schools would be higher,” writes NACSA President and CEO Greg Richmond in the report’s opening letter. “Unfortunately, very few authorizers report that they are implementing all 12 practices. I believe we can do better.”
The list stems from more than a decade of evaluating and researching authorizer practices across the nation, officials said. The report details why each is important to ensuring the proliferation of high-quality charter schools. NACSA is hopeful authorizers will use the report to evaluate and strengthen their procedures.
"There are great charter schools, and there are poorly performing charter schools," Richmond said. "Authorizers are responsible for making sure that only the best charter schools are serving children and making good use of public funds."
The data provided in the index portion of the report is derived from NACSA's 2011 Authorizer Survey. Of the 123 authorizers that provided complete responses, just three indicated they use all 12 best practices identified by NACSA. The majority of respondents currently implement eight to 10 of the procedures.
The three authorizers that met all 12 criteria were the Albuquerque Public Schools Charter School Office in New Mexico, the Chicago Public Schools Office of New Schools and the Philadelphia School District.
The lowest index score was from the Mitchell County School Board in Georgia which indicated its uses just three of the best practices.
"Across the country, millions of students attend thousands of charter schools. These 12 essential practices are a necessary first step toward ensuring that charter schools are good schools," Richmond said.
NACSA’s full Index of Essential Practices report can be downloaded here.
