Tune in! We've got some great sessions at NACSA 2020
This week kicks off the 2020 NACSA Virtual Leadership Conference. Although we would love to see all of you in person, that just isn't the case this year. Fortunately, as a community, we have the opportunity to advance excellence in education virtually.
There are so many great sessions planned this year and we wanted to highlight a few that involve our team members here at the National Charter School Institute. Be sure to mark these sessions on your calendar so that you can attend.
Thursday, Oct 15 at 12:00 pm
Opening Remarks
Jim Goenner with Sarah Tantillo
Sarah Tantillo, Author of "HIT THE DRUM: An Insider's Account of How the Charter School Idea Became a National Movement"
Thursday, Oct 15 at 2:00 pm
Hindsight is 2020
Mary Bradley and Naomi Rubin DeVeaux
There is no more to charter school authorizing than holding a quality standard and ensuring schools are compliant, right? Think again. Learn from the combined 30 years of experience of District, State, and Independent authorizers, as they reflect on lessons learned and share what they wish they would have known from the start. They will respond to your questions from leading to listening, from school support to closure, from politics to taking care of yourself.
Tuesday, Oct 20 at 1:45 pm
Fiscal Oversight:
COVID and Beyond: Is your fiscal oversight proactive enough?
Mary Bradley and Cindy Schumacher
Fiscal insolvency is one of the most common reasons charters close, but does it have to be? With COVID, will we see more schools in financial trouble? How will an authorizer know when a school is headed for trouble? What role should an authorizer play? Dialogue with the presenters about these questions and discuss the importance of building a proactive fiscal oversight system that includes early identification and preparing the environment for the challenges ahead.
Thursday, Oct 22 at 1:45 pm
Optimizing Epicenter to Support Your Team and Schools
Jim Goenner and Meghann Russell
More is being expected from authorizers, boards, and schools. More achievement, oversight, documentation, reporting, transparency, accountability...the list goes on. Come see how you can optimize the power of Epicenter to lighten the load. We'll show you how to streamline and automate the exchange of data documents and decision making within your portfolio and keep everyone focused on the things that truly matter. For example, you'll learn how you can use Epicenter to help: Strengthen communications and transparency; Manage documents, compliance, and reporting; Automate reminders and recurring activities; Coordinate charter applications and renewals; and Share resources within and across organizations.
Tuesday, Oct 27 at 2:45 pm
Can Authorizers Own Equity Work?
Naomi Rubin DeVeaux
Is there a way for authorizers to appropriately play a more active role in promoting social justice? Can authorizers “own” work on equity, and if so, how? What would it look like if more authorizers improved access, services, and outcomes for students with disabilities and English learners? Can authorizers support and encourage diverse-by-design charter schools? And how can authorizers improve their work to ensure their own systems and procedures do not systematically discourage charter schools in communities of color that are led by people of color, but proactively support the development of such schools? And in all this work, how could more authorizers get to a position where they truly “own” such work?
Thursday, Oct 29 at 12:30 pm
From NY to LA: New Goals for New Times
Naomi Rubin DeVeaux
The best way to support student learning is when alternative education campuses and authorizers create measurable goals that are responsive to the school's population and mission. Through the A-GAME process, authorizers and schools are able to identify their school's program unique attributes and determine rigorous standards of achievement for all students, especially the most vulnerable. Join us in learning about how this work is in practice by hearing from authorizers about the process and experience.
Thursday, Oct 29 at 2:45 pm
The A-GAME: Measuring Quality
Naomi Rubin DeVeaux
With traditional assessments unavailable, authorizers and schools are looking for new ways to measure quality. Join a session to learn about the Advancing Great Authorizing and Modeling Excellence (AGAME) initiative on creating responsive goals based on student population. Focusing on alternative education campuses, 50 authorizers collaborated over the past year to develop a method for creating new measurements based not on averages but on population.
