$2.2 million from the U.S. Department of Education will help improve charter authorizing best practices around the country
MOUNT PLEASANT, MICH. – The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement awarded the National Charter Schools Institute (NCSI) a $2.2 million grant over three years to elevate the quality of charter school authorizing and assist authorizers with developing holistic performance measures for evaluating alternative schools. The project is called “The A-Game – Advancing Great Authorizing and Modeling Excellence.”
“Our public schools serve students with a diverse range of needs and yet many authorizers are using a one-size-fits-all approach to accountability,” said Dr. James Goenner, president and CEO of the National Charter Schools Institute. “This grant will allow us to leverage the experience and expertise that exists throughout the country to develop and disseminate recommendations for how to better evaluate the performance of mission-driven schools. This work will help students and families make more informed choices and provide taxpayers with the assurance that these schools are delivering results.”
The “A-Game” project will convene a National Authorizer Leadership Team, which includes 11 experienced and well-respected authorizers, to capture and share best practices for evaluating alternative schools. Among other activities, this group will work with a National Advisory Committee of industry leaders to identify new ideas that authorizers can use to transform their oversight beyond compliance checklists to a more rigorous and personalized approach that focuses on outcomes for students.
“This grant helps all charter public schools and their authorizers build smart and strong practices for children,” said Susie Miller Carello, executive director of the SUNY Charter Schools Institute. “These resources will impact our abilities to serve hundreds of thousands of students through robust and authentic sharing of what successful charter teachers and students are achieving every day.”
The National Authorizer Leadership Team is comprised of 11 authorizers from across the country including:
- Alameda County Office of Education (California)
- Audubon Center of the North Woods (Minnesota)
- Buckeye Community Hope (Ohio)
- Central Michigan University (Michigan)
- Chicago Public Schools (Illinois)
- DC Public Charter School Board (District of Columbia)
- Ferris State University (Michigan)
- Hillsborough County Public Schools (Florida)
- Nevada State Charter School Authority (Nevada)
- New York State Department of Education (New York)
- SUNY Charter Schools Institute (New York)
The final year of the grant will be focused on creating a resource library and disseminating strategies and practices that support the replication and expansion of high-quality charter schools, improve the performance measures found in charter contracts and share models of excellence, particularly for new and small authorizers.
For more information about charter authorizing and resources to support that work, visit the National Charter Schools Institute website.
About the National Charter Schools Institute
The National Charter Schools Institute (www.nationalcharterschools.org) believes that great schools, in partnership with great charter authorizers, can transform the lives of students and communities. NCSI helps authorizers and schools across the country develop dynamic partnerships that improve academic and fiscal outcomes by providing strategic counsel, coaching and technological tools to bring more transparency, productivity and accountability to their partnerships. By providing charter-like autonomy to all public schools, together with the right support and accountability measures, authorizers can help transform the broader public education system.
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October 11, 2018
Contact: Angela Montagna
angela@larsonpr.com
(312) 343-2515
