NACSA | Publications & Resources
Viewpoint is a series of articles written by leaders in charter school authorizing and the education reform movement. The series is meant to foster thoughtful discussion and idea exchange on current topics and emerging trends in the sector. The views, opinions, and recommendations expressed in these articles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.
Viewpoint: Charter 2.0 -- Charter Schools and Public Education in Colorado
By Jim Griffin, President of the Colorado League for Charter Schools
This paper examines the various policy and implementation levers available to inject affirmative solutions into the charter school landscape, along with some important guiding principles that serve as a backdrop to the development of policy and programs.
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Viewpoint: Authorizing Online Learning
By Susan Patrick, iNACOL and Tom Vander Ark, iNACOL
During this decade, American education will shift from print to digital, from flat and sequential content to engaging and adaptive, and from batch processing to personalized learning. There will also be a slow enrollment shift from traditional district-operated schools to schools and programs operated by organizations authorized under contracts or charter.
As chief executive officer and chair of the International Association for K–12 Online Learning (iNACOL), we believe that one of the most important drivers of this historic shift is online learning. It is growing by more than 40 percent annually and creating new full- and part-time options for students and families. This paper refers specifically to online schools where instruction is delivered remotely by live teachers on a full- and part-time basis, also known as virtual or cyber learning.
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Viewpoint: Differentiated Charter Authorizing Strategies for Innovation, Scale, and Quality
By Tom Vander Ark, Vander Ark/Ratcliff
A maturing charter sector still operates on first-generation laws designed to launch a few experimental schools. However, the charter sector has moved beyond this initial launch stage of its development. The new focus on scaling quality and the growth of managed networks has placed particular demands on old policies, practices, and authorizing capabilities. Growth in online and blended learning, interest in high-level STEM, and conversions and turnaround are additional new pressures on the one-size-fits-some process. States should update authorizing laws to incorporate multiple pathways and new capacities that reflect the realities of the charter landscape, and take advantage of emerging opportunities to add quality educational options.
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Viewpoint: Chartering Pre-K: How Natural Synergies Between the Charter and Pre-K Movements Can Improve Public Education
By Sara Mead, Bellwether Education Partners
The Red Lava Bears are four-year-old pre-kindergartners attending KIPP SHINE, a charter school in Houston, Texas. They, and students at AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School, in Washington, D.C., are receiving high-quality pre-kindergarten learning opportunities. And while they do not know it (they are only 4 years old, after all), these youngsters are at the confluence of two of the most significant public education movements of the past decade—the charter school and universal pre-kindergarten movements. These two movements share common goals, face similar challenges, and can benefit from the use of similar tools to overcome those challenges. But there has been surprisingly little collaboration or knowledge sharing between the two movements. This paper explores how natural synergies between the charter and pre-K movements can help both movements to be even more effective in improving public education.
Download Viewpoint | Join the Discussion | EdWeek Early Years Blog Post | Sara Mead's Policy Notebook Blog Post
NACSA's Viewpoint Series is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
