NACSA | Publications & Resources
Recent Publications
Below you’ll find access to NACSA’s most recent publications. NACSA strives to provide authorizers with detailed, comprehensive information to help them do their job more efficiently and effectively. For additional resources, please see the subcategories of this section.
The Principles & Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing, first established in 2004, reflect the lessons learned by experienced authorizers. This foundational resource for NACSA has been used to guide authorizing practices across the country and has been referenced in state statutes. It focuses on the ends that authorizers should be aiming to attain in creating and upholding high expectations for the schools they charter while recognizing that there are many means of getting there. The Principles articulate a set of beliefs about quality charter school authorizing. The Standards identify core authorizer responsibilities and describe how the principles are upheld within each core responsibility. Consult this resource often as a guide to understanding and fulfilling the critical responsibilities of charter school authorizers.
The State of Charter School Authorizing, now in its third edition, highlights trends in authorizing and the use of NACSA's Principles & Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing to affect the education of thousands of charter school students. This annual report provides an overview of the policies, practices, and characteristics of the nation’s largest charter school authorizers, as well as a sampling of smaller authorizing entities. It also builds upon the data presented in previous reports on NACSA’s authorizer survey.
Authorizing Matters - Charter Schools and English Language Learners: An Authorizer and School Leader Guide to Educating ELLs
By: Nancy Clair, Ed.D.
This Issue Brief provides authorizers with the legal requirements and sound education practices for English Language Learners.
Authorizing Matters: Navigating the Closure Process
By: Matthew Shaw
Navigating the Charter Process provides practice-oriented guidance on closure after the decision has been made to close a school. It includes specific details on communicating with all stakeholders affected by the closure decision.
Quality Authorizing for Online and Blended-Learning Charter Schools
By: Evergreen Education Group
Authored by the Evergreen Education Group, "Quality Authorizing for Online and Blended-Learning Charter Schools" identifies key issues faced by authorizers of these types of schools. This Monograph provides a preliminary scan of current authorizer practices related to online and blended learning. The findings of this paper are based on in-depth interviews with seven authorizers with online and blended-learning charters in their portfolios.
Accountability in Action: A Comprehensive Guide to Charter School Closure
NACSA’s Comprehensive Guide to Charter School Closure is designed to assist the staff and board members of authorizing agencies as they address the wide array of challenges involved in any closure decision. It draws directly upon the successful experiences of other authorizers across the country. Authorizers are entrusted by the public with unique and extraordinary powers to approve new good charter schools and to close those that fail. This guide provides the information and tools to help authorizers fulfill those responsibilities so that more children attend only high-quality schools that successfully prepare them for their futures.
NACSA’s publications are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
