Establishing standards for charter school authorizers
Editor’s note: This article was submitted by Alex Medler, vice president of research and evaluation at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA).
Readers of Education News Colorado are accustomed to fights over charter schools. The decisions to approve or close charter schools in Colorado are made by school districts and Colorado’s Charter School Institute. Their decisions are based on the work they do in their roles as authorizers.
Collectively, the practices of Colorado’s charter school authorizers may be less than compelling news. But their work is crucial to shaping the degree of quality and innovation that families find in our charter schools.
For the last couple of years, Colorado has been engaged in serious discussions about the standards that ought