About 230,000 students are attending better schools in 2013, according to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, because of the organization’s efforts to close low-performing charters and open high-quality ones.
The finding was released as part of a report that details the organization’s progress toward its One Million Lives campaign, which aims to allow 1 million children the opportunity to go to a better school by encouraging charter school authorizers to close failing charter schools and open high-quality ones. The organization is currently one year into the five-year effort.
In 2013, about 490 new charter schools were approved through a rigorous review process and 206 low-performing charter schools closed, says the report. The organization defined ‘rigorous review process’ as one that met at least four out of five of NACSA’s essential practices for review processes. (Out of 642 charter school openings in 2013, 491 met that criteria.)
“Sometimes students obtain a better education if they enroll in a new, quality charter school and sometimes students obtain a better education if we close a charter school that is failing,” said Greg Richmond, NACSA’s president and chief executive officer, in a press release. “Both actions create better educational opportunities for kids and we need to ensure we’re doing all that we can to make that happen.”
In order to achieve the goals set out by One Million Lives, the organization says it is aiming to encourage the charter sector to open 2,000 new high-quality charters while closing 1,000 low-performing schools.