The National Association of Charter School Authorizer’s annual conference, which targets the groups that approve and oversee charter schools, wrapped up in Miami Thursday.
Authorizers are an important part of the charter system—they’re charged with creating high-quality schools and filtering bad ones out of the mix. How to perform those functions more effectively was central to many of the sessions, and I’ve curated a few of the more interesting insights shared by attendees on Twitter.
Lessons learned in 10 tweets from the 2014 National Associaiton of Charter School Authorizers leadership conference.
Making expulsion and suspension data transparent reduces rates for both for DC charters @IndyOEI #NACSA14
— Nadja (@nadjasimone) October 22, 2014
#Indy Mayor’s office thinking abt how to leverage authorizing new schools to support early childhood ed, workforce development. #NACSA14
— Michael Magee (@mcmageejr) October 22, 2014
Candid panel on future of virtual charters at #NACSA14 @QualityCharters @charteralliance and our Gillian Locke pic.twitter.com/avVMrbGSZx
— Public Impact (@publicimpact) October 22, 2014
Virtual and brick & mortar charters are governed under the same laws, but does a charter law properly regulate a cyber school? #NACSA14
— Charters & Choice (@ChartersNChoice) October 22, 2014
Recent study shows in Ohio 75% of brick & mortar schools performing well but only 3 of 23 virtual schools meeting standard #NACSA14 #edchat
— Learning Collective (@learncollective) October 22, 2014
#nacsa14: @dcpcsb: “Mystery shopper prog” Staff call DC charters, pose as parents & ask questions re: enrollment of a student w/a disability
— NCSECS (@NCSECS) October 22, 2014
#nacsa14: MA has adopted mystery shopper program for ELL students as well.
— NCSECS (@NCSECS) October 22, 2014
On default charter closure laws: “Does it act as a disincentive for operators to go into the highest need areas?” -Adam Miller #NACSA14
— Charters & Choice (@ChartersNChoice) October 21, 2014
Jim Peyser @nsvf - Need accountability systems w/ capacity to evaluate out-of-state results of growing charter school networks. #NACSA14
— Michael Magee (@mcmageejr) October 21, 2014
More from #NACSA14: Next generation authorizers may need to embrace a portfolio approach, opening & growing good schools where needed
— LISC Education (@LISCEducation) October 23, 2014
And on that last point, speakers said that might mean expanding the role of authorizers beyond simply being entities that approve and shut down schools, while working in more coordination with school districts.
If you want to see more of what came out of the conference, you can check out the hashtag #NACSA14 on Twitter and this dispatch I wrote on best practices for closing a charter school, which was the topic of multiple sessions.