National Association of Charter School Authorizers

National Association of Charter School Authorizers
Name	National Association of Charter School Authorizers
Established	2000
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois
Type	Nonprofit organization

Contents

National Association of Charter School Authorizers is a nonprofit organization that served as a national membership and standards body for entities authorizing publicly funded charter schools in the United States. It operated at the intersection of policy networks involving U.S. Department of Education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, and state-level agencies such as the California Department of Education, New York State Education Department, and Illinois State Board of Education. The association engaged with a range of actors including National School Boards Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and philanthropic intermediaries like Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

History

The organization was founded in 2000 amid national debates involving Charter schools in the United States, legislative actions like the No Child Left Behind Act, and advocacy by groups such as Edison Schools and KIPP Foundation. Early interactions connected it to research institutions including Harvard Graduate School of Education, Stanford University Graduate School of Education, and policy centers like the Brookings Institution and Center on Reinventing Public Education. Throughout the 2000s it engaged with federal grant programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education and collaborated with state actors in Arizona, Michigan, and Massachusetts. The association’s evolution paralleled debates involving litigants and litigations in venues such as the United States Supreme Court and state supreme courts, and intersected with initiatives by Race to the Top and the Every Student Succeeds Act.

The organization defined its mission around standards for authorization and oversight, aligning with norms from institutions including Harvard Kennedy School, Yale Law School, and Columbia Teachers College. Governance structures reflected nonprofit best practices seen at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York, with boards resembling those of Council on Foundations members and executive leadership interacting with officials from U.S. Department of Education and state education agencies like Texas Education Agency and Florida Department of Education. Its bylaws drew on templates used by organizations such as Independent Sector and reporting norms from the Internal Revenue Service nonprofit filings.

The association developed standards for authorizing modeled in part after accreditation frameworks like those of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, North Central Association, and professional standards used by Council for Higher Education Accreditation. These standards covered application review, performance contracts, facilities oversight, and renewal processes cited by authorizers in New Orleans, Chicago Public Schools, and Denver Public Schools. The framework aimed to address concerns raised in studies from RAND Corporation, Urban Institute, and National Bureau of Economic Research about variability in authorizing practices.

Programs included training and professional development similar to offerings by Learning Forward and consultancy services resembling those provided by McKinsey & Company and The Parthenon Group. The association ran conferences bringing together leaders from KIPP Foundation, Uncommon Schools, Achievement First, New Schools Venture Fund, and charter management organizations such as Imagine Schools. It provided technical assistance to authorizers in jurisdictions including Ohio, Colorado Department of Education, and Pennsylvania Department of Education and produced toolkits echoing materials from Education Commission of the States and National Governors Association.

The association participated in advocacy efforts alongside coalitions like Forum for Education Reform and engaged with policy debates involving federal laws such as Every Student Succeeds Act and programs like Race to the Top. Its research citations referenced analyses by RAND Corporation, Brookings Institution, Urban Institute, and American Enterprise Institute, and it contributed testimony to legislative bodies including the United States Congress and state legislatures in Michigan and Louisiana. The organization also convened working groups with stakeholders from Charter School Growth Fund, Walton Family Foundation, and university researchers at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The association faced criticism from labor groups like American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association and watchdogs associated with ProPublica and investigative reporting by The New York Times and The Washington Post over authorizing quality, closure decisions, and relationships with charter management organizations such as KIPP Foundation and Imagine Schools. Critics referenced empirical studies published by National Bureau of Economic Research and RAND Corporation and lawsuits in state courts, including disputes in California and Massachusetts. Debates also invoked policy critiques from Economic Policy Institute and reform analyses from Brookings Institution.

Category:Education organizations in the United States