Facilitator: Alex Medler, National Charter School Resource Center
Presenter:
- Carol Beck, Maryland State Department of Education
- Adam Emerson, Florida Department of Education
- David Frank, New York State Department of Education
- Karl Koenig, Ohio Department of Education
- Joanna Laghetto, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
- Jennifer Nelson, Minnesota Department of Education
Description: CSP SE grants give states the opportunity to provide technical assistance on a wide array of issues facing charter schools. Among these technical assistance opportunities, SE grantees can help strengthen charter school authorizing. This webinar explored a variety of state activities designed to improve authorizing. These strategies reflect the variety of authorizers and policy structures around the country as well as a mix of new initiatives and more mature state efforts. A discussion of these examples was intended to expand the participants’ understanding of what states can do to improve authorizing in their context. All authorizing improvement efforts are designed to promote best practices and help states fulfill their CSP grant objectives.
In this webinar, a panel of state leaders shared their strategies to strengthen authorizing in states with:
- Many authorizers of various types;
- Local school districts that do all, or almost all, of the authorizing; and
- Single or a small number of authorizers.
State efforts include:
- Comprehensive authorizer accountability systems enacted through state statute;
- Partnerships with local districts and other parties;
- The creation of common materials;
- Trainings;
- Third-party evaluations; and
- Self-improvement efforts by a CSP grantee that is also an authorizer.
This webinar allowed participants to discuss strategies that states are currently using to strengthen charter school authorizing. The webinar was designed for recipients of SE and SEA grants from the U.S. Department of Education's Charter Schools Program.