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Reimaging Authorizing: NACSA’s Community-Centered Approach

Reimagining Authorizing: NACSA’s Community-Centered Approach

Public education is entering a “new normal” era — the current idiom that describes the post-COVID vaccination world — and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) is using the shift as an opportunity to refocus charter authorizing by making it more community based.

During a webinar hosted by CCAP, Karega Rausch, NACSA’s President and CEO, discussed the organization’s new initiative called Communities at the Center, an approach that calls on charter school authorizers to give local residents a greater role in shaping the culture and content of charter schools in their neighborhoods.

“We see this as a beginning of the evolution of what authorizing needs to be and, ultimately, what I believe public education needs to be, and that is centering on the aspirations and needs of local communities and thinking about how we do that,” said Karega.

One clear way to do that is by being proactive, going into the community and neighborhoods to meet people and learn what they want for their children. Just talking to local leaders isn’t enough, said Karega. Communities aren’t monolithic, they have legitimate, competing interests when it comes to education that must be worked through.

“There is a tendency in our work to listen to the loudest voices in the room and act as if they speak for communities,” but they don’t, said Karega.

Guiding Principles

Community-based authorizing is grounded in six guiding principles that acknowledge and value every community’s discreet contexts, issues, and resources.

  • Communities have great ideas about their kids’ educational aspirations and needs.
  • All communities — including those that have been neglected for decades — have important untapped assets.
  • Families know their children the best, including what learning environments will work for them.
  • Sustainable grown and effective, innovative ideas about what schools are and can do for students will come largely from neighborhoods where students live.
  • Acting on the aspirations and needs of local communities will require fresh thinking and action, inclusive of and beyond typical charter schooling and authorizing.
  • Investments in policy, practice, and passionate people are necessary to deliver on all good ideas communities have for educating their children.

An Opportunity to Serve All Students

Community-based organizing is a lot of work, but it’s imperative in order to create charter schools, especially those that embody equity, diversity, and quality, which were missing in many “overlooked and undervalued” neighborhoods before COVID-19, notes Karega. He cited a survey conducted by the National Parents Union that found 80 percent of Black parents and 63 percent of all parents want schools to find new methods of teaching and learning and not return to the way things were before COVID-19.

“I think it’s important for all of us to remember that the world is different and that we can’t go back to normal before the pandemic because normal wasn’t working for the majority of kids anyway,” said Karega.

Access the Webinar video here.

Please use these links to access the resources mentioned in the video:

Access to these materials is free through NACSA’s learning platform, AuthoRISE. Please email authorise@qualitycharters.org to receive your free login.

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