While it’s no one’s idea of a good time, there’s little doubt that charter authorizers need to get better at shuttering bad schools. To that end, this guide from NACSA pulls together solid advice from consultants, lawyers, and charter authorizers on how to support students and families through the closure process. It also supplies the reader with appendices providing sample school-closure material—from a forty-seven step action plan to a press release and resolution for charter revocation. Although the fill-in-the-blank nature of some of these documents arguably belong in a black and yellow How to Close a Charter School for Dummies, the sample action plan for charter-school closure is explicit and useful, detailing a timetable and point-person for tasks ranging from U.S. Department of Education filings to the simpler to-dos like compiling parent contact information. This guide may not provide political cover. But, if used widely, it will help to ensure that quality prevails in the charter market.
Kim Wechtenhiser, Andrew Wade, and Margaret Lin, eds., “Accountability in Action: A Comprehensive Guide to Charter School Closure,” (Chicago: National Association of Charter School Authorizers, October, 2010).
