State Initiatives to Strengthen Authorizing Indiana Department of - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

State Initiatives to Strengthen Authorizing Indiana Department of Education

Authorizing Landscape in Indiana State law allows any of the following to be an authorizer: • A school corporation • The executive of a consolidated city (Indianapolis Mayor’s Office) • The Indiana Charter School Board (fellow state agency) • The governing board of a nonprofit college or university that provides a 4 year educational program

IN Authorizer Landscape • 9 Authorizing Agencies • 4 non-profit colleges/universities • 3 school corporations • 1 state agency • 1 city executive led agency • Authorizing 99 charter school schools

Authorizer Accountability • The Indiana State Board of Education (ISBOE) oversees authorizing in Indiana • Authorizers are required to register with ISBOE prior to authorizing a charter school • ISBOE members are appointed by the governor, SPI serves as chairperson • ISBOE is a separate state agency

Authorizer Challenges in Indiana • Need for common standards to evaluate charter applications • “Authorizer shopping” issues among charter applicants • Lack of common evaluation framework for authorizer quality

Quality Counts : Improvement of Authorizer Quality IDOE will put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to partner with a national organization to provide high-quality technical assistance and training to authorizers Deliverables will include: • In-person meetings for authorizers to provide resources and tools based on identified needs • Develop Indiana-specific Principles and Standards for Quality Authorizing • Develop a common evaluation framework to identify best practices and individual needs to increase number of high quality charter schools

CSP Quality Counts Authorizer Innovation Grant The Quality Counts Authorizer Innovation Grant is provided to authorizers for addressing their specific needs • Formula award for authorizers: $1000 base+ $2.50 per pupil allocation • Consortium option available for smaller authorizers or authorizers with common identified needs • Allows authorizers to align funding with a CNA to avoid a “one size fits all” approach by IDOE • Helps solve issue of large disparities in quality across authorizers

CSP Quality Counts Innovation Grant Requirements Applicants must describe: • how activities and programming will build quality and capacity of authorizers and/or charter schools via innovation, incubation, expansion, replication, and/or improvement • the rationale tied to the needs assessment, stakeholder input, and/or data. • the program objectives and intended outcomes • how and with what frequency the proposed program will be evaluated for effectiveness and the individuals for evaluation

Authorizer Innovation Grant Artifacts Applicants are required to identify an artifact that will be provided to IDOE upon the completion of the grant period to ensure statewide impact of individual projects • Webinar, Moodle, Youtube video of effective grant implementation • PD offering to other Authorizers • Evidence of collaboration • Tool kit, resource guide • Other innovative best practices or activities that would have benefits for other authorizers

Questions?