The NGA Center has identified the provision of quality choices in education as a crucial issue for states as they move forward in meeting higher expectations for student achievement and graduation rates for all students. To achieve these critical goals, governors must find ways to create a myriad of high quality choices from which families and parents can select, using a mix of finance policies, program design elements, and accountability measures that create incentives for choice.

Focus of Center Activities

State Leadership for High-Quality Charter Schools
With support from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement's National Charter School Program, the NGA Center and Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute (CSC) invited governors' offices to apply for $20,000 competitive technical assistance allocations to support development, adoption and implementation of state policies that lead to more high quality charter schools. The six states chosen were: Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Nevada, New Mexico and New York. Summaries of state projects can be found here.

Resources

• University of Minnesota - Center for School Change
• United States Department of Education - Office of Innovation and Improvement
• National Association of Charter School Authorizers
• National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
• National Resource Center on Charter School Finance and Governance
• The Center for Education Reform
• Education Sector - School Choice and Charter Schools
• Marquette University - Institute for the Transformation of Learning
• University of Washington - National Charter School Research Project