The term "authorizer" conveys an imposing sense of size and authority, but in the world of charter schools, the authorizer is often a small-scale office or, more commonly, a single employee for whom chartering is just one among many responsibilities amidst a large institution like a state or local board of education, university, or private…

Monitoring and evaluating whether a charter school is in compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements and performing financially, organizationally, and academically requires the authorizer to examine a host of information about an individual school. Some of this information is reported by the school itself; vehicles such as self-reports,…

On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, commonly known as No Child Left Behind ("NCLB"). This law dramatically affects how all schools, including charter schools, are held accountable for the academic performance of their students. Since the passage of NCLB,…