Contributor
Greg Richmond, President & CEO, National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA)
Related Link:
http://www.qualitycharters.org
Biography provided by participant
Greg Richmond is the President and CEO of the National Association of Charter School
Authorizers (NACSA), a membership organization that strengthens the professional practices of
the agencies that oversee charter schools.
From 1994 to 2005, Richmond worked for the Chicago Public Schools, where he established the
district's Charter Schools Office. Under his leadership, Chicago was the first urban school
district in the nation to release an RFP, requesting educators and community organizations to
start charter schools. He also established the nation's first district-funded capital loan fund for
charter schools and developed model accountability and monitoring practices.
From 2003 to 2005, he launched Chicago's Renaissance 2010 initiative as the district's Chief
Officer for New Schools Development, under Arne Duncan, then the CEO of the Chicago Public
Schools. In that capacity he continued to work with the district's charter schools, as well as
small schools, contract schools and new, autonomous district-operated schools.
Richmond serves on many boards and committees, including the Aspen Institute's Commission
on No Child Left Behind, Tulane University's Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives,
the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Advanced Certification for Educational
Leaders Steering Committee and the Haitian Development Fund.
Recent Responses
October 26, 2009 01:26 PM
As public education experiences deep budget shortfalls, private funding has become an essential source of support to drive innovation in individual schools and entire systems. The charter school sector has been leading the way on both fronts. Many individual charter schools have excelled at raising funds to supplement their basic educational program – creating longer school days, better nutrition programs, and innovative use of technology to name a few. Many of the successful charter innovations that are now being transplanted into district schools were originally supported by private funds. In addition, some of the authorizing agencies that oversee these schools have turned to…
Read moreAugust 31, 2009 10:21 AM
The U.S. Department of Education’s web site identifies four examples of successful school improvement strategies from Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and Tennessee. Here is what catches my attention about each of the efforts identified. They were led by local educators and leaders who thought outside of the box to establish unique, creative, holistic approaches to creating excellent schools. These were not people who waited to see what piece-meal reform activity NCLB told them they had to implement this year. They developed new schools based on comprehensive models that included high standards, excellent teachers and staff, improved instruction, better use of data, and strong…
Read moreAugust 3, 2009 10:26 AM
Fair to whom? The question reflects how so many K-12 education policies and practices are focused on what’s best and what’s fair for adults, rather than students. Is it in the best interest of students, to evaluate educators based on student performance data? Of course. The best schools across the country, particularly those that improve outcomes for at-risk children, focus relentlessly on student data. The educators in those schools are brutally honest about performance – both their students’ performance and their own. Federal funds should support nothing less. That’s what’s fair for students.…
Read moreJuly 20, 2009 10:01 AM
Is an independent audit and report on school performance necessary? Absolutely. Within the charter school sector, this is a core function of quality charter school authorizers, the agencies that approve and monitor schools and decide which schools are good enough to stay open. The best authorizers annually report on the performance of their schools, and strong authorizers like Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Dayton, Ohio, and the Indianapolis Mayor's Office have executed on this with a high level of professionalism that allows all constituents to take a long, hard look at the performance of schools within their portfolio. More importantly, authorizers…
Read moreJuly 7, 2009 06:39 PM
On Day Three of this topic, let's ask the question slightly differently: In addition to direct control, are there other meaningful ways that mayors get involved in urban school reform? What are they? One common reform effort among mayors is the active support for the creation of charter schools. Mayors Daley and Bloomberg have supported charter schools in Chicago and New York, where they each have possessed direct mayoral control of the traditional school district. Other mayors have not had that power but have supported charter schools in other ways. Former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson persuaded his legislature to allow…
Read moreJune 29, 2009 11:54 AM
There is broad consensus that states should use ARRA funds to both stave off drastic cuts and leverage reform, but does anyone truly understand how these funds are actually being spent? Most importantly, do local educators understand how to access funds within their state? A handful of the programs within ARRA, such as the Race to the Top, are discrete, clearly visible activities. A far greater amount of money is simply flowing by formula into state coffers, some of which will flow by pre-existing formula into school districts and then by pre-existing formula to schools. How do educators who want to do something new…
Read more
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