The Echo

"As established, the decision making process is reasonably clear, though the basis for decision making is not. There is no guidance or explanation provided as to which of the 14 statutorily established criteria, or other authorizer expectations, are or are not non-negotiable for approval, or whether a minimal number of criteria must be satisfied.

"In practice, new school approval decisions are based on an incomplete analysis of charter school applications. CSAC recommendations are based, in large part, on whether an application meets statutory criteria for approval. However, the authorizer has not established meaningful criteria or indicators, other than tools to evaluate curriculum alignment with state content standards, to be consistently used to evaluate applications against statutory criteria. It is not always clear why a school is approved or denied, or the extent to which curriculum alignment reviews are the basis for a final new school (or renewal) decision. Present practice has the potential for reviewers to be partial or biased, or vary in the standards they apply to reviews. Reviewers receive little or no training about review standards or the review process; individual reviewers evaluate portions of the application, but few reviewers, if any, evaluate the application as a whole. The lack of review criteria and the lack of consistency in making decisions could, at some point, lead to authorizer decisions being legally challenged."

(http://blogs.delawareonline.com/delawareed/files/2011/06/NACSA_DE_Eval_REPORT_FINAL. p.15) Graphic Courtesy of Children and Educators First.