1

2

3

The number of charter school authorizers slightly decreased this year.

955 957979

1046 1050

1015

800

900

1000

1100

1200

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOL AUTHORIZERS OVER TIME

*Note: The decrease this year is due to a change in Arizona policy, the refinement of counting techniques in Georgia, and several Minnesota authorizers discontinuing their authorizing work.

4

Charter school growth continues to outpace authorizer growth by nearly three to one. There are now 6.7 schools per authorizer.

955 957979

1046 1050

1015

52685608

59676437

6716 6790

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

800

900

1000

1100

1200

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Char

ter S

choo

ls

Auth

oriz

ers

AUTHORIZER GROWTH COMPARED TO CHARTER SCHOOL GROWTH

Authorizers Schools

5.5Schools/Authorizer

5.9Schools/Authorizer

6.1Schools/Authorizer

6.2Schools/Authorizer

6.4Schools/Authorizer

6.7Schools/Authorizer

5

The number of very large charter school authorizers (100+ schools) has doubled since 2010-11.

NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOL AUTHORIZERS BY PORTFOLIO SIZE

Number of Authorizers

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 % Change

Num

ber o

f Sch

ools

in P

ortfo

lio 0-1 school 540 542 520 554 546 524 -3%

2 schools 158 156 162 173 175 167 6%

3-5 schools 122 121 152 166 172 168 38%

6-9 schools 52 49 50 50 50 48 -8%

10-50 schools 66 72 77 82 84 84 27%

51-99 schools 12 11 11 13 14 14 17%

100 or more 5 6 7 8 9 10 100%

6

Changing the number of authorizers in a state has no relationship with charter school growth.

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Scho

ols

Authorizers

AUTHORIZERS IN STATES WITH MORE THAN 200 CHARTER SCHOOLS

(CA Removed)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

0 20 40 60 80 100

Scho

ols

Authorizers

AUTHORIZERS IN STATES WITH FEWER THAN 200 CHARTER SCHOOLS (MN Removed)

*Note: This analysis does not include the outliers of California and Minnesota.

7

A decline in authorizers doesn’t necessarily mean a decline in the number of charter schools.

For example, states such as Arizona and Georgia lost authorizers but saw an increase in the number of charter schools in their states.

NET CHANGE IN AUTHORIZERS AND CHARTER SCHOOLS (2011–2016)

8

The number of Independent Chartering Board (ICB) authorizers has more than doubled, while the number of university (HEI) and nonprofit authorizers has slightly decreased.

NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOL AUTHORIZERS BY TYPE

Authorizer Type 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 % Change

Higher Education Institution (HEI) 49 46 43 47 45 47 -4%

Independent Chartering Board (ICB) 8 10 14 15 17 18 125%

School District (LEA) 857 859 882 944 950 909 6%

Non-Educational Government Entity (NEG) 2 2 3 3 3 3 50%

Nonprofit Organization (NFP) 20 20 19 19 17 18 -10%

State Education Agency (SEA) 19 20 18 18 18 20 5%

Total 955 957 979 1046 1050 1015 6%

9

The national composition of charter school authorizers hasn’t changed: school districts (LEAs) continue to make up the vast majority of authorizers.

PERCENT OF CHARTER SCHOOL AUTHORIZERS BY TYPE

Authorizer Type 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Higher Education Institution (HEI) 5% 5% 4% 4% 4% 5%

Independent Chartering Board (ICB) 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 2%

School District (LEA) 90% 90% 90% 90% 90% 90%

Non-Educational Government Entity (NEG) 0.2% 0.2% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3%

Nonprofit Organization (NFP) 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%

State Education Agency (SEA) 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%

Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

10

11

Large authorizers still approve about one in three charter school applications, yet they also continue to receive fewer charter school applications. This means fewer overall school openings.

38%

33% 33%35% 36%

34%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Appr

oval

Rat

e

CHARTER SCHOOL APPLICATION APPROVAL RATE (LARGE AUTHORIZERS)

13.1

18.3

13.8 13.5

9.8

7.2

0

4

8

12

16

20

24

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Appl

icat

ions

AVERAGE CHARTER SCHOOL APPLICATIONSRECEIVED PER LARGE AUTHORIZER

12

Given that authorizers continue to approve proposals at a steady rate of about 35 percent over the last five years, the slowdown can be attributed, in part, to a national decline in the number of applications.

Note: The number of charter school openings reflects national data on all charter schools, while the average applications received and application approval rate reflects data from NACSA’s annual survey of authorizers overseeing 10 or more charter schools. These authorizers oversee more than 70 percent of all charter schools across the country.

13

This year, roughly one out of every two large authorizers received applications to open new charter schools from existing operators.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

2015-16

2014-15

2013-14

Percentage of Large Authorizers

PERCENTAGE OF AUTHORIZERS THAT RECEIVED ANY NEW CHARTER APPLICATIONS FROMEXISTING CHARTER SCHOOL OPERATORS

Received Application from Existing Operator Did Not Receive Application from Existing Operator Other

14

15

After holding steady, charter school closure rates among large authorizers decreased last year.

2.3%

3.8% 3.8% 3.8% 3.7%

2.8%

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Clos

ure

Rate

OVERALL CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSURE RATE (LARGE AUTHORIZERS)

16

Large authorizers continue to close roughly seven percent of charter schools per year during the renewal process.

6.2%

12.9%

11.8%

8.0%7.3% 7.3%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Clos

ure

Rate

CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSURE RATE DURING RENEWAL (LARGE AUTHORIZERS)

17

Unexpected charter school closures substantially decreased last year among large authorizers.

1.5%

2.5%2.3%

3.2%

2.9%

2.1%

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSURE RATE OUTSIDE OF RENEWAL (LARGE AUTHORIZERS)

18

The overall charter school closure rate fluctuates by type of authorizer, with no evident trends from year to year.

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Clos

ure

Rate

OVERALL CHARTER SCHOOL CLOSURE RATE BY AUTHORIZER TYPE (LARGE AUTHORIZERS)

Higher Education Institution (HEI) Independent Chartering Board (ICB)School District (LEA) Non-Educational Government Entity (NEG)Nonprofit Organization (NFP) State Education Agency (SEA)

19

The percentage of large authorizers that had one or more of their closure decisions appealed is down significantly.

20

21

Charter school authorizing offices are doing more with less: on average, authorizers have one staff member for every eight schools.

8.5

10.6

8.1

6.8

6.7

6.4

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

2015-16

2014-15

2013-14

2012-13

2011-12

2010-11

Schools per FTE

CHARTER SCHOOLS PER FULL-TIME AUTHORIZING EMPLOYEE (FTE)

22

State education departments (SEAs) have the highest number of schools per full-time authorizing employee.

SCHOOLS PER FULL-TIME AUTHORIZING EMPLOYEE (FTE) BY AUTHORIZER TYPE

Type 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

Higher Education Institution (HEI) 2.32 2.55 4.04 2.94 5.87 3.56

Independent Chartering Board (ICB) 17.55 8.28 8.11 6.05 8.42 10.43

School District (LEA) 8.28 6.04 6.84 6.61 7.54 7.75

Non-Educational Government Entity (NEG) 4.80 5.75 5.20 5.14 6.00 5.41

Nonprofit Organization (NFP) 4.32 4.49 4.82 3.97 3.99 3.83

State Education Agency (SEA) 7.94 9.82 8.30 9.44 12.64 25.23

Overall 6.37 6.72 6.77 8.14 10.59 8.53

23

Overall, authorizers do not use a consistent staffing structure; they employ varying levels of staff regardless of portfolio size.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

FTEs

Number of Schools in Large Authorizer Portfolio

FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES (FTEs) BY CHARTER SCHOOL AUTHORIZER PORTFOLIO SIZE