“A more diverse, equitable, and inclusive authorizing profession will result in stronger schooling and life outcomes for students.”
Veronica Brooks-Uy, NACSA
NN4DA Webinar on Diversifying the Authorizing Profession
What can district authorizers learn from efforts to diversify the charter authorizing profession?
That was the primary question we discussed in a recent NN4DA webinar. NN4DA partners were joined by the team leading the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA’s) work on the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the profession-- Dr. Kelli Peterson, and Veronica Brooks-Uy.
I encourage you to check out the whole webinar recording at the NN4DA website.
If you want to dive into NACSA’s materials on the project, you can review a NACSA toolkit on the topic. The toolkit’s introduction explains that it provides:
"practical guidance and recommendations to authorizers who are ready to close the DEI gap and prioritize DEI in their organizations. The toolkit focuses on building internal systems, policies, and cultures where all people—but especially those who have been historically marginalized—can thrive."
In the webinar and through the toolkit, Dr. Peterson and Brooks-Uy recommend that people working to diversify the authorizing profession understand where they are and start by focusing on things within their control. This is particularly apt for many district authorizers, many of whom have little or no control over personnel decisions within their districts, or work in a small district that is so small that authorizing is a small part of a single person’s job description.
This same advice can also be true for authorizers in very large districts. For example, we discussed what someone in a large district can do when they are not in a position of authority regarding personnel decisions or the district’s main priorities. Brooks-Uy suggested people start with getting data to better understand their own context:
"One of the first things … is to focus on that data component… For the most part, even within a large bureaucracy you have the power to survey your own team. Asking those questions -- and we dive deeper into it the toolkit itself -- doing some quantitative surveying of folks, understanding the different demographics you have on the team, but also asking those culture questions that are important. Like, ‘Do you feel supported by your manager?’ ‘How often are you supported by your manager?’ Asking those questions and getting the data, because each team will likely have a different starting point."
For NN4DA state partners, we discussed lessons that our member groups, like CACSA, FACSA, and CCAP can leverage from the NACSA effort as they consider this work. Kelli suggested it is important for organizations thinking about launching similar efforts:
“It’s important to make sure “in house” is ready before you go out of the house. It’s hard if your organization is saying that you value it, and you are working with other organizations to try do it, and yours isn’t representative either … let us first start here, because I think there will be other learnings that you will happen that you can embed into the tools, resources, or dialogue that you are sharing externally.”
Authorizers will be diving into these efforts at the NACSA Conference in October, and the NN4DA is interested in helping advance these discussions in our work together and in our member states. If you are interested in joining future discussions on these topics, please reach out to Alex Medler for updates on future opportunities.
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NN4DA Webinar On
How to Interpret Education Data
The next NN4DA Webinar will feature Steve Rees, co-author of Mismeasuring Schools’ Vital Signs: How to Avoid Misunderstanding, Misinterpreting, and Distorting Data.
What: NN4DA Webinar: Helping Authorizing Decision-Makers Understand the Limits of Data
When: September 7, 2023; 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm MDT
Rees' writing describes the challenges that school district leaders and others encounter in trying to understand and interpret school performance data. This session will explore ways district staff can improve how they interpret data and how to responsibly inform decision-makers, like school board members, about the strengths and limits of the available data on schools when making decisions about charter schools.
Student performance that may not be reflected in averages as well potential failures in the logic of schooling and measurement.
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NN4DA at NACSACON 2023
Look for several sessions at the NACSAcon 2023 in Oakland in October. NN4DA and our members will be sharing strategies and ways to help districts. From Colorado, learn about the Denver Public School’s (DPS’s) efforts to evaluate the first year of new charter school's launch after several schools suffered rocky starts. Other sessions will discuss ways to address the unique challenges faced by small authorizers and ways to help school board members and others interpret school data responsibly. In addition, the NN4DA will be gathering our state partners for the NN4DA Annual Meeting on October 21-22, before the NACSA meeting kicks off. Contact Alex Medler for more details on the NN4DA meeting and the NN4DA-sponsored sessions at NACSA.