Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Education announced six new grant awards today totaling $4.1 million through the Charter Schools Program (CSP) National Leadership Activities program. These grants will help strengthen charter schools and charter school authorizers, while also improving capacity to serve students with disabilities and English learners. Helping the charter school sector address these key issues is a priority for the Department.

"We want to help charter schools, like all public schools, prepare students for college, careers and life," said Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Nadya Chinoy Dabby. "We know that quality authorizing practices are crucial to creating high-quality charter schools. These grants will help charter schools provide excellent educational opportunities to some of our highest-need students."

The six grantees will provide technical assistance and training and share promising practices with charter schools across the country. The grantees are: (1) the Alameda County Office of Education; (2) the California Charter Schools Association; (3) the Illinois Network of Charter Schools; (4) the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association; (5) the National Association of Charter School Authorizers; and (6) New Schools for New Orleans.

Grantees will use the money to provide teachers with professional development or on-site coaching, to provide services to students with disabilities or English learners in charter schools, and to create shared systems across multiple charter schools for finding and accessing qualified teachers and experts. Others will help charter school authorizers conduct rigorous reviews of school applications to ensure quality, as well as conduct meaningful oversight of charter schools using multiple sources of data and identify and close underperforming charter schools.

Grants will run for three years. Grantee project abstracts are available here.

Grantee first-year awards: