The Charter Schools Development Center (CSDC) was founded shortly after the passage of the Charter Schools Act of 1992.
A leading force in the national charter school movement, CSDC Executive Director and Founder, Eric Premack, helped draft California’s charter school law, funding system and policies.
CSDC continues to play an influential role in the California charter arena, providing renowned leadership trainings, membership for school leadership teams, consulting, and continual advocacy support on behalf of all California charter schools.
We aim to help public education change from a highly regulated, process-based system to one that allows and encourages schools to be more creative, performance-based centers of effective teaching and learning. We aim to achieve this by providing technical assistance to the charter school reform movement in California, nationally, and internationally.
We are a self-sustaining non-profit organization thanks to our loyal members, and therefore CSDC is not reliant on grants or individual donors. By remaining independent, we are afforded more freedom in our efforts to support all charter schools and assist the evolution of educational reform policy at state and national levels. We exist to support charter schools and the students they serve – not outside interests and agendas. We believe in high quality charter schools – and understand that the definition of which must not hinge solely upon standardized test scores. We fight vigorously against disparities in charter funding, and regulatory creep that distracts charter leaders from improving student achievement. CSDC is dedicated to serve and advocate for innovative education models of all types and configurations, whether large or small, independent or networked, and we support a wide variety of instructional practices.
The nation’s first charter school support organization, CSDC remains a leading resource center for charter schools. We helped write California's first charter school laws in 1992 and have been hard at work ever since. CSDC’s leadership trainings, online publications, and consulting services offer our clients the experience and knowledge of over 30 years of charter school start-up, operational support, and advocacy. We are recognized as the leading experts in charter school law and policy, finance, school design, charter authorizing, governance, and personnel. Our staff members have assisted with the drafting of the charter laws in over two dozen states across the country and play a prominent role in the decision making of school reform policy at both the state and national level.
Delivering critical news articles and updates, CSDC members have access to the most current information relevant to charter schools. Our members may email or call us at any time with critical questions to address their most pressing charter school issues. CSDC Member inquiries are forwarded to our CSDC Specialists who will work with you until your questions are answered. If your question requires deeper assistance, CSDC experts are available to provide customized trainings and consulting engagements to resolve complex issues. We have worked with hundreds of development groups with the start-up of their charter schools and throughout each year assist the hundreds of CSDC school members with their ongoing operations. We conduct school performance evaluations for charter schools and authorizers, extensive renewal and accountability analysis, and provide comprehensive trainings for school leaders and school boards who are seeking to maximize the performance of their schools. CSDC firmly believes that all students deserve a high-quality education and we are committed to helping