About

The Texas Charter Schools Association (TCSA) is the statewide membership organization representing effective charter schools of all types, proudly representing over 75,000 students in more than 370 charter schools. Our membership unifies all charter schools in order to achieve critical policy and programmatic gains.

The Association was created in 2008 with the generous support of the Charter School Policy Institute, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

TCSA is led by an 11-member board, including seven charter leaders, and a staff leadership team with significant national policy experience and charter school expertise. A member council executive committee is in place to elevate the concerns and needs of the membership. The member council has established four committees: Advocacy, Member Services, Quality Initiative, and Annual Conference. Each committee works to achieve the TCSA mission.

Mission and Strategy

The mission of the Texas Charter Schools Association is to accelerate student achievement in Texas by empowering a diverse set of effective and quality-driven charter schools.

A set of guiding principles shapes this mission:

1. Unify and represent diverse types of effective and quality-driven charter schools that enhance student achievement.
2. Help create a better definition of an effective charter school that incorporates growth and complements the existing accountability system’s status measures of academic performance.
3. Support member schools to improve their effectiveness in meeting educational mission and progress towards student excellence.
4. Advocate in the Texas legislature and broader public for effective charter schools as a critical part of the overall public education system.
5. Provide fee-based services to member schools to reduce their costs while building a self-sustaining organization.