The U.S. Charter Schools Web site provides a wide range of information and links to resources to guide charter schools in every phase of their development—from startup, to expansion, to renewal. The site includes a national calendar of events and a community-exchange feature.
http://www.uscharterschools.org

The Center for Education Reform provides up-to-date reports on charter schools and choice activity around the country. The Web site links to “fast facts” and resources designed with parents in mind. A searchable database identifies resources and schools in each state.
http://www.edreform.com

The Education Commission of the States includes both charter schools and charter districts as issue topics on its Web site. An interesting recent development in the charter movement is charter districts—in which all or most of the schools are charter or contract schools. The Nuts and Bolts of Charter Districts is a four-part ECS series that looks at policy options for state leaders, design issues faced by district leaders, funding issues, and the new central office for charter districts.
http://www.ecs.org

Education|Evolving is a Minnesota organization working to help create and sustain an “Open Sector” in public education—a “space” in public education for new schools that are started from scratch by teachers, parents, community organizations, and multi-school networks. A January 2004 report discusses how district leaders can support the new-schools strategy.
http://educationevolving.org

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation provides links to major studies and to over 50 other organizations’ Web sites in the areas of charter schools and choice.
http://www.edexcellence.net

The Charter School Leadership Council is a coalition of seven national organizations committed to advancing the charter school movement. In addition to serving as a link to these organizations and to charter policy information, the council’s Web site lists state-level contacts for charter school information.
http://cslc.us/ncsw/teaching

The Charter School Experience is a good introductory resource for people wanting to understand chartering. Several national charter-supporting organizations joined forces to produce this brochure, published in 2002 by America’s Charter School Finance Corporation. The brochure is available online in English and Spanish.
http://csi.boisestate.edu/icsn/Other%20documents/
Charter_School_Experience.pdf
http://www.charterfriends.org/Charter_School_Experience.pdf

Charter Starters, a set of leadership training materials published by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, consists of five workbooks, a training guide, and a profile of charter school leadership needs. Specific topics include start-up logistics, regulatory issues, assessment and accountability, governance and management, and community relations.
http://www.nwrel.org/charter/publicat/charter_workbook.html

The Office of Innovation and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education operates the Public Charter Schools Program, which supports the planning, development, and initial implementation of charter schools. Other grants target support for charter school facilities.
http://www.ed.gov/programs/charter/index.html