2023 version of Principles & Standards is here! 

High-quality, innovative, and equitable educational opportunities that communities are rightly demanding have never been more important. Yet even as we emerge and seek to recover well from the ravages of the pandemic, we’ve learned that Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing (P&S) are durable and continue to be strong. 

The principles of maintaining high standards, upholding school autonomy, and protecting students & public interests are still relevant. For our staff, some key themes emerged as we did this year’s review of Principles & Standards that we thought were important to highlight in order to double-down on that relevance: 

• Autonomy: We elevate the importance and practices associated with protecting school autonomy, a key element of charter school success during the pandemic, while not wavering from protecting student and public interests. Further, the revised P&S affirms the importance of maximizing school time spent on teaching and learning by reducing unnecessary administrative compliance activities.  
• Authorizing Elevation: Many authorizing shops are seated within larger parent organization, and these P&S underscore that authorizing work cannot be tangential to the work of the larger parent organization, but rather is visible, championed, and adequately resourced.  
• Broad Base of Evidence & Using Professional Judgement: These P&S affirm that quality authorizing uses a broad base of evidence in decision-making, including multiple, rigorous, measures of school quality. They also amplify the importance of authorizing staff, developing and using professional judgement in decision-making.  
• Acting From Community Aspirations. These P&S further affirm the importance of responding to the kinds of educational opportunities communities are seeking.  
• Maximizing Opportunity and Minimizing Bias. These P&S emphasize that quality authorizing examines key human resources (e.g., hiring, promotion) and authorizing activities (e.g., application decision-making, renewal) for resulting unequal outcomes, including but not limited to educational models, types of schools/operators, background characteristics of applicants or school leadership. Quality authorizers take steps to remedy unwanted or inappropriate practices leading to undesirable outcomes.  

We invite you and your staff to both review and discuss this 2023 version of Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing and its relevance to your work.