BLOG 3: The Charter School Authorizer - From Compliance Monitor to Partnership Leader

 Hey Authorizer… You hold a lot of authority in this identified Partnership process and system.

I know you know that, and I’d guess that most days, that authority feels less like oversight and more like responsibility… the weight of knowing that your decisions have real consequences for real kids in your very real portfolio of schools.

That's not a small thing to carry.

In the context of Partnership Schools, that weight gets more complicated, because the schools in your portfolio that are struggling most aren't just struggling with academics. They're navigating a layered system of competing mandates and often misaligned support- MDE requirements, ISD structures and consultants, management company dynamics, and vendor relationships. This is what I have learned, having worked with an identified Partnership School for two years…every layer has its own set of expectations.

Here’s a piece you might not realize as the authorizer with a Partnership School in your portfolio - When those expectations diverge, the school absorbs the tension, and the kids absorb it too. 

Here's where I want to offer you something that isn't always easy to hear: the traditional oversight posture of monitor, report, intervene, isn't necessarily enough in the Partnership School environment.  I’m here to tell you, it’s not because you're doing anything wrong.  But because the schools that need the most support are the ones least equipped to navigate fragmented accountability and competing priorities and strategies alone.

You don't have to choose between holding schools accountable and actually helping them improve. Having been in those rooms, I can tell you, in fact, that in a Partnership School context, you can't afford to choose. You have to do both.

The authorizers who are having the most impact right now aren't the ones with the most rigorous compliance frameworks. They're the ones who've figured out how to use their authority to create alignment across all the entities touching their schools. They set clear partnership expectations in charter contracts. They establish shared metrics across the ecosystem. They give schools a framework for evaluating whether vendors and partners are actually moving the needle. Most importantly, they have representatives in the rooms where the work is happening to address challenges in real time. 

In an earlier blog, I mentioned a barrier the school ran into where what the ISD was insisting on as a strategy for the school (and was echoed by MDE), was in direct conflict with an authorizer-mandated contractual goal.  Because we had set the room up to be cooperative, collaborative, restorative, and sincere, I was able to surface this challenge… on the spot! 

The authorizer was able to review the contractual goal, contribute to the discussion, and move to problem-solving.  Without this interaction, the school (and the school leader) would be forced to sit in an untenable space of competing oversight priorities. The authorizer in this case stopped being a compliance monitor and stepped into being a collaborative architect on a team that was functioning to lift this very well-meaning school.

That shift changed everything- for the leader, the school, and the kids. And honestly, for the authorizer itself.  The bottom line is this… A school identified for Partnership status, that's well-supported by a collaborative authorizer, is a lot easier to run and hit its targets than one that's been left to absorb MDE, authorizer, and ISD misalignment.

From this experience, we have developed several tools to help!  We've created an External Partner Readiness Assessment that works both ways… schools use it to vet external partners, and authorizers can use it to build clearer partnership standards across their entire portfolio.  Additionally, we have developed a “blueprinting process” that aligns the mandates of all of the authority bodies to the purpose of the school.

Partnership District Schools – External Partner Readiness Assessment – Fill out form

If you want to explore how to embed partnership expectations directly into your oversight structures, we'd love to think through that with you.  Feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected].

The schools in your portfolio need both accountability and support- structure AND nurture. You're uniquely positioned to deliver both.  Let's talk about what that looks like in practice.