Better Outcomes Through Quality Authorizing Project
How Strong Oversight Drives Better Charter Schools
High-quality oversight is a quiet but powerful driver of better charter schools and stronger student outcomes. With this in mind, Basis worked with the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) on the three-year Better Outcomes through Quality Authorizing (BOQA) project. Funded by the DOE, the project focused on creating tools for authorizers to set higher expectations, make rigorous decisions. To that end, the project helped hold schools accountable for performance.
By strengthening the systems that decide which schools open, stay open, or close, the BOGA project aimed to lift the overall quality of charter schools nationwide. Ultimately, the work supported authorizers across the country with guidance aligned to national standards, practical tools, and professional development, laying the groundwork for future efforts to evaluate authorizer quality and spread effective practices more widely.
Key Findings
The BOQA project understood that better authorizing decisions lead to stronger charter schools and improved student outcomes. More specifically, the project
- was funded through a three-year federal National Leadership Activities Grant.
- allowed Basis to develop standards, tools, and training to help authorizers.
- created the foundation for ongoing efforts to measure authorizer performance, closing achievement gaps nationwide.