Charter Vision · CGMI
Charter Vision and CGMI — built together, for the sector.
Charter Vision developed the Charter Governance Maturity & Integration (CGMI) standard and operates as its Founding CGMI-P Network Partner. The Governance Academy is the primary platform through which charter school boards pursue, earn, and demonstrate CGMI maturity ratings.
CGMI-P
Recognized Network Partner
Charter Vision · Governance Academy
Founding Partner · Self-attested
Implementation documentation: cgmi.institute
Designation renewed annually
The standard
The governance standard Charter Vision built — and published for the sector.
CGMI — the Charter Governance Maturity & Integration framework — is a CMMI-inspired governance maturity standard for charter school boards. It defines five maturity levels, five governance domains, and twenty practice areas that together describe what excellent charter board governance looks like at every stage of a school’s development.
Charter Vision developed CGMI after years of working directly with charter school boards and authorizers across the country. What we found was a consistent gap: schools had no rigorous, evidence-based way to measure governance quality, and authorizers had no common language for evaluating it. CGMI fills that gap.
The framework is published independently at cgmi.institute — a public, versioned, citable standard that any school, authorizer, or researcher can access, reference, and build on. Charter Vision owns and maintains CGMI, but CGMI belongs to the sector.
Published & versioned
CGMI-F v1.0 is a formal specification document with version control, a public changelog, and an annual comment cycle for sector input. Schools can cite it. Authorizers can reference it. Researchers can study it.
Evidence-based, not self-reported
CGMI ratings come from actual governance behavior — meeting compliance records, training completions, policy audits, financial metrics — not surveys. This is what makes a CGMI rating credible to an authorizer or grant reviewer.
Built for the ecosystem
CGMI has three integration profiles: CGMI-A for authorizers, CGMI-P for network partners, and CGMI-C for compliance and grant programs. A school’s CGMI level means something beyond the school itself.
Our designation
Charter Vision holds the CGMI-P Founding Network Partner designation.
CGMI-P — the Partner Integration profile — is designed for organizations that govern or support multiple charter schools and want to apply CGMI governance maturity tracking across their entire portfolio. Charter management organizations, education management organizations, and network operators use CGMI-P to see governance maturity distribution across their schools, identify systemic gaps, and benchmark network-wide improvement.
Charter Vision is the Founding CGMI-P Network Partner. This isn’t a self-awarded title — it’s an accurate description of what Charter Vision does operationally. The Governance Academy generates CGMI ratings for every enrolled school. Charter Vision tracks maturity distribution across the Academy portfolio, identifies which governance domains need more curriculum investment, and uses CGMI data to continuously improve the tools and content the Academy delivers.
Because Charter Vision both develops CGMI and holds a CGMI-P designation, we publish our implementation openly. Transparency about how we use our own framework is how we earn the sector’s trust.
CGMI-P
Recognized Network Partner
Charter Vision · Governance Academy
Founding Partner · Self-attested
Implementation documentation: cgmi.institute
Designation renewed annually
What our CGMI-P implementation includes
Portfolio maturity tracking
Every school enrolled in the Governance Academy receives a domain-by-domain CGMI capability profile updated continuously through Academy activity. Charter Vision monitors the distribution of maturity levels across the full Academy portfolio — identifying which domains are strongest and which need more support sector-wide.
Systemic gap identification
When a governance domain is consistently weak across many schools — not just one — that’s a signal to Charter Vision that the Academy needs better curriculum, tools, or training for that domain. CGMI-P data drives Academy product development.
Benchmarking and cohort comparison
Schools in the Academy are benchmarked against comparable peers — by grade span, enrollment size, age of school, and state. CGMI-P makes that benchmarking possible at scale.
Governance anchor recognition
Schools that achieve CGMI Level 4 or Level 5 are eligible for designation as governance anchors within the Academy network — schools that others in the cohort can learn from and benchmark against.
Public implementation documentation
Charter Vision publishes its CGMI-P methodology at cgmi.institute. CMOs and EMOs pursuing their own CGMI-P designation can use Charter Vision’s implementation as the reference model.
The platform
The Governance Academy is where CGMI ratings are earned.
CGMI has three appraisal tiers. The Governance Academy delivers all three:
Tier 1
Self-Assessment (continuous)
Every school in the Academy generates a continuous Governance Health Score (GHS) based on real governance activity tracked in the platform — meeting records, training completions, policy audit findings, financial metrics. This score maps automatically to CGMI domain ratings, giving schools a live picture of their maturity across all five domains at any time.
Tier 2
Guided Appraisal (annual)
At the close of each Academy cycle, the platform generates a formal CGMI Guided Appraisal — a structured assessment of all five domains against CGMI-F level criteria, supported by a full evidence record. The output is a Governance Maturity Appraisal Report with domain ratings, a level determination, strengths and gaps, and an advancement plan. Schools at Level 2 and above also receive a CGMI-C compliance exhibit for use in OCS submissions, grant applications, and authorizer documentation.
Tier 3
Certified Appraisal (on demand)
For schools approaching charter renewal or seeking to establish an official, auditable CGMI rating, Charter Vision coordinates with CGMI Certified Appraisers — trained, credentialed practitioners who conduct a formal appraisal combining Academy data with structured interviews and document review. The output is an official CGMI level rating suitable for submission to authorizers and inclusion in grant applications.
| Self-Assessment | Guided Appraisal | Certified Appraisal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency | Continuous | Annual | On demand |
| Conducted by | Academy platform | Academy + AI analysis | CGMI-CA Appraiser |
| Output | GHS + domain ratings | Appraisal Report + Certificate | Official rating + signed report |
| CGMI-C exhibit | Diagnostic only | Included (Level 2+) | Full package |
| CGMI-A package | — | Included (Level 3+) | Full package |
| Included in Academy | ✓ | ✓ | Separate engagement |
Why it’s built this way
The framework and the platform are separate by design.
Charter Vision made a deliberate decision to publish CGMI as an independent framework at cgmi.institute, separate from the Charter Vision product. This matters for three reasons.
Authorizer credibility. An authorizer evaluating a school’s governance won’t trust a rating that comes from a proprietary vendor’s internal scoring system. They will trust a rating generated against a published, versioned, sector-reviewed standard. When a school submits a CGMI appraisal report to their authorizer, the report cites CGMI-F v1.0 — a document the authorizer can read, evaluate, and reference independently of Charter Vision.
Researcher and policy use. A governance researcher studying charter board quality needs a citable standard with a stable specification. A policy advocate referencing governance maturity in state legislation needs a framework with a proper name and publication record. CGMI-F is that document. Charter Vision’s platform is the delivery mechanism, not the standard itself.
Sector ownership. The annual CGMI public comment cycle gives every sector participant — schools, authorizers, CMOs, researchers, policymakers — a formal voice in how the framework evolves. Charter Vision sets the direction, but the sector shapes the standard. That’s how durable frameworks get built.
Charter Vision owns CGMI. The sector uses it. That distinction is the point.
For the ecosystem
CGMI designations are available to the whole ecosystem.
Charter Vision isn’t the only organization that can hold a CGMI designation. Authorizers and network partners can pursue their own formal CGMI designations — and doing so creates direct value for every school they work with.
CGMI-A Recognized Authorizer. Authorizers that formally adopt CGMI-A protocols recognize CGMI ratings in their oversight and renewal processes. Schools in a CGMI-A authorizer’s portfolio have a direct pathway to use their CGMI appraisal report in renewal documentation. For authorizers, CGMI-A provides a portfolio-level governance maturity view that complements academic and financial performance data.
CGMI-P Recognized Network Partner. CMOs and EMOs that implement CGMI-P across their portfolio gain network-level governance intelligence — maturity distribution, systemic gap analysis, and the ability to designate governance anchor schools. For network operators managing 5, 10, or 25 schools, CGMI-P transforms individual school ratings into a network management instrument.
CGMI-C Aligned Program. State associations and grant programs that formally map their requirements to CGMI criteria become CGMI-C Aligned Programs. Schools operating under an aligned program can use CGMI appraisal reports as compliance evidence artifacts — reducing the administrative burden of demonstrating governance quality across multiple accountability frameworks simultaneously.
Authorizers
Learn how CGMI-A works and how to pursue Recognized Authorizer designation.
Learn about CGMI-ANetwork Partners
Learn how CGMI-P works and how Charter Vision can support your network’s implementation.
Learn about CGMI-PState Programs
Learn how CGMI-C alignment works and how to get your program mapped.
Learn about CGMI-CGovernance of the framework
How CGMI is maintained and how the sector shapes it.
Version control and changelog. Every change to CGMI-F is documented in a public changelog at cgmi.institute/changelog. Schools and authorizers can see exactly what changed between versions and when. No silent updates.
Annual public comment cycle. Once per year, Charter Vision opens a formal 60-day comment window for sector input. Schools, authorizers, researchers, and practitioners can submit proposed changes, clarification requests, or sector observations. Every comment receives a public disposition — accepted, modified, deferred, or rejected with rationale. The comment record is permanent and public.
Comment Advisory Board. A standing group of sector stakeholders — including authorizer representatives, school leaders, governance consultants, and researchers — reviews comment dispositions before publication and provides independent oversight of Charter Vision’s own CGMI compliance. Membership will be announced with the launch of the first comment cycle.
Trademark and IP. CGMI is a trademark of Charter Vision. The CGMI-F framework specification may be cited and referenced with attribution. The appraisal methodology, rating engine, and Certified Appraiser credentialing program are proprietary. For licensing or partnership inquiries: governance@cgmi.institute.
Start your CGMI journey in the Governance Academy.
Whether you’re a school board pursuing your first CGMI rating, an authorizer exploring CGMI-A integration, or a network operator evaluating CGMI-P for your portfolio — the Governance Academy is where it starts.
CGMI — Charter Governance Maturity & Integration — is a trademark of Charter Vision. CGMI-F v1.0 is published at cgmi.institute. © Charter Vision.