Leading at Scale: How Charter Networks Turn Accountability Into Growth

Charter networks today are being asked to do more than ever before. Prove impact, meet rising accountability expectations, and support educator growth across increasingly complex systems.  

For leaders overseeing multiple schools, states, and authorizers, the challenge isn’t whether accountability matters. It’s how to scale it in a way that actually strengthens teaching, retains talent, and improves outcomes for students.

Too often, evaluation systems become compliance-driven exercises, disconnected from coaching, professional learning, and day-to-day instructional realities. The result is frustration on both sides. Leaders lack visibility into growth trends, and educators struggle to see how feedback connects to meaningful development.

These questions anchored the opening keynote of our recent Charter Leadership Exchange, where senior leaders came together to explore how networks can move beyond checklists and instead build systems of continuous improvement.

The keynote session, Leading at Scale: How Charter Networks Turn Accountability Into Growth, framed the core challenges networks face today and set the stage for deeper, practical conversations throughout the event.

The session featured Education Advanced CEO Krista Endsley, joined by Stride, Inc.’s Rachel Goodwin, Senior Director of Academic Services, and Iman Alattar, Learning Development Specialist.

Moderated by Education Advanced leaders Lisa Tunnell and Amy Stock, the discussion focused on what it really takes to make accountability meaningful at scale.

Key Takeaways from the Keynote

• Continuous improvement must be embedded into culture, not treated as a checklist or annual task.

• Charter networks face unique scaling challenges due to varied state requirements, authorizers, and staff roles.

• Strong evaluation systems balance accountability with trust, growth, and retention.

• Data is only powerful when it leads to action—coaching, support, and professional learning.

• Systems that scale must be flexible enough to honor local context while maintaining network‑wide consistency.

How does continuous improvement become cultural, not just procedural, across a network?

Goodwin: When improvement is treated as something that happens all year, through coaching conversations, feedback loops, and shared expectations, it stops feeling like an event and starts feeling like the way we do our work.

Alattar: Continuous improvement only sticks when teachers see themselves reflected in the process. If the system feels generic or disconnected from their reality, it won’t matter how well designed it is.

Culture shifts when leaders are aligned in how they talk about growth. If evaluation is positioned as support, not surveillance, educators respond differently. The system has to reinforce that message consistently across schools.

Insight: Continuous improvement becomes cultural when leadership messaging, expectations, and systems all reinforce growth, not compliance. Tools matter, but alignment and communication determine how those tools are experienced by educators.

What are the biggest blockers charter organizations face in scaling educator growth?

Goodwin: In a network environment, you’re often juggling multiple states, different authorizers, and different expectations for staff. Without the right systems, leaders spend more time managing logistics than supporting instruction.

When leaders don’t have visibility into trends, across schools, roles, or regions, it’s hard to be proactive. Growth becomes reactive instead of intentional.

Insight: At scale, the absence of shared visibility forces leaders into reactive decision-making. Network-level insight is what allows evaluation data to drive coaching and improvement rather than documentation.

How are charter networks balancing increased accountability with the need to retain and grow staff?

Alattar: Educators want feedback that helps them get better, not systems that feel punitive. When accountability is paired with coaching and support, it actually strengthens retention instead of hurting it.

Goodwin: The goal isn’t to lower expectations; it’s to raise them while also giving teachers the tools and support they need to succeed.

Insight: When accountability is paired with coaching and professional learning, it becomes a retention strategy, not a risk. Growth-oriented evaluation signals investment in educators, not distrust.

Turning Accountability into Action

This conversation made one thing clear: accountability and growth are not opposites. When designed thoughtfully, evaluation systems can become the backbone of continuous improvement across a charter network.

For charter leaders, the challenge isn’t whether to evaluate; it’s how to do so in a way that scales, adapts to complexity, and keeps educators engaged.

Evaluation is built specifically to support this work.  

With customizable frameworks, role‑specific rubrics, and network‑level reporting, Evaluation helps charter organizations move beyond compliance and toward a culture of growth without sacrificing consistency or accountability.

Ready to see how Evaluation will support educator growth across your charter network?

Book a personalized demo today and learn how leading charter organizations are turning accountability into meaningful improvement.