About
About CGMI
CGMI — Charter Governance Maturity & Integration — is a governance maturity framework developed and maintained by Charter Vision, published independently to serve the charter school sector.
What is CGMI
CGMI is a staged governance maturity framework built specifically for charter school boards. It measures governance across five domains and twenty practice areas. Each school earns a CGMI maturity level from 1 (Emerging) to 5 (Exemplary), determined by the lowest of its five domain ratings.
The CGMI name signals both the maturity model and the integration ecosystem across schools, authorizers, and networks. The published specification document is referred to as CGMI-F.
The "& Integration" in CGMI's name refers to a defined second layer of the framework — three integration profiles (CGMI-A, CGMI-P, CGMI-C) that connect a school's maturity rating to the authorizer relationship, network management, and external compliance frameworks. Integration is not decorative. It is a published, versioned component of CGMI-F that enables every participant in the charter governance ecosystem to speak the same governance language and hold one another accountable through a shared evidence standard.
Research Foundation
CGMI is built on a multi-layered research foundation that synthesizes global maturity modeling methodologies, national charter accountability standards, state-level governance requirements, peer-reviewed nonprofit board research, federal grant program criteria, and practitioner-driven lessons learned from across the charter school sector.
Rather than adopting any single existing model, CGMI integrates best-in-class practices from each research domain into a purpose-built framework for charter school governance. Every domain, practice area, and gate requirement reflects real-world governance patterns validated by authorizers, school administrators, board members, and governance researchers.
Global maturity modeling
CGMI draws on internationally recognized staged maturity methodologies used across industries — adapting the concept of progressive, gate-based capability levels to the specific context of charter school governance.
National charter accountability standards
The framework incorporates best practices from national charter school performance frameworks and authorizer accountability standards, ensuring CGMI ratings are legible to the organizations that oversee charter schools.
State-level governance requirements
CGMI integrates governance expectations from state-level charter oversight bodies, including operational frameworks, compliance standards, and renewal criteria that vary by jurisdiction.
Nonprofit board governance research
Peer-reviewed research on nonprofit board effectiveness, fiduciary responsibility, and governance lifecycle informs the domain structure — particularly board composition, succession planning, and financial oversight.
Federal grant program rubrics
Federal charter school program criteria for governance quality, financial sustainability, and community accountability are mapped into CGMI domains, enabling schools to use appraisal evidence in grant applications.
Practitioner-driven lessons learned
The framework reflects operational governance lessons from charter school administrators, board chairs, authorizer staff, and governance consultants — ensuring criteria are grounded in what actually predicts governance quality, not theoretical ideals.
Charter Vision's Role
Charter Vision developed and maintains CGMI. The framework is used operationally within the Charter Vision Governance Academy — where the evidence for appraisals originates — but published independently so that other schools, authorizers, and researchers can cite, adopt, and contribute to it.
IP & Usage Notice
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 appraiser certification program are proprietary. Contact cgmi@chartervision.org for licensing inquiries.
Advisory Board
CGMI Advisory Board membership will be announced with the launch of the first public comment cycle.