The Center For Charter Schools at Central Michigan University advances public education through its national leadership and gold standard approach to chartering schools, overseeing and supporting their operations, and evaluating their performance.

Ferris State University Charter School Office oversees nineteen school locations throughout Michigan. They have used AOIS since 2003 to make compliance a process rather than an event.

Jimmie Rodgers Director, Charter School Office recently commented that the Ferris Charter School Office gives back over 30% of its oversight fees through academic performance grants, online assessments and funding AOIS as a free service for their schools.

Northern Michigan University Charter School Office under the direction of William Pistulka has installed the Authorizers Oversight Information System (AOIS) to aid in the monitoring of five charter schools authorized by NMU.

Lake Superior State University has oversight responsibility for seven charter schools. The charter school movement has evolved into a major educational force. With that growth, there have been increased calls for accountability -- from legislators, educational leaders, authorizer boards, and the taxpaying public -- to ensure that charter schools are meeting or exceeding performance standards for traditional public schools.

With the increase in the use of technology, Lake Superior State University and the academies it authorizes will be able to automatically monitor the compliance of their schools with state and LSSU requirements on a daily basis. “This can all be accomplished without storing reams of paper in the many five-inch binders presently used,” said Lila Malmborg, former Assistant Director for Compliance at LSSU. “Our schools will have internet access to all their documents and compliance history seven days a week, 24 hours a day.” 

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation believes that all children deserve a high quality K-12 education at the school of their choice. Nationally and in their home state of Ohio, they strive to close America's vexing achievement gaps by raising standards, strengthening accountability, and expanding education options for parents and families.

Kathryn Mullen Upton, Director of Sponsorship at Fordham stated “Part of our job as an authorizer is to make sure that our schools are in compliance with state regulations. Having AOIS allows us to ask for that information year round, instead of pulling it from the schools each time we need something. Most importantly, the tool lets us significantly shorten our site visits of the schools.”

Chicago International Charter School (CICS) is unique among other charter schools in Chicago. CICS is a multi-campus charter assisting the campuses with real estate acquisition and development, fundraising, public relations, accountability, charter school governance, and the implementation of new programs. CICS partners with EMOs to assist in the day to day operations at its campuses.

Erin Lanoue at CICS states “AOIS keeps each of our schools accountable and there is no excuse if something is not completed on time -- or accurately. Your schools can’t say 'I didn’t know about that.' It takes away the excuses of not being in compliance.”

Ball State University Office of Charter Schools (BSUOCS) is one of few universities in the nation that sponsors charter schools. BSUOCS continues to strive to provide each of their students a variety of choices so they can obtain a high quality education.

Brighton School District (BSD) was the first school district in Colorado to authorize a charter school. BSD continues to hold the charter schools accountable as well as make sure they follow all of the regulations. Sam Sakurada is the district's Charter School Liaison; he has developed a great relationship with the charter school leaders. Sam chose AOIS to help BSD's four charter schools find it easier to comply with state and federal regulations.

Missouri Baptist University (MBU) Office of Charter Liaisons started working with sponsored charter schools in St. Louis in 2006. MBU Office of Charter Liaisons' ultimate goal is to help each of the schools to grow and positively affect each student academically, emotionally, intellectually, and socially.

MBU Office of Charter Liaisons acknowledges that their ultimate goal requires focused attention. In order to dedicate more time to achieving this goal, less time needs to be spent on compliance related issues. This is why MBU’s Office of Charter Liaisons chose AOIS.

Lucas County Educational Service Center (LCESC) currently sponsors 72 Community Schools in Ohio, with staff and schools spread out all over the state. Because they are required to have a representative (consultant) within 50 miles of each school site, LCESC has several consultants working out of remote offices.

In 2007, LCESC signed a one year agreement to use AOIS. Since LCESC schools now submit documents directly to AOIS, the consultants have immediate access to all of a school's documents at the click of a mouse! Consultants no longer need to call LCESC headquarters in Toledo to have them search for a document and fax it back to them.

The DC Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) is the only entity with the authority to grant charters in the District of Columbia. The public charter schools in DC are independently operated by a non-profit board of trustees, and are overseen by the PCSB. The Board’s vision is to lead the transformation of public education in DC and serve as a national role model for charter school authorizing and accountability.

DCPCSB has been aware that AOIS is at the forefront of charter authorizer software options. DCPCSB authorizes and monitors 96 charter campuses and AOIS will enable them to do an effective job in a very efficient manner. DCPCSB sees AOIS as helping achieve their overall mission of quality authorizing that respects a charter school's autonomy.

Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESCCO) implemented AOIS in August of 2008. ESCCO began as a one person operation in terms of charter school oversight. Hiring additional staff was not an option, but they knew they needed additional help in monitoring and tracking their schools. AOIS was an affordable alternative. AOIS helped ESCCO develop a master calendar of requirements as well as a description of each required document for their schools.

ESCCO schools like the systematic approach that AOIS provides; the 7-day ‘tickler’ especially helps schools fulfill their reporting obligations with ESCCO. Dave Mancini, the Coordinator of Community Schools at ESCCO states, “AOIS is a lifesaver in tracking our schools' compliance.”

East St. Louis School District 189 began authorizing charter schools in 1999. After 10 years of overseeing charter schools for the district they decided to purchase AOIS because of the increasing volume of work. Renee Mayfield, Charter School Liaison, spends a lot of her time working with charter school administrators, the District Superintendent, the district’s attorney and leveraging the expertise of District 189’s professional staff as they review data, provide advice, and write selected reports.

AOIS will help School District 189 and its charter schools avoid the “pile ups” that occur when computer-driven data and processes meet their manually manipulated counterparts. There has been an over-reliance on the “quick” telephone call to the liaison for answers to simple matters of policy or procedure; administrators will now be able to turn first to AOIS to locate the policies and procedures and quickly find an answer. Having continual access to compliance requirements via AOIS will foster greater confidence and independence among school administrators and will enable the charter schools to spend less time preparing, submitting, filing, and retrieving data and more time providing quality instruction.