America Succeeds Core Principles
America Succeeds and its state affiliates are guided by a shared set of five core principles. These principles, which are critical to the success of any business, are equally as important in transforming the education system.
Customer-Focus:
putting students first in all policies and practices
Accountability:
assigning direct responsibility for excellence in outcomes throughout the system
Transparency:
enabling public access to clear, detailed financial and performance data
Return on Investment:
effectively investing limited resources to achieve desired student outcomes
Choice & Innovation:
empowering parents and students to choose – and educators to create – the best learning environments
Core Principles in Action
What do the core principles look like in action? There is no set policy priorities for America Succeeds and its affiliates. Rather, the focus is on transformative, student-centered policy change that leads to systemic improvement in education outcomes. Over time, however, state affiliates’ policy priorities have generally fit within the following categories:
Education-to-workforce pathways:
Create flexibility, incentives, and alignment to ensure student readiness upon exiting the K-12 to seamlessly enter and succeed in both career and college opportunities.
System building and accountability:
Create and align the public education systems’ expectations, benchmarks, and metrics to hold schools and districts accountable.
Human capital:
Improve systems for recruiting, training, retaining, and rewarding educators; use performance evaluations to inform talent management decisions.
Transparent and equitable funding:
Establish a school funding system that is transparent, equitable, and aligned with broader improvement efforts that demonstrate sound return on investment.
High-quality options:
Ensure all students have high-quality education options that are supported, fairly funded, and held accountable for student success, regardless of the delivery model.