Building Excellent Schools (BES)

The history of BES is rooted in the beginnings of the national charter school movement. In 1993, in response to the poor academic outcomes of Massachusetts’ first charter schools, the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center set out to ensure that a dominant share of new charters would be truly excellent, founded by talented leaders and grounded from the start in proven strategies and design elements. The BES Fellowship was born in 2001, providing intensive, full-time training to individuals to create new charter schools of the highest quality under the re-formed nonprofit, Building Excellent Schools.

Through the BES Fellowship and ongoing coaching, BES-trained leaders start, support, and grow excellent schools. BES Fellows have founded 185+ independent schools in 46 cities across 21 states and Washington DC, educating 58,000+ students.

From serving three states at its inception to working in more than seven times that many states currently, BES is consistently increasing its footprint on the national stage by producing and supporting excellent leaders and schools. Over time, BES has diversified how, when, and what leaders it trains, recognizing that leaders, like students, need to be supported in the right way at the right time. BES currently offers the following programs and services: the Fellowship, Leaders for Emerging Networks of Schools (LENS), Leadership Intensives, Executive Searches, and School and Leadership Audits, along with a la carte coaching services.