Council on Educational Standards and Accountability Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 272792785
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Conroe, TX, USA
- Phone
- 7708746569
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Professional Societies, Associations
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,526,482
- Expenses
- $1,096,267
- Assets
- $2,417,281
- Liabilities
- $612,631
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
65 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- KATHRYN WIENS (Executive Director)
- DR Chris Harmon (VICE PRESIDENT)
- Julie Ambler (PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- KATHRYN WIENS (Executive Director): $191,321 total reported compensation
- Jim Marsh (Director of Reviews): $55,869 total reported compensation
- Chris Cleveland (Director): $5,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The council on educational standards and accountability exists to motivate, support, and hold accountable christian schools that aspire to superlative academic standards, institutional best practices, and collaboration with like-minded schools.
What it reported doing in 2024
Serve christian schools and christian organizations through professional development conferences for school leaders that also provide fellowship and fraternity to those who serve within christian institutions. The conferences are held several times a year and have had robust attendance. Serve christian schools and christian organizations through leadership services, academic enrichment, and programmatic development by providing fellowship and fraternity to those who serve within christian institutions. Enable christian schools with rigorous, objective standards to guide their development by providing schools with the tools necesssary to propel christian schools with excellence and accountability as their hallmarks.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 96% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 68
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 65.6%; rating input score 66
- Program expense ratio: 94%; rating input score 94
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 28.2%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.21; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 23.2%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 13.4% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.4% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 24.5% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 65.6% of revenue deployed · 94% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 63 of 63 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $191K · 65 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.