The article raises the problem of using the category of trust as the criterion of the objective assessment of the quality of school education. The authors analyze existing criteria of independent assessment of the quality of education as a mandatory procedure, implemented by law. The authors propose a criterion of trust to school as one of the possible criteria of indepen-dent evaluation, revealing its heuristic possibilities. The presence/absence of trust to school acts as a resource for the development of the efficiency of the educational process, as well as an indi-cator of social health of interactions within the space of school education. The content of the bases of trust/distrust reflects the achievements/problems of the existing system of school educa-tion, and sets the vector of possible managerial solutions aimed at the optimization to the organi-zation of the educational process.