http://erstrategies.org/blog/ en ahausman@erstrategies.org Copyright 2010 2010-08-18T13:49:20+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/news/article/the_numbers_game/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/the_numbers_game/#When:13:47:57Z 2010-08-23T13:47:57+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/think_about_the_system_first/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/think_about_the_system_first/#When:13:49:20Z For a turnaround strategy to make a sustainable difference in a district, the first investment has to go toward restructuring the dollars that are already there. The New York Times last week featured a story, “Inexperienced Companies Chase U.S. School Funds” by Sam Dillon, about companies that have sought to turnaround schools but have little or no experience in doing so. Our concern about these providers is not exactly their inexperience—although of course this should raise concern. The bigger problem is that these so-called turnaround experts divert precious funding from making deeper, transformational change. For a turnaround strategy to make a sustainable difference to a district—where the targeted schools begin to improve and systems are in place to continue improvement after the funding runs out—the first investment has to go toward restructuring the dollars that are already there. It is not news that education systems are deeply flawed. For too many years education expenses have grown, revenues have decreased, and effectiveness has stayed the same or gotten worse. Innovative programs like those provided by these experts are inevitably layered on top of old, ineffective structures. These one-off support providers can actually do a disservice to districts by devising work around systems that take the pressure off the need to redesign. To begin to take action on turnaround from a district perspective, districts need to ask and answer these four questions: What does each school need? Districts need a systematic way to identify which schools are targets for dramatic turnaround efforts and to pinpoint what kind of intervention and support is needed for turnaround schools as well as other low-performing schools. Too often districts and outside providers implement a one-size-fits-all model that doesn’t match student or school needs. What does each school get before adding new dollars?  Before adding new resources on top, districts need to first make sure they have allocated dollars and teaching capacity equitably to schools based on need. Many turnaround schools are underfunded to start with—adding new dollars temporarily is not a sustainable solution. How are existing resources organized?Antiquated organizational models for schools and contracts that enforce them mean that most schools do not organize people, time, and money strategically to maximize student learning. The first step in turnaround requires rethinking how teachers and students are grouped for learning and how time is organized. Doing this will often require significant changes in district practice as well as relief from restrictive union contracts. Without making these changes, when “reform” dollars go away, the old ineffective structures remain. What are the right interventions?Does your district invest new dollars first to ensure that turnaround schools have strong leaders and highly-effective teaching teams who can collaborate together, diagnose individual student needs, and plan instruction that matches these needs?  ERS will be releasing later this fall a guide that goes deeply into how to answer these questions and will provide step-by-step guidance to districts on how to develop a system-wide turnaround strategy. Stay tuned. 2010-08-18T13:49:20+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/resource_data_and_drop-out_prevention/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/resource_data_and_drop-out_prevention/#When:16:36:11Z Featured post from ERS Director Jonathan Travers on recent insights into investments in students who enter high school far behind academically Featured post from ERS Director Jonathan Travers Lots of folks have documented the long odds to success for kids who enter high school far behind academically.  We’ve been working with one of our districts on strategies for beating these odds through using resources to get kids who enter high school behind caught up. Recently we had interesting insights into investments in these students that are visible only by looking at performance and resource use at the student level. What did we see? To start, we tracked two “high-risk” entering 9th graders at two different high schools who had both failed the 8th grade math state assessment. At the first school (which uses a block schedule), the student started in a remedial math class first semester and then took progressively more challenging math classes each semester through the end of 10th grade. The student at the second school also started in an introductory math class, but failed it. He then repeated the same course for two of the next three semesters, failing each time. The result two years later? The student at the first school was enrolled in grade 11—on track to graduation, and “college ready” in terms of math credits. The other student dropped out. We then quantified the investment each school made in the two students’ math course-taking (calculating the per student cost of each of the math classes) to get each student’s total investment. As it turned out, the amount of the investment was almost identical—roughly $1,350 per student over the first two years of high school. Yet the nature and outcomes of these investments were obviously wildly different. What does it mean? Our sense was that district leadership found the stories of these two students both exciting and humbling. And it certainly raised for them a lot of questions about what contributed to such different results: Who were the teachers? How were the classes configured? What other supports/interventions were or could have been brought to bear for the second student to prevent course failure? To what extent (and in what ways) is this an isolated or district-wide problem? The Value of Data at the Student Level These insights would not be possible without our new and unique approach to quantifying investments at the student levels and connecting to student scheduling and outcomes. We then replicated this analysis for the system overall, identifying overall district trends, and specific schools that appeared to be producing much better outcomes as well as a variety of metrics to show the differences in the ways each school organized resources to serve this population. For example, we tried to quantify for each school the extent to which it was able to assign its highest-performing math teachers to its highest-needs math classes.  Since sharing this work, the district has initiated a process to review the course assignment and support strategy for this year’s incoming 9th graders across all schools, and will be monitoring their progress over the course of the year. For more details, take a look at these slides that tell the story of the two students. 2010-08-09T16:36:11+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/waiting_for_superman/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/waiting_for_superman/#When:18:02:09Z Waiting for “Superman” brings to the forefront the story of this nation’s education disparity. Last night, a group of ERS employees viewed a new documentary on the nation’s education disparity. The film, by Academy Award-winning director Davis Gugghenheim, compellingly shows how American education has fallen behind in the last few decades and how reformers, alongside community members and parents, have made progress recently. One of the film’s main emphases is the difference effective teachers can make on students’ education. Geoffrey Canada, the renowned educator and founder of Harlem Children’s Zone who is featured prominently in the film, remarked that seeing a great teacher is like watching a superb musician or athlete. With both heart-wrenching interviews of parents struggling to improve their children’s seemingly hopeless situations to exceptional animations that illustrated statistics and other important points in an easy-to-follow manner, the movie is definitely memorable. By pledging, you can help many more see this evocative and powerful film. Photo credit: Susan Sermoneta via flickr 2010-07-28T18:02:09+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/news/article/williams_will_keep_principals_at_schools/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/williams_will_keep_principals_at_schools/#When:20:54:48Z 2010-07-26T20:54:48+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/news/article/not_much_left_in_schools_budgets/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/not_much_left_in_schools_budgets/#When:20:21:28Z 2010-07-26T20:21:28+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/congratulations_to_charlotte-mecklenburg_schools/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/congratulations_to_charlotte-mecklenburg_schools/#When:16:47:21Z ERS received some exciting news this July morning: our partner Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has made substantial gains, according to recent test score reports. ERS received some exciting news this July morning: our partner Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has made substantial gains, according to recent test score reports. The schools improved in all 23 areas tested and graduation rates rose significantly. In addition to working with CMS on the district level, ERS has also worked closely with Ashley Park Elementary School. We are thrilled to see Principal Tonya Kales, who is featured on the story’s television news report, and her hard-working team succeed. ERS does emphasize that multiple measures ought to be used to evaluate impact. Still, we are encouraged by CMS’ gains. Congratulations! 2010-07-21T16:47:21+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/news/article/doing_more_with_less/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/doing_more_with_less/#When:15:48:17Z 2010-07-19T15:48:17+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/our_partner_syracuse_and_say_yes_to_education_commended/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/our_partner_syracuse_and_say_yes_to_education_commended/#When:13:37:44Z In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Syracuse school district and the Say Yes to Education program have been recognized. Arthur Levine wrote a powerful opinion article in this past weekend’s edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education. In “Colleges and the Rebirth of the American Dream,” he detailed the numerous plights that now face urban school children and compared their adolescent experiences in the South Bronx, New York, to his own. In addition, he mentioned the exemplary work being done in our partner district Syracuse and the Say Yes to Education program, which guarantees that every student will attend college and works with the higher education institutions to be ready to serve their students. Levine advocated the program and explained the importance of supporting its growth:  “[W]e must … open up the nation’s campuses to better serve those populations and work with school districts and government officials to build guaranteed access and financial support.” ERS works closely with both the Syracuse City School District and Say Yes to explore new ways of leveraging a larger set of resources, finding efficiencies, and leveraging expertise from several sectors including universities, the county, the mayor, the schools, and the union. We are thrilled to be a part of their mission and to help the effort live up to its promise of sending every child to college ready to learn. Photo of Syracuse’s Fourth Onondaga County Court House: auburnxc on Flickr. Used through Creative Commons license. 2010-07-16T13:37:44+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/growing_pains/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/growing_pains/#When:15:36:37Z At ERS we know it’s very difficult to create great schools at scale. We’ve seen the diverse challenges of maintaining quality throughout a large district. Now there’s a new report on Charter Management Organizations, released by the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which shows the charter world is facing similar struggles. The challenges are familiar: • Facilities are scarce • Funding gaps require philanthropic contributions • High-quality principals are hard to find • High-quality teachers are hard to find • Economies of scale are rare While Charter Management Organizations don’t have the burden of having to dismantle dysfunctional systems, they do have the opportunity and responsibility to learn from the experiences in school districts that have faced these challenges before. ERS analyses and tools could be helpful. ERS’ online ResourceCheck is the first in a forthcoming series, Pracitcal Tools for District Transformation. It introduces our strategies for maintaining excellent schools at scale, and includes a series of questions to help evaluate how your school system practices stack up. Whether managing charter schools or public schools, making the best of scarce resources is the key to successful growth and continuous improvement. 2010-07-14T15:36:37+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/small_school_success/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/small_school_success/#When:15:50:53Z We applaud schools of any size that have made significant progress and have raised graduation rates to new heights. If you’re developing or supporting small schools, ERS has a set of tools and resources that should help with your planning. We applaud schools of any size that have made significant progress and have raised graduation rates to new heights. The research group MDRC published Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City’s New Small Schools are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates, which reports on a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-supported study that showed small schools’ recent success. “This report presents encouraging findings from that study,” says MDRC, “providing clear and reliable evidence that, in roughly six years, a large system of small public high schools can be created and can markedly improve graduation prospects for many disadvantaged students.” At ERS, we have also seen small schools succeed, but we warn districts implementing small schools to be careful of the budget and resource implications. Many districts find they spend more per pupil to operate smaller schools—often in haphazard ways that will likely fail to improve student results. The small school designs that succeed deliberately organize people, time, and money to match their instructional vision. Without careful planning, small schools can deplete district resources from other schools. If you’re developing or supporting small schools, here is a list of ERS tools and resources that should help with your planning: By Design Not Default: Optimizing District Spending on Small High Schools This paper and tool will help leaders understand and manage the drivers of small school spending. Small Schools Tool This tool will assist in analyzing the impact of the school design on budgets and schedules as well as other critical indicators such as class size, teacher load, and time spent on core academics. For school redesign the tool can model several years of resource allocation choices and then compare the results over time. Strategic Designs This report illustrates how nine high performing, small urban high schools across the U.S. are thinking about and organizing their resources strategically to best meet their students’ most pressing needs.   2010-07-09T15:50:53+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/news/article/our_education_dollars_in_the_new_york_times/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/our_education_dollars_in_the_new_york_times/#When:20:02:59Z 2010-07-07T20:02:59+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/new_teacher_project_statement_on_edujobs_amendment/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/new_teacher_project_statement_on_edujobs_amendment/#When:15:16:01Z The New Teacher Project has issued an important statement warning Congress to decline Congressman David Obey’s proposal to strip $800 million of existing funds from the Department of Education’s most innovative grant initiatives in order to fund a new bill designed to address job cuts. While we believe it’s critical to provide support to public school districts that will lose a lot of dollars in the short term, it would be a huge mistake to take those dollars from funds that are tied to transformation—a huge missed opportunity to leverage a crisis. In short, we need both: short-term relief and support for the long-term transformation. Without the second we perpetuate a disfunctional system. Please take a look at the New Teacher Project’s statement and pass it on. Here’s the statement. Also, see The New York Times editorial. 2010-07-06T15:16:01+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/our_education_dollars_new_york_times/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/our_education_dollars_new_york_times/#When:14:56:45Z We were very happy to see our letter in The New York Times yesterday on the cost of turnaround. As the letter says, we know that spending additional dollars on turnaround is essential, but we want to be certain that those dollars are strategically spent with the clear goal of not only creating a school that works but that the district can afford in the years to come. Here’s the letter: To the Editor: “Weighing the Cost of Progress at a Failing School” (news article, June 25) misses an important consideration for determining if a turnaround school is too “expensive.” Will these new dollars result in a high-performing school that is sustainable? Jump-starting persistently low-performing schools inevitably costs additional money, but it is key that these resources target sustainable improvements. Turnaround investments must leverage change for the future, like improving teaching practice, and not just increase the bottom line by adding staff, no matter how critical. The sustainability of the new school structure also depends on how the district manages resources for all schools. Will this new school divert too many resources from other schools in need? It’s not just how much you spend, it’s how you spend it. Investing in turning around schools is the right choice, but we must do it in a way that accounts for the future. Regis Shields Director Education Resource Strategies Watertown, Mass., June 28, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/opinion/l05school.html?_r=1&ref=letters   2010-07-06T14:56:45+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/rhode_island_moves_to_weighted_student_funding/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/rhode_island_moves_to_weighted_student_funding/#When:13:34:57Z Yesterday morning, Rochester Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard brought to our attention Rhode Island’s new statewide fair student funding formula—the focus of this week’s National Journal question. The coverage includes a fascinating collection of thoughts about the policy change from an interesting assortment of people, including educators and executives. The Ocean State’s progressive move broadly aligns with the idea that when funds are allotted based on students’ needs, more students have a better chance for success. This past April, ERS hosted a Fair Student Funding Summit, where districts from across the country discussed this policy in depth. We’d love to hear stories from your districts. What has worked, or not worked, with your funding efforts? Above, an adaptation of a photo of the R.I. state house by R.A. Provost, made available by Creative Commons. 2010-07-01T13:34:57+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/join_the_ers_team/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/join_the_ers_team/#When:16:14:45Z ERS is looking for Associates and Principal Associates to join our consulting teams that work with selected urban schools districts across the country. ERS is the only organization in the country with over 10 years of experience collaborating with the largest urban districts in the area of strategic resource allocation. If you or someone you know has strong analytic skills and an interest in urban education reform please take a look at our careers page and contact us. 2010-06-30T16:14:45+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/time_is_ticking/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/time_is_ticking/#When:15:49:21Z It’s June 24. Have you filled all of your vacancies for the ‘10-11 school year? If you haven’t, you’re not alone, but you should be concerned. The New Teacher Project studied the hiring practices of urban districts and found that urban districts are losing new talented teachers because they don’t make offers early enough. The data showed With aggressive recruitment, teachers apply to urban districts in large numbers But applicants withdraw because urban districts can’t make offers until mid-to-late summer So districts lose their stronger applicants and hire weaker ones And the teachers who did withdraw are committed to teaching in urban schools and many report they would have come to urban districts had they had an offer earlier. Don’t become a statistic that further substantiates these findings. According to this study, it would have been best had you been able to fill vacancies by May 1. As summer ticks away, is it possible for you to fill them by July 15? 2010-06-24T15:49:21+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/resourcecheck_is_now_web-based/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/resourcecheck_is_now_web-based/#When:19:38:01Z How well does your district organize its resources to support high-performing schools? Which of your resource strategies will lead to improved student performance and which won’t? It’s just become a little easier to begin to answer these critical questions. ERS announces the release of the interactive, web-based tool, ResourceCheck. Designed to help you dive into the transformational strategies that lead to better resource use, ResourceCheck asks you a series of questions, and then tallies and analyzes your responses to show how close you are to best practices and where you need improvement. ResourceCheck also links to resources to help you get started. Take a look now and please tell us what you think. 2010-06-16T19:38:01+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/news/article/syracuse_has_high_number_of_teaching_assistants_and_sped_students/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/syracuse_has_high_number_of_teaching_assistants_and_sped_students/#When:15:50:59Z 2010-06-08T15:50:59+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/news/article/duval_county_public_schools_its_wise_to_seek_outside_advice/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/duval_county_public_schools_its_wise_to_seek_outside_advice/#When:15:34:38Z 2010-06-08T15:34:38+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/news/article/dollars_and_sense/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/dollars_and_sense/#When:22:51:33Z 2010-06-02T22:51:33+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/teaching_effectiveness_and_coaching/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/teaching_effectiveness_and_coaching/#When:17:23:14Z Take a look at an innovative study of literacy coaches led by Tony Bryk, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The study of 17 schools suggests that using literacy coaches can help increase students’ reading skills by as much as 32 percent over three years. The first of what many scholars hope will be a new generation of studies that offer more context behind what works, the study finds that the higher the amount of coaching a teacher receives in a well-defined literacy collaborative program, the greater the reading gains. It also finds that the amount of coaching teachers get varies widely across schools and districts, and is influenced by many factors, including relationships among staff members and how teachers think of their own roles. These conclusions are very much in sync with our observations in school districts across the country. It reinforces our opinion that money spent on this kind of support is well worth it. Of course, as with all interventions, the quality of the coaching will affect its impact. In this study, the coaching was done in the context of a model and included university based training for coaches before the program began (vs. just calling people coaches with minimal training and structure).  Has coaching had similar results in your district? Post a comment and let us know your experience. See ERS’ teaching quality brief for more information on our thinking on improving teaching. 2010-06-02T17:23:14+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/a_slam_dunk_opportunity_for_school_district_hiring/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/a_slam_dunk_opportunity_for_school_district_hiring/#When:18:18:26Z Imagine if the NBA solved its budget woes as many school districts do by laying off its most junior players regardless of performance. As the NYT describes and ERS experience confirms, this is the reality in districts across the US. Imagine if the NBA chose to solve its budget woes by laying off its most junior players regardless of performance. Rajon Rondo, All-Star for the Boston Celtics but only a four-year veteran, would be gone. Highly-effective yet green superstars, including Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose would be fired, too. The downsizing would also mean no room for new players and, consequently, the NBA Draft would be canceled. The heroes from March’s college basketball tournament would either have to try a different profession or dribble in their living rooms. This will not happen anytime soon in basketball, but this is the reality in many schools and districts, as described by a recent New York Times article. Across the country, thousands of teachers have lost their jobs after a few years of service. Plus, prospective teachers who have recently graduated have found that legions have applied for the few available jobs, which often pay little. Districts have an opportunity to capitalize on this hiring situation and invest in teaching quality. One can argue that determining a teacher’s effectiveness in a classroom is more difficult than determining a ball player’s prowess on the court. Still, at a minimum, districts should find a way to layoff based on performance, even if imperfectly measured. Second, they can take advantage of a strong hiring pool filled with All-Stars who have been laid off from other districts based on seniority—even if that means cutting beyond what they need just to balance the budget. The more agile charter schools will presumably employ these strategies, and districts would greatly benefit by finding a way to do the same. 2010-05-24T18:18:26+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/turning_around_turnaround_in_restructuring_restructuring/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/turning_around_turnaround_in_restructuring_restructuring/#When:21:35:44Z See how ERS’ experience with turnaround schools compares to a new Education Sector report on the topic. You might want to check out the recent report from Education Sector, Restructuring ‘Restructuring.’ The report gives a compelling snapshot of the history of turnaround strategies to date. Here are some of the conclusions: Districts have chosen turnaround options that give them the flexibility to “take actions that aren’t major at all,” Changing people is critical to significant school reform, and “given a choice, states and school districts would rather not change people,”States have been unwilling or unable to make the hard choices needed to turnaround low-performing schools and districts, andOn-the-ground reform strategies have changed, but the schools have still not shown improvement. These conclusions are consistent with ERS experience in the field. We’ve found that districts do not take “major” action in their turnaround strategies and tend to allocate these resources in ways that don’t get at the underlying reasons for why these schools are failing in the first place. For example, districts typically allocate resources for turnaround by spreading them equally across all schools, rather than allocating resources to each school based on school and student needs. In some cases, this means that schools that are underfunded to begin with stay underfunded, even after they receive the “standard” turnaround allocation from the district. In addition, schools may use resources— people, time, and money—poorly by using outdated scheduling techniques, offering the wrong mix of courses, and not being strategic about class sizes. As a result, resources are not used in ways that can best serve students who need intensive remediation and acceleration to succeed academically. Adding turnaround dollars to these schools without fixing underlying structural problems will likely not have the results district leaders want. That said, we are happy to report that we are seeing some promising exceptions to this turnaround rule. The New York City Chancellor’s Schools, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Strategic Staffing Schools, and the Atlanta Public Schools Project GRAD schools can all be considered successful turnaround efforts, with each district experiencing double-digit student gains in performance over the first one to three years of the programs. All three districts did “change people” as EducationSector describes in the paper, by replacing principals and teachers. These districts also provided additional teacher coaches and additional non-academic support for at-risk students represented the core of the successful programs. Importantly, the interventions were also lower cost than other turnaround strategies because the critical changes they made to personnel were not expensive, they were just difficult –politically, logistically and emotionally. But district leadership recognized that such bold moves were “Mission Critical” to putting these schools on the path to success. What turnaround strategies are working in your district? Do they focus on a school-by-school approach or do they tackle the underlying problems that are impacting all low performing schools in your district? Write a comment below and let us know your thoughts. And if you haven’t seen our case study on the promising turnaround strategy in Charlotte Mecklenburg, please take a look. 2010-05-19T21:35:44+00:00 http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/racing_to_the_top/ http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/racing_to_the_top/#When:17:25:42Z Over the next six weeks states will be sprinting to finish their round two Race to the Top applications in hopes of claiming a piece of the $3.4B reward. These new applications need to build a plan for achievement that both incorporates feedback from round one reviewers AND scales back original proposals to meet the Department’s new caps on award amounts. If you’re one of those state and district leaders putting your coffee machine into overdrive, it is critical that you make sure the plan you’re developing uses all resources—current and new—for long-term transformation. Read the ERS articles below to learn how. Realigning Resources for District Transformation EdWeek Commentary: Using Stimulus Funds to Build a Bridge to Better Practice 2010-05-04T17:25:42+00:00