Presentation to Louisiana Superintendents’ Retreat Marksville, Louisiana August 31, 2009

1. Meeting the Turnaround Challenge: Overview and Recommendations Presentation to Louisiana Superintendents’ Retreat Marksville, Louisiana August 31, 2009

2. What is the goal of turnaround? Turnaround is a dramatic and comprehensive intervention in a low-performing school that a) produces significant gains in achievement within two years; and b) readies the school for the longer process of transformation into a high-performance organization Within five years, turnaround schools should match the average achievement levels of non-poverty schools within their state Achievement

3. The Nature of the Challenge: How big is the problem? Why have so many past intervention efforts failed?

4. Nearly 5,000 schools, representing 2.5 million students, will be in Restructuring by 2010

5. The key interventionquestion: How do we take the DNA of high-performing, high-poverty schools, and embed it within the systems that serve struggling high-poverty schools?

6. Why has so little fundamental change occurred nationally in failing schools to date? • Layering Multiple, Overlapping School Partner Organizations • Requiring Additional Improvement Plans • Sending in External Improvement Teams • Creating Additional Categorical Funding Streams • Mentoring/Coaching from Retired Administrators and Teachers • Creating Large “School Improvement” Offices with Inadequate Authority and Accountability • Relying Solely on School Choice or SES for Schools Not Meeting AYP

7. Why common state strategies present barriers to HPHP practices? Insufficient incentives for educators to choose major change • Too few positive incentives: reasons to opt into real transformation • No negative incentives: unattractive consequences for inaction • Lack of aggressive, clear performance targets Insufficient comprehensiveness, intensity, and sustainability • No state engagement in changing conditions – rules for adults • No overall “people strategy” – developing capacity for turnaround • No school clustering: limits effectiveness and scale • All “loose,” no “tight”: e.g., more systematic on curriculum, PD • Limited partner support: “light touch,” small scale, fragmented • Limited district connection to school improvement effort Insufficient commitment from the state • Lack of high-visibility public and private sector commitment • SEA lacks sufficient flexibility, authority, resources

8. Are there conclusions about school reform efforts to date? 1. Most school reform shows up in schools as fairly disconnected projects 2. Even more recent efforts to make reform more comprehensive only address part of the challenge 3. Truly comprehensive, transformational reform is difficult to achieve because it challenges conventional structures, processes, and “turf” 4. Chronically underperforming schools and their districts present the most plausible access point to mount that kind of reform – because the need for real change is so clear

9. Moving Forward: How can we learn from schools that are proving it can be done?

10. How do high-performing, high-poverty schools do it? HPHP schools foster students’ readiness to learn; focus staff’s readiness to teach; and expand their readiness to act. Higher-Performing High-Poverty Readiness Model for Schools readiness to LEARN readiness to TEACH 1 Safety, Discipline & Engagement Students feel secure and inspired to learn 4 Shared Responsibility for Achievement Staff feel deep accountability and a missionary zeal for student achievement 5 Personalization of Instruction Individualized teaching based on diagnostic assessment and adjustable time on task Action against Adversity Schools directly address their students’ poverty-driven deficits 2 3 Close Student-Adult Relationships Students have positive and enduring mentor/teacher relationships 6 Professional Teaching Culture Continuous improvement through collaboration and job-embedded learning readiness to ACT 7 Resource Authority School leaders can make mission-driven decisions regarding people, time, money & program Resource Ingenuity Leaders are adept at securing additional resources and leveraging partner relationships 8 Agility in the Face of Turbulence Leaders, teachers, and systems are flexible and inventive in responding to constant unrest 9

11. What are the key similarities of leading HPHP schools? • Readiness to Learn • Clearly defined instructional framework, with flexibility around implementation and sharing of emerging best practices across the network • Development of a cultural model that supports learning and sets every student on the path to college • Defined approaches for conducting outreach to parents and community • Establishment of school structures for addressing social and behavioral needs of students • Readiness to Teach • Support for schools in recruiting, developing, and retaining teachers • Building of systems and strategies that enable the use of data to differentiate instruction and guide professional development • Readiness to Act • Control over hiring and investment in development of school leadership • Investments in freeing principals from school operation responsibilities • Flexibility given to school leadership in use of budget, with central offices supported through a defined fee • Network-wide extension of school day and year, with guidelines for how to align classroom time to the instructional model

12. Scale up Strategy: How do we take the lessons from HPHP schools and bring them to scale across entire districts and states?

13. What are the three Cs of comprehensive transformative reform?

14. What are the two big ideas that characterize partnership zones? Both hallmarks of HPHP schools: flexible, supportive operating conditions and high-capacity partners are key pieces of any Partnership Zone. State District School Cluster • Partnership Zones with flexible operating conditions • Supported by state policy (funding, compliance streamlining) and state office of innovation • More authority to make mission-driven decisions regarding people, time, money, programming • Lead Turnaround Partners working with districts in clusters of 3-5 schools • New-model partner with shared accountability for student achievement, co-managing authority with district office of innovation • Lead turnaround partner aligns the work of all sub-partners, builds capacity within district and schools Lead Partner Supporting Partners

15. Portfolio strategies: what conditions are needed in a zone? ZONES Carve-out zones are characterized by changes in conditions: Outside-the-system approaches, applied inside the system.

16. Why do we need lead partners? PARTNERSHIPS Existing Partners and reform efforts are often fragmented & a burden to schools. “Old World” Intervention Capacity & Roles: Fragmented, Competing Improvement Projects StateConsultants DistrictMandates OneSchool Many Providers & Partners

17. What does a Lead Partner for turnaround do? PARTNERSHIPSTurnaround Lead Partners align authority with accountability & sign a performance contract with a district or state. • Turnaround Lead Partners are non-profit school management organizations who work with districts initially in small clusters of 3-5 schools. • The Lead Partner: • Signs a three-to-five year performance contract with the district, that holds them accountable for the student achievement of a small cluster of schools with common challenges or goals. • Is provided with conditions that support mission-driven decision-making with regard to all decisions about people (recruiting, hiring, evaluation), time (scheduling and length of day), money and program. • Aligns the work of all sub-partners (supporting partners), and works to build internal capacity within the district and schools. • Has an intense relationship with the school (staff in school 5 days per week) • Provides all necessary academic services and ensures all other services are provided by the Lead Partner or Supporting Partners

18. A District Strategy: How can Partnership Zones transform central district offices and their support for schools?

19. How do partnership zones improve whole districts? Transformational strategies can be piloted in a few schools and then be scaled up to the rest of the schools in the district. Increased capacity and altered practices at the district level should occur simultaneously. Partnership Zone – Stage 1 Zone – Stage 2 Cluster 1 Zone – Stage 3 Clusters could be based on: Feeder Patterns Mix of elementary, middle & high schools Need-Based (high ESL/recent immigrant pop.) Feeder pattern or specific grade levels Support/Mentoring (50/50 high and low capacity schools, to allow mentoring) Add Cluster 2 Extension of Zone Model to District Redesign Add Clusters 3 and 4 Address remainder of district in sequence

20. What district operations require transformation? • Human Resources • Budgeting • Governance & Reporting Structures • Data and Assessment • IT • Business Practices & Procurement

21. Leading Examples: How are some districts and states organizing turnaround?

22. How do states currently organize turnaround? Despite increased turnaround activity at the state level, few states have created independent authorities with flexible operating conditions to manage their turnaround initiatives. All information is subject to change as state & district strategies adjust to changing budgets and needs.

23. How do districts currently organize turnaround? Some major urban school districts have piloted fairly ambitious strategies. They fall along a spectrum from highly centralized initiatives to more decentralized “portfolio” approaches. All information is subject to change as state & district strategies adjust to changing budgets and needs.

24. Lessons to Keep in Mind: What are the core principals of school turnaround?

25. What are the core principles of school turnaround? • Marginal change yields marginal results. • School turnaround differs substantially from school improvement. • School improvement is 99% of what’s been tried. • The high-performing, high-poverty schools show: we need a change process that leads to a dramatically different model for these schools.

26. What are the core principles of school turnaround? • Dramatic change requires bold, comprehensive action from the state, together with districts and partners. • Many communities lack the collective will to act boldly on their own. • Acting boldly means addressing the basic operating context of schools and ensuring readiness to teach, learn, and act.

27. What are the core principles of school turnaround? • In the end, it’s about people, more than programs. • Dramatic change at scale requires that states, regions, and districts find ways to add new capacity – and free up the most capable people currently in schools and districts to do their best work.

28. For more information and additional resources: School Turnaround Strategy Group Mass Insight Education & Research Institute 18 Tremont Street, Suite 930 Boston, MA 02108 http://www.massinsight.org turnaround@massinsight.org Michael Contompasis, Senior Field Consultant, mcontompasis@massinsight.org