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Building District Capacity through State Monitoring of SIG

The Massachusetts Model

March 22, 2011

Presented by Karla Brooks Baehr, Deputy Commissioner of

Accountability, Partnership and Assistanceand

Jesse DixonOffice of District and School Turnaround

MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE)

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Massachusetts Context

• 391 School Districts, 1800 schools

• Strong Teacher Unions

• Standards-Based Accountability since 1993

• 2008 – Redesigned System for Accountability and Assistance

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Massachusetts Context

35 Lowest-performing schools (Level 4 Schools)

• Across 9 Urban Districts (18,000 students)

• 9 in 10 are eligible for F/R lunch (89%)

• 1 in 4 is an English-language learner (26%)

• 1 in 5 is a student with disability (21%)

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Core Ideas for State Redesign

• The district, not school, is ESE’s entry point

• Accountability is essential, but not sufficient

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Theory of Action: Building District Capacity

If ESE can assist districts to intervene successfully in their lowest-performing schools,

then districts will have the capacity to intervene successfully in their other low-performing schools.

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SIG Monitoring: Beyond Compliance

1. Required by USED

2. Build district capacity to:• monitor the implementation of turnaround

initiatives• use ongoing data from self-monitoring and

external site visits to continually refine the strategies

3. Use data to differentiate ESE targeted assistance to districts

4. Discontinue investments with low likelihood of success

5. Identify schools where stronger state intervention may be necessary

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Key Features of ESE SIG Monitoring

September AugustFebruary May

Implementation Benchmarks Monitoring

(ESE)

Monitoring Site Visits

(consultants)

LEA RenewalApplication

(ESE)

Measurable Annual Goals(performance)

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Implementation Benchmarks Monitoring

• ESE measures implementation progress through district-defined implementation benchmarks

• Benchmarks must distinguish between:• Strategies (e.g., policy change, PD planned, new

staffing)

• Technical Benchmarks – technical aspects of the strategy implemented by timeline (e.g., PD happened, new staff hired, new schedule is in place)

• Early Evidence of Change – evidence that the strategies are making an impact in actions or beliefs (e.g., classroom observations report 80% of staff now incorporating new strategies in instruction)

• Short-term Impacts (assessments, perception data, attendance)

• Long-term goals (student outcomes through MAGs)

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Monitoring Site Visits

• External site visits to every SIG grantee in late winter/early spring (contract through Schoolworks)

• Data from documents, classroom observations, focus groups

• Assesses the implementation of benchmarks in the following areas:• Effective school leadership

• Aligned curriculum

• Effective instruction

• Assessment, tiered instruction and adequate learning time

• Student social, emotional, and health needs

• Feedback produced in a report and a half-day feedback/planning session with the district/school leaders

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Annual Renewal Process

• SIG grantees are not guaranteed funding for three years

• Renewal application includes:• Early evidence of change • Implementation benchmarks progress• Overall what worked? How do you know? • What changes are being made and why?

(reference site visit and benchmarks data)• Changes to budget

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Measurable Annual Goals

• MCAS Performance – school-specific targets based on an analysis of what’s “rigorous but realistic”: school-wide and by subgroup

• Other Indicators• Attendance• Graduation/Dropout rates• Out of school suspension rates• School climate• etc.

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ESE Goals for Monitoring

1. Build district capacity to:• monitor the implementation of turnaround

initiatives• use ongoing data from self-monitoring and

external site visits to continually refine the strategies

2. Use data to differentiate ESE targeted assistance to districts

3. Discontinue investments with low likelihood of success

4. Identify schools where stronger state intervention may be necessary

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For More Information

Level 4 Schools websitehttp://www.doe.mass.edu/sda/framework/level4/

School Redesign Grant (SIG) websitehttp://www.doe.mass.edu/redesign/

Jesse Dixon - jdixon@doe.mass.edu