|
|
To scroll ahead to specific projects, click below:
Technical
Assistance
CTAC enables school districts to improve student achievement through
accountability, site and district planning, and strategic data-informed
management.
Working on site with teachers, parents, principals, administrators,
boards of education, business and community leaders -- as well as
with state education authorities - CTAC conducts capacity-building
projects that are comprehensive and often long-term, lasting three
to five years. CTAC's professional staff assists educators to increase
their capacities to be effective and to implement improvements.
| |
Leadership
for Student Achievement
CTAC assists superintendents and urban school systems to develop
viable models for reform, manage the political barriers to school
improvement and nurture effective working partnerships with
educators, parents, youth, health and human services sectors
and the corporate community.
The following districts have participated: Albuquerque, New
Mexico (5 years); Camden, New Jersey (4 years); Cleveland, Ohio
(4 years); Jackson, Mississippi (4 years); Newark, New Jersey
(4 years); Salt Lake City, Utah (3 years), Denver, Colorado
(5 years and ongoing), and numerous districts in northern and
southern California. For more information on an overall strategic
framework, see article in
The Executive Educator.
Using
Data to Inform Decisions
During the new era
of No Child Left Behind, it is critical for school systems and
communities to thoroughly understand the achievement of their
students and the effectiveness of their teachers and schools.
This requires being able to understand the progress of students,
not just overall, but by individual child, by subgroups of students,
by classroom, by program, and by school.
With a clear and detailed picture of student achievement, educational
leaders can pinpoint resources to needs, and build on pockets
of success that are often hidden in aggregated results.
Frequently, however, the district infrastructure for accurately
analyzing and disaggregating student achievement data is not
sufficient. Furthermore, the interpretation of student achievement
data - upon which school and district strategies and priorities
should be based - is often superficial and flawed. Pressed to
respond quickly to publicly released reports of student achievement,
too many officials jump to conclusions on the basis of data
that is suggestive but not conclusive, or fail to see clear
trend lines or troubling comparisons that should lead to action.
For more than a decade, CTAC has been building districts' capacity
to use data to improve classroom instruction, strengthen school
improvement planning, and inform management decision-making.
This initiative began with the school districts of Albuquerque,
New Mexico; Des Moines, Iowa; Long Beach, California; Salt Lake
City, Utah; and Savannah, Georgia. It has been extensively implemented
in school districts in northern and southern California. See
the monograph, Informed Decision-Making:
An Introduction to Student Achievement and Teacher Data Comparisons.
California
Accountability Project
CTAC implemented
a model initiative with five school districts, along with the
County Offices of Education in Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties.
The initiative fundamentally changed how schools improve educational
services to children, and generated substantial student gains
in reading and mathematics achievement, by focusing on three
primary components of school improvement:
- Comprehensive District Accountability that thoroughly
assesses and disaggregates student performance, student
factors, and contributing school conditions at each individual
school;
- School Improvement Planning and implementation
that engages the entire school community in examining conditions
and their causes at each school, builds on strengths and
corrects weaknesses, and ties accountability to real improvement
in student achievement; and
- Strategic Management of the district that allocates
resources based on identified school needs and recurring
school issues, and that holds professionals accountable
for contributing to improved student learning.
Through a consortium of school districts, the County Offices
of Education, and CTAC, the project created a model for accountability-driven
reform that reaches beyond current practice both in California
and nationally. For more details, see
CTAC's article published in Thrust for Educational Leadership.
Interventions
in Underperforming Schools
CTAC worked with five severely underperforming schools in California in the state-sponsored Immediate Intervention/Underperforming School Program (IIUSP) program. CTAC conducted comprehensive assessments of student achievement, current conditions, instructional strategies, and parent involvement. Then, CTAC assisted each school to develop a plan to address the issues identified and to increase student achievement in the following year. This enabled schools to achieve significant and in many cases rapid school-wide improvement in test scores.
Teacher
Compensation and Student Achievement
CTAC builds the capacity of school districts to develop teacher
compensation systems that are based, in part, on student achievement.
CTAC assists districts to forge and build union-management collaboration,
district data infrastructure, professional development support
systems, and community support - all in order to increase student
achievement and learning. Click
for research and evaluation of teacher performance pay.
Building
State Capacity for Interventions
Based on its experience with multiple school districts under
receivership, and with state interventions leading up to takeovers,
CTAC provides technical assistance to state education authorities
regarding state takeovers and state interventions to improve
student achievement. Click
for research and evaluation of state takeovers and interventions.
Fiscal
Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT): Analysis and
Report of Pupil Achievement in the Berkeley Unified School District.
CTAC has been engaged by FCMAT to assess pupil achievement in the Berkeley public schools. CTAC is evaluating the degree of implementation of more than 70 standards representing key requirements for the education of California youth. Based on data collected in interviews, student assessments, demographic analysis, artifacts and documents, and classroom observations, CTAC staff is reporting findings, developing improvement plans with six-month benchmarks, and conducting on-going monitoring through 2005. Funding and authority for this intervention was provided to FCMAT by the California legislature.
Advocating
for Community Support
Most districts organize to run levy campaigns, but few districts organize to win levy campaigns. CTAC helps district leaders to understand how to use community organizing methods to identify concerns of various groups, find a common voice, build a united constituency in pursuit of something positive, and understand their role as community leaders in a broad and powerful light.
With staff members known nationally for their expertise in community involvement, CTAC has implemented landmark initiatives in this area including an initiative that involved an unprecedented 9,200 parents in the Newark schools, as well as partnerships between corporate and education leaders in the setting of comprehensive school improvement initiatives.
|
Research
and Evaluation
CTAC conducts educational research studies addressing critical issues
in education, in order to improve practice and shape significant decisions
at the regional, state, and national levels.
Recent studies have examined performance pay for teachers, state takeovers
of urban school districts, site-based management of schools, and regional
school to work initiatives.
| |
Rewarding
Teachers for Student Achievement
CTAC has completed a four-year comprehensive study of the impact
on student achievement of Denver's Pay for Performance pilot,
intended to link teacher compensation with student achievement.
Catalyst for Change: Pay for
Performance in Denver is CTAC's final report of the pilot
study.
Rewarding teachers for improvements in student achievement can focus attention on results. When well implemented, it can have the salutary effect of causing a district to operate in a more effective and efficient fashion in support of student learning. Changes in district practice that are necessary to advance financial rewards for teachers also tend to support quality teaching and enhanced learning.
State
Takeover of Urban School Districts
CTAC conducted the nation's only comprehensive study of the
impact of a state takeover of a public school district. This
yearlong study of the Newark, New Jersey takeover, Myths
and Realities: The Impact of the State Takeover on Students
and Schools in Newark, documents the takeover's impact on
schools and on student achievement. It also describes areas
of improvement, indicates factors that have contributed to that
improvement, identifies barriers to school and district success,
and outlines next steps for the district and the state.
Collaborative
Decision-Making (Site-Based Management)
The Denver Public Schools began implementing a comprehensive
new strategy for school and district management in 1991. This
strategy, Collaborative Decision-Making (CDM), was embodied
in the contract between the Denver Classroom Teachers Association
and the Denver Public Schools. Denver asked CTAC to conduct
a comprehensive study of CDM. The study included an extensive,
multi-lingual survey of more than 4,000 respondents, individual
and group interviews of several hundred people, and the thorough
analysis of school by school student achievement, improvement
plans, training materials, and related records. CTAC assessed
the correlation between customer satisfaction, perceived effectiveness
and actual student performance, and presented a full report
to the Denver community. The report, Advise
and Consent: A Study of Collaborative Decision-Making in Denver,
is helping guide the development of CDM in Denver.
School
to Work
CTAC studied school to work programs and plans in Albuquerque,
New Mexico and the surrounding region. In the report, Best
Practices in School to Work: Lessons Learned, CTAC reviewed
regional school to work efforts throughout the country, and
provided a summary of factors that have tended to enhance success.
The report, The Challenges of School to
Work: A Regional Assessment, evaluates the efforts of
a strategy to develop and coordinate school to work efforts
throughout the region. |
Public Policy
In addition to framing and researching public policy questions, CTAC
has shaped public policy by sponsoring the National
Urban Reform Network, a collaboration of fifteen urban school
districts and communities that combined forces to influence substantive
national public policy issues.
| |
National
Urban Reform Network
CTAC convened the National Urban Reform Network, a fifteen-city
coalition focusing on national and state public policy. The
Network was organized to (1) directly link effective reform
initiatives with key local practitioners to shape public policy;
(2) focus the actual practices of school reform and health/human
service integration on outcomes that strengthen student academic
and social growth; and (3) provide an activist forum through
which cities implementing reform can interact.
The National Urban Reform Network has emphasized the better
use of existing funds rather than the creations of new funds,
and has demonstrated the influence that can be created when
school and community leaders, health and human service providers,
corporate executives, parents, and activists all advocate for
the same priorities in a unified, non-partisan coalition.
Participating cities have included Akron, Ohio; Albuquerque,
New Mexico; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio; Denver,
Colorado; Des Moines, Iowa; Indianapolis, Indiana; Jackson,
Mississippi; Long Beach, California; Louisville, Kentucky; Newark,
New Jersey; Sacramento, California; Salem-Keizer, Oregon; Salt
Lake City, Utah; and Savannah, Georgia.
|
|
|
|
