STRATEGIES AND PRIORITIES
CTAC provides on-site technical assistance, research and
evaluation services, and public policy support to more than 100
community-based organizations, coalitions and public institutions,
annually. The groups CTAC serves — diverse in terms of race, language
and culture — range from immigrant organizations and multi-racial
housing coalitions to school districts and health systems.
CTAC’s priority is to address the conditions and root causes of poverty.
As a minority-controlled center, CTAC is particularly sensitive to the
needs of disenfranchised groups. To respond to the severity of problems
affecting low-income communities, CTAC is assisting school districts
and state educational systems to function more systematically on behalf
of all children; strengthening community-based efforts in neighborhood
development and the reconfiguration of human services, and improving
access to health care services for people affected by HIV or AIDS. CTAC
is addressing the following priorities:
Leadership
of School Reform
This is a landmark initiative that
builds the capacity of urban school districts to implement educational
reform on a system-wide basis. Making entire school systems effective
requires leadership that can shape, steer and manage reform. This
project 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. Since the project’s inception, the following districts have
participated: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Camden, New Jersey; Cleveland,
Ohio; Jackson, Mississippi; Newark, New Jersey; Palm Beach County,
Florida; and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Comprehensive
District Accountability
The most critical
unmet
challenge in education is to determine the effectiveness of a school
district, school by school and student by student. To address this need
directly, CTAC has developed an accountability model that is customized
for districts to determine the success of their individual schools and
programs, not just in the aggregate but according to the specific
performance of different groups of children. Internally, districts then
develop strategies based on these findings, and realign their
management systems to improve the quality and delivery of instruction.
Externally, the districts can demonstrate to the public what progress
is being made and how increasingly better results will be achieved.
Such a system of assessment and accountability has never previously
been available to school districts. This initiative began with the
school districts of Albuquerque, Des Moines, Long Beach, Salt Lake City
and Savannah, was further developed in a range of school districts in
Northern and Southern California, and is now being used by districts
nationwide.
New
Directions in Systemic Reform
CTAC is partnering with
select districts to implement educational improvements on a system-wide
basis. Christina School District, the largest district in Delaware,
served as the lead school system in this national initiative. CTAC
conducted a detailed assessment of the district’s readiness and
capacity. Based on this assessment, CTAC assisted the district to
change systems to support student achievement, engage the community as
true partners in systemic reform and demonstrate results through
scientific research. This three-tiered strategy ensures that the
results in student achievement hold up to scrutiny, guide improvement
efforts, and shape policy directions.
Teacher
Pay for Performance
The Denver Public Schools and
the
Denver Classroom Teachers Association developed a total compensation
system for teachers that links teacher compensation, in part, to
student achievement. After a national search, CTAC was selected to be
the primary technical assistance provider to this effort. This
assistance then focused on (a) designing, developing and implementing
the Pay for Performance pilot, and (b) conducting a comprehensive study
of the impact of the pilot on student achievement and systems change.
Parents
as Partners
CTAC launched a project with the
Seattle Public
Schools to strengthen the collaboration of parents, school staff and
community organizations in support of student achievement and school
improvement. This initiative focused on improving results for
low-income, non-native English speaking and/or ethnic minority
children. Using surveys in eight different languages, CTAC assessed
awareness and involvement among a representative sample of parents in
the 47,000-student district as well as school and district staff. CTAC
also interviewed teachers, school administrators, parents and
representatives of local community based organizations. Based on the
results, CTAC guided a train the trainers process to prepare a corps of
culturally and linguistically diverse school staff, community
organization representatives and parent instructors who will train
others across the district and community to better understand and
assume their roles as partners in school improvement. The project
builds capacity to use the accountability provisions and reporting
requirements of No Child Left Behind for concrete improvements in
student learning and school/community collaboration.
Fiscal
Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT)
CTAC
was
engaged by FCMAT to assess and monitor pupil achievement in the
Berkeley Unified School District and the Vallejo Unified School
District, districts under state takeover. CTAC evaluated the degree of
implementation of standards representing key requirements for the
education of California youth and provided recommendations for
improvement based on data collected in interviews, student assessments,
demographic analysis, artifacts, and classroom observations. The
authority and funding for these interventions was provided to FCMAT by
the California legislature.
National
Urban Reform Network
CTAC created and convened
the
National Urban Reform Network, an activist fifteen-city coalition
linking effective reform initiatives and key local practitioners in
order to shape and advocate for needed public policy. The Network was
organized to (a) directly link effective reform initiatives with key
local practitioners to shape public policy; (b) focus the actual
practices of school reform and health/human service integration on
outcomes that strengthen student academic and social growth; and (c)
provide an activist forum through which cities implementing reform can
interact. Based on a national competition, participants to date
include: 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.
Impact
of the State Takeover of the Newark, New Jersey
Public
Schools
As accountability becomes a dominant movement in education,
states are moving to reconstitute schools and intervene in districts
they determine to be failing. CTAC’s Comprehensive District
Accountability system provides states with the tools they need for
determining the actual success of schools and districts in helping
children learn. CTAC has also developed broad expertise in the
management of school districts under receivership. Based on this
experience, CTAC conducted a longitudinal study of the impact of the
takeover of the Newark Public Schools by the State of New Jersey. The
study indicates areas of improvement, what factors contributed to that
improvement, barriers to school and district success, next steps for
Newark and New Jersey, and criteria and strategies that states should
adopt if they are contemplating school district takeovers.
California
Accountability Project
CTAC implemented a model
initiative with five school districts and the county offices of
education in Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties. The project
fundamentally changed how schools improve educational services to
children by focusing on the three primary components of successful
school improvement. These components are: (a) comprehensive district
accountability that thoroughly assesses and disaggregates student
performance, student factors, and contributing school conditions at
each individual school; (b) 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 (c) 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. The project created a model
for accountability-driven reform that reaches beyond current practice
both in California and nationally.
Underperforming
Schools
CTAC was selected by the State of
California to assist schools in two districts through the Immediate
Intervention/Underperforming School Program. Through this program, CTAC
assessed student achievement, current conditions, instructional
strategies, and parent involvement. Then, CTAC assisted each school to
develop a plan to address issues identified and to increase student
achievement in the subsequent year.
Collaborative
Decision-Making Model
Working with a
committee that
represents the Board of Education, Denver Classroom Teachers
Association, the administration and the broader Denver community, CTAC
conducted a comprehensive study of the effectiveness of Collaborative
Decision-Making (CDM), Denver’s strategy for site-based management and
community involvement. This included conducting 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 relationship between
customer satisfaction, perceived effectiveness and actual student
performance, and presented a full report to the Denver community.
Research:
The Factors That Influence Reform
CTAC is
conducting a
research project designed to identify those factors that are the most
critical in influencing the success of districtwide reform initiatives.
While there is much speculation about contributing influences, there is
little research that shows which factors enable successful districts to
overcome the odds. CTAC’s research methodologies involve collecting and
analyzing extensive longitudinal data — both quantitative and
qualitative — from urban school systems, using a range of schools and
school districts as an informational base. This project will provide
reform-minded district leaders with a clear delineation of the specific
factors that must be addressed before and during any systemic attempt
to improve student achievement.
Community
Development Leadership Project
This project is
tailored to provide community-based organizations with the expertise
necessary to conduct development activity from a strengthened position
of credibility and professionalism. The project builds proficiency in
all phases of the development process, from neighborhood planning,
organizing and financial packaging to management and leadership
development. The project has assisted more than forty groups working to
(a) preserve and rehab 5,864 units of at risk housing, (b) produce
1,117 units of new affordable housing, and (c) develop more than 20
minority-owned businesses.
National
Model for Neighborhood-wide Revitalization
CTAC
assists community-based organizations, inter-agency collaboratives,
foundations and statewide government agencies to become effective
community partners in comprehensive neighborhood revitalization. CTAC’s
work is predicated on its nationally acclaimed assistance to the Dudley
Street Neighborhood Initiative — the broadest-based effort to
revitalize a neighborhood in the United States — which consists of more
than 30 groups and 2,000 residents focused on affordable housing,
business development and service coordination. A particular emphasis is
to strengthen the capacity of residents to shape, steer and influence
the renewal of their neighborhoods. This initiative is also designed to
identify and document the substantive changes generated by the
revitalization efforts on the lives of families and neighborhoods.
Small
Grants Program: Intermediary Support for Organizing
Communities
CTAC directs the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation’s small
grants program in select cities nationally and in the nine state
northeastern region. CTAC provides seed grants and on-site technical
assistance to emerging neighborhood-based, multi-issue groups.
National
HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Project
CTAC
conducted a national initiative to help diverse communities throughout
the United States to develop effective, comprehensive strategies to
address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and to shape national policy that is
more supportive of integrated care and prevention strategies at the
local level. In so doing, the project provided field-tested examples
for improving community health care and social service planning — in
the AIDS field, and with learnings applicable to other health care
arenas.
AIDS
Consumer Advisory Boards Project
CTAC built the
capacity of more than thirty AIDS Consumer Advisory Boards throughout
Massachusetts. The Consumer Advisory Boards, comprised of individuals
with the HIV infection or AIDS virus, have sought to become effective
consumer advocates by evaluating services, recommending new programs,
changing existing services and participating as board members of social
service agencies. CTAC assisted the boards to define the role of
consumers in the delivery of services, increase their skills as
consumer advocates, establish priorities and strategies, and build
productive partnerships with the Department of Public Health, human
service agencies and collaboratives throughout the state.