SchoolWorks Quality Reviews©

New Leaders for New Schools - Effective Practice Incentive Community
As part of a federal effective practices grant, New Leaders partnered with SchoolWorks to design a school review process to record best practices in schools with outstanding achievement gains. This ongoing project includes the development of protocols, a school visit process and staffing plans for school visits. SchoolWorks met with various stakeholder groups within New Leaders (coaches, principals, members of executive team) and outside of the organization (grant partners) to inform development of the process. As the project enters it second year, SchoolWorks site visit reports will become the basis for case studies on an effective practice website.

The Broad Foundation
In 2007, The Broad Foundation was seeking an organization with the capacity to conduct qualitative evaluations of five finalist districts for the annual Broad Prize for Urban Education. SchoolWorks was chosen because of its expertise in the qualitative review of schools and districts and its ability to develop a unique protocol and approach to the prestigious Broad Prize selection process. SchoolWorks applied a research-based framework to eligible district’s practices. Evidence was collected on site through document review, interviews and direct observations of life in the district’s schools. A tremendous amount of information was distilled and synthesized so that both the Broad Prize Selection Jury could determine the annual recipient and that the best practices of all finalists could be disseminated through publications.

Chicago Public Schools
SchoolWorks conducts several types of site visits for Chicago Public Schools. All charter schools seeking renewal from Chicago Public Schools undergo a renewal site visit designed and led by SchoolWorks. Working collaboratively with Chicago Public Schools, SchoolWorks designed a renewal site visit that dovetailed with Chicago’s existing charter accountability practices while increasing the amount of data and analysis available inform renewal decisions. As part of its Renaissance 2010 project, Chicago Public Schools also engages SchoolWorks to assess the quality of groups seeking to begin new schools.

New York State Education Department
Beginning in the fall of 2005, SchoolWorks designed and implemented protocols for Charter School Renewal visits and Third-Year Comprehensive Monitoring Reviews for the Board of Regents – one of the charter school authorizers in New York State. Teams of independent evaluators from SchoolWorks use the Charter School Renewal protocol to assess the extent to which a charter school has met the standards for renewal at the end of its charter term. Through the Third-Year Comprehensive Monitoring Review visit, SchoolWorks monitors a school’s compliance with state and federal regulations; evaluates the school’s progress toward the goals and objectives as outlined in its School Improvement Plan; and provides recommendations to the school on ways to strengthen and enhance its improvement initiatives.

Massachusetts Department of Education –
Accountability and Technical Assistance
Since the establishment of the Massachusetts School and District Accountability System in the late 1990’s, SchoolWorks has been contracted by the Department to conduct more than 200 independent reviews of traditional public schools. Through evaluative and diagnostic reviews, SchoolWorks – based on its analysis of each school’s strengths and areas for improvement – has made recommendations for intervention and school improvement. In addition, these reviews provide school and district leaders with a framework to reflect upon and assess the efficacy of school improvement initiatives. With the advent of No Child Left Behind, these reviews have become an integral part of the Massachusetts state accountability system.

District of Columbia Public Charter School Board
The D.C. Public Charter School Board (PCSB) currently oversees all charter schools in the District of Columbia. SchoolWorks assisted the D.C. Public Charter School Board in conducting Program Development Reviews and Self Studies. These reviews provided schools with third-party, objective feedback on the quality of their programs and their progress toward charter goals.

New York Charter Schools Institute
SchoolWorks has designed and implemented an assessment of charter schools authorized by the New York Charter Schools Institute. Scheduled during the third year of a school’s charter term, these assessments measure the school’s progress toward its stated goals and provide recommendations to improve the school’s reporting of its performance.

Program Evaluation

Bay State Reading Initiative
The Bay State Reading Initiative (BSRI) was seeking an assessment of the implementation of its reading model. SchoolWorks designed and implemented an evaluation to determine the extent to which BSRI was able to implement its reform model with fidelity in its second year of operation.

Foxboro Regional Charter School
For the Board of Trustees, SchoolWorks has evaluated the school’s progress toward its accountability plan goals and assisted the school in developing a revised accountability plan for its charter renewal application. SchoolWorks also assists the school in conducting annual surveys of parent satisfaction.

Atlantis Charter School
Because of its experience in charter school operations and evaluation, SchoolWorks has been chosen by the Atlantis Charter School to analyze and report student achievement gains on standardized tests. The analysis follows the school’s accountability plan goals and is reported annual to the school’s charter authorizer.

School Improvement Planning

St. Louis Public Schools
St. Louis Public Schools called upon SchoolWorks to provide support for school improvement planning teams during the 2005-2006 school year. Working with 60 schools, SchoolWorks provided a variety of training opportunities, including data analysis, looking at classroom instruction and developing school improvement plans. In the 2006-2007 school year, SchoolWorks continued its support of improvement planning. It developed an improvement handbook and provided monthly trainings to principals.

Philadelphia School Reform Commission
Over a two-year period, SchoolWorks assisted the District’s Office of School Intervention and Support in the design and implementation of a school accountability system. Initial implementation took place during the 2002-2003 academic year. SchoolWorks trained and supported District personnel as they conducted 100 School Quality Reviews, which are rigorous on-site assessments of school performance in the areas of leadership, curriculum, instruction, assessment and climate. Results from these reviews were used to support individual school improvement planning. Results were also placed in a database to determine performance trends across schools so that system-wide professional development decisions could be based on real needs in the schools.

During the 2003-2004 school year, an additional 44 schools underwent School Quality Review and 160 schools participated in School Assistance Teams. These teams met with schools on a monthly basis to review data, monitor improvement plan goals and make mid-course corrections to meet students’ needs. While no single reform effort can take credit for improvement, the number of schools making Adequate Yearly Progress more than doubled among the 160 schools that participated in the project.
Both School Quality Reviews and School Assistance Teams continue to be important aspects of intervention work in Philadelphia. Approximately 100 School Assistance Teams were used in the 2005-2006 school year and, with the assistance of SchoolWorks, School Quality Reviews were conducted in a number of schools during the spring of 2006

New York City Center for Charter School Excellence – NYCCCSE
SchoolWorks has worked collaboratively with NYCCCSE to build the capacity of a number of charter schools in New York City to develop and implement effective school improvement initiatives, with the explicit goal of increasing student achievement. Through use of its School Quality Review protocol, SchoolWorks conducts comprehensive evaluations of the charter schools and provides written reports that highlight each school’s strengths and areas for improvement and outline recommended strategies for enhancing the school’s improvement planning efforts.

 

Policy Development

San Diego Unified School District
The San Diego Unified School District has engaged SchoolWorks to lead the redesign of its accountability practices for its charter schools. Working with a group of district and school representatives, SchoolWorks has led a collaborative process to define a framework and set of processes to measure school progress toward renewal.

New Hampshire Department of Education
In 2005, SchoolWorks was contracted by the New Hampshire Department of Education to develop a comprehensive guide to its charter school accountability system. The guide was developed by gathering input from charter school constituents from across the state, review of state law and use of national best practices in charter school authorization. The guide, titled New Hampshire Charter School Accountability Process, is available at the New Hampshire Department of Education web site.

SchoolWorks Leadership Coaching

NHA Coaching
In 2007, National Heritage Academies was seeking to support leadership at approximately thirteen schools. SchoolWorks provided a blend of leadership coaching and school improvement planning services to the schools. These services helped the school to focus on key student needs and to develop leadership capacity to sustain improvement efforts.

Prospect Hill Academy
In 2007, SchoolWorks assisted the Prospect Hill Academy through SchoolWorks Leadership Coaching. Prospect Hill was seeking support to develop a strategic plan. SchoolWorks developed and facilitated a strategic planning process that involved Board members, school leaders, upper school students, parents and other stakeholders as deemed appropriate. The SchoolWorks coach collaborated with Prospect Hill Academy school leaders to help them develop the skills, knowledge and behaviors needed to improve organizational capacity, resulting in change that is systemic and sustainable.

 

Comprehensive School Design and Technical Assistance

Philadelphia Transition School Project
As part of Philadelphia’s plans to develop smaller high schools, SchoolWorks assisted Motivation High School and Paul Robeson High School to increase student performance, graduation rates and college application rates. SchoolWorks provided ongoing technical support, including professional development for staff, developing partnerships with local colleges, running summer academies for incoming freshman and assisting with data analysis.

Renaissance School Fund
The Renaissance Schools Fund of Chicago (RSF) required the assistance from SchoolWorks, LLC in their Performance Pipeline Program (PPP). The Renaissance Schools Fund is an independent nonprofit organization that serves as the partner in the fundraising, strategy and accountability for Renaissance 2010. SchoolWorks recommended enhancements to an existing school model and assisted the PPP Fellow in driving the replication process for one Chicago Public Schools (CPS) school.