The EPIC Leadership Development Program Evaluation Report. Research Brief
Author: New Leaders for New Schools
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Instructional Leadership,Leadership Training,Principals,Assistant Principals,Educational Practices,Charter Schools,Urban Schools,Public Schools,Program Design,Program Development,Program Implementation,Program Evaluation,Pilot Projects,Program Effectiveness,Teachers,Academic Achievement

New Leaders for New Schools created the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC)  initiative in 2006 to learn from educators driving achievement gains in high-need urban schools. EPIC identifies school leaders and teachers whose students are making significant achievement gains and financially rewards these educators in exchange for sharing and documenting the practices that have contributed to the gains. Since 2006, New Leaders has awarded over $15.5 million to EPIC partner districts and charter schools and led them in a rigorous examination of their practices, culminating in the publication of video cases and practice profiles on the online EPIC Knowledge System. In 2009, New Leaders introduced the EPIC Leadership Development Model as a way to make these practices more widely available. Leveraging the rich resources of the Knowledge System, which now contains more than 200 case studies of effective practices from award-winning schools, the model offers school leaders within and beyond the EPIC consortium a job-embedded professional learning experience through which they use the examples of others to examine their own beliefs and practices and lead their faculty and staff in meaningful change. During the 2010-11 school year, New Leaders contracted with Rockman et al, an independent research firm, to evaluate pilots of the EPIC Leadership Development Model in one charter management organization and two urban school districts: Friendship Public Charter Schools in Washington, DC (Friendship), Memphis City Schools (MCS), and District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Each pilot program featured the model's core components--in-person sessions led by highly skilled facilitators who guide participants through a curriculum built on Knowledge System content; action-planning and applied learning assignments that help participants put EPIC tools and strategies to work in their own schools; videotaping of participants' practice; and consulting calls that support learning between sessions. The pilots allowed EPIC to design and test a set of technology-enriched components, including personal practice videos and online forums and consultancies, which gave participants further opportunities to examine, share, and strengthen their leadership practices. The EPIC Model tailors session content to local needs, defined through an initial needs assessment, ongoing dialogue, and alignment with each partner's human capital management strategies. The Friendship pilot targeted principals and their work with leadership teams and focused on norming definitions of effective practice and strengthening observation and evaluation systems. In MCS, the focus was on building  assistant principals' strategies and practices for leading data teams. In DCPS, EPIC worked with assistant principals on building skills to lead a team through a midyear change initiative. Both the MCS and DCPS programs were designed for assistant principals identified by the districts as having potential for principalship. This report summarizes the findings from the evaluation, which examined the EPIC Model's effectiveness and evolution over three iterations based on emerging local needs, and its impact on leadership practice. Evaluators collaborated with EPIC to design uniform instruments for use across sites, including session feedback forms, self-assessment surveys, and postsession and site-visit interview protocols. As part of the formative study, evaluators gathered feedback from participants on the effectiveness of EPIC's core components and factors that affected implementation. As ongoing evaluation continues to inform the evolution of the EPIC Leadership Development Model, research shows that the combination of its use of innovative technology and rich base of leadership knowledge leads to observable and meaningful improvements in participants' leadership practices. (Contains 26 footnotes.)