ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
District Self-Assessment Tool: For Modification of Collective Bargaining Agreements to Achieve Flexible Conditions for School Turnaround
Author: Mass Insight Education
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Unions,Collective Bargaining,School Turnaround,Low Achievement,School Effectiveness,Educational Change,Educational Improvement,Leadership,Self Evaluation (Individuals),Academic Achievement

The District Self-Assessment Tool is designed to support districts, unions and Lead Partners, when analyzing their existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the intention of making targeted modifications to support the implementation of dramatic reform in the district's lowest-performing schools. By outlining objectives and suggested modifications for specific contract elements related to the key condition areas of People, Program, Time and Money, the tool can apply to either district-wide changes to a CBA or an Article or provision creating a carve-out zone of flexible conditions for turnaround schools within a CBA or as an MOU. Should a carve-out zone be established, each school is expected to create an Election to Work Agreement (EWA) that determines the working conditions at the school and overrides work rules in the district-wide collective bargaining agreement. Every district's contract differs and the contract elements included in this self-assessment should not be considered exhaustive of all CBA provisions that may limit successful implementation of turnaround. A district's CBA should be carefully analyzed for other provisions that must be modified to support flexibility at the school level in the areas of People, Program, Time and Money for persistently low-achieving schools. The "Sample Language from Existing CBAs" tool serves as a complement to this District Self-Assessment and offers examples of model language for each contract element to consider when modifying one's district's contract.
Closing the Achievement Gaps: An Annual Massachusetts Report on Performance-Based High School Interventions and Turnarounds
Author: Candal, Cara Stillings
Date: 2009-10-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Advanced Placement,Academic Achievement,National Competency Tests,Minority Groups,African American Students,Minority Group Students,Educational Change,High Schools,Scores,Intervention,School Turnaround,Public Schools,Achievement Gap,Educational Quality,Educational Legislation,State Legislation,Federal Aid

Massachusetts has reason to be proud of its record since landmark education reform legislation was passed in 1993. The state scores first in the nation in 4th and 8th grade English and math on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), the &quot;Nation's Report Card.&quot; On international assessments, Massachusetts students lead their peers in western nations; but continue to trail Asian counterparts. This annual report focuses on the public school performance that ultimately matters most. In this first year of the report, the authors spotlight the Achilles heel of Massachusetts education: the persistent achievement gaps among low-income and minority students. When it comes to closing these gaps, Massachusetts lags behind many other states. One statistic tells the story. In 2008, there were only 65 qualifying scores in Massachusetts public high schools by African American students on Advanced Placement science exams. In the 2008-09 academic year, 10 Massachusetts high schools used AP math, science and English as &quot;game changers&quot; for high poverty and minority students. Another 12 high schools have joined them this year, with nearly 30 more expected to launch the program in 2010-11. Details on the Massachusetts Math and Science Initiative (MMSI) are inside the Report. Focusing on high school achievement gaps, this Report is framed around goals set by Mass Insight's 2004 Great Schools Campaign. That agenda is focused on two themes: (1) Excellence: especially in math and science; and (2) No Excuses: Turnaround of 100 failing Massachusetts schools, the bottom 5% in the state. (Contains 21 sources and 6 online resources.)
Learning outside of the School Classroom: What Teachers Can Do to Involve Family in Supporting Classroom Instruction. A Strategy Brief of the National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools
Author: SEDL National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools
Date: 2004-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Individualized Instruction,Reading Instruction,Family Involvement,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Academic Achievement,Educational Strategies,Community Involvement

Teachers are a vital part of student achievement, a fact that is reinforced in the &quot;Highly Qualified Teachers&quot; section of the No Child Left Behind Act. However, in order to be effective and meet the needs of each student, teachers have to draw on all available resources. Though it is natural to think of these resources as school-based, in reality, family and community members are also viable resources. Many teachers are struggling to find ways to provide students the individualized instruction they need. One resource often left untapped is family involvement in learning outside of the school classroom. This paper presents actions teachers can do to involve family in supporting classroom instruction.
The Lead Partner Playbook
Author: Kim, Ji Hea Jay
Date: 2012-05-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Integrated Services,Educational Change,Employment Opportunities,Expertise,Urban Youth,Partnerships in Education,Leaders,Leadership,School Districts,Educational Improvement,Intervention,Accountability,School Turnaround,Academic Achievement,Readiness,Charter Schools

Help Wanted: Innovative, strategic-thinking entrepreneurs to turn around groups of low-performing schools. Competitive benefits, including working in newly formed operating units with charter-like autonomy, access to district's back-office resources and buildings, $3.5 billion federal money, and opportunity to transform schools for hundreds of thousands of urban children. Bonus for success: nearly infinite career opportunities in education leadership. This could be the hardest-to-fill but most important job opening school districts and states have. How do they take advantage of this unique opportunity--unprecedented policy flexibility and billions of new federal funds--to transform the neediest schools? And how do they do this work not just one school at a time, but at scale? The authors' answer, based on their pioneering 2007 research, "The Turnaround Challenge," and subsequent intensive work on the ground is to focus on the "3C's": flexible operating conditions, expanded capacity, and clusters of schools to ramp up improvements more quickly. The organizational and operational linchpin of this intervention is what they call a Lead Partner (LP), a nonprofit or decentralized unit of the district, reporting directly to the superintendent, that brings a new kind of expertise needed to turn around chronically failing schools. Lead Partners are defined by four responsibilities: (1) Accountability; (2) Authority; (3) Comprehensive services; and (4) Embedded in schools. This Lead Partner Playbook offers a detailed how-to for doing so. The Playbook includes advice, plus detailed templates and guidance on issues such as budgeting, staffing, auditing the central office and schools, clarifying responsibilities, and evaluating performance. These are the nuts and bolts that bridge the gap between theory and reality. Appended are: (1) Potential Lead Partners and Competencies Mapping; (2) Sample Planning and Startup Budget; (3) Organizational Diagnostic and Audits; (4) Staffing Plan; (5) Division of Responsibilities between Parties; (6) Conditions and MOU Creation; (7) Performance Evaluation; (8) Assessing School Needs; (9) Turnaround Leader Competencies; (10) Teacher Job Posting; and (11) Growth Strategy. (Contains 8 figures, 18 tables and 10 footnotes.) ["The Lead Partner Playbook" was written with Jennifer Cunningham, Meredith Liu, and Emily Pallin.]
The Turnaround Challenge: Why America's Best Opportunity to Dramatically Improve Student Achievement Lies in Our Worst-Performing Schools. Executive Summary
Author: Calkins, Andrew
Date: 2007-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Partnerships in Education,Educational Improvement,Accountability,School Turnaround,School Districts,Poverty,Intervention,Educational Change,Leadership

Despite steadily increasing urgency about the nation's lowest-performing schools--those in the bottom five percent--efforts to turn these schools around have largely failed. Marginal change has led to marginal (or no) improvement. These schools, the systems supporting them, and the management of the change process require fundamental rethinking, not incremental change. These schools fail because the challenges they face are substantial; because they themselves are dysfunctional; and because the system of which they are a part is not responsive to the needs of the high-poverty student populations they tend to serve. Effective turnaround at scale calls for bold, comprehensive action from the state, working together with districts and outside partners. Research suggests that a coherent, comprehensive state turnaround initiative would incorporate three key elements: Changing Conditions, Building Capacity, and Clustering for Support. This Executive Summary provides an overview of "The Turnaround Challenge," a much larger report produced by the Boston-based Mass Insight Education & Research Institute, in conjunction with a broad range of national partners. [For the full report, "The Turnaround Challenge: Why America's Best Opportunity to Dramatically Improve Student Achievement Lies in Our Worst-Performing Schools," see ED538298. For "The Turnaround Challenge: Why America's Best Opportunity to Dramatically Improve Student Achievement Lies in Our Worst-Performing Schools. Supplement to the Main Report," see ED538300.]
Negotiation Areas for "Transformation" and "Turnaround" Intervention Models
Author: Mass Insight Education
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Intervention,Unions,Collective Bargaining,School Closing,Strategic Planning,Teaching Conditions,Educational Improvement,Models,Work Environment,School Turnaround,Teachers,School Districts,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gap

To receive School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding, districts must submit an application to the state that outlines their strategic plan to implement one of four intervention models in their persistently lowest-achieving schools. The four intervention models include: (1) School Closure; (2) Restart; (3) Turnaround; and (4) Transformation. The Turnaround and Transformation models have requirements that affect the working conditions of teachers and may require modifications to the district's collective bargaining agreements. To gain buy-in from teachers for the intervention plans, it will be necessary for the district to address these issues with the local union and to secure their support or commit to plans for negotiation prior to submitting the district's application to the state. These negotiation areas, organized by four key categories of operating conditions: People, Program, Time and Money are presented in this paper.
State Policies to Transform Struggling Schools: How Various State Policies Can Be Used to Enable School &amp; District Turnaround. Meeting the Turnaround Challenge: Strategies, Resources &amp; Tools to Transform a Framework into Practice
Author: Mass Insight Education
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Indicators,Educational Finance,Accountability,Incentives,Federal Programs,Educational Improvement,Public Schools,Block Grants,Federal Legislation,State Policy,Educational Legislation,School Districts,School Turnaround,Educational Change,State Legislation,Partnerships in Education,Financial Support,Investment

State governments wield significant authority in the management of public schools. As a nexus for federal funding, state funding, and regulatory authority, states have both the legal and financial power to help drive school change. The &quot;No Child Left Behind Act&quot; has required each state to create a system of standards-based assessment and has empowered states with the ability to restructure and reconstitute those schools not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). In addition to serving as the main agent of accountability, state legislatures pass laws regulating the instructional, operational, financial, and personnel-related functions of schools. To support dramatic school turnaround, state governments have the opportunity to create more flexible operating conditions for schools participating in a Partnership Zones. Finally, state governments provide the majority of funding for public schools. Often federal grants are distributed by state departments of education. Therefore, states are well-positioned to provide financial incentives and increased investment to support school turnaround. This memo outlines five important methods that state governments can use to help support school turnaround in a Partnership Zone. They include: (1) Developing Systems of Accountability and Performance Management; (2) Providing Increased Flexibility; (3) Creating Incentives; (4) Supporting Lead Partners and Building Coalitions; and (5) Increasing Investment.
Engaging Families at the Secondary Level: What Schools Can Do to Support Family Involvement. A Strategy Brief of the National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools
Author: Ferguson, Chris
Date: 2005-07-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Adolescents,Family School Relationship,Economic Status,Family Involvement,School Involvement,High School Students,School Policy,College Preparation,Planning,Counselor Role,Teacher Role,Parents as Teachers,Parent Role

Commonly, when parents attempt to talk to their teenagers about school, the response is short and uninformative. Adults, whether teachers or family members, have taken this resistance as a sign of rejection. However, research in this field shows that, in fact, teenagers do want to interact with their parents, as well as other adults, and have them involved in their lives (Duffett & Johnson, 2004). Educators have also assumed that parents aren't as involved or as interested in the progress of their adolescent children. However, Shaver and Walls (1998) have found that parents do have a desire to be involved in lives of their adolescent children, regardless of their economic status or ethnicity. Parents just aren't always successful in their efforts, so they tend to be more cautious in their actions. The crux of family-school involvement at the middle and high school level is determining the kinds of adult interactions that not only allow teenagers to have autonomy and respect but also meet the needs of families and schools. This paper presents strategies for encouraging salient family engagement at the secondary level.
Drug Testing. Research Brief
Author: Walker, Karen
Date: 2007-04-02
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Extracurricular Activities,Drug Abuse,Drug Use Testing,Testing Programs,School Responsibility,Screening Tests,Athletes,Athletics,Federal Aid,Alcohol Abuse,Adolescents,Intervention

In 2002, the United States Supreme Court confirmed that in the school's role of in loco parentis, drug testing of students who were involved in athletics and extracurricular activities was constitutional. In a state of the union address, George W. Bush stated that drug testing in schools had been effective and was part of "our aggressive community-based strategy to reduce demand for illegal drugs" ("Let the love flow: Student drug testing"). In an effort to help inhibit and dissuade drug use, Federal funding has been made available to help schools pay for drug testing, which depending on the type of test used, can range from $20-$60 per student. The results of drug testing programs at best, are mixed. At a school with a mandatory drug testing program, the use of drugs, but not alcohol, was lower; and there was no association between school-based drug testing and students' reports of drug use. The American Academy of Pediatrics has trepidations about drug testing adolescents at school or home. They highly recommend that instead of punitive measures, there be more adequate resources for assessment, treatment and earlier rehabilitation measures. To test or not to test? Each side has their own perspective. Determining if there should be a drug testing program is a complex and complicated process. If a school decides to do drug testing, it was highly recommended that it should be a component of a total program to reduce students' use of drugs. (Contains 15 online resources.)
Change. Research Brief
Author: Walker, Karen
Date: 2006-03-15
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Public Education,Educational Change,Stakeholders,School Administration,Educational Objectives,Goal Orientation,School Culture

How can change become institutionalized? With the advent of a new superintendent, principal, curriculum director and/or legislature, each of whom wants to make their mark with hopes of &quot;improving&quot; public education by introducing new programs, the message teachers receive from those who are not in the trenches is that they are incompetent and do not know what is best for students. Given this, it is no wonder that change is often viewed as a threat, which in turn creates fear and anxiety. As a result, what gets lost is that &quot;Change is forever. Problems don't stay solved, so you have to learn to do the right thing over and over again.&quot; Fullan stated that it takes about six years for change to become institutionalized at the high school level. A critical aspect to take into account is that there is no one way to do it and what worked for one school may not work for another because the needs of the students as well as the culture and climate of the school are unique. In this paper, the necessary ingredients for successful change to occur are presented. (Contains 15 online resources.)
Digital Literacy. Research Brief
Author: Williamson, Ronald
Date: 2011-05-30
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Technology,Internet,Computer Literacy,Academic Standards,Skill Development,Multiple Literacies,Thinking Skills,Productivity,Communication Skills,Curriculum,Educational Policy,Educational Resources,Web Sites,Annotated Bibliographies,Educational Research

21st Century students need a complex set of skills to be successful in a digital environment. Digital literacy, similar to traditional definitions of literacy, is a set of skills students use to locate, organize, understand, evaluate and create information. The difference is that it occurs in an environment where a growing set of digital tools provides students with the capacity to use these skills in new and unique ways. Two documents provide detailed recommendations on the essential knowledge and skills required of 21st Century students--a report from enGauge detailed four sets of skills (www.metiri.com/21/21%20Century%20Skills%20Final.doc) and a set of National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NET*S) (http://www.iste.org/standards/aspx). (Contains 14 online resources.)
School-Based Child Care. Research Brief
Author: Muir, Mike
Date: 2004-01-19
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Vocational Education,Preschool Education,Child Development,Child Care Centers,Parenting Styles,Early Parenthood,Adolescents,High School Students,Public Schools,Access to Education,Dropout Prevention,Academic Persistence,Welfare Services,Public Health,Nutrition,Educational Quality,Parenting Skills,Child Rearing,Program Effectiveness

Each year, half a million teenagers become mothers in the United States. School-based child care programs are a positive way for educational institutions to encourage young mothers to return to or stay in school, prepare for employment, and acquire accurate information about child development and appropriate parenting practices. Nationwide, school-based child-care centers are increasing in number and are used to meet a variety of needs: They give teenage mothers an incentive to stay in school, and students interested in working with babies and young children get practical experience by changing diapers, resolving disputes over toys, and writing lesson plans. For some schools, career education is the main objective for operating childcare facilities. And in some cases, the centers provide on-site child care for teachers and other school employees. Evidence suggests that: (1) When there are child care centers in public high schools, teen-age parents whose children attend the facility are more likely to complete their education and less likely to become dependent on welfare; (2) Schools benefit through lower dropout rates, improved parent education programs, vocational training for students, and increased performance from faculty who enroll their children in the facility; (3) Communities profit from having a lower number of welfare participants; more efficient use of public health, nutrition, and social services; and more accessible high quality child care; and (4) The child care profession gains trained professionals, and all the children involved benefit from a high quality preschool education. (Contains 2 online resources.)
Career and Tech Prep. Research Brief
Author: Walker, Karen
Date: 2005-02-21
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Tech Prep,Vocational Education,Courses,Career Education,Federal Legislation,Community Colleges,Education Work Relationship,Role of Education,Career Readiness,Secondary School Curriculum,Educational History,Educational Policy,Educational Resources,Web Sites,Annotated Bibliographies,Educational Research,Academic Achievement

As was the case when career education programs were begun during the end of the 19th century, business still want students trained to be successful in the world of work. Initially career type programs were established to provide a venue for students who were most likely not college bound, yet would leave high school with viable skills to meet the demands of a specific trade. Throughout its history, this population of students has been referred to as &quot;at risk&quot; and more recently, as the &quot;neglected majority.&quot; Historically, these programs included a high number of specific skills type classes, with less emphasis on formal academics, which were believed to be needed only by those who would be going on to college. Due to the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act and its emphasis on high stakes testing, funding for specialty programs, such as Vocational Education, have been drastically reduced or eliminated. There has been an on-going debate about the purpose of vocational education. Is it to prepare students for a specific job or to prepare them for the world of work with a strong background in academics? Currently, students in a majority of these programs are required to take high level academic courses, often more demanding than those who are in the more traditional academic programs. (Contains 16 online resources.)