Your System of . . . What?

1. Your System of . . . What? • What's in a name? that which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet • Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Statewide System of Support (SSOS)System of Recognition, Accountability, and Support (SRAS)System of Support and Intervention (SSI)Differentiated System of Support (DSS)Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS)Strategic Performance Network (SPN)

2. Understanding the Terms

3. State’s Levers for Change • Opportunities for improvement by reducing regulatory burdens and encouraging innovation; new space. • Incentives (positive and negative) for districts and schools to take the reins in their own improvement; incentivize change in effective direction; contingent funding, autonomy, recognition • Systemic capacity development, including data and planning systems and policies that promote the supply of high-quality leaders and teachers. • Local capacity to identify gaps in operational effectiveness and professional practice in districts and schools, and provide supports to address them. • Interventions that direct the most aggressive turnaround tools toward the most persistently low-achieving schools and districts.

5. Interplay of the Framework Components:Helping People Change

6. Sum Greater Than Parts Incentives without capacity cannot spur meaningful and sustainable change, nor can opportunity without incentives and capacity (Elmore, n.d.; Malen & Rice, 2004; Massell, 1998; Mintrop & Trujillo, 2005). Devoting more resources to capacity-building activities like professional development without changes in the incentive structure appears equally problematic (Elmore, 2002). Incentives, capacity, and opportunity: individual legs of a three-legged stool as opposed to separate components that could be applied effectively in isolation.

7. Why Incentives? • Definition: Incentives are inducements designed to motivate personnel to change or improve behavior that influences education outcomes. • Incentives are an important part of the process because without strong motivation to take on the hard work that change entails, no amount of capacity or opportunity can make change happen (Hanushek, 1994).

8. Incentives State-level incentives for improvement come in many forms, described here under the following headings: • Public disclosure: standards, accountability, and information about results • Negative incentives: consequences of low school performance • Positive incentives: contingent funding, autonomy, and recognition • Market-oriented incentives: changing the “market” structure of public schooling

9. Why Capacity? • Definition: Capacity entails the district or school’s ability to respond to incentives in ways that improve outcomes and includes investment in new ideas, instructional methods, and human capacity. • Building district and school capacity—supported by incentives and opportunities—is the core of efforts to help schools improve (Massel, 1998; Mazzeo & Berman, 2006).

10. Capacity • Building Capacity at Two Levels • Systemic Capacity (the State system of education) • Create and disseminate knowledge • Enhance supply of personnel equipped for improvement • Provide strong data system to support improvement • Local Capacity (the district and school) • Coordinate SSOS services, components, personnel • Differentiate support to districts and schools • Deliver services to districts and schools (provide and allocate resources for support)

11. Why Opportunity? • Definition: Opportunity represents the environment in which schools operate, particularly policies that enable schools to operate successfully absent “rules that limit and routinize instruction” and limit allocation of staff and money (Hill & Celio, 1998, p. 75). • Organizations need to have the flexibility to change, as proponents of standards-based reform have long maintained (e.g., Smith and O’Day, 1991; National Governors Association, 1986). • Research on change efforts such as the New American Schools comprehensive school reform initiative (Berends, Bodilly, & Nataraj Kirby, 2002) and Edison Schools (Gill et al., 2005) document the importance of giving educators the flexibility to implement significant changes.

12. Opportunity The State provides opportunity for improvement by – • Removing barriers to innovation and improvement • Waivers • Exemptions • Alternate routes to certification • Creating new space for schools to innovate • Charter schools • Pilot schools, lighthouse schools, New School Models • Schools within a School

13. Interventions • Recovery districts • State takeover • Staff replacement • External partners • School closure

14. Evaluation of the SSOS • Goals, strategies, performance measures • Milestones, actions, implementation measures • Monitor and report progress • Evaluate and improve the system

15. Strategic Performance Network Strategic Performance Management • Set Direction • Operationalize Direction • Design Actionable Work • Manage Performance and Innovation Cycle Strategic Performance Network • Category Coding • Interlaced Implementation and Performance Data • Responsive Supports