The Diplomas Now Partnership

1. The Diplomas Now Partnership

2. The Diplomas Now Model • Instructional Supports • Double dose math & English • Extra help labs • Common college preparatory or high school readiness curricula • Organizational Supports • Inter-disciplinary and subject focused common planning time • Bi-weekly EWI meetings • On-site school transformation facilitator Teacher Team (4 teachers) • Professional Development Supports • Job-embedded coaching - Math and English instructional coaches • Professional learning community • Professional development linked to grade/subject specific instructional practice • Data Supports • Easy access to student data on the Early Warning Indicators • Benchmarks tied to national and state standards • On-site facilitator to leverage EWI data 75-90 students Student Supports • Multi Tiered Response to Intervention Model • 8 to 12 City Year AmeriCorps members: whole school and targeted academic and socio-emotional supports • Communities In Schools on-site coordinator: case managed supports for highest need students • Interventions to address early warning indicators of • Attendance • Behavior • Course Performance • Whole school attendance, positive behavior, college-going culture • Strengthening student resiliency

3. Diplomas Now—additional considerations around the 4 pillars

4. Pillar I—Teaming • Corps members and CIS Site Coordinators should participate in all team meetings, not just EWI • Help plan events and incentives • Discuss identity and culture of team • Support instructional activities • Engage in collegial professional development • Family outreach efforts should be communicated with and coordinated with the team (parents should be receiving coherent messages about their students)

5. Pillar II– Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment • Tutoring should not be happening in isolation—teachers, coaches, and corps members should be planning regularly (ideally weekly) around how to support student growth in class • Identifying extra-help/support activities aligned to objectives • Determining how to “preview” new materials • Planning corps members’ role during the class period (minimize ad hoc decisions) • Divide and conquer • Teams should be looking at the intersection of grades and assessments (Are kids with As and Bs showing growth? Are kids who are flat failing?)

6. Pillar II—Curriculum & Instruction • Communities In Schools can work with teachers to think about ways to enhance/extend lessons outside of the classroom • Off-Campus Learning • Partner presentations/discussions • Service Learning Opportunities

7. Pillar III—Tiered Student Supports • Tier II and Tier III will often/normally happen in parallel, not sequentially • Most students in need of Tier III supports should be simultaneously receive CIS and City Year support • We all have a responsibility to serve students with IEPs and students who are learning English—some misconceptions here • No assumption that academics will improve because of emotional/social support • There are no “tier II students” or “tier III students”, only tier II and tier III levels of support • Let what’s best for the kid drive tiered student supports, not what’s best for the paperwork

8. Pillar III—Tiered Student Supports • Trend analysis is essential—you aren’t going to provide more than 30% of the students with individualized support at any given time • Sometimes an F is just an F • Push teachers to own solutions • Remember that students can and will go off track throughout the year • Determine when a student can come off the focus list

9. Pillar IV—Can Do Culture • More important than EWI—all EWI can do is provide scaffolds for kids who need extra help meeting the expectations of the school.

10. Pillar IV– Can Do Culture • Have to balance nagging and nurturing • Boot Camp vs. Summer Camp • Remember the starting line and the finish line • Adult beliefs are more critical to school culture than student beliefs • Students have to have a sense of ownership in their own learning • This is about relationships, not programs

11. Overview of the I3 Study

12. Diplomas Now- Investing in Innovation Fund Winner 1,700 Applicants 49 Grantees Investing in Innovation (i3) • $30M federal grant + $6M match through generous support of the PepsiCo foundation • 60 schools in 10+ districts reaching 57,000 students • Conduct randomized experimental study validating the impact of the model, and focusing on the conditions necessary to: • Achieve 80% grad rates in high schools • Reduce by 66% the number of students entering high school below grade level “Cutting-edge ideas that will produce the next generation for reform.” District Partners Chicago Public Schools, Detroit Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District, Miami-Dade Public Schools, Louisiana Recovery School District, School District of Philadelphia, New York City Department of Education, District of Columbia Public Schools, Seattle Public Schools, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, Northeast Independent School District (TX), Richland County School District One (SC), Southwest Independent School District (TX) , San Antonio Independent School District (TX), Whitehall City School District (OH) - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan State Departments of Education of Louisiana, South Carolina and New York, Union Park High Schools, Deloitte Consulting, School Loop, Pearson PreVent, the City of Philadelphia. Other Partners

13. National Evaluation: Overview Key aspects of national i3 initiative Identify some of the most promising school improvement initiatives Provide support for them to scale up nationally Research their effectiveness using the most rigorous methodologies available Document lessons learned about implementation during the scale-up process Publicize study results to influence national and state policy

14. National Evaluation: Research Design • Study will compare student outcomes in schools that implement DN to student outcomes in schools that do not. • Assignment to these groups is accomplished through randomization. Eligible schools are assigned DN or Non-DN status via a lottery: • DN schools implement the DN model • Non-DN schools pursue any other school reform initiatives

15. National Evaluation: Data Collection • Student records data: • Collected directly from district; transcripts, standardized assessment results, attendance, disciplinary data • Surveys: • Students and staff in DN and Non-DN schools; student engagement, school climate, availability of support services, etc. (annual administration) • Case studies: • 25% of DN schools across the nation; annual site visits (2-3 days) consisting of interviews and observations

16. National Evaluation: Goal Setting for 2012-2013

17. Goal Setting: Example 150 Students in 6th grade: No more than 49 students off-track in the 6th grade on the last day of school (all indicators combined)

18. The bottom line on I3 Validation • We have to look at both the reduction in the number of kids who had off-track indicators to begin with AND the success of the overall cohort(s) throughout the whole year • The I3 study will not look directly at test scores or other metrics, but these are highly related to the off-track indicators • I3 study will validate model solely on the decrease in off-track indicators (won’t validate based on fidelity)