Great Schools Compact Committee Updates
Philadelphia Great Schools Compact: Compact Committee Progress and Updates
The Compact Committee was established to oversee implementation of the Compact tenants and action plan, adhering to a results-driven timeline. The committee is comprised of eight voting and two non-voting members. Voting members include: Lawrence Jones, CEO of Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School; Dr. Naomi Johnson-Booker, CEO of Global Leadership Academy; David Rossi, CEO of Nueva Esperanza Academy; Dr. Leroy Nunery, Special Advisor, School District of Philadelphia; Pedro Ramos, Chairman of the School Reform Commission; Joe Dworetzky, Commissioner, School Reform Commission; Dr. Lori Shorr, Chief Education Officer, Mayor’s Office for Education; and Michael Wilson, Special Assistant to the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education. Nonvoting members are Scott Gordon, CEO of Mastery Charter Schools and Mark Gleason, Executive Director of the Philadelphia School Partnership. Please click here to review the Great Schools Compact.
First Meeting— Friday, January 13, 2012
During this first meeting, the Committee unanimously approved three resolutions:
- Dr. Lori Shorr was elected chair of the Committee.
- Scott Gordon was appointed a nonvoting member of the Committee.
- The Philadelphia School Partnership was selected as the applicant that will apply on behalf of Philadelphia for additional grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support implementation of the Compact.
In its first meeting, the Compact Committee agreed that it is important to regularly update constituents to the Compact on the work of the Committee. Accordingly, it is the Committee’s intention to deliver reports via email on each meeting it holds or significant recommendation it makes. These reports will be published, like this one, via email and will come out as soon as the Committee approves the Minutes for a meeting—usually about a week after the meeting occurs.
The first Committee meeting was largely an organizational one. The Committee Chair, Lori Shorr, established three working groups to lead the Committee’s efforts around specific topics: Talent Development, Enrollment & Student Data, and Facilities. There likely will be additional working groups as time goes on.
There was a substantive discussion about criticisms of the School Performance Index (SPI). These included:
- Use of the current academic-growth metric instead of PVAAS calculations
- No inclusion of dropout rate in SPI calculation
- No inclusion of student turnover (or re-enrollment) rates
- No inclusion of safety data
- No consideration of schools’ legal compliance or financial stewardship
- Weighting of achievement gap data
- Not enough factors or weighting relating to college readiness and success in high-school SPI
- No separate calculation for standalone middle schools
At its next meeting (January 20), the Committee will discuss the development of a new, multi-measure school accountability framework. It also will begin a discussion about how to better leverage taxpayer-owned facilities to expand student enrollment in high-performing schools.
Second Meeting— Friday, January 20, 2012
1. The Compact Committee had a thorough discussion of ways to improve how school performance is measured and compared. There was consensus for elevating somewhat the weighting of postsecondary-readiness measures in assessing high school performance. The Committee weighed the pros and cons of various measures for parent and student satisfaction and engagement. And there were a lot of questions about the differences between the District’s student-growth measures and the state-contracted PVAAS calculations. Unable to answer all of those questions, the Committee agreed to pursue a deeper understanding of the two measurement systems from data experts at the state and District.
2. The Committee established one additional working group on the topic of shared services. It asked each working group to hold at least one meeting prior to its Feb. 3 meeting. There are now five working groups: Accountability, Enrollment & Student Data, Facilities, Shared Services and Talent Development.
3. Three of the Committee members will attend a conference with representatives from 15 other Compact cities Jan. 25-26 and will report on what they learn there at the Jan. 27 Committee meeting. The trip is being paid for by PSP and the William Penn Foundation.
CLARIFICATIONS & CORRECTIONS
- There have been some questions from school leaders about the status of the School Performance Index. The Compact Committee intends to develop and recommend the establishment of a new multi-measure performance framework for use beginning with the 2011-12 academic year. For data gathered in the 2010-11 school year, the District used the existing School Performance Index to generate a ranking for each public school, using the same formula and weighting as was used in 2009-10. Most of the calculations for the 2010-11 SPI already had been completed and checked prior to the signing of the Compact.
- There also have been questions about grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Philadelphia School Partnership has been awarded a $100,000 grant by the Gates Foundation to support the work of the Compact Committee—these funds are intended to indirectly benefit schools through the recommendations of the Committee but will not be available for direct grants to schools. PSP will soon apply for additional funding from the Gates Foundation on behalf of Philadelphia, but it is too soon to say how those funds would or could be used. Developing a grant proposal and a corresponding budget is part of the upcoming work of the Committee.
- The update covering the Jan. 13 Compact Committee meeting mistakenly named Thomas Darden of the School District of Philadelphia as a voting member of the Committee. Mr. Darden attends Committee meetings in support of or in lieu of Dr. Nunery, and has authority to vote as proxy for Dr. Nunery or Mr. Ramos when necessary, but is not officially a Committee member. The eighth voting member is SRC member Joseph Dworetzky, who was absent on Jan. 13.
Third Meeting— Friday, January 27, 2012
1. The Committee discussed the differences in the ways the District calculates student academic growth and the PVAAS model used by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Accountability Working Group will gather more information to clarify the differences further.
2. The Committee discussed including a small weighting in an accountability framework for students scoring “advanced proficient,” in recognition that advanced proficiency is as stronger measure of college preparedness than proficiency.
3. There was a discussion of the 2010-11 SPI rankings, which were released to schools in mid-January. Members noted the following concerns heard from charter schools: college matriculation rates that don’t match schools’ own data; concerns about impact on SPI from there not being parent and student surveys from which to draw data in 2011; and use of a graduation-rate calculation that differs from that used by PDE.
4. The Committee discussed the opportunity to apply for low-interest loans from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and how creating access to public school facilities for school operators can contribute to achieving the goals of the Compact. It was noted that there may not be great value in borrowing from the Foundation—since interest rates in the public market are quite low already. But the Foundation has emphasized its desire to provide financial support for creative financing and facilities-use ideas that might not be seen as worthy by the public-finance market. Charter members of the Committee suggested that many schools which currently lease or own their own buildings would be interested in moving into district facilities if they could effectively lower their operating costs by doing so. The Committee expressed a desire to explore further the pros/cons of co-location.
5. Travis Larrier, Thomas Darden and Mark Gleason reported on their trip to an education conference attended by all 15 Compact cities. At the conference, the Center for Research on Public Education provided each district with a “Snapshot” of its strengths and weaknesses with regard to operating as a portfolio district. Philadelphia’s strengths relative to other cities are in school accountability and public engagement. Mark Gleason attended a session on common enrollment that yielded a great level of detail from two cities that implemented common-enrollment systems just this year: Denver and New Orleans. The systems developed by these two cities will give the Enrollment & Student Data working group much to discuss.
Fourth Meeting— Friday, February 3, 2012
1. The Compact Committee had a tentative conversation about the various means for decreasing the number of low-performing seats by 5,000 in the upcoming school year, which is one of the objectives of the Compact. The District said it has numerous modification and expansion requests from charter schools, and that some of the seat reductions/replacements could come through approvals of those. The District also is preparing to review applications from charter operators for 2012 Renaissance schools. Charter representatives noted that the Compact includes a commitment to issue new charters as part of the strategy for replacing the 50,000 lowest performing seats over the next five years. It was agreed that this discussion should be tabled until the SRC can provide some sense of its thinking around the balancing of new and turnaround seats to achieve the seat-reduction and replacement goals of the Compact.
2. Each of the working groups—Accountability, Enrollment & Student Data, Facilities, Shared Services and Talent Development—presented status updates and short-term plans of action:
Accountability: working to align the city’s school performance framework with the state’s plan to develop “school report cards”; working to gain a better understanding of the differences between PVAAS and the District’s growth calculation.
Enrollment & Student Data: anticipates doing a survey to better understand which opportunities for charter-district collaboration are of most interest to charters in these areas; is exploring the potential for development of a common enrollment system.
Facilities: developing a survey to send to all charter schools regarding their level of interest in leasing or purchasing existing District facilities.
Shared Services: developing a list of services that could be shared by or provided on a cost basis to all schools, with the twin goals of improving District and charter schools’ access to best-in-class services and realizing better economies of scale.
Talent Development: exploring possible opportunities for district-charter collaboration for the purpose of attracting and developing great teaching and leadership talent.
3. Charter members of the Committee noted that some charters are expressing frustration over SPI scores that were recently distributed to schools (based on 2010-11 student data). Thomas Darden of the District’s Charter Office communicated that the deadline for appeals to the preliminary SPI scores was Feb. 8. The District will respond to all appeals no later than Feb. 17. Final SPI scores for both District and charter schools will be released on Feb. 21.
4. PSP noted that it is working on the initial draft of the concept paper that will be submitted to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Feb. 15 as part of Gates’ Compact RFP process. The concept paper is a five-page submission intended to preview the contents of a fuller grant proposal that will be due in the spring. PSP will use the Great Schools Compact as the outline for the concept paper and the topics identified by the working groups as examples of how district-charter collaboration will lead to an expansion of high-performing schools in Philadelphia.
Special note: The Compact Committee is an advisory committee charged with encouraging and facilitating collaboration between School District officials, District school leaders and charter school leaders in areas such as school accountability, streamlining enrollment practices, teacher and principal training, and access to best-in-class school services. To the extent the Committee chooses to make policy or funding recommendations, it will make them to the School Reform Commission.
Fifth Meeting— Wednesday, February 10, 2012
1. The Compact Committee had a more detailed conversation about plans for decreasing the number of low-performing seats over the next five years, which is one of the objectives of the Compact. Plans are still in the conceptual stage but likely will include a number of targeted strategies: more Renaissance (turnaround) charters, more District-led turnarounds, expanded enrollment at existing high-performing charters, closures of low-performing charter and District schools, and issuance of new charters. The first concrete step toward eliminating 5,000 failing seats in 2012-13 will be revealed in late February, when the District announces the schools that are prospects for the Renaissance program.
2. PSP presented a first draft of the “concept paper” that is due to the Gates Foundation Feb. 15 as the first step in the District-Charter Collaboration RFP process. Committee members provided comments and feedback to the draft. The core areas of focus for the concept paper include: the plan to eliminate 50,000 low-performing seats by 2016-17, collaborating to expand the pipeline of well-prepared urban school leaders, fostering the use of virtual-learning opportunities, and sharing services to improve the quality and efficiency of services purchased/used by schools.
3. Should Philadelphia be invited into the next phase of the Gates Foundation RFP process, the full RFP application will be due by May 1, 2012. Working groups and the committee at large will continue to convene, all working against that timeline. As appropriate, representatives of of relevant stakeholder groups may be invited to join some working group sessions.
For more information or to submit feedback on the Compact Committee Update, please contact Harlan Rosen, Executive Assistant to Mark Gleason: via email at hrosen[at]philaschool.org or via phone at 484.785.8111 (press "0").
Philadelphia public officials head to Denver in pursuit of district-charter collaboration best practices
Nutter taking aim at low-performing Philadelphia schools
By Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writer
The city and the Philadelphia School District will move aggressively on a pledge to eliminate 50,000 seats in the lowest-performing city schools, Mayor Nutter promised Tuesday.
Nutter and members of the School Reform Commission will travel to Denver this week to examine how schools work there. Denver has decentralized many of its school operations and was one of the first cities in the United States to sign a compact promoting cooperation between its school district and charter schools.Philadelphia recently adopted its own "Great Schools Compact," winning $100,000 and the chance at millions more from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. One of the key tenets of the compact is transforming 50,000 seats in failing public schools through school closings and charter conversions.
"Reform, restructure, replace. That's where we are. That's where we're going in public education in Philadelphia," Nutter said at a news conference at Dunbar Elementary, a district-run Promise Academy, or turnaround school. Nutter, who took the oath of office Monday for his second term, has again identified education as a priority of his administration.
The mayor and others have talked about fostering a "system of schools" that uses a mix of traditional district schools and charters, which operate with public money but are run by independent boards. "It's time to end any notion of contention between the district and the charter-school communities," Nutter said. "This is our chance, this is our opportunity, and we need to grab it."
Nutter underscored that the compact represents a turning point. "We can use the Great Schools Compact to begin a new chapter in our city schools," he said.
Nutter, School Reform Commission Chairman Pedro Ramos, SRC member Wendell Pritchett, and others will spend Thursday in Denver learning about the challenges and successes that city has had since it adopted its compact a year ago. The William Penn Foundation will pay for the trip. It was arranged by the Philadelphia School Partnership, an organization that aims to raise $100 million in five years to add seats in high-performing schools in the city, whether district, charter, or private.
Ramos said Denver made sense as a model because it has a mix of traditional district and charter schools; because of its compact; and because it has strong partnerships with charters and other outside organizations. Denver "is not perfect, but learning some lessons," Ramos said.
The group also considered visiting New Orleans but decided that it was less analogous, since changes were spurred by Hurricane Katrina. Traveling with Ramos, Pritchett, and Nutter will be Lori Shorr, city education secretary; Mark Gleason, executive director of the Philadelphia Schools Partnership; and Robert Fayfich, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools.
Though much emphasis has been placed on reform through charter conversion, Ramos said officials had not abandoned the idea of district-run turnaround schools. District officials recently closed the central office that oversaw its Promise Academies, shifting responsibilities for the schools to other places. They also have ended Saturday school, cut an hour's instructional time one day a week, and made other trims. Though early Promise Academy indicators show some progress, the schools remain controversial, the legacy of former Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman. Even though the Promise Academies have experienced cuts, the schools still receive extra per-pupil funding.
Ramos emphasized that the cuts were made for financial reasons. "The responsibilities have been reorganized, not eliminated," Ramos said. "Despite some of these changes, our intention is to continue with the agenda." The new SRC members - Pritchett, Lorene Cary, and Feather O. Houstoun - want to continue the model, Ramos said. But more changes may come. This will be a year to "continue to develop" and "further strengthen" Promise Academies, the chairman said.
Nutter, who later chatted up students and visited Dunbar science and computer classes, said that despite enormous budgetary pressures, the city and the district must still press on with Promise Academies and other changes.
"We still have a school system to run," the mayor said. "We have to do everything we can, even with limited resources, to support these young people."
Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20120104_Nutter_taking_aim_at_low-performing_Philadelphia_schools.html
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