Serving Children of Homeless Families in Maricopa County

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Building Sustainability
Prepared by Jarret M. Sharp, MA,
MAED Principal CFA of Phoenix
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What is sustainability?

• Drives decisions in crisis.
• Drives decisions in opportunity.
• Promotes internal human talent pools.
• Fosters internal creativity/solutions.
• It's about the relationship.
• It's about the brand.
• Internal or how we see ourselves.
• External or how others see us.

3
Branding

• Do you have a brand?
• What is it?
• Is it related to your school colors/mascot?
• How do others see you?
• Take 30 seconds, reflect, return and report.
• How does your CURRENT brand create a demand for
  your services?
• If it doesn't...I have some suggestions.

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Branding suggestions...

• Create demand for your school's programs.
• Dig deep, what is innovative about you?
• Get your community to have confidence in you.
• How many community members have you visited
  personally?
• Establish yourself as an expert.
• How are you different from the competition...that'
  s right I said competition?!

5
External branding suggestions...

• Are you more than a mascot and colors?
• What's in a name?
• What's in a logo?
• Stay in front of people you want to build
  relationships with.
• Become a resource.
• Is there alignment between who you say you are
  and what you do?
• Give me an example.

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It's about the relationship

• Branding builds a foundation of loyalty.
• In this educational environment, it's not who you
  know, it's who knows you.
• Who knows your school?
• What do they know about your students?
• How do they know what they know about your
  students and what are you doing about it?
• Are you giving value?
• If you aren't absolutely thrilled with your
  student's experience, call us and we'll help you
  lower your expectations.

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Innovation

• Here's an example...SLC's - schools within a
  school based on 360o student assessments.
  Students serve in Ambassador, Wellness, Letter
  Buddy, Facilities capacities. Now go talk about
  it.
• I am not a very creative/innovative person.
  Fine stick in the mud, surround yourself with the
  right people...it's branding remember?!
• Studying creativity.
• Your challenges aren't new, trust me.
• Asking for help...from your loyal
  base...branding...

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Does your talent pool have a diving board?

• Hanging a lantern on your challenges can turn
  them into opportunities to network.
• Take an inventory of your strengths and
  limitations.
• If you fill those gaps with TV...
• A mile wide and a mile deep.
• The power of a network!

9
Crisis Challenge Opportunity

• Permit me a personal example...
• In one year 41 of homeless children will attend
  2 different schools.
• An estimated 28 of homeless children will attend
  3 or more schools in a year.
• Students who move more than six times in a year
  period can fall one full academic year behind
  stable students.

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A National Crisis

• 12 increase in homelessness in Maricopa County
  over 2007-2008.
• Nation-wide, 330 school districts identified the
  same number or more homeless students in the
  first few months of this school year than they
  identified the entire previous year.
• Across the US, 847 school districts identified
  half or more of last years caseload in the first
  few months of this school year.
• Nationally, 459 school districts had an increase
  of at least 25 percent in the number of homeless
  students identified between the 2006-2007 and
  2007-2008 school years.

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Internal Challenges

• A corrupt internal brand.
• A corrupt external brand.
• Inadequate staff to identify and support children
  and youth experiencing homelessness.
• Lack of available space.
• Reduction in other community services and
  supplies.
• Greater severity of needs.
• Business as usual mentality.

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8 Strategic Initiatives...Branding

• Adopting Expeditionary Learning School Design
  Model Grades K-8
• Developing Parent and Student Cornerstones
• Developing Professional Staff/Crew Expectations
• Developing a Staffing/Crew Plan
• Developing Expeditionary Guidelines
• Developing an Organizational Framework
• Adopting a 200-day calendar
• Facilitating improvement in areas related to
  parent and leadership evaluation data.

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Trends.Innovation

• In February 2009, President Barack Obama visited
  Capital City Charter School, an Expeditionary
  Learning school in Washington, DC. During his
  remarks, the President stated that this kind of
  innovative schoolis an example of how all our
  schools should be. We want to make sure that
  were duplicating this success all across the
  country.
• Capital is one of 81 innovative Title I EL
  schools across the US. Student achievement
  scores at Capital are at the very top of the DC
  Public schools, as are scores at EL Title I
  schools in cities across the country.

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EL Design ImplementationYear One

• Core Practice One Learning Expeditions
• All faculty participate in a 3-5 day summer
  institute on becoming an EL school. Every teacher
  plans, develops and carries out at least one
  learning expedition or in depth investigation
  each semester while learning how to develop
  standards based expeditions.
• The core practices and design principles of EL
  are introduced, studied and prioritized for the
  upcoming school year.
• Up to one quarter of the teachers attend off site
  professional development opportunities including
  institutes, summit and Outward Bound courses for
  EL educators.

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Core Practice Two Active Pedagogy

• Teachers study and use the instructional
  practices associated with EL.
• School wide literacy training is an ongoing part
  of professional development.
• A number of teachers and administrators from the
  school attend the EL National Conference to learn
  about exemplary models of learning expeditions,
  active pedagogy and other best EL practices.
• Teachers are introduced to and then collectively
  use and practice protocols and models of
  discussing/critiquing learning expeditions and
  collecting, sharing and assessing student work.
• Students are given opportunities to examine
  models of work and discuss/reflect on the
  qualities and criteria for good work. Teachers
  receive training in the use of rubrics, product
  descriptors and critique/revision with students.

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Core Practice Three Culture and Character

• Staff development sessions model these practices.
• The Faculty and Students study the design
  principles and EL structures such as crews,
  community meetings, presentations, etc. and
  incorporate them into the culture of the school.

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Core Practice Four Leadership and School
Improvement

• The school collects/analyzes standardized test
  scores and other school based evidence/
  achievement data to make informed decisions about
  instruction/ implementation of EL.
• Professional development days built into the
  district/school calendar support the work of
  ELOB. Goals are aligned with other
  district/school priorities.
• The principal attends the summer Leadership and
  School Improvement Institute.
• A portion of faculty meetings is devoted to
  study, discussion, decision-making or assessment
  of design implementation.
• The principal convenes an EL Leadership Team that
  shares in the responsibility for design
  implementation and helps to coordinate on site
  professional development at the school. The
  leadership team meets at least once per month. If
  possible, a leadership retreat or institute is
  planned and an on site EL liaison or
  instructional guide is designated.

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Core Practice Five Structures

• School schedules, organizational structures,
  resources and teacher teams are developed/
  coordinated to reduce barriers to design
  implementation.
• At end of first year, implementation review
  completed to assess school progress, identify
  priorities and establish goals for continued
  improvement.
• Faculty attends off site professional development
  opportunities including site seminars or visits
  to other EL schools.

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Time and Resources

• Grants
• Private donations
• ECA
• Twitter, FB, blog
• A Smokin' presence
• 3 years.

• Budget
• SY 2010-11
• Core Practice 4 5
• 65,000
• 15,000 for individual staff PD
• SY 2009-10
• Core Practice 3
• 65,000
• 15,000 for individual staff PD
• Summer 2009
• Core Practice 1 2
• 13,200

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Resources

• Expeditionary Learning Core Practice Benchmarks,
  Expeditionary Learning and Outward Bound. 2003.
• Inaugural Global Teachers Summit. Arizona
  Department of Education/Thunderbird International
  School of Management. Glendale, Arizona. May,
  2009.
• Ladner, Francis Stone New Millennium Schools
  Delivering six-figure Teacher Salaries in Return
  for Outstanding Student Learning Gains.
  Goldwater Institute, Phoenix, AZ. 2009.
• Marshall, Kim. The Marshall Memo - 287. May 25,
  2009.
• P-20 Arizona P-20 Council Policy
  Recommendations, 2005-2008 Arizona P-20 Council,
  2008.
• The Economic Crisis Hits Home The Unfolding
  Increase In Child and Youth Homelessness, NAEHCY,
  December 10, 2008
• Success Measured Four Foundational Elements of
  Student-Level Growth, Arizona Charter School
  Association, March, 2009
• Anything written by Jeffrey Gitomer.