SMHCCPRE Invitational Conference

1
SMHC-CPRE Invitational Conference Creating Urban
School Principals November 18, 2008LaVerne
Srinivasan, President
2
New Leaders for New Schools

• The role of the principal in human capital
  strategy
• Our organization
• Our vision, mission, and goals
• Our partnership approach (district and other
  partnerships)
• Our program
• Our learning the Urban Excellence Framework
  EPIC
• Our results

3
The Role of the Principal in a Human Capital
Strategy

• The role of the principal is key to consider when
  developing a human capital strategy because it
  is
• Critical Principals, as human capital managers
  in their schools, impact all other human capital
  initiatives in the district.
• Scalable While teacher-by-teacher strategies
  must impact a relatively large number of teachers
  (1 per district classroom), even in the largest
  districts, the number of principals is orders of
  magnitude less (1 per school.)
• High-Impact Research shows that a principals
  leadership accounts for a quarter of a schools
  achievement gains.
• High-Leverage Principals sit close enough to
  district leadership to be ambassadors for
  district-wide initiatives and reform efforts at
  the same time, their impact is felt on the
  ground in the classrooms where teaching
  learning happens.

4
Our Organization
Launched in 2000, New Leaders for New Schools is
a national social enterprise dedicated to
transforming public education.

• World-class organization with 568 New Leaders
  serving in 9 cities nationwide.
• Named NewSchools Venture Funds Organization of
  the Year in education in 2008.
• Recipient of Fast Company/Monitor Groups
  Social Capitalist Award for 5 consecutive years.
• Formed deep partnerships with nine school
  districts and major supporters such as the Gates
  Foundation, Michael Susan Dell Foundation,
  Carnegie Corporation, and dozens of other
  individual, corporate, and foundation partners.

5
Our Vision, Mission, Goals
Vision
One day every student will graduate from high
school ready for success in college, careers, and
citizenship in at least 10 US cities by 2020.
Mission
To ensure high academic achievement for every
student by attracting and preparing outstanding
leaders and supporting the performance of the
urban public schools they lead at scale.
Goal I
School Performance at Scale
Goal II
World-Class, Scalable, Sustainable Organization
and Innovative Action Tank
Goal III
Mission-Driven, High-Quality Principals at Scale
to Support City-Wide Success for All Students
6
Our New Leaders Their Schools
WHO WE ARE OUR NEW LEADERS
Driven, results-focused, and diverse current and
former educators

• Age of New Leaders 24 57 years old
  (average is mid-30s)
• Average Years Teaching Experience 7 years
• Percent Female New Leaders 67
• Percent of New Leaders of Color 68
• Percent of New Leaders with Advanced Degrees
  87

SCHOOLS WE SERVE
Our mission is to train leaders to serve in
significantly higher-need schools when compared
with the rest of schools in the U.S.

• Percent of Low-Income Students Served in New
  Leaders Schools 76
• Compared to 38 national average
• K-12 education, roughly ½ elementary, ½
  secondary
• New Leaders in District Schools 74
• New Leaders in Charter Schools 26

7
Our Partners Community

• Text

• Baltimore
• Bay Area
• Chicago
• Memphis
• Milwaukee
• New Orleans
• New York
• Prince Georges County
• Washington, D.C.

New Leaders is in 9 districts nationallyincluding
5 of the largest 25and expects to grow to
approximately 13 by 2014
8
Our Partnerships
Top 10 Reasons Districts Seek To Partner with Us

• 1. To benefit from the incredible New Leaders we
  find for their schools to impact student
  achievement
• 2. To benefit from the presence of our training
  program have other principals learn from it
• 3. To take advantage of our learning about school
  leadership successful urban public schools
• 4. To bring financial resources into the
  district
• 5. To provide their principals with a national
  community of best practices sharing
• 6. To have us as a major part of the reform
  efforts / redesign of the school system
• 7. To bring our expertise to bear on aspects of
  reform in the school system
• 8. To bring a nationally known program to their
  district
• 9. To avoid the time, cost, and risk involved in
  starting up their own leadership academy
• 10. To take advantage of our experience and hit
  the ground running in the start up process

9
Our Program
New Leaders has created a scalable model to drive
student achievement through highly effective
school leadership and management.
Ongoing Analysis of Data
Recruit
Select
Outcomes
Train Develop
Support
Commitment and Capacity to Improve Measurable
Student Achievement Results
10
Our Program
Selection and Admission of High Quality New
Leaders
Our rigorous selection process has proven
successful on a national scale in identifying
high quality candidates.
STEP 1 ONLINE APPLICATION
STEP 3. FINALIST SELECTION DAY
STEP 2. FIRST ROUND INTERVIEW
STEP 4 REFERENCE CHECKS

• Final decisions are not made without complete
  materials (transcripts, certificates, references,
  essays)

• Submit short-answers
• Submit 3 essays
• Meet minimum requirements in becoming a public
  school principal

• Approximately 2 hours
• Case study presentation
• Deeply explore reasons for wanting to become an
  urban public school principal

• Full day of interviews
• Day in the Life of a principal
• Written case studies

11
Our Program
Selection and Admission of High Quality New
Leaders
Our selection process is performance based. The
ten selection criteria outlined below serve as
the basis for all of our admissions decisions.

• BELIEFS AND ORIENTATION
• Belief Urgency that All Students Will Excel
  Academically
• Personal Responsibility Relentless Drive
• Results Orientation
• TEACHING AND LEARNING
• Knowledge of Teaching and Learning
• STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
• Problem Solving
• Project Management to Deliver Results
• PERSONAL QUALITIES
• Adult Leadership
• Communication and Listening
• Interpersonal Skills
• Self-Awareness and Commitment to Ongoing Learning

12
Our Program
Training and Development of High Quality New
Leaders
After our rigorous selection process, our program
model provides intensive training and ongoing
school support, enabling New Leaders to become
outstanding principals of urban public schools
focused on raising the bar of student
achievement.
13
Our Learning Context Differentiation
We are committed to continuous learning - to
improve our programs core functions - to
increase differentiation - to share with our
principals and partners - to provide evidence
that sustainable, scalable outcomes are possible
As some of this work is in draft form, please do
not cite or distribute without express permission
from New Leaders
14
Action Tank Learning from Our Work
Our continuous cycle of learning drives internal
and external change.
Program Data Areas
Impact
Organizational Learning Plan
Immediate Program Improvement
Urban Excellence Framework Research
Integrated Analyses of Quantitative
Qualitative Data Across Program Components
Findings Re-Tested in Practice
Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC)
Learning Shared with Partners
RAND World Class Evaluation
Learning Shared with Policymakers
Internal Data Selection, Training,
Support, Achievement
15
Learning Into Action The UEF
The Urban Excellence Framework

• The Urban Excellence Framework (UEF) is our
  research-based theory of action about what
  happens in schools making dramatic gains and
  reaching high graduation rates and proficiency
  levels.
• The UEF drives the alignment of training,
  development, and support to ensure high levels of
  student achievement.
• In order to reach these student achievement goals
  and bring the Urban Excellence Framework
  practices to life consistently in schools, we are
  executing on three priority initiatives
• Strengthen the Aspiring Principals Initiative to
  ensure that our Aspiring and First Year
  Principals have the knowledge and skills that we
  have learned are necessary given our analysis of
  what happens in dramatic gains schools
• Support school-level transformation in schools
  led by New Leaders principals
• Support system capacity and context necessary to
  help reach student achievement goals in schools
  led by New Leaders principals

16
The Urban Excellence Framework
17
The Effective Practice Incentive Community
EPIC and the Urban Excellence Framework
The UEF

• The Urban Excellence Framework identifies key
  leverage points that school leaders must address
  at different stages of a schools trajectory, the
  actions they take to make changes, and the
  associated school practices that make a
  difference for student outcomes. The Effective
  Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) program
  drives student performance by rewarding educators
  in schools making student achievement gains for
  sharing effective practices aligned with key
  leverage points with colleagues in their own
  district and with other educators across the
  country.
• The UEF is refined annually by rigorous
  achievement analysis, fieldwork in high-gaining
  New Leaders schools, and what is learned in EPIC
  award winning schools including validation of
  current UEF practices and identification of
  practices not yet included in the UEF.
• EPIC is a knowledge system and online community
  that provides real life examples of practices
  used by educators driving student achievement
  gains at different places on the proficiency
  continuum, aligned to the UEF.

• EPIC..
• Is organized to the UEF
• Provides the opportunity to capture and
  distribute practices identified as critical to
  school improvement by the UEF
• Provides the means to inform refinement of the
  UEF by whats learned in high-gain schools

The UEF is refined by what is learned in EPIC
award-winning schools validation and or
identification of practices not yet included in
the UEF.
EPIC
18
Our Results
Initial results are positive, and we are working
to accelerate this progress to reach our goal of
transformation at scale.

• RAND has found elementary and middle schools led
  by New Leaders for 3 years outperform school
  systems by statistically significant margins.
• New Leaders-led schools show higher graduation
  rates compared to their districts, and RAND found
  the difference to be statistically significant.
• While most New Leaders outperform their district
  counterparts, a third of New Leaders principals
  have achieved breakthrough achievement gains of
  20 points a year.
• 5 schools were the highest achieving or improved
  schools in their cities 2 of these were the most
  improved in their states, and two others have
  received federal honors.
• In one of these schools this past spring, 100 of
  seniors graduated and went on to 4-year colleges.
• Seven New Leaders-led schools have been
  identified through independent assessments as
  EPIC award-winning schools for achievement gains