CEI-PEA is serving as the “Educational Partnership Organization” (EPO) for three New York City public schools that are undergoing a “Restart” process intended to help these “persistently low achieving” schools become quality public schools. This partnership opportunity emerged as a result of New York State’s successful “Rate to the Top” federal grant application. Through the “Restart” program, schools throughout New York State that are on the “persistently low achieving” list are eligible to use funds from the federal School Improvement Grant to implement school-based reforms aimed at increasing student achievement. In 2011, New York City Department of Education released a request to qualify potential bidders to support schools in the Restart program as “Educational Partnership Organizations,” and CEI-PEA was approved as an EPO for three New York City schools.
CEI-PEA is using a five-phase school support process that integrates ongoing and in-depth evaluation of data to set goals, discuss trends, identify problems and causes, craft interventions, refine goals, and track results.
1. Conduct Needs Assessment – CEI-PEA works closely with the principal and School Leadership Team to conduct a thorough review of existing school data documented by the last three years of the school’s Progress Reports, Quality Reviews (SQRs) and Learning Environment Surveys, as well as the NYS Annual School Report Card.
2. Establish SMART Goals for School Improvement – CEI-PEA supports the principal and School Leadership Team in establishing SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely) for the school, using both leading and lagging indicators to track progress towards these goals.
3. Align the Comprehensive Educational Plan with SMART Goals – Ultimately, the SMART Goals inform a re-engineering of the school’s Comprehensive Educational Plan (CEP) such that it sets a “blueprint” for implementing the restart process within the school.
4. Implement Restart Strategies & Practices – As the Educational Partner Organization (EPO), CEI-PEA’s role in the implementation phase is to help align resources, programs and other partner organizations at the school level so that they help achieve the school’s SMART goals rather than get in the way of progress.
5. Ongoing Assessment & Action – In step 2, above, the school will have developed SMART goals, leading and lagging indicators for achievement of the goals, as well as benchmarks to track progress during the implementation phase. In order for the Restart process to be effective, this data-driven design requires ongoing and in-depth analysis and use of the data collected in relation to the improvement design. CEI-PEA will facilitate regular reviews of benchmark data through protocols that guide collaborative inquiry and decision-making based on data. Using a systematic approach, stakeholders look at data, discuss trends, identify problems, discuss the causes, craft interventions, develop goals, and track results. The School Leadership Team will be able to make course corrections to the CEP in order to get back on track towards meeting any benchmarks that are unmet.
To learn more about CEI-PEA’s Educational Partnership Organization, please contact William Colavito.