i3 proposal: validating elt as a turnaround strategy for persistently low-performing middle schools

7/27/2019 i3 Proposal: Validating ELT as a Turnaround Strategy for Persistently Low-Performing Middle Schools

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CITIZEN SCHOOLS ELTTURNAROUND VALIDATION PROJECTNARRATIVE PAGE 1

VALIDATING EXPANDED LEARNING TIME AS A TURNAROUND STRATEGY

FOR PERSISTENTLY LOW-PERFORMING MIDDLE SCHOOLS

SECTION A: NEED AND PROJECT DESIGN

For 15 years, Citizen Schools has partnered with middle schools to narrow the

achievement gap by expanding the learning day. Citizen Schools adds substantially more time,

more rigorous, relevant learning activities, and more relationships with caring adults. A long-

term, quasi-experimental study has reported that participation in Citizen Schools voluntary

after-school program is associated with significantly higher levels of student engagement and

achievement in middle school andhigh school.

Since 2006, Citizen Schools has applied its model to school turnaround efforts, serving as

lead Expanded Learning Time (ELT) partner in three Massachusetts schools and one New York

school that dramatically increased learning time for all or most students. As an ELT partner,

Citizen Schools employs the same core strategies that it uses in its after-school program. But

unlike a voluntary after-school program, in an ELT setting, the longer learning day is mandatory

for students in some or all grades. Data show that schools that have adopted Citizen Schools

ELT model have substantially improved academic performance, closed persistent achievement

gaps, and met the needs of working families.

Now, in partnership with ten high-need school districts across six states, Citizen Schools

proposes an i3 project to validate this ELT turnaround strategy in 25 persistently low-performing

middle schools. Together, Citizen Schools and its partners will implement a bold ELT model that

will make schools more fun and more effective supporting teachers, engaging families and

community resources, and setting clear and high standards for improvement. The ELT


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turnaround project will increase learning time by 380 hours or more annually, filling the added

hours with dynamic activities that are aligned with state standards for academic proficiency and

college readiness. It will engage a second shift of talented educators and volunteer Citizen

Teachers and build a culture of continuous improvement, driven by data and strong leadership.

In these ways, the ELT turnaround project will not only add high-quality learning time, but will

also transform the entire learning day and the entire school community.

The school districts of Boston (MA), Durham (NC), New York City (NY), Newark (NJ),

Oakland (CA), Redwood City (CA), Revere (MA), Santa Fe (NM), Socorro (NM), and Vance

County (NC) have made formal commitments to be official partners in the project, to prioritize

ELT as a turnaround strategy, and to provide a significant portion of the school-level funding.

The project will also leverage three high-capacity other partners, WGBH, Microsoft,

and Bain & Company, whose expertise and resources will deepen the projects impact and

strengthen its prospects for scalability and sustainability. Citizen Schools has selected Abt

Associates, Inc. to evaluate the project with a quasi-experimental study and Public/Private

Ventures to conduct a complementary study to maximize learning from the project.

Citizen Schools and its partners respectfully request an investment of $25.0 million from

the Investing in Innovation (i3) fund over the next five years, to be matched by $25.0 million in

private and school district funds ($9.8 million from districts and $15.2 million from private

sources). With these funds, Citizen Schools and its partners will validate, replicate, and prepare

to scale a research-supported ELT turnaround model to reach 22,500 students in 25 schools and

ten districts over the next five years.

Research in support of any turnaround strategy is scarce (Calkins et al. 40-42; Herman,

The Need for Middle School Turnaround


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et. al. 4), and turnaround at the middle school level presents a particularly urgent national

challenge.1

Expanded Learning Time has often been suggested as a turnaround strategy, in part

because many high-achieving charter schools implement a longer school day or year (Farbman

8-9; Hoxby 18; Rocha 4-5). But studies of high-performing schools that serve high-need students

have concluded that more time is only one ingredient in their success (Pennington 1; Shields and

Miles 4). When ELT is implemented as more of the same more time with the same teachers,

teaching the same material, in the same way it is unlikely to turn around low-performing

schools (Hess 1-2; Cuban). The Citizen Schools ELT turnaround model rejects the more of the

same approach, offering an exceptional innovation that has not been widely adopted in

traditional middle school settings and that will meet a critical, large-scale need.

Sometimes low-performing middle schools reinforce a pattern of failure that started

much earlier. But in many communities they undermine hard-won gains from the elementary

years, creating a persistent and pervasive middle school slide that helps to explain why U.S.

students outscore their international peers during the elementary grades but slip to average levels

in middle school and below average in high school (Juvonen, et al. 55-57; Schleicher 20). Middle

school is a pivot point in the educational trajectories of at-risk students, and performance as early

as 6th grade can be a strong predictor of long-term success, including high school graduation

(Balfanz 4; Wimberly and Noeth 2; Baker, Clay, and Gratama 5).

Focus on High-Need Schools and Districts: All of the schools selected for this project

meet the eligibility requirements for Innovation Fund Absolute Priority 4 (15 of 20 identified

schools receive Title I funds and are in Corrective Action or Restructuring status, qualifying in

Project Goals and Alignment with i3 Priorities

1 A list of Works Cited is included in Appendix H.


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category (b); the remaining schools qualify in categories (a) or (c)). The schools serve high-need

student populations that are, on average, 53% African American, 33% Hispanic, 82% eligible for

free or reduced price meals, and 20% designated for special education. An average of 41% of 8th

graders meet state proficiency standards in ELA, and just 30% are proficient in math. These

schools are in ten high-need districts with an average high school graduation rate of 59.5%.

In addition to Absolute Priority 4, this project addresses Competitive Preference Priority

6 (Innovations that Support College Access and Success) and Competitive Priority 8

(Innovations that Serve Schools in Rural LEAs). The proposed strategies for college readiness,

described on page 8, have been demonstrated to improve rates of high school completion and are

linked to outcomes that predict college success. The project partners include two rural districts,

Henderson (NC) and Socorro (NM), which will work with Citizen Schools to adapt the ELT

model to meet the needs and build on the capacity of rural communities.

Expected Outcomes: The project expects to achieve the outcomes shown in Exhibit 1,

based on averages across the participating schools.

Exhibit 1: Expected Outcomes: School Turnaround

Outcome Timeframe Indicator Magnitude of Gain

Increased

student

engagement

Within two

years of ELT

implementation

Reduced absenteeism 30% decline from pre-ELT rate

Reduced school suspension 30% decline from pre-ELT rate

Increased

student

achievement

Within three

years of ELT

implementation

Increased proficiency on

state assessments in ELA,

math, and science

Gain of 15 percentage pointsSignificantly larger gains than

matched comparison schools

and state as a whole


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These expected outcomes reflect substantial and measurable gains that are consistent with

definitions of school turnaround developed by Mass Insight and the What Works Clearinghouse

(Calkins et al. 69; Herman et al. 4-5). The expected outcomes are also consistent with the effects

found in past evaluations of Citizen Schools program, which are described further in Section B.

Citizen Schools and its partners will implement three inter-related strategies to achieve

these goals: 1) recruit, train, and deploy a second shift of dynamic educators; 2) increase

learning time substantially; and 3) build a culture of continuous improvement, driven by data and

strong leadership.

Project Strategies

Strategy 1: Recruit, train, and deploy a second shift of dynamic educators

This projects ELT model adds extraordinary talent as well as substantially more time to

the learning day. On average, the second shift at each ELT school will include approximately 16

paid, full-time and part-time Teaching Fellows who will bridge the conventional and expanded

day. The second shift will also include 40-60 volunteer Citizen Teachers who will share their

experience and expertise in real-world apprenticeships, which are engaging project-based

courses that meet for 90 minutes each week over 11 weeks. The second shift will be integrated

purposefully with the school faculty and staff in order to create a bigger team of caring and

capable adults who are committed to each students success.

Teaching Fellows are outstanding recent college graduates and aspiring educators who

are selected by Citizen Schools using a rubric that emphasizes leadership, high standards,

intelligence, and tenacity. With consistent support from the AmeriCorps national service

program, and building from a ten-year base of experience, Citizen Schools recruits Teaching

Fellows from top-tier universities for a two-year term of intensive service and professional


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development. Fellows also have the opportunity to enroll in a masters degree in education

program that is operated jointly by Citizen Schools and Lesley University.

Teaching Fellows provide instruction during daily academic support sessions with a

small group of students (their team), co-teach apprenticeships with volunteer Citizen Teachers,

teach college readiness skills, and forge trusting relationships with their students. They also play

an essential bridging role with parents, teachers, and the community. At turnaround schools,

Teaching Fellows will communicate daily with classroom teachers and monitor student

performance with access to data from across the learning day. Fellows will also call students

families every two weeks to provide updates about students progress and listen to parents hopes

and concerns.

Citizen Teachers are architects, artists, nurses, chefs, attorneys, carpenters, software

engineers, and other experts who volunteer to lead apprenticeship courses and guide students to

produce high-quality projects and performances. With support from Citizen Schools regional

management teams, ELT schools will build a pipeline of volunteer Citizen Teachers through

partnerships with businesses and community groups. Citizen Teachers will be vetted through

reference and criminal-history checks and will attend five hours of pre-service training. In each

apprenticeship session, the Citizen Teacher will be assisted by a Teaching Fellow who links

activities to academic standards and skill-building. Citizen Teachers will also have access to

exemplary curricula through CT Nation, Citizen Schools vibrant online volunteer community.

Strategy 2: Increase learning time substantially

Each school will add at least 380 hours of learning time to its schedule and use that time

to provide intensive academic support, engage students in relevant and authentic projects, and

prepare middle school students for high school and college success. Students will typically attend


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school for 2.5-3 hours longer on Monday through Thursday, with Friday afternoons reserved for

staff professional development. Based on community preference and budgetary considerations,

about half of the schools will implement full-school ELT for all students, while the other half

will implement a targeted ELT strategy, adopting the expanded day for all 6th grade students

and a subset of 7th and 8th grade students who opt into the program or are referred by school staff.

Intensive Academic Support

Relevant and Authentic Projects: Each student will select four apprenticeship courses per

year (two each semester), working in teams alongside a volunteer Citizen Teacher to create a

project or presentation that demonstrates their skills to parents, teachers, and community

members. For example, in a Law apprenticeship, students will work with volunteer attorneys to

prepare written and oral arguments and conduct a mock trial before a judge and jury in a real

courtroom. In a Rocket Science apprenticeship, students will work with an aerospace engineer to

: Sixty to ninety minutes of the additional time each day will

be devoted to intensive academic support, led by a Teaching Fellow who will foster a culture of

achievement in a small-group, team-based setting. The Teaching Fellow will develop a close

relationship with each student, recognize the skill areas where the student most needs to improve,

define goals, provide individualized support, and check for understanding. Each school will

identify its highest priority learning objectives, and Citizen Schools will implement learning

activities that are aligned with state standards and with content covered earlier in the day. For

example, if 6th graders at a particular school are struggling to write essays that include a clear

focus and supporting details, then Teaching Fellows will teach small-group lessons on these

topics. At least once each marking period, each student will participate in a one-on-one Grades

and Goals conference with their Teaching Fellow, setting personal goals for improvement and

specifying actions they will take to achieve those goals.


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apply fundamental concepts of geometry and physics to simulate a space station docking. Dozens

of leading companies have deployed employees as volunteers and worked with Citizen Schools

to develop apprenticeships, such as a video-game design class that teaches algebraic concepts

and has been taught by 115 Google employees. These volunteer Citizen Teachers provide the

authenticity that adolescents crave and help students make the connection between skills learned

in school and the application of those skills in relevant projects and careers (Gardner 121-125;

Hamilton 153-186; Strong, Silver, and Robinson 8-12).

High School Success and College Readiness: An analysis of NELS data reported that

low-income 8

th

graders who believed that a college degree was necessary for their desired career

graduated from college at a rate that was six times higher than similar peers who did not share

that belief. The same study found that only 56% of 8th graders believed that college was

necessary for their career and that only 23% planned to take a college preparatory curriculum in

high school (Bedsworth, Colby, and Doctor 11, 32). The ELT turnaround project is designed to

provide early interventions that research has shown to promote college access and success. A

weekly College and Careers segment will teach habits of academic success, including goal-

setting, note-taking, accessing support, and tracking progress. In the College Knowledge

component, students will learn about the timeline for college matriculation, the requirements for

admission, and the basics of financial aid. For 8th grade students about to make the transition to

high school, 8th Grade Academy will create a college-going culture by organizing visits to at

least six area colleges and bringing to life the appeal of higher education and the importance of

early planning. Students will apply skills from their math courses to assess the academic and

college-going records of local high schools, producing charts and pamphlets that inform peers

and the broader community and guide their own choices of which high school to attend and


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which courses to take.

Strategy 3: Build a culture of improvement, driven by data and strong leadership

Students in low-performing schools need more time for learning and more talented and

caring adults in their lives. But for these investments in time and talent to be maximized,

turnaround schools must also create new structures for leadership and collect and distribute data

in transformative ways.

Leadership: School principals are at the core of the leadership team that studies of

turnaround have identified as crucial for success (Calkins 50). Citizen Schools will work with

districts to ensure that principals in ELT turnaround schools have strong leadership capabilities.

But this ELT initiative will not just ask more of principals; it will provide them with a strong

partner the Citizen Schools Campus Director. Campus Directors typically have 2-4 years of

teaching experience and strong track records of leadership. As members of a schools leadership

team, Campus Directors provide capacity to mobilize community assets; they essentially serve as

assistant principals for ELT.

The project will establish formal structures to promote this partnership, including

biannual network institutes for leaders from ELT schools. These institutes will allow principals

and Campus Directors to share best practices and address real-time challenges in building

school-wide buy-in, partnering with community organizations, using data to drive achievement,

engaging families, and managing logistical and administrative aspects of ELT implementation.

Share Data to Drive Continuous Improvement: Schools, extended day providers, and

families all have relevant and timely information about students. Too often, however, access to

that information is restricted in ways that limit its usefulness. All stakeholders in the ELT

turnaround project including second-shift educators, parents, and students will share and use


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data to drive improvement. As part of this project initiative, Microsoft and Citizen Schools will

invest up to $1.0 million (including substantial in-kind support from Microsoft engineers) to

develop a software platform that provides a comprehensive view of student progress across the

learning day, supporting effective instruction and professional development. This strategy is

grounded in the experience of Citizen Schools and its partners as well as in research

demonstrating the importance of timely data sharing in driving instructional practice in

turnaround schools (Calkins, et al. 35; Herman, et al. 14-15).

The existing partnership of Citizen Schools and the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts

and Letters in Brooklyn suggests the power of this proposed data sharing initiative and will serve

as a model for the project with Microsoft. Both classroom teachers and Citizen Schools Teaching

Fellows at Arts and Letters have access to SnapGrades, an online database that tracks the

performance of every student in a user-friendly format. Both sets of educators contribute data

and observations about student performance and can examine performance data at the individual,

class, and school-wide levels to discern gaps and trends. For example, an assessment conducted

by a 6th grade math teacher might indicate that a student is struggling with the concepts of place

value and decimals. Armed with this data, a Teaching Fellow could work with the Citizen

Teacher in the students astronomy apprenticeship to reinforce these concepts in an activity on

calculating distances between the planets. The Teaching Fellow could then enter that information

in the integrated data system so that the math teacher can refer to the astronomy example in class

and both educators can examine the next assessment to determine whether the student has

mastered the concepts. In addition, the SnapGrades system allows parents and students to check

homework assignments and track student grades, attendance, and test scores.


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District and School Selection

Ten districts and 20 of the 25 turnaround schools have already been selected for the

project (the list of schools is included in Appendix H). Citizen Schools anticipates adding five

low-performing schools in the same districts or, depending on local budgetary decisions, up to

five schools in 1-2 additional high-need districts that may be selected by September 2010. Any

additional LEAs will meet the same requirements that were used to select the initial partners:

1. A district-level commitment to implement an intensive ELT model, to participate in anational evaluation, and, pending positive results, to scale ELT as a turnaround strategy;

2.

Commitment of the district and local philanthropies to match i3 funds; and

3. High need at the district and school level, and school-level readiness for turnaround,including: a strong school leader or a plan to select one; data systems to assess student

work regularly; teacher support for ELT; and commitment to collaborative planning.

Alignment of Research Evidence with Proposed Project

The ELT turnaround project is designed to validate a set of practices that have been

developed by Citizen Schools and its partners over the last 15 years in both after-school and ELT

settings. As described in Section B, evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of these

practices at raising student engagement and achievement. In the ELT turnaround project, Citizen

Schools and its partners will implement these proven practices on a larger scale and with more

deeply integrated partnerships and anticipate results that are equally or more substantial. In a

letter of support for the project (included in Appendix H), Elizabeth Reisner of Policy Studies

Associates, the Principal Investigator of Citizen Schools longitudinal evaluation, writes that

Citizen Schools proposed ELT program is similar to the Citizen Schools after-school program

studied in the PSA Boston impact study... PSA believes that the proposed ELT school-


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turnaround program has the potential to produce the same, if not greater, results in the areas of

student engagement and academic proficiency as the Boston impact study.

The effectiveness of Citizen Schools program is supported by moderate evidence of

statistically significant, substantial, and important effects on student engagement, attainment, and

achievement for a high-need population. As described below, a comparative interrupted time

series analysis of schools implementing ELT in partnership with Citizen Schools found positive

effects on student performance. A longitudinal matched comparison study of participants in

Citizen Schools voluntary after-school program found positive effects on engagement,

attainment, and performance in middle school and through high school.

SECTION B: STRENGTH OF RESEARCH AND EVIDENCE OF EFFECTS

2

ELT Outcomes Analysis: Abt Associates is conducting a multi-year evaluation of the

statewide ELT pilot in Massachusetts, using a rigorous quasi-experimental comparative

interrupted time series design to estimate the effects of ELT on state test scores (Boulay, et al. 8;

Shadish, Cook, and Campbell 171-184). Abt carefully matched ELT schools to comparison

schools based on grade span, district, and three additional tiers of matching variables including

measures of school performance, accountability status, and student demographics. In addition to

incorporating comparison schools, the models include school and year fixed effects, student-

level covariates, and controls for school-specific linear pre-ELT trends based on five years of

pre-ELT test scores.

2 All findings included in Section B are significant at p < .05 (on a one-tailed test for the Boston

longitudinal study results and on a two-tailed test for the ELT outcomes analysis). Effect sizes

are reported using Cohens d(ESd) for continuous outcome variables and the arscine proportion

of successes effect size (ESh) for dichotomous outcome variables.


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At Citizen Schools request, Abt examined results for the three Citizen Schools ELT sites

in Massachusetts relative to the matched comparison group from the statewide study in grade and

subject combinations for which data were available (math in grades 6 and 8, ELA in grade 7, and

science in grade 8). This analysis provides evidence of substantial effects consistent with school

turnaround for students attending Expanded Learning Time schools where Citizen Schools is a

lead partner. Abt found statistically significant, positive impacts on MCAS scores in each year of

implementation (for grade 6 math in years 1 and 2, for grade 7 ELA in years 1 and 3, and for

grade 8 science in years 1 and 3). Six of 12 effects were statistically significant, and five of those

six had effect sizes of 0.25 standard deviations or greater, meeting a standard for identifying

school turnaround suggested by the Institute for Education Sciences Practice Guide (Herman, et

al. 4-5). A memo summarizing these results is included in Appendix H.

Because it uses a quasi-experimental design that includes a comparison group and

multiple years of baseline data, this study has moderate internal validity. It did not use a

sampling strategy designed to allow inferences to a broader population, but key similarities

suggest that the results are likely to be relevant for future Citizen Schools ELT turnaround sites.

The schools included in the analysis implemented ELT in partnership with Citizen Schools,

increased learning time by an amount similar to that proposed in the ELT turnaround project, and

served high-need students. The schools were also low-performing prior to implementing ELT,

with average proficiency rates in math, English, and science that each lagged the state average by

25 percentage points or more.

Boston Longitudinal Study: This evaluation, conducted by Policy Studies Associates

(PSA), is a well-designed and well-implemented quasi-experimental study of Citizen Schools

voluntary after-school program that meets What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards with


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reservations (the highest possible standard for non-randomized studies). PSA matched

participants with nonparticipants one-to-one on gender, race, grade level, poverty level, past

academic performance as measured by 4th grade MCAS scores, linguistic background, and

special education status. Participant and matched nonparticipant groups were shown to be

equivalent at baseline on observable characteristics.3

PSA measured both short-term and long-term effects of program participation by

examining the outcomes of participants in their first, second, and third years of participation in

middle school and tracking their transition to and progress through high school. Early phases of

the study focused on middle grades success, including student engagement and academic

performance as well as peer and adult relationships and psychosocial development. Later phases

of the study focused on high school selection, student engagement, academic achievement, and

progress to graduation. (Appendix H includes a full list of PSAs evaluation reports.)

PSA described the Citizen Schools

participants as educationally at-risk based on demographics and prior achievement (Fabiano, et

al. 1). In the 9th

grade analysis sample, 93% were African American or Hispanic and 86% were

eligible for free or reduced price meals. On 4th grade state assessments, only 8% had achieved

proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA) and 6% in math (Vile, Arcaira, and Reisner A-3).

The first students in the sample were in 6th or 8th grade in 2001-02, and additional cohorts of

students were added each year through 2005-06. The final sample of students in the longitudinal

analyses included 448 Citizen Schools participants, along with their matches.

The Boston longitudinal study found statistically significant impacts on academic

3No baseline characteristic differed by more than .07 standard deviations. Two categorical

variables (race and gender) differed by more than .05 standard deviations at baseline for the final

12th grade sample, and PSA will statistically adjust its estimates of effects accordingly.


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engagement and achievement measures during participation in Citizen Schools after-school

program. In their 8th

grade year, participants attended school at higher rates than their matched

peers (92% vs. 86%) and were more likely to pass their English courses (87% vs. 77%) (Pearson,

et al. 8-10). In their first year, 6th and 7th grade participants attended school at higher rates than

their matched peers (93% vs. 90%), were suspended from school less often (10% vs. 16%), were

more often promoted to the next grade on time (96% vs. 94%), and earned slightly higher scaled

scores on the 7th

grade ELA MCAS (233 vs. 231) (Fabiano, et al. 27-30).

The longitudinal study also provides evidence of important effects on high school

selection, engagement, academic proficiency, and graduation for students who participated in

Citizen Schools in 8th grade. Participants were more likely than matched nonparticipants to:

Attend school consistently (9th-12th grade attendance rates of 86-90% vs. 81-85%, EShrange .15-.32);

Achieve proficiency on the 10th grade math MCAS (53% vs. 44%, ESh = .19); Achieve proficiency on the 10th grade ELA MCAS (50% vs. 41%, ESh = .18); and Graduate high school in four years (71% vs. 59%, ESh = .25) (Vile).

As noted in PSAs letter of support (Appendix H), the design of this study gives it a high

degree of internal validity, but the focus on Citizen Schools after-school program and inclusion

of students from only one city result in moderate generalizability to the ELT turnaround model.

Expected Effects of Proposed Project

As described above, the Boston longitudinal study has found that Citizen Schools

voluntary after-school program is associated with improved outcomes for participating students

relative to matched peers. The ELT outcomes analysis provides compelling evidence that Citizen

Schools ELT, the model for the proposed project, has even greater impact on student


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achievement, reducing achievement gaps in multiple grades and subjects. The proposed ELT

turnaround project targets schools and students that are very similar to those represented in past

evaluations. It also duplicates key programmatic features that Citizen Schools has replicated in

the past, including staffing structures, Teaching Fellow-led academic support, volunteer-led

apprenticeships, and college and career preparation (Sinclair, et al. 61). The strength of the

evidence and the similarity of the proposed model support the expectation of Citizen Schools and

its school and district partners that the proposed project will have the statistically significant and

substantial effects described in Exhibit 1 of Section A.

SECTION C: CITIZEN SCHOOLS EXPERIENCE

Founded in 1995, Citizen Schools has partnered with more than 20 districts to extend

learning opportunities for 24,000 students in eight states. As verified by an independent

evaluator, Citizen Schools has implemented its program model with fidelity across a variety of

school settings and student populations (Sinclair, et al., 61). Citizen Schools currently operates a

network of 37 program sites, each of which involves a multi-faceted on-site partnership with a

middle school and its host district. Citizen Schools has developed effective systems for

recruiting, training, and managing a second shift of educators. Over the past eight years, it has

engaged 435 Teaching Fellows, supported by AmeriCorps, and 175 of those Fellows have

chosen to enroll in a masters degree program in education that Citizen Schools created and

offers nationally with Lesley University. Citizen Schools conducts trainings for more than 380

front-line instructors and leaders and uses a detailed Instructional Rubric to evaluate those staff

six times per year. Citizen Schools has recruited 7,540 volunteers to lead 5,800 apprenticeship

courses, creating multi-site partnerships with companies such as Google, Fidelity, and Bank of

Managing Complex Projects of National Scope


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able to rate the usefulness of the films online, allowing hundreds of Teaching Fellows and

thousands of Citizen Teachers to benefit from an active national network.

Bain& Company is a global strategy consulting firm whose clients include major

corporations, government agencies, and nonprofits. Bain has devoted significantpro bono

resources to help nonprofits scale their operations. It has committed consulting services valued at

$3.5 million to Citizen Schools, of which $2.0 million will be devoted to the ELT turnaround

effort to support strategy and system development for implementation and scaling.

Microsoft is a global leader in educational technology. For this project, Microsoft will

develop a shared data platform (described in Section A) and help to design systems that utilize

webcasting and other interactive tools to enable volunteers to participate in apprenticeships

remotely, increasing access particularly for rural communities. Microsoft has committed $1.65

million in cash and in-kind support, of which $1.0 million will be devoted to the ELT project.

Track Record of Impact on Students and Schools through Partnerships with LEAs

As described in Section B, Citizen Schools has partnered effectively with school districts,

producing improved achievement and attainment and generating evidence of sustained impact.

At its Massachusetts ELT sites (the Edwards and Mario Umana middle schools in Boston and the

Salemwood School in Malden), Citizen Schools has worked most intensively with 6th grade

students and 6th grade performance gains demonstrate the magnitude of the improvement and its

effect on closing the achievement gap. Between 2006 (the year prior to ELT implementation)

and 2009, the average proportion of 6th grade students earning proficiency on state math

assessments at these three schools more than doubled, from 18% to 39% a 21-point gain that

outpaced a statewide increase of 11 points. Improvements in ELA were equally dramatic; the

three schools increased proficiency rates from an average of 36% to 50%, a 14-point gain that far


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surpassed a two-point increase statewide. These improvements occurred while the schools

continued to serve high-need populations. In 2006-07, rates of eligibility for free or reduced price

meals were 86.5% at Edwards Middle School, 88.5% at Umana, and 62.7% at Salemwood. In

2008-09, these rates had actually increased slightly at all three schools.

The turnaround of the Edwards Middle School in Bostons Charlestown neighborhood is

perhaps the most powerful demonstration of the synergy between Citizen Schools and a

committed school partner. In 2006, despite several years of reform efforts, the Edwards was

failing. Convinced that additional learning time was the missing ingredient in the schools

improvement plan, Principal Mike Sabin joined a state pilot program that allowed the school to

convert to an ELT model. He engaged Citizen Schools as a lead partner to take responsibility for

the added hours of instruction for the schools 6th graders. Citizen Schools partnered with the

schools math teachers to create an afternoon Math League and recruited volunteers to lead

apprenticeship courses in naval history, portfolio management, astronomy, and more. Citizen

Schools staff members became part of the schools instructional team, participating in weekly

collaborative planning sessions made possible by the reconfigured schedule (Bernier 6-25). The

experiment worked. Between 2006 and 2009, attendance increased from 90% to 93% and 6 th

grade proficiency rates jumped from 15% to 37% in math and from 27% to 49% in ELA. The

Edwards 8th graders, the first class to participate in ELT for all three years of middle school,

closed 80% of the achievement gap in ELA andreversedthe achievement gap in math,

outscoring the state average. While the families of only 17 6th graders had selected the Edwards

as their first choice in 2006, 250 families made it their first choice in 2009 (Clarence Edwards

Middle School 5). The Edwards Middle School has gone from being one of the worst

performing schools in our district to one of the best, writes Boston Public Schools


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Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson in a letter of support. And Citizen Schools played an

important part in that turnaround. We are excited to work with Citizen Schools to try to replicate

[the model] at more of our other schools in BPS over the coming years.

Citizen Schools has also helped to drive school-wide improvement through its work with

other districts. At the Brooklyn School for Global Studies, which began implementing a targeted

ELT model in 2008-09 with Citizen Schools as its lead partner, the percentage of 6th grade

students reaching proficiency standards increased from 41% to 74% in ELA and from 47% to

86% in math between 2008 and 2009. In one year, the school closed 73% of the achievement gap

with the state in ELA and more than eliminated what had been a 32-point achievement gap in

math. According to Kissonda Williams, a math teacher at Global Studies and the schools union

representative, the school faculty and Citizen Schools have worked together to share data and

give consistent support to students across the school day.

Citizen Schools has engaged Abt Associates, Inc. to evaluate the proposed project. Abt

will conduct a quasi-experimental study that meets i3 criteria and provides precise estimates of

the projects effects on school-level outcomes as well as extensive feedback and implementation

data. Citizen Schools research plan for the next five years also encompasses ongoing internal

evaluation efforts and a separate randomized study that will include some students attending

ELT turnaround schools.

SECTION D: PROJECT EVALUATION PLAN

In developing this evaluation strategy, Citizen Schools engaged in an extensive planning

process, including a feasibility study conducted by the research firm MDRC, a formal RFP

process, a staff review, and consultations with Citizen Schools Evaluation Advisory Board. (A

roster of Evaluation Advisory Board members and a letter in support of the evaluation plan from


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chair Gary Walker are included in Appendix H.)

Abts evaluation of the proposed project will employ a quasi-experimental comparative

interrupted time series (CITS) design similar to that used in the Massachusetts ELT study

described in Section B. By examining the performance of schools adopting Citizen Schools ELT

before and after implementation, estimating the break from prior trends in outcomes, and then

comparing those findings to the before and after outcomes for a set of comparison schools, this

study will allow for the most rigorous possible estimates of program impact.

Project Evaluation: Comparative Interrupted Time Series Study

4

The study will include schools launching ELT programs in 2010-11, 2011-12, and 2012-

13. It will address three key research questions:

1. What are the impacts of implementing the Citizen Schools ELT model on studentengagement and achievement? (Specific outcomes to be examined include attendance,

behavior, credit accumulation, progress toward graduation, state test scores, and grades.)

2. Are these impacts sustained over time?3. What implementation lessons can be shared with others in the ELT and school

turnaround fields?

Some design decisions are still in development; however, Abts experience with similar

studies (including CITS studies of ELT initiatives in Massachusetts and New York) provides

guidance on key issues. To increase statistical power, each ELT school will be carefully matched

4 Although it was considered, random assignment of schools to the ELT turnaround intervention

is not viable because of the large number of interested schools that would be required to

cooperate with random assignment and because some partner districts plan to implement ELT at

most or all eligible middle schools.


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with multiple comparison schools that have similar demographic and achievement profiles, and

Abt will also consult with school and district officials to confirm the suitability of the proposed

matches. For both ELT and comparison schools, Abt will collect extensive pre-implementation

data on student achievement (including five years of pre-ELT achievement data where

available), demographics, and other factors that might influence student outcomes. Depending on

the sample size and the ratio of comparison schools to ELT schools, Abt has estimated minimum

detectable effect sizes ranging from 0.11 to 0.17 for academic achievement outcomes and from

.08 to .13 for attendance, suggesting that meaningful differences in performance will be detected.

A substantial implementation study component will provide Citizen Schools, project

partners, and the field with ongoing feedback, deeper understanding of outcome findings, and

data to inform future replication. This component will include initial site visits and annual

surveys of teachers, administrators, and other key staff in both ELT and comparison schools.

Implementation issues to be explored include the use of instructional time, availability of and

participation in afterschool programming, relationships with community partners, teachers

perceptions of school climate and student engagement, and (for ELT schools only) the

implementation of the Citizen Schools ELT model. The evaluator will also interview key

stakeholders at the ELT sites annually, including district and union representatives and

principals. An ELT implementation index that Abt developed for the Massachusetts ELT

evaluation will be adapted for this study, allowing for models that relate outcomes to

implementation variables.

With respect to the criteria outlined in the notice inviting applications, the project

evaluation conducted by Abt will:

Quality of Proposed Project Evaluation


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Include a well-designed quasi-experimental study, developed in accordance with WhatWorks Clearinghouse standards;

Provide high-quality implementation data and performance feedback; Provide information about the key elements and approach of the project that will

facilitate replication or testing in other settings;

Include sufficient resources to carry out the evaluation effectively, with $2.0 million inproject funds allocated for Abts evaluation; and

Be rigorous and independent, conducted by a qualified and experienced externalevaluation firm (see section G for evaluator qualifications)

Citizen Schools and its partners will comply with the requirements of any evaluation conducted

by the Department of Education and cooperate with technical assistance provided by the

Department. Implementation and outcome findings will be used by Citizen Schools and its

partners to drive improvement. These findings will also be shared broadly and underlying data

will be made available to third-party researchers consistent with privacy requirements.

In addition to the quasi-experimental project evaluation conducted by Abt, Citizen

Schools will continue and improve ongoing internal evaluation efforts. By leveraging a shared

online database and dedicated and well-trained staff, Citizen Schools engages in extensive

quality monitoring and internal evaluation that provide feedback about the quality of program

implementation, the instructional skills of staff as measured by Citizen Schools Instructional

Rubric, and progress toward clear goals related to student engagement, self-efficacy, and

achievement. These efforts, led by Director of Research and Evaluation Michael Kubiak, will be

supported by $1.1 million allocated from project funds.

Internal Evaluation Practices and Complementary Randomized Control Trial


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Citizen Schools has also engaged Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) to conduct a

randomized control trial of first-time program applicants participating in Citizen Schools in 8th

grade, which will build on existing quasi-experimental evidence of the programs student-level

impacts. A sample of approximately 1,800 students will be drawn from targeted ELT schools

where Citizen Schools serves some but not all 8th graders as well as from schools where Citizen

Schools is an opt-in afterschool program. The study will examine the effects of program

participation on educational attainment, engagement, and achievement, including subgroup

effects. It will also include an implementation component, which will draw on surveys, site

visits, and participation data to examine fidelity to the model and association between

implementation variables and student outcomes. The first cohort of students will enter 8th grade

in fall 2011 and will be followed at least through 10th grade. Based on preliminary estimates

assuming a 2:1 treatment-to-control ratio, P/PV has estimated minimum detectable effect sizes of

.16 for the full sample and .19 for subgroup analysis based on half of the sample.

Citizen Schools anticipates that this study will complement the quasi-experimental

evaluation of the ELT turnaround project. First, it will provide detailed implementation data that

will inform the continuous improvement of the model at both ELT and non-ELT sites. Second, it

will generate estimates of student-level effects, which will complement the school-level effects

examined in the CITS study. Third, it will inform future decisions about replication by assessing

the impact of a one-year intervention. Citizen Schools has allocated $1.1 million of project funds

(half of the studys total cost) to support the randomized study of 8th grade participants.

The foremost priority of the project is to deliver compelling results that validate ELT as a

middle school turnaround strategy. Then, if the evidence is strong, Citizen Schools and its

SECTION E: STRATEGY AND CAPACITY TO BRING TO SCALE


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partners would like to work with the Department of Education, state education leaders, and local

and national stakeholders to scale the turnaround model rapidly, expansively, and with fidelity.

Citizen Schools seeks to play a leading role in the scaling process, directly by expanding its own

network of ELT partnerships and indirectly by creating tools and training capacity to help other

districts and other nonprofits adopt and adapt ELT in their communities.

To promote successful replication, the project will work to create conditions that will

support, simplify, and accelerate school districts adoption of a robust ELT model. Accordingly,

we identify four inter-related conditions that we believe will catalyze adoption of the ELT

turnaround model within school districts and that we will work to establish during the project

period: 1) reliable talent pipelines for second shift educators; 2) scalable tools for instruction and

management, including curricula and training materials available on-line, and integrated data and

professional development systems; 3) evidence of the models impact and knowledge about the

essential elements driving the impact; and 4) accessible and sufficient funding to support ELT,

either repurposed or from new sources, distributed in ways that emphasize quality and capacity.

These four growth accelerators will make scaling the ELT turnaround model more feasible,

more cost effective, and more likely to succeed.

Development and dissemination of the four growth accelerators will position the ELT

turnaround model for further scaling through direct expansion by Citizen Schools with new and

current district partners and through adoption by districts and schools in partnership with other

local or national nonprofits. Citizen Schools estimates that, if proper financial supports are in

place, it could directly lead expansion of ELT to approximately 50,000 students as part of a

scale-up strategy. To support scale-up by other districts and other nonprofits to reach the

additional 450,000 students, Citizen Schools will develop consulting capacity to support districts


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and nonprofits interested in ELT replication. In addition, Citizen Schools will share broadly the

content developed through this project, including curriculum and training posted on the Teachers'

Domain web site, best practices for staff and volunteer recruitment and development, and the

integrated data platform created with Microsoft. To support broad knowledge sharing and the

development of an established ELT field with a growing evidence base, the project partners will

publish at least three ELT Turnaround Guides by Year 5 of the project.

Citizen Schools and its partners plan to reach directly a total of 22,500 students across 25

high-need schools during the five-year grant period (1,125 students in Year 1, 4,500 students in

Year 2, and 5,625 or more students in each of Years 3, 4, and 5). Citizen Schools and its partners

have the capacity to achieve the impact and growth goals of the project, including:

Number of Students to Be Reached and Capacity to Reach Goals During the Grant Period

Extensive experience in successfully scaling effective practices; Up-front commitment of managerial and financial resources by the district partners; and Substantial existing capacity and prior investments that can be leveraged.

Experience Scaling Effective Practices: From 2006 to 2009, Citizen Schools increased

the number of students it serves by an annual growth rate of 44% while improving performance

on most internal metrics. Since WGBH created Teachers Domain in 2002, it has been supported

with more than $22 million of investment and grown rapidly to include more than 2,500

contextualized and standards-aligned units of curriculum and serve more than 495,000 users.

Up-front Commitment by School and District Partners: All ten district partners, nine of

which have partnered previously with Citizen Schools, have made substantial financial

commitments to the project despite challenging fiscal times. District and school leaders have also

committed to participate in intensive joint planning and ongoing collaboration.


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Existing Capacity: The project seeks to validate an existing model and build upon

existing organizational infrastructure, and capacity. Citizen Schools has national systems along

with a network of state management teams that already support program implementation, data

management, and continuous improvement across a 37-site network. Microsoft previously

partnered with YES Prep charter schools in Houston and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools

to develop data integration platforms similar to those to be developed for this project.

Capacity to Bring Project to Scale Directly and Through Partners After the Grant Period

Citizen Schools staff includes talented professionals who have extensive experience

launching and managing large-scale initiatives in the non-profit, public, and private sector. For

example, Chief Program Officer Stacy Miles and Director of Program Design Tracy Epp served

in senior leadership positions at the IDEA charter school network in South Texas, which

expanded from two high-performing schools to 14 schools in four years. Nitzan Pelman, Citizen

Schools Executive Director in New York, previously launched a mentoring program for 6,000

first-year teachers in New York City. CEO Eric Schwarz and President Emily McCann have

extensive nonprofit and private sector experience leading growth initiatives.

In building a 37-site network that includes four ELT schools and rural, small city, and

large urban districts, Citizen Schools has begun to establish the replicability and adaptability of

key components of its model, such as staffing structures, volunteer pipelines, school

partnerships, and financial plans. The satisfaction of current users is high, as evidenced by the

commitment of districts to support this project and to expand Citizen Schools ELT model to

additional schools. Each semester for the past three years, teachers at partner schools have rated

the quality of Citizen Schools program as at least 4.0 (very good) on a scale from 1 (poor) to

Feasibility for Successful Replication


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5 (excellent).

As detailed in the budget narrative, the direct cost per student of the project at the school

level is estimated at $1,800 per year, which is consistent with Citizen Schools experience. The

total cost per student when the project reaches its goal of 5,625 students in Year 3 is $2,458 per

year, inclusive of all national support, evaluation, investments in capacity for scaling, and

indirect costs. The estimated total cost to reach 100,000 students is $211 million, to reach

250,000 students is $509 million, and to reach 500,000 students, including national

infrastructure, would be roughly $960 million per year, or $1,920 per student. At this scale,

school-level costs are estimated at $1,700 per student, anticipating modest efficiencies in staffing

and administrative costs resulting from school-wide and district-wide implementation.

Estimated Costs for the Project and for Reaching Scale

Support for the project will be provided by a combination of i3 grant funds, district funds,

and private sector contributions in the form of grants and in-kind services. Each school district

has committed to provide a significant cash investment, typically $500 - $600 per student, and to

work to sustain ELT when i3 funding concludes by integrating support into school and district

budgets. In total, the districts direct investments and private sector contributions will provide a

1-to-1 match of i3 grant funds.

The project plan includes strategies for dissemination that will assist in program

improvement and in future replication and scaling efforts. The project partners will: publish

research reports and make presentations on evaluation data; disseminate curricula and lesson

plans that are aligned with national standards, as well as videos of instructional excellence,

through WGBHs Teachers Domain site; share talent pipeline strategies through college

Broad Dissemination of Project Knowledge


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recruitment offices, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and peer networks of

multi-site education nonprofits; and develop and distribute at least three ELT Turnaround Guides

for educators and state and local officials that focus on key success factors for implementation.

To assist with dissemination, Citizen Schools will continue its ongoing work to create a

strong network of ELT practitioners and advocates, working with intermediaries such as the

National Center for Time & Learning and existing high-quality ELT partners such as BELL, The

Breakthrough Collaborative, College Track, and the Higher Achievement Program. This work

will build from threeReimagining After-School symposia that Citizen Schools has organized,

which attracted leaders from academia, education, and philanthropy.

Too many education initiatives are built on weak partnerships that falter when initial

grant funding ends. Citizen Schools and its partners are committed to developing the stakeholder

support to provide a 1-to-1 match of any i3 funds awarded in Years 1-5, a strong initial step

toward our long-term goal of replacing i3 funds with local and state funding.

SECTION F: SUSTAINABILITY

Resources: Participating districts are projected to contribute a total of $9.8 million over

the five years of the project. Citizen Schools is working with local and national philanthropies to

commit at least $15.2 million in private sector matching funds during the same period, building a

base of funding stakeholders to support sustainability and scalability. The project will also

engage thousands of volunteers each year who are likely to remain involved in public education

and supportive of initiatives that increase access and achievement for high-need students.

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, which has supported Citizen Schools with an

average of $2 million per year for the last ten years, has committed to supporting an i3 match

assuming continued alignment with the foundations investment criteria (see Appendix D). Two


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national partners, Microsoft and Bain & Company, have committed significant resources to the

project. Bain has dedicated $2.0 million in consulting services to this project to support scaling

with quality. Microsoft has made an in-kind commitment of $850,000 to build school-level data

sharing and distance learning capacity and a $150,000 cash contribution. In addition, Citizen

Schools is in active conversation with three additional national foundations and 20 local funders

regarding potential matching grant support for this project. Of these 23 prospective funders

(listed in Appendix H), 16 have previously supported Citizen Schools.

Stakeholder Support:In addition to the commitment of the existing partners, Citizen

Schools is building alliances with key education organizations that can contribute to the

sustainability and scalability of the project. For example, Citizen Schools is collaborating with

the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) on a national school redesign

initiative. Kathy Imes, chair of the Nebraska State Board of Education and chair of a NASBE

task force on The Structure of Schools, commented in a letter of support that members of her

group have been asking for break the mold schools [and] Citizen Schools fulfills that

mandate. Citizen Schools is also working with several state education agencies to prioritize

ELT as a leading school turnaround strategy. California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and New

York included strong ELT strategies in their original Race to the Top proposals. Massachusetts

Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester has described Citizen Schools ELT design as an

innovative and proven strategy to improve schools through student engagement, community

engagement, and a dramatically longer learning day.

Citizen Schools is also developing collaborative relationships with teachers unions.

Union representatives from each of the four schools where Citizen Schools is currently the lead

ELT partner have submitted letters of support for this application as a reform strategy that values


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and supports teachers. Massachusetts two largest teachers unions also have expressed strong

support for ELT as a reform strategy (Listening to Experts 2).

Integration into Ongoing Work:In many respects, Citizen Schools has been working

since its founding in 1995 to validate the powerful role that more learning time, more caring

adults, and more vibrant school partnerships can play in transforming education and expanding

opportunity. At the end of the grant period, the three strategies that are at the core of the ELT

turnaround project, and at the heart of Citizen Schools mission, will be sustained by the

projects investments in human capital, tools, systems, and research. Mature pipelines of second

shift educators, and best practices in their training and support, will continue to flow to Citizen

Schools as well as to other nonprofits and districts that adopt ELT as a turnaround strategy.

Verified tools related to curriculum, training, data-driven instruction, and professional

development will be available through Teachers Domain to both project participants and a

broader community of educators. ELT Turnaround Guides will help to create the knowledge

foundation for successful ELT implementation, and research findings related to both

implementation and impact will provide specific guidance about replication for Citizen Schools,

its school and district partners, and the field.

SECTION G: MANAGEMENT PLAN AND PERSONNEL

Citizen Schools and its project partners will engage in three interrelated sets of activities

during the grant period: (1) growth, implementation, and quality management, (2) development

of tools and systems to support quality, and (3) preparation for scaling and sustainability. Citizen

Schools national office and CEO Eric Schwarz will provide leadership and accountability for

the project. The following section describes important activities in each category during the grant

Management Plan and Timeline


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period, including information about project leadership and the timing of key milestones.

Growth, Implementation, and Quality Management: The project includes a phased

rollout in order to allow Citizen Schools and its partners to build capacity and maintain program

quality. Activities in this area, which will be led by Emily McCann (President) and Kate Mehr

(Vice President), will peak in Years 2-3 as the most rapid growth occurs. Key activities include:

Launch and partnership management of ELT turnaround at the first cohort of fiveschools, which are now conducting an intensive planning process (Year 1);

Conduct planning process leading to launch of ELT turnaround at 15 schools in Year 2and five schools in Year 3; and

Conduct internal monitoring of quality and impact (Years 1-5) and implementation phaseof project evaluation (Years 1-3)

Tool and System Development: Creating and refining tools related to curriculum,

instruction, data sharing, and ELT leadership will be particularly critical during Years 1-3 of the

project. In collaboration with WGBH, Microsoft, and school and district partners, Emily

McCann (President) and Stacy Miles (Chief Program Officer) will oversee activities including:

Finalize standards-aligned curricula in ELA and math (Year 1), and science (Year 2); Document and share instructional best practices through Teachers Domain (Years 1-2); Create (Year 1), pilot (Year 2), and improve (Years 3-5) data access platform; and Host biannual leadership institutes for principals and Campus Directors (Years 1-5).

Preparation for Scaling and Sustainability: Years 3-5 of the project will include the

most intense focus on leveraging tools, systems, and lessons learned to prepare for the

continuation and growth of the ELT turnaround model after the conclusion of the project period.

Eric Schwarz (CEO) will lead this set of activities, which include:


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Document outcome and implementation findings from project evaluation and shareproject learning with others in the field (Years 3-5);

Engage district leadership in discussions about further scaling (Years 3-5); and Replace i3 funding with renewable public and private funds (Years 3-5);

Citizen Schools senior management team has developed a strong financial framework for the

project as well as detailed line item calculations to create a budget that is sufficient and

appropriate to implement all of the projects activities.

Citizen Schools is led by an experienced and entrepreneurial management team that has

successfully managed complex, large-scale, and long-term projects including partnerships with

schools, districts, evaluators, corporations, and private funders. Eric Schwarz co-founded

Citizen Schools in 1995 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. He will have overall

responsibility for the implementation of the ELT turnaround validation project. Mr. Schwarz is a

nationally recognized leader in education reform and social entrepreneurship. He served as a

member of the Massachusetts Task Force on 21st Century Skills and served as co-editor ofThe

Case for Twenty-First Century Learning. He is an Adjunct Professor at Lesley Universitys

Graduate School of Education. Emily McCann, President, is a Harvard Business School

graduate who previously managed business development projects for Walt Disney Corporation

and critical client relationships at JPMorgan. At Citizen Schools since 2003, she has developed

the central office infrastructure that supports a national network of programs and school

partnerships. Citizen Schools national leadership team also includes: Kate Mehr, Vice

President; George Chu, Chief Analytical and Financial Officer; Claudia Alfaro, Chief Civic

Engagement Officer; Stacy Miles, Chief Program Officer; Michael Kubiak, Director of Research

Qualifications of Key Project Personnel and Evaluators


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and Evaluation, and Will Nourse, Chief Technology Officer. In each state, an Executive Director

oversees the Citizen Schools program and regional management team. This project will be led at

the state level by ELT Program Directors who will provide direct management of school-level

Campus Directors. The Citizen Schools Board of Directors includes experienced leaders from

education, business, and philanthropy and is chaired by Andrew Balson, Managing Director of

Bain Capital. Citizen Schools has established an Education Policy Advisory Board and an

Evaluation Advisory Board. (See Appendix H for board rosters.)

Each other partner will also commit a talented and experienced leader to the project.

Howard Lurie, Director of Teachers Domain Professional Development, will lead project

activities for WGBH. A former teacher and curriculum developer, he has 20 years of experience

bridging digital technologies and education. Mary Cullinane is Worldwide Director of

Innovation and Strategic Initiatives for Microsoft Education. Ms. Cullinane served as

Technology Architect for the School of the Future project at Microsoft and previously served

as a teacher and school administrator. Kristy Cunningham, Partner, will lead project activities

for Bain & Company. She has extensive experience developing growth strategies for companies

in diverse sectors and has helped lead Bains partnership with City Year.

Abt Associates Inc. is a recognized leader in conducting independent evaluations of

educational interventions. Abts research portfolio includes education projects that employ: (1) a

wide range of rigorous research designs for estimating impacts (e.g., random assignment,

regression discontinuity, and propensity score matching), as well as designs for assessing

implementation; (2) the specific data collection activities proposed in this i3 application (e.g.,

surveys, case studies and site-based interviews, and collection of achievement and administrative

data from state data systems); and (3) a full range of analytic techniques that rigorous evaluations


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require (e.g., mixed models, longitudinal data methods, and methods for analyzing the extent and

fidelity of implementation). Since 2006, Abt has conducted and continues to work on more than

120 education-related contracts, about 25% of which are for the U.S. Department of Education.

Dr. Beth Gamse, Principal Investigator, recently completed the National Reading First Impact

Study and is currently leading two studies of ELT initiatives (see resume in Appendix H).

Public/Private Ventures is an experienced evaluator of both in-school and out-of-school

initiatives including Boys & Girls Clubs, Elev8, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. P/PV has

extensive experience working collaboratively with organizations to implement successful

randomized studies and is known particularly for its expertise in integrating quantitative and

qualitative methods to illuminate not just whether programs work but how they work. Dr. Carla

Herrera, Principal Investigator, has led several large multi-site random assignment impact

studies, including P/PVs National School-Based Mentoring Impact Study and an evaluation of

the Higher Achievement Program (see resume in Appendix H).

By focusing on time, talent, and the sharing of data, the project described in this

application aims to improve student achievement and turn around low-performing schools. The

bold strategy we propose builds from strong early evidence of effectiveness. It also builds upon

the American tradition of citizen leadership. From the citizen soldiers who fought for

independence to the citizen activists who fought for civil rights, America has met its biggest

challenges when its citizens lead. But for too long citizen leadership has been absent in

education. Now, at a moment of urgent need and great opportunity, its time to open the

schoolhouse doors wide to welcome in new talent and fresh thinking. It is time to restore public

education as an engine of opportunity for all students.

CONCLUSION

i3 proposal: validating elt as a turnaround strategy for persistently low-performing middle schools

Documents