«Back

PRESS RELEASE

For more information contact:
Sabrina Tom
Development Manager
415/824-6196 x124
stom@partnersinschools.org

PARTNERS IN SCHOOL INNOVATION TRANSITIONS OUT OF AMERICORPS PROGRAM

San Francisco, CA - January 17, 2006 - Partners in School Innovation (PartnersSI) announced today its decision to leave the AmeriCorps Program after the 2005-2006 school year. The Bay Area school reform organization will continue to implement its signature Continuous School Improvement System-a set of integrated services aligned to improve the quality of teaching and school leadership in low-income, low-performing public elementary schools-but will no longer be employing AmeriCorps Members to serve these schools.

Driven by the belief that good teaching is the most powerful lever for raising student achievement, PartnersSI is committed to adopting innovative strategies for providing ongoing, sustainable professional development for teachers. The decision to leave AmeriCorps is part of a strategic plan that will significantly strengthen programmatic expertise and build organizational capacity, enabling PartnersSI to be even more effective in helping schools become better learning environments for all students.

Currently, PartnersSI places teams of 2 to 3 AmeriCorps Members, along with an experienced school improvement leader, at select school sites to support teachers in the classroom. However, starting next school year, AmeriCorps Members will be replaced by School Improvement Fellows, a new generation of social change agents with prior teaching experience and a demonstrated commitment to educational equity. Fellows will already be familiar with the many challenges facing teachers in under-resourced schools and thus have the credibility to manage and support them through the elements of PartnersSI's rigorous professional development program. In addition to their direct school improvement work, Fellows will participate in their own professional development internally at PartnersSI, where they will be offered not only the community and support of dedicated colleagues, but key resources and tools that can be applied back to their work in the classroom.

"Our AmeriCorps Members were critical in establishing positive student learning results, and the great majority have gone on to careers in public education and other social-change areas," said Julien Phillips, PartnersSI's co-founder. "The organization's decision to end its AmeriCorps Program was difficult, but it seems clear that School Improvement Fellows, with their teaching experience, will be better equipped to lead school change focused on classroom practice."

The expectation is to expand on-and exceed-the successes that have already been made in the organization's partner schools. In 2005, all of their partner schools met adequate yearly progress targets to meet requirements for No Child Left Behind for the first time. Overall, Latino students in partner schools demonstrated a faster increase in reading proficiency-13% in 2002, versus 9.7% for their Latino peers and 8.8% for their white peers, statewide-and the number of African American students reading at grade level in one partner school more than tripled after just one year of partnership.

"There is a tremendous opportunity for School Improvement Fellows to make a real difference in the quality of teaching in urban schools," said Executive Director Becky Crowe Hill. "We already have two Fellows who have proven to be extremely effective, and I'm excited for additional Fellows to amplify our existing program and impact our schools through an even deeper and more accelerated approach."

About Partners in School Innovation

Partners in School Innovation is the only San Francisco Bay Area non-profit school improvement organization that provides daily site-based implementation support to districts and schools serving predominantly students of color and English language learners. PartnerSI's approach to school improvement pivots on three convictions: (1) dramatically increasing student achievement is an essential priority (2) the strongest lever for improving student learning is improving teacher practice (3) sustaining school-wide improvement relies on building the leadership capacity of teachers, principals and district administrators. PartnerSI currently supports nine schools in San Francisco Unified, San Jose Unified and Oak Grove School Districts.

To Our AmeriCorps Members

For over twelve years, PartnersSI has enlisted the support of talented and civic-minded AmeriCorps Members—ethnically diverse college graduates deeply committed to racial equity in our schools—to foster major institutional change in education. More than 180 AmeriCorps Members have graduated from our program, completing a combined total of 400,000 hours of service in 9 districts and 29 schools serving approximately 20,000 students and 1,000 teachers. PartnersSI wishes to thank you for the commitment and energy you brought to the organization, the difference that you made in your partner schools and the credibility you earned for our organization. We are truly standing on your shoulders as we move into this next era.