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Download
a copy of our FAQs
- What is Partners in School Innovation?
- What is PartnersSI's mission?
- What is PartnersSI's strategic vision?
- What is your impact on student learning?
- How is PartnersSI unique?
- How does PartnersSI transform schools?
- What is PartnersSI's main product?
- What are the services you offer to schools?
- How do you select partner schools?
- How does a partnership work?
- What is the role of a School Innovation Partner?
- How long do your partnerships with schools
last?
- What are the main challenges facing low-income,
low-performing schools?
- How is your program funded?
- Is PartnersSI sustainable?
What is Partners in School Innovation?
Partners in School Innovation is a non-profit organization
that partners with low-income, low-performing public elementary
schools to develop the capacity and expertise of teachers and
leaders in order to accelerate the literacy achievement of routinely
underserved African American and Latino students and English Learners.
top
What is PartnersSI's mission?
PartnersSI's mission is to enabe public schools in high-poverty
Bay Area communities-- seving students of color and English Learners--
to achieve educational equity through school-based reform. We
are working to eliminate the achievement gap that threatens social
justice and economic prosperity.
On average, U.S. schools suffer from a 4-year achievement gap.
By the end of high school, African American and Latino 12th graders
are reading at about the same level as white and Asian 8th graders.
PartnersSI aims to close this achievement gap before students
leave elementary school so it ceases to persist. Students who
master foundational literacy skills at an early age are more likely
to be set up for high levels of success in their education, careers,
communities and broader society. top
What is PartnersSI's five-year
vision?
Partners in School Innovation is at a critical inflection
point and is ready to expand. We have articulated a strategic
vision that includes growing to 10 school districts over the next
5 years while demonstrating unprecedented levels of student learning
and school and district capacity-building in the country. Our
goal is to earn national visibility and inform the national school
reform conversation about what it takes to transform schools.
We also plan to develop a sustainable funding model that allows
for further growth and impact. Our plan includes increasing earned
income through public funding, increasing our cost-effectiveness
while increasing the quality of our results, and securing $10
million in growth capital over the 5-year period to develop the
organizational capacity and infrastructure for going to scale.
top
What is PartnersSI's impact
on student learning?
1)In 2009, the 9 schools that substantially implemented our program
made 7 percentage points growth on the California Standards Test
in English Language Arts compared to 5.7 percentage point growth
in the state. They also outperformed the average growth in each
of their respective districts by 1 to 4 percentage points.
2) In 2008, the 25 grade levels that implemented our approach
with the most fidelity in San Jose Unified tripled the district's
and state's reading gains and doubled the gains of similar schools.
3) In 2007, 3 of PartnersSI's were named "Star Schools" by a state
level business coalition (Just for the Kids and the California
Business for Education Excellence) honoring the biggest achievement
gap closers in all of California. There were only 126 (of 9000+)
schools honored across California. top
How is PartnersSI unique?
1) We provide implementation partnership. In our Core Service
Model, our experienced staff works side by side and on-site with
teachers and principals to change the quality of instruction and
leadership at schools. As former educators with outstanding track
records themselves, our staff brings a new level of expectation,
vision and passion to their partner schools.
2) We work on systems change. We build lasting capabilities
to sustain high performance in previously low-performing schools.
We are the only organization that works intensively in the classroom
all the way to the district office, ensuring practitioners and
leaders at each level are learning about and implementing what
works.
3) We have an equity-driven orientation. Our charge is
to work in the schools that need the most intensive support. We
engage the leadership and teachers in those sites deeply and consistently
in order to build a culture of efficacy, while driving decision-making
and instruction with targeted, strategic and timely performance
data toward greater results. top
How does PartnersSI transform
schools?
We focus on the two most important contributors to student learning:
the quality of teaching and the strength of leadership. By engaging
teachers and principals in intensive, results-oriented, continuous
improvement, we help them learn how to improve teaching until
every child is succeeding at a higher and higher level. top
What is PartnersSI's
main product?
Dramatically more effective urban schools-- higher levels of student
learning, stronger teaching, and effective leadership. In addition,
many of our own staff members-- through their experience with
us-- will go on to embody new models of public school leadership.
What are the services that
PartnersSI offers to schools?
PartnersSI offers a set of integrated services that transforms
the quality of education from the classroom level to the district
level.
- We provide on-site change leaders who engage school staff
in intensive, results-oriented continuous improvement that enables
them first to learn how to accelerate the learning of their
students and second how to sustain continuous improvement after
our partnership. For example: Every week during grade level
team meetings, our staff guide teachers through a process of
analyzing student learning outcomes, reflecting on their individual
and group practice, and planning standards-based lessons which
combine evidence of what works in the classroom with best practices
from the field.
- To reinforce and extend these school-based efforts, we lead
cross-school Leadership Development Networks of school and district
leaders to learn effective practices from one another and from
educational research.
- In addition, we consult to and collaborate with district leaders
in focusing their policies, programs, and processes on the acceleration
of student learning district wide.top
How do you select partner schools?
We partner with schools that serve students of color, English
Learners and economically disadvantaged students. We look for
schools that are committed to getting results for their students
of color and closing the achievement gap. We also respond to direct
inquiries from interested school districts, school principals
and staff. top
How does a partnership work?
Our partnerships typically last three to five years, during which
time we work closely with the school's teachers and leaders to
set and meet student achievement goals. At each intensive school
site, we place one or two School Innovation Partners to work on-site
to coach teachers and leaders to implement our continuous improvement
process. In addition, our District Partnership Director manages
the partnership across all of our school sites and works closely
with district leaders to ensure that district priorities are aligned
with improvement efforts at the intensive school sites. top
What is the role of the School
Innovation Partner (SIP)?
The School Innovation Partner supports and guides teachers through
a continuous learning process using the Results-Oriented Cycle
of Inquiry. The SIP also works in close collaboration with the
principal to develop and work toward measurable student achievement
goals, articulate a coherent schoolwide improvement plan, monitor
student learning on a daily basis and regularly evaluate schoolwide
progress.top
How long do your partnerships
with schools last?
Our partnerships with schools typically last three to five years,
during which we use an "apprenticeship model" to build
sustainability for continuous improvement. In the first years
of the partnership, we provide a great deal of direction and guidance
and explicitly teach teachers and leaders new ways of working.
As they continue to develop their skills and gain competency,
we consciously shift to a coaching and advising role. At the close
of the partnership, our teachers and leaders will have internalized
the knowledge, skills and confidence to sustain the work without
the external support. top
What are the main challenges
facing low-income, low-performing schools?
Typically, a low-income, low-performing urban school is overburdened
because:
- There is a lack of resources.
- There is a disproportionate number of inexperienced teachers
and teachers with emergency credentials.
- Teachers are overburdened and lack the time to strategically
reflect on their teaching in order to accelerate learning for
their students.
- Teachers receive limited support and attend one-shot professional
development opportunities that fail to coach them on how to
use what they've learned back in the classroom.
- Teachers and staff lack access to rigorous and systematic
data, as well as the technology and support to effectively analyze
data with the intention of improving teacher practice.
- Principals have tremendous demands placed on them, leaving
them with little time to devote to instructional leadership.
- There is a lack of school leadership committed to student-centered
decision-making, where equitable teaching and learning outcomes
guide all decisions, including those related to instruction
and resource allocation. top
How is your program funded?
Earned income from schools and districts make up approximately
40% of the costs of service. Contributed income from community
foundations, corporate donors and individual donors make up the
rest of the costs of service. top
Is PartnersSI sustainable?
As our student learning results have improved each year, schools
and districts have derived great value from our partnerships and
increased their financial support. Over the past five years, we
have increased our earned income from schools and districts by
a factor of five and have shifted our contributed to earned income
ratio from 16:1 to nearly 1:1. top
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