May 2014

Dear Colleague,

How can we implement scalable and sustainable reforms in both charters and traditional school districts, so that every child can attend a quality school?

That's one of the questions I addressed this month as a guest blogger for Rick Hess Straight Up. I believe that traditional school districts can learn from the charter movement--about what works, what doesn't, and how the two sectors can strengthen each other. It takes a village, or a system, to ensure that every child can succeed.

The ERS village is growing as well. We're welcoming new team members and working with more districts and states. And we want to hear from you. Please check out the brief "Innovations in Education" poll at the end of this email.

With kind regards for a productive and transformative summer.

Karen Hawley Miles

Executive Director

NEW PUBLICATION:
7 Ideas for Seizing the Moment for Transformation in California--and Beyond

In 2013, California revolutionized how it funds public schools by adopting the Local Control Funding Formula, which adds new dollars and shifts control to districts and communities. ERS is working closely with the California Collaborative on District Reform on how districts can seize this moment of transformation, and we lay out seven ideas here--ideas that can inspire districts outside California as well.

Download the memo �

Guest blog on Rick Hess Straight Up

What can traditional urban public school districts learn from the charter movement to ensure all students receive an excellent education? I put this question in the context of funding, strategic school design, and human capital strategy in three guest posts on Rick Hess's Education Week blog. Many thanks to Rick for the opportunity!

Read the blogs �

Tell us what you think charters and traditional districts can learn from each other �

School System 20/20 Progress:

Strategic School Design

In the past few months, we worked with three urban districts on how to give school leaders more autonomy and system-wide support to create strategic school designs. We also released Strategic School Design in Action, a set of 16 school profiles that showcase innovative ways to use people, time, and money.

Cleveland: With funding from The Cleveland Fund, we helped the district craft a new student-based budgeting formula, and guided school leaders in how to design their schools strategically to meet student needs within the new allocations. We also worked with the central office to change how they support schools throughout this process.
Charlotte: Along with Public Impact, we coached the Student Success by Design cohort of schools to make bold new choices with their school designs, and provided "school resource use reports" to school leaders and their supervisors to support that work. This project was made possible by funding from the Belk Foundation.
Boston: With funding from The Boston Foundation, we worked with Boston Public Schools to examine what kinds of autonomy school leaders should have over their resources. As part of the district's ongoing effort to build school leader capacity, nearly 20 aspiring BPS principals also attended an all-day training in school design, funded by a gift from the Lynch Foundation.

Funding

Urban school leaders need guidance on whether to implement student-based budgeting or weighted student funding. This winter, we released several resources to help with that decision:

Welcome to ERS!

We are thrilled to announce that several new faces have or will be joining our team:

Eleanor Laurans, most recently a Senior Principal at the Parthenon Group, will join us to explore the possibility of an advocacy effort focused on how state data can support better resource use across districts.
Karen Silverman, recent Senior Vice President of Campaigns at 50CAN, will join us as our Development Manager.
Kate Bernier, recent principal at the MATCH school in Chelsea, MA, will join us as a member of our Strategic School Design team.
Denisha Patel, who has worked in an administrative role in several industries, joined us as an Administrative Assistant to support our consulting teams and partners.
Ali Huberlie, a current student at Harvard Business School, will join the School System 20/20 research team as our Summer Associate.

A Bittersweet Farewell

We also want to extend our deepest gratitude and respect to former ERS partner Don Hovey, who is moving on to his next adventure as the VP of Marketing at high-tech startup VMTurbo, based in Boston. His contributions to ERS spanned from running the Aspen CFO network for over five years to leading most of our organizational development as we've more than tripled in size. His insight, skill, and care for others will be missed by all.

WHAT YOU TOLD US...Innovations in Education Survey #1

In the last ERS News, we asked what innovations your district or organization will be working on this year. The top three were:

Implementing Common Core
Evaluating the teacher value proposition: compensation, career path, and/or professional support
Building school leader and supervisor capacity to improve school performance

Innovations in Education Survey #2:

What do you think charters and traditional school districts can most learn from each other? Results will appear in the next ERS News. Take our one-question survey.

About ERS Contact Us

Education Resource Strategies (ERS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping urban school systems organize talent, time, and money to create great

schools at scale.

Education Resource Strategies

480 Pleasant St, Suite C-200, Watertown, MA 02472 T: 617.607.8000

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