haas education leadership case competition: pittsburgh public schools harvard university february...
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Haas Education Leadership Case Competition:Pittsburgh Public Schools
Harvard UniversityFebruary 13, 2010
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Today, too many of Pittsburgh’s students are unprepared for college and careers
66%
73%
43%
50%
32%
39%
27%
34%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
PSSA Reading PSSA Math
White All Students Low-income African American
Student academic performance is not meeting expectations
Students are not prepared to take advantage of Pittsburgh Promise
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
1,600
1,800
2,000
12th Grade Class2008
PromiseScholarships
Aw arded
Grade 11 Performance(percent of students proficient or advanced)
District goal of 80% higher degree attainment for high
school graduates
Source: Haas Education Leadership Case Competition, Pittsburgh Public Schools, 2010.
2008 Promise Awards(Note: 2008 GPA requirement of 2.0)
GPA <2.0
GPA >2.0
1,845
757
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Out of Classroom Time (OCT) can be better utilized to support college readiness
OCT is one element of student successMany organizations already work with
students during OCT
OCT
Family
Clas
sroo
m
Source: PPS Summer Dreamers Academy, Education Committee Presentation (2009)
School programs
Afterschool programs
Summer programs
Businesses and non-profits
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A successful OCT strategy will be neither highly centralized nor simply visionary
Direct Management
• Single entity directly controls all organizations
• Tight regulation of operations
• Strict accountability
• EXAMPLE: Garbage collection contractors
• Voluntary agreement on broad themes, or a marketing campaign
• Little or no shared operational expectations
• Few or no accountability mechanisms
• EXAMPLE: “Make Poverty History”
Best strategy for Pittsburgh is a middle ground
Pathways to the Promise strategy will combine the best of both: sufficient space for innovation,
while ensuring aligned agreement
Shared Rhetoric
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Guiding Principles can create a shared vision in the community
1 All students will be encouraged and challenged to go to college
2 All students who want to go to college will receive practical support at each step of the preparation process
4 All families will receive the information they need to help their students plan for the future
3 All students will have conversations about their futures with caring, trusted adults
Suggested language for Guiding Principles
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Action is needed in four areas for implementation
Provide a roadmap forstudents to reach the Promise
Create capacity tomanage andsupport partners
Leverage partners’ strengths
and capabilities
Understand thedifferences in
students’ needs
1
34
2
7
Provide stronger and earlier instructions to navigate Pathways to the Promise
1
Students need help meeting milestones
Source: Christopher Avery & Thomas Kane, Student Perceptions of College Opportunities: The Boston COACH Program; Bettinger, Eric, Increasing Postsecondary Enrollment among Low-Income Families… The FAFSA H&R Block Experiment
54%
63%
50% 49%
29%24%
36% 33%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Took SAT Have anapplication
CounselorVisits (4+)
Visited acollege
Yes
No
“…Considerable evidence of low-income youths with high aspirations and high valuations of college failing to clear seemingly minor hurdles in the [college going] process…”
Christopher Avery Harvard Department of Economics
Aspiration is not enough
Note: Students in program studied had min 3.0 GPA and were looking for admission to 4-year BA programs in MA
• Early communication upon entering high school helps students begin college path
- Personalized roadmap for students- iEnroll application
• Quick Wins- Partner with H&R block to offer FAFSA application
assistance to all8 28% of low-income students haven’t heard of
the FAFSA- Flex funds to help students pay for SAT tests
Enrollment rate of academically qualified students meeting milestone by start of senior year
8
Understand students’ differentiated needs to tailor approaches for support
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A process is needed to identify students’ needs
Targeted approaches to students’ barriers are needed
Source: Focusing on Results in Promise Neighborhoods: Recommendations for the Federal Initiative, The Center for the Study of Social Policy
• Guidance Counselors take the lead on assessing students when they arrive to construct Student Profile
- Academic Review8 Past GPA performance8 PSSA performance8 Attendance/Truancy
- Soft skills and home life review8 Disciplinary history8 Federal surveys8 Take-home surveys
• Implement a system to capture and track this student data (i.e. Pearson’s PowerSchool)
Note: Excellent student survey samples can be found from Coalition for Community Schools and Harlem Children Zone to understand student readiness and risks Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte currently administers placement tests to early high school students to determine academic areas of focus before graduation
Low High
Low
High
Academic Strength
Provide academic supports
Early and intense
intervention to
build aspirations
Provide stretch goals to reach full potential
Communicate benefits; support
milestone attainment
Soft
Skills
Str
en
gth
Identify partners’ capabilities to leverage their strengths in supporting students
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Source: PPS; International case studies9
Potential solutions
• Create a web-based directory of CBOs and their programs to help parents and teachers identify opportunities for students
• Utilize neighborhood, parent, and political networks to spread the word about Promise opportunities.
• Formalize communication between committed partners - Secure agreement from Colleges, CBOs, Summer Schools and Business to
Guiding Principles will embed a consistent vision
• Highlight the benefits to colleges of supporting Promise success- Challenge local colleges to run summer schools and mentoring programs- Support colleges in advertising to students early and often in high school
Barrier
Lack of knowledge of existing programs
Lack of alignment with Pittsburgh Promise
Lack of open communication
between stakeholders
• Create buy-in of Guiding Principles by community partners- CBO’s sign agreement to adhere to Guiding Principles for access to
school facilities and the online directory
• Set up a Promise Advisory Board of partners to create buy-in
• Require Promise recipients/alumni to invest in community- Work with targeted CBOs and Summer Programs- Could be extended in the form of a ‘Promise Corps’
Summer school at collegesPreparing parents
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There are innovative interventions that Pittsburgh can implement with partners
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Source: UK Department for Education and Skills, Widening Participation in Higher Education (2003); Playing for Success; Boston Public Schools Acceleration Agenda (2009); Youth Development Institute, College Access and Success for Young Adult Learners: A Research Summary for Schools and Programs
• Playing for Success is a British CBO which runs homework clubs at urban sports venues
• Literacy, numeracy and IT with a sporting focus
• Target underperforming high school students
• Independent evaluations show significant improvement in numeracy test scores and self-confidence particularly for male minority students
• Steelers, Panthers, Penguins could be partners
Math in sports clubs Results focused mentoring
• College Opportunity and Career Help (COACH) links students from Harvard to Boston Public Schools
• Focus is on providing assistance to students in preparing for and applying to college (e.g., SAT test prep, application form completion)
• From the outset undertook rigorous monitoring and evaluation to test impact on college application rates
• Results focused approach could be extended to existing University of Pittsburgh program
• Parent University is a Boston Public School year-long training and education program for parents
• Provides workshops (including full day Saturday sessions) to help parents understand how they can help their children with homework and how to understand the college application process
• Supports parents to develop a network that can be a friendly challenge to poorly performing schools
• Could easily be extended to PPS
• New York’s Youth Development Initiative has found that students are more likely to complete the application process for college if they have been on campus for an extended period
• City University of New York runs month long intensive summer schools on its campus which focus on college preparation as well as after school classes
• The same could be implemented by Carnegie Mellon as well as community colleges
Create management capacity to facilitate networking across multiple stakeholders
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Source: PPS; International case studies11
Recommended approachesConsiderations
School personnel lacks bandwidth to manage additional
responsibilities
Manage balance of CBO autonomy and
commitment to Promise
Pittsburgh Promise alumni base is a
resource
• Create a Community Coordination Officer (CCO)- 1 CCO for every 2 high schools- Strengthen relationship between CBOs and schools- Provide feedback to the district on program effectiveness
• Introduce volunteer “Parent Coordinators” in all high schools- Responsible for daily tasks (lunch duty, dismissal, etc) to free up Guidance
Counselors/Social Worker to focus on Promise support
• Provide incentives for community partners to align with Promise- Allocate 150K to “CBO Innovation Prize” for effective strategies focus on
college-readiness
• Annual Parent and Student Surveys to evaluate CBO Promise support programs
- Publicize survey response on PPS website and in CBO Directory (i.e. “Did CBO provide college tour?”)
• Establish “Promise Corps”- Use Teach for America 2-year commitment model- Top 10% of graduating class eligible for greater school loan repayment- Vigorously develop relationships with community partners and commitment
to Promise
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Management tools will guide implementation
Marketing & Communication Plan
Suggested Budget
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Dashboard for Evaluation
Implementation Timeline
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PPS should continue to build upon the Pathways to Promise brand
Public CBOsFamilies
• Celebrate early successes
- Advertise student success stories
• Challenge businesses to partner with the Promise
• “For our partners” link on the web with
- Guiding Principles- CCO Contact information
• Market Guiding Principles to develop awareness and support
- Advertise ‘Parent College’
Continue to build on brand momentum
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PPS should establish a monthly dashboard to track how it is delivering on the Promise
• Dashboards should be created at a District, CCO and school level
• Data on CBO performance should be drawn from a bi-annual survey of students
• An upgraded IT system should link with the iEnroll student checklist to track performance against key barriers to enrolment
Promise readinessCurrent GPAs
Current attendance
Target: 80% >2.5 GPA
Target: 80% >90% attendance
Enrollment readiness12th Grade iEnroll checklist completion
Target: 75%
CBO survey response from 11th Grade
75%
50%
35%
85%
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PPS can have real impact for $1m a year
Category Cost/Unit Quantity Total Cost NotesExpenses Staffing
HS Community Coordination Officer (CCO) 75,000 5 375,000 1 CCO for every 2 HS's
Promise Corps (PC) 40,000 5 200,000 PC Pilot Program in 2010- 2011
Recruitment Expenses 35,000 1 35,000
Postings, Travel to Career Fairs, etc
Programmatic Expenses
Promise Corp Expenses (training, recruitment) 11,000 5 55,000
PD for PC's (5*$200/week at 52 weeks)
Promise Marketing/ Advertising 50 1,845 92,250
$50 per graduating PPS HS senior
CBO Incentive Program 150,000 1 150,000
100K First Prize; 50K Second Prize
Technology
IT Needs 1,400 66 92,400 1,400 per school, in addition to IT in process
Total Expenses 999,650
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PPS should define a workplan for timely and effective implementation
Task by Action Area
• Provide Roadmap for students-Introduce Parent University-Develop iEnroll data system with guidance counselor monitoring
-Implement iEnroll data system
• Determine students needs-Collect student data -Design Student Profile document
• Leverage partners’ strengths-Create advisory board-Develop ‘Guiding Principles’-Host a call to action for CBOs-Formalize college relationships-Finalize CBO directory-Pilot Promise Corps Program-Roll out Promise Corps Program
• Build capacity to manage-Roosevelt meet with principles-Define CCO role and recruiting-Provide intensive training for guidance counselors
2011 - 2012
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Spring ‘10
Feb Mar Apr May
Summer ‘10
Jun Jul Aug
2010 - 2011
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
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Next Steps: What are you going to do when you get back to the office?
2 Define your top 2-3 stakeholders among Pittsburgh’s CBOs, colleges and businesses. Would they be appropriate Advisory Board members?
3 Review Prof. Chris Avery’s paper on COACH in Boston, the Youth Development Institute’s paper on College Access and Success in New York City and other cited resources. Are there further lessons to learn from the most successful attempts to tackle this issue?
4 Draw up list of potential additional funders (e.g., Broad Foundation, Tiger Foundation). Could Pathways to the Promise be pitched to them as a trial program for the nation?
1 Seek feedback from other members of your PPS team. Does the strategy need adjusting given their expertise?
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Questions?
Q&A
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BACKUP
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Recommended Sources (1 of 2)
Helping Students Prepare• “Paving the Way for Success in High School and Beyond: The Importance of Preparing Middle School Students for the
Transition to Ninth Grade“, Jean Baldwin Grossman and Siobhan M. Cooney http://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/269_publication.pdf
• “The Case for School-Based Integration of Services: Changing the Ways Students, Families and Communities Engage With Their Schools”, Jean Baldwin Grossman and Zoua M. Vanghttp://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/267_publication.pdf
City of New York Youth Development Institute• “College Access and Success for Young Adult Learners: A Research Summary for Schools and Programs.”
http://www.ydinstitute.org/resources/publications/CollegeAccess(YouthDevelopmentInstitute).pdf • “Building a Better Bridge: Helping Young Adults Enter and Succeed in College.”
http://www.ydinstitute.org/resources/publications/TheDreamofCollege(YouthDevelopmentInstitute).pdf Boston Public Schools• “Acceleration Agenda 2009-2014: A Five-Year Strategic Direction to transform the Boston Public Schools.”
http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/agenda• “The Effects of College Counseling on High-Achieving, Low-Income Students: Results of a Pilot Study with a
Randomized Controlled Trial.” Avery, C., Sept, 2009. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/cavery/counselor%20paper%20september%2016%202009.pdf
• “Student Perceptions of College Opportunities: The Boston COACH Program”, Avery, C., and Kane, Thomas. In College Choices: the Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay for it, Caroline Hoxby, Ed. University of Chicago Press, Sept 2004. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/cavery/Student%20Perceptions%20of%20College%20Opportunities.pdf
United Kingdom• “Widening participation in higher education”, Department for Education and Skills. 2003
http://www.dius.gov.uk/higher_education/~/media/publications/E/EWParticipation
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Recommended Sources (2 of 2)
Afterschool Programs/Summer Schools• National Dropout Prevention Center/Network: Summary of research on benefit of after school programming
www.droupoutprevention.org/effstrat/after_school_opps• Children’s Aid Society
www.childrensaidsociety.org/TA• Playing for Success
http://www.playingforsuccessonline.org.uk/• COACH
http://www.communityservice.harvard.edu/programs/coach-college-opportunity-and-career-help• Boston Public Schools Parent University
http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/3781• CUNY Summer School
http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/academics/precollege/ Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Scholars Program• http://www.seo-usa.org/Scholars_Overview
The FAFSA• “Increasing Postsecondary Enrollment Among Low Income Families: A Project to Improve Access to College
Information and Financial Aid” Bettinger E. et al, Jan 2009. http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~longbr/FAFSA_Project_-_Bettinger_Long_Oreopoulos_-_Description_1-09.pdf
• “FAFSA Experiment Boosts College Going.” Lederman, Doug. Inside Higher Ed, Sept 23, 2009. http://www.nber.org/papers/w15361.pdf
• “College Grants on a Postcard: A Proposal for Simple and Predictable Federal Student Aid.” Dynarski, Susan M, and Scott-Clayton, Judith E., Social Science Research Networkhttp://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2007/02education_dynarski/200702dynarski%20scott%20clayton.pdf