2023-09-01 10:13:51
Over 130 district leaders from 50 districts across 18 states gathered for District Management Group’s 20th Superintendents’ Strategy Summit in New York City. The two-day 2023 Summit, Accelerate and Renew, explored strategies to future-proof districts in the face of the myriad challenges ahead and actions to take to accelerate learning and improve outcomes for our nation’s students.
In our opening session, DMGroup CEO and founder John Kim recapped the sector’s current challenges: the heightened academic and social-emotional needs in the wake of Covid disruptions, the reversal of progress made in addressing inequities in student outcomes by race and ethnicity, greater staffing shortages, declining enrollment and increased absenteeism, rising politicization, economic uncertainty, and the looming fiscal cliff.
To future-proof districts in the face of these challenges, much discussion was focused on the following strategies:
• Keeping the focus on student outcomes: The focus must be on achieving results. Short-cycle, iterative, data-focused work has been proven to deliver results for students.
• Budgeting strategically: With ESSER funds coming to an end and with the threat of an economic downturn, districts need to take action now to ensure funds are being used wisely for maximum impact. Understanding which investments are actually delivering positive outcomes for students is essential, and resources need to be directed accordingly.
• Taking action to support students with disabilities: Emerging research on the effect of the pandemic seems to confirm that students with disabilities suffered disproportionately in their academic outcomes. There is urgency to implement best practices to better support these students.
• Strengthening the value proposition and brand: To address declining enrollment and the rise in alternative learning environments, district leaders need to differentiate their schools to be the preferred choice by delivering aspirational benefits; district schools should not be seen as a commodity product delivering basic functional features.
Subsequent sessions explored these topics in greater depth, and included presentations by member districts sharing their successes and lessons learned in tackling this work.
Several DMCouncil member districts shared their successes in addressing the key challenges of accelerating learning, strategic budgeting, and student supports.
East Baton Rouge Parish School System shared their remarkable work increasing oral reading fluency by 75% for their third-graders most at risk. Highly focused goals, progress monitoring, rapid action cycles, and performance coaching enabled their teams to help these students close the gap with the average third-grader in the district in just 10 weeks (Exhibit 1).
Superintendent
East Baton Rouge Parish School System (LA)
Chief of Literacy
East Baton Rouge Parish School System (LA)
Literacy Coordinator
East Baton Rouge Parish School System (LA)
With a higher English learner population than the state average, the district was concerned by data confirming that inequities in student outcomes had increased for English learners during Covid. While conducting an effectiveness audit of existing programs had been considered, the district instead decided to jump into action to get results for these students. They embarked on the Breakthrough Results program, which combines focused goals, data reviews to track progress, collaborative team meetings, and performance coaching and professional development. Within 10 weeks, the district achieved dramatic improvements in first- and second-grade reading and MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) scores for grades three to five (Exhibit 2).
Superintendent
North Shore School District 112 (IL)
Principal
North Shore School District 112 (IL)
Associate Principal
North Shore School District 112 (IL)
With social-emotional and mental health needs on the rise in the district, Superintendent Peter Light was concerned about students waiting months to see a therapist and having limited access to psychiatric support. Light decided to take action and piloted a partnership with Cartwheel Care. As a result of the partnership, Acton-Boxborough students have been able to access teletherapy within seven days of the school referral, in multiple languages, and relationships with students’ families have been strengthened. Because Medicaid and commercial health insurance can be tapped, services are provided cost-effectively to the district. Light shared that the response from students and parents has been very positive.
Superintendent
Acton-Boxborough Regional School District (MA)
Co-founder and CEO
Cartwheel Care
Medical Director
Cartwheel Care
All three panelists spoke about their work to tightly align their resource allocation decisions to the strategic priorities of their respective districts. Academic return on investment (A-ROI) analyses provided the information to understand which programs were working most effectively for which particular group of students. Resource allocation decisions could then be made based on data on what worked best for students and promote the district’s strategic objectives.
"One of my greatest focuses is on reducing the power of a student’s zip code to predict their performance, and A-ROI has been such a strong tool in that effort."
— Ehren Jarrett Superintendent, Rockford Public Schools (IL)
The panelists also shared the value of building understanding and support for this evidence-based approach to resource allocation. “Our staff went through this process with us—it wasn’t done to them, it was something we did together,” Cruz said. He also candidly shared, “Some of the things we cut were my babies, things I had instituted in previous years—but I felt good doing it because the process felt transparent and because the decision was driven by metrics.”
Superintendent
Rockford Public Schools (IL)
Superintendent
Montgomery County Intermediate Unit 23 (PA)
Former Superintendent
Austin Independent School District (TX)
Dr. Bob Nelson and Misty Her of Fresno Unified and Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria of Fort Worth ISD shared their work leveraging academic return on investment analyses and strategic budgeting to ensure effective and efficient use of resources. For both districts, utilizing A-ROI analyses is enabling a more nuanced review of existing initiatives (Exhibit 3). And for new initiatives, both districts are now requiring clear definitions of success and systematizing the tracking of outcomes. Adopting a strategic budgeting mindset is increasing accountability across the district and keeping the focus on delivering results for students.
Superintendent
Fresno Unified (CA)
Deputy Superintendent
Fresno Unified (CA)
Chief Financial Officer
Fort Worth ISD (TX)
Elena Runco and Carrie Woodard of Pittsburgh Public Schools (PA), along with DMGroup’s strategic partner Everyday Labs, shared their successful partnership leveraging behavioral science to tackle chronic absenteeism in their district. Work included clarifying attendance policies, improving communication to families, building capacity among staff, conducting check-in surveys with families via text, and providing personalized nudge communications to families about their student’s attendance.
Director of Student
Support Services Pittsburgh Public Schools (PA)
Director of Student Support Services
Pittsburgh Public Schools (PA)
Chief of Staff
Everyday Labs
Director of District Partnership
EveryDay Labs
FuelEd, a nonprofit that provides social-emotional learning for educators, shared their science-based framework for developing and supporting emotionally intelligent educators. With educators saying that teaching is more stressful than ever and rising numbers thinking about leaving the profession, supporting educators to develop social and emotional competencies and feel securely attached is more important than ever—not only for the educators themselves but for the students who depend upon them to provide a safe, secure school culture for optimal learning and development.
Founder and Partner
FuelEd
Partner
FuelEd
To learn more about the topics discussed at our Superintendents’ Strategy Summit, contact us at info@dmgroupk12.com.
Page 69: Top left: Keith Simmons, Superintendent, Griffin-Spalding County Schools (GA); Byron Jones, Chief Financial Officer, Griffin-Spalding County Schools (GA); Judi Battle, Human Resources Director, Griffin-Spalding County Schools (GA); Top right: Shenoa Warren, Chief of Literacy, East Baton Rouge Parish School System (LA); Center: Tom Simon, Director of Student Support Services, North Adams Public Schools (MA); Mike Lubelfeld, Superintendent of Schools, North Shore School District 112 (IL); Colleen Goodrich, Associate Principal, North Shore School District 112 (IL); Bottom left: Martha Salazar-Zamora, Superintendent of Schools, Tomball Independent School District (TX); Bottom right: Cindy Welling, Chief of Staff, EveryDay Labs
This page: Top left: Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, Chief Financial Officer, Fort Worth Independent School District (TX); Top right: Bob Nelson, Superintendent, Fresno Unified School District (CA); Bottom: Fred Williams, Superintendent, Dublin City School District (GA)
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