Team Fellows Our Team Fellows Program focuses on school-based Leadership Teams as the level for change and improvement. Through on-site coaching, increase the capacity of current school leadership teams so that they can drive change to improve student outcomes, the quality of school culture, and the systems and structures that support continuous improvement. We work, side-by-side, with school leadership teams to establish coherent instructional and cultural implementation plans, and guide the development of corresponding action plans that earn early wins, gain buy-in from the staff, and consistently move the school community towards improvement goals. The program coaching and development work together to:

• • Support the improvement of the quality of instruction across classrooms by focusing on the development of both individual members of the school leadership team and on the development of the team unit as the driver of instructional work and quality.
  • Support the school community in refining student support structures, reducing suspensions and maximizing student time in class, and creating positive classroom cultures as the foundation for learning.
  • Strengthen systems and structures such as observation and coaching cycle, data-driven instruction cycle, and teacher teams. Key coaching activities include:
    1. Gap analysis in both school management actions and personal leadership competencies
    2. Guidance on developing goals and structures for an effective leadership team
    3. Clarification/development of a coherent instructional model and a clear action plan to improve the quality of instruction across classrooms in order to impact student work products and student achievement
    4. Guidance on how to organize staff to protect the principal’s time reserved for instructional leadership activities, particularly coaching on classroom instruction
    5. Guidance on developing tools and artifacts to drive instructional priorities in the school
    6. Guidance on developing systems and structures to monitor the effectiveness of implementation efforts
  • Support analyzing effectiveness of teaching strategies and course-correcting staff when necessary 3- Please combine the “Leader Development Program” and “Leader Coaching” boxes into 1 box with the title “Leader Development and Coaching” and link to the following text: Leadership Institute Improving School’s Leadership Institute is a development program that specifically focuses on shaping strong leaders and supporting them in building teams to drive dramatic change and lasting impact in a turnaround context. Often, school organizations in struggling districts lack the capacity to identify and develop talent in ways that can effectively and efficiently improve teacher and student performance. This program focuses on developing in-house talent into transformative leaders. Program participants will be intensively trained and assessed throughout the program year through a combination of all-day development sessions and on-site visits to current schools. Coaching and development focus on:
    1. Articulating a mission and vision for a turnaround
    2. Exploring and developing leadership competencies, including emotional intelligence
    3. Recruiting, evaluating, and hiring staff
    4. Building aligned teams and effectively distributing leadership
    5. Designing systems and structures that support the mission and turnaround vision, including observation, feedback, and coaching structures
    6. Overseeing unit and lesson plan development in alignment with standards and curricula
    7. Use of data to drive instruction
    8. Creating detailed summer professional development plans that will enable turnaround staff to execute the vision beginning on day one of placement
    9. Recruiting students and additional staff, if applicable
    10. Engaging the community to solicit input and build support
    11. Building partnerships
    12. Overseeing day to day operations in a school
    13. Creating a facility plan to rebrand and refresh the turnaround school space during the summer months
  • Visiting and analyzing high functioning and high achieving school sites to understand how effective structures are planned for and what they look like in action The goal of this program is to develop leaders. As such, commitment from schools/networks to place successful candidates into leadership positions is paramount

Overview Improving Schools believes that talented educators, given the right autonomies, training, and school structures, have the potential to make good schools great and transform struggling schools into high performing ones. Program Description Improving School’s Leadership Support Program is a combination of an on-site and virtual support coaching program with the goal of growing the leader’s capacity to foster and sustain student achievement in turnaround and new school settings. The program begins with an initial leader assessment and follows with a School Quality Review (SQR), the combination of which gives coaches the deep understanding to target support and coaching for the leader(s) and school(s) in the highest leverage areas. Using data from the LA360, SQR, and school-level data (teacher evaluation data, student growth/achievement data, school-wide attendance/behavior data), coaches will craft a tailored Coaching and Support Plan (CSP). Coaching and Support Coaching will be split between virtual and on-site activities. On-site meetings will focus on observation and feedback on key structures and routines that support the instructional and cultural vision: ILT, LT, Teacher Team Meetings, PD, and classroom instruction. On-site observations will be used to adjust course, revise key, actions, and further the coaching relationship. Virtual meetings will focus on the analysis of data, review of, and feedback on Strategic Planning documents, ILT and LT planning documents, PD planning, and other vision-related documentation. Innovation and Development During two trips to NYC over the course of the year, coaches will visit top-performing schools to consider various innovative approaches and models for dramatically improving outcomes at the new school. Coaches will work with leaders to incorporate aspects of what she sees into her developing school model and to prepare her to effectively lead her school community in realizing the innovative approach.