Office of School Turnaround

Office of School Turnaround

East St. Louis School District 189 is implementing a strategic approach to strengthen and improve student achievement. This will significantly reshape all of our schools by delivering comprehensive, student-focused services, attracting and developing exceptional turnaround leaders and teachers, restructuring school operations, and expanding educational partnership opportunities.

Position	Roles & Responsibilities
Chief of Schools	Strong leadership with high-functioning teams Implementation of Administrator Development Support System (ADSS) Well established systems to help develop and maintain high-quality schools Create an environment where staff members are valued Provide opportunities for staff to grow and develop by offering learning  opportunities and individualized professional development Strategically recruit top talent throughout the region, state and nation Lead for Cycles of Iteration Co-manage SIG grant Establish systems of accountability
School Turnaround Specialists	Manage the effective implementation of school turnaround initiatives. Collaborate with staff across departments and functions to ensure seamless implementation of initiatives in schools Identify and coordinate with external partners who are responsible for delivering key services to schools and students. Collaborate with central office and school based leadership to develop, implement, and/or obtain and provide needed resources, services, and materials for students in alignment with the district’s school turnaround strategies. Monitor Teacher Development Dialogue(TDD) Provide Social and emotional learning supports Monitor progress of school leaders and initiatives  Prepare reports, design scenarios, and other communication essentials Identify qualitative and quantitative data to assess performance and inform goals and decision making Support attendance and discipline policies Provide support to ensure safe and orderly schools and classroom environment Support for BAG program Engaged and communicate with parents and community partners Focused professional development that ensures teacher effectiveness Deliberate use of Danielson Framework and signature strategies Complete Annual and Quarterly Reports Manage School Improvement Grant

School Improvement:

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to provide a summative designation to each school with the required indicators, beginning in 2018. The five designations – Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted, Comprehensive, or Intensive - are based on multiple measures of school performance and included annually in the Illinois Report Card. The latter three designations (Targeted, Comprehensive, and Intensive) qualify a school to receive school improvement support through IL-EMPOWER. 

“IL-EMPOWER is Illinois’ Statewide System of Support for School Improvement.  It is a federal program authorized under Title I, Part A, Section 1003 of the Every Student Succeeds Act, 2015 (ESSA) and is administered by the Illinois State Board of Education.  IL-EMPOWER seeks to build the capacity of school leaders to implement and sustain effective school improvement practices.”  

School Improvement Status and grant funding continue for four years regardless of changes in annual summative designations. If a school's designation changes to exemplary or commendable after four years, it can exit school improvement status. If the school’s designation does not change after the four year cycle, it will be designated as intensive.

The schools supported by IL-EMPOWER are listed below:

East St. Louis Senior High school 

Lincoln Middle School 

Mason-Clark Middle School 

Flexibility with Clear Accountability

Turnaround Schools will operate with greater flexibility than typical schools. To accommodate greater flexibility, the district has given more autonomy and support to building level leadership. For example, turnaround schools will each partner with an outside agency (lead partner) for external support. The OST Lead has direct access to the district’s Superintendent to resolve issues as they arise. Ensuring operator flexibility has also meant that the district has had to provide the OST with political backing to ensure they are able to take dramatic action and be innovative. The Superintendent prepared the Board and FOP for this, and the decision to create the “Office of School Turnaround” was welcomed. Included in this flexibility is a high degree of accountability for a clear vision of success on an ambitious, but achievable timeline. We believe that it will take at least five years to attain sustainable success. 

Standardization for Scalability and Shared Decision-Making

Ultimately, the OST team works in collaboration with school leaders to come to consensus on most decisions around people, time, money, and programs. A detailed staffing map lays out positions at a school and clarifies expectations around each role. Student and teacher time is organized according to a common expectation, specific configurations of teacher meetings and define the scheduling and use of teacher planning time. Budgets are ultimately decided by the Office of School Turnaround (OST) and building principal. Many aspects of programming at the school—the assessment system, the behavior management system, advisory, the teaching-effectiveness framework—are defined by OST.

While the OST has worked to clarify a key set of non-negotiables, school-level flexibility has been preserved in two key ways to ensure the overall approach is customized to unique school context. First, because OST has a high degree of flexibility, non-negotiables are easily waived in the context of OST managers’ relationships with school leaders. Thus, many decisions on the customization of approach are worked out directly with school leaders who make a good case for why a particular aspect of turnaround strategy should be adjusted at their school. Secondly, leaders, teachers, and staff are expected to use data to design unique tactics within areas of strategy.

Rigorous Data Analysis and Monitoring

OST manages all support and monitoring for continuous school improvement. To effectively support the standardized approach, dedicated staff oversee the different areas of turnaround strategy (e.g., teaching and learning, climate and culture). OST also has other positions dedicated to supporting the campuses and building leaders.

The OST will be responsible for driving the overall improvement of student achievement. It will oversee the implementation and monitoring of structures and processes designed to establish a pathway for rapid improvements in student learning, teacher development (TDD), leadership quality, and school operations efficiency. Students will have access to interventions and support through a range of school- and district-led initiatives. The most significant factor in fostering student success will be ensuring that each student has access to high-quality teachers.

Programs

Department Initiatives: 

Continuous Improvement Processes:

• Performance Management Sessions
• Academic Excellence Indicators System
• Teacher Development Dialogue Walkthroughs
• District and School Improvement Plans

Evaluation and Data of Program and Student Performance:

• DOMO
• NWEA MAP Testing
• PARCC and DLM-AA
• SAT
• Illinois Science Assessment