EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES: How ten middle schools lengthened the learning day with Citizen Schools by Thom Barbour

EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES How Ten Middle Schools Lengthened The Learning Day With Citizen Schools

A Report on the First Year of Citizen Schoolsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Expanded Learning Time Initiative

Citizen Schools and ten middle schools created an expanded learning day to transform student achievement. This report looks back at the first year of the initiativeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the promising results and the lessons learned.

INTRODUCTION: The launch of a national Expanded Learning Time initiative

REPLICATING A SUCCESS STORY: The Edwards Middle School

Seizing the Opportunity of Time Citizen Schools Model: How it Works MA State Exam Proficiency Rates: Edwards Middle School—Grade 8, Math A Closer Look: Citizen Schools Staffing Model A Student’s Week at a Citizen Schools ELT School ELT Partnerships: Changing the Equation Highlights of Impact Four keys to successful ELT partnerships

ONE: Leadership

TWO: Planning

A Closer Look: Planning for ELT

THREE: Data collection and sharing

ANet Assessments: Using Interim Data Families in the Loop A Closer Look: Exit Tickets—Citizen Schools’ Formative Assessment

FOUR: Teamwork: Integrating the First and Second Shifts

Utilizing Citizen Schools’ Unique Contributions The Second Shift, During the School Day The School Day Staff, During the Second Shift Obstacles to Teamwork A Closer Look: Launching an ELT Partnership

Results

Proficiency Gains on Standardized Tests Student Growth Grades Student Engagement FUNDING

ELT Funding Models Implications of Public Funding RECOMMENDED READING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“Now that we are implementing ELT, our teachers are more effective because all their students have completed their homework, have practiced academic skills and have new reasons to care about school and see its relevance to their future.” —lisa nelson, Principal, Isaac Newton Middle School, New York, NY

INTRO D U C T I O N : The launch of a national Expanded Learning Time initiative

This paper describes year one of a national initiative to transform schools by adding dramatically more learning time, more people, and more relevant content. Citizen Schools, a national non-profit, established Expanded Learning Time (ELT) partnerships with ten middle schools across the country to increase opportunity for students and help transform the schools. The schools were selected because their recent performance wasn’t reaching district goals. They served populations of children common to under-performing schools: 96% of them of color, and 84% of them came from families with incomes low enough to be eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Most importantly, according to metrics required by law, these schools were not working. Before ELT, partner schools made on average zero or minimal progress on building student proficiency, well below their districts’ averages.

Expanded Learning Time Partner Schools 2010/2011 Boston, Massachusetts Orchard Gardens K−8 School Edwards Middle School Revere, Massachusetts Garfield Middle School New York City, New York Global Tech Preparatory School Bronx School for Science and Inquiry (MS 331) School for Global Studies Newark, New Jersey Martin Luther King, Jr School

Some of the partnerships began thriving in the first year. At some schools, student learning gains have been extraordinary, closing achievement gaps while offering a more well-rounded education. Others found their footing amid victories and challenges. Lessons learned are already helping to drive improvements in the new ELT partnerships that launched in fall 2011 and additional ones that will start implementing ELT in fall 2012 or 2013.

Houston, Texas Jane Long Middle School Oakland, California Elmhurst Community Prep Middle School United for Success

ELT Cohort (new & converted partnerships) ß 1200 students ß 10 schools in 5 states ß 96% students of color ß 84% eligible for free or reduced price lunch ß Before ELT, schools on average made zero or minimal progress on building student proficiency and, on average, performed below their respective district averages

This report shares lessons learned from the initiative so far. The patterns that are emerging provide valuable insight about school success factors—what works when we find new models for the when, who, and how of education.

new partnership after-school site converted to ELT existing ELT partnership

For a full list of schools partnering with Citizen Schools, including out-of -school time programs, visit www.citizenschools.org/about/locations

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

To reverse these trends, Citizen Schools worked with each school to change dismissal time from two or three in the afternoon to five or six. A second shift of talented educators was recruited and trained. Students were given more academic practice and coaching as well as experiences that connected learning to college and career success. First and second shift teachers collected and shared more data on student progress to improve instruction.

REPLIC AT I N G A S U C C E S S S T O RY: T h e E d wards Middle School

When one Boston ELT school closed the achievement gap, Citizen Schools set out to help other middle schools get similar results.

S e i z i n g t h e O p po rt u n ity o f Time

In fall 2005, the Clarence Edwards Middle School in Boston was failing. The student body looked no different than that of most Boston public schools at the time: 90% of students were Black, Hispanic or Asian; over 25% had special educational needs; almost 90% were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Most students were not proficient in either English or math, as measured by the state’s student assessment system. It was one of the lowest-performing schools in the city and on the verge of closure. Years of reforms had improved the school culture and organization, but student outcomes remained stubbornly unchanged. Today, the school thrives as Boston’s highest performing middle school based on measures of student growth and absolute proficiency. Over four years, the school eliminated the achievement gap for students in mathematics and erased 80% of the gap on literacy and science standardized tests. Daily attendance grew and suspensions fell. Family demand for the school in Boston’s choice system rose exponentially—from seventeen to nearly five hundred families—leaving many on a waiting list to attend. What removed the barriers to success that had stood in the way of previous initiatives? In 2006, then-principal Mike Sabin decided to turn to ELT and lengthen the school day. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, with support from Massachusetts 2020, a leader in education reform and policy, facilitated Massachusetts’ first ELT initiative which provided planning grants and per-pupil financial support for schools selected to participate. Sabin seized the opportunity, and asked the school’s leading after-school provider, Citizen Schools, to become a deeper partner in making it possible:

“When you’re letting your kids go at 1:30 in the afternoon and they’re not achieving well yet, it’s fairly obvious that using the afternoon is something you have to do. We have to try to extend the day for everyone. And when the state grant came along, we needed a partner to help us, because our staff couldn’t be forced to do it. We started talking very quickly to Citizen Schools. Is there a way to take all of the wonderful things about the Citizen Schools model, but bring it to a fixed group of kids?” –Mike Sabin, former principal, Edwards Middle School, Boston, MA (interview, June 10, 2011) With Citizen Schools taking the lead on running expanded hours for all sixth graders, Sabin and other partners added more than 400 hours to each school year, enabling the school to provide more academic support and a wide variety of enrichment activities. Student performance soared: MA State Exam Proficiency Rates: Edwards Middle School—Grade 8, Math

% PROFICIENT EDWARDS MIDDLE SCHOOL

60 50

MASSACHUSETTS

40 BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

30 20 10

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

In the year after these dramatic results, Citizen Schools secured commitments from schools in five states to replicate the model, find sustainable funding sources, and participate in an external evaluation. Schools in Boston, Houston, New York City, Newark, and Oakland, and their first-year experiences, are the subject of this report. Eight middle schools joined the Edwards and one other existing Boston-area partner school in a cohort of the national ELT initiative, committing to work with Citizen Schools to expand learning time by 40% to raise student proficiency, attendance, and engagement. The key question was whether the model would reproduce similar results to the Edwards Middle School— or become yet another failed strategy for turnaround. The results the partnerships are seeing in their first year indicate that the effort is worthwhile. As more schools are able to welcome more people from community organizations, AmeriCorps service programs, and the private sector onto their teams, ELT will become a catalyst for transforming the entire school day. Teachers see new partners in supporting students and students see new advocates working with them to reach their full potential as contributors, creators, and scholars. The end result: more students complete their homework, come prepared for class, and see the connection between school work and the world around them. In schools labeled as “failing” or in turnaround, this positive momentum is critical.

C i t i z e n Sc h ool s Mod el: Ho w it Wo rk s

With Citizen Schools serving as the school’s lead ELT partner and all students receiving an extra three hours of learning per day, student performance jumped across all grades and subjects. By the time the first cohorts of students had received three years of ELT, they had erased 80 percent of the achievement gap in English and science and reversed the gap in math.

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

Generally, Citizen Schools ELT school partners add three hours to the school day Monday through Thursday and then maintain Friday as a shorter day to allow for faculty professional development. A typical school might run from 8:00am to 2:30pm; a Citizen Schools ELT school runs from 8:00am to 5:30pm.

A Closer Look: Citizen Schools Staffing Model The second shift is led by a full-time Campus Director, an experienced teacher who serves as an assistant principal for the extended day. This person supervises: ß Full-time Teaching Fellows: outstanding recent college graduates who commit to a two-year fellowship supported by the federal AmeriCorps program ß Part-time Teaching Associates: typically recent college graduates who make a one-year commitment to the ELT initiative ß Volunteer Citizen Teachers: corporate, non-profit and university partners who teach apprenticeships in subjects they are passionate about Staffing varies depending on student enrollment. The typical ELT school deployed five Teaching Fellows and two Teaching Associates to serve about 120 students, with a typical class size of 17 students.

Citizen Schools’ program model, developed over 16 years of experimentation and analysis, balances academic skillbuilding and enrichment activities delivered by a “second shift” of AmeriCorps and part-time educators and experts from nearby business and civic organizations. Every day includes content blocks for structured homework time, math or literacy-focused academic instruction, study strategies, and lessons focused on the college experience and the pathways to attain it. Citizen Schools is most widely known for hands-on learning projects called “apprenticeships.” Students take two apprenticeship courses each semester, each meeting once a week for 10 weeks, and each culminating in a final project. These are led by volunteer Citizen Teachers who are experts in the subject matter, teaching in conjunction with Citizen Schools staff. In addition to individual volunteers, employees from companies like Google, Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, and Cognizant share their knowledge and expertise. The interaction introduces students to an inspiring array of subjects—from robotics to yoga, from mock trials to marketing, from starting a business to urban gardening—and along the way, new career paths and role models, mastery of new skills, and new ways to see their futures.

A Student’s Week at a Citizen Schools ELT School

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THUR SDAY

F R IDAY

T R A D I T I O N A L S C H O O L D AY

8:00am

EX PA N D E D D AY

2:30pm

5:30pm

ACADEMIC SUPPORT

APPRENTICESHIPS

ß Homework time ß Time management

ß Aligned to 21st Century Skills and Common Core Standards

ß Standards-aligned, hands-on practice in math or literacy

ß Semester-long projects that culminate in student presentations

COLLEGE TO CAREER CONNECTIONS

ß Support for high school applications in districts with choices ß Visits to colleges and introductions to careers ß Analyzing grades to set goals

ß Co-taught by Citizen Schools staff and volunteer Citizen Teachers who are experts in their fields, with special focus on STEM professionals JOINT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ELT Pa rt n e rs h i p s : C h a nging the Equati o n

These ten schools implemented ELT in the context of a national conversation about how to turn around failing schools. No Child Left Behind legislation passed in 2001 had led to the establishment of “Adequate Yearly Progress” goals, which required schools to increase student proficiency rates each year for all students as well as for certain subgroups. As schools fell short of these goals, they were labeled as in need of improvement and required to develop improvement strategies. The most difficult schools required rapid, dramatic improvement, but few strategies had track records of success. High-performing charter schools have also delivered positive academic gains to low-income students, relying on innovations like a longer school day, high expectations for academic achievement, and the use of data to inform instructional practice. Many have questioned whether these principles developed by high-impact charter schools like Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) can be implemented in traditional public schools to achieve similar results. After one year, the evidence suggests that the Citizen Schools ELT model, when implemented well, is doing exactly that in a cost-effective way, all while making learning more fun, rigorous, and relevant. In fact, if the trends continue, the student growth in these ELT partnerships will meet the standard for school turnaround established by the Department of Education in English—and substantially exceed them in math.

Boston, Massachusetts

ß With Citizen Schools as the lead partner for Orchard Gardens K−8 School’s sixth and seventh grades, the school has moved from one of the five lowest-performing schools in Massachusetts to one of the state’s biggest school improvement success stories. ß Student growth scores in math put Orchard Gardens in the top 2% of all schools in Massachusetts in the 2010/11 school year.

New York, New York

ß Global Technology Preparatory’s student growth score in math places it in the top 2% of all middle schools in New York City in the 2010/11 school year.

Houston, Texas

ß At Jane Long Middle School, enrollment rose by 12%; absenteeism dropped by 20%. Scores at the “commended” level, the highest score on the Texas statewide assessment, jumped from 13% to 30% in math and 16% to 26% in Reading/ELA. Half of the partnerships had double-digit proficiency gains in math, and one in four had double-digit gains in English Language Arts proficiency in the grades served by Citizen Schools. These gains are substantially higher than the district averages, and are on par with other high-quality, well-respected state- and district-led school turnaround efforts across the country. If the results continue for the next two years, they will exceed U.S. Department of Education standard for successful school turnaround. Many schools that have achieved high levels of academic success with low-income populations have employed increased learning time. A number of leading charter school systems, such as KIPP, extend their school days into the evening or add weekend classes. The U.S. Department of Education included increased learning time as a required element of two of the four turnaround models identified in its School Improvement Grant (SIG) program.

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

ß In the 2010/11 school year, the ELA student growth score at the Edwards Middle School is the highest among all Boston district middle schools and in the top 3% of all schools in Massachusetts.

ELT partnerships, when implemented well,allow district schools to implement the best practices of highperforming charters.

L eaders hip

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

FO UR K EYS TO SUCCESS F UL ELT PA R T N E R SHI P S

The most successful ELT partnerships were led by strong school principals with a particular interest in outside partners, which were led in turn by capable campus directors.

P lanning

Successful ELT partnerships need four to six months of planning that includes the principal, several teachers, and Citizen Schools staff to ensure alignment of expectations, goals, and systems.

D ata collection & sh aring Great ELT partnerships assess student learning at regular intervals and share this data between the teachers in the first and second shift.

T eamwork & integration of the f irst and second shif t Great ELT partnerships create synergy between school and partner educators so that both groups strengthen the other, accelerating learning for the students and adults in the school.

one L eadership

ELT partnerships that turn schools around are led by people who successfully share a clear vision with faculty, staff, students and families, and community partners.

Most successful school turnaroundsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;whether ELT is involved or notâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;are characterized by visionary leaders. Even with the additional resource of a partner organization, struggling schools will not achieve turnaround without a strong principal committed to high standards and skilled at rallying teachers, parents, students and the community around a compelling vision for their school. Accordingly, the most successful ELT partnerships were those led by highly engaged and active principals who assumed responsibility for the success of the expanded day. Their leadership included an articulated vision for school improvement with Citizen Schools as a partner. They took advantage of their unique position to steward relationships between Citizen Schools staff and faculty and ensure that all students participated in the longer day. Some principals helped lead the planning meetings, co-authored letters to parents about the expanded day, co-presented about the initiative at community and faculty meetings, and helped advocate for necessary resources at the district level. One principal included the Citizen Schools Campus Director on the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s administrative leadership team, which allowed her to coach the second-shift staff with a broader perspective. When principals did not position Citizen Schools clearly in ways like this, partnerships were marked by greater tension and lower student performance. Two schools had unexpected principal turnover, resulting in late principal hiring before the new school year. The new principals found themselves navigating partnerships they had not developed. In one instance, a new principal did not want to implement an expanded-day program with Citizen Schools and ended the partnership after the first year. Campus Directors, leaders of the Citizen Schools staff, also play a role in the success of the partnership, but their impact is not as easy to discern from the evidence in the first year. Effective principals committed to the partnership are able to manage around any missteps by Campus Directors. But when principals are struggling to lead, even Campus Directors with high levels of skill as instructional leaders and managers have not been able to push their partnerships to success.

P lanning

Taking the time to plan an ELT partnership, and then establishing the trust necessary to negotiate the complex programming, are major drivers of results. Schools and districts that confirmed their ELT transition by mid-spring had a critical advantage that contributed to a successful ELT school launch: more time. Time allowed for the operational work of adjusting schedules and accessing school-based data, as well as for building credibility and trust within a school community. Principals were much better able to involve and invest staff, families and students in the communications and planning processes before school ended. Citizen Schools staff also had time to get to know the school faculty, the space and the community, and plan for the new year in partnership with the school. The sad reality in public schools, however, is that highquality planning is rare. Teachers typically have one or two days of training between the end of the spring semester and the opening bell in the fall. Funding cycles often require districts to make decisions in the summer or even early fall for programs that are supposed to start at the beginning of the school year. When late-breaking funding streams appear, when key staff are unavailable in the summer, or when leadership changes unexpectedly, planning time can become a casualty. The difference is measurable. All of Citizen Schools ELT partnerships completed at least rudimentary planning, but only some plans could be called comprehensive. Of the eight new ELT sites, only four successfully assembled an ELT planning committee, conducted thorough community outreach and communication, and built relationships between the partner and school-day staff. Lack of planning time causes a chain reaction of negative impact. Principals, teachers, families, students, volunteers and Citizen Schools staff were all less satisfied with their Citizen Schools experience at the four sites with less planning and communication time.

ß When schools did not confirm a partnership by April, Citizen Schools recruiters report that highly qualified and diverse staff candidates sought other opportunities. The less time there was to source, hire and train high-quality teaching staff, the less success they were likely to have making early and effective impact with students. ß At two of the three late-confirmation campuses, instructional quality, as measured by an internally developed rubric, was considerably lower than the average Citizen Schools site throughout the year. ß Schools with late ELT confirmations or with principal turnover were less successful in communicating with stakeholders about the expanded day. At one school, many students and families believed that school ended at 2:30 rather than 5:30 for most of the fall, which caused considerable confusion and colored the reputation of the program throughout the semester. At another, student contact information was not available until October, so Citizen Schools staff went door to door in the surrounding neighborhoods to talk with families about the expanded-day program at the school. Uninformed teachers were unable to determine what the expanded day meant for their work, how they should interact with Citizen Schools staff, or how, if at all, to support the program. ß Late decisions made it more challenging to recruit and train the large numbers of volunteers needed to serve large numbers of students. More of these schools’ apprenticeships were taught by Citizen Schools staff and individual volunteers, as opposed to teams of employees of companies committed to reaching out to their communities. This affected their quality and left the Citizen Schools staff and recruiters close to burnout. ß With less time to plan together, core elements proved to be less easily negotiated. In schools where the program was formalized in the late spring or summer, teachers and families perceived participation in ELT to be optional, rather than required. In two of the 2010/11 ELT schools, the confusion over whether ELT was required or just suggested led to participation rates that ran more than 10% below the attendance in core-day classes. Here, Citizen Schools operated less as an integrated part of the school day and more as an after-school program—missing the opportunities for transformative impact that deeper partnerships enabled.

On the other hand, partnerships that were confirmed in the spring were able to facilitate meetings with key community constituents to help them understand what the transition to ELT meant for them. Citizen Schools staff had more time to recruit volunteers and staff and to develop relationships with and investment from key local stakeholders, including students, families, school faculty and community leaders. Principals and faculty had more time to plan for changes in school schedules, student transportation, and teacher planning time. Principals could spend much of the first month of school reminding parents and students about the new expectations of the expanded day, so that the whole school heard and understood the message. During the successful partnershipsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; planning periods, Citizen Schools invited key administrators to help match each program to fit an individual schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs, including how much time should be spent supporting homework understanding and completion. School leaders were asked to make decisions regarding a math or literacy focus for the academic support curriculum, to help choose which state and national core curriculum standards to teach to, and from what industries apprenticeships should be recruited. On the whole, principals sought higher levels of involvement in the program design itself than Citizen Schools anticipated. The two most frequent requests from principals were to modify or use a different academic support curriculum and to give students the opportunity to participate in sports during the expanded day.

The principal of MS 331 in New York asked Citizen Schools to develop a curriculum about culture, communitybuilding, and successful communication in lieu of the math academic block. Over the first year, the staff found that departing from the standard model had two key drawbacks. First, creating the new lessons took the Campus Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time away from managing the staff, leaving less time to observe and coach them and build relationships with school-day teachers. Second, staff from Citizen Schools national program department and peers in other cities were less able to support them because no one else was teaching the same material. They agreed to return to the academic support programming in their second year. Extracurriculars

For consistency, the Citizen Schools ELT initiative requires that the longer learning day be provided to 100% of students, regardless of their other after-school commitments, including school sports. Some found compromises: at one school where the ELT program was for all sixth graders, the principal decided to limit eligibility for sports and other school-based extracurricular activities to seventh and eighth grade students. At another school, students could only play on sports teams if they maintained a B or above grade average throughout the year. Those students who qualified for sports therefore missed one apprenticeship per week for practices. Special needs

The whole-grade requirement also meant that non-mainstream students, such as students who speak English as a second language or students with significant emotional, behavioral, and/or cognitive needs, are welcome into the expanded day. School leaders were asked to define if and how Citizen Schools would serve students with these significant needs, such as those who are legally entitled to aides or other supports, including doorto-door transportation. Solutions came with trade-offs. When students with significant needs participated in the expanded day, their school-day supports were not always able to remain, leaving Citizen Schools staff to try to differentiate instruction without the knowledge, skill or support that school-day teachers had with the same students. At Global Tech Preparatory School, a small cohort of students participated in a modified version of the program under the supervision of an additional staff member. Citizen Schools continues to work with school partners to find the best solution for individual school communities and students. Examples of these solutions in the second year of national implementation include close partnerships with community-based organizations and school-based special education teachers to provide training and support to Citizen Schools staff who work with students with significant special needs.

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

Academic Support

A Closer Look: Planning for ELT Citizen Schools developed some planning resources internally and adapted others from Massachusetts 2020. These toolkits included operational and programmatic guides for planning and implementing ELT, as well as sample agendas, communication templates, and presentations used by other early implementers of ELT partnerships in Massachusetts. In the most successful circumstances, the planning process began once a district and school committed to an ELT partnership. School faculty, parents/guardians, and Citizen Schools staff collaborated through four phases:

Ph as e 1 : La u nc h t h e ELT P lanning Pr oc ess (early spring—end of school year)

ß Citizen Schools and school leaders identify representatives to form an ELT planning committee, including administrators, ELA/math teachers, and special education staff ß Plan for transition to the expanded day, including: ß Create an expanded school day schedule ß Adapt the Citizen Schools model to meet school needs, including academic focus area and apprenticeship subjects ß Align on approaches to instruction and student engagement systems, including shared professional development and school-day teachers coaching Citizen Schools staff ß Decide on data sharing systems and protocols

Ph as e 2 : C r e at e /I m p l e ment a C o mmuni cati o n Plan (mid spring—new school year)

ß ELT planning committee adapts Citizen Schools communications plans and resources for their schools ß School leaders and Citizen Schools staff present to stakeholders, including faculty, parents, students and community leaders throughout the spring and summer leading up to the expanded day launch

Ph as e 3 : B u i l d P i p e l i n es fo r Staff and V olunteer s

ß Citizen Schools sources local talent for campus staff and corporate and individual volunteers, with school staff as partners in interviewing prospective staff

Ph as e 4 : La u nc h

ß The expanded day partnership begins

Data collection & s h aring

Tracking, assessing and sharing student data between schools and Citizen Schools helps create a common language about student performance that improves teaching. ANe t Ass essm e n ts : Us i ng I nterim D ata

To further the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capacity to strategically use student data to inform instruction and drive student achievement, Orchard Gardens Kâ&#x2C6;&#x2019;8 Pilot School in Boston partnered with the Achievement Network (ANet) beginning in 2010/11. ANet is a national education nonprofit that helps schools use standards-aligned interim assessments to identify and close gaps in student learning. Third- through eighth-grade students completed interim assessments developed by ANet in math and ELA at five points in the year (every six to eight weeks), during a regular class period of the school day. Since these assessments are aligned with the annual state assessments, they provided teachers with real-time data on the gaps in student mastery. As the lead partner for sixth and seventh grades at Orchard Gardens, Citizen Schools was able to extend the value of these reports by using them to refine the expanded-day curriculum.

Families too found that an expanded-day partner increased their access to information about their childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s schooling. Citizen Schools staff are expected to call every family at least once every two weeks to share progress and challenges students are experiencing in both Citizen Schools and school-day classes. Before the ELT partnership with Citizen Schools was established, there were few formal opportunities for families to be involved with Martin Luther King, Jr., Elementary School in Newark. But at the fall apprenticeship showcase, in which 50 students demonstrated what they learned in apprenticeships, over 120 family members celebrated student accomplishments. By the spring showcase, over 150 people attended the event, gaining firsthand knowledge of what children were learning about rocketry, jewelry-making, yoga, or ice cream chemistry, as well as the people and resources available to their children.

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

Fa m i l i es i n t h e Loop

A Closer Look: Exit Tickets—Citizen Schools’ Formative Assessment The Citizen Schools team at Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School in Boston, MA developed its own formative assessment system for academic support in Math. Exit Tickets—essentially quizzes of two or three questions given at the end of math lessons—allowed Citizen Schools staff to analyze the effectiveness of their lessons immediately, and share that information with teachers, providing a weekly update on student mastery. For example, a Citizen Schools lesson focused on measuring the perimeter of various shapes featured an activity to design an amusement park. To do so, students completed a worksheet that asked them to use their rulers to measure out specific rides or attractions, then cut them out and place them on a larger sheet of paper and lay them out as a map. The exit ticket checked for that understanding. Citizen Schools staff reviewed the exit tickets for their students each day to determine skill gaps and to inform what needed to be retaught. Each staff member tracked students’ exit ticket results and together they reviewed the exit ticket data for the entire grade at each weekly staff meeting to identify strengths and challenges and brainstorm solutions together. In their regular meetings, the Citizen Schools director shared these exit ticket trends with the principal, and the principal in turn shared the ANet interim assessment trends. In the second year of the initiative, other partners have begun finding synergy through data. Citizen Schools and the leadership of Dever−McCormack in Boston, MA decided to focus on math proficiency. Principal Mike Sabin asked Citizen Schools to work with a new sixth-grade math teacher to tailor its academic support curriculum to complement the school’s. Citizen Schools also doubled the number of days each week that students received math support. By analyzing exit tickets every Friday and identifying which kids were not answering questions correctly, the Citizen Schools team could identify the 15 to 20 kids struggling most with the content, pull them out from their non-math Citizen Schools programming blocks the following week, and allow them to work with the new teacher, paid for with discretionary SIG funds. When kids completed their exit tickets correctly, they returned to their regular Citizen Schools teams.

Exit Ticket Student Name: PART ONE:

Measure the PERIMETER of the shapes below using the CENTIMETERS unit on your ruler. Write the

perimeter measurement in the middle of each shape.

PART TWO:

Using what you know about the two rectangles, write out the equation for their areas, using the

AREA FORMULA we learned today. You do not need to solve the equation.

T eamwork : Integrating t he First and S econd Sh i f ts

The most successful ELT partnerships use increased capacity as a catalyst for innovation across the entire day, creating new models of collaboration and instruction.

Schools introducing ELT with Citizen Schools must adjust to a new idea: that the adult presence is handed off from the school faculty to a different team, trained and held accountable under a different organization’s tenets. Like any partnership, this brings tremendous opportunities for innovation and learning, together with real challenges and compromises. After one year, the results show that the more the school and Citizen Schools can strive to work as a unit—synchronizing goals, processes, and data—the more effective they will be at building their students’ learning. ß At Jane Long Middle School in Houston, science teachers used the additional science time afforded by a new block schedule in the first six hours of the day to review critical lessons such as science vocabulary, and also to focus on more hands-on, project-based lessons that get kids excited about science. ß One principal shared with school faculty a Citizen Schools staff directory outlining staff roles, special skills (like speaking Spanish) and availability in the morning hours to support teachers. ß Principals and Citizen Schools staff use shared language when talking about the new expanded day with school staff, families and students. For example, one principal was present for all expanded day information sessions for prospective parents and included the Citizen Schools staff as a key presenter. Another principal consistently referred to the Citizen Schools Campus Director as a lead school administrator, Vice Principal or Dean, during planning conversations with teachers so that the Campus Director was clearly identified as a school leader within the community.

U t i l i z i n g C i t i z e n Sc h ool s ’ U nique C o ntri buti o ns

Citizen Schools brings a few unique practices, honed over 16 years of programming, that partner principals have uniformly valued: apprenticeships and the influx of caring adults they bring into the classroom, curriculum supporting students in the high school choice process, and field trips to local colleges and universities. Family communication and engagement is also an added value. Leaders at ELT partner schools, including Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Newark and Elmhurst Community Preparatory School in Oakland, have noted that Citizen Schools’ family relationships brought more parents into the school than ever before. Citizen Schools staff hosted monthly family potlucks, made biweekly phone calls home about children’s school performance, and connected families to events that showcased student learning. In some cases, these efforts enhanced what schools had previously offered. In other cases, these activities represent some of the most successful outreach between schools and families in recent memory.

The Se co nd Shift, During the S choo l D ay

Members of the second shift generally spend their mornings preparing for each afternoon’s program, communicating with families and teachers, or participating in coaching sessions with their team. At the strongest sites, Citizen Schools staff used this preparation time to align the afternoon’s teaching with students’ earlier experiences. They ensured that expanded-day math lessons were aligned with morning lessons taught by first-shift teachers, for instance, and tracked homework assignments so they could effectively support homework completion.

At some schools, though, Citizen Schools staff also took on additional roles in the morning, including teaching some lessons, supporting projects, running in-school suspension rooms to support the school’s discipline policy, and helping with lunch, recess, and extracurricular activities.

ß In Newark’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School, Teaching Fellows have served as substitute teachers during state testing season and as lunch monitors. The Campus Director also helped run the in-school suspension program at the school due to a shortage of administrators. At Boston’s Dever−McCormack Middle School, Teaching Fellows taught elective blocks to support staffing gaps while giving them more time to practice in the classroom.

T h e Sc h ool D ay S ta f f, D uring the Se co nd Shift

Teachers too found ways to benefit from, and add value to, a second shift in the afternoon. At MS 331 in New York City, teachers stayed after their traditional day ended to teach subjects they were passionate about that did not fit into the standard curriculum, experiencing student successes in new environments. One teacher taught guitar; another taught rugby. At other sites, teachers supported Citizen Schools staff during the transition to ELT as mentor teachers and additional adults in the classroom during the math or literacy block or homework help, supporting new teachers with classroom management and instructional techniques. Citizen Schools staff attended and facilitated teacher training sessions at a summer retreat at both United For Success and Elmhurst Community Prep in Oakland.

Obs ta cle s to Teamwo rk

Citizen Schools staff is made up of mostly novice educators. Even in schools with strong planning and communication efforts, some teachers expressed doubt in the model when observing new educators in their first weeks and months of teaching. One school leader noted that “Some [teachers] are willing to help [Citizen Schools staff] out [with classroom management] but are not sure what avenue to take with this matter.” Some principals and school faculty were confused about what Citizen Schools staff did during the morning hours. In one case, school leaders assumed that Citizen Schools staff were available to serve as additional staff members during the traditional day, as substitute teachers or lunch monitors, for example. When Campus Directors ran inschool suspensions or were substitute teachers in elementary grades, their work as instructional and staff managers of their programs suffered. Campus Directors, often new to school leadership roles, were hesitant to push back on principal requests at the risk of damaging the school partnership. Increased collaboration during the school day between the shifts led to tensions. When Citizen Schools staff served as substitute teachers or lunch monitors, or Campus Directors ran inschool suspensions or were substitute teachers in elementary grades, their work as instructional and staff managers of their programs suffered. These trade-offs need to be considered when finding the best ways to work together.

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

ß Several ELT schools, including MS 331, had Teaching Fellows join teachers to teach an advisory period as a transition from the first to second shift of the school day. This partnership enabled students to receive more individualized attention through smaller group sizes and provided a learning opportunity for both sets of teachers through the team-teaching. At Boston’s Orchard Gardens, the school schedule was adjusted so that homeroom occurred at the end of the day and was co-taught by school and partner teachers to create a more seamless transition for students.

A Closer Look: Elmhurst Community Prep—Launching an ELT Partnership Elmhurst Community Prep (ECP) in Oakland, CA, decided upon the “transformation” option for their School Improvement Grant (SIG), after a collaborative process including the school administration, faculty and surrounding school community. As a key piece of the transformation strategy, ECP implemented ELT in partnership with Citizen Schools. Families understood and were quite supportive of ELT and Citizen Schools, but for the faculty of the school the mood was bitter. Because the SIG program eligibility means that a school has been labeled persistently low-performing, many of the school’s teachers formed the impression that Citizen Schools was being brought in to fix what was wrong with the school. Compounding that perception was the reality that Citizen Schools teachers are young, typically novice educators. Many teachers felt that the Citizen Schools staff lacked the expertise they would need to boost student achievement. When this skepticism surfaced, the school leadership emphasized communication and collaboration to increase trust. The Citizen Schools Campus Director began to send a daily and weekly e-mail update to the school faculty and Citizen Schools staff about the second shift’s successes and challenges. School faculty could reply with specific questions about the program or ideas about individual students. Citizen Schools staff also attended sixth grade team meetings and shared an office with a sixth grade administrator and teacher. These practices fostered a culture in which successes and misalignments could be acknowledged, and in which resolutions could be centered on the most important shared outcome: student learning. The program schedule was adapted to promote collaboration as well. Citizen Schools staff and ECP teaching staff overlapped for the last hour of the school day, giving teachers the opportunity to observe Citizen Schools staff and provide feedback. They co-taught a class, and designed a strategy for the homework block in which the school teachers would pull out students who were struggling most to offer more individualized instruction. In the end, Citizen Schools was included as a graded course (with AIM indicating the academic support and “Apps” standing in for apprenticeships) on the weekly progress reports that are sent home to families:

Weekly Progress Report/Reporte de Progreso Semenal ELMHURST COMMUNITY PREP

Student Name/Nombre del estudiante

Class/Clase

Advisor/Nombre del asesor

Citizen Schools/Clase de Citizen Schools

3 JUNE/JUNIO 2011

Homework Classwork Tareas de casa Tareas de clase

Behavior Conducta

On Time Bien Tiempo

Supplies Utiles

English and History Inglés y historia

Math and Science Matemáticas y ciencias

AIM

APPS

Citizen Schools

TOTAL POINTS:

Notes/Notas

I f 80 or more points, CONGRATULATIONS! / Si tienes 80 o más puntos, FELICIDADES!

Student Reflection: My favorite part of the Expo projects I am working on is... PARENT Reflection:

Is there anything we can do to strengthen our connection between home and school?

The Citizen Schools team tracked those progress report grades along with other student performance measures (attendance, homework completion, math and ELA grades) and posted those results by team and updated the data weekly. At the end of the first year, ECP was one of the highest performing of the ELT partner schools on several of these student outcome measures. During the summer, ECP teachers participated in Citizen Schools’ hiring decisions for the 2011/12 school year. That involvement has furthered teacher buy-in towards Citizen Schools, and allowed them to build relationships with both current and incoming Citizen Schools staff.

In terms of student scores, grades, and engagement, the Citizen Schools ELT partnerships are associated with unusually rapid growth.

R esults Pr o f ici e nc y G a i ns o n Standardized T es t s

In launching the national ELT initiative, Citizen Schools established ambitious student outcome goals that were aligned with—and even surpassed—goals for school turnaround as defined by the U.S. Department of Education. Most notably, the organization established a three-year target to increase the average proficiency rate by a total of at least fifteen percentage points and reduce absenteeism and suspensions by 30%. After one year of ELT partnership with Citizen Schools, partner schools are on track to meet this goal. Students averaged an 8.3 percentage point gain on state standardized exams in math, and a 2.3 point gain in English Language Arts, significantly exceeding the rates of improvement prior to implementing ELT and the rates of improvement in the host districts. The Citizen Schools ELT students’ proficiency rose at a rate higher than the average growth for their districts. Even schools where Citizen Schools had previously operated as an after-school program saw greater growth after converting to ELT.

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

The sixth grade students at Houston’s Jane Long Middle School showed a particularly dramatic transformation. On the 2011 state assessment, sixth grade ELA passing rates increased from 63% to 73% and commended rates from 16% to 21%. In sixth grade math, the passing rate increased from 70% to 77% and the commended rate from 13% to 30%. (In Texas, the commended rate reflects a higher level of mastery than the passing rate, and is more correlated with college and career readiness.) These strong proficiency gains significantly outpaced the gains made by sixth graders across the district—closing the achievement gap—and were on par with Apollo 20, a high-investment district-led turnaround effort for middle schools and high schools.

2011 Average Annual Proficiency Gains Citizen Schools ELT partners’ proficiency gains in the first year were on par with those of leading national school turnaround efforts.1

23 1% Math

CITIZ EN SCHOOLS ELT PA RTNE RSHIPS

HIG H Q UALIT Y TU RNAR OUND EFFO RTS

ELA

8.3% 2.3% 8.0% 3.6% 2.3%

DISTRICT AVER AGES

1.2%

Included are the Los Angeles Unified School District and Mayor Villaraigosa’s Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and five efforts featured in the National Center on Time & Learning’s Learning Time in America: Trends to Reform the American School Calendar (Summer 2011): Houston Independent School District’s Apollo 20 initiative, Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Accelerated Learning Academies, Balsz School District (Arizona), the Louisiana Recovery School District’s (non-charter) schools, and the first cohort of the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time initiative (excluding the three schools that partnered with Citizen Schools).

Ty p i c al

Math In Grade 6 math, Orchard Gardens’ median student growth percentile is more than double the median student growth percentile for all sixth graders in Boston Public Schools, including the other two School Improvement Grant (SIG) recipients.1 It is even higher than that of sixth graders attending urban charter schools in Massachusetts that use a lottery to determine enrollment because they are in high demand based on their high performance.2 A difference of at least 10 percentile points in median student growth between schools is educationally significant according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

40 30 20 10

ELA In Grade 6 ELA, Edwards Middle School’s median student growth score is over 30 points higher than the median student growth score for sixth graders in Boston Public Schools, and 20 percentile points higher than any of the 12 other schools serving sixth graders in the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time initiative.3 The score is significantly higher compared to sixth graders attending the highly regarded urban charter schools in the state.

S t u d e n t G row t h

The nation is moving towards measuring school performance not only by absolute proficiency levels, but by student improvements relative to their peers. In Massachusetts, a measure called the student growth percentile indicates how much a student has improved—or grown—academically from one year to the next compared to his or her academic peers.4

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

41 Boston Turnaround Middle Schools

Boston Public Schools

Orchard Gardens

Boston-area Charter Middle Schools

Boston Public Schools

Massachusetts ELT Schools

Boston-area Charter Middle Schools

Edwards Middle School

L ow

H ig h gr ow t h

2010/11 MEDIAN STUDENT GROWTH PERCENTILE, Grade 6

This data is not yet available at all ELT partners nationwide. As shown above, Boston partner schools demonstrated high student growth—significantly higher than the growth at their peer schools within the district and on par with or greater than the average student growth at Boston-area charter schools serving sixth through eighth graders. In Boston, the Edwards Middle School’s growth score in ELA in the 2010/11 school year was the highest among all Boston Public Schools middle schools, and in the top three percent of all schools in Massachusetts. Orchard Gardens K−8 Pilot School, with Citizen Schools as the lead partner for the sixth and seventh grades, has moved from one of the state’s lowest-performing schools to one of state’s biggest school improvement stories in just one year. Student growth scores in math put Orchard Gardens in the top two percent of all schools in Massachusetts in the 2010/11 school year, after being one of the lowest performing schools since it opened in 2003.

Includes the two first-round SIG recipients in Boston (Dearborn and Harbor) serving students in Grade 6 in the 2010-2011 school year.

Research conducted by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, Student Achievement in Massachusetts’ Charter Schools, reveals that charter middle schools that use a lottery system for

http://www.doe.mass.edu/sda/turnaround/

admission in urban areas show statistically significant positive results in both ELA and Math MCAS scores. http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~pfpie/pdf/Student_Achievement_in_MA_Charter_Schools_2011.pdf 3

Includes schools funded through the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time Grant that serve students enrolled in Grade 6. These schools include: James Timilty (Boston), Mario Umana (Boston), Fletcher Maynard (Cambridge), Martin Luther King (Cambridge), Joseph A. Browne (Chelsea), Matthew Kuss (Fall River), Arthur Longsjo (Fitchburg), Greenfield Middle (Greenfield), Ferryway (Malden), Salemwood (Malden), City View (Worcester), and Jacob Hiatt (Worcester). Citizen Schools partner school, Garfield Middle School (Revere), was excluded from the analysis.

The academic peers are students with similar assessment score histories. At the school or district level, the median SGP of its students is used to determine the level of academic growth. For example, under the Massachusetts SGP methodology, a “typical” school or district would have a median SGP in the range of 50. For SGPs and median SGPs, scores between 40 and 60 are considered moderate or expected growth. Scores below this band are considered low-growth. Scores above this band are high-growth.

Grade s

Citizen Schools values grades as an important indicator of student success and access to rigorous high school courses. The enhanced academic support had the most impact on students who struggled most in the subject area being taught. In both math and ELA, students who began the year with a low grade (C, D, or F) were more likely to earn a higher final grade if they had participated in academic support in that subject. Academic support at ELT campuses appears to have a differential impact on students who are below grade level and most in need of academic improvement to get on track for success into and through high school.

Student E ngagement

Citizen Schools’ model is built on evidence that increased student engagement leads to increased student proficiency in the near term (middle school) and longer term (high school). Since attendance is an indicator of engagement, it is a core component of an external evaluation being conducted by Abt Associates and will be reported in more detail beginning with the first outcomes report of that study in early 2013. Nationally, attendance in the extended hours was 92%: higher than attendance in typical low-performing schools. Ninety percent of students remained in the program throughout the entire year (reflecting typical mobility in high-poverty schools). Data provided to Citizen Schools by select partner ELT schools shows meaningful positive changes on student engagement measures. For example, Orchard Gardens K−8 School in Boston has reported declines in chronic absenteeism and school suspensions, along with an increase in the number of families seeking to enroll their students at the school. The school’s attendance rate has increased by three percentage points, from 93% in the 2009/10 school year (pre-ELT) to 94% last year and to 96% at the midpoint of the current school year. Attendance improvement is most pronounced at several of the partnerships that are now in their second year with ELT partnerships. For example, the school with the lowest ELT attendance rate in the first year (Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Newark, NJ) has improved that percentage by a full 18 percentage points to 93% in the second year. The average student at that school will attend 32 more days this year than he or she did last year, dramatically increasing the odds of increased engagement and achievement. Overall, there is increased consistency in students’ attendance and retention rates across these ELT partnerships. Engagement can also be evaluated with the rate of student suspension. While the external evaluation of the ELT initiative currently being conducted by Abt Associates will be comprehensive, Citizen Schools partner schools shared some preliminary data. At the Dever−McCormack K−8 School, which became an ELT partner in fall 2011, suspensions have decreased by 30%; and 6th grade, which is the grade served by Citizen Schools ELT, has the highest attendance rate among the school’s nine grade levels. This means that students are at school more often, and therefore benefiting from the expanded school day and Citizen Schools program.

FUND I N G ELT F u n d i n g Mo d e l s

The nation is in the earliest stages of learning how to fund a longer learning day. Analysis of optional after-school programs and ELT programs by Bain Consulting reveals an annual cost per child ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the intensity and scale of the programming. Schools that have moved toward a longer learning day delivered by classroom teachers have typically added just 30−60 minutes of daily learning time, but incurred significant costs if paying the overtime rates required in many union contracts.

While Citizen Schools’ pilot ELT initiatives at Edwards and other Massachusetts schools drew revenue from the state’s ELT initiative, other districts chose ELT as a strategy to improve their schools without the benefit of unique funding sources. Instead, these districts drew upon Title I or other funding streams over which schools or districts exercise some degree of discretion. Three of the partners, identified by their state education agencies as among the “persistently lowest performing” schools in the state, implemented an extended day as part of their turnaround or transformation plan, as required by the federal Department of Education. These schools wrote Citizen Schools into their SIG application as a lead partner in expanding the day for students and used Title I dollars or other discretionary funds to support ELT.

Im p l ic at io ns of P ubl i c Funding

Public funding was and is critical to ELT implementation, but it also brought some challenges. Public funding, especially certain federal grants, comes with stringent requirements that can increase the administrative and compliance burden on the recipients. When sites are supported by multiple streams of funding, each with its own needs and requirements, the complexity multiplies. Timing is also a challenge when it comes to securing public dollars, because Citizen Schools and its partner schools are often in planning conversations long before state and federal budgets are confirmed. This means that cuts to state or federal budgets can be announced after plans have been made to open new ELT partnerships. Further, in the current economic environment, state agencies and districts can lose anticipated resources during the year, which can mean a reduction in the promised allocation to Citizen Schools. Some federal policy makers are eager to create additional flexibility for districts to use current federal funding for high-quality ELT. In particular, draft legislation in the Senate would allow districts to use their share of the $1.2 billion 21st Century Community Learning Center program for comprehensive ELT programs that include partners, in addition to funding traditional after-school programs. The same legislation also encourages the use of SIG funds for high-quality ELT initiatives and partner-driven turnaround efforts. The Obama Administration’s policy of granting waivers from No Child Left Behind guidelines to states that pursue reforms may create new funding streams for ELT programs. In particular, several states are looking at the possibility of using funds now set aside for Supplemental Educational Services (20% of Title I) to instead support high-quality ELT.

CITIZEN SCHOOLS

The Citizen Schools ELT model, by contrast, adds 180 minutes of learning time per day (usually four days per week) and has a direct cost of ~$1,800−$2,000 per child when implemented at scale. Citizen Schools and partner schools and districts have agreed to try to pay for the cost of ELT partnerships through a combination of locally controlled public sources, AmeriCorps funds, and private money raised by Citizen Schools. During the 2010/11 year, Citizen Schools ELT sites secured a total of $3.05 million in public funds, amounting to $2,100 of funding per child.