Solving School challenges One Intervention At A Time
Supporting Successful School Improvement
In the fall of 2017, states are finalizing and submitting their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plans. While states will have additional flexibility in how they support students, there will be an increased focus in schools identified for improvement. Across the country, student growth will be prioritized and measured in a variety of ways across all student populations.
The Education Company brings an established track record to school improvement. In fact, a study in 2012 performed by the Legislative Research Bureau of the state of Georgia – A Review of School Improvement Consulting Expenditures and Results – sought to evaluate the providers of all school turnaround services in the state between 2006 and 2011. In the hundreds of schools working with partners over that five-year period, The Education Company deliver statistically significant literacy and math gains relative to the control group.
Everything that we do—from our methods, to our instructional content and the technology that underpins all our work—is grounded in our Six Essential Practices of Effective Schools.Research has shown that there are characteristics that all schools need in order to succeed, and as such, these practices lie at the heart of all of EDCO’s engagements, appearing in literal form in our rubrics and learning progressions.
These practice-based goals are combined with your own district teaching framework rubrics to ensure that the goals and practices you follow are best matched to your specific needs for professional learning.
The Education Company employs a Continuous Cycle of Improvement that builds leader and teacher capacity, allowing your schools to change in ways that support teacher and leader development to improve practices that impact student learning. No two schools are the same, nor will one approach work for every school. As such, each engagement begins with a diagnostic process, followed by a shared “Plan of Action” with input and collaboration from key stakeholders. Frequent monitoring of the plan through data collection allows us to engage in a continuous cycle of improvement where we can adjust the plan based on observation and outcome data. By modeling effecting teaching and leading in your school or district, we create a shared vision of effective instruction, a common goal for school success, and a higher expectation for student achievement.
EDCO provided me with ongoing feedback, instructional support, and coaching. They helped me to establish protocols and practices for building effective teams and managing tasks. They also helped me to implement a professional learning plan that met my teachers’ needs. I relied on them heavily in my efforts to engage my staff in community building, goal setting, and inquiry work. I am undoubtedly indebted to them and will always remember them for their brilliance, generosity, and high level of care.”
Our Services
The job embedded coaching model is central to our effectiveness. Only through this approach can we ensure the lasting behavioral change required in teachers and administrators to improve persistently low performing schools. Through this approach we gain deeper insight into teacher and administrator performance as well as a greater understanding of student, teacher and leader learning needs.
In addition to comprehensive job-embedded school services, we also have Comprehensive Needs Assessments which are a key part of a successful school improvement process. A Comprehensive Needs Assessment examines how the work in a school impacts the quality of the instructional core across classrooms. It provides an opportunity for a school community to reflect on its improvement planning processes and self-evaluate how well, and systematically, its educators make instructional decisions in service of student learning.
Comprehensive School Improvement Services
- Deep-dive into organizational structures, challenges, curriculum, level of capacity and achievement
- Build an initial assessment and action plan using our 6 Essential Practices Framework and the detailed rubrics behind each of the practices provides substantial data
- Combine observation, formative and summative assessment data to paint a complete picture of the school’s structures, practices, and context in the community
- Collaborate with key stakeholders on priorities and entry points to develop the school improvement plan
Comprehensive Needs Assessment
- 90-min meeting with school principal
- Two teacher team meetings, one 30-45-minute meeting to observe and interview a teacher team, and a second 20-30-minute meeting to facilitate a Q & A with teachers from at least two teams.
- A meeting with 10 to 12 students for approximately 30 minutes
- A meeting with approximately 4 to 6 students to review their best work
- A meeting with 8 to 10 parents for approximately 30 minutes.
- Approximately 12 class visits for 15-20 minutes per visit to observe a range of grades and subjects, across both tenured and untenured staff
- One half hour for document review for the consultant
- One hour for consultant reflection before the feedback meeting
- The remainder of the time will be used for the final feedback conference
- A complete report will be delivered at the completion at the meetings and surveys with the findings, recommendations and data
