Elevate Schools Program Requirements and Responsibilities
Required: Needs Assessment and Root Cause Analysis
- Each Elevate School will complete a Needs Assessment and Root Cause Analysis by a USBE approved consultant or designee.
Required: The LEA School Board/Charter Authorizer shall:
- Establish a School Improvement Committee (SIC)
- Prioritize school district funding and resources to the Elevate school.
- Grant the Elevate School streamlined authority over staff, schedule, policies, budget, and academic programs to implement the school improvement plan.
- Select a Continuous Improvement Expert from USBE/CCSI approved list of providers.
- Submit their recommendation to the USBE/CCSI for review and approval.
- Contract with a USBE approved Continuous Improvement Expert based on an explicit stipulation of desired outcomes.
- Partner with the School Improvement Committee to select a Continuous Improvement Expert
- Assist the Continuous Improvement Expert and the Elevate School with addressing the root cause of the Elevate School's low performance, and the development or implementation of a school improvement plan.
- Annually report to the USBE/CCSI progress toward the goals, benchmarks, and timetable in a Elevate school's improvement plan on or before 1 June.
Required: The Charter Authorizer/School shall:
- Provide initial and annual notice that includes the following information regarding the school's improvement status including: the goals, benchmarks, and timetable in the school's improvement plan and any progress toward the goals, benchmarks, and timetable.
- In addition, use the same form of communication the charter school governing board regularly uses to communicate with parents; and the governing council and the mayor of the municipality in which the school is located.
Required: The Elevate Schools select a USBE approved Continuous Improvement Expert from a submitted proposal1 that must include:
- Strategy to address the root causes of the Elevate school's low performance identified through the needs assessment.
- A scope of work (SOW) that requires the Continuous Improvement Expert to at a minimum: develop and implement in partnership with the school improvement committee a school improvement plan.
- A scope of work to facilitate implementation of strategies to effectively respond to the academic and behavioral needs of students in high poverty communities; or other services that respond to the needs assessment.
- A scope of work that may require the Continuous Improvement Expert to develop sustainable school district and school capacities to effectively respond to the academic and behavioral needs of students in high poverty communities; or other services that respond to the needs assessment.
The Continuous Improvement Expert should also be familiar with:
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- Utah Accountability Technical Manual
- Utah System of Support for School Improvement
- Utah’s Personalized, Competency Based Learning PCBL Framework
- Utah’s High Quality Instructional (HQI) Cycle
- The Four Domains Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL)
Required: The Continuous Improvement Expert Qualifications
The Continuous Improvement Expert Must:
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- Have a credible track record of improving student academic achievement in schools with various demographic characteristics, as measured by statewide assessments.
- Have experience designing, implementing, and evaluating data-driven instructional systems in schools.
- Have experience coaching school administrators and teachers on designing data-driven school improvement plans.
- Have experience working with the various education entities that govern public schools.
- Have experience coordinating the services provided to participating schools by other experts or providers.
- Have experience delivering high-quality professional development in instructional effectiveness to school administrators and teachers; and
- Are willing to partner with any Elevate school in the state, regardless of location.
Required: The Continuous Improvement Expert (CIE)
The CIE partners with the School Improvement Committee to:
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- Develop and implement a school improvement plan and scope of work.
- Monitor the effectiveness of a school improvement plan through reliable means of evaluation, including on-site visits, observations, surveys, analysis of student achievement data, and interviews.
- Provide ongoing implementation support and project management for a school improvement plan.
- Provide high-quality professional learning personalized for school staff that is designed to build:
- The leadership capacity of the school principal.
- The instructional capacity of school staff.
- Educators' capacity with data-driven strategies by providing actionable, embedded data practices.
- Leverage support from community partners to coordinate an efficient delivery of supports to students inside and outside the classroom.
Required: The Role of the School Improvement Committee
- A School Improvement Committee shall partner with the contracted Continuous Improvement Expert to develop and implement a school improvement plan.
Required: The LEA School Improvement Committee shall consist of:
- A local school board member who represents the voting district where the Elevate school is located.
- School principal
- Three (3) parents of students enrolled in the Elevate school appointed by the chair of the school community council.
- One (1) teacher at the Elevate school appointed by the principal.
- One (1) teacher at the Elevate school appointed by the school district superintendent; and
- One (1) school district administrator appointed by the school district superintendent.
Required: The Charter Organization School Improvement Committee shall consist of:
- A member of the Charter School Governing Board who represents the voting district where the Elevate school is located.
- School principal
- Three (3) parents of students enrolled in the Elevate school appointed by the Charter School Governing Board
- Two (2) teachers at the Elevate school appointed by the principal.
Prohibitions:
- A local school board may not select a Continuous Improvement Expert that is the school district; or an employee of the school district.
- A charter school governing board may not select a Continuous Improvement Expert that is a member of the charter school governing board;
- is an employee of the charter school; or
- has a contract to operate the charter school.
Required: The School Improvement Plan (School Improvement Planning Table) must:
- Address the root causes of the Elevate school's low performance identified through the needs assessment.
- Include recommendations regarding changes to the Elevate school's personnel, culture, curriculum, assessments, instructional practices, governance, leadership, finances, policies, or other areas that may be necessary to implement the school improvement plan.
- Include measurable student achievement goals and objectives and benchmarks by which to measure progress.
- Include a professional development plan that identifies a strategy to address problems of instructional practice.
- Include a detailed budget specifying how the school improvement plan will be funded.
- Include a plan to assess and monitor progress.
- Include a plan to communicate and report data on progress to stakeholders; and
- Include a timeline for implementation.
Required: The Four Domains (FD) Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL)
- Each Elevate school will take and complete the FD CALL feedback and reporting tool.
- The principal, administrative team, and school improvement team will complete two, three-hour post CALL results training.
- The post CALL training sessions will assist the principal, administrative team, and their school improvement team in the interpretation of the CALL data, how to prioritize the data, how to connect the data to the comprehensive needs assessment and root cause analysis, and how to use the data to drive, monitor, and measure improvement in the four domains of rapid school improvement.
Contact
Dr. Gregory Firn
School Improvement Educational Specialist
Phone: (801) 538-7846 | E-mail