Alaskan Resources
The Department of Education & Early Development has created a comparison tool for to support the transition to the new standards. This tool can be used to assist educators in analyzing the commonalities and differences between the new standards and the Fourth Edition reading, writing, and mathematics standards (Grade Level Expectations).. This tool is a start toward the transition, and districts may choose to augment the document with more detail. All districts will continue to administer the Standards Based Assessments, which are aligned to.....
General SIG Information Resources
Rural School Turnaround Webinar
This was a recording of the first in a series of webinars especially designed to assist rural school staff with implementation of their School Improvement Grants (SIGs).
In this one-hour webinar, Dr. Sam Redding, co-author of the Institute of Education Sciences' practice guide Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools, summarized the recommendations for making significant changes to increase student performance in three years or less.
Comprehensive Planning Template for Schools
This template was designed to help technical assistance and professional development providers work with schools. The results of this school-level assessment can help school personnel identify actions as part of school improvement efforts to design, monitor, or refine increased learning time models.
Comprehensive Planning Template for Districts
This template aims to help technical assistance providers and district-level personnel identify actions and policies and establish a coordinated and coherent districtwide plan to design, select, monitor, and refine increased learning time models.
IES Guide: Structuring Out of School Time
Additional learning time can help close the gap between low- and high-performing students. It can provide academic support that extends beyond the help that students receive during regular school hours. An expert panel developed a Practice Guide featuring five recommendations to help districts, schools, and program providers design, implement, and evaluate local programs. The guide describes the research supporting each recommendation, how to carry it out, and how to address roadblocks for implementation. For the purposes of this website,.....
Central SIG Regional Conference Resources from Denver
This site is intended to house the resources for the May 24-25, 2011 Regional School Improvement Grants Conference in Denver, CO. If you would like to download any of the conference session resources, choose the icon on the left sidebar to be taken to the Resources File Cabinet.
NCEE Releases Baseline Analyses of SIG Applications and SIG-Eligible and SIG-Awarded Schools
The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance has just released the Baseline Analyses of SIG Applications and SIG-Eligible and SIG-Awarded Schools. The report is the first from the Study of School Turnaround (SST), which examines the implementation of the School Improvement Grants (SIG) that is authorized under Title I section 1003(g) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and supplemented by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Baseline Analyses uses publicly-available data from State.....
Key Considerations When Measuring Teacher Effectiveness: A Framework for Validating Teachers’ Professional Practices
The report describes three levels of data collection to measure teacher effectiveness both with and without standardized test scores.
Changing the Conversation with Families in Persistently Low-Achieving High Schools: Guidance for Implementation of School Improvement Grants
This brief provides information to SEAs and LEAs working with secondary schools, as well as to the schools themselves, to change the conversation with families in order to support reform efforts. The brief begins with research on family engagement at the secondary level to provide an evidence-based foundation for selecting appropriate strategies. Based on the research, the brief then highlights two approaches that hold promise for family engagement.
COI Webinar Series: Using DWW Resources to Support SIG Grantees in Adolescent Literacy
The Center on Instruction has released a series of five webinar modules designed to provide key adolescent literacy principles and practices to support the federally funded School Improvement Grants (SIG). The webinar modules introduce the Center on Instruction (COI) and Doing What Works (DWW) websites' tools and resources and address 1) school leadership, 2) research overview, 3) explicit vocabulary instruction in middle and high school, 4) text discussion, and 5) intensive interventions for struggling readers. Also included for each module.....
Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools: IES Practice Guide
This guide presents “specific and coherent evidence-based recommendations for use by educators aiming to quickly and dramatically improve student achievement in low-performing schools.. . .[A] superintendent, a principal, or a site-based decision-making council can use this practice guide to help plan and execute school turnaround strategies."
Building a District Turnaround Office
from Mass Insight Education School Turnaround Group
This publication provides districts with a fundamentally different organizational structure through which to execute school turnaround. The District Turnaround Office (DTO) is a new internal unit within a Local Education Agency (LEA) that manages and coordinates all district turnaround efforts. The DTO streamlines support from multiple offices, rather than creating additional bureaucracy, and ensures that low-performing schools are prioritized not only in talk but in action. This.....
School Improvement Grants: Take 2
From Mass Insight Education School Turnaround Group
This publication provides local and state officials with a framework to revise the Round 2 School Improvement Grant (SIG) process. SIG, both in the level of its funding and the boldness of its requirements, is an unprecedented attempt to alter the fate of students in low-performing schools nationwide. There has never before been an opportunity to dedicate this much national energy and resources to the turnaround of failing schools. However, while SIG may be a huge opportunity for.....
US Dept. of Ed releases SIG Monitoring document
The U.S. Department of Education (US ED) has just released a document that spells out the monitoring indicators US ED will use to determine the degree of implementation of the SIG program and activities administered by state education agencies (SEAs) and describes the monitoring process. Included in the document are SEA-, school district- and, school building-level questions and protocols in areas of application process, program implementation, fiscal stability and well-being, technical assistance, monitoring practices and procedures, and.....
School Improvement Grants-LEA Webinars on the Intervention Models
The following archived webinars from the Center on Innovation and Improvement are viewable as a webinar or as powerpoint slides:
Selecting the Intervention Model
Transformation Model
Turnaround Model
Restart Model
Closure Model
Communicating about School Reform
The Right People for the Job
Selecting the Intervention Model and Partner/Providers for a Low-Achieving School A Decision-Making and Planning Tool for the Local Education Agency
For the School Improvement Grants, LEAs are responsible for selecting the intervention model and external partners/providers that have the greatest potential to dramatically improve outcomes for students attending a low-achieving school. The Center on Innovation & Improvement offers a tool to assist the LEA in making the best decisions. Because state and district contexts vary greatly, CII encourages the modification of this tool to fit the circumstance. So please use it in whole, in part, or in any adaptation that works best for you.
Handbook on Effective Implementation of School Improvement Grants (Revised Jan. 2011)
The five content centers of the Comprehensive Centers Program recently collaborated to create a Handbook on Effective Implementation of School Improvement Grants. The purpose of this handbook is to provide relevant and useful information for states and districts to use as they apply for and implement the models and strategies outlined in the 2009 School Improvement Grant (SIG) program by offering succinct and practical explanations of these models and strategies, references to the underlying research, and connections to useful resources.
Guide to Working With External Providers
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has issued a challenge to our nation to turn around our lowest performing schools. States and schools across throughout our country are dedicating themselves to answering this call, but it will require a significant commitment to achieve measurable results. In many areas, school leaders recognize the valuable role that external providers can play in supporting their work. However, finding the right fit can be daunting and time consuming. The guide is based on existing research and field experience.....
Toolkit for Implementing the School Improvement Grant (SIG) - Transformation Model (CII)
This document is intended for use after the LEA has determined that the Transformation Model is the best fit for the school. The purposes of this document are to:
• outline action items involved in implementing the School Improvement Grant (SIG) Transformation Model and
• provide tools and resources to help districts and school implement the Transformation Model.
- 1 of 2
- ››
