EACH School

Goal: Make each school an effective launching pad for each student's future.

3.1) CUT THE RED TAPE: GIVE EACH SCHOOL DRAMATICALLY MORE AUTONOMY AND FLEXIBILITY IN EXCHANGE FOR GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY.

a. Eliminate unnecessary program mandates and consolidate categoricals.
It's time to focus more on student learning outcomes at school and less on prescribing and mandating the inputs in the system. In the past decade, California has developed a set of outcomes-focused frameworks, funding, and accountability requirements for charter schools that has accelerated student learning and innovation at the school site level. We now need to extend charter-like flexibility to each successful school by eliminating program mandates and expanding autonomies in exchange for a clear, outcomes-focused framework that holds schools accountable to the end goal of college and career success.
b. Set a date and process to sunset and replace the Ed Code.
It is in the nature of the legislative process to add more than remove. The Ed Code has become a vast rule book that too often smothers innovation and drives massive compliance-oriented work without educational benefit. Efforts under the California Master Plan for Education to prune the EdCode to size were expensive, but not successful. The way to get it to happen is to zero-base the effort: set a reasonable "sunset" date for the entire Ed Code to compel a complete review, and initiate a process with a clear deadline to replace it with a more purposeful, streamlined system. This new framework would outline the state's role in accountability, including the role of standards and assessments, and would replace the bulk of categorical programs with a weighted student formula (as described in section 1.2.b.)

3.2) INVEST IN LEADERSHIP: REINVENT THE SYSTEM FOR RECRUITING AND TRAINING NEW SCHOOL LEADERS.

a. Rethink school leadership.
Ensure that every school isled by a highly effective principal focused relentlessly on student learning. Districts must be asked to base their leadership compensation, evaluation, and support systems on student learning growth outcomes, broadly defined. The State needs to deepen its investment in programs that maintain and foster rigorous standards in recruiting, selecting, training, and supporting administrators.

Report

EACH: A Vision for California's Future
Full Circle Fund, January 2010
Read and learn more about the EACH Approach

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