Haas Education Leadership Case Competition:Pittsburgh Public Schools

Harvard UniversityFebruary 13, 2010

2

Today, too many of Pittsburgh’s students are unprepared for college and careers

66%

73%

43%

50%

32%

39%

27%

34%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

PSSA Reading PSSA Math

White All Students Low-income African American

Student academic performance is not meeting expectations

Students are not prepared to take advantage of Pittsburgh Promise

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

1,800

2,000

12th Grade Class2008

PromiseScholarships

Aw arded

Grade 11 Performance(percent of students proficient or advanced)

District goal of 80% higher degree attainment for high

school graduates

Source: Haas Education Leadership Case Competition, Pittsburgh Public Schools, 2010.

2008 Promise Awards(Note: 2008 GPA requirement of 2.0)

GPA <2.0

GPA >2.0

1,845

757

3

Out of Classroom Time (OCT) can be better utilized to support college readiness

OCT is one element of student successMany organizations already work with

students during OCT

OCT

Family

Clas

sroo

m

Source: PPS Summer Dreamers Academy, Education Committee Presentation (2009)

School programs

Afterschool programs

Summer programs

Businesses and non-profits

4

A successful OCT strategy will be neither highly centralized nor simply visionary

Direct Management

• Single entity directly controls all organizations

• Tight regulation of operations

• Strict accountability

• EXAMPLE: Garbage collection contractors

• Voluntary agreement on broad themes, or a marketing campaign

• Little or no shared operational expectations

• Few or no accountability mechanisms

• EXAMPLE: “Make Poverty History”

Best strategy for Pittsburgh is a middle ground

Pathways to the Promise strategy will combine the best of both: sufficient space for innovation,

while ensuring aligned agreement

Shared Rhetoric

5

Guiding Principles can create a shared vision in the community

1 All students will be encouraged and challenged to go to college

2 All students who want to go to college will receive practical support at each step of the preparation process

4 All families will receive the information they need to help their students plan for the future

3 All students will have conversations about their futures with caring, trusted adults

Suggested language for Guiding Principles

6

Action is needed in four areas for implementation

Provide a roadmap forstudents to reach the Promise

Create capacity tomanage andsupport partners

Leverage partners’ strengths

and capabilities

Understand thedifferences in

students’ needs

1

34

2

7

Provide stronger and earlier instructions to navigate Pathways to the Promise

1

Students need help meeting milestones

Source: Christopher Avery & Thomas Kane, Student Perceptions of College Opportunities: The Boston COACH Program; Bettinger, Eric, Increasing Postsecondary Enrollment among Low-Income Families… The FAFSA H&R Block Experiment

54%

63%

50% 49%

29%24%

36% 33%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Took SAT Have anapplication

CounselorVisits (4+)

Visited acollege

Yes

No

“…Considerable evidence of low-income youths with high aspirations and high valuations of college failing to clear seemingly minor hurdles in the [college going] process…”

Christopher Avery Harvard Department of Economics

Aspiration is not enough

Note: Students in program studied had min 3.0 GPA and were looking for admission to 4-year BA programs in MA

• Early communication upon entering high school helps students begin college path

- Personalized roadmap for students- iEnroll application

• Quick Wins- Partner with H&R block to offer FAFSA application

assistance to all8 28% of low-income students haven’t heard of

the FAFSA- Flex funds to help students pay for SAT tests

Enrollment rate of academically qualified students meeting milestone by start of senior year

8

Understand students’ differentiated needs to tailor approaches for support

2

A process is needed to identify students’ needs

Targeted approaches to students’ barriers are needed

Source: Focusing on Results in Promise Neighborhoods: Recommendations for the Federal Initiative, The Center for the Study of Social Policy

• Guidance Counselors take the lead on assessing students when they arrive to construct Student Profile

- Academic Review8 Past GPA performance8 PSSA performance8 Attendance/Truancy

- Soft skills and home life review8 Disciplinary history8 Federal surveys8 Take-home surveys

• Implement a system to capture and track this student data (i.e. Pearson’s PowerSchool)

Note: Excellent student survey samples can be found from Coalition for Community Schools and Harlem Children Zone to understand student readiness and risks Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte currently administers placement tests to early high school students to determine academic areas of focus before graduation

Low High

Low

High

Academic Strength

Provide academic supports

Early and intense

intervention to

build aspirations

Provide stretch goals to reach full potential

Communicate benefits; support

milestone attainment

Soft

Skills

Str

en

gth

Identify partners’ capabilities to leverage their strengths in supporting students

3

Source: PPS; International case studies9

Potential solutions

• Create a web-based directory of CBOs and their programs to help parents and teachers identify opportunities for students

• Utilize neighborhood, parent, and political networks to spread the word about Promise opportunities.

• Formalize communication between committed partners - Secure agreement from Colleges, CBOs, Summer Schools and Business to

Guiding Principles will embed a consistent vision

• Highlight the benefits to colleges of supporting Promise success- Challenge local colleges to run summer schools and mentoring programs- Support colleges in advertising to students early and often in high school

Barrier

Lack of knowledge of existing programs

Lack of alignment with Pittsburgh Promise

Lack of open communication

between stakeholders

• Create buy-in of Guiding Principles by community partners- CBO’s sign agreement to adhere to Guiding Principles for access to

school facilities and the online directory

• Set up a Promise Advisory Board of partners to create buy-in

• Require Promise recipients/alumni to invest in community- Work with targeted CBOs and Summer Programs- Could be extended in the form of a ‘Promise Corps’

Summer school at collegesPreparing parents

10

There are innovative interventions that Pittsburgh can implement with partners

3

Source: UK Department for Education and Skills, Widening Participation in Higher Education (2003); Playing for Success; Boston Public Schools Acceleration Agenda (2009); Youth Development Institute, College Access and Success for Young Adult Learners: A Research Summary for Schools and Programs

• Playing for Success is a British CBO which runs homework clubs at urban sports venues

• Literacy, numeracy and IT with a sporting focus

• Target underperforming high school students

• Independent evaluations show significant improvement in numeracy test scores and self-confidence particularly for male minority students

• Steelers, Panthers, Penguins could be partners

Math in sports clubs Results focused mentoring

• College Opportunity and Career Help (COACH) links students from Harvard to Boston Public Schools

• Focus is on providing assistance to students in preparing for and applying to college (e.g., SAT test prep, application form completion)

• From the outset undertook rigorous monitoring and evaluation to test impact on college application rates

• Results focused approach could be extended to existing University of Pittsburgh program

• Parent University is a Boston Public School year-long training and education program for parents

• Provides workshops (including full day Saturday sessions) to help parents understand how they can help their children with homework and how to understand the college application process

• Supports parents to develop a network that can be a friendly challenge to poorly performing schools

• Could easily be extended to PPS

• New York’s Youth Development Initiative has found that students are more likely to complete the application process for college if they have been on campus for an extended period

• City University of New York runs month long intensive summer schools on its campus which focus on college preparation as well as after school classes

• The same could be implemented by Carnegie Mellon as well as community colleges

Create management capacity to facilitate networking across multiple stakeholders

4

Source: PPS; International case studies11

Recommended approachesConsiderations

School personnel lacks bandwidth to manage additional

responsibilities

Manage balance of CBO autonomy and

commitment to Promise

Pittsburgh Promise alumni base is a

resource

• Create a Community Coordination Officer (CCO)- 1 CCO for every 2 high schools- Strengthen relationship between CBOs and schools- Provide feedback to the district on program effectiveness

• Introduce volunteer “Parent Coordinators” in all high schools- Responsible for daily tasks (lunch duty, dismissal, etc) to free up Guidance

Counselors/Social Worker to focus on Promise support

• Provide incentives for community partners to align with Promise- Allocate 150K to “CBO Innovation Prize” for effective strategies focus on

college-readiness

• Annual Parent and Student Surveys to evaluate CBO Promise support programs

- Publicize survey response on PPS website and in CBO Directory (i.e. “Did CBO provide college tour?”)

• Establish “Promise Corps”- Use Teach for America 2-year commitment model- Top 10% of graduating class eligible for greater school loan repayment- Vigorously develop relationships with community partners and commitment

to Promise

12

Management tools will guide implementation

Marketing & Communication Plan

Suggested Budget

12

Dashboard for Evaluation

Implementation Timeline

13

PPS should continue to build upon the Pathways to Promise brand

Public CBOsFamilies

• Celebrate early successes

- Advertise student success stories

• Challenge businesses to partner with the Promise

• “For our partners” link on the web with

- Guiding Principles- CCO Contact information

• Market Guiding Principles to develop awareness and support

- Advertise ‘Parent College’

Continue to build on brand momentum

14

PPS should establish a monthly dashboard to track how it is delivering on the Promise

• Dashboards should be created at a District, CCO and school level

• Data on CBO performance should be drawn from a bi-annual survey of students

• An upgraded IT system should link with the iEnroll student checklist to track performance against key barriers to enrolment

Promise readinessCurrent GPAs

Current attendance

Target: 80% >2.5 GPA

Target: 80% >90% attendance

Enrollment readiness12th Grade iEnroll checklist completion

Target: 75%

CBO survey response from 11th Grade

75%

50%

35%

85%

15

PPS can have real impact for $1m a year

Category   Cost/Unit Quantity Total Cost NotesExpenses          Staffing  

 

HS Community Coordination Officer (CCO) 75,000 5 375,000 1 CCO for every 2 HS's

  Promise Corps (PC) 40,000 5 200,000 PC Pilot Program in 2010- 2011

 Recruitment Expenses 35,000 1 35,000

Postings, Travel to Career Fairs, etc

Programmatic Expenses  

 

Promise Corp Expenses (training, recruitment) 11,000 5 55,000

PD for PC's (5*$200/week at 52 weeks)

 Promise Marketing/ Advertising 50 1,845 92,250

$50 per graduating PPS HS senior

 CBO Incentive Program 150,000 1 150,000

100K First Prize; 50K Second Prize

Technology  

  IT Needs 1,400 66 92,400 1,400 per school, in addition to IT in process

Total Expenses       999,650  

16

PPS should define a workplan for timely and effective implementation

Task by Action Area

• Provide Roadmap for students-Introduce Parent University-Develop iEnroll data system with guidance counselor monitoring

-Implement iEnroll data system

• Determine students needs-Collect student data -Design Student Profile document

• Leverage partners’ strengths-Create advisory board-Develop ‘Guiding Principles’-Host a call to action for CBOs-Formalize college relationships-Finalize CBO directory-Pilot Promise Corps Program-Roll out Promise Corps Program

• Build capacity to manage-Roosevelt meet with principles-Define CCO role and recruiting-Provide intensive training for guidance counselors

2011 - 2012

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Spring ‘10

Feb Mar Apr May

Summer ‘10

Jun Jul Aug

2010 - 2011

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

17

Next Steps: What are you going to do when you get back to the office?

2 Define your top 2-3 stakeholders among Pittsburgh’s CBOs, colleges and businesses. Would they be appropriate Advisory Board members?

3 Review Prof. Chris Avery’s paper on COACH in Boston, the Youth Development Institute’s paper on College Access and Success in New York City and other cited resources. Are there further lessons to learn from the most successful attempts to tackle this issue?

4 Draw up list of potential additional funders (e.g., Broad Foundation, Tiger Foundation). Could Pathways to the Promise be pitched to them as a trial program for the nation?

1 Seek feedback from other members of your PPS team. Does the strategy need adjusting given their expertise?

18

Questions?

Q&A

19

BACKUP

20

Recommended Sources (1 of 2)

Helping Students Prepare• “Paving the Way for Success in High School and Beyond: The Importance of Preparing Middle School Students for the

Transition to Ninth Grade“, Jean Baldwin Grossman and Siobhan M. Cooney http://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/269_publication.pdf

• “The Case for School-Based Integration of Services: Changing the Ways Students, Families and Communities Engage With Their Schools”, Jean Baldwin Grossman and Zoua M. Vanghttp://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/267_publication.pdf

 City of New York Youth Development Institute• “College Access and Success for Young Adult Learners: A Research Summary for Schools and Programs.”

http://www.ydinstitute.org/resources/publications/CollegeAccess(YouthDevelopmentInstitute).pdf • “Building a Better Bridge: Helping Young Adults Enter and Succeed in College.”

http://www.ydinstitute.org/resources/publications/TheDreamofCollege(YouthDevelopmentInstitute).pdf Boston Public Schools• “Acceleration Agenda 2009-2014: A Five-Year Strategic Direction to transform the Boston Public Schools.”

http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/agenda• “The Effects of College Counseling on High-Achieving, Low-Income Students: Results of a Pilot Study with a

Randomized Controlled Trial.” Avery, C., Sept, 2009. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/cavery/counselor%20paper%20september%2016%202009.pdf

• “Student Perceptions of College Opportunities: The Boston COACH Program”, Avery, C., and Kane, Thomas. In College Choices: the Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay for it, Caroline Hoxby, Ed. University of Chicago Press, Sept 2004. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/cavery/Student%20Perceptions%20of%20College%20Opportunities.pdf

United Kingdom• “Widening participation in higher education”, Department for Education and Skills. 2003

http://www.dius.gov.uk/higher_education/~/media/publications/E/EWParticipation 

21

Recommended Sources (2 of 2)

 Afterschool Programs/Summer Schools• National Dropout Prevention Center/Network: Summary of research on benefit of after school programming

www.droupoutprevention.org/effstrat/after_school_opps• Children’s Aid Society

www.childrensaidsociety.org/TA• Playing for Success

http://www.playingforsuccessonline.org.uk/• COACH

http://www.communityservice.harvard.edu/programs/coach-college-opportunity-and-career-help• Boston Public Schools Parent University

http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/3781• CUNY Summer School

http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/academics/precollege/ Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Scholars Program• http://www.seo-usa.org/Scholars_Overview

The FAFSA• “Increasing Postsecondary Enrollment Among Low Income Families: A Project to Improve Access to College

Information and Financial Aid” Bettinger E. et al, Jan 2009. http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~longbr/FAFSA_Project_-_Bettinger_Long_Oreopoulos_-_Description_1-09.pdf

• “FAFSA Experiment Boosts College Going.” Lederman, Doug. Inside Higher Ed, Sept 23, 2009. http://www.nber.org/papers/w15361.pdf

• “College Grants on a Postcard: A Proposal for Simple and Predictable Federal Student Aid.” Dynarski, Susan M, and Scott-Clayton, Judith E., Social Science Research Networkhttp://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2007/02education_dynarski/200702dynarski%20scott%20clayton.pdf