Accurately measuring a school’s contribution to student growth

ESSA Strategy Call

Our first weekly ESSA Strategy Call focused on Gateway City priority 1: A formal accountability system that creates a level playing field for urban districts when describing performance by isolating each school’s contribution to student learning.  Accurately capturing school performance is largely about the model Massachusetts adopts to statistically control for demographic variation across schools.

Hardworking Gateway City Citizens

The Gateway Cities Journal

President Obama’s parting plea to work collaboratively as citizens to address hard issues had to resonate with Gateway City leaders, who never shy from this civic responsibility. Together, they grapple with the toughest problems and try to find commonsense solutions. In just the past two days, we’ve witnessed two great examples. Wednesday, at the first

Next Generation Education Accountability in Lowell

Recapping our Second Community Conversation

Gateway City leaders from the Merrimack Valley gathered yesterday for a conversation on the power of education accountability, and how change brought about by the impending implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) can help advance the Gateway City vision for educational excellence. While many themes similar to those surfaced in Worcester were discussed, here are

Next Generation Education Accountability in Worcester

Recapping the Conversation

Worcester leaders gathered last Thursday for a spirited conversation on the opportunity that the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) presents to help Gateway Cities realize their vision for educational excellence. Here are four takeaways from their dialogue: A measure that “raises the bar” is critical. When urban students see that they can meet the highest

Voters Support the Changes to Accountability Envisioned by Gateway City Leaders

Survey of registered voters in Massachusetts

Across Massachusetts, Gateway City leaders are working to create exceptional learning environments. It’s a community-wide effort. By strategically marshalling available resources, Gateway Cities can provide the comprehensive supports and educational opportunities that will enable students to gain the full set of advanced skills today’s economy requires. Achieving this vision calls for new approaches to state

Advancing the Gateway Cities Vision

The Potential of Next-Generation Approaches to Education Accountability

We’ve got a prime opportunity to advance the Gateway Cities Vision. In 2013, Gateway City leaders came together to develop an “education vision.” Their farsighted plan leverages unique urban assets to create exceptional learning environments. Achieving this vision is fundamental to making Gateway Cities more attractive communities for families to live and more productive places for

Initiating an urgent conversation on education accountability

The Gateway Cities Journal

We head to Worcester this week for the first of six community dialogues on education accountability. Over the next few months, Massachusetts will revise its accountability policies to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a major overhaul of federal education law signed by President Obama last December. Anticipating this change, we spent a

Next Generation Education Accountability

Design Ideas from New England’s Small-to-Midsize Urban School Districts

Can policymakers take hold of the recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and create new approaches to education accountability that accelerate opportunity and learning for all students? With generous support from the Barr Foundation, the Next Generation Accountability Learning Community (NGALC) examined this question over the past five months with an emphasis on small-to-midsize

Workforce Development Transformation Case Studies

Three Examples of Systems Change through Collaborative Gateway City Leadership

It is with great pleasure that we offer three case studies to complement the report Calling All Leaders: An Action Guide to Workforce Development Transformation. The action guide outlined the grand dimensions of the challenge by the numbers, and contrasted the need for workforce development services with the limited resources available. These case studies show

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