Laboratories of Innovation (Families for Excellent Schools)

Laboratories of Innovation:NYC charters share what works #forNYCkids

Mitch Brenner

Assistant Principal - KIPP Academy Middle, Character Education - KIPP

PERMA

ngagementelationshipseaningccomplishment

ositive Emotions

“When we talk about culture, we're talking about all the little micro moments - the little interactions - that every single person has in the building.” Ian Willey

20,000

Micro-moments

• Any of the 20,000 moments in a day when we have the

chance to build more positive relationships and increase the

positivity ratio

55:38:7

2.5 : 1

4.3 : 1

~5 : 1

The Triangle

April 12, 2023 | 9

Growth Mindset

Constructive Responding

Character Behavior Language

Effort

Good Strategies

Proactive Help Seeking

PERMA

ngagementelationshipseaningccomplishment

ositive Emotions

Maria Williams

Debate and Public Speaking Teacher at three Success Academy middle schoolsCoach of the Success Academy Harlem West Debate Team

Mike D’Auria

Associate Chief Operating Officer for Uncommon New York City, Grades 5-8

Leading school operations

November 20th, 2013

16

Who we are

9,900 Scholars

1,200 Staff

78 School Leaders

38 Schools

5 Regions

3 States

How are our students doing?

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Every Uncommon school in every region outperformed the district in which it is located on both the ELA and Math exams.

Uncommon high school students in New York City and Newark outperformed white students nationally on all three sections of the SAT.

81% of students who took an AP exam scored at least a 3 on at least one exam.

About 80% of Uncommon 12th grade graduates are either enrolled in or have graduated from a 4-year college.

93% of cohorts with us for at least 2 years in grades 3-8 closed the achievement gap in Math.

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There is no secret sauce

“At Uncommon Schools, we do not believe that there is a panacea that makes a school work.

Nor do we pretend that what we do is “rocket

science.” We work hard and use common sense,

because elevating student achievement and

transforming lives requires constant

attention to hundreds of different elements – not

one, magical 100% solution but rather one hundred, individual 1%

solutions.”

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How common schools feel

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What operations looks like at Uncommon Schools

The business of schools

• Create and manage a $5M budget

• Oversee large scale facilities• Manage HR for 40+

employees• Contract with hundreds of

vendors and service providers

• Manage hundreds of thousands of dollars of technology

• Develop a marketing and community engagement strategy

• Steward relationships with media, institutional funders and politicians

21

It takes more than great instruction to run excellent schools.

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A week as an Uncommon Director of Operations

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday6:30 - 7:00 Meeting with building staff (Custodian, Security, Cafeteria)7:00 - 7:30 Facility Walkthrough7:30 - 8:00 Arrival8:30 - 9:00

  School tour to Board member

   9:00 - 9:30

Meeting with COO

Meeting with Director of

Special Projects

Community meeting at

Brownsville rec center

9:30 - 10:00 Check in with

tech service provider10:00 -

10:30 Ops Team Meeting

 Shared Space

Building Council10:30 - 11:00 Bathroom duty 8th Grade Book

Club Call with Marketing team

on website11:00 - 11:30 Meeting with

Office Manager

Certification check in  

Certification check in

11:30 - 12:00  

Cover Math Class

12:00 - 12:30   Facility

walkthrough Lunch Facility walkthrough

12:30 - 1:00 Lunch Recess Lunch

1:00 - 1:30 Call with copy machine vendor

Data analysis for Wed staff PD

Dismissal   Planning for upcoming week

1:30 - 2:00

Staff Meeting and PD

2:00 - 2:30 Family disciplinary

meeting

Prep benefits Kickoff for staff

PD

Bathroom duty2:30 - 3:00

Planning for Report Card Conferences

3:00 - 3:30    Set up CM

3:30 - 4:00Brooklyn

monthly DOO meeting

Community meeting4:00 - 4:30 Dismissal   Dismissal

4:30 - 5:00 Financial Audit Board Call

Meeting with Principal

  Dismissal5:00 - 5:30 Leadership team

meeting  5:30 - 6:00      6:00 - 6:30 Facility Walkthrough

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A week as an Uncommon Principal

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday6:30 - 7:00  7:00 - 7:30  7:30 - 8:00 Arrival8:30 - 9:00

Classroom Observations

 School tour to Board member

Teacher Feedback  

9:00 - 9:30

Meeting with Managing Director

Teacher Feedback

Teacher Feedback

9:30 - 10:00

Grade level leader meeting

Classroom Observations

5-8 Reading Taxonomy

Conference

Teacher Feedback

10:00 - 10:30 Joint classroom

Observations10:30 - 11:00

Classroom Observations

Cover Reading Class

  Teacher Feedback

11:00 - 11:30

Teacher Feedback

Teacher Feedback

11:30 - 12:00 Student Support

Team meetingClassroom

Observations 

Teacher Feedback

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch  

12:30 - 1:00 Lunch Recess Lunch1:00 - 1:30

Classroom Observations

  DismissalJoint classroom

Observations

 1:30 - 2:00

Staff Meeting and PD

Teacher Feedback

2:00 - 2:30

Bathroom duty Dean of Students Check in

Bathroom duty Teacher Feedback

2:30 - 3:00   Joint classroom Observations  3:00 - 3:30 Detention

CoverageClassroom

Observations3:30 - 4:00   Community meeting4:00 - 4:30 Dismissal Dismissal   Dismissal

4:30 - 5:00 Dean of Curriculum

check in

Instructional Leader Meeting

Meeting with DOO

  Dismissal5:00 - 5:30

Leadership team meeting  

5:30 - 6:00      6:00 - 6:30 Lesson plan review

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Separate skill sets for separate roles  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

6:30 - 7:00 Meeting with building staff (Custodian, Security, Cafeteria)7:00 - 7:30 Facility Walkthrough7:30 - 8:00 Arrival8:30 - 9:00

  School tour to prospective Board

member

   9:00 - 9:30

Meeting with COO Meeting with Director of Special Projects Community meeting at

Brownsville rec center9:30 - 10:00 Check in with tech

service provider10:00 - 10:30

Ops Team Meeting 

Shared Space Building Council Meeting10:30 -

11:00 Bathroom duty 8th Grade Book Club Call with Marketing team on website re-

design11:00 - 11:30 Meeting with Office

Manager

Certification check in  

Certification check in

11:30 - 12:00

 Cover Math Class

12:00 - 12:30   Facility walkthrough Lunch Facility walkthrough

12:30 - 1:00 Lunch Recess Lunch

1:00 - 1:30 Call with copy machine vendor

Data analysis for Wed staff PD

Dismissal  Planning for upcoming

week1:30 - 2:00

Staff Meeting and PD

2:00 - 2:30 Family disciplinary meeting

Prep Open Enrollment Kickoff for staff PD

Bathroom duty2:30 - 3:00

Planning for Report Card Conferences

 3:00 - 3:30

Set up community meeting

3:30 - 4:00

Brooklyn monthly DOO meeting

Community meeting4:00 - 4:30 Dismissal   Dismissal4:30 - 5:00 Financial Audit Board

CallMeeting with Principal

  Dismissal5:00 - 5:30 Leadership team

meeting 

5:30 - 6:00      6:00 - 6:30 Facility Walkthrough

Less teacher observation and feedback, less teacher development,

less student learning

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday6:30 - 7:00  7:00 - 7:30  7:30 - 8:00 Arrival8:30 - 9:00

Classroom Observations  School tour to

prospective Board member

Teacher Feedback Meeting  

9:00 - 9:30

Meeting with Managing Director

Teacher Feedback Meeting

Teacher Feedback Meeting

9:30 - 10:00Grade level leader

meetingClassroom Observations 5-8 Reading Taxonomy

Conference Call

Teacher Feedback Meeting

10:00 - 10:30Joint classroom

Observations10:30 - 11:00

Classroom Observations Cover Reading Class 

Teacher Feedback Meeting

11:00 - 11:30

Teacher Feedback Meeting

Teacher Feedback Meeting

11:30 - 12:00Student Support Team

meetingClassroom Observations

Teacher Feedback Meeting

12:00 - 12:30 Lunch  12:30 - 1:00 Lunch Recess Lunch1:00 - 1:30

Classroom Observations  Dismissal

Joint classroom Observations

 1:30 - 2:00

Staff Meeting and PD

Teacher Feedback Meeting

2:00 - 2:30Bathroom duty Dean of Students Check

inBathroom duty

Teacher Feedback Meeting

2:30 - 3:00   Joint classroom Observations  3:00 - 3:30

Detention Coverage Classroom Observations3:30 - 4:00  Community meeting4:00 - 4:30 Dismissal Dismissal   Dismissal

4:30 - 5:00 Dean of Curriculum and Instruction check in

Instructional Leader Meeting Meeting with DOO

  Dismissal5:00 - 5:30 Leadership team

meeting  5:30 - 6:00      6:00 - 6:30 Lesson plan review

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When Principals and teachers do operations work, students learn less.

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People are our most valuable assets, we invest in serve them well

Staff

Everything else

Happy teachers who have what they need serve students better

Interestingly enough, for all of its success, the Disney theme show is quite a fragile thing. It takes just one contradiction, one out-of-place stimulus to negate a particular moment’s experience…tack up a felt-tip brown-paper-bag sign that says “Keep Out”…take a host’s costume away and put him in blue jeans and a tank top…replace that Gay Nineties melody with rock numbers…place a touch of artificial turf here…and a surly employee there…it really doesn’t take much to upset it all. What’s our success formula? It’s attention to infinite detail, the little things, the little minor, picky points that others just don’t want to take the time, money, or effort to do. As far as our Disney organization is concerned, it’s the only way we’ve ever done it….its been our success formula. We’ll probably be explaining this to outsiders at the end of our next two decades in the business.

Excellent customer service takes an uncommon attention to detail in

everything you do

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Operations make schools run, leaders make schools great.

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How Uncommon schools feel

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It takes more than great instruction to run excellent schools.

When Principals and teachers do operations work, students learn less.

Operations make schools run, leaders make schools great.

Arthur Samuels

Executive Director, MESA Charter High School

MESA Charter High School

Who we are

Relationships

Co-located schools

Collaborative Projects

Back to shoe leather and listening

Morgan Altman

Math Instructional Coach at Girls Prep Bronx

A Best Practice in Teaching and Learning Math

Number Talks

What is a Number Talk?

• It is a short routine where students engage in conversations around purposefully crafted computation problems

• Problems are designed to elicit specific strategies that focus on number relationships and number theory

• Students learn to solve problems accurately, efficiently, and flexibly

Key Components of Number Talks

• Classroom environment and community

• Classroom discussions • Teacher’s role• The role of mental math• Purposeful computation problems

Students Have the Opportunity to…

• Clarify their own thinking• Consider and test other strategies to

see if they are mathematically logical• Investigate and apply mathematical

relationships • Build a repertoire of efficient

strategies

Why do We Use Number Talks?

• Number talks are one approach we use to support our girls in developing fluency…with understanding

• Fluency allows our students to access and grapple with more complex mathematics

What does Fluency Look Like?

• Rather than seeing a symbol and automatically setting up a procedure students will consider the numbers and operation together

• Students will break numbers apart and put them back together, find friendly numbers to work with and compensate, apply properties of operations and knowledge of number relationships

For Example…

• Take a minute to mentally solve

32 x 17

• How did you solve? • Can you find a second way? • What strategy and/or model did you

use?

Here is How Students Might Solve

Here is another way…

One more way…

Resources We Often Use

• Number Talks Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies, Grades K-5 (Parrish)

• Math in the City, Mini Lessons. (Fosnot, Uittenbogaard)

Mery Melendez and Shamona Kirkland

Parents and Organizers at Families for Excellent Schools

Harlem Town Hall

Harlem Town Hall

Bed-Stuy Town Hall

Mayoral Forum

What innovation would you like to see the next Mayor support all schools in implementing?

THANK YOU