School Leadership in Times of Crisis

As I watch educational leaders across the country grapple with the challenges of the school closures, my mind goes back to Louisiana. I lived in Louisiana during hurricanes Katrina and Gustav. Those events were contained to smaller geographic areas and affected fewer people, and yet similarities abound between them and the current situation. Students, families, and educators, now homebound, are wrestling with confusion, helplessness, anger
, and countless other emotions. It’s a time of great uncertainty and stress.

And yet, we know from history, we will recover. New Orleans and Baton Rouge rebounded after the storms. The US, its educational system, and those it serves will heal and be better as they emerge from the closures. However, for that to happen, school leaders need to create a plan to navigate through the present and plan for the future.

Manage the Present
A deluge of resources -- lesson plans, videos, kits, worksheets -- are flooding parents' and teachers’ email inboxes and social media feeds. It’s overwhelming and much of it is presented in an unaligned and non-actionable way. Here’s how you can cut through the noise and support meaningful progress for your constituents during this difficult time.

Create an actionable teaching and learning plan. Think strategically about your school communities. Sort through the resources and find a way to make them consumable and impactful for those they serve. Avoid sending websites or work packets to students and families without making sure they are part of a larger teaching and learning strategy. Translate everything that is out there and make it something that can truly support student learning, academically and social-emotionally.

Provide support to teachers, staff, and parents. School leaders’ lens cannot only be student-facing.
You must also serve the adults in your school communities. These individuals are the
direct channel to students. Crisis management plans should include ways to offer emotional
and professional support to your adult constituency.

Conduct routine check-ins. Communication will be key to your school community’s success during the closure. Check-in with stakeholders regularly, individually and in groups, using video conference tools. Emphasize the plan, see what they need, and find out what you can do to support.

Keep an eye on operations. Make sure your facilities are well maintained during closures. Also, begin planning for fiscal impact. Leverage new and existing grants. Work with an experienced grant writer to address new challenges your school may face when the closures end.

Reflect and grow. Use this time to think about the issues that were affecting your school before the closure and begin developing plans to improve your campus community when school resumes. Enlist the support of a leadership coach and thought partner with whom you can brainstorm and talk.

Prepare for the Reopening
Heading back to campus will be a different experience. Everyone will be in a new norm. Here’s how you can help ease that transition.

Relaunch. When school resumes treat it like the beginning of a new school year, resetting cultural and academic expectations

Welcome. Students displaced because of the crisis will enroll in your school; have a plan to ensure this transition is smooth and as positive as possible for them and their families

Address the reality. School closures and the crises stem from creating trauma for students, families, and educators; create plans to address and a way to provide supports when everyone returns to school

Set priorities and goals. School restarting will bring feelings of hope and promise; use this
time to establish the priorities and goals for your school community

The coronavirus has paralyzed our world, country, and educational system with fear and uncertainty. Our role as school leaders is to guide our teams and students through the wreckage back to level ground. We can do this. We are resilient, we are driven and we will be better on the other side of this.

Mark Comanducci is the founder and CEO of The 305 Education Group, a school-support organization
that coaches school leaders and leadership teams. Email him at
mark@305edgroup.com.
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Read the original article here  (PDF format)

A Culture of Coaching

As executive vice president and superintendent of schools for ACCEL Schools, I’ve had the challenge and opportunity of guiding nine historically underperforming schools -- a portfolio we’ve dubbed our “turnaround schools” -- as they re-envisioned how they serve their students and not only got back on track, but in some cases became top performers in their cities.

The key to our success has been our three pillars to turnaround. The first two pillars are academics and culture. I think any educational organization is going to say those are basic foundations, but our third pillar is coaching, and I don’t think that’s quite as common. We’ve developed an all-encompassing culture of coaching -- beginning with leadership coaching for our principals and flowing down to instructional coaching for our teachers and even coaching for our school office managers.

Unique Challenges Facing Ohio Charter Schools

Charter schools in Ohio can only operate in certain cities, which prevents the creation of charter schools in high-performing suburban districts. As a result, all the charters are local to low-performing districts, with the vast majority concentrated in Northeast Ohio. Our turnaround schools are all urban, and they all serve a largely socioeconomically challenged demographic.

The percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches at these schools ranges from 97-100%. The racial and ethnic diversity varies more across the schools. In some of our turnaround schools we have no English language learners and in others we have as many as 10 -15%. In terms of students with disabilities, our schools range from 12-24%.

Demographically speaking, then, pervasive poverty is the only near-universal trait of the student bodies across these schools.

Those economic challenges are mirrored to an extent in the schools themselves, with funding being the number one challenge we faced in turning them around. Charter schools in Ohio are funded at 30-40% less per student than traditional public schools.

Another big challenge: reputation. Ohio has a very challenged reputation when it comes to charter schools, or as they're called, community schools. That has had an impact on not only student enrollment, but also teacher recruiting and retention.

Outside of that, we are consistently working to stay ahead of the regulatory changes in regard to charter schools that individual traditional public schools don't have to deal with in our state. Those regulations may come from the Ohio Department of Education directly or from each school sponsor. Additionally, each school operates as its own district, which means they are responsible for a substantial list of regulatory items that they are required to submit for each individual school. It’s a very large volume and quite a burden. Ensuring that doesn't take away from resources that would otherwise be directly impacting student learning is a challenge.

Finding Solutions in Coaching

One of the fundamental tenets of our school turnaround theory of action is ensuring that, starting with principals, the work is laser focused on those who they are there to serve, which is students, families, and educators.

Charter school principals in Ohio have a lot on their plate that isn’t directly focused on serving those people. To ease their burden, we work hard every day to take that off their plate. For example, we’ve built out a central office team that works largely on operations, compliance, and reporting on behalf of our schools.

With those nuts-and-bolts issues out of their way, we then ask our principals to re-envision their school community. That's done through a summer institute during which, over a few weeks, principals focus on the academic and cultural framework of their schools. Throughout that process, they receive intensive support and coaching, both internally and through an external partner.

When we first started working with these turnaround schools, I was a bit surprised to find out that very few of our school leaders had ever worked in a high-performing school before. When you're asking a school leader to do things fundamentally differently than what they’ve been exposed to, the learning curve becomes very steep.

Our coaching partnership provides an external reference point for what high-performing schools look like, along with a thought partner for our principals. As a superintendent, I made a conscious choice to have no line of sight into what was happening in this outside coaching of our principals. They can be more vulnerable with outside coaches because they’re not their boss or some other authority figure. And the length of the partnership -- we’ve been working with them since 2015 now -- offers a stability and a deep working relationship our principals can count on.

 Lessons Learned and Next Steps

I think one of the more important things we’ve learned over the last few years is that coaching works, not only for principals but for teachers. Our principals did not have deep experience with coaching prior to our model, but they have taken what they were living through with their executive coach and used it as a framework for their coaching of teachers.

Another lesson stems from the fact that we are not trying to replicate a model. Our schools look, feel, and sound vastly different not just from traditional schools, but from one another. To allow for that, we’ve given our principals the autonomy to determine their own path and what their schools will be like through their summer institutes. What we weren't expecting is that there are times when our principals just want a blueprint. Some of them just did not feel strongly about a particular school model, but I think there's value in having principals struggle through that and wrangle with it for a while. But it was eye-opening to learn that autonomy in all areas is not necessarily universally valued by our school leaders.

We've come a long way, but there are definitely areas where we want to keep moving the needle. For our first cohort of turnaround schools, we’re continuously trying to improve our student outcomes, and we’d also like to start thinking a little more broadly, looking beyond the academic and social emotional growth of students with experiences like student government, sports, band, cheer, dance—the sorts of things that are often overlooked in charter schools in Ohio.

We also want to keep growing those schools. As a charter school organization, we’re very aware that full enrollment brings in funding and allows us to do a lot more for teachers, students, and families than we could if we’re under-enrolled.
For our second cohort, which we just started working with this year, we’re expecting the rate of improvement to be accelerated owing to our experience. ____________________________________________________________________________

This article is by Mark Comanducci of The 305 Education Group.

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Education & The Digital Divide- Pt 1

Mark Comanducci founder of The 305 Education Group engages with other professionals from the field to discuss how educators can best leverage all the traditional learning methods and utilize tools from the digital workbench to enhance learning opportunities for all students.

Education & The Digital Divide- Pt 2

Mark Comanducci founder of The 305 Education Group engages with other professionals from the field to discuss how educators can best leverage all the traditional learning methods and utilize tools from the digital workbench to enhance learning opportunities for all students.

Education & The Digital Divide- Pt 3

Mark Comanducci founder of The 305 Education Group engages with other professionals from the field to discuss how educators can best leverage all the traditional learning methods and utilize tools from the digital workbench to enhance learning opportunities for all students.

Cincinnati Public Schools: ‘Despite the closure, learning continues’ 

Cincinnati Public Schools launched CPS TV on Sunday. The community access channel will feature recorded online lessons presented by CPS teachers, along with other educational programming from zoos, libraries, and museums. (CPS Twitter account)

By Jennifer Edwards Baker
Updated: Apr. 20, 2020 at 7:30 AM EDT
CINCINNATI (FOX19) 

Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday that all school buildings in Ohio will remain closed for the rest of the school year.  For Cincinnati Public Schools, the last day for students is May 21, 2020.

“The level of creativity, flexibility and commitment over these last several weeks are unparalleled. However, we also want to acknowledge how much we miss our students and families right now. It’s hard to imagine that we won’t be able to see our CPS kids the rest of the year. And this is an especially difficult time for our seniors, who should be celebrating rites of passage, such as prom and graduation with their friends, extended family, and schools," Superintendent Laura Mitchell said. In the meantime, launched CPS TV on Monday to broadcast lessons for students and their families, the district announced on its website.

CPS TV will be carried on Cincinnati Bell channel 804 and Spectrum channel 15, starting at 7:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. The community access channel will feature recorded online lessons presented by CPS teachers, along with other educational programming from zoos, libraries, and museums.

“CPS TV is another way for our students to continue learning while our schools are closed during the stay-at-home order to curb the spread of COVID-19," said Tianay Amat, deputy superintendent.

About 83 percent of students in the district qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Amat said.“

Some of our students do not have access to the internet or a computer, but may have cable TV in their home,” she said. “We want to reach as many students as possible.”

It’s critical that learning continues for all students in this time of uncertainty,” added Emily Campbell, curriculum director.

CPS officials say Mark Comanducci, founder and CEO of The 305 Education Group, a Cincinnati-based educational consulting organization, approached the district with the idea of offering the recorded online lessons on the community access channel.

"I was excited to bring this idea to CPS and to help CPS operationalize and launch this teaching and learning opportunity, which will bring unique and curriculum-aligned educational programming to over 100,000 households in the Cincinnati region," Comanducci said.

Daily programming will kick off with storytime for preschool-age children and continue throughout the day for elementary and high school students. Each day, programming will focus on a theme. Literacy is the theme on Mondays and Wednesdays while Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) will be the focus on Tuesdays and Thursdays."Fun Fridays will showcase programming from other educational resources, such as museums, parks, or libraries," Campbell said.

In addition to the lessons from CPS teachers, Campbell said grade-level programming from Great Minds, a curriculum provider, will also offer lessons, organized by grade level and taught by experienced teachers nationwide. As each day begins with storytime for children, each day will conclude with storytime, but this one is for adults, Campbell said.

At 2:30 p.m., they can tune in and listen to the segment she is calling, “One Book, One City.”CPS TV will also feature important announcements and messages from school officials to keep students and families informed during the school closure.

Videos from the district’s YouTube channel, highlighting the strategic plan, magnet lottery, and Vision 2020 schools, will also be broadcast throughout the day.“We are launching CPS TV to serve our families at this critical time. But this channel has so much potential for the future,” Amat said.

Copyright 2020 WXIX. All rights reserved.

View the original article on the FOX19 website

Creating a Learning Channel for School Districts

Kathrine Nero from “Coffee Break with Kathrine” discusses with Emily Campbell and Mark Comanducci the founder of The 305 Education Group, how a local learning channel can assist school districts who have students working remotely for their lessons.

To Turn Around Schools, First, Turn Around the Principals

A superintendent outlines the PD plan he is using to model and support excellence for principals in failing schools.

I oversee a portfolio of nine turnaround schools, all of which had an overall rating of F when ACCEL Schools first took them over two years ago. This means that, on average, fewer than 30 percent of students were proficient. As a charter organization in Ohio, our schools receive 40 percent to 60 percent less funding than traditional schools, because charters in Ohio rarely, if ever, get local funding. This means we don’t have the budget to radically restaff our schools.

When we started with these schools, I faced a high level of skepticism among the principals. They had been bombarded with change for change’s sake, so their trust in leadership had eroded.

The mindset was, “If I keep my head low enough, everything will pass and I’ll be fine.” To show that the climate had changed, the first thing we did was a book study on Mindset to get them reflecting on their own willingness and openness to be pushed, grow, and improve. This quest to improve is expected from all of our teachers, so it was critical that our principals shared that sacred belief. Then we started the multi-year process of showing these principals what good leadership looks like and how they can become the leaders who will turn their schools around.

Summer 1: School Redesign Project
In their first summer with us, the principals took part in a four-week Summer Institute, during which they completed a school redesign project. Our aim was for them to focus only on academics and school culture, so we took nonessential tasks off their plate. Our back-office handled operational compliance and reporting work so principals could put their energy into distilling what was truly core to them and effectively planning to operationalize it.

This laser focus on the key elements of school turnaround continued throughout the school year. We asked them to explain why and how they would work with their existing teachers to make their plans a reality for students, families, and teachers throughout the year. Each principal set the vision and mission for their own building-crafting, refining, and articulating what was core to them as it related to their school’s culture and academic framework.

Academic Year 1: Learning Content, Understanding Coaching
We supported each of our principals based on collaborative goals, which meant that sometimes we were doing nine different things at nine different schools. To support this personalized approach, we provided all of our principals individual coaching with consultants. Sometimes we had consultants on-site, sometimes the communication was via phone or email.

We inherited our current principals from a toxic environment, and we needed the coaching relationship to be sacred and protected. We wanted someone from the outside who was not doing evaluation and who gave me no line of sight into the conversations. The focus was on building our principals’ leadership skills and increasing their familiarity with the coaching model-something they were expected to replicate with their teachers.

Very few of our teachers had been exposed to a high-performing, robust, and appropriate coaching relationship, so in our principal PD we modeled coaching for them in real time. We expected teachers to get a coaching meeting every week, and I wanted our principals to have that same sort of coaching themselves. I also checked in weekly with every principal.

During their first academic year, our principals were a leadership team of one. They had no dedicated instructional coach, instead of sharing a coach with one or two other schools. The instructional coaches exposed principals to strong teacher coaching, and also spotted instructional issues that we addressed during optional evening PD sessions once or twice a month.

Like our teachers, the majority of our principals had not worked in high-performing schools, so we exposed them to the pillars of best practice through professional development and coaching. Our theory of action is rooted in the belief that principal effectiveness improves student performance, which improves enrollment, which in turn gives principals the funding they need to eventually build-out their leadership team.

Academic Year 2: A Pivot to Content-Based PD
After completing a second summer institute, each principal got his or her own instructional coach, doubling the size of the building’s leadership team. Some principals responded better to structured professional development settings than coaching or mentoring, so in year 2 we used our coaching resources as part of a mapped sequence of traditional PD.

Now that our principals understood coaching and had an instructional coach at their campus, we pivoted to content-based, outcome-focused PD. I think of year 2 as a step function, with each formal PD event followed by coaching so that principals constantly build on what they learn.

Our ultimate goal is to empower each principal so that every school in the system operates on its own, financially and in terms of leadership capacity. I believe we’ve made a good start: we have delivered on the culture and curricular shifts we had promised, and we have kept nonessential tasks off our principals’ plates. Those steps have earned us their trust, and our coaching and PD is giving them the skills they need to turn their schools around.

Our principals are excited about the support and the autonomy they get—and the accountability that comes with it.

About the Author:
Mark Comanducci is a leadership coach and school turnaround specialist.

Read the full article in PDF format 

Your Significant Other is Tired of Hearing You Vent: Why All School Leaders Need a Leadership Coach

It’s an all too familiar scene; you get home from work, sit down to eat dinner, and the flood gates open. Your significant other (spouse, partner, friend, or the family pet) gets bombarded with all the challenges, headaches, and frustrations that come with you being a school leader. One day the venting is about a teacher who is unwilling (or maybe unable) to meet instructional expectations. Another day it is about students who are making poor choices in the cafeteria. The next day it is about a classroom without air conditioning and having to move that classroom outside for the afternoon.

No matter the issue, your significant other lends a caring ear, listens to you vent, then passes you the roasted potatoes and another slice of meatloaf and you both move on. But what did this conversation really accomplish and, more importantly, how will it make tomorrow better?

Leadership Coaching: The Why

Talking (or venting) about work with your significant other is usually healthy. However, this cycle is symptomatic of school leaders who are not properly supported, specifically via a leadership coach. It is well documented that: The two most impactful levers in increasing student learning are teachers and school leaders (principal, leadership team, etc.); (1, 2)

• School leaders are the most important lever in improving outcomes related to
student, family, and staff satisfaction and retention;

• Emphasizing coaching and mentoring of principals refocuses school communities on improving student achievement, retains more teachers, and strengthens school climate. (3)

Despite the vital importance of supporting and developing school leaders, most school-level coaching, development, and support is only focused on teachers. I am not advocating to reduce coaching and development provided to teachers. I would argue that the impact of those teacher-facing supports (as well as most every other school-level initiative) is reduced when school leaders are struggling to lead through challenges, action plan, or adapt to unexpected situations. As such, it is imperative that all school leaders have a leadership coach, which is a person to thought partner with and who provides support, guidance, and professional development tailored to school leaders’ unique needs.

Leadership Coaching: The How

Most industries provide coaching or mentoring to employees to increase sales, reduce customer complaints, or improve efficiency. Unfortunately, this practice is all too uncommon in education. As such, it is essential that school leaders are provided a coach, ideally externally or by a “third-party” partner to help them increase their
impact and improve outcomes. An external/“third-party” leadership coach will:

• Create a safe space, where leaders can be open and vulnerable about the challenges they are facing, which is not often possible with a boss, evaluator, or employer;

• Provide guidance from a shared experience, as they have walked in a school leader’s shoes;

• Work in parallel with the resources, expectations, or goals set forth by the school’s Board of Directors, mission, or existing beliefs and commitments and not create competing priorities.

There is not a certain profile of school leader who should be afforded a leadership coach. I have provided leadership coaching to:

• New and veteran school leaders;
• School leaders at high-performing and struggling school;
• Individual school leaders and entire leadership teams.

Leadership Coaching: The Impact
Investing in school leaders produces student academic gains and dramatic academic growth. (4) I can attest that all school leaders deserve this type of support and investment in themselves. The leadership coaching I have provided:
• Increased student proficiency rates as measured by the Department of Education;

• Increased the amount of annual student learning as compared to the local school district, charter schools within the district, and all public schools statewide, as measured by the Department of Education.

Educator satisfaction and retention increase when coaching is provided. (5) At schools where I have provided leadership coaching:

• The retention rate of school leaders was 91%;
• Teacher retention increased from 59% to 83%;
• The percentage of teachers who rated their experience at their schools as
“Satisfied or Better” increased from 50% to 89%.

Family/student satisfaction increases when school leaders are empowered to affect change and better meet the needs of their stakeholders. At a cohort of schools where I provided leadership coaching:

• Families/students who rated their overall experience as “Satisfied or Better” increased from 68% to 97%;
• Families/students who stated their school was a safe learning environment increased from 61% to 95% over the course of the coaching relationship.

Advocate For School Leaders
School leaders (and their district and Boards of Directors) are often laser focused on the needs of their teachers. While those needs cannot be overstated, the impact of those supports, resources, and the overall development of teachers are diminished if school leaders are unable to effectively lead their schools. It is imperative that
schools, districts, and Boards of Directors provide external/“third-party” leadership coaching to their leaders (and for school leaders to advocate for this support on their own behalf).

This modest financial investment, much less than it costs to bring a new principal on board (6), will increase school leaders’ joy and retention, as well as increase student learning, staff satisfaction and retention, and family/student satisfaction. Not to mention, it will foster happier dinnertime conversations for school leaders and their
significant others, where they can truly enjoy their roasted potatoes and meatloaf.

-----------------------------

Mark Comanducci is the Founder and CEO of The 305 Education Group, a school-support
organization that coaches school leaders and leadership teams. For information about
receiving leadership coaching, support, and development.

View the Article in (PDF) by Mark Comanducci

Footnotes
1. Louis, Karen S., Leithwood, Kenneth, Wahlstrom, Kayla L., Anderson, Stephen E.,
Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning, 2010.
2.Opper, Isaac M., Teachers Matter: Understanding Teacher’s Impact on Student
Achievement Data, 2019.
3.Aldrich, M. W., How Do You Improve Schools? Start by Coaching Principals, Says New
Study, 2018.
4. Superville, Denisa., 6 Districts Invested in Principals and Saw Dramatic Gains. Dozens
More Will Try to Do the Same, 2020.
4.
5. De La Rosa, S., Principals Value Coaching, But the Model Still Isn’t Widespread, 2019.
6. School Leaders Network, CHURN: The High Cost of Principal Turnover, 2014

Helping to Turn Around Ohio's Underperforming Schools

IN 2015, THE EDUCATIONAL landscape in Ohio shifted with the creation of ACCEL Schools (ACCEL). Unlike many educational organizations managing and overseeing charter schools – often called community schools in Ohio – ACCEL did not start with one school and then slowly grow. Instead, the boards of directors of various charter schools across the state asked ACCEL to take over the management of their schools. In just over two years, ACCEL’s portfolio has grown from 22 to 37 schools in Ohio.

Among these are nine Turnaround Schools, which before ACCEL were historically underperforming and underserving their students, families, and teachers.

The Turnaround Schools are overseen by Superintendent Mark Comanducci, whose team faced the daunting task of improving schools that had some of the lowest school performance scores, student proficiency rates, and student attendance rates in the state of Ohio. Instead of a single academic model, ACCEL’s school turnaround theory of action is rooted in deeply supporting and coaching its principals and teachers.

Research has been very clear for decades that the greatest school-related impact on student achievement is an effective teacher in the classroom. The second greatest impact is an effective principal in every school since principals play a critical role in school culture and providing consistent, meaningful feedback to teachers. Coaching has shown to be a key strategy in improving practice for both teachers and principals. “There is no silver bullet in education,” says Comanducci. “The only way to consistently and sustainably increase student learning and improve the social-emotional growth of students is by investing in the people who work with them every day.”

Coaching Is Key

ACCEL’s intense support starts with all Turnaround School principals participating in a multi-week Summer Institute. During this time, principals get the support they need to re-envision their school’s culture and academic framework. ACCEL’s Turnaround Schools do not have the luxury of implementing a single academic model because the schools all face different and unique challenges. As such, empowering principals to clearly articulate what their ideal schools will look like (as well as having them plan and precisely articulate how they will lead that change) is crucial. Mike Jaissle, the principal of West Park Academy, who took part in the Summer Institute, remembers, “That summer was very intense, very hard, but it pushed me to rethink everything we do at our school. From the way, students were greeted in the morning, to the instructional expectations of teachers, to how students lined up for lunch. We changed almost everything. We had to. We weren’t doing it well enough before ACCEL.

” Summer Institute is just the beginning of the principals’ journey. ACCEL attributes the improvement and growth at its Turnaround Schools to the ongoing and embedded professional development and coaching that principals and teachers receive daily. “The first book study we do with our Turnaround School principals is Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck’s book Mindset,” Comanducci says. “We need principals to understand that their ability is not fixed and that their growth is not only possible but required.” This mindset shift is the foundation of the “coaching relationship,” designed not to judge principals and teachers, but to help them do their jobs better.

Principals learn and embrace the difference between coaching and evaluation. To drive this point home, ACCEL has partnered with Insight Education Group, an international educational consulting company that focuses on school leadership development, to provide executive coaching to principals, which is in no way tied to their evaluations. This coaching not only increases principal effectiveness but also exposes them to best practices they can then replicate in their coaching of teachers.

Though high-performing and effective principals are essential to turning around schools, teachers have the biggest impact on student learning. Therefore, ACCEL expects all teachers working at its Turnaround Schools to receive daily support from their principals, as well as a minimum of one coaching meeting per week with the school’s principal or instructional coach. This is in addition to the two weeks of professional development teachers receive annually before the school year begins. “Before ACCEL these schools were unfocused, rudderless,” says Comanducci. “Making principals and teachers better today than they were yesterday and students smarter tomorrow than they are today is the foundation of all we do.”

ACCEL’s Director of Instructional Coaching, Emily Vanderplough, adds, “We believe the work that teachers are doing in our classrooms is extremely challenging and important, and they deserve the support they receive through real-time, job-embedded coaching. This allows us to take struggling teachers and make them good, and take good teachers and make them great. It is the most valuable aspect of our work in turning around schools and putting our students on a new path in life.”

Setting Up Principals for Success

ACCEL’s work goes beyond professional support. After a Turnaround School is stabilized and trending in the right direction, ACCEL begins to invest in new resources such as new books, adaptive/ online learning programs, and new technologies—all designed to help teachers and students continuously increase learning and results. These investments come after a year of increasing principals’ and teachers’ understanding so that the resources are fully utilized and can have the biggest impact on student learning.

To help principals focus on their school’s culture and academic growth, ACCEL creates an organization-level team that takes the operational, compliance, and reporting tasks off their plates. As Alissa Clugh, principal at Lincoln Park Academy puts it, “There is a ton of work expected of principals. The back-office support that ACCEL provides has allowed me to focus on our students and on making sure our teachers are helping them as best they can.”

The Proof is in the Report Card

In Ohio, public schools are evaluated by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), and this evaluation is made public when the ODE’s release each school’s Report Card. As measured by the ODE, since 2015 the Turnaround Schools have improved more than the district public schools in the cities where they are located. The schools showed gains in all applicable categories, with some of the largest increases in Performance Index (which measures students’ proficiency levels) and Value Added (which measures students’ progress or growth on state-mandated tests).

What makes ACCEL’s school performance even more remarkable is the fact that Ohio is a state where charter schools are funded anywhere from 30% to 40% less than their neighboring district public schools. Comanducci says, “We were not daunted by what we were asked to do, nor would we let state funding inequities or the obstacles of serving solely students who live in poverty prevent us from delivering on our promise. We said these schools would improve, and the data proves that they did.”

As the former president of the Wallace Foundation, M. Christine DaVita, cites in her research, “investments in good principals are a particularly cost-effective way to improve teaching and learning.” The good news is that Comanducci’s investment in principals so far is already providing a solid return on investment, especially when compared to district public schools. Last school year’s data released by the ODE confirms that ACCEL’s Turnaround Schools are not only improving but that they are offering a better educational choice to students and families in the communities they serve.

Seven Questions for the Superintendent

1. What are charter schools?
Charter schools are public schools that are completely tuition-free. They operate under the same requirements as traditional or district public schools but offer a different choice to families and students. Charters are given more freedom and autonomy to operate and meet students’ needs. However, with those increased freedoms comes increased accountability. If a charter school does not have strong results, it will be closed. Coupled with that, charters are often expected to do more for students with less funding. Most states— including Ohio—have an inequitable funding formula for public charter schools compared to public district schools.

2. How did you begin your career in education?
I was not a traditionally trained teacher. I was an Economics and Business major and worked for a pharmacoeconomics consulting firm after college. I then switched careers and earned my teaching license. I started teaching middle school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, via Teach For America. From the classroom, I went on to be principal, then oversaw a network of schools for the Louisiana Department of Education, then opened two new schools in Brooklyn, New York, before moving to Ohio in 2015 and joining ACCEL.

3. How different are the education systems in Louisiana, New York, and Ohio?
There is uniqueness and there are challenges in each state, county, and neighborhood. Though some of the institutional or systemic challenges differ by location, the work is ultimately the same. Educators are working tirelessly and relentlessly each day to help students learn. No two states, schools, or classrooms are the same, but the goals that all educators are trying to achieve are.

4.What is the one thing you wish more people knew about ACCEL Schools?
ACCEL is doing something few educational management organizations are willing to do, which is take on and turn around historically low-performing schools. We support the closure of schools with chronically poor results and/or other mismanagement issues. That said, change for change’s sake is not beneficial to students. ACCEL is committed to honoring the school choice parents make for their children, by fighting to keep their school open, and ensuring that it gets better each day.

5. What is one thing that keeps you energized?
I thrive on competition. The charter movement is rooted in competition, a “my school can do it better than your school” mentality. Knowing that our Turnaround Schools are outgaining their nearby schools, despite all the issues we inherited, makes this very challenging work worth it every day.

6. You work closely with schools in Cincinnati, Akron, and Cleveland. How do you manage that schedule?
I would not have taken this job nor could I be successful in this role without Ultimate Air Shuttle. I am lucky to be able to fly from Cincinnati to Cleveland, spend a full day at one of our schools, and be home in time for dinner with my family. I would never have accepted a job where I could not be present at the schools or the monthly board meetings. Ultimate Air Shuttle allows me to do just that.

 7. If you could tell Ultimate Magazine readers one thing, what would it be?
Our teachers and students are doing great things, and I’d love for you to be a part of our journey. No matter your profession or interests, you—your network, your company, or your organization—can help change the lives of our students. You can be a part of what ACCEL is building, and I am certain there is a way for you to be a part of the ACCEL movement. Just tell anyone at any of the Ultimate Air Shuttle check-in counters that you want to get in touch with me about our schools and they’ll know how to get us connected.

View this Article in original format (PDF) by Mark Comanducci