When news broke late last week that behemoth education company Pearson had bungled the scoring of standardized tests used for admissions to gifted education programs in New York City, it united Gotham’s quarreling education community — everyone was outraged. Parents, teachers and city officials all had good reason to be, as the scoring errors would have denied admission to 2,700 students who qualified. But the incident also highlighted the arbitrary nature of how we decide which students are so superior academically that they are essentially funneled into an elite group of schools with a specialized, advanced curriculum.

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The new guidance makes clear that schools should work together to ensure that, if there is sufficient interest among disabled students in a district, these students are provided opportunities to participate in alternative sports, such as wheelchair tennis or, yes, wheelchair basketball. Contrary to the hysterics, the guidelines are not rigid requirements mandating alternative teams. And in states such as Maryland and Minnesota that have specific rules and laws already in place to ensure equitable access, the policy is not causing serious problems. In Maryland, in addition to increasing access to high school sports, districts have created several “corollary” teams in which disabled students can play alongside non-disabled peers in sports like bocce, handball, and softball.

More fundamentally, given the relatively small scale of what we’re talking about here, parents and others worried about the dilution of dollars for school athletics should simply pause and ask themselves: what if the children we’re talking about were yours?

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OVERVIEW

The Cristo Rey Network (CRN) provides a quality, Catholic college preparatory education to low-income young people living in urban communities with limited educational options. The Network currently comprises 25 high schools serving 7,400 students. Member schools use a rigorous academic model, supported with effective instruction, to prepare students with a broad range of academic abilities for college and life.

Further, CRN schools employ an innovative Corporate Work-Study Program that provides students with real world work experiences. In this highly distinct model, every CRN student works an average of five days a month to fund the majority of his or her education, gain job experience, grow in self-confidence, and realize the relevance of his or her education. Students work in various corporate and business settings including law firms, banks, hospitals, universities, and with other professional organizations whom we are pleased to call our Corporate Partners.

HISTORY

In 1996, in response to the needs and aspirations of a strong working-class community, the first Cristo Rey school was created by Jesuits in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Led by renowned Founder Father John P. Foley, SJ, the school struggled financially but got stronger each year as enrollment and corporate partnerships increased. Momentum grew and the school began to receive public acclaim as a “school that works,” both literally and figuratively.

In 2001, people interested in replicating Cristo Rey gathered from around the country and the Cristo Rey Network was launched. In 2001 and 2002, respectively, De La Salle North Catholic in Portland and Verbum Dei in Los Angeles adopted key Cristo Rey pillars: the corporate work-study model and the exclusive service to financially-needy families.

In 2003, with grants from Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Cristo Rey Network was formally created as an independent not-for-profit corporation. Father Foley and leaders from the first schools developed the Cristo Rey Network Mission Effectiveness Standards – ten principles to which CRN schools commit in order to achieve the Network’s distinct model and support students to fully develop their God-given talents:

As a member of the Cristo Rey Network, a school:

1. Is explicitly Catholic in mission and enjoys Church approval;
2. Serves only economically disadvantaged students. The school is open to students of various faiths and cultures;
3. Is family-centered and plays an active role in the local community;
4. Shall prepare all of its students to enter and graduate from college;
5. Requires participation of students in the work-study program, all of whom must be 14 by September 1 ^st ;
6. Integrates the learning present in its work program, classroom and extracurricular experiences for the fullest benefit of its student workers;
7. Has an effective administrative and board structure as well as complies with all applicable state and federal laws;
8. Is financially sound and at full enrollment the school is primarily dependent on revenue from the work-study program to meet operating expenses. In addition, the school maintains a comprehensive advancement program to ensure financial stability;
9. Supports its graduates’ efforts to obtain a college degree; and
10. Is an active participant in the collaboration, support, and development of the CRN.

CRISTO REY NETWORK TODAY

The model is working; the CRN empowers thousands of students from underserved lower-income communities to develop their minds and hearts to become lifelong contributors to society. In addition to providing our students with an extraordinary, college preparatory education, the four-year, integrated corporate work-study experience builds confidence, teaches life and work skills, and generates over $40m in income for the Network. With these complementary pillars of our model, we seek to actually transform urban America, and we’re making an impact.

In fact, Cristo Rey Network schools are increasingly recognized for excellence and innovation. Our effort and success has been broadly acknowledged from a wide variety of audiences as well as awards. In 2004 CRN was featured in an inspiring profile on CBS’s 60 Minutes; since then, numerous print and media reports have documented or celebrated CRN including more recent examples from the Wall Street Journal, the World Innovation Summit for Education and Inside Higher Ed. Similarly, in 2011, the Leadership Roundtable honored CRN with its Best Practices Award for Innovation in Catholic Education and, in 2012, CRN was selected from 2,400 nominees nationwide to receive the national award for Educational Advancement at the CLASSYs, the largest philanthropic awards show in the United States and one described by some as the Grammy or Oscar for philanthropy in America.

Recognition of CRN’s distinct value has been financial, too. Earlier in 2012 The Walton Family Foundation announced a $1.6million investment in CRN in hopes of doubling the number of member schools across the United States. In addition to this investment, the Foundation will be providing new Cristo Rey schools with access to start-up grants through proposals submitted to the Network. If the school is awarded a grant, the Cristo Rey Network will also offer the school a sizable five-year loan that can be forgiven if the school meets enrollment, financial sustainability, and intermediate student performance benchmarks. This tremendous support – along with others’ support – has led to a goal of having 50 operating CRN schools by 2022.

Accomplishing this work requires having a team at the center of the Network, one dedicated to supporting Network schools and their leaders by providing common resources at scale so that the school-based teams can focus on their schools. This “Center” team is based in Chicago and housed in offices hosted by the campus of DePaul University (a national university partner). With an operating budget of approximately $3m and 17 professionals, the Network Center team supports the Network schools in achieving their mission by:

• Focusing programs and support in the areas of Teaching, Leading and Learning that ensure that all Cristo Rey students are college-ready by graduation;
• Ensuring that the Corporate Work-Study Program provides valuable services to work-study job sponsors and real world work experience to Cristo Rey students;
• Supporting the development of the schools’ mission and identity as Catholic high schools;
• Continuing to work with new communities to open Cristo Rey schools;
• Convening opportunities for school leaders to share effective practices;
• Building an active, growing network of supporters of Cristo Rey in business, government, the church, philanthropy and education;
• Assisting in the development of financially sustainable institutions which rely primarily on revenue from the corporate work-study program to fund school operations;
• Building partnerships with colleges and universities to share effective practices in attracting, retaining and graduating Cristo Rey students; and
• Collecting, studying and disseminating data and outcomes from Cristo Rey schools.

SEARCH

The President & CEO is the leader of this Center Team and is ultimately responsible for the leadership, vision, execution, and overall management of the Cristo Rey Network. Building on five years of outstanding leadership by the former President and CEO, the CRN seeks a seasoned leader who can build upon this strong track record and lead the Network into and through its next stage of evolution. With this in mind, specific priorities and responsibilities for the next President & CEO will include:

Outreach and Resource Development

• Work closely with the Board of Directors and all stakeholders to develop a set of financial and philanthropic strategies and practices to generate at least $2.5-$3m annual operating revenue required by the Center Office for its own long-term financial sustainability as well as for its continued effectiveness in supporting Network schools;
• Powerfully and persuasively articulate the mission of CRN to various stakeholder groups including business, civic and political leaders across the country;
• Manage a rich set of relationships with supporters of the Network, Catholic and secular, including relationships with sponsoring religious orders, corporate sponsors and other educational providers;
• Engage all stakeholders in the cultivation of financial and other forms of support, from donations to corporate work-study internships to college partnership agreements, in order to sustain CRN’s unique value proposition;
• Lead execution of major public relations and marketing initiatives to broaden awareness of the Cristo Rey Network; and
• Build upon Cristo Rey Network’s strong national reputation to increase awareness with a range of supporters and stakeholders, especially among those in education reform.

Oversight and Nurturing of the Network

• Work closely with school Presidents, Boards, and their leadership teams to ensure effective implementation and accountability to the Cristo Rey Mission Effectiveness Standards by the schools;
• Carefully assess the changing economic and labor market frameworks nationwide in order to help schools develop strategies to ensure financial sustainability;
• Establish, encourage, and maintain open dialogue between the schools and the Center Office, seeking to learn from the schools as well as support them; and
• Work with the Presidents’ Council and other relevant partners, such as religious sponsors, to ensure that the Network and the schools have a high performing and collaborative relationship with one another.

Management of Center Office

• Work closely with the Board of Directors to ensure the Network achieves maximum impact in its mission to serve low -income students through an innovative educational model;
• Oversee the $3m operating budget, staffing, and day-to-day operations of the Center Office, comprising 17 employees (14 full-time and 3 part-time);
• Supervise members of the Cristo Rey Network leadership team; and
• Lead the four core strategies of the Network Center: Teaching and Learning, the Corporate Work-Study Program, New School Growth, and College Success.

REPORTING STRUCTURE

In order to execute the responsibilities above, the President & CEO is supported in this role by 4 direct reports – Chief Mission Officer, Chief Academic Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Senior Director of College Initiatives.

The Chief Mission Officer represents Cristo Rey at national and international speaking engagements, makes site visits to schools for prominent events, leads and facilitates the Network’s faith formation, and assists in the implementation of the Cristo Rey Network School Growth Plan.

The Chief Academic Officer supports Cristo Rey schools in implementing an initiative for teaching and learning that ensures that all Cristo Rey students are college ready by graduation.

The Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel is responsible for ensuring the financial sustainability of Cristo Rey schools through enrollment and the operations of the Corporate Work Study Program. Additionally, this position works with new communities to open new Cristo Rey schools.

The Senior Director of College Initiatives tracks Cristo Rey students to and through college and works with postsecondary institutions across the country to achieve “buy-in” with the mission of Cristo Rey.

The President & CEO reports to a cohesive and well-functioning 17-member governing Board of Directors representing public, private and non-profit sectors. The schools elect the majority of the Board members, and the Board elects the remainders. Board members serve 3-year terms and in general may not serve more than two consecutive terms.

QUALIFICATIONS

First and foremost, the new CRN leader must be committed to educational reform – particularly for traditionally underserved students – and have passion for the distinct mission, values, academic standards, and Catholic identity of the Cristo Rey Network such that s/he can inspire people around the country to replicate and support this unique educational model.

Additionally, the successful candidate will have:

• Awareness of and commitment to the Catholic traditions of education, service and social justice, the credibility to lead and represent a Catholic organization with integrity, and facility for working well with diverse Catholic church leaders, lay and clerical, around the country.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills including proven ability to engage and inspire a wide range of stakeholders, build creative and mutually beneficial relationships within the philanthropic, corporate, public, and nonprofit sectors, and raise the national profile of the Network;
• Proven fundraising and/or revenue generating success, preferably in the non-profit sector and with national foundations in the educational sector;
• Significant visionary leadership and management experience, with demonstrated success in addressing immediate organizational needs but driving toward longer-term goals with buy-in from all stakeholders;
• The executive presence to inspire organizational and personal confidence, passion, and persistence in an ambitious, fast-paced, and results-oriented period of growth, all while maintaining a positive work environment;
• The maturity and wisdom required to optimize Board members;
• Strategic planning experience and execution capabilities;
• Strong budget management skills;
• Preferably, previous experience in the education sector and/or the sensibilities and perspective necessary to validate his/her leadership of a network of schools;
• Critical thinking and problem solving skills, including evidence of enhancing an organization’s financial strength and sustainability;
• Unquestionable integrity;

• The capacity to travel professionally approximately 40-50% of the time; and
• A Bachelor’s Degree and, preferably, a graduate degree.

COMPENSATION

The salary for the role is highly competitive. Benefits include medical, dental, vision and prescription health insurance, as well as a matching 403b retirement plan, flexible spending accounts and a generous vacation policy.

TO APPLY

The review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until March 4 ^th 2013 . Applications should consist of a letter of interest and a current resume. Applications or inquiries about the position should be directed to:

Monisha Lozier, Partner
Leslie Nair, Associate Partner
Bellwether Education Partners
talentservices@bellwethereducation.org

Videos

Andy Smarick: Overview, The Urban School System of the Future

Urban School System of the Future Panel Discussion.

Panelists:
John White, Louisiana State Superintendent of Education
Kaya Henderson, Chancellor of the D.C. Public Schools
Michael Casserly, Executive Director of the Council of the Great City Schools

Moderator:
Andrew J. Rotherham, Co-founder and Partner at Bellwether Education Partners

Press Coverage

We will continue to update this section.

“Can Traditional School Systems Be Replaced by Charters, by Emma Brown, The Washington Post

 

About This Event

In the new book The Urban School System of the Future, Andy Smarick argues that the traditional urban school district is irreparably broken, and that for the sake of today’s and tomorrow’s inner-city students, it must be replaced. Vastly better results can be realized through the creation of a new type of organization that properly manages a city’s portfolio of schools using the revolutionary principles of chartering. The Urban School System of the Future explains an idea that is simultaneously revolutionary, yet feasible—how we can finally create dynamic, responsive, high-performing, self-improving urban school systems that fulfill the promise of public education.

On January 29, 2013, Bellwether Education Partners hosted a spirited discussion of these ideas, featuring a diverse panel of dynamic state and district leaders who represent the leading thinking and efforts around transforming urban public education.

 

Event and Media Contact

For more information about the event, please contact Rachael Brown at Rachael@bellwethereducation.org, 202-630-3886.

 

Speaker Bios

Michael Casserly has served as Executive Director of the Council of the Great City Schools, the nation’s primary coalition of large urban public school systems, since January 1992. Before assuming this position, Casserly served as the organization’s Director of Legislation and Research for 15 years. As head of the Council, Casserly unified urban schools nationwide around a vision of reform and improvement; launched an aggressive research program on trends in urban education; convened the first Education Summit of Big City Mayors and Urban School Superintendents; led the nation’s largest urban school districts to volunteer for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); led the first national study of common practices among the nation’s fastest improving urban school districts, and launched national task forces on achievement gaps, leadership and governance, finance, professional development, and bilingual education. He is currently spearheading efforts to boost academic performance in the nation’s big city schools; strengthening management and operations; challenging inequitable state financing systems; and improving the public’s image of urban education. Dr. Casserly is a U.S. Army veteran, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and B.A. from Villanova University.

Kaya Henderson has served as Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools since 2011. Her education career began as a middle school Spanish teacher in the South Bronx. After serving as a teacher, Kaya Henderson went on to work as a recruiter, national admissions director, and DC Executive Director for Teach for America. In 2000, Henderson began her work with The New Teacher Project, where she became the Vice President for Strategic Partnerships.  She came to DCPS as Deputy Chancellor in 2007.  In this position, she served as chief negotiator for the groundbreaking 2010 contract between DCPS and the Washington Teachers’ Union, and led the development of IMPACT, a new and innovative professional development and assessment system designed to ensure that an effective teacher is leading every classroom in DCPS. As Chancellor, she is committed to holding all students to high expectations, providing them with access to high quality teachers and leaders, and creating the most rigorous and innovative instructional environments to ensure their success. Kaya Henderson received her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and her Master of Arts in leadership, also from Georgetown University.

Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Rotherham leads Bellwether’s thought leadership, idea generation, and policy analysis work. He also writes the weekly “School of Thought” column for TIME, as well as the blog Eduwonk.com, and is the co-publisher of “Education Insider,” a federal policy research tool produced by Whiteboard Advisors. Rotherham previously served at The White House as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Clinton administration and is a former member of the Virginia Board of Education. In addition to Bellwether, Rotherham has founded or co-founded two other influential education reform organizations including Education Sector and served on the boards of several other successful education start-ups. Rotherham is the author or co-author of more than 200 published articles, book chapters, papers, and op-eds about education policy and politics and is the author or editor of four books on educational policy. He serves on advisory boards and committees for a variety of organizations including Education Pioneers, The Broad Foundation, and the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). Rotherham is on the board of directors for the Indianapolis Mind Trust, is Vice Chair of the Curry School of Education Foundation at the University of Virginia, and serves on the Visiting Committee for the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Andy Smarick is a Partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. He works in Bellwether’s Thought Leadership practice. Andy most recently served as Deputy Commissioner of Education of the State of New Jersey where he helped lead initiatives including the state’s successful ESEA waiver and Race to the Top 3 applications, the launching of new teacher evaluations, and an overhaul of the department’s charter school authorizing. Andy previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education and at the White House Domestic Policy Council, and has worked for Congress and the Maryland state legislature. Other roles include Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Adjunct Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Chief Operating Officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. His book on overhauling the delivery of inner-city public education, The Urban School System of the Future, was released in 2012, and his articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Education Next, National Affairs, and other outlets. He earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude and with honors, and a master’s degree in public management from the University of Maryland.

John White began his career in education as an English teacher at William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. He then went to work for Teach for America (TFA) in New Jersey, where he coached and mentored new TFA recruits before becoming Executive Director of TFA-Chicago two years later. In 2006, John White was asked by New York City Chancellor Joel Klein to join the senior leadership team of the largest school district in the country. There White served as Deputy Chancellor of Talent, Labor and Innovation, leading negotiations for the city with the United Federation of Teachers, implementing a citywide teacher effectiveness system, and negotiating New York State’s bid for Race to the Top (R2T). Prior to being named Deputy Chancellor, White served as Chief Executive Officer for NYC’s Portfolio Division, leading the city’s efforts to turn around more than 100 failing schools and start 500 new charter and district schools. White became Superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District in May 2011, where he launched “12 commitments to the city of New Orleans.” The district made good on each commitment, overhauling the remaining failing schools in the RSD, establishing a unified enrollment system, and expanding the New Orleans school construction program to ensure that every school building in Orleans Parish would be rebuilt or renovated. White was named State Superintendent of education in January of 2012 and soon thereafter launched Louisiana Believes, the state’s plan to put every child on the path toward college and career. White is a 2010 member of the Broad Superintendents Academy. He received a B.A. in English with distinction from the University of Virginia and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from New York University.

Last week was my first time at Jebfest. That’s how some insiders have started referring to the annual education-reform summit Jeb Bush organizes. For five years now, Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education has been gathering current and former governors, superintendents and policymakers, business leaders and educational vendors, nonprofit executives and think-tank types who may disagree on many things but are united in their desire to reform education.

The meeting last week in Washington attracted people from both sides of the aisle, ranging from hard-core adherents of Bush’s education ideas to reform-minded analysts like me who support some of what his foundation is doing but are skeptical of other aspects. (One area we agree on is the promise of the new Common Core state standards; I’m a partner at a nonprofit that was hired to analyze Common Core implementation for Chiefs for Change, a network of state schools chiefs sponsored by Bush’s foundation.) The conference organizers asked me to moderate a session at the summit with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, where we discussed plans for President Obama’s second term, the challenges facing Hispanic students, and education politics. And I also sat down for a private interview with Bush to talk about his views on education and the current political landscape. Here are some of the highlights from the interview, which includes his thoughts on education and poverty, his discomfort with being called a centrist and a key policy issue where he parts ways with his brother George.

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The 2012 Presidential election sidestepped the issue of school reform. Neither candidate spent much time laying out, let alone talking up, an education policy agenda. But around the country, there were ballot referendums and state and local races with big implications for schools. Teachers unions had a good night, but so did charter schools. In other words, Nov. 6 left the country with an education mandate as unclear as the electoral mandate overall. Still, what happened in various states will influence what happens in Washington during President Obama’s second term. Here are four key education issues to watch …

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Last week the for-profit behemoth University of Phoenix said it would close 115 locations. The move comes on the heels of a late September decision by Kaplan Higher Education to stop new enrollment at nine of its sites and consolidate four campuses. Critics are elated, hoping that these moves signal the death knell of for-profit education. And indeed, the stocks of the for-profits are down almost 50% this year according to the Bloomberg index that follows the industry. But love it or hate it, for-profit higher education is unlikely to disappear and is instead shifting to a leaner incarnation online. Before too long, such schools likely will be an accepted part of the landscape alongside traditional public and private universities.

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By Andrew J. Rotherham for TIME.

Whether it’s ultimately a cause or effect, Gyllenhaal’s decision to do Won’t Back Down says a lot about how education reform is moving from margins to mainstream. Gyllenhaal and her costars are themselves not backing down in the face of criticism that the film is a school reform propaganda piece. On Monday’s Today Show, Oscar nominee Viola Davis made clear that she understands firsthand how important education is in breaking the cycle of poverty. She grew up poor and seems to have little patience for those resisting efforts to improve public schools. “It’s a system that’s broken and needs to be fixed,” she said on the show.

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Executive Summary

Over the past three years, more than twenty US states have passed legislation establishing new teacher evaluation requirements and systems, and even more have committed to do so in Race to the Top or Elementary and Secondary Education Act Flexibility Waiver applications. These new evaluation systems have real potential to foster a more performance-oriented public education culture that gives teachers meaningful feedback about the quality and impact of their work. But there are pitfalls in states’ rush to legislate new systems, and there are real tensions and trade-offs in their design.

Unfortunately, much of the current policy debate has been framed in stark ideological terms that leave little room for adult discussion of these tensions. This paper seeks to move the debate beyond ideology and technical issues by highlighting four key tensions that policymakers, advocates, and educators must consider in the development of new teacher evaluations:

• Flexibility versus control: There is a temptation to prescribe and legislate details of evaluations to ensure rigor and prevent evaluations from being watered down in implementation. But overly prescriptive policies may also limit school autonomy and stifle innovation that could lead to the development of better evaluations.
• Evaluation in an evolving system: Poorly designed evaluation requirements could pose an obstacle to blended learning and other innovative models in which it is difficult or impossible to attribute student learning gains in a particular subject to a particular teacher.
• Purposes of evaluations: New evaluation systems have been sold as a way both to identify and dismiss underperforming teachers and to provide all teachers with useful feedback to help them improve their performance. But there are strong tensions between these purposes that create trade-offs in evaluation system design.
• Evaluating teachers as professionals: Advocates argue that holding teachers responsible for their performance will bring teaching more in line with norms in other fields, but most professional fields rely on a combination of data and managerial judgment when making evaluation and personnel decisions, and subsequently hold managers accountable for those decisions, rather than trying to eliminate subjective judgments as some new teacher evaluation systems seek to do.

Recognizing these tensions and trade-offs, this paper offers several policy recommendations:

• Be clear about the problems new evaluation systems are intended to solve.
• Do not mistake processes and systems as substitutes for cultural change.
• Look at the entire education ecosystem, including broader labor-market impacts, pre- and in-service preparation, standards and assessments, charter schools, and growth of early childhood education and innovative school models.
• Focus on improvement, not just deselection.
• Encourage and respect innovation.
• Think carefully about waivers versus umbrellas.
• Do not expect legislation to do regulation’s job.
• Create innovation zones for pilots — and fund them.

Click here to download the full report.

Education policy has long featured two players—the government and teachers unions. But in recent years, a new generation of activists has stepped up to lobby legislators and drive the conversation. A rundown of worthy upstarts.

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