LPACS is a grades K-8 400 pupil charter school in the poorest section of center City. LeadershipEnergies (LE) was hired to utilize the Improvement Plan Reporting Matrix and Schedule developed from the Corrective Action Plan to support a system of continuous improvement that would increase adult and student performance outcomes.

Industry: Education PK-12 Districts and Schools

Project Type: Onsite consulting and coaching and transition to online consulting through diagnostic inventories and prescriptions at board, leader, faculty, student, parent levels over the 2015-2019 time period.

Challenge
After the LPACS school community responded to all state DOE compliance requirements in a short time period, it needed to build routines to change performance expectations and behaviors, and to meet the challenges of having board, leaders, faculty, and students understand how to assess organization, adult, and student performance strengths and improvement needs through processes that increased adult and student learning.

Solution
Many coaching sessions and professional development workshops were provided by LeadershipEnergies (LE) to build awareness of performance strengths and improvement needs. Routines were established through which student, faculty, administrator, and board performance periodically assessed progress. Paper and online diagnostic instruments were used by the board, administrators, and faculty members; and results were used by faculty teams within a horizontal organization design. Stakeholders focused on the activities and interactions of people, programs, protocols, and metrics that contributed to adult and student success.

Strategies designed to improve performance outcomes included creation and training of grade level and multi-grade level teams, development and use of data-driven individualized instruction, implementation of consistent behavioral expectations, engagement of parents in student learning initiatives, focus on instructional strategies and observations, and improved lesson planning.

LE introduced a suite of products called VitalInsight™ to provide an online technology to diagnose performance strengths and weaknesses and to prescribe best practice options to further improve performance. Professional development modules were constructed to address weaknesses in almost 20 different areas of performance.

Results
Student performance exceeded the performance of neighborhood schools that these same students would have attended if they did not attend this charter school. The rate of student learning growth surpasses that of the neighborhood schools. Reading, Language Arts, and Math scores approach the average for the school district. The rate of student learning growth is expected to accelerate. Teachers are members of multi-grade teams and student behavior and learning problems are addressed in team meetings. Stakeholder input is gathered online through and diagnosis and prescription reports have been generated. The reports are used in conjunction with ongoing student test results and faculty performance to fully inform the development and implementation of improvement plans.

Customer Feedback
“As a result of the new understanding affirmed by the data, we have reshaped our team structures, professional development program, curricular design, and data analyses. Now, everyone in our school is unified in the expectations we have established and are dedicated to implementing the strategies necessary for continued success.”
—Mr. Charles Garfield, CEO

*The case study is real and positions of personnel are accurate. Names of districts, schools, and personnel have been changed.