The Echo

From:http://www.massinsight.org/turnaround/rc_zonepilots.aspx
Partnership Zone Initiative to Implement Turnaround Challenge Framework


Please see our blog for additional updates on the Partnership Zone Initiative.

Supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and a partial match from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mass Insight is creating Partnership Zone “proof points” to pilot the framework from The Turnaround Challenge.

Over the past year, the STSG launched the State Development Group – a network of approximately twelve states — to analyze the current educational environment, draft policy changes, share lessons learned and promising practices from across the country, and examine the feasibility of establishing strong Zones that feature the right set of operating conditions, supports, and resources in each state. A handful of states from that group will be selected to move forward in Zone planning based on:

· Their commitment to the Partnership Zone framework set forth in 2007 report, The Turnaround Challenge;

· Their commitment to investing the additional resources necessary for successful turnaround; and,

· The alignment and support of state and district leadership.

Staff from STSG, along with a handful of national strategic consultants, will continue to work with these selected states, with the goal of launching Partnership Zones for the 2010-11 school year. Mass Insight will continue to work with the states in the broader State Development Group network, as well any of the selected states that fail to meet a series of process milestones required for a 2010-2011 school year launch.

The commitments and types of milestones needed to create a Partnership Zone include:

Committing to target funds to Partnership Zones (Title I including 1003(g), other federal funds) in the range of $750,000 per school per year for the first three years for up to 8-10 schools. While a large portion of the funding will come from new federal and state funds, some of the funding should also come from district re-allocations and budget flexibilities. After three years, some of the start-up costs associated with creating the Zones will be reduced.

Committing to the creation of Partnership Zones with altered operating conditions in order to achieve:

· Funding and regulatory flexibility

· Extended school day

· Flexibility in hiring and program decisions

Committing to work with a non-profit Strategic Partner on the state level who will support the initiative; act as a fiscal agent for private funding, provide policy support, build leadership coalitions at the state and district levels and provide support for the growth of Lead Partner organizations;

Committing to building local capacity by supporting a marketplace of Lead Partners which sign performance contracts with districts for school accountability;

Committing to the expansion and scalability of Partnership Zones beyond the original cluster, adding additional clusters of schools each year;

Committing to align the state’s Race to the Top application with Mass Insight’s school turnaround framework of Zones and Lead Partners.

To access additional tools, reports and strategies, see the Turnaround Challenge Resource Center.