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The article details the Renaissance 2010 contract turnaround approach and how AUSL now leads a network of neighborhood schools serving nearly 17,000 students.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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target?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The AUSL Way focuses on moving schools from “Good” to “Truly Excellent,” demonstrated through AUSL’s turnaround of Sherman Elementary and broader network results.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Which innovation-zone design features are highlighted as crucial for turnaround success?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The article emphasizes setting ambitious goals, guaranteeing autonomy, improving teaching and learning, following the students, and building sustainability and scalability.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How did Chicago’s contract-school reform model develop?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Chicago’s reform pathway included charter-school momentum, the Renaissance 2010 initiative, and the “autonomy in exchange for accountability” performance agreement model for contract turnaround 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and Mike Perigo  \nCollaborating to accelerate social impact October 2017  \nThis article is part of a Bridgespan Group research project that focuses on anew wave of district-led “innovation zones” that holds promise to overcome the challenges of turning around failing schools and deliver significant improvements in student outcomes. This new wave provides a subset of district schools  \nwith control over staffing, curriculum, and budgeting. Such autonomy often is guaranteed by a contractual agreement and enabled by state law that can sustain the zone despite potential changes in district leadership. The schools are sometimes operated by a nonprofit that is held accountable to the school district for significant improvement in student outcomes.  \nOur research highlights the experiences of five school districts that are vanguards of this new wave of innovation zones—Chicago; Denver; Indianapolis; Memphis, TN; and Springfield, MA.  \nThese innovation zones reveal certain design features that place a focus on improving teaching and learning over multiple years—the heart of any successful turnaround effort. Specifically promising innovation zones:  \n• Set ambitious goals  \n• Guarantee autonomy  \n• Improve teaching and learning  \n• Follow the students  \n• Are sustainable, scalable, and built to last  \nThe article that follows looks in detail at one of the school districts profiled in the Bridgespan report A New Wave of District Innovation Zones: A Promising Means of Increasing Rates of Economic Mobility.  \nCover photo: Academy for Urban School Leadership  \nIn 2006, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) selected the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL)—known then asan innovative teacher-training program—to manage Sherman Elementary, one of the lowest-performing schools in the city. Ten years later, Sherman had improved to Level 1+, the district’s highest rating.  \nAUSL now manages a network of 31 neighborhood schools serving nearly 17,000 students, 92.5 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Under AUSL’s leadership, two-thirds of those schools have moved from the district’s lowest rating to Level 1 or Level 1+, with many approaching the national average for math and English language arts proficiency rates—a tribute to AUSL’s unique approach to transforming low-performing schools into schools of excellence.  \nThe Road to Chicago’s Contract Schools  \nIn 1987, US Secretary of Education William Bennett proclaimed Chicago’s public schools to be the worst in the nation.1 The system has been on a mission ever since to move to the head of the class in urban school reform. That is no small task for the nation’s third-largest school district, with 652 schools, nearly 20,000 teachers, and some 400,000 students—80 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.  \nA year after Bennett’s unsettling assessment of Chicago’s schools, the Illinois General Assembly passed a school reform act that authorized Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to take control of the city’s schools. Soon thereafter, the district’s CEO embarked on a campaign to raise standards for student achievement and impose more accountability on schools. In 1995, the legislature upped the challenge by approving the Chicago School Reform Amendatory Act. The act empowered the mayor to appoint a five-member Reform Board of Trustees—replacing the Board of Education—that embarked upon comprehensive reform measures including opening new charter schools and closing underperforming schools.2  \nEarly successes with charter schools set the stage in June of 2004 for Mayor Daley and the school district’s then-CEO Arne Duncan to announce the Renaissance 2010 initiative, a plan to create 100 high-quality schools by 2010.3 The initiative called for a combination of charter schools, independently operated contract schools, and CPS-run  \n1 “About,” Chicago Board of Education, [http://w","cbCaiffBqiwfezcK","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiffBqiwfezcK","pdf",1015240,"English","# The AUSL Way\n## From “Good” to “Truly Excellent”\n## Innovation zones and design features\n## The Road to Chicago’s Contract Schools\n## AUSL’s management model in Chicago","[{\"question\":\"What is the AUSL Way and what outcome does it target?\",\"answer\":\"The AUSL Way focuses on moving schools from “Good” to “Truly Excellent,” demonstrated through AUSL’s turnaround of Sherman Elementary and broader network results.\"},{\"question\":\"Which innovation-zone design features are highlighted as crucial for turnaround success?\",\"answer\":\"The article emphasizes setting ambitious goals, guaranteeing autonomy, improving teaching and learning, following the students, and building sustainability and scalability.\"},{\"question\":\"How did Chicago’s contract-school reform model develop?\",\"answer\":\"Chicago’s reform pathway included charter-school momentum, the Renaissance 2010 initiative, and the “autonomy in exchange for accountability” performance agreement model for contract turnaround schools.\"}]","The AUSL Way - Moving from “Good” to “Truly Excellent” | PDF",1792043220,23]