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Human Capital Grant Portfolio

Achievement First, Brooklyn, NY

For the expansion of the Interim Assessment Platform and capturing of best practices to improve instructional practice and student achievement.

$1,664,600 for 36 months, starting October 2008

Since 2001, when the federal No Child Left Behind Act placed a new emphasis on transparency and accountability in public schools, data has played a crucial role in driving meaningful education reform.  Though many schools now have access to student-level data, however, few of them have the technology and capacity to analyze and translate this information into actionable classroom strategies to improve student learning.  Achievement First (AF) schools currently engage in rigorous, data-based cycles of inquiry, using value-add data to shape classroom practice.  AF will use this grant to expand its process of inquiry and analysis, integrating it into a feedback loop to identify and disseminate instructional best practices.  This will enable teachers to continuously identify areas of need and adopt innovative strategies to improve student achievement.

The Achievement Network, Boston, MA

Toward the expansion and codification of a data-driven inquiry system to improve instruction and increase student achievement in its network of schools

$250,000 for 24 months, starting October 2010

The federal Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund is an unprecedented effort by the U.S. Department of Education to scale proven models and support new designs and innovations at the school, system and classroom levels.  To leverage federal i3 funding for expanding innovations initially developed with foundation support, foundations collaborated in a large-scale effort to coordinate philanthropic support and provide matching funds for selected i3 awardees.  Carnegie Corporation’s grant to The Achievement Network (ANet) serves as a partial match for its $5 million federal grant.  ANet currently supports 90 high-need schools, serving nearly 18,000 students, through a model that uses standards-aligned interim assessments to identify areas for improvement for teachers and provides supports, including coaching and peer networks, to improve instruction and increase student achievement.  ANet will use its i3 grant to expand to 120 new schools within its networks in Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., Louisiana, and Illinois.  ANet will facilitate data-driven instruction for approximately 1,000 new teachers, reaching over 25,000 students; will validate its impact on student achievement through an independent, randomized-control evaluation; and will refine, codify, and broadly share the model and associated best practices.  ANet’s work will build on a portfolio of Corporation grants, including to Achievement First, Battelle for Kids, and Uncommon Schools, focused on the use and translation of student data in the classroom.

American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Toward the development of 1) an Innovation Fund and 2) a Teacher Evaluation Framework

$625,000 for 12 months, starting October 2009

To close the achievement gap, we must ensure that there is an effective teacher in every classroom in every high-need urban school.  To do this requires a system for regularly evaluating teachers based on student achievement, providing feedback and support and, ultimately, making personnel decisions based on those evaluations.  Historically, efforts to link teacher evaluation to student achievement have been opposed by teachers unions.  Through the work supported by this grant, the AFTEF, under the leadership of President Randi Weingarten, is making significant strides toward a more collaborative and productive role in reform.  This grant supports the AFTEF’s effort through two related initiatives: an Innovation Fund and a Teacher Evaluation Framework.

Battelle For Kids, Columbus, OH

For the expansion and refinement of a system of assessment-based professional development to drive student success in high schools

$650,000 for 18 months, starting July 2010

Value-added data can be a powerful tool to drive student learning in high-need schools.  The translation of such data into actionable classroom strategies, however, is the most impactful component of data-driven reform.  Battelle for Kids' 2009 pilot paired Gates-funded value-added data with intensive formative-assessment training and support in four Ohio high schools, resulting in students achieving almost twice the gains on college-readiness exams as comparable schools.  With this grant, Battelle will distill what was essential in the pilot and test a pared-down model in an expanded group of 14 schools, with the aim of building scalability while maintaining quality.  If successful, this would position Battelle to develop a potentially breakthrough model for supporting broader networks of high schools in using data to improve teacher practice and student outcomes.

D.C. Public Education Fund, Washington, D.C.

For capacity building in the D.C. Public Schools’ Office of Data and Accountability that will further the district's reform agenda

$607,800 for 24 months, starting July 2009

Under the leadership of Chancellor Michelle Rhee, the Washington, D.C., public school system has been the site of intense reform activity.  One of its core reform levers is a focus on results, under the Office of Data and Accountability (ODA).  Having reviewed and cleaned the district’s data and gone through a process of reorganizing the staff, ODA is prepared to ramp up its work, beginning with the production of tools, including the School Scorecard and the Value-Added Data Model that will provide insights into teacher and school quality and student learning.  This work is seen by the district as a springboard to achieving its goal of becoming the “highest performing urban school district in the country.”  This grant will support the work of the district and will enable ODA to build upon its progress thus far by funding increased staff capacity for ODA.

Education Sector, Washington, D.C.

Toward support

$1,000,000 for 24 months, starting October 2009

Global and domestic forces necessitate that we educate our students to increasingly higher standards.  Yet American students, especially those in urban, high-need public schools, consistently under-perform their international peers, indicating the need to significantly improve our public education system.  Through rigorous policy research and outreach efforts, Education Sector analyzes and advocates for education reform in four key areas that mirror those of our education strategy at the Corporation.  This grant will support Education Sector’s K-12 accountability, human-capital, and undergraduate-education strategies over the next two years, seeking to maximize its impact on public debate and policies at the local, state, and federal levels.

The Fund for Public Schools, New York, NY

Toward expanding the Teacher Data Initiative to provide significantly more principals and teachers with teacher value-added data

$499,700 for 36 months, starting July 2009

Global and domestic forces necessitate that we educate our students to increasingly higher standards.  Yet American students, especially those in urban, high-need public schools, consistently under-perform their international peers, indicating the need to significantly improve our public education system.  Through rigorous policy research and outreach efforts, Education Sector analyzes and advocates for education reform in four key areas that mirror those of our education strategy at the Corporation.  This grant will support Education Sector’s K-12 accountability, human-capital, and undergraduate-education strategies over the next two years, seeking to maximize its impact on public debate and policies at the local, state, and federal levels.

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Toward an evaluation of D.C. Public Schools' human-capital practices as measured by their effects on student achievement

$752,000 for 36 months, starting January 2010

Under the leadership of Chancellor Michelle Rhee, the Washington, D.C., public-school system has become a hotbed of reform.  At the core of Rhee’s turnaround strategy is improving teacher quality by selecting and supporting effective teachers while cycling out those who consistently underperform.  Toward that end, Rhee has launched three human-capital initiatives: 1) developing IMPACT, a data-driven teacher evaluation system, 2) identifying more effective ways of selecting new teachers, and 3) engaging in teacher contract negotiations.  With this grant, Harvard University’s Education Innovation Laboratory (EdLabs), led by Dr. Roland Fryer, will assess to what extent these initiatives are advancing teacher effectiveness and student learning, shedding light on promising human-capital strategies for districts and schools nationwide.

Hope Street Group, Los Angeles, CA

For engaging teachers in designing and implementing new teacher-evaluation systems

$600,000 for 24 months, on docket today for proposed start in January 2011

Although the best indicator of a teacher’s future effectiveness is his/her past performance in the classroom, systems that differentiate, reward, and develop teachers based on such evidence are virtually nonexistent.  Responding to the Obama administration’s emphasis on getting great teachers into the highest-need schools, districts and states have begun creating and implementing valid, meaningful teacher-evaluation systems.  Hope Street Group, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to bringing new voices into important public-policy debates, plans to partner with ten states/districts by engaging teachers in the design process.  The resulting evaluation systems will be both stronger and more sustainable, benefiting from the infusion of fresh ideas and a higher degree of user buy-in.  Hope Street will also share lessons learned and build a national network of support.

IDEA Public Schools, Weslaco, TX

Toward the design and implementation of a district-wide talent strategy and development pipeline for teachers and school leaders

$350,000 for 48 months, starting October 2010

The federal Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund is an unprecedented effort by the U.S. Department of Education to scale proven models and support new designs and innovations at the school, system and classroom levels.  To leverage federal i3 funding for expanding innovations initially developed with foundation support, foundations collaborated in a large-scale effort to coordinate philanthropic support and provide matching funds for selected i3 awardees.  Carnegie Corporation’s grant to IDEA Public Schools (IDEA) serves as a partial match for its $5 million federal grant.  IDEA is a charter management organization that oversees eight high-performing schools serving over 5,000 high-need students in the Rio Grande Valley.  IDEA’s aim is college readiness for all its students, and its model centers around the quality of its school leaders and teachers.  With its i3 grant, IDEA will partner with Pharr-San Juan-Alamo, a large public school district serving primarily low-income and immigrant students, and leading human-capital management experts to create an end-to-end, district talent pipeline.  This collaboration will focus on developing the capacity to recruit, select, onboard, support, evaluate, reward, and retain highly effective teachers and school leaders for the district and IDEA, with a focus on multiple pathways to teacher and school leadership.  As a holistic district effort, this project aligns particularly well with the Corporation’s emphasis on the strategic management of human capital.

The National Math and Science Initiative, Dallas, TX

Toward the refinement and targeted expansion of UTeach, an innovative model for preparing math and science teachers

$1.5 million for 24 months, starting January 2010

Some estimates project a nationwide shortfall of more than 280,000 math and science teachers by 2015, a shortfall which will most severely affect our highest-need students.  The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) is working to address this need by expanding UTeach, a teacher-preparation program founded at the University of Texas at Austin that enables undergraduates to obtain a secondary teaching certification while earning a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degree.  This grant will support a two-year effort to significantly improve the UTeach model through a continuous, data-driven feedback cycle that includes robust links to student achievement and a clearer focus on serving high-need students and schools.

New Leaders, New York, NY

Toward a reform strategy to increase principal effectiveness and student achievement in urban secondary schools

$2,526,700 for 36 months, starting July 2008

In our increasingly “flat” world, secondary schools must prepare students both to participate as engaged citizens and to succeed in a global economy.  Yet many urban public schools fail to graduate a majority of their students, let alone educate them to these standards, and the resulting achievement gap between low-income students and their peers points to a need for change.  New Leaders’s (NLNS) work is based on the hypothesis that effective leadership is essential to transforming low-achieving schools.  NLNS’s recruitment, training, and support of principals has yielded promising results, and NLNS will use this grant to focus its efforts more sharply on secondary schools.  NLNS will continue to improve its activities based on its own and broader best practices to prepare and support more effective leaders for high-need secondary schools.

New Leaders, New York, NY

Toward a reform strategy to increase principal effectiveness and student achievement in urban secondary schools

$2,526,700 for 36 months, starting July 2008

In our increasingly “flat” world, secondary schools must prepare students both to participate as engaged citizens and to succeed in a global economy.  Yet many urban public schools fail to graduate a majority of their students, let alone educate them to these standards, and the resulting achievement gap between low-income students and their peers points to a need for change.  New Leaders’s (NLNS) work is based on the hypothesis that effective leadership is essential to transforming low-achieving schools.  NLNS’s recruitment, training, and support of principals has yielded promising results, and NLNS will use this grant to focus its efforts more sharply on secondary schools.  NLNS will continue to improve its activities based on its own and broader best practices to prepare and support more effective leaders for high-need secondary schools.

New Schools Fund, San Francisco, CA

Toward developing and funding its human capital investment strategy

$2,526,700 for 36 months, starting July 2008

To reform high-need urban districts so that all students graduate from high school ready for college, we must both help school systems develop a strategy to recruit, develop, and retain the best teachers and leaders and support the partner organizations and tools that are crucial to realizing this vision.  NewSchools Venture Fund (NSVF), a pioneer of venture philanthropy in education, focuses on the latter by investing in promising entrepreneurs to expand high-quality educational opportunities for underserved students and to create momentum for broader reform.  This grant will expand and fund the human capital investments of NSVF’s Fund III, whose investments overall are focused on promoting innovation through 1) charter schools, 2) new models for human capital, and 3) new designs for data systems.

New Visions for Public Schools, New York, NY

Toward developing and launching the New York Teacher Residency within a network of New Visions schools

$800,000 for 24 months, starting April 2009

Our increasingly competitive global context requires that we educate more students to higher standards than ever before.  To do so requires highly effective teachers, who have the greatest influence on student achievement.  This means that any effective reform effort must address how to recruit, develop, and retain excellent teachers in high-need schools.  While most traditional teacher training programs are ill-prepared to meet this challenge, urban teacher residencies offer an innovative, comprehensive solution for training and developing new teachers in urban classrooms.  With this grant, New Visions for Public Schools (New Visions) will integrate its system of school-based reform (called SAM) into a teacher residency program, not only training highly effective teachers but creating a model for integrating teacher preparation into broader school improvement.

The New Teacher Project, Brooklyn, NY

Toward support

$3,000,000 for 18 months, starting April 2010

Systems that differentiate, reward, and develop effective teachers and dismiss ineffective ones are virtually nonexistent.  As the need for such systems becomes clearer, The New Teacher Project (TNTP) has emerged as a leading agent for change, identifying, advocating, and, now, moving to implement needed reforms.  Building on its experience in recruiting or training approximately 37,000 highly qualified teachers in 31 states while conducting cutting-edge research and advocacy around strengthening human-capital systems, TNTP is perfectly positioned to move an ambitious agenda that aligns with Carnegie’s strategy and the vision of the U.S. Department of Education.  This grant builds on our support by enabling TNTP to create, refine, and implement systems for managing teacher talent and for guaranteeing the effectiveness of the teachers it certifies.

Teach For America,  New York, NY

Toward support

$1,000,000 for 24 months, starting July 2009

Over 18 years, Teach for America (TFA) has confronted the challenge of closing the achievement gap by recruiting, training, and supporting more than 20,000 outstanding college graduates to teach in our country’s highest-need schools.  Because of a national focus on service, the current economic condition, and TFA’s sterling reputation and successful recruiting efforts, TFA was confronted with an unexpected challenge:  the supply of outstanding applicants exceeded the funding available to place them.  In order to seize this unique opportunity, TFA created a 2013 Growth Fund of $80 million to place 3,500 additional corps members in under-served districts across the country over the next five years.  With Carnegie support, TFA reached its goal of $80 million.

Teach For America,  New York, NY

Toward expanding a pilot implementation of interim assessments to drive student achievement, teacher accountability, and program improvement

$2,000,000 for 24 months, starting July 2008

Studies prove that teacher quality is the primary school-based predictor of student achievement.  Unfortunately, the dramatic shortage of effective teachers in urban, high-need schools is a significant cause of our achievement gap and of low levels of student achievement nationally.  Over 17 years, Teach for America (TFA) has confronted this challenge by recruiting and training outstanding college graduates to teach in the highest-need districts.  With this grant, TFA will expand on its pilot of using externally validated, standardized assessments in its classrooms to better evaluate and manage teachers’ instructional strategies, increase the organization’s ability to improve student learning, continuously refine its organizational model based on what works, and, more broadly, increase its influence on educational reform.

Uncommon Schools,  New York, NY

For strengthening and implementing tools to identify and disseminate best practices to improve student achievement

$1,000,000 for 24 months, starting April 2010

While studies show that teacher quality is a key determinant of student learning, mounting evidence makes clear that our current model of teacher training is ill-equipped to meet 21st century challenges.  Teachers, especially those in high-need schools, are rarely taught to approach instruction as a data-based clinical practice focused on student outcomes.  In an effort to elevate instructional quality across its network of high-performing schools, Uncommon Schools has developed a Taxonomy of best practices as an integral tool for teacher improvement and increased student achievement.  With the grant, Uncommon will build on its year of piloting the Taxonomy by developing content-specific tools, more broadly and deeply implementing them in order to distill what works, and exploring how the Taxonomy can be a catalyst for school-wide improvement.

University of Chicago,  Chicago, IL

Toward developing and implementing a human-capital strategy to accelerate student achievement and college readiness in high-need urban schools

$2,053,300 for 36 months, starting April 2009

The failure that has characterized urban school districts is due, in part, to a dearth of excellent teachers and leaders.  Since teachers and principals have the greatest impact on student achievement, addressing this challenge requires a human-capital strategy for recruiting, developing, and retaining the best talent in the highest-need schools.  The University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute (UEI) will use this grant to create and implement an integrated human-capital model encompassing a teacher residency, an apprenticeship program, differentiated support in the classroom, and a leadership pathway for excellent teachers and future school leaders.  UEI’s work is focused on accelerating student achievement and will use student achievement data to inform the various elements of its human-capital model.

Urban Teacher Residency Institute,  Chicago, IL

Toward support

$100,000 for 12 months, starting April 2009

Given the primary importance of teacher quality in driving student achievement, any effective reform effort must address the challenge of recruiting, developing, and retaining excellent teachers in high-need schools.  The model of urban teacher residencies is among the most promising innovations for ensuring that teachers enter urban classrooms prepared for their unique challenges and ready to bring about student achievement.  The Urban Teacher Residency Institute (UTRI) is creating a training program for emerging residency programs while defining the core elements of a teacher residency.  It will use this grant to further define its mission, build its internal capacity, develop a strategy for codifying and spreading best practices, and broadly promote the national teacher residency movement.