TIF Webinar Sustaining Your TIF Grant March 11, 2015

Introductions Presenters: – TIF Grantees: Carla Stevens, Houston Independent School District Lauren Price, Houston Independent School District Tammy Kruez, Region 18 Education Service Center – Tate Gould, TIF TA Team, AnLar Incorporated Contributors: – Joan Pasley, Horizon Research – Julia Keleher, Keleher & Associates 2

Purpose of This Webinar 1.Consider issues related to sustaining your TIF project efforts 2.Engage a framework for sustainability that can help guide your work in this area 3.Listen to and discuss how other grantees have approached sustaining their TIF efforts 3

Sustainability in TIF TIF projects are complex and have various elements to consider when thinking about sustainability after TIF funding, e.g., : – The infrastructure to support quality implementation of educator evaluation systems that include components such as: objective, evidence-based rubrics that differentiate levels of effectiveness; formal observations conducted by trained observers; student growth as a significant factor (school and/or classroom level); additional factors (e.g., PD participation, survey results, etc.) – How to fund and maintain a PBCS 4

Sustainability in TIF (cont’d) – How to maintain an HCMS that aligns with an LEA's vision of instructional improvement and informs human capital decisions (e.g., hiring, recruitment, dismissal, promotion, etc.) – Data management systems to link educator and student achievement data, as well as to link evaluation data to other systems, e.g., HR/payroll systems – Professional development systems to improve educator practice and also ensure understanding of program components – Teacher career ladders – Ongoing program evaluation to examine impacts and areas for improvement 5

In the ideal… All of these TIF endeavors become the “way you do business” and are not add-ons. 6

In reality… It takes resources (both financial and human) to sustain this work over time. 7

Sustainability in TIF Sustaining the components of your TIF project after funding is complete requires planning now (and sometimes a good bit of creativity) about: – What aspects of TIF are most important to sustain? Can they be sustained as is or in a modified form? – How can this work be supported? – How to build staff capacity to carry-on the work (e.g. professional learning communities)? 8

Sustainability in TIF Decisions about what can be sustained and in what form are context specific and depend in part on: – Priorities in your district – Capacity to sustain with quality – Resources that can be made available to support this work – And many other factors 9

Context of Grantee Panels Questions for each grantee – Type of district? – What is the buy-in for TIF in the district? – Brief history of TIF grants? – How have you used the various TIF grants to develop and enhance your systems over time? 10

4 Components of Sustainability Although many frameworks exist for sustainability, the following provides a common 4-component approach: 1.Increasing stakeholder support and communication 2.Implementing and building capacity to ensure widespread use of quality program development 3.Developing financial support and ongoing funding for efforts 4.Understanding a return of investment 11

#1: Increasing stakeholder support and communication What you should consider: – Do you have and can you articulate a clear vision for the effort in your district? – How much support do you have from the teachers? From principals? Other important stakeholders (e.g., parents, unions)? – Do you have a detailed plan for ongoing communication with your stakeholders? 12

#1: Increasing stakeholder support and communication Why is this important? – Without community buy-in, your effort is spent on defending rather than promoting. – You will always be in “start-up” mode with your effort. 13

#2: Ensure widespread use of quality program development What you should consider – Documentation of processes should be occurring to help train others (and avoid the "win the lottery" scenario). – You should collect and analyze the data so you can answer questions about the program's implementation, use, and impact. 14

#2: Ensure widespread use of quality program development Why is this important? – Are you implementing WITH your community? – How much are you using data to show how practice is changing, compared to only anecdotes? – Can you ensure there is ongoing capacity to implement program components with quality? 15

#3: Developing financial support and ongoing funding What you should consider – One-time funding is…one-time funding. – How is your staff allocated for the project? – How creative have you been with sources of funding? – Do you have a match requirement? – Does support include match, cost-sharing, and in-kind contributions? – Do you have a control system in place with adequate safe guards for supplies and/or equipment? 16

#3: Developing financial support and ongoing funding Why is this important? – Funding is required for many of these efforts to be implemented, even for a pilot. – Funding is usually correlated with support from leadership or stakeholders. – Funding helps with communicating your effort to others. 17

#4: Understanding a return of investment What you should consider – Use data that have been collected to communicate with stakeholders on progress of program implementation and how practice has changed – Demonstrate how a program's funding has been beneficial and used – Identify areas where funding or resources have been extended to have more of an impact than originally planned 18

#4: Understanding a return of investment Why is this important? – Start-up efforts always create more work up front with the promise that something will improve or be easier over time. – Data should support how teaching and leadership has improved instructional practice, student achievement, and school performance. 19