Redesigning Central Office Support for Increased School Autonomy October 21, 2010

Autonomy District policies and practices are changed to permit school leaders to make more decisions about the use of their resources Capacity & Support Central office provides training and differentiated support to help school leaders use resources strategically to meet instructional goals Accountability School leaders are held accountable for student and fiscal outcomes Successful districts take systematic approach to increasing school autonomy Autonomy Accountability Capacity Strategic Use of School-Level Resources 2

FromTo Schools serve centralCentral serves schools Dictating inputsMeasuring results “No you can’t”“Let’s figure out how you can…” Central silo accountabilityIntegrated accountability for school performance E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 3 Historic “command and control” central office practices have to fundamentally change

Restructuring the organization Realigning roles and responsibilities Structural – transforming the organization chart Defining the resources and decisions at schools Providing guidance and setting performance expectations Generating data to inform school-based decisions Partnering with schools across central silos for problem solving and support Process – transforming how the work gets done Leading the Transformation – “maniacal” focus on the vision School planning drives budget and support needs Aligning central accountability with school results Assessing systemic data to drive improvement and inform best practice Cultural – transforming behavior and perspective E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 4 Sustaining the transformation requires deep and deliberate redesign

Increased…The OpportunityThe Watch-out FlexibilitySchools align resources to focus on their unique instructional needs Funding levels are too low for meaningful flexibility after contracts and mandates are met CapacityDistrict and school leaders collaborate to build capacity around instructional leadership and resource use School leaders get lost in managing decentralized school operations versus leading instruction AccountabilitySchool and central accountability is aligned around demonstrated instructional results Data is lacking or central accountability remains too far removed from schools’ instructional performance E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 5 Realizing the opportunity means managing the watch- outs

Board of Education passes New Small Autonomous Schools policy including site-based decision-making (2000) OUSD receives a loan from the State and enters state receivership (2004) Results-Based Budgeting (RBB) used with principals for first time (2005) RBB migrated to user-friendly, web-based system (2007) E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 6 Oakland Unified School District: History of OUSD's student-based budgeting system

E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 7 Purpose of Results-Based Budgeting: Equity Address historic funding inequities between ‘hill’ and ‘flatland’ schools. School Autonomy Give principals and department heads more control over the conditions of success to increase effectiveness. Transparency Create transparency in the budget process to allow greater access by staff, community, parents, and students, and build trust. Aligning Resources and Results Allow individual decision units (school sites and central office departments) to develop budgets aligned with desired results.

E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 8 Unique Elements of Results-Based Budgeting: Design choice used categorical state and federal programs as the ‘weights’ for resource allocation Created incentives for schools by attaching dollars received to daily attendance rates for students. RBB used actual staff salaries which created real equity based upon available resources for schools.

Core to the success of RBB was identifying, attracting, and retaining high-quality school leaders. ­ Office of School Leadership - Established an office and work stream dedicated entirely to principal recruitment and development. ­ Tiered Support & Intervention - Provided differentiated support to principals based upon a host of qualitative and quantitative data. ­ Coordinated Effort – Team-based approach to support principals and schools increased effectiveness (HR, finance, ops support, Network Officer, etc.) E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 9 Central Office Redesign: Principal Support

Critical to maximize limited time with principals; we focused on strategy and planning. ­ Explicit Planning Cycles – Developed Results-Based Inquiry (RBI) cycles where schools could evaluate together their strategies based upon benchmark student results. ­ Redesign of Legacy Processes – So much time and attention on planning, reconsidered prior practice, e.g. carryover allocations. E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 10 Central Office Redesign: Getting to Strategy Faster

While the results from OUSD can’t be attributed directly to RBB; it certainly helped to facilitate the process. ­ Academic Results – OUSD is the most improved urban school district in California for six straight years. For , OUSD gains were twice the state average. 12 schools more than quadrupled the state average with 50+ point gains in API. ­ Support for RBB – Survey of all OUSD principals last spring: 93% of principals valued having decision-making authority over their budgets, 78% of principals believed that dollars should be equitably distributed. E DUCATION R ESOURCE S TRATEGIES, I NC. 11 OUSD Results?