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New Leaders for New Schools

EPIC | The Effective Practice Incentive Community

The EPIC Story EPIC Knowledge System EPIC Partnerships
General Contact Details Michael Gross National Program Director Email: mgross@nlns.org 646-792-1070	Address Information New Leaders for New Schools EPIC Programs 30 West 26th Street, Second Floor New York, NY 10010

The EPIC Story

New Leaders for New Schools established the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) in 2006 to link principal and teacher incentive pay to the wide-scale sharing of effective educational practices. EPIC identifies principals, assistant principals, and instructional staff driving student achievement gains, and then awards these educators in exchange for sharing the practices that have helped lead to the gains. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), our school district and charter school partners and private philanthropic funders. The primary components of EPIC are:

• The development of value-added models for student achievement data analysis in order to identify schools making the greatest gains;
• The recognition and rewarding of school leaders and instructional staff in high-gain schools for sharing their effective practices and strategies with other schools;
• The creation of comprehensive case studies that are shared with a broad network of schools through an innovative online platform called the EPIC Knowledge System.

EPIC offers a unique approach to compensating school leaders and educators. While the EPIC model of incentive pay recognizes the importance of including student achievement data in evaluating schools, individuals are awarded monetary rewards after they agree to share the effective practices that contributed to improved student achievement. Principals, assistant principals, teachers and teaching assistants are all eligible for significant monetary awards. School leaders have higher awards in recognition of the significant amount of time they spend on the effective practice documentation process.

EPIC operates in the following school districts and partner schools: District of Columbia Public Schools, Memphis City Schools, the National Charter School Consortium, and Denver Public Schools. EPIC's primary funding source, the federal TIF grant, is a five year grant and the 2008-09 school year represents the third year of the grant. EPIC awards and the EPIC effective practice process were piloted in schools across the country in the 2007-08 school year. To date, EPIC has given over $4.3 million in financial awards to more than 1700 educators in 69 schools nationwide.

EPIC is a partnership of some of the leading education organizations in the nation. Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) helped create and continues to refine the value-added models used to determine EPIC awardees, along with providing evaluation services for the program. SchoolWorks leads the work of effective practice identification in EPIC-recognized schools based on a collaboratively-developed and rigorous school visit protocol. VPG Media, a Boston-based media company with deep experience in documenting practices in K-12 schools, partners with New Leaders to acquire, develop and produce multimedia and video content associated with identified effective practices.

For more information on EPIC, please call Michael Gross at (646) 792-1070 or email mgross@nlns.org.

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The EPIC Knowledge System

The EPIC Knowledge System provides school leaders and coaches with tested tools and practical resources that they can use to strengthen their practice and improve their schools. EPIC's online professional development modules offer specific strategies, practices, and actions that school leaders, faculty, and staff from schools like yours have used to improve student achievement.

The EPIC effective practice process results in the creation of case studies and practice profiles that present the way a particular school leader and staff address a specific need or challenge in their school. These professional development modules are not necessarily examples of "best practice" but instead depict what schools have done to quantitatively improve student achievement, responding to their unique local circumstances and requirements. Cases and profiles are intended to provide a forum for school leaders and staff to reflect on and discuss the school's strategies and approach and decide how the cases can help them improve their practice and, possibly, implement new practices. "Connecting to your Practice" sections in each online chapter provide guiding questions to support discussion and reflection.

All EPIC case studies follow a common structure and outline and include demographic and student achievement data from the school. Some cases contain video, providing users with an up-close look at a school's practices in action, along with interviews of key educators in the school. Each case study includes a Facilitator's Guide with suggestions for workshops and activities developed around the content found in the case. Practice profiles are first-person narratives written by principals and also follow a common structure and outline and include demographic and student achievement data from the school. Both case studies and practice profiles contain a rich set of school artifacts, the tools used by the school during their day-to-day work. School-produced documents are unedited, representing the actual work the school has done.

The EPIC Knowledge System is a password protected site available for free to EPIC grant partners and the New Leaders community. If you are interested in gaining full access to review the EPIC Knowledge System, please contact Nick Stableski.

For more information on the EPIC Knowledge System, please call Nick Stableski at 646-792-1070 or email nstableski@nlns.org.

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EPIC Partnerships with Charter Schools and School Districts

The EPIC program operates in partnership with charter schools across the country and with the school districts of Washington D.C., Memphis and Denver. In order to meet the unique needs of our different partners, EPIC operates slightly differently in each. However, in all EPIC sites, the program's central tenet remains the same: financially awarding educators driving high student achievement gains in exchange for their sharing the effective practices that contributed to those gains.

The EPIC National Charter School Consortium
The EPIC National Charter School Consortium is currently made up of 97 charter schools from 17 states and the District of Columbia. The program is currently inviting new charter schools to participate. The eligibility requirements include:

• Serving 30% or more of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch;
• Submission of a minimum of two years of test scores for ALL students, with a preference for three years where possible;
• Submission of data for at least 15 students with complete data (state test scores, demographics); and
• Willingness to share effective practices with New Leaders and our EPIC partners.

In 2008, the pilot year of EPIC awards, educators in 22 schools from 10 states received over $1.1 million in rewards. Award-winning schools were divided into two categories; Gold-gain schools had the highest gain, and Silver-Gain schools had the next highest gain. Awards were based on student gains between the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years.

The EPIC National Charter School Consortium invites new charters to participate in years two through five of the grant.

For application information, please call Allison Jack at 917-464-4710 or email CharterEpic@nlns.org. For application information, please click here.

EPIC in the District of Columbia Public Schools
In the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), EPIC operates under the name TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More). The mission of the TEAM program is to set a new standard for DC Public Schools by recognizing, rewarding, and retaining top performers. In 2007-08 three DCPS schools were recognized as TEAM award winners, and in 2008-09 seven schools were recognized. Over the first two years of EPIC in DCPS, almost 500 educators have received more than $2 million in awards.

TEAM awards go to DCPS schools that increase DC-CAS proficiency in both reading and math by 20 percentage points. TEAM represents a bold new DCPS partnership with the Washington Teacher's Union and New Leaders for New Schools.

TEAM follows a four-step process for honoring educators and sharing effective practices:

1. Collecting and analyzing data to determine which schools meet the TEAM award criteria
2. Announcing the schools that have won TEAM awards and giving bonuses to all staff in those schools
3. Identifying and capturing effective leadership and teaching practices in the award-winning schools
4. Sharing these practices with educators across the nation via the EPIC Knowledge System

For more information on EPIC in DCPS, please call Paige Akins at 202-379-2812 or email pakins@nlns.org.

EPIC in the Memphis City Schools
EPIC in Memphis is based on a strong collaboration between New Leaders, Memphis City Schools (MCS) and the Memphis Education Association. In the 2007-08 school year, 17 MCS schools were recognized as EPIC award winners with over 650 educators receiving awards totaling more than $900,000.

In MCS, a value-added metric using Tennessee state standardized test scores is used to determine which schools will be nominated for EPIC awards. After a school is nominated, the faculty and administrators eligible for EPIC awards must vote at a rate of 80 percent or higher in order to participate in the EPIC effective practice process and receive EPIC's incentive awards.

MCS schools that are eligible for an EPIC award must:

• Have 50% or more of their students eligible for free or reduced price lunch;
• Have a complete set of state test scores for at least 15 students; and
• Not be eligible for another school-wide MCS incentive program.

After the program's pilot year, EPIC was named MCS's top "bright spot" for the 2007-08 school year by The Memphis Commercial Appeal.

For more information on EPIC in MCS, please call Cheryl Green at 901-881-5120 or email epic-memphis@nlns.org.

EPIC in Denver Public Schools
In the Denver Public Schools (DPS), EPIC is a component of the district's overall alternative compensation system called "ProComp." EPIC in DPS focuses financial awards and effective practice work primarily on school leaders.

EPIC award-recognized schools in DPS are determined primarily based on the DPS School Performance Framework, and include a set of schools that can self-nominate to be eligible for EPIC awards and to participate in the effective practice process. In the 2007-08 school year, 34 principals and assistant principals and their staffs from 20 DPS schools received EPIC awards totaling over $240,000.

For more information on EPIC in DPS, please call Michael Gross at 646-792-1070 or email mgross@nlns.org.

EPIC in Prince George's County Public Schools
In Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS), EPIC will be a component of the district's overall alternative compensation system called "FIRST (Financial Incentives Rewards for Supervisors & Teachers)." FIRST is a new initiative launching in 42 PGCPS schools in the 2008-09 school year, and EPIC will be integrated into FIRST starting in the 2010-2011 school year.

EPIC award-recognized schools in PGCPS are expected to be determined using FIRST's evaluation systems and growth over time models that document student achievement and professional growth.

For more information on EPIC in PGCPS, please call Michael Gross at 646-792-1070 or email mgross@nlns.org.

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