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EPIC | The Effective Practice Incentive Community

Learning from Urban Schools Driving Student Achievement Gains EPIC EPIC Knowledge System EPIC Evaluation Brief EPIC Partnerships National Charter School Consortium District of Columbia Public Schools Memphis City Schools Denver Public Schools Prince George's County Public Schools
General Contact Details Michael Capobianco National Director, EPIC Programs Email: mcapobianco@nlns.org 646-792-1048	Address Information New Leaders for New Schools EPIC Programs 30 West 26th Street, Second Floor New York, NY 10010

Learning from Urban Schools Driving Student Achievement Gains

Schools in cities across the nation share many similar challenges. The Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) provides New Leaders for New Schools and our partners the opportunity to learn from educators driving gains in high-need urban schools. EPIC identifies school leaders and teachers whose students are making significant achievement gains and financially rewards these educators in exchange for their sharing the effective practices that contributed to the gains.

EPIC

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 schools driving student achievement gains, and then awards the principals, assistant principals and instructional staff in these schools 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 analyzing student achievement data 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 educators in 68 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 Capobianco at 646-792-1048 or email mcapobianco@nlns.org.

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The EPIC Knowledge System

The EPIC Knowledge System is a web-based professional development platform that 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 have used to improve student achievement.

The power of the EPIC lies in the opportunity for educators to learn from one another about practices that contribute to achievement gains. While other initiatives are aimed at showcasing only "blue-ribbon" schools or "master teachers," EPIC spotlights leadership actions, instructional practices, operations, systems and culture-building strategies in schools that are at every stage of school improvement.

EPIC works with each awarded school to document their identified effective practice through interviews, artifact study and school visits. The EPIC team then develops a case study or profile of each school’s practice. These are presented on the web-based EPIC Knowledge System as professional development modules that include video of practices in action, school artifacts, interviews and implementation tools and resources. The EPIC Knowledge System provides the New Leaders community and educators in EPIC grant partner districts and charter schools access to this robust professional development tool and support in integrating the EPIC resources into ongoing professional development and coaching. In the 2009-10 school year the EPIC Knowledge System will provide cases and profiles about practices at over 100 awarded schools.

EPIC employs a rigorous, evidence-based protocol for investigating and analyzing practices that are contributing to achievement gains. The EPIC research tools guide school leaders through a structured, reflective investigation of their own leadership and of school-wide practices in the domains of Personal Leadership, Learning and Teaching, School Culture, Aligned Staff and Operations and Systems.

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- details below.

For more information on the EPIC Knowledge System, please call Nick Stableski at 646-792-1039 or email nstableski@nlns.org.

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Learning from Urban Schools Driving Student Achievement Gains

This report presents findings from a formative evaluation of EPIC’s practice identification approach, and the design, content, and early use of the Knowledge System, conducted by Rockman et al (www.rockman.com). The evaluation is part of a portfolio of evaluation activities being conducted by EPIC’s independent third-party research and evaluation partners. For this phase of the evaluation, a series of interviews with principals from award-winning schools was conducted along with interviews with EPIC staff and New Leaders coaches. As well, the evaluation team conducted a content analysis of the effective practice tools and protocols and an instructional analysis of the Knowledge System.

This formative evaluation found substantial evidence that the effective practice process was well received by the majority of principals and that key concepts from the tools and process are being translated into practice. Specific findings suggestive of program success include the following:

• Validated efforts and reaffirmed goals. Revisiting the practices with the school team was a rewarding experience, one that "recognized staff in a positive way" and helped principals "underline the importance of some of their work" to the rest of the faculty.
• Reinforced the value of reflection. EPIC helped principals see that reflection is a necessity, not a luxury. A Memphis principal called reflection "Not just a way to consider the past, where you’ve come, but a way to plan, look ahead."
• Changed how they document practice. The EPIC model helped principals understand "how to document practice in a systematic way," and they became more deliberate about "keeping a record of their journey." This was more than better bookkeeping; documenting practice helped principals "hone in on a practice" and "focus on leadership."
• Improved teacher evaluations and classroom observations. Principals adopted approaches modeled during the EPIC investigation and school visits. One now uses some of the self-study questions in management evaluations while another uses open-ended questions rather than rating scales during teacher evaluations, encouraging teachers to reflect on practice and share how it affects student achievement.

The evaluation also found some qualities to be specific to the Knowledge System. They are the following:

• Meets the needs of a range of facilitators and use case scenarios. EPIC facilitation resources support principal-in-training coaches, leadership coaches, principals and staff developers. These resources are customized for one-on-one coaching, leadership team PD, staff workshops, online webinars and self study.
• Helps facilitators customize training and maximize their time. Coaches who work with principals-in-training and principals agreed that a key benefit of the Knowledge System was its adaptability to individual needs.
• Reduces the need to re-teach and reinvent the wheel. Instead of re-creating a strategy or policy, high need, early turnaround schools can learn from others and replicate instead. In the end this can help schools "ramp up faster" or "bend the learning curve."
• Helps clarify leadership roles. The system allows prospective or practicing principals to focus on leadership and build leadership capacity among faculty members.
• Offers a common language. The system can provide a common language that avoids eduspeak and shows principals, for example, "here's what we mean when we’re talking about data."

For a copy of the entire EPIC Evaluation Brief, Click Here.

For more information on the EPIC research and evaluation, please call Chris Mathews at 646-792-1064 or email cmathews@nlns.org.

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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 DC, 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 144 charter schools from 17 states and the District of Columbia. Click here for a list of current and past participants and award winners. The program invites new charter schools to participate in future years. (See details below.) The eligibility requirements include:

• Serving 30% or more of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch;
• Submitting a minimum of two years of test scores for ALL students, with a preference for three years where possible;
• Willingness to share effective practices with New Leaders and our EPIC partners.

EPIC award-winning schools are divided into two categories: Gold-gain schools have the highest gain; Silver-gain schools have the next highest gain. In 2009, EPIC will have awarded 21 schools and distributed roughly $1.9 million in awards. Awards were based on student gains between the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years.

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

Recruitment for the third award year of EPIC will begin in June, and applications are due in the fall. To sign up to receive application information, please call Allison Jack at 917-464-4710 or email CharterEPIC@nlns.org.

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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. Click here for a list of past award winners.

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.

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

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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 2008-09 school year, 12 MCS schools were recognized as EPIC award winners. The year before, 17 MCS schools were recognized, with over 650 educators receiving awards totaling more than $900,000. Click here for a list of past award-winners.

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 30% 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.

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EPIC in Denver Public Schools
In the Denver Public Schools (DPS), EPIC is a component of the district's Administrator Incentive Compensation program. EPIC in DPS focuses financial awards and effective practice work primarily on school leaders.

EPIC award-recognized schools in DPS are determined mainly 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 first two years of the program, EPIC has awarded approximately $500,000 to over 70 school leaders across 39 schools. In the 2008-09 school year, 40 principals and assistant principals and their staffs from 20 DPS schools received EPIC awards totaling approximately $270,000. Click here for a list of award-winners.

For more information on EPIC in DPS, please call Michael Capobianco at 646-792-1048 or email mcapobianco@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 launched in the 2008-09 school year with 12 PGCPS schools and will grow to 42 schools. EPIC will be integrated into FIRST starting in the 2010-11 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 Capobianco at 646-792-1048 or email mcapobianco@nlns.org .

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Related Documents

EPIC Charter Schools (pdf)
A list of current and past EPIC participants and award winners.

EPIC-TEAM Award-winning DCPS Schools (pdf)
A list of current and past award-winning DCPS schools.

EPIC Award-winning DPS Schools (pdf)
A list of current and past award-winning DPS schools.

EPIC Award-winning MCS Schools (pdf)
A list of current and past award-winning MCS schools.

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