Does your organization serve low-income communities, as defined on page 7 of the GreenLight Fund RFP? X Yes No

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1 Part 1. Eligibility Quiz Applicants must be able to answer yes to all the following questions in order to proceed. Is your organization a 501(c)(3) nonprofit? X Yes No Does your organization serve low-income communities, as defined on page 7 of the GreenLight Fund RFP? X Yes No Does your organization address the achievement and opportunity gap for lowincome children and youth? X Yes No Is your organization able to demonstrate at least preliminary levels of evidence as defined on page 11 of the GreenLight SIF RFP? X Yes No Is your organization proposing to participate in rigorous evaluation to achieve at least moderate levels of evidence, as defined on page 11 in the GreenLight SIF RFP? X Yes No Is your organization proposing to open a site in one of GreenLight's communities Boston, Philadelphia or the San Francisco Bay Area where you do not currently operate? X Yes No Has your organization secured commitments for at least 50% of your first year 1:1 match requirement for the GreenLight award, as defined on page 11 of the RFP? X Yes No 1

2 Part 2. Basic Organizational Information Organization Name Blueprint Schools Network Employee Identification Number (EIN) Year organization was established 2010 Executive Director/CEO Matthew Spengler Contact Person for Proposal Emily Dodd Contact Phone Number Contact Address Contact Mailing Address 61 Chapel St, Suite 1 Newton, MA Website Location of current sites Houston, Texas Denver, Colorado Total number of paid full-time employees at headquarters site 5 Total number of paid full-time employees across all sites 7 To what city/region are you proposing to expand (select all that apply)? X Boston Philadelphia San Francisco Bay Area 2

3 Please list any specific cities or communities you propose to expand to within the abovementioned region (if applicable). Please list the specific issues your organization addresses to help close the achievement and opportunity gap for low income youth (e.g. digital literacy, college persistence and completion). School turnaround, expanded learning time, tutoring, excellence in teaching and school leadership, data-driven research and evaluation. Document uploads Current board of directors list with members affiliations [required] LOxgqEhG_BlueprintSchoolsNetworkBoardMemberBiographies.docx Qualifications of key staff [required] dxxgbah5_blueprintschoolsnetworkseniorstaffqualifications.docx Most recent annual report [optional] - 3

4 Part 3. Financial Information Funding request Annual amount you are requesting for the five year award From what sources have you obtained commitments for the required 50% cash match of year one funds? The Capacity Funding for Turnaround Operators, award from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Revenues and expenses Dates of your fiscal year 6/30 FY12 organizational revenue (budgeted if year is incomplete) FY12 organizational expenses (budgeted if year is incomplete) FY11 organizational revenue FY11 organizational expenses FY10 organizational revenue N/A Organization established 12/10/10 FY10 organizational expenses N/A Organization established 12/10/10 Please list your top five sources of revenue for your most recently completed fiscal year. Program Service Fees Travel Reimbursement Foundations Individuals Please include the amount and percentage of revenue from the following sources for your most recently completed fiscal year: Amount Percent of total Foundations

5 Government Individuals 1350 <1 Corporations Earned income Investment income In-kind Other (please describe below) Please describe revenue listed as "other" Program Service Fees & Travel Reimbursement Assets and liabilities FY12 year-end assets (if known) FY12 year-end liabilities(if known) FY11 year-end assets FY11 year-end liabilities FY10 year-end assets N/A org established 12/10/10 FY10 year-end liabilities N/A org established 12/10/10 Please describe your organization's experience managing government funding, if any. As an organization we have not managed government funding. Theodore Trevens, Blueprint s Finance and Grants Manager, has served as the lead financial administrator on over 17 state and federal grants including those from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the NIH. He has trained nonprofit organizations in efficient and proper billing procedures for state and federal contracts and will oversee and manage Blueprint s prospective funding. OPTIONAL - Please explain any extraordinary circumstances that you believe have had a material impact on your organization s financial position during the last three years. Blueprint was incorporated on December 10, We operated as a start-up for the first 6 ½ months. FY11 was our first full year of operations. Our FY and audit will be available in December. Therefore, we only have FY and audit available for upload. 5

6 Document uploads Current year organizational operating budget [required] GWW5Y3kU_BlueprintFY13orgbudget.xls Three most recent forms 990 (1) [required] Zh5oaNZ6_Blueprint pdf Three most recent forms 990 (2) [required] u2qb6wmy_blueprint990fy10fy12.pdf Three most recent forms 990 (3) [required] Q3m08IjL_Blueprint990FY10FY12.pdf Three most recent audited financial statements (1) [required] Di9L7YaU_Blueprint FinancialStatements.pdf Three most recent audited financial statements (2) [required] 5gXgTZqf_BlueprintauditFY10FY12.pdf Three most recent audited financial statements (3) [required] 5EsggRby_BlueprintauditFY10FY12.pdf 6

7 Part 4. Mission, History, and Theory of Change (section limit 2,000 words) What is the mission statement of your organization? The mission of Blueprint Schools Network (Blueprint) is to improve educational and life opportunities for students by working directly with large school districts to close the achievement gap in their lowest-performing schools. Using a research-based model composed of comprehensive reform strategies, Blueprint has a successful track record of partnering with districts to plan, implement, monitor, and operate school turnaround initiatives. Provide a brief history of your organization. In December 2010, Blueprint Schools Network was created to bring the learning from high-performing, high-poverty schools to life in district-led public schools. Our framework arose from an unprecedented analysis of more than 100 charter schools by the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University (EdLabs) to identify the factors driving achievement in the most successful of these schools. From this research, five principles, or tenets, emerged as the drivers of student achievement in gap-closing public schools. These five tenets, which each demonstrate a significant correlation with increased student achievement when enacted as part of a comprehensive plan for school turnaround, include: 1. Excellence in Leadership and Instruction 2. Daily Tutoring in Critical Growth Years 3. Increased Instructional Time 4. A Culture of High Expectations 5. Use of Data from Frequent Assessments to Improve Instruction During Blueprint s first year of operation, we supported EdLabs Apollo 20 school turnaround program in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and then led the first scale up implementation of the five-tenet framework in a K-12 feeder pattern of schools in Denver Public Schools (DPS) called the Denver Summit School Network (DSSN). Currently, the Apollo 20 program is in its third academic year and the DSSN is in its second year. Describe your organization's theory of change (you may reference a theory of change document or diagram if you choose to upload it in Part 7). Blueprint s model for school reform derives from ongoing research on common practices of schools capable of closing the achievement gap between low-income students and their higher-income peers (Dobbie and Fryer, 2011). Blueprint was founded to implement these practices within traditional public schools. This innovative work represents one of the first attempts to distill successful practices of high-performing charter schools into a format that can be transferred to all schools in a turnaround setting. Through intensive partnerships with districts, Blueprint uses a research-based five-tenet framework to plan, implement, and monitor whole-school turnarounds. 7

8 Blueprint believes that by effectively implementing these five school-based interventions and building the capacity of school and district leaders to sustain and scale these practices, we will dramatically improve the educational and life opportunities for students in our network. 1) Excellence in Leadership and Instruction Excellence in leadership and instruction is fundamental to building and maintaining a sustainable and successful turnaround. Blueprint works with districts to hire top-level principals to assemble highly-qualified instructional teams. Blueprint regularly evaluates schools on instructional effectiveness to improve the quality of teaching and learning. 2) Daily Tutoring in Critical Growth Years Dobbie and Fryer (2011) identified daily, small-group high-dosage tutoring as having a statistically significant impact on student achievement; in fact, tutoring is found to have a stronger impact on school effectiveness and student learning than traditional resource inputs such as reduced class size, increased per pupil expenditures, and a greater number of teachers with advanced degrees. This finding emphasizes the value of supporting students by providing differentiated instruction that targets individual learning needs. 3) Increased Instructional Time More time in school means students have more time to learn. Blueprint works with districts to increase instructional time by at least 20 percent over what students typically receive in public school districts. This increase supports more time for academics, tutorials, interventions, enrichment, and teacher professional development. 4) A Culture of High Expectations By developing and reinforcing a culture of high expectations, Blueprint s network of schools set a foundation for all students to achieve at high levels. Blueprint works with school and district leaders to set clear and consistent standards for academic achievement and the establishment of college-going cultures, student behavior systems, and learning environments. 5) Use of Data from Frequent Assessments to Improve Instruction Research shows that gap-closing schools frequently assess students on standards-based content and use the data from these assessments to drive instructional decision-making, including planning for re-teaching, remediation, and small-group differentiation (Dobbie and Fryer, 2012). Blueprint works with district and school leaders to implement datadriven instructional systems that empower teachers to identify struggling students and differentiate classroom instruction accordingly. Describe your organization's target population and the number of individuals in this target population currently served nationally and the range of numbers served at your local sites. Blueprint has prior experience and evidence of success collaborating with districts and schools to promote rapid, significant, and sustainable improvement in student 8

9 achievement in settings with significant populations of high-poverty students. The five tenets are currently being implemented in a ten-school K-12 feeder pattern in Denver Public Schools (DPS) and 20 elementary, middle and high schools in partnership with the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University (EdLabs). These 30 schools served more than 20,000 students in grades K-12 in the academic year. Describe the immediate and long-term results your organization has achieved, including the number of individuals served in the past three years. In the two years Blueprint has been engaged in turnaround initiatives in Denver and Houston, preliminary evidence reveals promising results and trends for student achievement. Below, we provide a snapshot of these results to date. DPS Denver Summit Schools Network: All grades in all schools outperformed DPS at large in percentage point gain for students scoring either proficient or advanced in math. Using Colorado s Median Growth Percentile metric which measures student growth from one year to the next, all schools ranked in the top 13 percent of 1,829 schools in the State of Colorado for student growth in math, with four out of six schools showing growth in the top 5% in the state. All grades in all schools outperformed DPS in percentage point gain for students scoring either proficient or advanced in reading, with three out of six schools ranked in the top 6 percent of schools statewide for growth in reading. On average, the DSSN schools reduced the racial achievement gap by 4.6% in reading, and 23.4% in math. HISD s Apollo 20 Schools: In Houston, EdLabs evaluation of the first year of framework implementation in HISD s network of schools found evidence of a statistically significant impact of the initiative on student learning. According to HISD and EdLabs reports, student achievement results included: The math skills acquired by the average Apollo 20 student represent an estimated extra 3 ½ months of additional schooling. Sixth-grade students, who received daily math tutoring, gained the equivalent of six additional months of schooling. Gains achieved by ninth-grade students ranged between nearly 5 months of additional learning to more than 9 months of additional learning. Reading performance improved slightly, producing results roughly equal to or just less than a month of additional instruction. Across the Apollo 20 high schools, 100% of mainstreamed graduating seniors were accepted to a 2- or 4-year college in

10 This early evidence of success implementing the five-tenet framework in multiple large urban districts suggests that rapid, significant and sustainable change is possible for schools and students in Greater Boston. Describe the unique innovation(s) in your program model, including any key differentiations from peer organizations. In addition to the five tenets, Blueprint brings several unique elements to the school turnaround landscape: 1) Strategic interventions based upon groundbreaking research 2) Due diligence process to understand local contexts 3) Partnership with school districts 4) Capacity building for sustained growth 5) High-dosage, in-school tutoring program 6) National network of turnaround schools and leaders 1) Research-based Strategic Interventions Blueprint s five-tenet framework for school turnaround is informed entirely by groundbreaking research. We are committed to using only the highest quality researchbased reform strategies in our work, and we regularly assess the impact of our approach through the analysis of school- and student-level data. Additionally, we look to leading research in the field of education, psychology, sociology and other fields to help inform our practice. 2) Due Diligence Process Before any turnaround interventions are planned or initiated, Blueprint invests heavily in understanding districts, their underperforming schools, and the local community. The process ensures that we put the necessary conditions in place for our model to be implemented effectively. These activities include: Site visits to each campus; Analysis of school district capacity regarding data management, human resources and instructional departments; Regular meetings with district board members, superintendents and cabinet members, and department directors; and Identification of and conversations with key community-based groups engaged in school support, reform and advocacy. Once completed, Blueprint drafts a school/network-level design advisory report. This report outlines strengths and weaknesses of each school s faculty, leadership team, and student support systems and assesses district-level infrastructure around existing data systems, budgeting processes, scheduling and human resource processes. This report serves as a guiding document for our implementation plan. 3) Partnership Structure Blueprint defines its work with districts as a partnership and works closely with district leaders to implement our tenets effectively. This partnership involves: building district 10

11 capacity for long-term sustainability, implementing systems for ongoing school improvement (e.g. data collection and others), and monitoring school progress. Partnership begins with a written agreement of shared autonomies and decision-making authority. Once solidified, Blueprint and its partner districts build a team to reinforce that partnership. Blueprint works with district leadership to recruit and select a districtemployed Executive Director who is responsible for managing the turnaround on behalf of the district. Once hired, the Executive Director builds a team, the composition of which will depend on the number of schools in the network. To provide ongoing leadership coaching and to oversee the implementation of the five tenets, Blueprint places a full-time Regional Director to work alongside the Executive Director. This Regional Director is the bridge between Blueprint s national office and our network of schools in a particular geography. 4) Capacity Building Blueprint is intimately involved in developing the capacity of our district partners. We work closely with network leadership to build their understanding of Blueprint s framework, how to manage and oversee school turnaround, and how to use the tools and materials Blueprint has developed to increase the impact of their work. Throughout our partnership, Blueprint leadership looks for indicators to suggest that its district partners are taking ownership of the initiative, integrating the strategies Blueprint focuses on into the management of network schools, and developing the ability to sustain student and school growth for the long term. 5) High Dosage, In-school Tutoring Blueprint leads an intensive, daily tutoring program that currently supports 333 full time math tutors (Fellows) in 27 schools across our national network. This tutoring program, known as the Blueprint Fellows Program, is an integral component of our overarching strategy for whole school reform. There is evidence that our model of high-dosage tutoring is among the most effective strategies for improving student achievement in urban public schools (Dobbie and Fryer, 2011). Fellows are district employees who provide daily, individualized math instruction for students in 4th, 6th, and 9th grades, though all students who are performing below gradelevel may be eligible. In elementary schools, Fellows deliver 45-minute lessons to groups of three students each period. In secondary schools, Fellows deliver 60-minute lessons to groups of two students each period. Tutorial units are prepared for Fellows and include daily lessons, a unit test, and time for re-teaching non-mastered skills or for extending students thinking. Instruction is driven by student achievement data and adapted to meet students needs. Our selection criteria and recruitment procedures for the Fellows Program are highly competitive and rigorous. Fellows candidates must hold a Bachelor s degree or higher and must achieve a score of 80% or higher on an aptitude test measuring their mastery of core skills. In the school year, the Fellows Program received over

12 applications. The Denver Fellows cohort s average math SAT score was 680, ACT score was 28, and college GPA was ) A National Network of Turnaround Schools and Leaders Blueprint convenes an annual three-day leadership summit for principals and district leaders in our network. In the spring of 2012, over 40 leaders from Houston and Denver came to Boston to visit model schools, share promising practices, and tackle common challenges as a growing network of professionals. This cohort of education professionals provides a wealth of knowledge, expertise and support for leaders tackling the challenges of working in the school turnaround field. 12

13 Part 5. Organizational Capacity for Replication (section limit 2,750 words) Briefly explain your national organizational structure (e.g. central 501(c)(3), affiliate network) and the role of local executive directors and boards vis-a-vis national leadership. Blueprint Schools Network (Blueprint) is a Massachusetts-registered 501(c)(3) organization focused on education reform. Blueprint s leadership team has a proven track record of successfully operating and managing district-wide school turnaround efforts. With their experience and expertise, the team ensures that the organization meets its programmatic, financial, operational, and strategic goals. National Leadership Team The roles, responsibilities, and individual assigned to each leadership position are as follows: Executive Director: Matthew Spengler oversees the Blueprint leadership team, manages board relations, and oversees relationships with partner district cabinet members. Director of Operations: Jonathan Scherr oversees Blueprint s operations and finances in districts as well as the operations, marketing, development, and finances of the national office. National Program Director: Jeremy Beard oversees national implementation of our programs and provides on-the-ground support to our schools in Houston. Regional Program Director: Deborah Backus coordinates Blueprint activities in Denver and manages school-based Fellow Coordinators. Governance Blueprint is governed by a four member Board of Directors. Our board consists of pioneers and leaders in the field of education reform. Meeting quarterly, the Board oversees the Executive Director, helps the organization meet our fundraising goals, ensures accurate budgeting, and regularly reviews financial records. The Blueprint Board of Directors is committed to supporting all Blueprint programming through fundraising as well as by providing direction on programmatic decisions. Please refer to Part 2: Basic Organizational Information for comprehensive biographies of each of our Board members and Blueprint s senior management team. Describe your organization s expansion history including number of sites, age of sites, success and failure rates at sites, budget ranges of sites, and size range of sites in terms of number of clients served. The following timeline provides a brief overview of our expansion history to date May: Upon completion of its first analysis of the most important elements of gap-closing schools, the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University (EdLabs) partnered with the Houston Independent School District (HISD) to test the impact of using those 13

14 strategies to turnaround nine (9) of the lowest performing public secondary schools in HISD, the first nine schools of the Apollo 20 program. August: Opening Day for nine Apollo 20 secondary schools; serving approximately 7000 students. December: Blueprint was founded to support the Apollo 20 initiative alongside EdLabs and to scale up the five-tenet framework to other districts January: Blueprint formally begins working with Denver Public Schools (DPS) on their turnaround initiative in the Far Northeast community. August: Opening day for 10 schools known as the Denver Summit Schools Network (DSSN) serving approximately 4200 students. Year 2 begins for the initial nine secondary schools in Apollo 20. Opening day for 11 elementary schools in the Apollo 20 network serving approximately students August: Year 3 begins for secondary schools in Apollo 20. Year 2 begins for the elementary schools in Apollo 20. Year 2 begins for the DSSN. September: Blueprint is awarded a grant from the State of Massachusetts to build capacity as a turnaround operator to work with level four or level five schools in the Commonwealth in 2013 or October: Blueprint Math Fellows program is expanded to three additional turnaround schools in the West Denver Network, a separate turnaround initiative of DPS serving 400 students. November: Denver voters approve a mill-levy override that will provide funds to expand the Blueprint Fellows tutoring program to 35 more schools in the school year. 14

15 How does your national organization support the local expansion site and how is it staffed to do so? Include information about funding flow between the local and national sites. Blueprint s national leadership team is intimately involved in all stages of the local expansion, strategic planning, and relationship building process in each partner district. The national team participates in site visits, data collection and analysis, and program evaluation at each site, while our locally based regional staff oversees the day-to-day groundwork necessary for successful program implementation. In addition, a Program Associate, Program Coordinator, Recruiting Coordinator, and Development Coordinator support senior leadership. Blueprint s national office executes agreements with school districts or with their affiliated district foundations to support the work at each local expansion site. Describe any adaptations that have been made at the local level to address particular local circumstances and improve program quality and success there. An integral part of Blueprint s turnaround process is to adapt our five-tenet framework to each district we partner with by first understanding the district s needs and assessing the conditions that we believe are necessary to effectively implement the five tenets. Blueprint then works to build district capacity to promote the program s long-term sustainability and success. Blueprint has experience working within multiple community and school district contexts to establish the conditions and decision-making systems that are needed to successfully and sustainably manage school transformation. Our process for partnering with a district has four phases: 1) Due Diligence and Strategic Planning 2) Technical Assistance 3) Monitoring 4) Research and Evaluation The work we perform in each phase ensures our schools have the ability to develop human capital, improve school culture, maximize student time on task, provide students with individualized instruction, and to organize, synthesize and interpret data. The following sections describe our general process for working with districts and uses the DSSN as a concrete example of this process in action. 1) Due Diligence and Strategic Planning (6-8 months in duration): Before Blueprint partners with a district, we spend time with central office administrators and school leadership to ensure that we understand their needs, challenges, and current capabilities with respect to the five tenets. During this stage, Blueprint: Identifies practices, policies, and systems at the district level (e.g. human resources, data collection, scheduling, etc.) that may impede or promote success at the school level; Strategizes how to adapt or alter district-level policies and systems in order to better serve the students of our turnaround schools; Builds relationships with key stakeholders in the community to plan, implement, and 15

16 build support for our programs; and Meets with superintendents of schools and their teams, district foundations, community representatives, religious leaders, school leaders, and senior members of influential organizations within the community. Due Diligence and Strategic Planning in Action: At the onset of its partnership with DPS, Blueprint spent eight months working with the district s school turnaround office, instructional superintendent s office, board members and others to target the strengths and limitations of DPS systems already in place for launching this initiative as well as to strategize on how to overcome potential roadblocks. Some of the specific activities Blueprint conducted at this stage include: Worked with DPS leadership to identify, vet, and on-board a district-employed Executive Director and leadership team who would spearhead the turnaround initiative; Identified channels to pursue in partnership with DPS that would give principals the autonomies they needed to implement Blueprint s five tenets and build effective instructional teams. This involved schools applying for Innovation status with the state of Colorado. All seven DSSN schools that applied for Innovation status received approval from local and State Boards of Education; Launched the DSSN initiative through proactive communication and community outreach that involved working with DPS on branding and communications efforts, and developing outreach strategies for print, radio, television, and social media channels. 2) Technical Assistance (3-5 years in duration): Once the conditions are in place for the successful integration of the five tenets, Blueprint provides extensive technical assistance to district and school leaders for the implementation of customized district and school plans, and empowers them thought the development of systems, structures, and institutional knowledge to sustain school turnarounds in the long-term. Our strategies, by tenet, are described in further detail below. Excellence in Leadership and Instruction: Blueprint works with districts to recruit, select, train, and evaluate a cohort of principals to lead turnaround schools. Blueprint leverages our national network to find the most capable principal candidates in the country. Blueprint supports principals to improve the quality of their instructional team by providing guidelines and tools for regular classroom observations, feedback, and targeted professional development. Daily Tutoring in Critical Growth Years: Blueprint provides extensive, ongoing support and technical assistance to our partner districts and schools to ensure that the Fellows Program model is implemented with fidelity. Blueprint s Recruiting Coordinator manages the national recruitment and selection of a corps of full-time Fellows in partnership with each district s Human Resources team. In addition, Blueprint s Regional Director and Program Associate have developed a scope and sequence of summer training and professional development modules that build Fellows instructional and management skills based upon a rubric of 16

17 highly-effective tutorial practices. Increased Instructional Time: Blueprint works with district leadership to increase instructional time in turnaround schools by adding five to ten days to the academic year and extending daily schedules by an hour each day. Prior to the start of the school year, Blueprint collaborates with principals to create master schedules that use increased instructional time to maximize planning, intervention, re-teaching, and professional development opportunities. A Culture of High Expectations: Prior to the start of the school year, we partner with district leadership and principals to develop plans, systems and tools to improve school safety, climate, learning environments, and expectations for students. Our National Program Director and Regional Director provide tools, resources, and strategies for building a positive, collegefocused school culture. Blueprint expects all schools to visibly reflect their high expectations for students and staff, both in the classrooms and in public spaces. Use of Data from Frequent Assessments to Improve Instruction: Blueprint works with district and school leaders to implement data-driven instructional systems that empower teachers to identify struggling students and differentiate their instruction and interventions accordingly. Given that districts vary in the frequency and quality of interim assessments administered as well as the capacity to collect and analyze this data, Blueprint works to understand and help build this infrastructure. The Regional Director works with districts and schools to develop and execute plans for collecting, and analyzing data from the following domains: Formative assessment data Interim assessment data Administrative data Observational data Blueprint s Regional Director coaches principals in the development of school-wide systems for collecting and analyzing this data on a daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual basis. Additionally, this data allows Blueprint to track schools ongoing performance and progress leading up to state assessments: Technical Assistance in Action: Specific implementation results from Blueprint and DPS s efforts during the technical assistance phase include: Excellence in Leadership and Instruction: New principals were identified, selected, and assigned to nine out of ten DSSN schools. Weekly principal meetings during planning months were used to help develop plans around school culture, data, master scheduling, and expanded learning time. Blueprint s monthly school visits provided real time feedback on action planning to principals and field teams on how to improve implementation. 17

18 Daily Tutoring in Critical Growth Years: Blueprint oversaw the recruitment, selection, and on-boarding of 75 full-time tutors. All 4th, 6th, and 9th graders received minutes of intensive math tutoring every day in a 2:1 or 3:1 student:tutor ratio. Blueprint currently manages the training and professional development for tutors. Increasing Instructional Time: During the school year, all DSSN schools expanded their learning time (both by extending the school day and year) by the equivalent of 260 instructional hours (or 37 additional instructional days). A Culture of High Expectations: During the first week of school, each school focused on clarifying expectations and laying the groundwork for a school culture of high expectations and no-excuses. All DSSN campuses intentionally foster a college-going culture with achievement goals clearly and visibly stated throughout the schools so that the norm is that 100% of students will be ready to succeed in college and beyond. Use of Data from Frequent Assessments to Improve Instruction: Interim assessments were administered approximately every six weeks across DSSN schools. In , DSSN schools will be incorporating professional development days for interpretation of data following each assessment for analysis and to identify action items. 3) Monitoring (3-5 years in duration, concurrent with Technical Assistance): Throughout the year, Blueprint collaborates with district leadership teams to monitor schools progress toward school-level and operational goals and to identify gaps in instructional or administrative practices that may be hindering student learning. To facilitate this monitoring, Blueprint coordinates formal site visits to each school every four to six weeks. During site visits, we observe classrooms, conduct focus groups with students and staff, and debrief with school leadership teams. Site visits enable us to collect quantitative and qualitative data on the implementation of the five tenets and provide feedback to district and school leaders regarding school progress. After each visit, Blueprint crafts a report detailing school strengths and areas for improvement and generates a data output of our observations. Monitoring in Action: In the DSSN s first year of implementation, Blueprint engaged in continuous progress monitoring. This work included: Coordinating a series of monthly half-day site visits to each school with a representative from Blueprint and DPS. Blueprint s goal is to build the capacity of the DPS team to eventually facilitate the site visit process independently. During the school year, Blueprint teams conducted 90 formal school site visits (each school in the DSSN was visited once each month) and produced 90 customized 18

19 summary reports for the DSSN executive leadership team and school principals. The monitoring process provided opportunities for Blueprint and DPS leadership to calibrate observations across schools and discuss best strategies for advancing schools from their current state to the desired state. 4) Research and Evaluation (Annually, after each year of implementation): Blueprint coordinates with research organizations that are among the leaders in education research and program evaluation. These organizations are tasked with measuring the overall impact of our turnaround initiatives on student achievement. The evaluations provide independent and objective feedback using econometric analyses. Their methodologies are unique to the landscape of education reform, as they conduct rigorous analyses to vet the causal impact of the work that is being conducted on the ground. To accomplish this goal, they collect current and historical data and set up an experimental (or quasi-experimental) design of the initiative. Research and Evaluation in Action Blueprint coordinated with EdLabs to determine a methodology for identifying the impact of the DSSN turnaround initiative. Blueprint also worked with EdLabs and DPS to solidify a data-sharing agreement between DPS and EdLabs so that an independent evaluation of our work could be clearly laid out. The methodology used in the impact evaluation is called a propensity score match, which will allow our research partners to estimate the impact of participating in the DSSN. This evaluation involves matching each student in the DSSN with another student in DPS who closely resembles that student along a series of characteristics (age, race, SES, achievement levels at the end of the school year etc.) and comparing the trajectories of the DSSN students with the non-dssn DPS students. Using this approach, our research partners are able to estimate the impact of participating in the DSSN. Describe your organization s existing growth/expansion plans, including strategies to recruit and select new local board members and supporters at the expansion sites. Blueprint has progressed on a deliberate and purposeful path of growth. There is a defined process in place to expand and adapt our model into new districts and regions and we understand the organizational capacity required to succeed in new cities and contexts. Blueprint s goal is to directly impact 100,000 students by the end of the school year. To achieve our enrollment goals, district expansion is essential. As a result, our aim is to expand to 15 new districts (in addition to HISD and DPS) by the end of the school year. Describe your organization s capacity and plan to raise matching funds over the next five years, including who will be responsible for this fundraising the national organization or local site, or both. Blueprint is a financially healthy and stable organization and has executed multi-year 19

20 agreements with Denver Public Schools and Houston Independent School District to support our long-term work in those regions as well as our national operations. Blueprint has a long-term financial development plan, which includes cultivating private foundation and government grants, major donor prospects, and engaging in additional contracts for school turnaround projects. This work will be the responsibility of our Development Coordinator and senior leadership team. 20

21 Part 6. Program Expansion (section limit 4,000 words) Please describe the program model you propose to expand to either Boston, Philadelphia or the Bay Area and how it will address the achievement and opportunity gap and the specific outcomes outlined in the RFP. Include a detailed description of how the program works, aspects and activities of your program model that must be replicated to achieve results, and areas that can/should be adapted to circumstances in the local community. Blueprint Schools Network is requesting $1.25 million over five years from the GreenLight Fund (GLF) through its Social Innovation Fund (SIF) Initiative to build capacity to dramatically improve a network of up to ten (10) underperforming schools in Greater Boston using our comprehensive, research-based five-tenet framework for school turnaround. As described in Parts IV and V of this proposal, our research-based program model relies on close partnership and capacity-building with local district and school leaders in order to achieve rapid, significant, and sustainable improvements in student achievement. A detailed description of our proposed activities and timeline is outlined below in Blueprint s program expansion plan. Support from GLF will facilitate Blueprint s work for the school year through an eventual phase out at the end of the school year. Funding will be used to increase Blueprint s organizational capacity, to develop processes and systems for the ongoing management of partner schools in Greater Boston in accordance with our framework, and to manage the evaluation of our interventions so that Blueprint and our partner schools can adjust our strategy year-to-year. Our prior experience applying our turnaround model in 30 schools in two large urban school districts in Texas and Colorado directly informs our capacity-building activities and corresponding funding request outlined in this section and our budget. Blueprint has a proven track record of successfully expanding our capacity to meet our partner districts needs on time, within budget, and according to plan. How many low-income children/youth do you expect to serve annually in your first five years of your GreenLight-supported expansion site? What percentage of your target population in the local community will you reach? In the first year of implementation, Blueprint aims to partner with one or more of the school districts in Greater Boston (Boston Public Schools (BPS), Chelsea Public Schools, Cambridge Public Schools, or Somerville Public Schools) to plan, implement, and monitor a comprehensive school reform initiative for a network of the city s lowestperforming schools. In BPS alone, twelve (12) schools have been identified by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) as Level 4, or chronically underperforming. These schools, which represent a subset of potential schools that Blueprint could target, currently serve approximately 6,400 students, 75% of whom qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch (FRL), 38% are Limited English Proficient (LEP), and 93% of whom identify as either African American or Hispanic Latino. 21

22 What is your proposed strategy for integrating into the local community? What gaps will your program fill (please include local data to describe these gaps)? How is your model different from other local organizations addressing similar needs? Blueprint will integrate into the Greater Boston community by working to turnaround low performing schools, like the ones mentioned above. These Level 4 schools have persistently struggled academically and continue to show little progress with respect to student achievement. Blueprint will address these gaps. For example, the percentage of students performing at or above grade-level in English Language Arts (ELA) (as measured by proficiency on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS)) ranges from 15% to 50%, a sharp contrast from the statewide average of 69%. Likewise, proficiency rates in Mathematics currently range from 17% to 52%, all below the statewide average of 59%. Furthermore, in 2011, less than half of students graduated high school within four years; the average four-year graduation rate for the two high schools included in this cohort was 46.85%, over 35 percentage points less than the 83.4% state average. In an attempt to improve the state of its schools, BPS and Massachusetts leadership have undertaken a host of interventions, none of which has yet shown a systemic impact on student achievement. These interventions stem from a bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature in January of 2010 titled An Act Relative to the Achievement Gap. Under this act, districts with schools identified as Level 4 now have the authority to use additional federal funding to exercise new flexibility in staffing and work conditions. Reform initiatives that BPS has pursued under this Act include replacing more than 50% of the school staff at 7 of the 12 schools, expanding the school year by 90 hours and adding 100 additional hours of professional development and planning time, and assigning a Family and Engagement Specialist to work at each school. Though well intentioned, evidence suggests that these efforts have not been implemented uniformly, as there is currently no centralized body or process in place for managing and implementing effective systems and strategies of reform across the whole network of failing schools. Each Level 4 school is currently responsible for developing and implementing (pending district approval) its own Level 4 School Turnaround Plan. Thus, results have been inconsistent, achievement rates continue to lag behind district and state averages, and in 2012, all but one of these schools failed to meet performance targets for Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) for all subgroups of students in ELA and Math. It is clear that despite the district s efforts to facilitate school turnaround, BPS Level 4 schools have remained underperforming. In response to this dire need, Blueprint is prepared to work directly with district leaders in Greater Boston to implement the fivetenet framework in a cohort of schools. As described previously, our model is one of partnership. With the right resources and operating capacity on the ground, we know that real change in Greater Boston s schools is attainable. 22

23 Who are the local individuals and organizations you expect to be critical to the success of your work? What partnerships would you need to forge in the new site to be successful? Throughout the planning and implementation process, Blueprint will need to build working relationships with district leadership, district boards-of-education, local funders, and the State s Department of Education to implement our program successfully in Greater Boston. To elicit support from critical local partners once we begin working with a network of schools in Greater Boston, we will develop a targeted communications plan in cooperation with district leadership and GreenLight. Examples of outreach activities to be conducted as part of this plan will include: Speaking at local school board and city council meetings; Facilitating information sessions at local partner sites; Holding one-on-one meetings with religious leaders in the community; Working with district leadership to co-author grant proposals to solicit support from local foundations; and Establishing a local advisory board to help oversee our communications efforts. These outreach efforts will remain in place throughout our five-year partnership with Greater Boston s schools. What local contacts and progress have you already made at the proposed expansion location? Blueprint has already established a close working relationship with leaders in the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) who are deeply invested in facilitating our program s successful expansion into the Commonwealth. In addition, Blueprint will continue to network with established Greater Boston-based education-focused organizations to learn more about the local education reform landscape and to investigate strategic partnerships that could take place in the city. For example, in September of 2012, we hosted a roundtable dialogue at the Boston Foundation titled Can the Transfer of Successful Charter Practices Impact District Reform? and invited a variety of leaders involved in Greater Boston-based school reform to participate. A follow up dialogue is scheduled to take place in April of We plan to continue to act as a convener of these important action-oriented conversations. Describe the specific steps you plan to take in your expansion process, including the timeline for these steps. The timeline should include pre-launch work, program launch and implementation, and expected early results. What lessons has your organization learned from prior expansion efforts about key success factors in expanding to new communities? How are those lessons reflected in the proposed expansion plans? Blueprint s organizational expansion plan is outlined in the following categories: 23

24 1) District and School Analyses and Relationship Building 2) Staffing and Organizational Expansion 3) Process and Systems Development 4) School/Network-level Design Advisory 5) Implementation and Monitoring of the Turnaround Strategy 6) Program Evaluation 7) Reintegration For each category we have defined specific capacity building activities, and a proposed timeline, that will support Blueprint s partnership with Greater Boston s districts and enable them to effectively implement Blueprint s five tenets sustainably and successfully. 1) District and School Analysis and Relationship Building (January 2012-May 2013) Blueprint understands that no two districts or schools are identical. As a result, Blueprint will invest time in understanding the landscape of prospective districts in Greater Boston and begin building relationships with district and community leadership before any turnaround interventions are initiated in Greater Boston s schools. During this phase, Blueprint will conduct due-diligence on existing district systems and structures in order to identify areas of strength that can be leveraged and areas for growth that must be developed. Throughout this process, our leadership team will provide regular updates to the GLF on findings, potential roadblocks, and ultimately our assessment of whether districts in Greater Boston have the necessary conditions in place to effectively partner on this work. To better understand the Greater Boston landscape, Blueprint s national team will conduct these activities in the winter of : Site visits to low-performing schools in Greater Boston identified as potential candidates for a partnership with Blueprint. If possible, these visits will include classroom observations, student performance data analysis, and conversations with students, teachers, and school leaders; Analysis of Greater Boston s districts, including their capacity regarding data management, human resources and instruction departments; Introductory meetings with district board members, superintendents, cabinet members and department directors; and Introductory conversations with prospective local advisory board members and supporters. 2) Staffing and Organizational Expansion (May 2013-July 2013) If selected as a sub-grantee of the GreenLight Fund s SIF initiative, Blueprint will immediately move to expand our program and operations teams to effectively plan, develop, and manage the turnaround of a network of schools in the Greater Boston area. In Year 1, Blueprint plans to hire three high-quality staff members to join our team and lead this work. The hiring process will be led by Blueprint s Director of Operations and 24