Institute for Student Achievement (ISA)    Middle College    New Teacher Academy

THE INSTITUTE FOR STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT PROJECT AT NCREST The project is funded by the Institute for Student Achievement (ISA) to support and document the development of new small high schools and small learning communities (SLCs) that serve students at risk by preparing them to be college-ready.

Recent News and Publications "Key Dimensions in Structuring Advisory Programs." (Word Doc). Charles Tocci, Dalia Hochman and David Allen. AERA 2005 Paper Presentation. "Coaching as Inquiry: Interpreting Culture and Leveraging Change." (Word Doc). David Allen, Patrice Nichols and Jacqueline Ancess. AERA 2004 Paper Presentation.

What are the ISA small learning communities? The Institute for Student Achievement (ISA) is a nonprofit school redesign external partner with a 13-year history of supporting underserved and underperforming high school students to succeed and go to college. ISA works with school districts to create new small high schools and support the development of new small learning communities in large high schools. ISA believes that in strongly-supported small schools and learning communities, meaningful, sustained relationships develop among teachers and students that facilitate higher student motivation, achievement and aspirations. ISA’s model for school development and transformation is grounded in seven principles, including a dedicated team of teachers and counselors working together to support students and an inquiry-based college preparatory curriculum for all students. ISA currently supports over thirty small schools and SLCs in New York City, Long Island, Westchester County, Fairfax County, Virginia, and Atlanta. All serve diverse student populations with a majority of the students considered to be academically underperforming and underserved. ISA received a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant to create 10 small high schools in New York City, based on the ISA principles. Three were launched in 2003; three more in 2005, and four will be in 2006. What is NCREST’s role? Since 2001, NCREST has served as ISA’s strategic partner in the implementation and documentation of the ISA small schools and SLCs. In that capacity, NCREST staff have advised ISA’s leadership on the development of the model and collaborated with ISA staff to provide ongoing support to the ISA coaches. NCREST provides ISA and its small schools and SLCs with data to inform students' development. The data consist of: • Student assessments in math and writing providing diagnostic information on their baseline   skills and changes in performance; • Documentation of each school’s implementation of the ISA principles, including observations   of classrooms and team meetings and interviews with school staff, parents and students; and • A survey of students’ attitudes about school, self efficacy as students, and future aspirations.   NCREST regularly provides data reports to the small schools and SLCs for use in ongoing organizational improvement. NCREST also provides analyses of important components of the ISA model, often leading to reports or presentations. Recent reports have focused on coaching and the ISA principle of “distributed counseling.” Project Staff Jacqueline Ancess (ancess@tc.columbia.edu) – Co-Principal Investigator David Allen (dallen@tc.columbia.edu) – Co-Principal Investigator Fenot Aklog (aklog@tc.columbia.edu) – Research Associate Patrice Nichols (nichols@tc.columbia.edu) – Research Associate Michelle Armstrong (armstrong@tc.columbia.edu) – Research Assistant Jennifer Hong (jmh2002@columbia.edu) – Research Assistant Elizabeth Johnson (ejohnson@tc.columbia.edu) – Research Assistant Andrea Revesz (revesz@tc.columbia.edu) – Research Assistant Charles Tocci (tocci@tc.columbia.edu) – Research Assistant Laura Zadoff (zadoff@tc.columbia.edu) – Research Assistant Daniella Gandolfo (dg171@columbia.edu) – Documenter Brinton Ramsey (bsr2008@columbia.edu) – Documenter

 

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