Strategy and Counsel for Organizations Helping Young People

We can help you improve student achievement and growth.

• We’ll help you conduct needs assessments and pinpoint specific ways to improve. With the support of a federal grant, we developed a process of auditing school programs, assessing programmatic needs and providing custom-tailored school improvement support. We worked with more than 30 school districts and charter schools to facilitate strategic planning and implement school improvement plans.
• We’ll help you build an effective, results-oriented data culture. Data is the key to school improvement. Comprehensive collection, analysis and use of data are critical when schools and districts seek to improve outcomes for their students. We believe that every person in a school should be committed to using a variety of data to identify student needs. We can help you develop school-wide capacity for data-informed education and establish an effective and permanent “data culture.”
• We can help you:
  • Collect student data
  • Analyze student data
  • Use student data to inform and improve instruction

• We can help you create comprehensive evaluation systems for professional staff and trustees. We helped schools create and improve evaluation systems for teachers, Principals and Board members using fair, inclusive and comprehensive practices. We’ve helped schools align teacher and Principal evaluation to professional development and support. We’ll work with you to incorporate use of the Danielson Framework for Teaching, the Marzano Teacher Evaluation Method, the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-Ed) and other evaluation methods into your school’s evaluation systems and professional development programs.
• We can help you recruit and support highly-effective teachers and staff. We’ll work with you to:
  • Identify short and long-term teacher and staff recruitment needs and targets
  • Recruit and select the best candidates
  • Diversify your staff
  • Establish a “pipeline” of qualified candidates for new or open staff positions
  • Design teacher orientation, professional development and career ladder/career lattice programs to help you keep and reward your best teachers and staff.

In addition, we can help you review and amend your personnel and compensation policies to ensure compliance with all laws and regulations and to help you retain your best teachers.

Is your Board operating at peak efficiency?

We’ve worked extensively with School District and Charter School Boards. We’ve designed Board policies and facilitated Board orientation and training programs.

Our team also has first-hand experience serving on school boards and nonprofit boards.

• JPS partner Art Pritchard has more than 20 years of service on school boards, including being President of the Rhinebeck (NY) Central School District and the Hyde Park (NY) Central School District and Vice President of the Dutchess County (NY) BOCES Board of Education. Recently, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Imagine Me Leadership Charter School in Brooklyn, NY.
• JPS partner Frank San Felice was a founding Board member at the New York Center for Autism Charter School in NYC and at New Dawn Charter High School in Brooklyn NY.
•  

We’ll work with you to:

• Facilitate strategic planning to clarify goals and improve Board decision-making
• Build board capacity through customized training and technical assistance
• Develop policy-driven governance practices
• Conduct effective outcomes-driven Board meetings
• Establish high-functioning Board committees
• Evaluate and support senior staff
• Engage in meaningful self-evaluation and Board improvement
• Recruit new Board members and plan for succession

We’ve helped charter schools, school districts and nonprofit organizations raise millions of dollars in competitive and entitlement grants and other government funding. We wrote successful grant applications that supported comprehensive school improvement initiatives, after-school programs, safe schools and anti-bullying programs, mentoring and counseling programs, instructional technology, literacy programs, physical education and fitness and acquisition and expansion of school facilities.

We’ll work with you to:

• Assess your school or organization’s readiness to apply successfully for grants.
• Research specific grant opportunities
• Design programs and develop partnerships to improve your chances of winning grants
• Analyze Requests for Proposals to determine your best strategies for addressing requirements and selection criteria
• Write grant proposals, budgets, evaluation plans, partnership agreements and other documents to help you win grants
• Review and edit your grant proposals
• Complete entitlement grant applications and maximize entitlement funding
• Engage in school-wide planning to increase flexibility in spending Title I funds
• Create and implement short-term and long-term grant development strategies

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and other new political realities are changing the nation’s legislative, regulatory and fundraising landscape. We are monitoring the implementation and roll-out of ESSA at the federal and state levels. As new opportunities develop, we will advise clients and others about how ESSA funding and programs can help them improve teaching and learning in their schools and organizations.