Essential Action 2
Expand Great Options

SGS Districts provide the educational options that families want and need.

Recruit Leaders to Start, Restart, and Redesign Schools

District leaders establish a governance-neutral approach to expanding great education options by building a pipeline of talented campus operators, authorizing great schools, and executing at least one School Action each year.

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Key Practice 2.1
Authorizing Policies and Practices

  • The district’s Board of Trustees approves a Quality Authorizing policy.
  • The district codifies their authorizing practices in an Authorizer Handbook, in alignment with authorizing best practices.

Key Practice 2.2
Talent Pipeline

  • District leaders develop a Long-Term Talent Pipeline Plan. This plan results in a pipeline of leaders and operators who apply for district needs identified in the Call for Quality Schools (CQS), including district-run and partner-managed campuses.

Key Practice 2.3
Call for Quality Schools

  • District leaders implement a Call for Quality Schools (CQS). The CQS includes:
    • a detailed Call document that explains the district’s needs and the rigorous evaluation process aligned with authorizing best practices;
    • opportunities for community and family input;
    • governance-neutral language; and
    • a student-based budgeting template. 
  • The district’s needs identified in the CQS are the result of the district’s QSA.

Key Practice 2.4
Strategic School Actions

  • District leaders execute at least one strategic School Action per year based on the district’s QSA.
  • To ensure strong school openings, district leaders develop a school pre-opening plan and milestones for all new and restart campuses, whether they are district-run or partner-managed.
     

Tools & Resources

Models/Templates

Essential Action 2
Talent Landscape Tool

The Talent Landscape tool provides districts a method to estimate how many campus leaders will be needed in the foreseeable future. This tool can...

Models/Templates

Essential Action 2
Progress Monitoring Toolkit: A Toolkit to Support Strong Implementation of School Actions

The Progress Monitoring Toolkit provides a set of tools to support high-quality monitoring of 10 partner-managed and 2) district-managed actions. The toolkit includes sample...

References

Essential Action 2
Authorizer Handbook

This Authorizer Handbook is a reference document that provides an overview of best practices throughout the authorizing life cycle and includes several templates and...

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San Antonio ISD

Since joining the SGS Network in 2017, SAISD increased its districtwide rating from an F to a B, increased A and B seats by more than 10,000 students (an almost five-fold increase) and quadrupled the number of A and B campuses from which families can now choose.

To accomplish this, the board and Superintendent established and consistently support a theory of action to deliver high-quality instruction districtwide and empower campuses to make decisions related to their vision, strategies, and priorities. These leaders then operationalized SAISD's theory by leading the establishment of an annual portfolio planning process, expanding access to best-fit schools, building teacher and school leader talent pipelines, and running an annual Call for Quality Schools. Other strategic initiatives include:

  • the Human Capital Management department deploying a Master Teacher Initiative to strategically develop, support, recognize, retain, and reward excellent teaching;
  • the Office of Academics equitably expanding AP and advanced learning opportunitites, providing students with access to exemplary curricula, and helping teachers effectively monitor student performance data and adjust instruction; and
  • investing in new financial and operational systems to increase the focus of its central office on creating the conditions and culture for school innovation and differentiated school support.
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