The System of Great Schools Strategy
The System of Great Schools is a theory of action districts adopt to deliver more high quality, best fit schools to families and ensure access to those options to all students.
What is the SGS Strategy?
A System of Great Schools Strategy is a district-level problem solving approach that district leaders use to understand school performance and community demand and deliver the schools families want and need in their communities. District leaders use the SGS Strategy to expand what works, replace what doesn’t, and pursue all possible options to create high-quality, best-fit schools.
The SGS Strategy includes four essential actions: 1) Set a North Star Goal and conduct an Annual School Planning process, 2) Create, expand, and replicate high quality, high-demand, school models, and programs, 3) Empower families to select a school that best fits their students' needs, and 4) Develop collaborative and sustainable central office structures to drive school model innovation and access.
Conditions for Success and Essential Actions
Network districts improve by aligning on a specific North Star goal, analyzing school performance, expanding high-quality school options, allowing families to choose the school that suits them best, and creating structures to ensure this work is successful and sustainable.
Conditions for Success
Understand and Align
For district leaders to create the conditions for success, there must be deep understanding and alignment behind the SGS Strategy.
Essential Action 1: Analyze School Performance
Set the right goals and conduct an annual school planning planning process.
District leaders evaluate campus performance on a variety of measures, including academic and demographic data, long-term trends, and community input. Districts use this data to determine what schools families want and need.
Essential Action 2: Expand great options
Implement the right strategy at every campus, from traditional school improvements to bold school actions.
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.
Essential Action 3: Improve access
Empower parents by helping them understand, enroll in, and attend their desired school.
District leaders establish enrollment policies and practices that provide students access to all the district’s school options. Leaders provide school choice information that helps parents understand their options.
Essential Action 4: Central office
Create lasting structures to sustain new policies and practices.
To maintain the long-term sustainability of the SGS Strategy, district leaders establish an Office of Innovation; give campus leaders an opportunity to apply for autonomy over staff, calendars, and budgets; and allot discretionary revenue to campus leaders based on student attendance.