In a time where change is the only thing education can count on, schools are challenged to focus on high quality learning and teaching, some schools have lost their focus. The Learning Collective (TLC) and Venn Education (Venn) have partnered to work with charter schools to assess their condition and help them refocus for turnaround. Our school turnaround process includes three steps:
- Needs Assessment: We conduct an in-depth needs assessment, which includes a multi-day school quality review.
- Planning: We collaborate with school stakeholders – board members, school leaders, teachers, parents and even students – to develop strategic plans with measurable and time bound goals with prioritized action steps focused on school improvement.
- Support: We support the school, as needed, to meet the goals and action steps. We do not carry out daily reforms. We do provide technical assistance, guidance, and support to build capacity in the school to realize its goals.
We help schools leverage their assets to achieve two expected outcomes: significantly improve student learning and transform to a high functioning organization.
TLC and Venn have partnered to leverage our unique expertise and resources to reach more schools.
Launched in 2003 and working in over 10 states, The Learning Collective provides strategic planning and evaluation services for charter schools, charter management organizations, charter authorizers, traditional public schools, school districts, state departments of education and state boards of education. TLC applied its lessons learned through school turnaround with traditional public schools and charter schools in Inglewood, CA, to successfully turnaround New York charter schools. TLC has worked with Academy of the City in Queens, NY, to turnaround from a school in danger of having its charter not renewed to successfully renewing its charter twice. TLC facilitated the turnaround and strategic planning efforts of Discovery Charter School of Rochester, NY, that led to the school’s three-year charter renewal in 2021. During the pandemic, we worked with Charter School of Inquiry of Buffalo, NY, to develop a two-year school improvement roadmap that we anticipate contributing to the authorizer renewing its charter in 2022.
Venn Education, is a consulting firm devoted to advancing quality public education for all students. We do this by supporting organizations with expert evaluation, smart change making, and high-stakes decisions based on evidence.
David Hartman is the founder of Venn Education. In a 25+ year in public education, David has led evaluations and facilitated decisions for national education organizations, state departments of education, state associations, school districts and individual schools. During the week, David feels most at home in schools where he began as a high school Social Studies teacher; when not working, he and his son try to get outside everyday to ride bikes, ski, or walk especially with their dog Sparky.