Start a New School
Create a New Academy or New School to Add to your District Portfolio
ISA partners with school districts and other organizations to create new small college preparatory high schools, including Career and Technical Education (CTE) schools, starting with the 9th grade and adding a grade per year. ISA’s approach develops a college-going culture with norms and practices designed for student and school success. A new school strategy is typically used where districts have a small school reform strategy or desire innovation and diversity in their portfolio of high schools.
Using its Seven Principles as benchmarks, ISA collaborates with school districts to design and implement new, small, personalized, and intellectually demanding high schools for under-served and under-performing youth using a 4 ½- year systematic approach that has three interconnected components: a school development process, a leadership development program, and a teacher development program.
The overall new school planning, launching, and implementation processes are managed by ISA’s leadership, while the onsite development of individual schools is guided by a local ISA school development-leadership coach who is an experienced school practitioner with school leadership, organizational, and instructional experience. Many ISA coaches have started small urban high schools and others have taken leadership positions in such schools. During this process, ISA takes on several roles and responsibilities including professional development provider, resource manager, and school-district partner.
ISA’s new school development process has the following features:
Visioning and Initial Planning
Design and Development of the School Structure and Instructional Program
The ISA school development-leadership coach works closely with the team to develop the blueprint for the instructional program and the required organization. They make decisions on graduation requirements, plan backwards to create courses and schedules, develop curriculum units, and design a student support system such as advisory. They develop an assessment system that uses multiple indicators, review and order materials, and establish rituals. They work in content area curriculum teams and as a whole faculty, sharing and critiquing the work.
Selection of School Principal
ISA and the district liaison screen applications and conduct an initial round of interviews. Applicants recommended from this first round of interviews meet with ISA leaders, and those candidates who meet the qualifications for leadership of an ISA school are recommended to the district. The district then selects the prospective principal from the qualified candidate pool.
Teacher Recruitment and Hiring
Student Recruitment
ISA supports new schools as they recruit and identify students using the guidelines established by their school district. ISA supports the schools in the design and development of their student recruitment materials and community outreach processes, including brochures and banners, social media, and press events, so that students and parents can learn about a school’s curriculum plans, personalization strategies, and goals for students. Once schools receive their student rosters, and before the fall opening of the new school year, the new faculties work with their school development-leadership coach to plan housewarming and orientation events for parents and students, to start building a community spirit, to set expectations, to generate excitement, and to assign students a summer project intended to jump-start their education in the fall.
Formative Assessment for School Development
In order to support the new school’s organizational and instructional development, effective implementation of the ISA principles, and a culture of continuous improvement, ISA’s strategic partner, The National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, & Teaching (NCREST) at Teachers College, Columbia University, provides schools with different kinds of data to guide them.
Professional Development
Collaboration With District
In order to ensure coherence between district policies and practices and ISA’s program, the district assigns a senior leader as the liaison to ISA. This person works closely with ISA and the district to establish and support the conditions necessary for effective implementation of the ISA model. This ISA-district team problem-solves obstacles that may emerge in the implementation of the model and monitors progress toward outcomes.