The NIC is a multi-year initiative led by Marshall Street, in partnership with 10 charter districts across the country, with the goal of realizing dramatic gains for Black and Latinx students with disabilities experiencing poverty. This paper provides a detailed overview of the NIC’s second phase, Implementing Improvement Plans, which took place as schools continued to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more for key lessons about how to best operate a continuous improvement initiative in challenging circumstances.

Four years ago, we launched Marshall Street as an extension of Summit Public Schools’ two-decade commitment to improving public education in the United States. This past year, we have focused on deepening the ways we support schools dedicated to making long-term improvements for their students positioned furthest from opportunity. We’re proud of the important work happening across all of Marshall’s programs to advance equity, break down long-standing silos, center students’ experiences, and reimagine public education.

Developed by the Networked Improvement Community for Students with Disabilities, this tool can be used by teachers and administrators to determine whether a classroom practice or intervention is ready to move from a pilot to school or district-wide implementation. Drawing on research about effective organizational change generally — as well as the specific features and constraints of schools — the tool presents a framework and a shared language to support effective planning for sustainable improvement.

At its core, continuous improvement is problem solving. It is a rigorous process predicated on the belief that every problem exists within a system. The NIC Playbook provides a practical overview of each step of the continuous improvement process with illustrative examples, descriptions, and tools.

The NIC is a multi-year initiative led by Marshall Street, in partnership with 10 charter districts across the country, with the goal of realizing dramatic gains for Black and Latinx students with disabilities experiencing poverty. This paper provides a detailed overview of the NIC’s first phase, Getting Ready to Launch, which took place during the immense challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more for key takeaways, and what the community learned it takes to create a strong continuous improvement foundation and build resilience.

This white paper, originally published for the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, contextualizes the incredible results of a multi-year effort to make dramatic gains for English Learners using an approach of targeted universalism and improvement science.

Kids deserve to pursue the lives they want to live — lives filled with financial security, purposeful work, meaningful relationships, and networks of support. Turning that vision into reality is the most essential work we — individually and collectively — can do.

Prepared Parents was born to help families do just that, providing tools that focus on preparedness and nurture their kids’ social-emotional and learning needs at home.

Financial independence is an urgent need for America’s most under-served populations. But the most reliable path to get there — a four-year college degree — presents significant obstacles. The Postsecondary Pathways Initiative developed solutions to college and career challenges, with a particular focus on ensuring students can obtain the necessary career requirements for today’s jobs: relevant work experience, a postsecondary degree and/or credential, and a professional network.

K-12 students and recent grads can use Bay Area Career Maps to explore careers that align with their strengths, skills, and values. Developed in 2020, these maps outline the top 10 most in-demand careers in the San Francisco Bay Area and provide practical guidance for how to enter each field.

This guide provides parents with helpful information on supporting their student through the AAA School Safety Patrol program, a leadership development program. Through this guide, parents will learn how to help their children succeed by: connecting through daily check-in routines, discovering by digging into “INGs” to explore interests, and celebrating small wins to motivate students.

For those facing school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, our Virtual Resource Toolkit includes practitioner guides and best practices for accessibility, accommodations, and instruction in a virtual setting.

Based on research with over 150 students and supplemented by conversations with experts, this paper outlines how schools can improve college access and persistence for students. This paper is important for anyone who supports middle and high school students in discovering their sense of purpose and counseling them towards the best-fit colleges and other postsecondary options.

This groundbreaking white paper shares Summit’s beliefs about young people, the promise of public education, and Summit’s principles for school design rooted in the science of learning. By combining core values, scientific learning insights, and cutting-edge research, Summit built a school experience that can be tailored to every community’s needs.

The Aligned School Model Framework presents six steps for designing a school model that consistently and reliably predicts success for all students, when implemented effectively. Summit Public Schools used this framework to inform the design of its model — we hope it will be helpful for the greater education community.