Teacher Selection Experience

 

Thanks to all sites who indicated interest in participating in the Teacher Selection Experience (TSE) Workgroup as described by Heidi Erbe, Director of Instruction at BT SF Day, at the recent conference.  Current workgroup members are committed to providing the best possible trainings and delivery of tools as are currently available. However, they must balance this training aspect with their own ongoing work at their sites. To ensure that new workgroup sites are well trained and supported in TSE and that current members’ work is not compromised due to capacity, we will limit involvement in TSE to 5 new sites this year. The TSE Workgroup and the national office are committed to developing excellent tools, strategies, and trainings and realize that gradual development leading to eventual widespread implementation across the Collaborative is the most effective strategy at this time. Again, thank you to all sites who apply to participate in TSE this year and we look forward to learning from your training and implementation experiences in order to strengthen the process for the entire Collaborative moving forward.  Please note that the timeline is extremely fast this year. If you want more time to work with the materials and receive more intensive trainings and individualized support, we encourage you to wait until next year to apply.

Class of 2010 and 2011 College Enrollment Data in Salesforce

In addition to the class of 2011 college enrollment data already in Salesforce, we’ve now uploaded the class of 2010 college enrollment data as well. If you haven’t already, please review the class of 2011 data and update as needed. Please also review the newly added 2010 enrollment data and update if necessary (e.g., if there is a student for whom the National Student Clearinghouse has no data, but you know that student is attending college, we want you to update that student’s record in Salesforce to reflect the student’s college info).

FYI – The National Student Clearinghouse provides data on each semester of a student’s college enrollment history, therefore students from the class of 2010 will have multiple college enrollment records (one for each semester). If you have edits to the class of 2010 data, provide as much information as you know (e.g., if you know a student is currently enrolled at UC Berkeley, but you are unsure if this student attended college last year, add UC Berkeley to the student’s college record and designate the start date as September 15, 2011 and end date as December 15, 2011. But if you know, for example, that this student attended UC Berkley last year as well as this current semester, designate the start date as September 15, 2010 and the end date as December 15, 2011).  All edits to the class of 2010 and 2011 college enrollment data should be completed by January 2, 2012. Here are instructions for how to edit college enrollment data in Salesforce:

• Take a look at these reports to see the distribution of your:
• Class of 2010 students
• Class of 2011 students
• Watch this 5 minute video on Updating your College Enrollment Data in Salesforce
•  To update your students college enrollment, go to this page and select the year you want to update.
• To update multiple students at once:
• Click on multiple checkboxes in the left column;
• Double click on the pencil icon in the field you want to change
• For College or University, type in the name of the college and press the magnifying glass.  Select the college from the list.  If the college is not on the list, please send mail to Rosalind.
• For Type, pull down and select 2 year college, 4 year college or no college.  If choosing “No College”, there is no need to update any other field.
• For Status, pull down and select Full-time, half-time or less than half-time.
• For Start Date and End Date use 9/15/2011 and 12/15/2011, respectively.
• After selecting the value for which you want to change multiple rows, select “All 3 (the number of rows you checked) selected records”, then click the “Save” button.
• Uncheck the rows you just saved before you check new rows to update with different values.
• To update a single student at a time, follow the same instructions for multiple rows above, except do not check the boxes in the left column.

If you have any questions about updating your college enrollment data, please contact Rosalind.

Update on Executive Director Search

Hello Fellow Breakthrough Affiliates –

I believe that most of you are aware that the National Board of Trustees has been conducting a search for a new executive director for the Breakthrough Collaborative national office. I wanted to give you an update on the status of that search as we approach the end of the calendar year. In October and November, Senior Staff at National interviewed four candidates and made a recommendation to the Search Committee of the Board of their preferred candidate(s) in order of preference. The candidates represented, by all measures, a diverse collection of skill, background, experience, education, and leadership style. The Committee chose to make an offer to everyone’s top candidate – Ms. April Chou – after she came to the Breakthrough National Conference in Cambridge for a day to meet affiliate staff, National Trustees, and attend a few sessions.

In the end, April chose to decline the offer, saying essentially that while she has a huge respect and appreciation for the work we do, she did not believe that she has the passion for our mission, model, and goals that someone should have as a leader of the Collaborative. So while there was certainly disappointment about her choice, there is agreement that we do not want to ‘settle’ for an executive director who does not have the same passion, dedication, and commitment to the mission of what we do the way the rest of us do. And given that, the Trustee Search Committee did not believe that any of the other three candidates really met the expectations of the position in a way that would honor our work, our mission, and our commitment to our students.

We are in the fortunate position, at National, of being financially stable, of having a fantastic team of staff and directors, and of having the opportunity to move a very strategic set of initiatives forward, with passion and vigor, which concretely moves us toward achieving our long-range goals and the fulfillment of our mission. I don’t know if you see it yet, but the lens on the brand of Breakthrough is coming into sharper and sharper focus as we continue to clarify and define our practices and outcomes, measure our performance, and develop our skills and abilities toward a movement that forever changes the lives of the students we touch. This can only result in a more recognizable program, more and stronger community and national partnerships, and a better platform from which to raise the human and financial capital we need to continue and expand the great work that is Breakthrough.

I have agreed to remain as interim Executive Director for the next few months, as long as it takes for the Search Committee to find the right person to lead the National office and the Collaborative. The Search Committee will resume working with Common Good Careers to locate, screen, and supply viable candidates for consideration at the beginning of the new year. They have also agreed that the last round of recruiting and interviewing has only helped to more clearly define what they are looking for in the next executive director, which they believe will make screening and vetting candidates more efficient in the coming months.

I appreciate all of the support you have given me over the past six months as I continue to steer what I believe is the best education-based program on the planet. I am continually humbled by your collaborative spirit, tireless dedication to improvement, accountability, and change, and your tireless efforts to making Breakthrough the best that it can be. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an e-mail or pick-up the phone for a chat!

Warmest regards –
Eric
Interim Executive Director

National Conference – “Excellence Through Collaboration”

Thanks again to all attendees for making this year’s annual conference such a collaborative and productive event! We are already planning for next year’s conference and hope to announce the location soon. While we heard from several attendees about the specific strategies that helped add value to this conference, we are anxiously awaiting Elisabeth Cutler’s analyses from the evaluations to determine how we can continue to improve the quality and value for each participant. Please share your thoughts on all parts of the conference so that we can work toward improvement for the future. In the meantime, we will be uploading documents and tools shared at the conference onto Salesforce so that they are easily accessible to you. If you have any trouble locating a document, please do not hesitate to reach out to any national staff member. Also, and this is very important, have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2011 National Conference Evaluations – Complete by Friday, November 18th

Thanks to all of you who have already completed the conference evaluations! For those of you who haven’t had a chance to do so, please complete the evaluation. There are short evaluations for each track (you should complete the evaluations only for the tracks you attended), as well as an overall evaluation. We rely on your feedback to do our conference planning for next year, so please fill these out by Friday November 18th. Thanks!

Salesforce Chatter Training

Salesforce Chatter, the collaboration and communication platform, will now be opened to all site staff through their Salesforce login.  Cormac and Mike will be conducting trainings on the elements of Chatter and the best practices around collaborating with your colleagues and managing the information on Chatter.  To sign up for a training the week of November 28th, please visit this Google Doc link to sign up for one of the sessions.  Mike and/or Cormac will then send you a gotomeeting link as well as call in information to join the training.  There will be more trainings in future weeks as well.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email Mike.

Class of 2011 College Enrollment Data in Salesforce

The class of 2011 college enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse is now uploaded into Salesforce. Our first priority has been to load the class of 2011 college enrollment data into Salesforce. Later in the month we will load previous classes’ college enrollment data (e.g., class of 2010, class of 2009) and will let you know when that data is available in Salesforce. We’d like you to review the class of 2011 college enrollment data and make any necessary edits (e.g., if there is a student for whom the National Student Clearinghouse has no data, but you know that student is attending college, we want you to update that student’s record in Salesforce to reflect the student’s college info). All edits to the class of 2011 college enrollment data should be completed by November 30th. Here are instructions for how to edit college enrollment data in Salesforce:

• Take a look at this report/chart to see the distribution of your Class of 2011 students.
• Watch this video 5 minute on Updating your College Enrollment Data in Salesforce
•  To update your students college enrollment, go to this page.
• To update multiple students at once:
• Click on multiple checkboxes in the left column;
• Double click on the pencil icon in the field you want to change
• For College or University, type in the name of the college and press the magnifying glass.  Select the college from the list.  If the college is not on the list, please send mail to Rosalind.
• For Type, pull down and select 2 year college, 4 year college or no college.  If choosing “No College”, there is no need to update any other field.
• For Status, pull down and select Full-time, half-time or less than half-time.
• For Start Date and End Date use 9/15/2011 and 12/15/2011, respectively.
• After selecting the value for which you want to change multiple rows, select “All 3 (the number of rows you checked) selected records”, then click the “Save” button.
• Uncheck the rows you just saved before you check new rows to update with different values.
• To update a single student at a time, follow the same instructions for multiple rows above, except do not check the boxes in the left column.

If you have any questions about updating your college enrollment data, please contact Rosalind.

Fundraising Tip

The following fundraising tip comes from Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia. Here is a note from Jeanean Mohr, BT Phillie’s Development Director:

Breakthrough Philadelphia has already benefited greatly from the generosity of EBI and its book drive program.  Last year we received $500 in proceeds simply by donating text books and literature books that were sitting around our office unused.  We’re definitely excited about extending the book drive to college campuses as a way to both raise money and promote Breakthrough.

More information about EBI
For the end of the current semester (and at the end of every semester in the future) Education By Inclusion (EBI) is offering Breakthrough sites the opportunity to raise money by conducting textbook drives at college campuses around the country.  EBI is willing to fund and provide Breakthrough sites the materials necessary to conduct a successful campus textbook drive.  Sites are encouraged to recruit past and present Breakthrough student interns to commit to conducting textbook drives at their individual campuses.  For each acceptable textbook collected, EBI will provide $1 or $1.25 per book up front, upon receipt of the materials.  EBI will then sell the materials on our online marketplaces and return up to 25% of the profits generated back to the Breakthrough site.  This project can generate much more money for Breakthrough than students would ever get by simply selling their books back to the campus book store.  Many other EBI partners benefit from our 25% back model and this year, we would like to extend the offer to the entire Breakthrough Collaborative.  This opportunity is open to any Breakthrough site that wishes to participate.  Drives should be conducted from after Thanksgiving until the end of the fall semester.  Please contact James Flynn at  for your free Breakthrough Textbook Drive Kit!

Breakthrough National Quarterly Update – October 2011

As we move quickly into the 2011-12 school year, we want to share this year’s first Quarterly Update that reviews key initiatives and plans of our work. Many of you will have read about most of these items in recent Breaking News (eNewsletter) editions. This Quarterly Update serves to combine the highlights into one central place.

Note from Eric Fischer

As we enter the fall season and you have all wound down the busy summer programming, I wanted to welcome you back to our school year programming and the wonderful work you all do with our students and tutors after school and on weekends. We at Breakthrough National take this time to engage in a multitude of exciting and productive activities for both our offices as well as the whole Collaborative. The National office is preparing for our biggest fundraising event of the year – our Breaking Bread for Breakthrough luncheon – at which we bring together donors, education professionals, site staff, students, teachers, and other Breakthrough supporters for an afternoon of celebrating successes and sharing plans for the future. Of course we are also deep in the development, planning, and logistics of the Breakthrough National Conference to be held in Cambridge at Harvard University this year. There are many exciting topics, sessions, and training opportunities being offered, including our Breakthrough Leadership Institute pre-conference for those staff new to the Breakthrough program model. We also hold our quarterly Board of Trustees meeting on the last day of the Conference, which gives Trustees of the National office the opportunity to attend and listen, learn, and even participate in the exciting discussions taking place at the Conference.

The search process for a new, permanent Executive Director for Breakthrough Collaborative is moving forward, with a likely choice and announcement some time mid-November. And many of you know, through your direct participation or through attending one of our GoTo meeting calls, we continue to move ahead enthusiastically on implementation of the 11 Operational Initiatives which reflect our strategies for achieving our goals and mission over the next couple of years. Focus areas include everything from the development of literacy curricula and assessments to college bound/high school programming to a branding architecture and marketing strategy. The State of the Collaborative address at the National Conference will provide full details of where that work is and where it is going! Lastly, it is that time to review your affiliation with the National office for the fiscal year, so please keep an eye out for your site’s affiliation agreement to arrive in the next couple of weeks. There is more detail about many of these exciting activities in this Quarterly Update of Breaking News, so please read on – and thank you for all you do to change the lives of our teachers and college bound students forever! If you have any questions or would like to be in touch, you can reach Eric Fischer at efischer@breakthroughcollaborative.org.

 

Operational Initiatives

The McKinsey & Co. pro bono strategic planning consulting supported and confirmed the direction of the Collaborative via the national office by analyzing research and data, engaging national and site staff, heads of schools, board representatives, and partners and combining capacities with needs into a two-year Operational plan. Thank you to everyone who participated in the process over the first half of the year. We want to share the recommendations adopted by the national Board of Trustees and our current status of implementation as well as future planning. This powerpoint presentation provides a snapshot of the 11 adopted Operational Initiatives. Work has already started on all of these initiatives and affiliate staff are involved in the planning and implementation through various means, e.g. pilot testing materials and strategies, providing critical feedback, etc. While we have shared the news of the Initiatives with the Collaborative via our enewsletter, Breaking News, and through hosting two open conference calls, we also want to share the highlights of them via this document. We continue to appreciate the power of the Collaborative in this movement toward educational equity for and through students and teachers. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to Interim Executive Director, Eric Fischer  or National Program Director, Ben Martinez.

Math Diagnostic Testing Project (MDTP)

Nineteen Breakthrough affiliates implemented MDTP (Math Diagnostic Testing Project) assessments this past summer, seven more affiliates than in summer 2010. Students across the collaborative were given pre-tests in the areas of Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II and Math Analysis to help identify students’ strengths and weaknesses. These data were used to group students for summer math classes and adjust instruction to meet students’ needs. Students were then given a post-test in the same subject area at the end of the summer to gauge academic growth.  Overall, students made gains in all subject areas and the percentage of students who met the proficiency level (or “critical level”) in all sub-topic areas doubled on the Algebra readiness assessment and increased by 47% on the Pre-Algebra readiness assessment. The results from the MDTP assessments enable us to see where we, as a collaborative, and individual affiliates, have made gains in student learning and, just as importantly, where we need to be focusing our efforts to address gaps in students’ skills and knowledge. At the affiliate level, the MDTP results will inform site staff about where their students need extra support in order to be successful in a college-prep math curriculum and at the national level, the MDTP results will inform the ongoing development of the math curricula being piloted as part of the Curriculum Pilot Project.

College Bound

Breakthrough National established a workgroup of five affiliates last year to focus solely on developing a model of supports and services specifically targeting Breakthrough high school students. This workgroup, called College Bound, consists of directors from Breakthrough programs in Cambridge, Miami, Philadelphia, San Juan Capistrano and Silicon Valley who have been working closely with Ben Martinez and Cormac Harkins of the national office. Through extensive research and scrutiny of practices within the Collaborative and like-minded organizations throughout the country, College Bound has developed a series of services currently delineated by grade ranges (e.g., pre-high school, 9th & 10th grades, and 11th & 12th grades). As part of our commitment to pilot test extensively before rolling out new materials as best practices, College Bound has invited other affiliates to apply to test any/all of the materials this school year, provide feedback on strengths and challenges, and, in turn, receive pass-through incentive funding. Based on this feedback, College Bound will revise the materials as needed with the goal of sharing all materials alongside training on their use at the annual conference in November 2012.

Intern Teacher Training Initiative (ITTI)/Curriculum
During the 2011 Summer Session, 16 affiliate piloted curricula developed by professional teachers who have strong backgrounds in Breakthrough and the Intern Teacher Training Initiative (ITTI) framework, and who have a track record of measurably improving student achievement. Preliminary data is encouraging with sites that piloted the ITTI curriculum achieving 40-50 percent increases in writing and literature and on average, double the gains in Algebra as sites that did not use the curriculum. We offered curricula in seventh-grade writing, literature, physics, sixth-grade math, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra. Based on feedback from directors, mentor teachers, and teacher interns, as well as student achievement data, we are revising the curricula for the 2012 summer session and developing curricula for eighth-grade literature and writing, Geometry, and science. We will be inviting sites to pilot the revised and new curricula for the 2012 summer session.

In October, 17 affiliate directors met in New Hampshire for the annual ITTI Work Session to refine literacy assessments in literature and writing; recommend revisions for the 2011 piloted curricula; and codify shared best practices in student recruitment, diversity training, professional development during the summer session, and special event planning. Directors worked with Laura Zahn, Curriculum and Instruction Specialist, and Paul Mann, Teacher Network Specialist, to create and improve materials for their sites and the Collaborative, working intensively in smaller workgroups to create common materials and daily sharing their progress with each other for feedback and revision. Some of the work from the ITTI Work Session will be shared at the November Conference, while other pieces of the work will be piloted and evaluated in 2012 to be reviewed, revised, and replicated at the 2012 Directors’ Conference.

Breakthrough National Conference
The Breakthrough National Conference will take place November 8-11 in Cambridge, MA at Harvard University.  The theme is “Excellence Through Collaboration” and will feature three separate tracks: Training for the ITTI and Curriculum Pilot Site Directors, Fundraising for Executive and Development Directors, and The Breakthrough College Bound Track for sites that applied and have been approved for the High School Pilot Program.  We also have a panel discussion featuring Breakthrough alums now working in the educational field to discuss their Breakthrough experience and the lessons they took into their new positions.

The conference begins for newly hired staff with the Breakthrough Leadership Institute on Tuesday, November 8th while everyone is invited to attend the Welcome Reception on Tuesday night from 5:30-7:00 (location TBD).   We will close the conference at lunch on Friday with the National Board of Trustees.  There will be a visit to Excel Academy Charter School (where school leadership is Breakthrough alum) on Tuesday afternoon for those attendees arriving early and a visit to MATCH Charter School (one of our teacher pipeline partners) on Friday afternoon for those attendees staying later on Friday.
If you have any questions about the conference or have not yet received the official invitation, please email Mike Turner.

Staffing Updates

We are very excited to announce that Paul Mann is the new Teacher Network Specialist for the Collaborative! Paul comes to us with direct service experience with Summer Search and SMART (a BT-type program in the Bay Area where Paul co-directed all programming including after-school, summer, volunteer, and alumni programs). Paul started in August 2011 and has already interviewed and selected over 30 campus recruiters, attended the ITTI and curriculum work-session in New Hampshire with Laura Zahn, and participated in the Dreamforce conference to help get him up to speed on all of the options Salesforce has to offer beyond just the amazing teacher application portal. Paul has also been in contact with several recruitment and pipeline partners to pick up right where Dave Bryson left off. Paul has jumped into his role quickly and can be reached at 415-442-0605 or pmann@breakthroughcollaborative.org.

We are also very excited to announce that Jessica Dolan is Breakthrough’s new Development Director.  For the past five years, Jessica has been working in UNICEF’s Chicago office, first as a Development Officer and then as the Senior Major Gift Officer responsible for raising nearly $1.5M from a portfolio of 260 donors in 15 states.  She has deep experience in running all aspects of a major gift program – from planning and prospecting to cultivation and solicitation to stewardship and engagement.  Before joining UNICEF, Jessica established a formal development program for Sarah’s Inn, an organization that serves victims of domestic violence in greater Chicago.  During her tenure, Jessica secured 14 new institutional funders for the organization and oversaw the organization’s 25th Anniversary gala, among other things, so she has experience in all aspects of our fundraising program. Jessica holds her BA in International Relations and Spanish from Eckerd College and her JD from DePaul University College of Law.  She has studied in Costa Rica where she developed her Spanish language skills. Jessica can be reached at 415-442-0608 or jdolan@breakthroughcollaborative.org.

Breakthrough Initiatives

Thanks to everyone who attended the first call on Operational Initiatives and asked insightful questions. We will be hosting another call this Thursday at 1pm pst.

Late last month you received a letter announcing the final, adopted Operational Initiatives that will guide the work of the National office and the Collaborative as a whole for the next one to two years. In the letter we shared that we will be holding two, open call-in Go-To Meetings to allow any interested affiliate site staff to discuss the final initiatives, ask questions, and get clarification regarding their participation, etc. The details for the next meeting are listed below – please join us as you are able for this meeting should you wish to discuss them further with us; National Program Director Ben Martinez, our new Director of Development Jessica Dolan, and interim Executive Director Eric Fischer will be there.

• Meeting Two: Thursday, September 22nd at 1:00p PDT
• https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/640429992

Dial-in information for these meetings:

Breakthrough C3 Conferencing Service:
Dial into:  1-877-567-1262
Passcode:  580339