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A project of the
Annenberg Institute
for School Reform
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Note: Related materials that supplement the nine Portfolio pieces appear inside a yellow box. Most of these items are available only on the Web.
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Portfolio for District Redesign
The School Communitites that Work task force developed a new conception for a "smart district" – a high-performing community of schools that ensures both equity of opportunity and high-level achievement across all groups of students.
The Portfolio for District Redesign, published in 2002, describes this vision and supports it with a set of interrelated frameworks, tools, and other resources to help districts make the transition toward this new kind of support system. The Portfolio forms the basis for much of the Institute's current stream of work in System Supports.
The portfolio includes nine documents, organized into the following categories:
 Results and Equity
Central Office Review
Human Resources
Partnerships
Student-Based Budgeting
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Institute publications
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- School Communities that Work for Results and Equity
The Task Force outlines the ways in which current urban school districts are ineffective and lays out the characteristics of redesigned "smart districts" that would be effective in producing results and equity –in which all children would have the support they need to grow up to be knowledgeable, productive, caring adults. The paper describes the functions of a smart district, or local education support system, and concludes with a call for action to redesign urban districts.
PDF file [16 pages, 127 KB]
Printable text file
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- Generally Accepted Principles of Teaching and Learning
The Task Force identifies seven major tenets of effective teaching and learning, culled from extensive research, and describes the implications of such principles for instruction and for redesigned school districts, also known as local education support systems.
PDF file [8 pages, 79 KB]
Printable text file
- Central Office Review for Results and Equity
This tool enables districts to evaluate the capacity of the central office to support schools in improving instruction in line with the Generally Accepted Principles of Teaching and Learning. The tool helps district communities to determine the current state of student results, assess the effectiveness of district policies and practices that deal with those results, and develop action steps to strengthen their capacity for supporting schools.
PDF file [9 pages, 96 KB]
Printable text file
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- Find, Support, Deploy, and Keep the Best Teachers and School Leaders
The Task Force offers a framework for developing a comprehensive human resources system that enables schools to attract and retain high-quality teachers and school leaders. The paper describes many of the ways quality is unevenly distributed among schools and looks to the private sector for suggestions on how districts can develop more equitable systems.
PDF file [11 pages, 94 KB]
Printable text file
Framework for Human Resources Systems
Two aspects of human resources systems in school districts are treated in this framework; the enabling environment and the operating environment.
Printable text file
PDF [2 pages, 118 KB]
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- Developing Effective Partnerships to Support Local Education
The Task Force lays out some fundamental ways communities and school districts can work better together to support and sustain the healthy development of children and youth. The paper focuses on the need to reorient their work around results and equity, student engagement and development. It outlines twelve design principles for creating and sustaining such a transformation.
PDF file [12 pages, 100 KB]
Printable text file
Case Studies in Community Partnership
Civic cooperation -- a joint effort around a common community concern by
people and organizations from varied sectors of life -- is difficult, but
not impossible, to achieve. Two case studies commissioned by the Annenberg
Institute's School Communities that Work task force illustrate some of the
challenges and successes of civic partnerships in support of standards-based
public education reform in urban settings.
Civic Cooperation in El Paso
Case Studies in Community Partnerships No. 1
This study by Clarence Stone of George Washington University and the
University of Maryland documents the mobilization of civic capacity to
support education reform by the El Paso Collaborative for Academic
Achievement -- a partnership housed at the University of Texas at El Paso --
and other community partners in El Paso, Texas. The study describes the
partnership's significant accomplishments in the face of numerous
challenges, analyzes the keys to successful civic mobilization, and
identifies obstacles still to be faced.
Text file
PDF file [15 pages, 462 KB]
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- A District Leader's Guide to Relationships that Support Systemic Reform
Here is a guide to help district leaders build effective relationships with organizations that support systemwide change. It identifies essential elements for building and maintaining successful partnerships, including a series of questions to ask before and during the relationship.
PDF file [140 KB, 18 pages]
NOTE: The research underlying "A District Leader's Guide to Relationships that Support Systemic Reform" is available in Reforming Relationships: School Districts, External Organizations, and Systemic Change, prepared by Kronley and Associates, who take a first-ever look at factors affecting the quality of the relationships between districts and "reform support organizations." Published by the Annenberg Institute.
Press Release
PDF file [935 KB, 73 pages]
Order a print copy
Kronley and Associates
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- First Steps to a Level Playing Field: An Introduction to Student-Based Budgeting
The Task Force describes the current inequities in funding among schools within districts and proposes alleviating these disparities by allocating funds based on student needs. Using examples from three districts that have moved to student-based budgeting, the paper outlines the practical and political challenges such a shift entails.
PDF file [15 pages, 117 KB]
Printable text file
- Assessing Inequities in School Funding within Districts: A Tool to Prepare for Student-Based Budgeting
This tool provides a step-by-step guide for school leaders to analyze funding inequities that exist among schools in their district. It includes illustrative examples from Cincinnati Public Schools.
PDF file [15 pages, 126 KB]
Printable text file
Online tool: Assessing Patterns of Resource Distribution
- Moving toward Equity in School Funding within Districts
This analysis provides for the first time a way of comparing differing expenditure levels among schools within districts. It explores the difference in spending across schools and students in three mid- to large-size districts. It shows how traditional budgeting practices lead to substantial inequities among schools and examines the data for each district after the new budgeting policies we implemented, and thus explores the changes that take place with this bold strategic move. The analysis is in presentation format, so districts can use it to describe the advantages of student-based budgeting or as a template to create their own presentation on their own district funding.
PDF file [42 pages, 281 KB]
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