Replications, Inc.

Summary

Replications’ mission is to provide superior educational opportunities to public school children.  We support the development of high-quality schools by working with school leaders and their faculties to establish strong, positive school cultures focused on teaching and learning.  Replications helps partner schools identify, implement, and sustain a customized set of “essential features” — aspects of school culture, academic performance, and assessment that are the necessary requisites for high performance.

Key Service Offerings

Replications supports its partner schools through an expert support staff, a strong network of schools which share knowledge and best practices, and Essential Features Support (EFS).  Replications staff includes former school leaders, administrators, and teachers as well as finance, fundraising and management professionals who are on-call 24/7 to address school needs and concerns.  Replications has a well-developed process for maximizing the value of our network including facilitating corporate style leader and staff retreats, offering inter-school professional development opportunities, coordinating inter-school visitations, and sharing partner school best practices related to instruction, professional development, assessment, teacher recruitment, and more.  EFS engages principals and teachers in the development of a day-to-day performance management plan tailored to their school’s unique needs.  The EFS system keeps the entire school community focused on what it must do to move the school from good to great.  EFS helps schools to identify what is working, what needs improvement, and what should be added, and sets benchmarks and timelines to implement and sustain these key elements.  EFS is a highly structured system of school support and monitoring, but it is participatory and flexible in nature; school staff drive the content of the plan and it is adjusted as the school’s needs change.

NOTE: This SSO is supported by a Dedicated Service Team at the ISC.  This is an innovative pilot program designed to align and maximize support services to participating PSO schools based on their individual PSO models.  The Dedicated Service Team at the ISC will provide participating PSO schools with the range of expertise available through the ISCs with high level customized service and school accountability. Under this pilot program, all schools in a PSO network affiliated with Replications, CUNY, Fordham and AED will be served by a single dedicated ISC team, consisting of budget, human resources, payroll and applications support.  Other ISC services such as Special Education and Youth Development will work in close partnership with the members of the Dedicated Service Team and the PSO staff to maximize support for schools.

Accountability and instructional supports

Replications’ staff has deep expertise related to the DOE accountability system including the School Quality Review, Progress Report, and State assessments at all grade levels.  Our EFS system tailors a plan for each school to meet and surpass DOE accountability targets.  Our expertise in budgeting, scheduling, and school management help school leaders streamline administrative responsibilities so they can spend more time focused on improving instruction.  Replications’ Network Leader and Director of Instructional Support meet with school leaders and staff on a regular basis to customize support.  Our instructional supports include assistance with recruiting outstanding teachers, curriculum planning and standards alignment, creating professional learning communities, and data analysis.  Replications converts $10,000 of each partner school’s PSO annual fee into Consultant/Advisor Units.  These units are managed by Replications but belong to the school and are used to supplement instructional support.  Schools can team up to split the cost of expert consultants or professional development programs thereby minimizing the cost while maximizing the benefit of outside expertise for schools in the network.

Special-needs support

Replications provides staff support and targeted technical assistance to ensure that special-needs services are delivered thoughtfully and effectively, so that every special-needs student can learn, grow, achieve and reach his or her full potential.  We join special-needs staff from all partner schools in order to build a professional community that can share information, draw on collective expertise, and problem solve barriers to high quality special-needs services.

The Principals’ Council provides regular opportunities for principals to share their experiences and troubleshoot challenges of special-needs service coordination.  Replications’ staff is available around the clock to field questions and help find solutions, using either DOE or outside resources.  In addition to full-time staff, Replications has a team of consultant/advisors with a depth and breadth of experience with special-needs services and may be hired by a partner school using Consultant/Adviser units to provide technical assistance.

Youth development support

Replications’ expertise in establishing and maintaining a strong, positive school culture, including setting behavioral expectations, discipline policies, and methods for creating buy-in to the school community, results in fewer disciplinary incidents and ensures that all students feel safe and supported.  Our staff has worked at all school levels and understands the needs particular to children at different developmental stages.  Replications’ youth development support includes ensuring that advisory, community service, and other social and emotional support programs have maximum benefit as well as assisting schools to identify and build appropriate youth development CBO partnerships. 

Organizational and professional development

Recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers along with establishing a productive and meaningful professional learning community are critical components of a thriving instructional program.  Replications’ budget assistance ensures that all options are explored to find the right formula for school staffing.  We place advertisements in The New York Times and on education web sites, and collect and post resumes in a secure area of our web site to which only the principals of our partner schools have access.  We also assist with interviews and classroom observations. 

Replications believes that the key to meaningful professional development is to treat teachers as professionals, empower them within the school community, and provide them with opportunities to assess and address their needs and the needs of their students.  We work with principals to include teachers in as many areas of school planning as possible and ask them to assume specific responsibilities outlined in the EFS Action Plan.  Additionally, Replications facilitates Critical Friends Groups in each partner school.  Critical Friends Groups provide a venue for teachers to network, offer peer-to-peer support, and seek help with planning, targeted intervention, curriculum development, and instructional support.  Critical Friends Groups are an essential feature of every partner school and are supported by a $90,000 grant from the W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation.

Additional supports

Replications has established relationships with numerous partners who bring added support and value to schools.  These partnerships include New Leaders for New Schools, Teach for America, The Cahn Fellows Program at Teachers College, the International Baccalaureate Program, A.S.C.D., U.E.E., and the National Principal Leadership Institute.  In addition, Replications actively fundraises to increase its capacity to provide in-kind support to partner schools.

Organizational Design

Replications’ partner schools are supported by an experienced team of educators and benefit from being part of a highly effective network.  Activities are designed with key input from principals and teachers ensuring that they are both relevant and respectful of busy schedules. 

School Planning Retreats: Held in spring for principals and up to nine faculty members.  Designed to:

1. provide school to school networking opportunities for leaders and teachers;
2. review progress made toward implementing EFS Action Plans;
3. prepare new EFS Action Plans for the coming school year;
4. provide time for individual school planning activities.

Principals’ Council: Early evening dinner meetings.  The Principals’ Council offers opportunities to network, share best practices, and review the relationship between partnership schools and Replications. 

AP Council: Afternoon meetings.  In addition to networking, the Council gives assistant principals an opportunity to share best practices, with particular emphasis on the implementation of essential features.  

Replications Leadership Institute (RLI): Held three times a year, these dinner meetings provide school leaders with an opportunity to network, share ideas and strategies with their colleagues, and listen to presentations by guest experts from the education, social service, and business sectors.

Principal Visits: Four times during the school year, partner school principals visit a peer’s school and share their impressions of the school based on their knowledge and experience, and give constructive criticism.

Leadership/Experience

For over 10 years, Replications has had tremendous success in creating and supporting successful New York City public schools.  The knowledge and experience acquired along the way informs our PSO support model.  Our staff possesses a uniquely diverse set of skills that well serves the needs of partner schools.

Best Fit

Principals and teachers who are intent on improving their school — persistently pushing past good in pursuit of great — are the best match for Replications’ PSO support model.

Price

The cost of Replications’ services varies by school size.  Note that $10,000 of the support fee is converted to Consultant/Advisor Units and given back to the school.  C/A Units are used by the school to purchase supports approved by Replications and targeted at the improvement of instruction. These supports include but are not limited to: educational conferences, trainings and retreats, retaining consultants, and purchasing professional development materials.  Please refer to the table for 2009-2010 pricing based on the schools’ projected enrollment.

For More Information

Visit our Web site or contact John Sullivan at 212-714-3514 or jsullivan@replications.org.

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