Early Signs of Distress: Identifying and Implementing Systemic Improvements

How can district and state leaders identify signs of school distress long before they are designated as in need of improvement by state accountability systems?

In 2020, WestEd partnered with the National Charter School Resource Center (NCSRC) to develop and conduct a portfolio of  research (listed below) that identified signs of early distress in schools, or "indicators of distress," and described an approach to support school improvement efforts. When states and education decision-makers wanted to take the work further into implementation, what emerged is WestEd's Indicators of Distress, an evidence-based early detection system that can help charter and traditional schools meet and surpass accountability standards while fostering positive learning experiences for students.

In this episode of the Leading Voices podcast, host Danny Torres talks with Aimee Evan, Senior Research Associate and School Improvement Specialist with the School Choice team at WestEd and co-author of the NCSRC reports, and two state education agency leaders, John Carwell Jr., Education Associate at the Delaware Department of Education, and David Frank, Chief of Staff and Assistant Commissioner, Education Policy, at the New York State Education Department.

They discuss the Indicators of Distress approach and how the Delaware Department of Education and the New York State Education Department worked with WestEd to identify needed systemic improvements and implement processes and procedures that helped lead to sustained success.

Their conversation covers the following topics:

• Implementing the Indicators of Distress approach in Delaware and New York
• Using data to inform decision-making
• Building a reliable model for school improvement

Transcript

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Indicators of Distress (Webpage)
• Indicators of Distress: A Proactive Approach to Identifying and Supporting Schools in Need of Improvement (Blog)
• Identifying Indicators of Distress in Charter Schools: Part 1 – The Role and Perspective of Charter School Authorizers (PDF)
• Identifying Indicators of Distress in Charter Schools, Part 2: The Roles and Perspectives of Charter School Leaders and Board Members (PDF)
• Identifying Indicators of Distress in Charter Schools: Tools to Support Authorizer Data Collection (PDF)