NewSchools Performance Roundtable: Reflections and Next Steps
November 2005 Download the PDF
This paper synthesizes themes from a conversation NewSchools Venture Fund convened in May 2005 about public school systems' shift toward becoming "performance-driven systems." Much like "learning organizations," these systems have the potential to attain and sustain better educational outcomes for all students by constantly questioning the "why" and "how" behind their results, and by learning from their successes and failures as a platform for continuous improvement.
Following the release of a NewSchools report on the adoption of these practices (“Anatomy of School System Improvement: Performance-Driven Practices in Urban School Districts”), the organization convened a roundtable of advisors to discuss the report’s implications. This paper summarizes the session's wide-ranging conversation, and some of the next steps NewSchools is currently taking to further knowledge development work in this field.