Tool: Sample Memorandum of Understanding

Tool: Sample Memorandum of Understanding

This is a sample only.

This memorandum of understanding (MOU) is made and entered into this [date] day of [month, year], by and between[name of partner] and [name of district/CMO]. This MOU outlines the commitments to extend the reach of excellent teachers to all students and build an Opportunity Culture.

Background: Why Every Child Deservesan Excellent Teacher

Research continues to confirm that without consistent access to excellent teachers, most students who start behind stay behind, and too few middling and advanced students leap ahead. Even solid teachers who achieve one year of learning progress leave achievement gaps intact. Schools that consistently provide all students with excellent teachers—those in the top 25 percent who achieve well over one year of learning progress—can close those gaps.To ensure that every student has access to an excellent teacher every year, schools must enable excellent teachers to “extend their reach.”

Reach extension uses job redesign and technology to free excellent teachers’ time to reach more students and lead and develop their peer teachers toward excellence. These teacher-leader roles serve to attract and retain excellent and experienced teachers. Reach-extendingjob models allow teacher-leaders to receive much higher pay, sustainably and within budget, rather than by funding pay supplements with temporary grants. Most models create teaching teams and enable school-hour time for collaboration and professional development on the job. The educational environment that attracts, leverages,retains, and increases the number of these excellent teachers is what we call an “Opportunity Culture.”

[District/CMO] Commitments

By signing this MOU, the parties in this agreement jointly commit to the following objectives in order to reach all students with excellent teachers and build an Opportunity Culture in [name of district/CMO].

[District/CMO], through [superintendent/CEO and board], willlead an initiative to reach every child successfully with teaching as good as that from today’s top-quartile teachers in math, language arts, science, social studies,and [other target subjects].
[District/CMO] may begin with targeted pilot sites but intendsto eventually implement this system-wide, as part of a multiyear commitment to the partnership.
[District/CMO], through [superintendent/CEO and board], will rigorously aim to fulfill the five Opportunity Culture Principles, in which teams of teachers and school leaders must choose and tailor models to:

Reach more students with excellent teachers and their teams

Pay teachers more for extending their reach

Fund pay within regular budgets

Provide protected in-school time and clarity about how to use it for planning, collaboration, and development

Match authority and accountability to each person’s responsibilities

[District/CMO] has in place, or will immediately implement, a teacher evaluation system that includes individual teachers’ student growth. The evaluation system can identify the top-25-percent teachers in all subjects in which excellent teachers’ reach will be extended.
[District/CMO], through [superintendent/CEO] will assign a point person—a design leader—fully accountable for implementing the reach-extension initiative in pilot schools.
[District/CMO], in partnership with school-level leaders, will forma district/charter design team of principals, district/charterstaff, and union representation, if applicable, to make district/charter-level design decisions and oversee implementation of school-level models for reach. This design team will ensure that school-level design teams, which must include teachers, have clear parameters for school-level decisions and are given some autonomy to make implementation decisions. Design choices that schools are empowered to makemay vary, and may include model selection, model details, and/or implementation process decisions (see “specific autonomies” section below).
[If pilot schools have been identified] Principals at [list initial pilotschools] have committed to the five Opportunity Culture Principles in writing. Principals at schools joining the initiative later also will commit to these principles in writing.
[District/CMO] has secured or will secure funding for external help, as needed. External help secured and funded must include documenting and publishingthe design process, models chosen, outcomes for teachers and students, and lessons learned. Additional help may include assistance with initial and external communications, facilitation of district-level and/or school-level design decisions, evaluation of the designprocess and final designs, and other technical assistance needed (e.g., design of compensation, evaluation improvements, training, budgeting, and technology). Help secured may also include more extensive research comparisons between implementation schools and comparable schools with traditional staffing models. This funding should not be used for compensation for extended-reach roles.
At all times, [District/CMO] will be the public face of the Opportunity Culture initiative to stakeholders, including publicly announcing the work, mobilizing staff and/or consultants to inform and engage stakeholders, and establishing and managing any external partners.
[District/CMO] agrees to collect and share with Public Impactdata about: applicants for extended-reach roles; selection and placement of teachers into extended-reach roles; the students for whom teachers in reach roles are accountable; subsequent reach teacher turnover data; and data about district-wide teacher turnover rates and hiring selectivity. Public Impactwill provide tools to enable sharing of this data by the district, and will abide by all confidentiality rules and laws affecting the district. Collection of this data across sites will allow Public Impactto provide useful information to districts with the goal of improving quality and decreasing costs of implementation.

Suggested Autonomies:

The following autonomies can be helpful to [Name of district/CMO]’s schoolsin building an Opportunity Culture and implementation of the school models and designs. We hope that [Name of district/CMO]will look for opportunities to provide these recommended flexibilities and autonomies, to the fullest extent possible.

People:

Selection and Supervision of Principals and Assistant Principals: Principals and assistant principals, and their schools, will be invited to participate based on their understanding of and commitment to the five Opportunity Culture Principles and to achieving outstanding learning for all students. These leaders may have performance rewards available for successful implementation of reach models. These leadersare on a performance contract and can be dismissed or transferred if effectiveness in implementing new school models and related changes is not demonstrated.

Selection of School Staff: The participating school principalsshall have final authority over selection of staff, including teachers and those hired into the new reach-extended roles. Reach-extended roles must be advertised, both internally and externally, and include a rigorous and transparent selection process.

Teacher Opportunity to Contribute, and Dismissal or Transfer: All teachers determined to be capable of and willing to implement reach models effectively will be given an opportunity to continue in a role at participating schools or another school in the district. If any teachers do not demonstrate the capacity and willingness to implement reach models and related changes at an effective level, [name of district/CMO] will support the dismissal or transfer of that teacher from the participating schools.

Reductions in Force and Local Displacement Processes:Excellent teachers in participating schools must be exempt from state and/or district layoff and displacement requirements to the extent possible. Additional efforts will be made to avoid displacingteachers from other schools into participating schools without principal consent.

Time:

Increased Time to Improve Staff Capacity: Participating schools shall have flexibility over policies governing teachers’ weekly and annual work schedule, to enable additional common planning time and professional development to support the implementation of the strategic plan. The district design team and district leaders will encourage school design teams to include common planning time within regular school hours on at least a weekly basis, and more frequently where possible.

Program:

General: [Name of district/CMO] will establish a clear list of the changes that participating schools must seek permission and guidance to implement, and other changes that participating schools may implement without seeking district permission or guidance. [Name of district/CMO] will provide the maximum autonomy possible under the law, within the five Opportunity Culture Principles.

District Interim Assessments: [Name of district/CMO]shall enableparticipating schools to administer interim assessmentsthat support each school’s turnaround and/or reach-extension implementation plans. If these differ from standard system assessments because of schools’ unique needs, [District/CMO] will work with schools to enable suitable assessments while providing [District/CMO] with adequate comparative data.

Professional Development and Training:[Name of district/CMO] will permit and allow time for differentiated training and professional development that fit the unique needs of the participating schools, including reallocation of each school’s portion of district professional development funding to uses determined by each school. Participating schools shall provide staff with ongoing, high-quality, job-embedded professional development that is aligned with each school’s strategic plan, its comprehensive instructional program, and its reach models. This professional development will be selected or designed with eachschool’s staff. Each participating school shall be entitled to develop and deliver its own training and professional development programs to all employees, and all such employees are exempt from professional development and training programs mandated by [name of district/CMO] as needed.

Funds:

In working with the principals of participating schools, [name of district/CMO] shall support the use of Title I, S.I.G., and other local, state, and federal funding sources to support each school’sOpportunity Culture plan. Participating schools must be given flexibility from district requirements or pursue state budgetary waivers that will allow schools to:

shift funding across budget line items (including existing per-pupil funds as well as new and/or external funds);
change compensation structures, as described below; and
pay staff for additional time.

Compensation Plan: [Name of district/CMO] will support participating schools in seeking necessary state and/or local waivers and in the design of a compensation plan that rewards teachers and staff for their contribution to reaching every student with excellent teachers, teaching teams, and learning outcomes, and that aligns with the school’s goals and reach model. Participating schools shall collaborate with [name of district/CMO] to design and implement rewardstrategies as financial incentives, increased opportunities for paid promotion and career advancement, and more flexible work hoursthat are designed to recruit, place, and retain staff with the skills necessary to meet the needs of students. Participating schools must be able to:

pay excellent teachers more for being accountable for more students’ learning and for success with additional students;
create new roles outside of current salary structure and tenure rules; and
assign existing staff to new roles, even if pay remains unchanged.

Building Renovations: [Name of district/CMO] shall work with participating schools to carry out any reasonable alterations to school facilities needed to implement the schools’ chosen approaches, and shall not unreasonably prevent adaptations to the building.

Accountability and Assessment of Success:

Evaluation Criteria: Participating schoolsand [name of district/CMO] agree to mutually develop metrics and methods, which shall measure the success of the initiative. A combination of measures will be used to evaluate progress and success, including leading indicators (e.g., student attendance, discipline), lagging indicators (e.g., proficiency rates, graduation rate, student learning growth, promotion rates), and surveys of students, staff, and community.

Implementation Support and Remedies: If progress toward meeting goals is not demonstrated, [name of district/CMO] and participating school representatives shall meet in person to determine what additional changes and supports are needed to ensure that all programmatic elements are properly in place by the beginning of the following school year or sooner.