Rocketship Tour Notes
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After 20 years in the hi-tech industry, Judith McGarry, a talented marketing manager, joined John Danner at Rocketship Education. The following are a few notes from a City Prep site visit with her:
Rocketship School Model:
- 500 Students and open enrollment from K-5 to keep it there
- 16 instructional leaders, Dean & Principal
- Teachers introduce topics that extend into small group projects
- 25% student time on computer-based basic skills learning (non-cert supervision)
- Parents commit to 30 hours of volunteer work and many attend monthly Community Meetings
Teachers:
- 75% TFA with commitment for 4 new TFA/school/year
- Potential for leadership role (to principal or dean) in 3 years
- Teachers have recruiting, home visit responsibilities
- 8-6pm hour days (but sounds like 7am-7pm for many)
- 25% higher pay
- Believe they have/will have comparatively low turnover in teaching staff
Learning lab:
- Content: DreamBox, Rosetta, Accelerated Reader, Reasoning Mind, Head Sprout
- embedded assessment of little value
- big variation in data export ease & transferability
- common tagging & data management scheme would help
- Assessment: Promethean and Synaptic Mash
- little online assessment; questions are read out loud and kids type into online environment
- looking for philanthropic support for better assessments
Growth plans (and they’re aggressive):
- Regions to be led by a vice president
- Launchpad is an independent real estate facilities developer
- Powerschools SIS and Google apps for education
- PD all focused on traditional instructional strategies
Related links:
Danner HuffPost
Video Q&A with Danner, Aug 31
Video Q&A with Danner on Growth Plans, Aug 31
Report from Rocketship advisory, June 22
Related articles
- John Danner: Aspen Institute and the McNulty Foundation: What’s in a Prize? (huffingtonpost.com)
- Rocketship Tour Notes (edreformer.com)
- Second Rocketship School Catapults into “Top 15” with Outstanding Student Achievement (eon.businesswire.com)
- Accepting the McNulty Prize (edreformer.com)
Getting Smart Staff
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Ed Jones
Interesting list. Especially
- The 30 hour parent volunteer. Is that per year? Do meetings count? What roles do they play? I didn't this part from the three videos--Denver presentation--about the schools.
- Teachers have recruiting, home visit responsibilities!
- "embedded assessment of little value" - they should write a paper.
- "looking for philanthropic support for better assessments" would be interesting to see their request