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Macro Cheat Sheet
Partnerships
Top Stats
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At Achievement First, we help individual students, entire schools and partner districts close the
achievement gap. Through the Charter Network Accelerator, we are helping lead a cohort that
serves 20,000 students in 11 states.
We partner with traditional districts through the Residency Program for School Leadership. In
this program, we collaborate to recruit and develop outstanding leaders for district schools.
Potential Questions
Q: “Why does Achievement First believe in partnerships?”
A: We know our responsibility is not only to the students within our schools, but also to students in
schools everywhere. Even at scale, we will still serve only a fraction of public school students in our
cities. By sharing strategies, tools and lessons with all types of great schools—traditional district
schools and public charter schools alike—we can all help offer more students an outstanding
education than we could ever reach on our own.
Q: “How does Achievement First partner with other charter schools?”
A: We regularly share best practices with our “charter cousins.” In 2014, we announced the
inaugural cohort of the Charter Network Accelerator, a first-of-its-kind group devoted to helping
smaller high-performing charter schools grow into larger high-performing networks of school. The
cohort comes together to address issues including leadership training, scaling with excellence and
diversity in education reform.
Q: “How does the Charter Network Accelerator work?”
A: The first cohort has 12 members, and it is led by Achievement First, YES Prep and Aspire Public
Schools. Each cohort member represents a unique charter school network, and we all have a lot to
learn from each other. During bi-monthly learning sessions, charter school leaders discuss skills for
managing rapidly growing organizations and explore teacher and leader pipelines, organizational
structure, and core academic programs.
Q: “How does Achievement First partner with district schools?”
A: We are proud of the strong relationships we have with district schools. In Hartford, our
partnership with Hartford Public Schools and another public charter school, Jumoke Academy
(FUSE), was awarded $5 million to continue our work reforming public education and closing the
achievement gap. We also help train leaders for district schools through the Residency Program for
School Leadership, which began in New Haven and now operates in each of our Connecticut cities.
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Q: “How does the Residency Program for School Leadership work?”
A: We partner with New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford to offer aspiring school leaders a medical
school-style residency through which they spend half the year at an AF school and half the year in a
district school. They receive extensive coaching and training at both assignments, and take the
lessons they’ve learned back to their district schools where they serve as leaders.
Top Quote
“We’ve established partnerships that work to improve outcomes for all students in our cities. When you
create an ongoing cross-fertilization of ideas and practices between organizations, you ensure that the
best ideas, wherever they are developed, can help all children on their climb to college.” —Paige
MacLean, Achievement First Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships
Top Story
It is often powerful to include your own personal story about how Achievement First is addressing the
issue. Below is one related story:
Kim Daniley is a New Haven resident in our Residency Program for School Leadership. A graduate of the
New Haven school district where she now serves, Kim began her journey in education after witnessing
elementary-aged students struggling to read. She decided to apply to the Residency Program for School
Leadership because of the practical hands-on experience offered. Kim was also intrigued by the aspect
of learning best practices from the public charter school and traditional public school contexts. As a
resident principal, she began the school year as part of the leadership team at Amistad Academy
Elementary School in New Haven, and will spend the second half at Cooperative Arts and Humanities
High School, a traditional district school. Her favorite aspect of the program is that it exposes
participants to various school environments and leadership styles, which inform the development of her
vision for leadership.
Achievement First General Highlights
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With the opening of three new schools in our network—AF Aspire Elementary, AF University
Prep High and AF Providence Mayoral Academy Elementary—we now serve nearly 8,100
students across three states, five cities and 25 schools. We will open four new schools in the fall
of 2014, serving more than 9,100 students.
At both of our full-size high schools, 100 percent of graduating seniors have gained college
acceptance in every graduating class. More African Americans at our one, small New Haven high
school passed at least one A.P. exam than at any other school district in Connecticut. Our
students, most of whom will be the first in their families to attend college, are not only gaining
acceptance to college, but they are persisting toward graduation. While only 16 percent of
students nationwide who are the first in their families to enter college will graduate within six
years, 82 percent of our high school graduates are still persisting in college.
For two consecutive years, AF Bushwick received an A and scored in the top 15 percent of all city
schools on the New York City Department of Education Progress Reports. The NYC DOE
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highlighted AF Bushwick as one of eight city schools with high-needs populations that excel at
preparing students for college and careers. AF Bushwick earned special credit for making
outstanding gains with special education students.
AF Brownsville also received an A for two consecutive years on the NYC DOE Progress Reports
and was recognized for making higher-than-average gains in math and English Language Arts.
We announced our first class of 52 “Distinguished Teachers” in Achievement First’s Teacher
Career Pathway, which has been nationally recognized by both the New Teacher Project and the
Aspen Urban Superintendents Network as one of the most promising teacher evaluation and
career paths in the country.
There is a high—and increasing—demand from our families and communities for more
Achievement First schools. Across all of our schools, we received an average of seven
enrollment forms for every available seat.
We have been working hard to address the issue of diversity and inclusiveness. We increased
the percentage of new teachers and school leaders identified as black, Latino or multiracial from
28 percent to 36 percent and, last year for the first time, we retained a higher percentage of our
staff of color than our network average.
For more information, please read our Talking Points at http://www.achievementfirst.org/marcommresources/communicating-af/talking-points/.
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For support, email marketing@achievementfirst.org