School Transformation: Wayside Schools

BACKGROUND:

Wayside Schools is a small public charter school network located in Austin, serving 1900 PK-12 students across five campuses. After newly hired Wayside principal departed a struggling school early in the school year, Wayside contacted with Conscious Schools to turnaround their struggling school. The success of this early project led to a series of engagements that improved instructional and talent practices across the network.

DESIGN:

  • School Turnaround. Conscious Schools identified an on campus leader at their Altamira Academy elementary campus, an Assistant Principal who was designated the principal halfway through the school year. Conscious Schools providing coaching and on-site support. Within 18 months, the school moved from an “Improvement Required” (F) rated school into a “B+” rated school. The school was recognized by the Texas Education Agency as a turnaround success story.

  • Instructional Leadership Practice. To build upon the success of our work at Altamira, we implemented an instructional leadership program, beginning with training for assistant principals and campus coaches in one of our critical catalytic practices: instructional coaching. We also designed and implemented supports for a second catalyst: evidence practices. We crafted a series of walkthrough protocols to collect qualitative data and drove data-driven instruction through practices that respond to daily formative and common formative assessment.

  • Novice Teacher Training. Conscious Schools designed and executed a custom year-long New Teacher Academy (NTA) to develop first-year teachers through a mix of in-person and remote coaching, which gave us a template for new teacher development that we now use across the country. Second-year teacher attrition dropped by 50+% as a result of the NTA work.

  • Executive Leadership Coaching. We provided direct-to-leader coaching for Wayside’s Superintendent, CAO, and Director of Talent, all of which led to significant improvements in student retention, instructional performance, and teacher selection and retention respectively.

RESULTS:

  • Altamira Academy improved from an “F” to a “B+” TEA rating in 18 months.

  • Wayside’s report card improved from a persistent “C” district rating to a “B” by 2022. (No TEA ratings have been given since that time.)

  • Wayside reduced teacher attrition by 43% from 2022 to 2023.

  • Wayside reversed a declining enrollment trending, adding students in 2022 and 2023.

“The New Teacher Academy was simply the best professional development I have ever received. I am a career changer who is new to teaching. I’ve never been a part of such thoughtful, effective training in my processional life. Thank you! ”

— Michelle W., Teacher - Wayside Schools