What Is The Breakthrough Center?
The Breakthrough Center is an internal MSDE operation dedicated to coordinating, brokering, and delivering support to districts and schools across Maryland. It aims to maximize the State’s comparative advantage by partnering with local school districts to determine needs and necessary supports; identify, target, and maximize resources in education, business, government, and research centers; and to create cross-district and cross-sector access to people, programs, and resources.
The Breakthrough Center is MSDEs sea-change. It is both a process and a product through which MSDE will shift from strictly a compliance monitor to a performance breakthrough partner.
What functions will The Breakthrough Center perform?
1. Interface. The Breakthrough Center will serve as an interface between the services available through the Department, those delivered by external partners, and the districts that receive them by:
- coordinating the need, placement, and timing of service delivery,
- eliminating overlap between services delivered by various Divisions,
- clarifying and formalizing the criteria for district participation and level of involvement,
- establishing uniform standards of quality to measure impact of these services
- integrating public and private services to create a cohesive and methodical approach
In the start-up phase, the services will include many services currently offered. However, with a strong evaluation component, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) expects to collect information that will result in the enhancement and development of services in order to meet the unique and emerging needs of our districts—and to ensure that limited resources are optimized.
2. Solutions Network. The Breakthrough Center will partner with districts and schools to administer, consolidate, and analyze sophisticated diagnostic tools to assess operational and performance needs. The Breakthrough Center will build a network of specialized service providers and partners—internal and external to the Department—that can develop customized solutions and deploy them strategically.
3. 21st Century Approach. The Breakthrough Center gives high priority to ensure high-capacity teaching and learning in a 21st century environment for students. Creating a 21st century education system is essential to breakthrough, and there are many districts among our twenty-four local school systems that have demonstrated remarkable success in using technology as a tool for school and district improvement. While we know that effectiveness cannot be “bottled”, we believe that finding ways to make strategies and their implementation accessible to other districts and schools will catalyze necessary change and improvement. Technology will assist in facilitating this access—whether through a materials and services repository, professional networking utilities, or web-based professional development—but strong relationships with partner districts, businesses, and organizations will drive it.
4. Incentives. The Breakthrough Center will offer incentives for participation as either a recipient or a contributor of services to The Breakthrough Center. Participation requirements will vary depending on a district’s or school’s Needs Pathway; however, as The Breakthrough Center grows, the menu of incentives offered to Center recipients or contributors will expand.
In summary, The Breakthrough Center aims to provide simple and straightforward access to high quality and transformative breakthrough solutions.
How Will Districts Be Selected to Participate in The Breakthrough Center?
The Breakthrough Center provides two categories of support services: Buildup Services (targeted primarily for districts and schools in Comprehensive category of improvement and available to those in Alert status to prevent further progression) and Access Services (available to all districts and schools, required for those in Focus category of school improvement).
Like the new differentiated system of accountability, participation as a recipient of The Breakthrough Center, particularly Buildup Services, is performance-driven. However, recognizing the limited capacity of many districts to single-handedly accelerate performance, capacity needs will also be considered.
What makes The Breakthrough Center a Better Way of Delivering Support?
The Breakthrough Center is a better way of delivering intervention services for a number of reasons:
- It ensures that the RIGHT services are delivered to the RIGHT districts or schools at the RIGHT time.
- It uses results from multiple needs assessments at the state and local levels as the basis for a comprehensive and unified plan and approach for assembling solutions to address the identified needs. It directly links and integrates the process used to determine a district’s or school’s Needs Pathway with the services and supports that are available to remedy it.
- It involves districts as real partners in the diagnosis of need—organizational, performance, and capacity—and then draws from an array of services from MSDE and external providers for customization consistent with need.
- It will assess and coordinate the offering of incentives to encourage participation and expedite breakthroughs in operation and performance.
- It will provide unique, specialized, and organized offerings to districts and schools that are differentiated according to scope and severity of need.
How is The Breakthrough Center Governed?
The Breakthrough Center is a Maryland State Department of Education operation. It works in close partnership with local school districts, private business, government agencies, and philanthropies.
An Advisory Board, under development, with representatives from education, business, government and non-profit organizations, will advise on policy revisions or adoptions that will advance the work of The Breakthrough Center. The Advisory Board will make recommendations to the Governor, the General Assembly, the State Superintendent, and the State Board of Education.
An Executive Director of The Breakthrough Center has authority over management and administrative decision-making and works closely with the State Superintendent and MSDE Executive Team staff to review services but has authority, with State Superintendent approval, to expand or alter service offerings depending on need and effectiveness.
A Leadership Team comprised of decision-making MSDE personnel meet monthly to assess the implementation of The Breakthrough Center, identify the cross-Divisional resources available to support it, and to strategize on the advancement of its work in districts and throughout the State.
A Cross-Functional Team, made up of directors, coordinators, and specialists across MSDE develop high impact and coordinated services for partner districts and schools and create operational efficiencies through strategic coordination of support services across the Department.
District Support Teams are assembled specific to the districts being supported. MSDE and district staff comprise the membership of the team and convene on a regular basis to assess on-going implementation, impact, and to identify adjustments and improvements.
What is the Current Status of The Breakthrough Center?
In collaboration with school districts, The Breakthrough Center develops partnership agreements to support low-performing schools through:
· strategic planning for districts related to their Master Plans
· targeted professional development for teachers in reading/English language arts
· leadership development for school administrators
· the development of PreK-12 professional learning communities focused on aligning and sustaining improvement strategies
· the alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment in schools and at the district level
· the coordination of the Maryland Co-Teaching Network designed to establish effective co-teaching practices in schools throughout the state
· the identification and allocation of available resources to support school and district improvement
During 2009-2010, The Breakthrough Center will intensify its efforts to support underperforming schools to accelerate student achievement and sustain high levels of performance over time.