“We restart, reshape, and remake a school by bringing in the ingredients that weren’t there before to provide an opportunity for children to reach their highest potential,” says Executive Director Donald Feinstein, PhD. The organization restarts low-performing schools by hiring a new staff of strong leaders and skilled teachers. It then works to create a positive culture and climate, improve the curriculum and assessment programs, include new enrichment and after-school programs, and establish stronger and more positive relationships within the school and with the community and parents alike.
Because AUSL recognizes that teachers are the crucial levers for student achievement for children in poverty, it has created a teacher residency program to train aspiring instructors to be effective in schools that need to be fixed. During the yearlong program, teachers work four days in a classroom and take classes for their master’s degree on the fifth day. In the past five years, 80 percent of the teachers who have graduated from the program have remained in public school classrooms.
The teachers who reshape AUSL-managed schools understand that the poverty their students face requires schools that act against adversity. “The adults in the building have high expectations and will deliver quality instruction regardless of the challenges we face,” says Feinstein. As such, AUSL schools have curriculums that accelerate learning for those who enter well below grade level. They look to educate the whole child by providing social and emotional support for children and their families and will intervene when they see children who are disengaged. “We make sure that our schools are very orderly and welcoming, our routines are predictable, and our teachers are resilient and reflexive problem solvers,” says Feinstein. “We have a no-excuses mindset.”