Video Resources
Meet the A-GAME Trailblazers
Piloting with the hardest schools to measure using traditional measures, the A-GAME came up with a process for school accountability that moves well beyond standardized test results. Meet the trailblazers in this video.
Accountability Disconnect
In the Accountability Disconnect and Defining Quality video, school leaders discuss the disconnect when assessing school quality using the current state and authorizer accountability systems. They discuss the common measures used for capturing student growth and achievement such as proficiency rates on state assessments, four-year cohort graduation rates, truancy or attendance, and high school exit exams. The school leaders explain how these measures miss what matters most to their families, students, and teachers. When if they were every labeled a failing school by their authorizer or the state’s report card, the school leaders discuss the impact of being considered a “failing school” on their staff and families and how a new approach to accountability is necessary.
Innovative Measures
In the Innovative Measures video, hear from school leaders about the types of measures and methods of differentiation they, with their authorizer, developed using the A-GAME process to capture student academic growth and social-emotional learning. These measures go beyond what is currently used by states and authorizers to determine school quality. They are derived by asking what matters most for the school, their families, and their staff. They are intended to measure the extent to which the school is successfully meeting its mission.
Authorizer Mindset
In the Authorizer Mindset video, school leaders discuss what they need in their authorizer in order to create a positive relationship that supports student learning. They discuss the issues that they have had when authorizers are not willing to look beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to authorizing. They reflect on how they felt being able to truly negotiate their goals with their authorizer due to having an external facilitator as part of the Responsive Goals process.
Higher Standards
In the Higher Standards video, school leaders react to the question about whether Responsive Goals, which do not rely on state assessment proficiency rates and other federally recognized accountability measures, as lowering standards. The leaders respond how they feel that responsive goals, that measure ALL students, actually raise the standards.
Social Emotional Learning
Hear from charter authorizers about how they incorporate social emotional development in their oversight frameworks and school goals. They respond to school involvement in choosing the assessment, the rollout process, and how the data can inform schools in turn around or recovering from a low academic year. They speak to the importance of capturing quantitatively school climate, student engagement, and social emotional development as well as the validity of the data.
Why A-GAME and its Impact
Hear from school leaders about the impact A-GAME has had on their relationship with their authorizer, their ability to align their accountability goals with staff goals and to finally have charter goals that measure what matters.
How A-GAME can work with all schools
In How A-GAME can Work with All Schools, school leaders of alternative education campuses respond to the question on how all schools should be measured. They discuss that each school has a different mission, course offering, and approach and that this should be considered when evaluating the school’s impact.
Hear It From Our Partners!
A-GAME has helped bring clarity and unique measurable goals to our clients. Here is what they have to say!
Join the A-GAME
Join the A-GAME
If you are an authorizer interested in joining one or more of these authorizers in a regional network? Want to learn more about the A-GAME? Please complete this form.
Our office greatly values the relationships we have established with the charter schools in our portfolio. As an authorizer, Compliance monitoring is certainly an important part of the work, but catching schools doing something wrong is no fun. It's more enjoyable and inspiring to recognize schools for doing something innovative and effective. Students and families are better served when all stakeholders are pulling in the same direction.
