The Strategic System Snapshot | Mini
Are your schools and students set up for success?
December 2018
Does your school system leverage every minute, person, and dollar for student success?
The Strategic System Snapshot | Mini is a quick self-assessment that helps district leaders and community members better understand how well resources—people, time, and money—are used across the district, and whether the central office or schools have the “enabling conditions” to help all students reach high standards. It can be used as part of a strategic planning process, annual budgeting process, community engagement activity, and more. The Snapshot | Mini is the next evolution of our popular Resource Check tool, which we have retired.
How does it work?
You’ll read statements in seven key areas and rate whether each one applies on average in your district’s schools. There’s no prep required, and you can take the Mini as part of a group to compare answers. These sections map to the seven elements of ERS’ Strategic System framework:
- Standards and Instructional Resources
- Teaching
- School Design
- Leadership
- School Support
- Funding & Portfolio
- Community Engagement
On the results page, you will see how your responses compare to “best practice.” Our definition of “best practice” is based on over 10 years of work with large urban districts, as well as deep study of the research into what makes high-performing school systems succeed.
How does The Mini compare to The Strategic System Snapshot?
The Strategic System Snapshot | Minia quick, do-it-yourself version of our Strategic System Snapshot project. Our more in-depth Snapshot project is an integrated, comprehensive assessment of district conditions and resource use, based on data and district interviews. We review the analysis with district leaders and partner with them to identify and clarify next steps.
Read more about our vision for urban school system transformation in the District Designsection of our website.