View Resource: Training for Application Review Team Members
This presentation serves to train the new school Application Review Team (ART) members in Denver. An ART team includes expertise from curriculum, student services, English language acquisition, finance, community engagement and school oversight. The team also includes a designated parent or community member and a separate external consultant. The training shares the rationale for approving new schools in Denver (including schools to replace failing schools) and then walks through the application structure and rubrics. It pairs with a calibration activity that ensures reviewers use a similar lens.
Outcomes and Lessons Learned: The training for the application process has improved based on feedback from reviewers and increasing clarity about the policy guidelines for the work. This presentation helps facilitate that training and also introduces the review team members to one another. One of the key improvements to the process was the addition of practice exercises where participants read an excerpt from a prior application and then norm around the scoring. The practice has proven very helpful in making sure that people know how to read and interpret the scoring rubric before they are asked to apply it.