Who are we
Our story
When Doug McCurry co-founded Achievement First, he set a classic BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal): AF schools, serving a student body that was 98% Black or Latino with 85% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, would outperform the wealthiest suburban schools in the state. Whether you call it the achievement gap or the opportunity gap or something else, the stark reality was that for decades, urban schools in Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island were vastly underperforming schools serving a student population that was much whiter and wealthier. When Doug left AF 21 years later, the BHAG didn’t look so hairy. Across the seven New York Middle Schools, 8th graders were outperforming the composite average of the wealthiest districts in NY (e.g., Rye, Harrison, Mamaroneck, etc.) in both ELA and Math. Moreover, AF Amistad High had been named the #1 high school in Connecticut by US News & World Report, and AF Hartford High was #3, and AF Iluminar in Rhode Island was the #1 school in Rhode Island.
These results were not the result of superhuman leadership or magical curriculum. Rather, they stemmed from the consistent execution of a set of proven practices. Perhaps the most effective designer, evolver, and supporter of these practices was Riley Bauling. Riley went from the highest-performing math teacher (+10 percentage points above the wealthiest districts in New York) to the highest-performing principals (his school was named a National Blue Ribbon School) to the highest-performing regional superintendent of AF where his schools saw suspension rates drop by 41%, and he improved proficiency in math and ELA at the schools he managed by 48 percentage points and 32 percentage points.
Doug left AF in 2020, and Riley left two years later. They were first both independent consultants, and as they compared notes, they realized the same core trends: 1) Schools did not have a robust readiness process, and they often entered the year unprepared, 2) Schools did not have the structures in place to ensure rapid teacher and leader development, 3) Leaders lacked both core skills and, even more importantly, a playbook to execute these skills.
Doug and Riley joined forces, launched Simply Great Schools, and created a comprehensive readiness playbook, turnkey summer PD materials, and an Arc of the Year playbook. They then trained dozens of schools, building leader skills and showing leaders how to leverage their robust playbook. From the start, Riley & Doug leveraged other consultants with particular expertise, and as school leaders consistently gave rave reviews and the work expanded, Riley and Doug added other strong team members – all of whom have a track record of driving dramatic student achievement gains as school leaders or superintendents – to support the work.
You can run simply great schools where students achieve and adults stay.
Why Simply Great Schools?
The feeling inside a simply great school is magical.
Walking from classroom to classroom, there is a consistent alignment of strong practices. Room set-up is purposeful. Directions for rigorous tasks are clear and concise. Routines are tight and joyful with students respectfully listening to other students when they are speaking and immediately starting work when cued by the teacher. Students do the vast majority of the thinking and talking, and teachers actively circulating giving clear, targeted feedback. The rapport between teachers and students is palpable, the ratio of positive to corrective is off-the-charts, and an intellectual buzz emanates from every turn-and-talk, small group, and whole group discussion. Students eagerly leverage long stretches of independent reading and writing, and they love getting feedback to make their thinking stronger and their work better.
Look more closely still. You’ll see leaders whispering “just right” feedback to teachers or pausing the class to show a teacher how to more effectively ask a question or give feedback to students. In teachers’ hands, you’ll see not a typical plan but evidence of deep intellectual preparation: the teacher has done the students work at a high level and has marked it up with students to check in with and questions to ask if students have misconceptions.
Look even deeper. You’ll see teachers in conference rooms and offices with leaders sparring on the intellectual preparation for an upcoming lesson or practicing how to give clear directions or how to give “just right” feedback to different student work. Or you might see a group of teachers geeking out on student work, sorting the work into exemplar, proficient, approaching, and far-off-standard piles before determining the critical mass of error and the re-teaching plan.
It’s not magic, though. Within 30 seconds of entering the school, you knew it was special. After thirty minutes, you want to know what the secret sauce is, how you can bottle the magic formula, so you ask the school leader. She smiles and tells you, “We have no magic. We have no secret sauce. We have consistency, alignment, and simplicity. Any school can do what we are doing – if they truly want to.”
The leader explains to you her belief that May is won in September, September is won in July, and July is won in May. After a bit of head-scratching from you, she explains that to win on end-of-year assessments, you have to start the year super-strong. To start the year super-strong, you need amazing PD and practice in July, and to do that, you have to be fully hired and ready by May. She shows you her comprehensive readiness plan, a Google sheet with her core plans – Top 5 Goals, Leader Roles & Responsibilities, Vision for Dismissal, PD plan for the year, Removal/Re-entry Protocol, and more – linked in a clear and organized fashion. You notice that they are all clear, actionable, simple, and aligned to each other.
She then goes on to explain that everyone in their building is very clear on what their jobs are – and what their goals are. The teacher’s job is to hold a high bar and give constant feedback to students. The deans do the same for the teachers, and the principal does that for the deans.
As you thank the principal for the visit, you pass by the school’s data wall. You see breakthrough academic results – the students at her school, the vast majority lower-income and Black or Latino – are outperforming some of the wealthiest school districts in the state. Moreover, the student and parent survey results and staff retention numbers indicate that this is a place that is beloved by multiple constituents.
In short, the school is simply great.
Simply great schools can use a variety of curricula or be more “traditional” or “progressive.” What they share is a commitment to clarity, alignment, and simplicity … and relentless execution of this shared vision toward clear, agreed-upon outcomes.
We can help you run a simply great school.
It doesn’t take magic to get there. It doesn’t take superhuman leaders. Mere mortals can do it too.
We can help you get there, for we’ve run simply great schools ourselves. Dozens of them. And we’ve visited hundreds more, studying what works and distilling it in ways that any school can leverage.