Section I: Organization Information

Name/Title of Contact:  Judith A. Adamson, Managing Director

Address:  3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
     
Phone Number: 215-823-2500 (ext. 503)

Email Address:  jadamson@researchforaction.org
     
Web Address:  www.researchforaction.org

Total Number of Staff Members: 15

Total Agency Budget: $1,200,000

Agency Mission:  Through research and action, Research for Action seeks to improve the
educational opportunities and outcomes of urban youth, strengthen public schools, and
enrich the policy, civic and community dialogue about public education. We share our
research with parent and community leaders, educators, students, and policy makers with
the goals of building a shared critique of educational inequality and strategizing about
school reform that is socially just.

Fellow’s Job Title: Communications Coordinator


Section II: The Nitty Gritty

1. Will fellow be working at the same address listed above? If not, please list the address
for the fellow’s worksite.

Yes.

2.  Will the fellow have:   

A. ___Own Office?              __x__Shared Office?            ____No Office?  

B. _x__Own Desk?               ____Shared Desk?              ____No Desk?

C. _x__Own Computer?       ____Shared Computer?      ____No Computer?


3. Please state name and title of fellow’s immediate supervisor.

Dr. Jolley Bruce Christman

4. Please approximate the percentage of time fellow will work:

60%  Independently      40%  As a team member in a group setting   

____As a team leader in a group setting

5. Will fellow be expected to travel as part of his/her position?

If so, will travel be: __x__Within Philadelphia?  ____Outside Philadelphia?

How often will they need to travel? Once a week

Will fellow need: ____a car?   ____a transpass?  __x__occasional tokens?

Will the agency provide or reimburse for these expenses?  

RFA will provide or reimburse for any travel expenses.


Section III:  Community Need
Please submit a one paragraph response for each question.

1. Please state in measurable and quantifiable terms the specific community need that the Philly Fellow will address, including the number of people in the community directly
affected by the problem.

The major project of the fellow will address the issue of high school reform in Philadelphia, where there is low achievement, high drop out rates, and graduates who leave ill prepared for post-secondary education and the working world. More than 13,000 students became dropouts or near dropouts during the 2003-2004 school year. The district’s reported graduation rate is 67 percent for the 2006-2007 school year, well below the state average of 88 percent.  Philadelphia’s high school students also perform poorly on other measures that are important for No Child Left Behind (NCLB)--49% and 44% of eleventh grade students performed in the lowest performance category on the state assessments in math and reading, respectively Although these problems plague many of the high schools across the city, they are particularly reflective of Philadelphia’s large comprehensive high schools, which serve the majority of Philadelphia’s students.   High school reform in Philadelphia is currently focused on the conversion of large comprehensive high schools into smaller schools and building a range of educational choices throughout the city in order to better meet the needs of all students.

2. Describe how your agency addresses this need, and how the new capacity created by
this fellow will help alleviate the problem.

Research has shown that successful and sustainable school reform requires the
continuing involvement of all elements of the community – parents, students, teachers,
grassroots community organizations, and civic leaders, as well as school officials and
policy makers.  In order to promote this “civic engagement” RFA has paired its research
activities with a significant increase in communications activity over the last five years.
Communications now plays a vital role in helping us share and disseminate research
knowledge and in enabling us to reach out to diverse audiences. The Philly Fellow will work on a particular project – the high school web page – that will give parents and students vital information about their high school education choices, as well as on general
communications tasks that will strengthen RFA’s ability to make our research more
accessible to policy makers, educators, public school advocates and community
representatives. This project is a valuable contribution to the high school reform effort, as
one of the factors necessary to ensure that increased high school choice and options do
not exacerbate inequities is access to comprehensive information about all of the high
schools. With the kind of information the fellow will be helping to build into the web site,
parents and students can make better, more informed decisions.

3. Describe the level of community involvement in the fellow’s project.

The fellow will develop an advisory team for the web site project that includes youth
activists for high school reform, recruited through RFA’s existing relationships with the
Philadelphia Student Union and Youth United for Change.


Section IV:  Job Description

1. Please outline in list form the fellow’s duties and responsibilities.

Special Project
•        Develops the RFA Small High Schools web page as described in the project plan
below.

In addition, assists in the daily work of communications at RFA, including:

Writing and Publications
•        Drafts articles and letters as directed by senior staff.
•        Writes all electronic communications including the website and eNewsletter.
•        Works with research staff to create PowerPoints.
•        Writes copy and creates simple designs for ads, postcards, flyers and invitations.

Dissemination and Media
•        Assists with external outreach including report releases, special events, and press
briefings.
•        Builds eNews dissemination list.
•        Answers media calls and identifies appropriate staff for response. Maintains good
media contact list.
•        Assists with identifying appropriate audiences for reports and website and develops
strategies to reach them.

Coordinating
•        Tracks and reports on visibility/communications activities for RFA so that information
can be shared with funders and the board and can be used in the eNewsletter and grant
preparation.
•        Works with outside vendors to accomplish communications tasks as needed.


2. Please outline in list form the skills/qualifications a fellow should have to succeed in this
position.

•        Self-starter/takes initiative easily
•        Strong writing skills
•        Has good attention to detail
•        Understanding of, and interest in, education reform
•        Creativity with use of electronic media
•        Basic knowledge of html (desirable)
•        Strong people skills
•        Strong verbal communication skills
•        Knowledge of Quark or other design software (desirable)

3. Please outline your agency’s plan to orient and train the fellow.

The fellow will be an integral part of the RFA communications team, which is headed by
RFA Principal Jolley Christman, and includes a Senior Research Assistant and RFA’s
managing director, as well as RFA’s senior communications consultant.  It will be the
responsibility of this team to provide the fellow with orientation to communications
processes and materials and the web site project.  In addition, RFA has a regular office
orientation for all new employees that includes reviewing RFA materials and talking with
staff.


Section V:  Supervision/Resources

1. Please briefly describe plans for supervision of fellow.

The fellow will be directly supervised by Dr. Christman, and will work with others on the
team, as well as independently with supervision and coaching.  The supervision and
coaching will occur in the context of one to one relationships between the fellow and team
members as well as during biweekly team meetings.    

2. What methods, information, or data will you use to evaluate the fellow’s success in their
position?

Dr. Christman, along with the RFA managing director and senior communications
consultant, will develop a list of competencies to be achieved during the fellowship.  These will be reviewed with the fellow upon beginning work.  The fellow will also identify
additional key competencies that s/he is interested in achieving during the year.  In
addition to the communication team meetings, the fellow will meet with Dr. Christman at a
minimum of once a month to review competencies and progress.  After three months, the
fellow will have a formal interim review.  

The data will include work samples and interviews by Dr. Christman with staff who have
worked closely with the fellow.

Section VI: Project Plan

Please outline goals and results you expect the fellow to achieve and the measures you
will use to evaluate performance. These goals must address the community need stated
above.

1. Please describe the proposed project goal you expect the fellow to achieve.

RFA’s website currently has a Small High Schools page http://www.researchforaction.
org/goinsmall.html. The page includes links to RFA research studies on small schools, a
bibliography of research on small schools and an interactive map of small high schools in
Philadelphia.  The fellow’s main project will be to expand this site to include all high
schools in Philadelphia, as well as links to additional research on high school reform and
characteristics of successful urban high schools.  Additionally the site will link to research
on secondary school choice programs both in Philadelphia and nationally and to evolving
thinking on how to make a system of high school choice fair and equitable. Working with a team of high school youth recruited through RFA contacts at the Philadelphia Student
Union and Youth United for Change, the fellow will creatively design and upload these
WebPages. The Fellow will develop promotional materials and an outreach strategy for the expanded site.  Through this project s/he will lay the foundation for a more sophisticated interactive and dynamic site that will enable students, parents, education advocates, and researchers to access up-to-date information on the high school choices available to Philadelphia youth.  The final goal is a website for Philadelphia similar to the Eye on Education pages of the WGBH website in Boston. http://www2.eyeoneducation.tv/  While it is not expected that RFA will be able to host a site of this size and intricacy within a year, the fellow would identify potential support and partners for such a site.

2. Please list significant milestones for this project and dates by which they will be
accomplished:

By 10/1/08           The fellow will have expanded the current RFA webpage(s) to include
descriptive information on all high schools in Philadelphia.
By 11/15/08        The fellow will have created links to research on equity and effectiveness,
as well as models, of secondary school choice.
By 12/31/08         The fellow will have created links to research on, and examples of,
effective high school models and curricula.
By 1/31/09        The fellow will have developed promotional materials and an outreach
strategy to inform education leaders, researchers, community activists, parents and youth
about the expanded site.
By 3/15/09         The fellow will have talked with staff at WGBH and others in Boston about
the traffic to and the effectiveness of their site.  S/he will explore the web to identify similar
sites in other cities.
By 6/30/09         The fellow will have researched and identified potential funding and
cooperating partners.