Founded in 2006, the New Leaders’ Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) is a core part of our effort to improve student and school performance. The EPIC program identifies urban schools driving the highest student achievement gains within our grant partner districts and a consortium of charter schools and then awards the school leaders and teachers for sharing the practices that lead to the gains. By investigating EPIC award-winners, we learn what is working to transform these high-need schools and use that knowledge to enhance the New Leaders program and provide professional development tools for educators nationwide.
The EPIC program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), our school district and charter school partners, and private philanthropic funders, including Carnegie Corporation of New York, Hyde Family Foundation, Kern Family Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Pearson Foundation, and two Anonymous donors.
The EPIC Knowledge System
The EPIC Knowledge System is a rich and growing online professional development resource where educators can learn from one another about the effective practices that contribute to dramatic student achievement gains.
EPIC partners with each award-winning school to analyze and document their school practice and leadership actions and then develops a case study showing the real-life examples, specific strategies and tools that contributed to their students’ success. The Knowledge System resources are mapped directly to the Urban Excellence Framework—New Leaders’ structure of leadership actions taken by successful principals that drive teacher effectiveness and student learning.
By making hundreds of case studies, videos, and artifacts available on the Knowledge System, EPIC offers educators a powerful tool to significantly build capacity for school improvement and impact student achievement.
The Professional Development Resources section of the EPIC Knowledge System contains session plans created for New Leaders, grant partners, and charter management organizations that integrate EPIC resources into rigorous learning experiences where school leaders use the examples of others to reflect on and examine their own practices and adapt strategies to improve student outcomes in their own school contexts.
The EPIC Knowledge System is a password-protected website available to EPIC grant partners and the New Leaders community. If you would like to partner with EPIC to make the Knowledge System available to your organization, please contact Susan Bakst at 646.792.1070 x1108 or email sbakst@newleaders.org.
The EPIC Incentive Awards Program
Over the past four years, EPIC has awarded $15.5 million to more than 5,100 principals, assistant principals, teachers, and teaching assistants in over 200 schools to recognize their significant student achievement gains and for participating in a rigorous process to identify and document the effective practice that led to their students’ success.
To identify schools with the highest student achievement gains, EPIC, in partnership with Mathematica Policy Research (MPR), creates and refines a Value Added Model (VAM) for each of its grant partners. The EPIC VAM measures how much a school contributes to test score improvements for its students regardless of students’ prior abilities and non-school factors. The EPIC value-added model used in the charter school awards program is unique in that it allows comparison of test scores across different states.
The EPIC program operates in partnership with a consortium of charter schools across the country and with District of Columbia Public Schools, Memphis City Schools, and Denver Public Schools.
Research and Evaluation
EPIC is committed to independent, ongoing evaluation of all components of the program model and engaged Rockman et al to produce these reports.
- The EPIC Professional Learning Model
- An Evaluation of EPIC’s Analysis of School Practice & Knowledge System
- Investigating the Impact of EPIC PD on Perspectives Charter School Principals
Evaluation Report: The EPIC Leadership Development Model and Pilot Programs
Support EPIC
Donate today to help EPIC continue to identify, document, and share the knowledge that will help build leadership capacity and drive student achievement gains in even more high-need urban schools. If you have questions, please contact Adrianna Carlesimo at acarlesimo@newleaders.org.
