Project Management: Lessons from Delaware and Tennessee

The First Hundred Days Long-Term Oversight One of the key ways both Delaware and Tennessee have built their long-term implementation capacity is by setting up oversight mechanisms to monitor long-term RTTT implementation. Speciﬁcally, both Delaware and Tennessee have created performance management functions within their state education agencies. In addition, Tennessee has created an external oversight mechanism composed of key stakeholders. In Delaware, long-term RTTT oversight is being led by a new Project Management Ofﬁce (PMO) housed within the DDOE. Within the PMO, a Performance Management Team is being created to track performance data, alert the Secretary when performance is off track, and lead problem solving sessions with key DDOE personnel to identify ways to get performance back on track when necessary. The state is also working with the U.S. Education Delivery Institute, a national education nonproﬁt founded by Sir Michael Barber, to assist the Performance Management Team in developing its oversight and monitoring processes. In Tennessee, the state has established two primary internal performance management functions. First, TDOE reestablished a Both Delaware and Tennessee have created performance management functions within their state education agencies. In addition, Tennessee has created an external oversight mechanism composed of key stakeholders. Project Management Oversight Committee (PMOC), which had previously existed within TDOE to manage complex projects. The PMOC is responsible for launching and monitoring the deliverables of each individual RTTT project as well as ensuring connections are made across projects. The PMOC includes members from the Governor’s Ofﬁce, TDOE, and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, which is responsible for overseeing approximately $20 million of RTTT projects. In addition to the PMOC, Tennessee has established an Education Delivery Unit (EDU) within TDOE to monitor the long-term progress of RTTT implementation, speciﬁcally the extent to which RTTT is SCORE August 2010 achieving the state’s student achievement goals. Like Delaware’s Performance Management Team, EDU staff will work with the U.S. Education Delivery Institute to develop systems for monitoring performance data and working with the Commissioner of Education to intervene when performance is off track. In addition to these performance management functions within TDOE, Tennessee has established an external oversight mechanism, the First to the Top Advisory Council. The Advisory Council is composed of 14 key education leaders from across the state including four elected or appointed ofﬁcials, six foundation or business representatives, and four educators. The Governor-appointed Council meets every six to ten weeks and is tasked with monitoring RTTT implementation. Since the state will be undergoing a gubernatorial transition in November 2010, the hope is that the Council will serve as a mechanism for ensuring RTTT implementation is continued smoothly across gubernatorial administrations. State Capacity In addition to establishing oversight mechanisms, both Delaware and Tennessee have begun adding staff to create long-term implementation capacity within the state. As of early August 2010, both states had ﬁlled approximately half of the positions they were hoping to ﬁll, with Delaware having ﬁlled most of their senior level positions and Tennessee having ﬁlled most of their mid-level positions. While both states were aiming to hire a mix of both in-state and out-of-state candidates, Tennessee has primarily hired in-state candidates to date while Delaware has hired a mix of in-state and out-of-state candidates. In addition to hiring new personnel, both states were working to restructure their SEAs, with the restructuring in Tennessee being much more signiﬁcant than the restructuring in Delaware. In Delaware, all of the state’s new hires will work within DDOE’s new PMO. The PMO is composed of three units: (1) the Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Unit (TLEU), which will lead the state’s teacher and leader effectiveness initiatives (2) the School Turnaround Unit (STU), which will lead the state’s efforts to turnaround low-performing schools and (3) the previously mentioned Performance Management Unit, which will focus on monitoring RTTT implementation. DDOE has had a very aggressive national recruiting effort to identify leaders of the PMU, TLEU, and STU. To date, Delaware 2 has hired Jim Palmer, a former Bank of America executive, to lead the PMU; Pete Schulman, the former leader of Miami-Dade County Public Both Delaware and Tennessee are partnering with a select group of state and national partners to provide technical assistance in areas where the state lacks either capacity or expertise. Schools’ teacher effectiveness efforts, to lead the TLEU; and Noreen LaSorsa, a former high school principal in Delaware’s Christina School District, to run the STU. Prior to Delaware’s RTTT application, Secretary Lowery reorganized DDOE to streamline the agency’s workﬂow and focus on the SEA’s top priorities. This restructuring was well aligned with Delaware’s RTTT plan and, when combined with the formation of the PMO, provides a strong organizational structure for RTTT implementation. Tennessee is also hiring new staff to build the state’s long-term implementation capacity. However, unlike in Delaware, Tennessee is hiring staff in several different state agencies, not just the state education agency. For example, the Governor’s ofﬁce has hired a former policy analyst at Vanderbilt’s National Center for Performance Incentives to run the state’s teacher evaluation efforts; the Tennessee Higher Education Commission has hired a former analyst from the non-proﬁt SCORE to lead the design of the state’s new teacher preparation program report card; and TDOE has hired Cory Curl, the Governor’s former education policy advisor, to run the Education Delivery Un

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