The Education Innovation Lab at Harvard University - Forward 5 Schools

EdLabs is an education research and development laboratory devoted to closing the racial achievement gap.

We know that eliminating racial and socioeconomic differences in educational achievement will also improve important life outcomes such as income, health, and incarceration rates.

We are an eclectic collection of scientists, educators, and implementers with diverse backgrounds and vast experience, generating ideas and implementing experiments that have the potential to transform education.

Edlabs has no political affiliation or agenda to promote. We squeeze truths from data. People may not always like what we discover, but we will disseminate our results no matter what we find.

EdLabs is not a traditional academic center or think tank, and we strive to be bolder, more effective, and more connected to the everyday challenges of school districts.

We do our best work with ambitious, reform-minded leaders who always place what is best for children over adult issues.

We aim to solve the problems that many others believe are intractable. Our ultimate goal is to close the achievement gap and to put ourselves out of business.

The Springfield Public Schools Forward 5 initiative is a bold approach to help drive rapid and significant increases in student achievement at five of the district’s schools: Chestnut, Kennedy and Kiley middle schools, the High School of Commerce, White Street, and DeBerry Elementary School. The program becomes effective for the 2013-14 school year.

Forward 5 schools use strategies and best practices from successful elementary and secondary schools across the nation. Five strategies have been identified by Harvard University’s Education Innovation Laboratory, SPS’s partner in the Forward 5 program.

Those strategies include: •An effective principal and effective teachers •More instructional time •Use of data to drive instruction •In-school tutoring •A culture of high expectations

Forward 5 schools will focus on intensive science, math and reading curriculums. The programs will include small-group tutoring sessions for students and revised teaching and learning strategies, among others initiatives.