[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 152 (Friday, November 22, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SCHOOL PERFORMANCE NETWORK

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. WILLIAM J. COYNE

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 22, 2002

  Mr. COYNE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to let my colleagues know about 
an important education initiative that is currently under way in 
western Pennsylvania. This initiative is the School Performance 
Network, an organization dedicated to disseminating best practices in 
education to teachers, and to encouraging connections and shared 
resources among educators.
  The School Performance Network today consists of 33 public school 
districts and 3 dioceses from 14 different counties in western 
Pennsylvania. The organization's mission is to ``assist schools and 
districts in the development and use of systems, tools, and practices 
that help educators improve learning.'' The SPN attempts to improve 
educational outcomes through the pursuit of ``total performance.''
  Total performance is a phrase used to describe a philosophy espousing 
continuous effort to promote greater student learning and achievement. 
This approach focuses on setting high achievement standards and 
developing a curriculum that meets them. Total performance seeks to use 
these standards and performance data to modify teachers' instructional 
approaches. It also seeks to ensure that teachers and principals take 
full advantage of available resource like religious and civic 
organizations--and that they use the available resources strategically 
to maximize performance improvements. This approach also endeavors to 
establish a culture that supports collective effort and accountability. 
Finally, it emphasizes establishing partnerships to enhance and extend 
student learning opportunities.
  The School Performance Network provides schools with access to 
research that highlights the best teaching methods, as well as to 
colleagues with similar goals and different experiences. This 
organization also brokers external partnerships and promotes 
Cooperative Learning Teams that collaborate across geographic and 
political boundaries.
  The stimulus for this initiative came from the Heinz Endowments. This 
philanthropic institution recognized that isolation limited the ability 
of individual schools to improve student achievement. In the course of 
a 1996 program review of school efforts to promote ``total 
performance,'' the Endowment's education staff, having made a number of 
grants to regional schools in order to improve education results, 
concluded that even greater progress could be made by promoting 
communication among these schools. The Endowment provided funding in 
1998 to develop plans for establishing such a network. Subsequently, in 
early 2000, a pilot program consisting of 8 school districts was 
undertaken. Later that year, the pilot program was successfully 
concluded and the School Performance Network began expanding its 
membership.
  I want to commend the Heinz Endowment for its vision in establishing 
the School Performance Network. I want to commend Dr. Mary Catherine 
Conroy Hayden for her leadership of the School Performance Network. And 
I want to thank the School Performance Network and its many partners 
for their efforts to improve the quality of education in this country.
  Mr. Speaker, this regional collaborative effort holds tremendous 
potential for implementing education reform nation-wide. I urge my 
colleagues to explore the possibility of establishing similar efforts 
in their own communities.

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