Talking About Diplomas NowWith One United Voice

Diplomas Now Summer InstituteJuly 8, 2011

What We’ll Cover

Importance of consistent messaging

Key audiences

Key messages

Answers to challenging questions

Effective elevator speech

Group activities

Q&A

Getting Started

Early this year, leaders and communications leaders from all three national organizations met in Baltimore.

Together, we arrived at a consensus on three key elements that we’ll discuss today:

•Key audiences

•Messages

•Answers to challenging questions

Getting Started

National leaders want you to make Diplomas Now—not your individual organization—the focus of your messaging when talking about Diplomas Now.

•The success of Diplomas Now model reflects on your organization.

•Allows your organization to have a stronger impact by being part of a broader effort.

•With a consistent message, DN shows itself as a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Key Audiences

Citywide Community

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•District officials and central office staff•School boards and mayors•Strategic partners •Funders•Local media

NationalCommunity

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•Policymakers•Strategic partners and reform organizations•National media•Current funders, including PepsiCo and United Way •Future corporate and civic supporters

Local School Community

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•Principals•Teachers•School advisorycouncils•Parents •Students•DN staff

Key Message

Diplomas Now is a proven approach that helps the toughest middle and high schools in America’s largest cities ensure that students graduate ready for college or career.

It is the first fully integrated approach that improves a school’s curriculum and instruction while it provides the right students with the right support at the right time.

The Right Support at the The Right Support at the Right TimeRight Time

Targeted Messages

• a safer school supported by a larger group of caring adults

• a greater desire to take responsibility for learning

• graduating with a meaningful diploma ready for the future.

Targeted Messages

• raising achievement scores and graduation rates

• more students positive about learning and fewer focused on misbehavior

• letting teachers teach by providing extra adults to help meet students’ social and emotional needs

Targeted Messages

• available funds used more effectively

• decreased dropout rates, a better trained workforce and new generation of local leaders

• stabilized neighborhoods, improved economic well-being and lower social costs

Targeted Messages

Diplomas Now is a public-private partnership among three major national organizations, local school districts around the country, and our funders. Our founding investor is the PepsiCo Foundation.

Diplomas Now is based on research by one of the nation’s leading experts on the dropout crisis. Diplomas Now recently won a prestigious federal grant that will allow it to expand to more schools nationwide.

Targeted Messages

Diplomas Now combines 65 years of experience from three national nonprofit organizations.

•Talent Development’s proven school organization model for instructional improvement

•City Year’s in-school, full-time “near peer” student coaches

•Communities In Schools’ trained, in-school professional case managers ready to assist students with the highest needs

Responding to Challenging Questions

Who are Diplomas Now’s major competitors?

•Many groups focus on the dropout dilemma in our largest cities, and districts have many choices.

•Diplomas Now offers a fully integrated set of methods, training and student services that districts have not been able to find elsewhere.

What makes Diplomas Now different from other approaches?

•Only fully integrated approach with deep local connections and strong national infrastructure

•Deep respect in the policy community

•Works in both middle and high schools

•Won a prestigious i3 federal grant from the Department of Education

•Largest secondary school turnaround effort

•Works with the nation’s leading dropout experts

Responding to Challenging Questions

Are you too costly?

•The cost of Diplomas Now varies depending upon the size and need of the school, but it is approximately $500-$700 per student.

•Diplomas Now defrays those costs by up to $500,000 over three years with funding from the federal i3 grant.

•Long term, the return on investment from Diplomas Now surpasses any of the single-focused improvement efforts being conducted.

Responding to Challenging Questions

Can I just add City Year and CIS to my whole school reform model or are you a package deal?

All three organizations work together in the toughest 5 percent of schools in the cities Diplomas Now is working in.

Responding to Challenging Questions

What’s the evidence that this works?

Across multiple sites, we have reduced the number of students with off-track indicators in attendance and behavior by 50 percent and improved course performance by up to 75 percent.

In these toughest schools, we’ve more than doubled the number of kids on track to graduation.

Responding to Challenging Questions

Developing an Elevator Speech

Concise Credible

Compelling

Clear

Concise Credible

CompellingCompelling

Concise

Questions?

http://thehatchergroup.com