Since 2020, CPRL has worked with Lawrence Public Schools (LPS) in Massachusetts to create a framework to guide its school improvement work. As one of the lowest performing districts in the state, LPS was put into receivership in 2011. The district set out to transform from a highly centralized management structure to a new model that creates and maintains operational and performance ground rules and standards and grants school leaders with school-level autonomy to meet those standards. LPS engaged CPRL to lead a process for developing a School Autonomy Framework to help the district better understand what success looks like in its schools and how it can best support schools to meet the needs of all students. Several years later, they are seeing results. LPS Assistant Superintendent Melissa Spash shares her reflections on the process for developing the framework and what it has meant for the district and for her own work as a leader.
