Effective Schools Framework

The Effective Schools Framework Overview

The goal of the Effective Schools Framework (ESF) is to provide a clear vision for what districts and schools across the state do to ensure an excellent education for all Texas students. The framework, based on years of educational research of best practices, identifies 5 levers essential for successful school outcomes.

Structure of the ESF

The Effective Schools Framework consists of a set of district commitments and, for schools, essential actions. District Commitments describe what local education agencies do to ensure that schools are successful. The Essential Actions describe what the most effective schools do to support powerful teaching and learning.

ESF Levers

The ESF Defines 5 levers that are essential in high performing campuses. Each lever includes:

District Commitments	District commitments describe what local education agencies do to ensure that schools are set up for success.
Essential Actions	Essential Actions describe what the most effective schools do to support powerful teaching and learning.
Foundational Essential Actions	Each lever has one foundational essential action, which schools should address first in continuous improvement efforts, as they provide the foundation upon which the other essential actions develop.
Key Practices	Each Essential Action includes a set of key practices that define what the essential action entails when implemented with fidelity.

A brief description of each lever can be found below:

Effective campus instructional leaders with clear roles and responsibilities develop, implement, and monitor campus systems and structures that are aligned to a compelling school mission, vision, values, and goals rooted in student achievement.

Campus leadership retains effective, well-supported teachers by strategically recruiting, selecting, assigning and inducting teachers so that all students have access to high-quality educators.

Campus systems support positive school culture through explicit behavioral expectations, school-wide culture routines, proactive and responsive student support services, and involved families and communities.

All students engage daily with TEKS-aligned, high-quality instructional materials, and assessments that support learning at appropriate levels of rigor.

Campus leaders provide teachers with job-embedded professional development, including observation and feedback cycles, and access to time and data needed to reflect, adjust, and deliver instruction that meets the needs of all students.