From Columbia Law School Center for Public Research and Leadership
Published June 04, 2024
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. Under the leadership of state-appointed Receiver Jeff Riley, the district set out to transform from a highly centralized management structure to a new model they called Open Architecture, through which the district creates and maintains operational and performance ground rules and standards and grants school leaders with school-level autonomy to meet those standards.
After the district made promising improvements in academic achievement and graduation rates, the 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.
Melissa Spash became LPS Assistant Superintendent in 2021 after several years as a middle and high school principal. As part of her portfolio, she was charged with supporting the further development and implementation of the School Autonomy Framework. The district began rolling out the framework in Spring 2023 through a pilot program. As LPS prepares to expand use of the framework this spring, the CPRL team recently sat down with Dr. Spash, now deputy superintendent, to get 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. Dr. Spash will leave LPS to become superintendent of Natick Public Schools this June.
