STEP is 'School Transformation and Empowerment Project', an initiative of MANTRA Social Services to promote and improve quality in schools serving low-income communities in the city

1. To transform schools and empower a generation, one step at a time
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history”
- Mohandas Gandhi

2. What is STEP?
What is STEP?
School Transformation and Empowerment Project (STEP) is an
initiative of MANTRA Social Services-Bangalore designed to improve
and promote quality in existing schools serving the socio-economically
disadvantaged population in the city.
MANTRA entered into a two year learning focused partnership with
4 low-fee private schools and 3 government run schools in the
current academic year (2014-2015). Through a multi-staged School
Improvement Framework, STEP intends to bring in coherence to
school-wide activities aimed at re-defining and improving the
quality of outcomes expected of these schools.

3. STEP VISION
Every school delivers what a child deserves - quality education
STEP MISSION
To engage with underachieving schools (and its stakeholders) through a
multi-stage school improvement framework that enables successful
outcomes and empowers such schools to serve as pathway of opportunity
for every child
Innovate and integrate system-wide processes and tools that equip
stakeholders (school leaders, parents, teachers and students), enhance
existing improvement activities and sustain change efforts to ensure
successful outcomes beyond the two-year intervention cycle

4. Project Goals: 3 years
To impact 16 schools and 6400 children through STEP by 2017,
ensuring that each school
– delivers quality affordable education in the face of demanding environment and
constraints, through better processes, tools and school-wide systems
– guarantees improved learning outcome that rely less on curricular or infrastructural
change and more on teacher efficacy and methodology
To be engaged with a wide array of schools and sustain a passionate
core team in a school-site based work environment that leads to
– a conducive environment for innovation and radical augmentation of solutions at
school and systemic levels
– replicable and cost-effective implementation, enabling STEP expansion to impact 92
schools (and in turn 36800 children) by 2020
– creating proof points and raising the bar for quality of outcomes across similar schools,
in turn driving system level changes for affordable education

5. Strategic Intent: Year One
For Partner School For MANTRA
100% STEP school leaders should be able to invest
school team in crafting vision-mission and goals for
their school AND every school team should display
the will, skill and ownership to drive a positive
school culture in demanding environment
90% of all teaching staff at STEP partner schools
should participate in activities and sessions aimed
at building capacity and creating conditions of
effectiveness for implementing a school
improvement plan AND 70% of participants (at
the least) should find activities useful and follow
through with the action items
Design and contextualize an effective School
Improvement Framework* for underachieving
private/government schools, based on proof points
and ‘conditions for effectiveness’ of STEP activities
in partner schools
Develop personalized tools and processes that
enable similar schools to meet quality standards
and outcomes indicated by national or state level
quality accreditation frameworks**
Benchmark academic outcomes for students and
competencies for teacher effectiveness in similar
schools through ongoing evaluation and analysis of
teaching-learning process in partner schools
*MANTRA currently refers to the ‘School Improvement Planning Framework(‘© TDA) and suite of tools developed by the TDA - Training
and Development Agency for Schools,UK for designing various stages of intervention.
* * The SQAAF( School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Form) and KSQAAC (Karnataka School Quality Assessment and
Accreditation Council) list various indicators and sub-indicators for quality through measurement rubrics

6. Project Framework
The project framework*
sets out STEP planning
process in three stages -
Prepare and engage,
Identify objectives and
Ensure successful
outcomes – with
modules in each stage
focusing on particular
aspects of school
transformation.
The framework* is flexible and first stage of STEP will determine if the partner school will go
through each stage and module or if it will pick particular tools that are relevant to their needs.
Each of the school profile presents varying degrees of advantages and challenges (of cost,
human capital, capacity, political will and efficacy), in turn aiding innovation and integration of
tools/processes that will enable cost-effective implementation of STEP into similar schools in
coming years.
* MANTRA currently refers to the ‘School Improvement Planning Framework’ (© TDA)
which is the developed by the TDA - Training and Development Agency for Schools-UK

7. Project Activities
School Level Change
For School Leadership and School Team
Instructional Change
For Teachers and Students
Connect with School Leader/Management to
conduct a need assessment of each school,
identify key gaps and make a case for school
improvement through a two year partnership
Engage in a series of interactions and knowledge
building sessions with school team to co-create
vision, goals and action plan for quality
improvement and positive school culture
Training and workshops to equip teachers with
strong classroom & teamwork skills focusing on
collaboration at planning level and teaching-learning
practices within classrooms.
Facilitate meaningful professional development
for teachers, building up on their current
knowledge-skill-mindset
Process and tools
For MANTRA and School Team
Community engagement
For Parents & External Stakeholders
Provide additional support with personalized
processes and tools to build accountability, track
progress and inform critical decisions at school
and classroom level
Plan forums for innovation, research and
knowledge sharing among school leaders and
teachers, across partner schools
Interface with and involve parents and
community/external stakeholders to take up
responsibilities and catalyze change efforts
Integrate best practices and processes that will
create ‘conditions for effectiveness’ across key
levers to sustain long-term change efforts

8. Project Highlights
• MANTRA’s core-team will work at the school-site through out the first year of
engagement for a grass roots level experience that enables innovation and
personalization of solutions AND continuously increases effectiveness of
both person and process involved
• During second year, the project will demand school leader and school team
members to meet rigorous targets and show-case progress in learning
outcomes and processes to ensure we are gradually passing on responsibility
for a smooth exit process at end of two years
• MANTRA’s network of partner schools will create a platform for sharing
lessons and innovative practices across schools. This will also enable
research and knowledge sharing to benchmark learning outcomes and
teacher competency in similar schools/classrooms
• The school teams will get access and exposure to school level and
instructional best practices through MANTRA’s learning forum and initiative
to bring in experts and veterans into partner schools for learning focused
interactions

9. For further details,
Email : santosh@mantra4change.com
Call : +91-8105 861 047, +91-9731 789 611
Find us online:
www.facebook.com/mantra4change