GRADUAL RELEASE MODELS

Partner Evaluation Team. American University

GRADUAL
RELEASE
MODELS
Policy Brief

PICTURE FROM DIGNITAS FACEBOOK PAGE

JUNE, 2015

What is Gradual Release?

Gradual release ensures the sustainability of impacts after
a program is completed. It should be planned at the
beginning of the partnership in collaboration with the
partner organization and should be built into the design of
the program. It is important that the exit plan remains
flexible with the expectation that some of the exit criteria
and benchmarks may need to be modified during the
program cycle.

Why is it important?
Exit strategies can help clarify time limits and define a
sponsors role to partners reducing the potential for
misunderstandings and future dependency. In general,
these strategies are often called graduation strategies
instead of exit strategies because they happen when the
partner organization accomplishes their goals within the
program.
Exit strategies are based on three criteria:
-Time limit criteria, based on funding cycles.
-Achievement of program impacts.
-Benchmarks or measurement indicators.

I do, We do, You do

Gradual release implies a process through which the
responsibility of instruction/performing a task switches
from the teacher to the student. From teacher centered to
student centered, this process is not linear because
students move back and forth among the components as
they master skills, strategies, and standards. The process
also needs to be aware of the different skills levels and
learning needs of students. Therefore, the model of the
process needs to be vertically aligned which refers to the
intersection between student needs and content
standards.
The gradual release model or Scaffolded instruction is also
referred to as I do it, we do it, you do it, model and it
includes demonstration, prompt, and practice. The model
is a two way mentoring interaction between teacher and
students. In this type of relationship, relational trust is a
lubricant for organizational change and a moral resource
for sustaining the hard work of local school improvement is
essential.

GRADUAL RELEASE MODELS POLICY BRIEF |

The Gradual Release

Model Diagram
This model represents the mentoring interaction between student and teacher in the I do, We do, You do model

Responsibilities
This mentorship relationship includes
responsibilities from both teacher and
students in every stage of the
relationship. Those responsibilities are
better outlined in the table.

Protocols
In these type of relationships, protocols
are important because they provide
structures that clarify purposes, ensure
equal levels of participation, and provide
space for challenging discourse and
decision-making to take place. They can
also enhance each phase of a gradualrelease model, this table to the right
shows this enhancement.

GRADUAL RELEASE MODELS POLICY BRIEF |

Organizations Using
Gradual Release Models
Picture from Secure The Future Website

Leading Educators

Secure the Future

STIR Education Initiative

www.leadingeducators.org

www.securethefuture.com

www.stireducation.org

Leading Educators is a non-profit

organization which began its work in
2011 in the U.S. This organization
partners with schools and districts to
maximize
the
leadership
development of highly effective
teachers. Its ultimate goal is to
bolster the talent pipeline via
identifying and training strong
potential teacher-leaders. Leading
Educators develops teacher-leaders
(e.g., grade chairs, deans, master
teachers, curriculum coordinators,
assistant principals) in order to
significantly
raise
student
achievement and retain talented
educators in urban schools. Leading
Educators is the only national
program that explicitly supports the
management
and
leadership
development of teacher-leaders.
Leading Educators offers a two-year
Fellowship program as well as series
of customized Strategic Support
Initiatives to schools and districts. All
programs focus on developing the
impact and reach of teacher-leaders
in the core curricular areas of
Instructional Leadership, Core Beliefs
and Mindsets, Cultural Leadership,
and Management of Self and Others.

Secure the Future started is a

program funded by the Bristol-Myers
Squibb Foundation which started in
1999 with the aim of developing,
deploying and evaluating costeffective, sustainable and replicable
models for providing care and
support to people living with
HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Its
impact is now reaching 22 countries
in Africa. The programs work focuses
in demonstrating the positive impact
that communities can have on
preventing the transmission of
tuberculosis and reducing deaths
from cervical and breast cancers, by
leveraging the HIV experience and
infrastructure especially among
women. The program is now seeking
to implement a new stage in their
model in which they will offer a
Technical Assistance Program (TAP)
and skills transfer program, with the
hopes to address a strategic
challenge
of
effective
and
operational
multi-sectoral
collaborations in HIV/AIDS and
possibly other chronic conditions,
while sustaining demonstration
programs.

STIR was founded in 2011 with the

aim to improve the quality of
education by targeting teachers
development. The mission of this
organization is to reignite the spark in
teachers and empower them to
become committed, skillful and
influential changemakers - so they
can improve their own teaching, as
well as contribute to the wider goal of
improving quality of education. STIR
seeks to help reclaim the moral
purpose of teaching and its status as
the most noble of professions. Their
vision is to contribute to changing the
perception, status and moral purpose
of teaching along with building a
comprehensive
and
vibrant
ecosystem of public and private
partners to actively support and
sustain the change they are working
to promote. Their model empowers
teachers to re-imagine their role in
leading change in their classrooms,
schools and the wider education
system. They identify teachers who
have even a small, initial spark of
commitment and innovation and
use recognition, peer pressure, soft
incentives, certification, (offline)
social networking and cross-sector
partnerships to bring about a
teacher-led movement for change
within the existing system.

The Models

GRADUAL RELEASE MODELS

Partner Evaluation Team. American University

The Models
Leading Educators
Leading Educators uses a 6 section program
to implement its training. This training
encompasses the areas of: changing
management, instructional leadership,
collaboration, observation and feedback,
adult culture, and student culture. Moreover,
its training model is engrained in a Theory of
Change model that seeks to have a broader
impact in the community, political arena as
well as media in order to provide support for
teachers and schools. The idea behind the
Theory of Change model is that broader
support will have an impact in the program
itself, making it self-sustainable over time.

www.stireducation.org

This model relies on the fact that as teachers improve

their quality of teaching which translates into increased
job satisfaction as they develop skills and increase their
impact. These elements impact the schools efficacy as
they obtain success in their districts and are able to
retain high quality talent. Based on these outcomes, the
organization is able to publish research that validates
the efficacy of its model and therefore, it is able to
disseminate the model and support replication.

Secure the Future

www.leadingeducators.org
rg

GRADUAL RELEASE MODELS

Partner Evaluation Team. American University

Secure The Future

Secure the Future offers a Technical Assistance Program
(TAP) and NGO training institute model while sharing
and replicating Secure The Future lessons, experiences
and successful models. This approach seeks to capitalize
on the organizations funding and program
management experience and expertise by making it
available for beneficiaries to operate on their own and
share knowledge.
The NGO Training Institute model includes:
-

NGO Capacity Building: Professionalize the

NGO and sector
Community Empowerment: Training of board
members and volunteers
Institutional Development: Create more
resourceful learning organizations within the
country

The program support part of the implementation is

executed by an experienced and expert pool of faculty
members who have played a critical role in supporting
Nonprofit and community based organizations to provide
essential services in the Community Based Treatment and
NGO Training Institute Programs. They will share their
experience, knowledge and expertise. The aim of the
faculty is to develop and strengthen organizational and
technical capacity and leverage and harness the potential
of civil society in improve health outcomes of health
programs.
The program is based on a 7 step model called the
Community Based Treatment Support model. In this
model, Gradual release stages are steps4: Build Partner
Capacity (I do), 5: Deliver Services (I do) which involves
putting the program into action by mobilizing the
community, and launching and delivering clinical and
community services to clients and their families. Step 6:
Monitor and Evaluation which includes following the
programs progress to make sure that patients are
receiving the services they need and that the programs
goals are being achieved. Finally, Step 7: Improve and
Revise Services (both part of the We do and You do
phases). In this step it is important to reflect on the current
challenges, successes, risks and needs in order to prepare
for what would come next. In order to do so, the major
input is the data gathered in the monitoring and evaluation
step. This step is also seen as an opportunity to report back
to stakeholders and get their input and assessment in
moving forward. If during this stage objectives are not met
then the affected services should have a thorough review

that may result in revised targets, reallocation of resources,

or improvement of processes.

www.securethefuture.org

Below are some indicators for the NGO Leadership

training development model based on phases:

Finally, the following are indicators for Monitoring and

Evaluation

GRADUAL RELEASE MODELS

Partner Evaluation Team. American University

STIR Education Initiative

The STIR model works in three steps IGNITE, INTEGRATE,
INGRAIN. First, reigniting the motivational spark within
teachers, through recognizing their existing efforts (their
micro-innovations in the classroom) and networking them
together to become change makers, so they can lead
improvement and influence peers. Second, connecting
them to external support and resources to sustainably
improve their practice; and third, handing over ownership
of the movement to teachers themselves over time.
Therefore the underlying model approach is premised on
teacher-led innovation such that teachers can see
themselves as positive role models, innovators and cobuilders of a movement for change in order to improve
childrens learning. STIR has the STIR Inside Programme
that seeks to embed the STIR model fully and deeply into
existing NGO/ Government structures, making it truly
sustainable.
Partner
organizations
(NGOs
and government) receive training, support and certification
from STIR to embed its methodology into their
programmes so they can achieve an increasingly powerful
impact on teacher motivation and practice, and childrens
learning over time
www.stireducation.org

STIRs Monitoring and Evaluation strategy seeks to cover

the following five aspects.

www.stireducation.org

GRADUAL RELEASE MODELS POLICY BRIEF |

REFERENCES

Gardner, Alison, Greenblott, Kara, Joubert, Erika.

What we know about exit strategies. Practical
Guidance for developing exit strategies in the field.
CSAFE. September, 2005.

LEADING EDUCATORS

Secure the Future. Secure the Future Manual:

Seven steps to involve the community in HIV/AIDS
treatment support programmes. Revised edition
2008-2009

www.securethefuture.org

www.leadingeducators.org

www.stireducation.org

https://www.i-probono.com/case-studydetail?id=71 Feb 2015

STIR EDUCATION INITIATIVE

http://idinsight.org

http://www.educationinnovations.org/program/stireducation

http://nayidishaa.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/04/Stir-Brochure.pdf

SECURE THE FUTURE