Implementation in a Longitudinal Sample of New American Schools

Implementation in a Longitudinal Sample of New American Schools PDF Author: Sheila Nataraj Kirby
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 9780833030603
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 99

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Book Description
New American Schools (NAS) a private nonprofit corporation, began in 1991 to fund the development of designs aimed at transforming entire schools at the elementary and secondary levels. After competition and development phases, NAS currently is scaling up its designs to form a critical mass of schools within partnering districts. During this phase, RAND's research activities include monitoring the progress of a sample of NAS schools in seven partnering jurisdictions through the 1999-2000 school year. An earlier report provided an overview of the progress in implementation and performance in a longitudinal sample of schools three years into the scale-up phase. The current report provides an update on the progress in implementation one year later in a longitudinal sample of schools adopting one of seven designs. It is based on a variety of data gathered from the schools: principal and teacher surveys conducted during the 1996-1997, 1997-1998, and 1998-1999 school years, and data provided by districts on school demographic characteristics. New American Schools (NAS) was founded in 1991 as a private, non-profit organization dedicated to whole-school reform. NAS's mission is to help schools and districts significantly raise the achievement of large numbers of students with whole-school designs and the assistance design teams provide during the implementation process. NAS is currently in the scale-up phase of its effort in which the designs are being widely diffused in partnering jurisdictions across the nation. An earlier report, Implementation and Performance in New American Schools, by Berends, Kirby, et al. (2001) provided an overview of the progress in implementation and performance in a longitudinal sample of schools three years into the scale-up phase. This report provides an update on the progress of implementation a year later. These schools adopted one of seven NAS designs and are located in one of seven jurisdictions that chose to partner with NAS at the beginning of the scale-up phase. The study focused on three research questions: What was the level of implementation in NAS schools four years after scale-up and how has this changed over time? What factors impeded or facilitated the implementation of NAS designs in these schools? Among schools that dropped the NAS designs, what factors contributed to this decision? The report makes clear that several factors need to be aligned for designs to be well-implemented in schools: strong principal leadership, teachers who support the designs and have a strong sense of efficacy, strong district leadership and support, and clear communication and assistance from design teams. Without strong implementation, the promise of these designs to help schools improve is unlikely to be met. These are sobering and important lessons for federal, state, and local efforts aimed at comprehensive school reform.

Implementation in a Longitudinal Sample of New American Schools

Implementation in a Longitudinal Sample of New American Schools PDF Author: Sheila Nataraj Kirby
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 9780833030603
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 99

Get Book Here

Book Description
New American Schools (NAS) a private nonprofit corporation, began in 1991 to fund the development of designs aimed at transforming entire schools at the elementary and secondary levels. After competition and development phases, NAS currently is scaling up its designs to form a critical mass of schools within partnering districts. During this phase, RAND's research activities include monitoring the progress of a sample of NAS schools in seven partnering jurisdictions through the 1999-2000 school year. An earlier report provided an overview of the progress in implementation and performance in a longitudinal sample of schools three years into the scale-up phase. The current report provides an update on the progress in implementation one year later in a longitudinal sample of schools adopting one of seven designs. It is based on a variety of data gathered from the schools: principal and teacher surveys conducted during the 1996-1997, 1997-1998, and 1998-1999 school years, and data provided by districts on school demographic characteristics. New American Schools (NAS) was founded in 1991 as a private, non-profit organization dedicated to whole-school reform. NAS's mission is to help schools and districts significantly raise the achievement of large numbers of students with whole-school designs and the assistance design teams provide during the implementation process. NAS is currently in the scale-up phase of its effort in which the designs are being widely diffused in partnering jurisdictions across the nation. An earlier report, Implementation and Performance in New American Schools, by Berends, Kirby, et al. (2001) provided an overview of the progress in implementation and performance in a longitudinal sample of schools three years into the scale-up phase. This report provides an update on the progress of implementation a year later. These schools adopted one of seven NAS designs and are located in one of seven jurisdictions that chose to partner with NAS at the beginning of the scale-up phase. The study focused on three research questions: What was the level of implementation in NAS schools four years after scale-up and how has this changed over time? What factors impeded or facilitated the implementation of NAS designs in these schools? Among schools that dropped the NAS designs, what factors contributed to this decision? The report makes clear that several factors need to be aligned for designs to be well-implemented in schools: strong principal leadership, teachers who support the designs and have a strong sense of efficacy, strong district leadership and support, and clear communication and assistance from design teams. Without strong implementation, the promise of these designs to help schools improve is unlikely to be met. These are sobering and important lessons for federal, state, and local efforts aimed at comprehensive school reform.

Implementation in a Longitudinal Sample of New American Schools. Four Years Into Scale-Up

Implementation in a Longitudinal Sample of New American Schools. Four Years Into Scale-Up PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 115

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Book Description
As a private nonprofit corporation, New American Schools (NAS) began in 1991 to fund the development of designs aimed at transforming entire schools at the elementary and secondary levels. After competition and development phases, NAS currently is scaling up its designs to form a critical mass of schools within partnering districts. During this phase, RAND's research activities include monitoring the progress of a sample of NAS schools in seven partnering jurisdictions through the 1999-2000 school year. This is one in a series of reports aimed at those who want to better understand the burgeoning area of whole-school or comprehensive school reform, and is one of two reports focusing on trends in implementation in a longitudinal sample of NAS schools. This report is the follow-on report to M. Berends, S.N. Kirby, S. Naftel, and C. McKelvey, Implementation and performance in New American Schools: Three years into scale-up (2001). This earlier report also provided a look at performance in these NAS schools.

Facing the Challenges of Whole-School Reform

Facing the Challenges of Whole-School Reform PDF Author: Mark Berends
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833032240
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
About a decade ago, New American Schools (NAS) set out to address theperceived lagging performance of American students and the lacklusterresults of school reform efforts. As a private nonprofit organization,NAS's mission was-and is-to help schools and districts raise studentachievement levels by using whole-school designs and design team assistanceduring implementation. Since its inception, NAS has engaged in adevelopment phase (1992-1993), a demonstration phase (1993-1995), and ascale-up phase (1995-present). Over the last ten years, RAND has been monitoring the progress of the NASinitiative. This book is a retrospective on NAS and draws together thefindings from RAND research. The book underscores the significantcontributions made by NAS to comprehensive school reform but also highlightsthe challenges of trying to reform schools through whole-school designs.Divided into sections on each research phase, the book concludes with anafterword by NAS updating its own strategy for the future. This book willinterest those who want to better understand comprehensive school reform andits effects on teaching and learning within high-stakes accountabilityenvironments.

A Nation at Risk

A Nation at Risk PDF Author: Kenneth K. Wong
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135482934
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
This special issue examines the underlying assumptions of the "A Nation At Risk" report, the context within which the Commission's work was situated, and the effects of the report in improving teaching and learning, as well as the performance of the public educational system. The purpose is to address three broad questions: Was America's education system really putting the nation at risk in the early 1980s? What is the legacy of "A Nation At Risk"? Given our current knowledge on education and human development, the report's overall concern is restated: What risks and opportunities lay before the nation today, and how will they affect the notion of a "learning society" and our public education system? Taken as a whole, the seven articles address the three broad issues identified regarding the past, current, and future of educational reform in the United States.

Selected Rand Abstracts

Selected Rand Abstracts PDF Author: Rand Corporation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Abstracts
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Includes Reports (R-series), Rand Memorandums (RM-series), papers (P-series), and Books.

System-wide Efforts to Improve Student Achievement

System-wide Efforts to Improve Student Achievement PDF Author: Kenneth K. Wong
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1607527650
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Strong system-wide support is increasingly being identified as laying an important role in policy efforts aimed at increasing student achievement (Hightower, Knapp, March, and McLaughlin: 2002). Yet current research often views district and other system-wide support as largely governance changes without substantive linkage to school improvement outcomes (Cuban and Usdan: 2003). In this volume we seek to deepen our understanding of the role of school districts and system-wide initiatives through a series of case studies that focus on how school districts and system-wide actors facilitate policy innovation and reform initiatives that are designed to improve student achievement. Through both quantitative and qualitative studies from diverse settings across the country, chapters in this volume examine the role of instructional technology, alternative accountability practices, management and partnership reforms, and school improvement efforts through new incentive and support practices. While challenges remain, these case studies demonstrate how districts support and facilitate school change aimed at improving student achievement.

Challenges of Conflicting School Reforms

Challenges of Conflicting School Reforms PDF Author: Mark Berends
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833032259
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
A decade ago, New American Schools (NAS) launched an ambitious effort forwhole-school reform to address the perceived lagging achievement of Americanstudents and the lackluster school reform attempts that have produced so fewmeaningful changes. As a private nonprofit organization, NAS set out tohelp schools and districts significantly raise the achievement of largenumbers of students by offering whole-school designs and design-basedassistance during the implementation process. NAS is currently in thescale-up phase of its effort, and its designs are being widely diffused toschools across the nation. During the 1997_1998 and 1998_1999 school years,RAND assessed the effects of NAS designs on classroom practice and studentachievement in a sample of schools in a high-poverty district. RAND foundthat high-poverty schools often have fragmented and conflicting environmentswith difficult and changing political currents and entrenched unions.Teachers in high-poverty schools tend to face new accountability systems andfluctuating reform agendas. These teachers generally lack sufficient timefor implementing reform efforts, often becoming demoralized and losing theirenthusiasm for the difficult task of improving student performance underdifficult conditions. RAND concluded that high-stakes tests may motivateschools to increase performance and to seek out new curricula andinstructional strategies associated with comprehensive school reforms.However, those same tests may provide disincentives to adopt richer, morein-depth curricula that can succeed in improving the learning opportunitiesof all students, particularly those in high-poverty settings.

Handbook of Implementation Science for Psychology in Education

Handbook of Implementation Science for Psychology in Education PDF Author: Barbara Kelly
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139627554
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
Implementation science is the science of the effectiveness of research for real-world practitioners. This book is an indispensable, highly innovative and evidence-based resource aimed at utilizing research in psychology to improve all aspects of education, from individual teaching programs to organizational development. It addresses the widespread confusion and disappointment about the lack of effectiveness of real-world psychology and provides twenty-seven chapters offering proven policies, strategies and approaches for designing, supporting and improving interventions in schools. Collectively, the chapters go beyond the realm of psychology and education, tackling concerns about how to promote positive change in any context, covering topics from epistemology through statistics to examples of implementation approaches, frameworks and protocols. This book creates an immensely relevant body of information and evidence for any practitioner or organization facing the challenges of change. Essential reading for practitioners, policy makers, stakeholders and funders in psychology, education and beyond.

Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning

Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning PDF Author: Frank K. Lester
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 160752709X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1380

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Book Description
The audience remains much the same as for the 1992 Handbook, namely, mathematics education researchers and other scholars conducting work in mathematics education. This group includes college and university faculty, graduate students, investigators in research and development centers, and staff members at federal, state, and local agencies that conduct and use research within the discipline of mathematics. The intent of the authors of this volume is to provide useful perspectives as well as pertinent information for conducting investigations that are informed by previous work. The Handbook should also be a useful textbook for graduate research seminars. In addition to the audience mentioned above, the present Handbook contains chapters that should be relevant to four other groups: teacher educators, curriculum developers, state and national policy makers, and test developers and others involved with assessment. Taken as a whole, the chapters reflects the mathematics education research community's willingness to accept the challenge of helping the public understand what mathematics education research is all about and what the relevance of their research fi ndings might be for those outside their immediate community.

Focus on the Wonder Years

Focus on the Wonder Years PDF Author: Jaana Juvonen
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833036157
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
Young teens undergo multiple changes that seem to set them apart from other students. But do middle schools actually meet their special needs? The authors describe some of the challenges and offer ways to tackle them, such as reassessing the organization of grades K-12; specifically assisting the students most in need; finding ways to prevent disciplinary problems; and helping parents understand how they can help their children learn at home.