Selecting and Implementing Whole School Improvement Models: A District and School Administrator Perspective

As a growing number of schools and districts are found to be underperforming under the requirements of NCLB, school and district administrators are increasingly searching for research-based whole school improvement programs, including comprehensive school reform (CSR) models and education service providers (ESPs), in order to create dramatic changes and improvements within schools. Limited available research on the effectiveness of these models constrains what education consumers know about how a model will meet the unique needs of a particular school. This article reviews the experience of practitioners who have been through the selection and implementation process of whole school improvement models in order to identify emerging themes that education consumers embarking on this process should consider. During the qualitative data collection process for three Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center reports, CSRQ staff held phone conversations with school and district administrators. The researchers analyzed 86 of these conversations and grouped them into similar topic areas. Common themes emerged for both the selection process and the implementation of whole school improvement models.     

Evaluating Whole School Improvement Models: Creating Meaningful and Reasonable Standards of Review

In consultation with experts in the fields of education research and whole school improvement, researchers at the Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center created a framework for evaluating the scientific rigor of research studies that report on the efficacy of whole school improvement models. In this paper, the authors begin with a brief introduction to the challenges of developing standards of acceptable research practices and establishing a method of review that enables cross-program comparisons. The authors discuss CSRQ Center standards in reference to six primary areas of review: design, assessment, implementation, sampling, timing, and data analysis. Each standard is presented and the empirical rationale for evaluation criteria is explored. The authors conclude by presenting guidelines for researchers who report on the outcomes of evaluations of whole school improvement models. This discussion highlights the importance of ongoing conversation about the nature of evidence and components of research practice that illuminate program effectiveness within a larger framework of contemporary education policy and whole school improvement legislation.     

Developing Research Agendas on Whole School Improvement Models: The Model Providers' Perspective

The current education policy environment places a heavy emphasis on scientifically based research. This article examines how whole school improvement models approach the development of a research agenda, including what influences and challenges model providers face in implementing their agenda. Responses also detail the advantages and disadvantages model providers see in using internal and external research teams to carry out their research agenda. In addition, the article addresses common themes about how model providers believe their research agenda interacts with the public realm, including how education consumers use research in selecting a whole school improvement model and how their models are portrayed in systematic reviews of their models' research.     

关于贵州民族地区农村小规模学校学区化校本研修示范区建设的思考

提升民族地区农村小规模学校教学质量的关键首推教师专业化发展,“以校为本”的教学研究已成为提高学校教学质量、促进教师专业发展的基本途径.然而,贵州民族地区农村小规模学校由于社会、经济、文化以及历史和地理等因素的影响和制约,其校本教研的开展大多处于一种低层次、低水平和低效率的发展状态.因此,发挥乡镇中心小学或九年义务学校的核心地位和作用,借助有关高校的师资力量和研究团队提供专业服务,以点带面,尽快建成一定数量的贵州民族地区农村小规模学校学区化校本研修示范区,以带动民族地区农村小规模学校教师专业化程度普遍提高、教学质量的整体提升,是民族地区农村小规模学校发展的必由之路.     

Examining integrated leadership systems in high schools: connecting principal and teacher leadership to organizational processes and student outcomes

Research on school leadership suggests that both principal and teacher leadership are important for school improvement. However, few studies have studied the interaction of principal and teacher leadership as separate but linked systems in how they relate to student outcomes. In this study, we examine how leadership pathways are related in the context of high schools and compare findings to research in elementary schools. Using survey and administrative data from high schools in a large urban context, the paper explores direct and indirect pathways from leadership to student achievement growth. The results indicate that there are 2 pathways through which principal leadership is related to student learning in high schools. One pathway is mediated by teacher leadership, whereas the second pathway does not include teacher leadership. We find that similar to elementary schools, the learning climate is the only organizational factor that links principal and teacher leadership with student achievement.     

A comparison between value-added school estimates and currently used metrics of school accountability in California

This study compared a value-added approach to school accountability to the currently used metrics of accountability in California of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and Academic Performance Index (API). Five-year student panel data (N?=?53,733) from 29 elementary schools in a large California school district were used to address the research questions. Results show the strong relationship between AYP and API to student background measures. Schools with a majority of students from low socioeconomic background lagged far below schools from more affluent context. Results from the value-added approach however, showed a strongly diminished relationship to student background. Under this model, several schools from a low socioeconomic context can be seen as high achieving. Additionally, little evidence was found that high levels of student achievement negatively affect school value-added scores. Schools that enroll large proportions of advanced students, which often do not show positive growth across years are not penalized under a value-added approach. Recommendations for policy and future research are discussed.     

The Effect of Catholic Schooling on Math and Reading Development in Kindergarten Through Fifth Grade

Abstract

Prior research estimating the effect of Catholic schooling has focused on high school, where evidence suggests a positive effect of Catholic versus public schooling. In this article, we estimate the effect of attending a Catholic elementary school rather than a public school on the math and reading skills of children in kindergarten through fifth grade. We use nationally representative data and a set of matching estimators to estimate the average effect of Catholic schooling and the extent to which the effect varies across educational markets. When we use public school students nationwide or within the same county to provide a counterfactual estimate of how Catholic school students would have performed in public schools, we find strong evidence indicating that Catholic elementary schools are less successful at teaching math skills than public schools (Catholic school students are 3–4 months behind public school students by third and fifth grade), but no more or less successful at teaching reading skills. Moreover, unlike prior research, we find no consistent evidence that the effects of Catholic schooling vary substantially by race or urbanicity, though our power to detect such differences is weak.     

Physical Education Curriculum Reform in Finland

The Finnish education system has received worldwide attention due to the top academic performance of Finnish school students. Physical education, as an integral part of the Finnish education curriculum, potentially contributes to the overall success. The purpose of this article is to summarize Finnish physical education reform during the past decades and to review and critique recent literature that has examined the effectiveness of Finnish physical education programs. This review concludes that physical education has a solid foundation in Finnish schools and that it enjoys strong support in Finnish society. Although physical education contact time has diminished across four decades, the current basic education reform has begun to allocate more time and funding for elementary and middle school physical education. The literature review, however, revealed limited evidence on the effectiveness of physical education programs. In the future, robust studies are needed to provide evidence of the effectiveness of physical education. It is likely that with rigorous research evidence, the current efforts to allocate more time for physical education should be more easily justified and supported.     

运用知识管理策略,与小学合作建设学校课程

与中小学合作、帮助中小学进行学校课程建设是大学重要的工作内容。在这个过程中,要运用知识管理策略,相互砥砺和磨合,生成新知识。大学要有行动伦理,甘愿成为研究的工具,与一线教师结成密切的伙伴关系。     

Learning to Learn From Data: Benchmarks and Instructional Communities

This article examines the use of interim assessments in elementary schools in the School District of Philadelphia. The article reports on the qualitative component of a multimethod study about the use of interim assessments in Philadelphia. The study used an organizational learning framework to explore how schools can best develop the capacity to utilize the potential benefits of interim assessments. The qualitative analysis draws on data from intensive fieldwork in 10 elementary schools and interviews with district staff and others who worked with the schools, as well as further in-depth case study analysis of 5 schools. This article examines how school leaders and grade groups made sense of data provided through interim assessments and how they were able to use these data to rethink instructional practice. We found substantial evidence that interim assessments have the potential to contribute to instructional coherence and instructional improvement if they are embedded in a robust feedback system. Such feedback systems were not the norm in the schools in our study, and their development requires skill, knowledge, and concerted attention on the part of school leaders.     

Developing student voice and participatory pedagogy: a case study in a Spanish primary school

This article describes a case study that is part of a broader research project in which schools set up processes of school improvement inspired by the proposals put forward by students. The project furthers the initiatives of the student voice movement and seeks to implement more participative pedagogical models. This as a whole represents a novel opportunity in the context of Spanish schools. Specifically, in the text we describe an experience in which students work as researchers (SAR) and in which we describe and discuss this process carried out in a primary school through ethnographic tools. The findings allow us to discover in this experience a learning opportunity for the members of the school community and for the school itself. Likewise, the research permits us to verify the existence of certain changes in the preexisting practice architectures that affect the cultural–discursive dimension, the material–economic dimension and the social–political dimension of schools.     

Inclusive Practice in English Secondary Schools: Lessons learned

This paper considers how some secondary schools in England have been able to respond to the conflicting demands of school improvement policies, as measured by high academic standards and the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. It begins with a discussion of the context in which all English schools are currently operating and a summary of the extent to which research on school effectiveness and school improvement has influenced research on inclusion and vice versa. Key findings from our work in secondary schools committed to inclusion are presented and discussed in light of teacher, subject department and whole school responses to pupil diversity. The paper concludes with a conceptualisation of inclusive schools as those that meet the dual criteria of enrolling a diverse student population and improving academic standards for all.     

Academic optimism and collective responsibility: An organizational model of the dynamics of student achievement

This study was designed to examine the construct of academic optimism and its relationship with collective responsibility in a sample of Taiwan elementary schools. The construct of academic optimism was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and the whole structural model was tested with a structural equation modeling analysis. The data were collected from a sample of 1,093 teachers from the 103 schools in Hualien County, Taiwan. The results of this research demonstrated that academic optimism was confirmed as a latent construct manifested by collective efficacy, faculty trust in students and parents, and academic emphasis in Taiwan elementary schools. Furthermore, the research also extended the theory of academic optimism by demonstrating that academic optimism works through collective responsibility to significantly influence student achievement, while controlling for socioeconomic status, school size, and prior student achievement.     

How can the inspection process enhance improvement in special schools?

Abstract

The new system for the inspection of special schools was introduced in England in September 1994, using common criteria as those used for mainstream schools. One of the main purposes of inspection stated by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) is school improvement. This paper presents the perceptions of headteachers of the inspection process arising from the first inspections carried out during September‐December 1994. The evidence base used on these inspections is also considered. These data are used to suggest that school improvement can be enhanced by the inspection process under certain conditions. A preliminary exploration of these conditions is provided in the paper. Implications for the school inspection process, school self‐review and future research questions are identified.     

What counts as evidence in the school choice debate?

This article has two chief purposes. It presents a substantive reappraisal of a decade of school choice research in the UK. This reappraisal is used as a case study illustrating the elasticity of the notion of social science ‘evidence’, when wielded by academics in an area where strong ideological preconceptions struggle with the lack of a sound quantitative tradition of research. The focus here is on the changing socio‐economic compositions of schools in an era of choice. A prediction from theory and from small‐scale studies had been that schools in England and Wales would become more segregated in terms of indicators of socio‐economic disadvantage after the Education Reform Act 1988. The first large‐scale study of the actual compositions of schools suggested that this did not happen. This study was then subjected by a majority of UK academics in the field to a level of criticism that was not applied by them to subsequent, but seemingly inferior, studies that reached an opposite conclusion. The criticism involved widespread misquotation and misunderstanding that was not picked up by ‘peer’ review. What, therefore, counts as evidence in the school choice debate?     

近五年我国小学教师职前培养模式研究综述

小学教师培养模式的研究是全世界小学教师教育的焦点,它直接影响到小学教师培养质量。对近五年我国小学教师职前培养模式研究的文献进行梳理总结,可以继续完善和深入研究培养模式内部各要素。     

Measuring systematic long-term trajectories of school effectiveness improvement

The objective of this study was to identify trajectories of school improvement experienced by Chilean elementary schools over the last decade. Using econometric analysis and controlling for potential confounding factors, we created an index of school performance combining outcome indicators focused on different school dimensions, and estimated the 2002/2010 evolution of school improvement for all Chilean schools with available data. Broadly, we estimated an average increase in the school performance of about 0.19 SD; nevertheless, while 41% of the schools increased their educational performance by at least 0.1 SD, 25% of the schools decreased it during the same period; we also found that improving school effectiveness was more probable among schools with lower student socioeconomic status (SES). Finally, we found that the observed school improvement trajectories tended to be non-linear; thus, we estimated that only 13.4% of the schools improved their performance in a systematic way during the entire decade.     

Modelling patterns of improvement over time: value added trends in English secondary school performance across ten cohorts

This paper looks at underlying patterns of school effectiveness through analysing a GCSE examination data‐set over a period of ten cohorts (1993–2002) in one very large English school district. Both value added and raw score approaches were explored by employing different statistical multilevel models to examine time trends of school and pupil performance from two perspectives: consistent (linear) and inconsistent (non‐linear) school improvement. Overall, levels of measured attainment for the vast majority of the schools increased over the decade and the results indicate that one in four schools had significantly higher value added improvement trajectories (linear) than would be expected over the decade—in comparison to the average school. Those schools with a lower value added starting point in 1993 were more likely to make significant improvement. However, underlying these linear improvement trajectories it appears that only one in 16 schools managed to improve continuously for more than four years at some point over the decade in terms of value added.     

Enabling teachers to become pedagogical leaders: case studies of two IDEAS schools in Singapore and Australia

This research paper is about the role of the principal in enabling teacher leadership for pedagogical innovations and school improvement studied in two Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievements in Schools (IDEAS) schools in Singapore and Australia over a 3-year period from 2005 to 2007. The research reported is based on the developing relationship between principals and teacher leaders as they collaboratively engage in a process of whole school improvement. Both case study schools used the IDEAS school improvement program which originates from the Leadership Research Institute, University of Southern Queensland. The cases trace the facilitation of the IDEAS process in each school and highlights the centrality of teacher leadership in bringing about change in school-wide pedagogy and a process of school re-culturing. It underlines the fact that principals need to support the enabling of leadership among teachers by giving them the space, time and responsibility to make decisions about curriculum work and ensuring that these are aligned with new organizational structures and processes. The paper discusses how the schools were different and yet similar in many ways between the two countries, Singapore and Australia, with regard to the nature of the enabling processes for organizational revitalization and school capacity building. It draws out some implications for school leadership and school improvement.