Download or read book Comprehensive School Reform with a Focus on Literacy written by Gina M. Zyburt and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the past years of Comphrensive School Reform (CSR), educators have begun to be innovative and employ strategies to support teaching and learning by incorporating high standards and inspiring high performance. Unfortunately, student achievement is not increasing and the acheivement gap is continuing to widen. The next step for schools is to utilize programs that have been researched and have proven to accelerate student learning. Research has determined that schools that have implemented a Professional Learning Community (PLC), Response to Intervention (RTI), and Lindamood-Bell (LMB) reading programs have obtained increased levels of student achievement. This case study targeted an elementary school that developed and implemented a CSR model to include the PLC, RTI, and LMB components within a framework. This CSR model was examined by analyzing student acheivement results and focus group interviews to determine impact on student learning. Student achievement in reading was measured by two formative assessments the California Standards Test (CST) and the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) Skills Assessment. Retrospective data from the assessments from the selected and a comparison school was analyzed to determine the impact the CSR model had on student achievement. Narrative methodology was also utilized to analyze interview responses from teachers in an exploratory study on Professional Learning Communities. The findings indicate that a CSR model utilizing LMB, RTI, and PLC can significantly improve student literacy. A school's ability to increase the mean CST scale score, the SCOE Reading Comphrehension raw score, and the percentage of students moving into higher performance levels within a three-year window of CSR implementation is very signifcant. The case study also indicates the importance of having key leaders at the school site that have been influential in developing the CSR model and have continued to implement the framework as designed. The consistency of personnel and its importance is indicated through the narrative responses of the teachers wihtin the focus interviews conducted as well as the student achievement outcomes in the assessment analysis. This study's CSR model exemplifies how a very concerted effort at a school site can impact student achievement in literacy.
Download or read book Reform as Learning written by Lea Ann Hubbard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking closely at the recent reform efforts in San Diego, this book explores the full range of critical issues pertaining to urban school reform. Drawing on the systemic school reform initiative that was launched in San Diego in the 1990s, this book explores all layers of the school reform process - from leadership in the central office, to work with principals and teachers, to the impact on how teachers worked with students in the classroom. The authors draw on careful ethnographic research collected over the entire four years of the San Diego reforms, in order to identify, not only how teachers, principals and other district educators were shaped by the large-scale reforms, but also the ways in which the reform unfolded. In doing so, the book shows more broadly how actors throughout a school system can change the views of leaders and impact the larger reform process.
Download or read book Examining Comprehensive School Reform written by Daniel K. Aladjem and published by The Urban Insitute. This book was released on 2006 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban school reformers for decades have tried to improve educational outcomes for underserved and disadvantaged students, with the assistance of constantly evolving federal and state policies. In recent years, education policies have shifted from targeting individual students to developing universal standards for teaching and learning, and comprehensive school reform (CSR) has emerged as an effective key model. The federal CSR program seeks to support the implementation of comprehensive school reform, especially in high-poverty schools, and to improve efforts to help all children meet challenging academic standards. Schools that receive federal CSR funds must adopt approaches that comply with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This book provides a series of studies and reflections on CSR by leading experts in the field.
Download or read book The Big Lies of School Reform written by Paul C. Gorski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-14 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Big Lies of School Reform provides a critical interruption to the ongoing policy conversations taking place around public education in the United States today. By analyzing the discourse employed by politicians, lobbyists, think tanks, and special interest groups, the authors uncover the hidden assumptions that often underlie popular statements about school reform, and demonstrate how misinformation or half-truths have been used to reshape public education in ways that serve the interests of private enterprise. Through a thoughtful series of essays that each identify one “lie“ about popular school reform initiatives, the authors of this collection reveal the concrete impacts of these falsehoods—from directing funding to shaping curricula to defining student achievement. Luminary contributors including Deborah Meier, Jeannie Oakes, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Jim Cummins explain how reform movements affect teachers and administrators, and how widely-accepted mistruths can hinder genuine efforts to keep public education equitable, effective, and above all, truly public. Topics covered include common core standards, tracking, alternative paths to licensure, and the disempowerment of teachers’ unions. Beyond critically examining the popular rhetoric, the contributors offer visions for improving educational access, opportunity, and outcomes for all students and educators, and for protecting public education as a common good.
Download or read book Equity and Science Education Reform written by Sharon J. Lynch and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lucid, accessible, thought-provoking discussion of issues related to equity in science education reform is for science educators, including idealists and exacting pragmatists, who are dedicated to exploring what it means to put into practice rallying cries like "science literacy for all," "equity and excellence," and "standards-based reform." Intended as an enjoyable and stimulating read, as opposed to a comprehensive summary of everything ever written about equity in science education, it is a response to the new science education standards and reforms, with their goal of science literacy for all. If this goal is to be taken seriously, the implications are immense. A central purpose of this book is to project and discuss how achieving this goal would affect science education reform and vice versa. The work is research based, using statistics, tables, and figures drawn primarily from NSF reports and other public information documents to provide a foundation for equity concerns. However, these statistics are not the main focus of the book. Rather, they are used to make a case, backed by pertinent research, the literature on best practice, and provocative examples from schools and classrooms. Charts, tables, and graphic organizers provide visual evidence and enhance the arguments presented. Moving from research-based studies to classroom stories, Equity and Science Education Reform encourages readers to think about the complexity of the issues. No easy answers or quick fixes are offered. Researching across "identity" areas and attempting to unite them in a discussion that recognizes both the common elements as well as important distinctions, it provides a comprehensive picture of equity concerns across ethnicity, class, gender, and location. Encompassing a broad literature in science education, reform and policy, and equity issues, it offers an "equity schema" as a unifying concept to guide discussion throughout. This book is based, in part, on a series of nine background papers that were commissioned by the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project 2061 and the summary document, which was written by the author of this book. But it goes far beyond the original study to provide a consistent, coherent, and lively discussion that vividly illustrates the issues raised by the experiences of teachers and students who are struggling with equity principles in the context of science education reform.
Download or read book Transforming Schools written by D. G. Mulcahy and published by IAP. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: President Obama has on a number of occasions rejected policies that have been tried and do not work. Legislation such as No Child Left Behind and policies such as Race to the Top are neither effective nor based on sound research. Educational policy-making is now, more than ever, the preserve of politicians, advocacy foundations, and lobbyists parading as corporate leaders. Teachers have little voice; their role is merely to be held responsible for policies foisted upon them. In Transforming Schools: Alternative Perspectives on School Reform, our aim is to provide alternative perspectives to the dead-end educational policies by which our governments have become consumed. We turn the spotlight on a select range of topics that have become the focus of concern and we consider the implications for school improvement. These topics include school reform in general, the achievement gap, literacy, standardized assessment, social justice and ecojustice, aesthetic and moral education, and general education.
Download or read book The Implementation Gap written by Jonathan A. Supovitz and published by . This book was released on 2008-04-21 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Students of educational improvement have long puzzled over why some school reform ideas blossom while others wither away. Based on an in-depth investigation by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), this volume looks at what actually happens when externally designed reforms enter into school environments. How and in what ways do reforms change schools even as schools alter the intent of reforms? What motivates school faculty responses and program designer reactions? This book sheds new light on these important questions by focusing on high schools, the sites of the greatest challenges in current school improvement efforts. From a variety of perspectives, the contributors present: A compelling story about high schools that are using a variety of school improvement programs: High Schools That Work, First Things First, Ramp-Up to Literacy, the Penn Literacy Network, and SchoolNet. Data from a diverse sample of schools, ranging from urban to rural, high performing to low performing, racially homogeneous to ethnically diverse. Specific chapters on the impact of program design, the influence of teacher communication patterns, the imprint of both formal and informal leadership, and the role of the central office. A new look at the ways in which reform efforts are repeatedly adjusted as they work their way through high schools.
Download or read book The Big Lies of School Reform written by Paul C. Gorski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-14 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Big Lies of School Reform provides a critical interruption to the ongoing policy conversations taking place around public education in the United States today. By analyzing the discourse employed by politicians, lobbyists, think tanks, and special interest groups, the authors uncover the hidden assumptions that often underlie popular statements about school reform, and demonstrate how misinformation or half-truths have been used to reshape public education in ways that serve the interests of private enterprise. Through a thoughtful series of essays that each identify one “lie“ about popular school reform initiatives, the authors of this collection reveal the concrete impacts of these falsehoods—from directing funding to shaping curricula to defining student achievement. Luminary contributors including Deborah Meier, Jeannie Oakes, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Jim Cummins explain how reform movements affect teachers and administrators, and how widely-accepted mistruths can hinder genuine efforts to keep public education equitable, effective, and above all, truly public. Topics covered include common core standards, tracking, alternative paths to licensure, and the disempowerment of teachers’ unions. Beyond critically examining the popular rhetoric, the contributors offer visions for improving educational access, opportunity, and outcomes for all students and educators, and for protecting public education as a common good.
Download or read book Focus written by Michael J. Schmoker and published by ASCD. This book was released on 2011 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The introduction states: "[T]he only reason our schools haven't made astonishing progress in the last 30 years of "reform" is quite simple: very few schools ever implemented 'what is essential'--the most powerful, simple actions and structures that woulddramatically increase the proportion of students prepared for college or careers. What is 'essential' for schools? Three simple things: reasonably coherent curriculum (what we teach); sound lessons (how we teach); and far more purposeful reading and writing in every discipline, or authentic literacy (integral to both what and how we teach).
Download or read book The Dimensions of Time and the Challenge of School Reform written by Patricia C. Gandara and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the education reform movement matures into its second decade, it is clear that many promising efforts have fallen short in their attempts to create real school change. One reason for this is that the process of school reform is much more complex than most reformers realized or were willing to acknowledge. The Dimensions of Time and the Challenge of School Reform points to another problem--the problem of time--and its role in both the success and failure of school reform efforts. The importance of understanding the role that time plays in both learning and instruction and finding ways to provide time for teachers grappling with change and students learning to accommodate a new language and culture are important themes in this book. This book is directed to policymakers and practitioners as well as to academics in that it combines theory with the "real world" experiences of many who have been active in the school reform movement and who have learned, through trial and error, how to think about time in innovative ways. -- Back cover.
Download or read book A Match on Dry Grass written by Mark R. Warren and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The persistent failure of public schooling in low-income communities constitutes one of our nation's most pressing civil rights and social justice issues. Many school reformers recognize that poverty, racism, and a lack of power held by these communities undermine children's education and development, but few know what to do about it. A Match on Dry Grass argues that community organizing represents a fresh and promising approach to school reform as part of a broader agenda to build power for low-income communities and address the profound social inequalities that affect the education of children. Based on a comprehensive national study, the book presents rich and compelling case studies of prominent organizing efforts in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, San Jose, and the Mississippi Delta. The authors show how organizing groups build the participation and leadership of parents and students so they can become powerful actors in school improvement efforts. They also identify promising ways to overcome divisions and create the collaborations between educators and community residents required for deep and sustainable school reform. Identifying the key processes that create strong connections between schools and communities, Warren, Mapp, and their collaborators show how community organizing builds powerful relationships that lead to the transformational change necessary to advance educational equity and a robust democracy.
Download or read book Expanding the Reach of Education Reforms Perspectives from Leaders in the Scale Up of Educational Interventions written by Thomas K. Glennan and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2000-10-28 with total page 747 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does one spread a successful educational reform? The essays here recount the authors?' experiences with the scale-up process. Among their lessons are the importance of building the capacity to implement and sustain the reforms, adjusting for local culture and policy, ensuring quality control, providing the necessary infrastructure, and fostering a sense of ownership. The process is iterative and complex and requires cooperation among many actors who must ensure that the results align with goals.
Download or read book Exchanging Writing Exchanging Cultures written by Sarah Warshauer Freedman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can teachers in British and American inner-city schools learn from each other about literacy training? To explore this question, Sarah Warshauer Freedman and her British colleagues set up a writing exchange that matched classes from four middle and high schools in the San Francisco Bay area with their London equivalents. Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures offers concrete lessons to school reformers, policymakers, and classroom teachers about the value and effectiveness of different approaches to teaching writing. Freedman goes beyond the specific subject matter of this study, looking anew at Vygotsky's and Bakhtin's theories of social interaction and addressing the larger questions of the relationship between culture and education.
Download or read book Reform Can Make a Difference written by Darlene Leiding and published by R&L Education. This book was released on 2009-10-16 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public education in the United States does not fulfill either the educational needs or the social needs of children. Its deficiencies have serious negative consequences in our political system, our economy, and within our social and cultural affairs. We must seek to improve education through research, policy analysis, and the development of alternatives to existing policies and practices. Educational reform should include promoting greater parental choice in education, a competitive educational industry, and other policies that address the problems of both public and private schools. The ultimate goal is improved student achievement, especially in our nation's cities, where large numbers of students, are not reaching the levels of achievement they need in order to live successful lives as adults. This book explores some of the unique characteristics of school reform and focuses on the role of poverty in reform, including the negative effects of low-income neighborhoods on the youth who reside there, concluding that reducing poverty can lead to more positive academic behavior and success. Reform Can Make a Difference enables readers to look at different reform programs that are available for schools and determine which model, if any, will fit their needs. The book assists schools in designing their own reform model that will help address issues students and families have with public schools.
Download or read book Leadership Lessons from Comprehensive School Reforms written by Joseph Murphy and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The process of understanding a text from the narrator s point of view is crucial for the tasks of interpreting and translating the Bible. If the translator s understanding of a narrative from the narrator s point of view is erroneous, then the whole process of translating the message into another language may also fall into error. This poses Bible translators a difficult challenge: How can we understand the narrator s point of view of the biblical stories which are culturally, geographically, and historically remote from our own? Understanding a text from the narrator s point of view must precede the translation process. In this work Hankore presents an argument for the intended utterance of Genesis 28:10 35:15 before proposing in brief how to translate it. By following this process, Hankore shows that a correct understanding of the concept of the ancient Israelite vow in the framework of a social institution is fundamental to reading and translating Genesis 28:10 35:15, and goes on to show how this same votive framework assist an explanation of the relevance of Genesis 34 to the Jacob story.
Download or read book Navigating Comprehensive School Change written by Robert Everhart and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, an accessible resource for busy practitioners, is a unique hybrid of two genres. As a "tourist guide," it shows you how to prepare for the journey, what to pay attention to upon arrival, and how to deal with the unexpected. As a "consumer report", it helps you identify some of the best tools and sources about change, access useful information about the change process, and find information about the strengths and challenges of various strategies. Thorough and comprehensive, it offers essential information about how to form leadership teams, identify high stakes problems, build commitment, create a school-wide vision and establish school-wide goals, handle setbacks, maintain the vision and sustain change, and evaluate and assess comprehensive school change. Also included is a section called "Ports of Call," which provides sources of information to help you implement comprehensive school reform at your site.
Download or read book All Children Can Learn written by Roger S. Pankratz and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2002-02-28 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now educators, school board members, and policymakers can refer to a single volume for key lessons from the nation's most comprehensive and longest-running school reform model. Written by a nationally prominent group of educators, researchers, and policy analysts, All Children Can Learnpresents important research findings from the Kentucky reforms, examines major program elements, and analyzes initiatives that worked or didn't work. Throughout the book, the authors explore the challenges of implementing statewide school change initiatives, offer sound advice for overcoming reform hurdles, and share valuable recommendations for future policy and practice. Reform-minded educators from every type of community will find valuable insights as they contemplate similar changes.
