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Information crucial in search for school reform design By Joan Richardson Schools hoping to acquire federal funds for reform initiatives need to spend a lot of time on their homework before investing in a whole school model. ³Without being wildly technical, they need to ask hard questions of the developers and of themselves,² said Bob Blum, director of school improvement programs at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon. The Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration legislation, also known as Obey-Porter, allocates $145 million to state education agencies to provide competitive incentive grants for schools pursuing whole school reform. A hallmark of the legislation is its insistence that the money be used only to support research-based school reform models that have proven to produce results with all children. ³The bottom line is that the school is on the hook for getting results with this program,² Blum said. Because of that, it¹s essential for schools to take a deeply thoughtful and systematic approach to deciding which, if any, of the available whole school designs would work for their school. Schools and districts should begin this by going back to basics: identifying their vision, mission, and learning goals for students. ³They really ought to go through a very elaborate process of visioning,² said Lew Allen, co-director of the League of Professional Schools. ³Many schools really don¹t think through their own beliefs about schools and schooling. A huge percentage of the schools that joined the League would have benefited from taking more time to talk about issues like these,² he said. New American Schools, which helped develop several designs named in the federal legislation, has had similar experiences, said Mary Anne Schmitt, director of communications for the New American Schools. ³It is absolutely critical that they spend time developing the vision up front. The staff needs to share a philosophy of what the school should become and then they need to agree that the design they choose is consistent with the vision they share for their school,² she said. The next step is reflecting on whether the school has the capacity to embrace the substantial change that is likely to occur when it adopts a whole school design. Some questions a school might ask are these: What is the school staff willing to change in the school? What must stay as it is? What sort of assistance will the school accept or demand from an external partner? What assistance would not be appropriate or welcome at this school? Larry Friedman, senior research associate at North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, said that addressing these issues becomes very relevant later when a school is trying to make a match with a design. ³Schools need to think about their assets as well as areas where they need to improve. Certainly, schools have places that need improvements. But it¹s hard to find any school that doesn¹t have something of value that it wants to preserve and build on,² Friedman said. After thorough self-examination and goal-setting, the next step is gathering information about whole school designs. The federal legislation names 17 designs, but many more exist. Many maintain web sites and have marketing directors who distribute information to potential school partners. Some have been written about extensively in the education media and in scholarly journals. Many of the more established designers encourage staffs to visit schools with experience in the designs. NWREL¹s Blum said schools that have gone through extensive introspection should be able to quickly narrow the list of designs to three or four that come closest to matching their needs and interests. He recommends assigning three or four staff members to examine each design. Have these staff members report back periodically to faculty members, each time soliciting more feedback from others about what else they want to know about the models. The League¹s Allen suggests that schools spend at least half the school year exploring potential designs. That exploration needs to go well beyond reading about the designs. He recommends that staffs spend a great deal of time talking about what they learn from their research, their interviews, and their site visits to other schools. ³Put the staff into small groups and different kinds of groups. Do grade-level and cross-level groups,² he said. By setting aside adequate time for the exploration, Allen said schools can ensure that all voices are heard and that all concerns are addressed in advance. ³Schools need to find ways to capture those parking lot conversations ahead of time so they hear the concerns and address the concerns,² he said. Blum said schools also need to look for schools where the design has not been successful and schools that are not recommended by the design developers. Names of such schools may be available by talking with school improvement directors at state education agencies and in newspaper articles. The final step in the process is matching a school¹s needs with the appropriate design. The League¹s Lew Allen has seen many schools move too quickly through the final decision making. Most of the comprehensive designs require a 75 or 80 percent vote of a school¹s staff to adopt the model. ³Just because you¹ve got 80 percent of the vote doesn¹t mean you¹ve got 80 percent of the people who really understand what they¹re voting to do,² Allen said. Teachers should make very personal decisions as they vote on the designs, Allen said. He suggests they ask questions such as these: What does this mean to me? What is this going to require of me? How am I going to have to change my practice? If it¹s going to require me to act in different ways, am I willing to do that?
How to decide what is best for your district The Consortium for Policy Research in Education has outlined a series of questions that schools and districts can use as they probe each design.
What is comprehensive school reform? Simply put, it means improving student achievement by reorganizing and revitalizing entire schools rather than implementing isolated programs. As defined by the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration legislation, comprehensive school reform includes nine components:
To learn more about the legislation, visit the U.S. Department of Educations website at www.ed.gov and click on the icon for Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration.
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